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In January, 2008, the visionary, Vicka, gave a one hour interview on Radio Maria Italia. Her interviewer was Fr. Livio Fanzaga, the founder to Radio Maria. He is obviously a close friend of Vicka, and she was very frank in the interview. I want to share some excerpts from that interview because they seem very alive in the Holy Spirit. Vicka's perspective on the events of Medjugorje is instructive and moving. You can read the entire interview at: http://holyqueen.altervista.org/medj_eng_interview_vicka_dic2008.htm
PADRE LIVIO - It is now 27 years that the apparitions have been taking place. It is a very long time, almost a third of the life of a person. After 27 years how does it seem to you that the Madonna's messages have been received?
VICKA - When one looks back over these 27 years it seems that a lot of time has gone by. But to me it doesn't seem that way because the time seems to have flown by very quickly. It is 27 years that the Madonna has been among us and they have been 27 years full of great graces. None of us can imagine the value of her presence among us. Really, this period has not been too long but too short... I say too short because of all the blessings we have here! As long as the Madonna is here among us we are assured of having her special maternal protection.
PADRE LIVIO - But the Madonna said that in this period many have responded to her call but many have also lost their way. Have you also had this impression?
VICKA - I never really had that impression even though I did not understand what the Madonna meant by that expression, because for my part I want to always follow what the Madonna wants. The Madonna says, "I am very happy with all the pilgrims who come here to Medjugorje, but I am even happier for those pilgrims who, after having come to Medjugorje, embrace the messages and take them to others". Each one of us must be carriers of her messages and of her peace. Many times we make a start at living the messages but then after a while we grow tired, we stop and then we don't go on. The Madonna says that when we live her messages with joy and love we will not grow tired anymore. It is for this reason that the Madonna encourages us to persevere day after day. She says not to try and live her messages all at once, but to take them little by little and this way our hearts are gradually converted.
PADRE LIVIO - One of the objections to these apparitions which is always brought up, even by Church authorities, has to do with the length of these apparitions... Have you ever asked yourself why the Madonna has remained among us for so long? What answer have you given to yourself?
VICKA - This was also the objection made by our priests. Once they made us ask the Madonna how long she would still be staying with us and she responded by saying: "Have you tired of me?" We did not ask that question for ourselves but for others. It makes me think how often when we have something that is important to us, that we care about and we always tell the Madonna what we would like her to do for us. The Madonna has said, "I am your Mother, I am the Mother of all of you and I love you with the same love and I came to save you all". I am certain that her presence here for so long among us means something like, "Dear children, for such a long time I am waiting for you, I am not tired, I want you to be saved". She has also said, "You do not know how many graces are bestowed upon you with my presence among you", and this will be so for as long as the Madonna remains here among us. The Madonna prayed to her Son and He gave her the possibility of this grace to remain so long with us.
PADRE LIVIO - So, the presence of the Madonna for such a long period of time is a sign of her immense motherly love.
VICKA - When the Madonna appears she gives you so much serenity, she gives you so much peace, she gives you such happiness, but there is also this. I see within the Madonna's heart which suffers. There is a great suffering within her heart. I am actually able to see this. She could even cover this suffering with a smile, but the suffering cannot be cancelled. Just like you and me, we are speaking and I see you, I can tell if you are not happy. Every day when the Madonna comes you can see immediately the great sorrow within her heart.
PADRE LIVIO - So, the Madonna is joyful for all those who convert, but there is also suffering for all those who have begun to convert but who haven't persevered.
VICKA - Yes, but sometimes after meditation or prayer I think this: how great is the love of the Madonna for us! It is something that cannot be imagined: an infinite love! The Madonna is always waiting, is always accepting, she always loves. There is no person in the whole world who has a heart, a love as big as this or arms open like these! Such an open heart that in every moment is waiting... waiting for her children, "Here I am my child -". One who wants to believe, who asks her, she says "Come, I embrace you". For those who are still far away she leaves them free to decide, "My child, choose what you feel is best and I will remain close to you and wait for you... surely one day you will come". (Interview with Vicka on Radio Maria, January 2008)
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Vicka explains how she has learned to accept and rejoice in suffering to Fr. Livio:
The value of suffering
PADRE LIVIO - Allow me to ask you a rather particular question. In the last few years the Madonna gives her messages for us through Marija on the 25th of every month, through Mirjana on the 2nd of every month and sometimes through Ivan when he has the apparitions on the mountain. I noticed that it's been a few years that you don't receive messages for the people.
VICKA - No, I receive these, you know, when the Madonna wants to give them. She knows when. The Madonna said that there are many messages to give but that we are not ready to receive them. It is useless that she gives us a message which goes in one ear and out the other and in the heart there remains no trace of it. The Madonna wants us to live these messages. She said, "Take my messages and when I see that you make some progress, I am ready to give you more", that is, when she sees that we are following her. What else is she to do? It is useless to throw pearls to pigs, as the saying goes. That is what I think too.
PADRE LIVIO - Well, I had another thought about it. [...] Seeing as how you were asked by the Madonna to pray for the sick, maybe the Madonna wants you to be like a living message of how to be patient in accepting all this suffering that you've been through.
VICKA - For sure, suffering cannot be explained, suffering can only be lived in one's own heart. When the Lord gives us a suffering, a cross, pain, this is really a big gift that God gives. We often think, how can sickness be a gift? But it's a big gift! Only God knows why he gives this gift and only He knows the reason for when He takes it back. It is only up to us how we are ready to accept this gift. The Madonna told us that many times when this gift comes to us we always ask a thousand questions, and she says stop asking questions. It is enough to say, "I Thank you God for this gift, that you still have something that you want to give to me, I am ready to receive it. I ask only your strength and courage so that I may carry on". And also the Madonna has already told us, "You don't know how great is the value of your suffering in the eyes of God". I am telling you what I am able to through my own suffering... my suffering is a gift.... I am not saying that we are always 1000% ready to embrace suffering but I have a great desire, a great joy to suffer something for the Madonna and for Jesus. There is nothing that I wouldn't willingly suffer for them. The Madonna can say to me, "Vicka, do this, do that", and I wait with all my heart, with open arms. Because I want to respond to all the good that the Madonna has [done for] me and with what little suffering is mine I can respond to her love. And so I say to you, dear listeners, when you are suffering, and today there are different kinds of suffering: there is the suffering that God gives and there is the suffering that we make for ourselves and these are two different things, they don't have the same value. We must try to accept that which the Lord wants and we must give thanks and when one gives thanks for this great gift, then graces and fruits and everything come sooner. And then we can't say "I'm suffering, I'm in pain", God knows this: accept it, don't talk about it. One who is still able to speak isn't suffering. Suffering is to be lived in our soul and in our hearts.
PADRE LIVIO - I seem to recall that on several occasions the Madonna spoke about smiling though one is suffering.
VICKA - Certainly, and this too is really beautiful. Because when you smile in your suffering it's because you have accepted it and you belong totally to God and afterwards you don't perceive the suffering anymore but you will feel joy; because you suffer with joy there is no tension, there is nothing that tires you, you feel very happy. But that joy doesn't come from anything outside, it comes from within you, from your heart. And you feel an urge, every day it becomes stronger, and you don't feel the heaviness anymore. I don't feel any heaviness, I feel a joy so great that I want to do more for the Madonna, to suffer more, and you feel the suffering but there is a great happiness, there is love, because you suffer, you bear the suffering with love.
PADRE LIVIO - That's fine for you but the reality is another, that is, those who discover that pain is a gift are relatively few while the great majority of people when they are sick ask to be healed and in their desperation even go to the wrong kind of people like tarot card readers, astrologers, healers and the like. The Madonna told us instead how to obtain healing: «For the healing of the sick, firm faith is needed and persevering prayer accompanied by the offering of fasting and sacrifices. I cannot help those who do not pray and do not offer sacrifices», (August 18, 1982). [note: sacrifices means denying ourselves a certain pleasure or eliminating a bad habit or vice or also praying more and going to daily Mass, etc.]. So, in order to obtain this healing, you know there are so many mothers who want this healing for their children, what must one do?
VICKA - Well, I will only explain a little bit. God is always ready to give healing. But for God it's not so easy for him to give us this gift because there are problems. What are these problems? It is like this: many times when there is some difficulty or suffering for our children, a husband or one of our neighbors we beg God with great energy to heal their suffering, we are ready to accept anything, do everything, get on our knees, pray for hours but only for that particular moment. Also the Madonna is ready to give the grace that is being requested. And many times the grace is given in order to show that person that God is near. But the Madonna also said to us that those graces are not to be played around with, because the Madonna said to us that some people after receiving a miracle behave worse than before and then the next time they need a special grace, they pray expecting to be satisfied a second time, because they think, "You gave me once before so must give me again today". In this way we start playing around with these graces from God. Already the Madonna said to us, "There is no problem for the graces, I am able to give them; through my Son I can pray for these gifts and give them, but the problem is with your hearts. You all ask for healing of everything in the body, but too few ask for healing of the heart. When your hearts begin to heal, then your bodies will begin to heal". We often ask in a way that is wrong for the things we need; we ask thinking God should always answer our prayers: "The Madonna today must give me this thing or else I won't pray anymore". But this is commerce; this is about buying and selling things. If you want to pray, pray, If you don't want to pray, don't pray, there is no problem; there's no one imposing this, saying you must do this... no, no. God gave you total liberty. And another thing, for sure, we must pray for our faith, to have a lively faith. We should pray every day for this gift and this gift will grow every day in our hearts. Our faith shouldn't be only in words, but it should be our life, and we must search and ask for faith with our lives, with faith. And every day when we pray for faith, it grows, and afterwards we will have a treasure in our hearts... our hearts will be healed. Until we do this we will not be healed. It is useless going to astrologist, healers, psychics... by going to such people it's clear that you don't believe in God. God doesn't allow this, going to these healers and psychics. The only one who can give these graces of healing is God and the Madonna. You can go anywhere looking for help but you will always return to the same place. The only one who can give you healing, joy and peace is Christ, who waits for you.
PADRE LIVIO - Of course, because if the Madonna were to heal us without us being converted, we would make use of the healing in order to continue sinning.
VICKA - Oh yes, this is for sure. Once the Madonna explained to us that today, everything that was once normal is no longer normal, and everything that was once considered not normal has become normal. This is our own doing; we made this mess on our own. God doesn't have anything to do with it and God has give to man a chance, a test, to demonstrate what he can do now, today in order to set things right.
(Interview with Vicka on Radio Maria, January 2008)
http://holyqueen.altervista.org/medj_eng_interview_vicka_dic2008.htm
Picture of Vicka copyrighted by Bernard Gallagher, used with permission.
The difficult situation of peace in the World
PADRE LIVIO - In fact the Madonna had some very worrying messages about the situation in the world in which evil seems to be increasing. In one message the Madonna said: "The world today lives in the midst of very strong tensions and is walking on the edge of a catastrophe. It can be saved only if it finds peace. But it will find peace only by returning to God" (February 15 1983).
VICKA - But certainly. Many times we look for peace in the wrong places. We must look for peace in God and in the Madonna. When we pray for peace in the world, the world is us. Sometimes we think: "Today I'll pray for the world" but we pray as if we had nothing to do with the world we are praying for. But I am the world, and I must know this and remember this and then pray for the intentions of the Madonna and in this way she can find peace for the world. And when we will make peace inside our hearts, the world will change.
PADRE LIVIO - The Madonna also spoke of false prophets saying, "Those who make catastrophic predictions are false prophets. They say: 'in that particular year, on that particular day, there will be a catastrophe'. I have always said that the chastisement will come if the world does not convert. Therefore I invite everyone to conversion. Everything depends on your conversion." (December 15, 1983). So now I ask you, if we convert will there still be the ten secrets, or no?
VICKA - No, no, the ten secrets will take place for sure. The Madonna has already given them. She has described nine of them to me and now I am waiting for the last one. I can only tell about the secret which is the sign on the mountain which I already spoke about and now I only want to say this about the seventh secret: that the Madonna said that half of the seventh secret has been cancelled because of our prayers. She recommends that we continue praying because with our prayers we can cancel also other secrets. The other one was the ninth secret...
PADRE LIVIO - So, in essence, the discourse is this: the Madonna urges us to convert, she tells us not to wait for the sign on the mountain in order to convert, and in any event, "-all the secrets that I have confided will be realized and also the visible sign will be made manifest. When the visible sign comes, for many it will already be too late" (December 23, 1982). What does that mean?
VICKA - The Madonna did not explain why it will be too late and I did not ask, she only said that we are now living in a time of grace.
PADRE LIVIO - So, it is important to convert before the sign is made manifest?
VICKA - Every day the Madonna calls us to conversion, to the conversion of our hearts, you understand? And 27 and a half years later the Madonna is still among us and our hearts are still too closed, too distant. I don't know, I don't know what it could be, but "too late" seems right.
PADRE LIVIO - You have always said, and also the Madonna of Medjugorje, that when we talk about the ten secrets, we must do so always inviting everyone to hope. In fact in one of the Madonna's messages she said, "We must never take away hope". The Madonna didn't come to frighten us but to call us back to responsibility and to conversion in a context which always inspires hope. The Madonna even once said, in the first year of the apparitions: "For the Christian there is only one attitude with regard to the future: hope of salvation" (June 10th, 1982).
VICKA - Well, you see, the Madonna is here among us to save our souls, truly. She did not come in order to boss us "do this, do that or else"... she is here to occupy herself with our souls, she says that she is the Mother of everyone and loves everyone, "You do not know how much I love you; if you knew you would cry for joy". We are still a long way away from her joy - you understand? All those little things, simple things, she always gives hope. And then you read her face which she shows you: it is so sad! But she gives you so much joy! She lifts you up, she gives you strength! And this is so encouraging.
PADRE LIVIO - In all of my radio broadcasts I try to underline this fact too, that the ten secrets are a time of grace because it is in this time that the power of the evil one will be conquered by the Madonna. The Madonna is here as "Queen".
VICKA - The Madonna many times has told us that the evil one knows where we are weakest and he looks for the empty places in us [places not dedicated to God] that he can inhabit: and he has found many places among the young and in families, breaking them up. The evil one does a lot of things like this you know. But the Madonna has said that when we feel peace in our hearts and joy and tranquility, then you can see very clearly that this comes from God. If instead there is fear in our hearts and we feel disturbed, then we must be very careful because this doesn't come from God. We must be able to distinguish immediately that which comes from God and that which does not, we need to keep awake and persevere with making the change in our lives so that we can keep the evil one at bay.
PADRE LIVIO - This means that if we stay close to the Madonna we will feel joy in our hearts and we will not feel this anxious fear about our future. In fact, the Madonna once said that he who prays has no fear about the future.
VICKA - Certainly: "He who prays has no fear about the future and he who fasts has no fear of the evil one." We have a great grace, we are living in a time of grace. I have never heard a word come from the Madonna that created fear. She always gives you hope, she gives joy and tranquility. You can see that the Madonna and her Son defeat all that evil that exists. We shouldn't have any fear but we must follow what they want. He who follows the Madonna and lives her messages has no motive for being afraid. He who has fear, is afraid even of himself, he must do something to start himself going in the right direction and then he can follow the messages of the Madonna.
PADRE LIVIO - Power is of God, evil is dangerous and Satan is strong. Anxious fear for the future certainly is not befitting of believers but today there exists a worrying concern which is not to be undervalued. On two occasions John Paul II affirmed that the world was in danger of destroying itself. The seer Ivan declared in a video broadcast that the Madonna had said the very same thing to him, that is, that the world was at risk of destroying itself. So, it's not wise to be too superficial. In one message the Madonna said, "I will pray my Son to not punish the world, but I beg you: convert yourselves. You all cannot imagine what will happen and neither that which God the Father will send upon the earth. For this I repeat, convert yourselves. Renounce everything. Do penance" (April 25th, 1983). Here one sees how hope and concern can coexist.
VICKA - The Madonna has been with us all these many years precisely so that we might come near to God and convert ourselves. As a mother, the Madonna does not want to lose even one of her children. She comes from heaven to the Earth to save us but we are still too far away from her. But she never forces anyone, she never says, "you must convert, you must do this and that": no, she doesn't force anyone. She says to each one of us, "My son, do what your heart tells you to do". And she waits for us like a mother. She waits for everyone. She does all that she can do, but apparently our hearts are still very, very hard.
An interview with Vicka on Radio Maria, January 2008
http://holyqueen.altervista.org/medj_eng_interview_vicka_dic2008.htm
In Jesus and Mary!
Cathy Nolan
Mary TV
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