“I am coming among you because I desire to be your mother—your intercessor.” – Medjugorje, March 18, 2012
Do you know that you have a true mother in heaven who loves you far more than your earthly mother, and she wants to care for you in a tangible way?”
A Mother’s Suffering
I was thirty-two years old when I heard a priest ask this question at my nephew’s First Communion Mass. I had been born and raised Catholic and I believed in Mary, but I had never thought of her as my true mother, or as the true mother of my own children.
At that time, I had been suffering for almost four years with anxiety and worry for my son, whom we had started in kindergarten before he turned five. I had regretted that decision ever since, but no one would agree with me that it would be good for him to repeat a year in school. Now, hearing the words of that faithful priest, I knew that Mary felt my pain.
Before bed that night I prayed, “Mary, if my son is your true son, I give him to you and I ask you to please take care of him. I will say one Hail Mary every night as intercession for this petition.”
I am still embarrassed to this day for the meager offering I made, but she was not offended by it. In fact, within one week my son’s teacher asked to meet with me and sheepishly suggested that, although he was a sweet and smart boy, she didn’t feel that he fit in with his current peers. She believed that giving him the gift to repeat third grade might be the best thing for him.
I cried both in sorrow and joy. I cried in sorrow for the pain this would bring my young son and in joy because my prayer had been answered in such a short time. She interceded to save my son (and me) from great suffering. And in doing so, she brought peace to the heart of a young boy and his mother.
The Queen of Peace
Mary, the mother of Jesus, “the Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6), is venerated as Queen of Peace because she is our intercessor for peace, and she teaches us how to live in the abiding peace of her Son. The origins of the title Queen of Peace date back at least to the sixteenth century in France. It was formally added to the Litany of Loreto by Pope Benedict XV on May 3, 1917, during World War I, to invoke Mary’s help in bringing an end to the conflict. Just eight days later, Our Lady appeared to three children in Fatima and instructed them to pray the Rosary for peace in the world.
This Marian title has more recently gained prominence through the spiritual phenomena reported in Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where six young people are said to have begun receiving e apparitions of Mary in 1981. In these visions, she has identified herself as the Queen of Peace. Here, our Blessed Mother reportedly told one of the visionaries, Mirjana (Dragicevic) Soldo, “What I started in Fatima, I will finish in Medjugorje. My heart will triumph.”
While the apparitions in Medjugorje have not yet been officially approved by the Church, in 2024 the Vatican released a document authorizing the granting of a “nihil obstat” (Latin for “nothing obstructs”) for the phenomena. The nihil obstat, without expressing any certainty about the supernatural authenticity of the phenomenon itself, acknowledges many signs of the actions of the Holy Spirit “in the midst” of a given spiritual experience.
I traveled to Medjugorje for the first time in 2009. I had read everything I could get my hands on about this little town in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Eastern Europe. I was giddy with excitement because after all of my research I was determined that I would see Our Blessed Mother on the mountain there!
But I was a little disappointed when we arrived in Medjugorje. It had been described as a piece of heaven, but I had pictured heaven to be much more beautiful than this place. In just a short time there, however, I realized my mistake. Medjugorje was not a piece of heaven, but it’s a place where one can experience the peace of heaven.
Heaven seeps in. When you step off the bus into Medjugorje, you experience heaven. Why? Because of the worship. All the sacrifices, the penances, the rosaries, the adoration hours, the praise and worship, and especially all the Holy Masses being offered—all this worship of God results in God pouring down his graces and blessings for sanctification and holiness.
And the pilgrims who flock to Medjugorje get to step right into it. We step into the river of peace created there by the “school of prayer” that our Blessed Mother teaches in her messages to the world. She reportedly conveys that she has been given a time of special grace by the Father in heaven to help all of her children get to heaven. And when she refers to her “children,” she says she is speaking of all people of the world.
Mary has been said to ask for the simple, yet powerful, tasks of daily prayer with the Holy Bible, attendance at Mass every Sunday and more often if possible, praying the Rosary daily, and choosing to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. She is also adamant when it comes to the value of monthly confession. In fact, one of the nicknames that has been given to Medjugorje is “the confessional of the world.” In confession the layers of sin are peeled off, and we become fully the children of God he created us to be. We come to understand who and what we are made for once we have the courage to step off the boat (or bus) and into the water.
In two short days on my first visit there, I participated as fully as possible in the daily faith program that is promoted there. I cried when I left and prayed I would be able to go back one day. I had been profoundly changed. To stay close to Mary when I returned home, I continued to read and pray with a book that contained the messages that she is said to have shared in Medjugorje.
Her very first message to the children was simple: “Peace, peace, peace and only peace! Peace must reign between God and men, and between all men.” I was intrigued by this message and wanted to know more because when I returned home, I was not feeling peace in my heart. I wanted what Jesus had given to his disciples when he told them, “Peace I leave you; my peace I give to you” (John 14:27). So I took my anxieties to confession one day, and the priest asked me a question that had never been posed to me before: “How is your prayer life?” I told him I wasn’t sure how to answer that question because I did not know what a prayer life was or what it looked like to live one out.
This sent me on a quest, and the Queen of Peace walked right alongside me back to Medjugorje. By the grace of God, the Catholic jewelry company that I had co-founded started having our jewelry pieces hand-woven by women in Medjugorje. I was the liaison between the women in Medjugorje and our company, which took me back to this very special place at least once a year.
It’s All about Prayer
On one trip there I was sitting in the adoration chapel pleading with Jesus for help with many things when I heard an interior voice say very quietly, “It’s all about prayer.”
I sat contemplating this, feeling like Martha, “worried and distracted by many things” (Luke 10:41). Yet it was as if I got to watch a movie of Jesus in the scene with Martha. When he said this to her, he was kind and gentle and looked at her with such love in his eyes. It was as if he was telling her so much more than the spoken words could convey.
His eyes told of how he knew Martha’s heart. He knew how much she loved and cared for her brother and sister. He knew all the pressure she was under to run a household because her brother, Lazarus, was sick. He knew all the ups and downs of her relationship with her sister, Mary, who now sat at his feet. And his eyes told Martha how much he loved her and how greatly he desired for her to love him.
At the same time, his eyes told me how much he loved me and how greatly he desired for me to love him.
And then he gave the answer to everything: choose “the better part, which will not be taken away” (Luke 10:42). This is what Martha’s sister, Mary, had done. She sat at the feet of Jesus and listened to him, coming to know him and to recognize his voice.
This is what Jesus’ mother had done for thirty years. She sat at his feet and listened to all he had to share about the will of the Father, and she served him with great love. And it is what his mother wants to teach us. The messages of Medjugorje remind the faithful that we need to pray, to sit at the feet of her Son every day and let him transform our hearts.
The visionary Mirjana has shared, “I believe that if Our Lady had to use just one word to answer every question ever asked of her, it would probably be ‘Pray’. Our prayers, she (Our Lady) says, have the power to change everything.”
One of the prevailing characteristics of the spirituality that emerges from the messages in Medjugorje is that of trust in God through a total trust in Mary, in order to become instruments of peace in the world. In fact, her latest public message at the time of this writing was short and simple: “Dear children! May this time for you be a time of prayer for peace.”
Prayer allows for small conversions of heart that are the conduit through which Jesus pours out peace into each heart that will allow peace to reign “between God and men and between all men”!
Here are a few simple practices I have learned from the Queen of Peace, which help me stay in the River of Peace:
- Before I even open my eyes each morning, I pray the Memorare to ask Mary to walk with me and guide me to stay close to Jesus throughout the day.
- I make time each morning to pray with the daily gospel and listen, at the feet of Jesus, to what he would like to share with me through his Word.
- I attend Sunday Mass each week and daily Mass as often as I am able.
- I go to confession once a month.
- Each night before I sleep, I have a “family meeting” with Jesus, the Blessed Mother, and the Holy Spirit to talk through, in gratitude, where I walked in union with them that day and to ask forgiveness for when I have missed the opportunity to do so, recognizing where I can do better tomorrow.
Mary brought peace into my heart when I was a young mother, responding with great generosity to my meager offering of just a few Hail Marys, and since then she has patiently led me to the deeper peace that her Son has promised each one of us. I now understand more fully what that interior voice said to me over a decade ago in adoration, “It’s all about prayer,.” – aAbiding Peace is developed and deepened through a life of prayer.
By the way, my little boy that I had worried so much about is now a young adult that was the first to receive a college diploma in the long line of men on his father’s side of the family. He is married to a beautiful young woman and they currently have two precious and rambunctious toddlers. I pray Maryshe continues to mother him andmay leads youhim to the same abiding peace of her Son.
Our Mother, Queen of Peace, pray for us.
About the Author
Through mentoring, writing, and leading pilgrimages, Christine Rich is honored to walk with women souls navigating their earthly journey with God. Christine founded the Imfura Foundation, a Foundation that to share shares the messages of Our Blessed Mother from around the world and to educates and promotes forgiveness, healing and unity through the power of prayer. To join the wait list for a pilgrimage or learn more about Mary’s messages, go to Imfura.com.
Featured image credit Krzysztof Golik, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
