Josh

I’ve never been to Medjugorje. All I know is that my mom would never stop talking about it. 

I thought we would do a lot of praying, so I was correct on that. And I also thought that something special might happen, but I want to be expectant of God’s gifts so I’m always expecting that something great is going to happen. Nothing has happened that spectacular yet to me personally, but I’m still expectant that something’s going to happen. 

The greatest thing here so far is the way it has touched people. That’s what I’ve loved most about this trip, is getting to see how much this place affects people. 

Do I believe in the apparition? Yes. 100%. 

You’re in the presence of the Mother of God. That is something very special. 

One of the things I love is hearing other languages, and we got to pray the Rosary in Polish and in Croatian and in English. It was a beautiful thing. This very old Croatian lady held onto my hand as they were praying. She was crying the entire time. I love moments like that. I live for moments like that. 

[During Marija’s daily apparition with Our Lady Queen of Peace] I was frozen in place. I was paying attention. I was trying to be very present with the moment and not think about anything else. I kind of just stood there and watched the statue in front of me– the statue of Mary that is at the house that we were in. It was as silent as a grave there. You could just feel the energy though, in other people around you. 

That was a very special moment for me because you could just see how other people are being impacted by that. That, I find, is very, very cool. If you haven’t felt something like that, where many people around you are feeling the presence of God or the presence of Mary with that kind of love and that kind of energy and that kind of warmth, you have got something to look forward to in life. 

My favorite moment that I’ve had on this trip was actually this morning probably. I was sitting outside in the courtyard, right outside of the yellow Mass building. I didn’t want to go in. I didn’t feel as if I needed to go to Mass today so I went outside and I sat on one of the benches out of the hundreds that there were. I just sat there quietly, just listening. Didn’t hear anything, but I’m always expecting that it’s going to happen. And I just felt this overwhelming sense of peace. 

What I love about Medjugorje so far is the peace here. That’s the biggest thing that you notice. 

This trip for me has been a literal pilgrimage. Coming closer to God for a short period of time, if you’re into work outs you know that intense work outs for short periods of time are very useful to your body, and that’s how these pilgrimages feel to me. 

I haven’t been on many. I’ve only been to one other one. Short but high intensity pilgrimages, they reach another layer to who you are. I don’t know what to expect. I just know I need to expect something’s going to happen. 

I’m very, very lucky and blessed to be experiencing all this when a lot of people can’t. 

It’s a very nice trip. The country that we’re in is beautiful. One of the things I was excited for was I just wanted to see Dubrovnik because one of my favorite TV shows is Game of Thrones. So getting to see that was like, “I’m here where it happened.” 

Everyone here is nice. If you go back home to the U.S., not everyone is nice. Some people are nice, but not everyone. But literally everyone here is welcoming and is in some way connected to God. I love that about this place. I’m truly blessed to be in this place, right here, right now, where God wants me. 

I’ve met many wonderful, special people here that have all been called by God to come here and experience something truly spectacular. I think they’re meeting their goal by coming here to see something spectacular. 

You see people all over the world coming to this one small village in Europe, and they’re all experiencing a similar thing. I wish more people would come.