A Thin Place

Twenty years ago today I was in Medjugorje; its an important place to me even though back then in 1993 I was more concerned with the War than the Queen of Peace appearing.

It seemed a very odd mixture really, 3 simultaneous wars raging, one was with bullets and rocket launchers, the second was the bickering between religious types arguing over whether the apparitions were real or not, signs and so on, and lastly the rescue mission, where the souls of men and women, individually and personally, were wrestled from satan’s clutches.

Whilst religion always gives me a headache, what the living God does, so often at the behest of Our Lady, always captures my attention. To see the stones on the hillsides of medjugorje eroded with the tears of millions of penitent lost sheep is amazing grace indeed. Addicts are set free, the sick healed, the broken hearted put back together again.

But those steep mountain sides of Krizevac and Apparition hill are not an end in themselves, just the foothills for the difficult trail that lies ahead. It’s a new beginning to be sure, a clean slate, but it’s only a beginning in the greatest adventure of your life, the journey of faith.

‘In’- language is difficult to translate, Medjugorje converts have theirs as do our saints and mystics of old to describe the supernatural encounter that leads to repentance and renewal of heart. I think of it as akin to waking up from a dream; a sudden realization that the real world is entirely different to the one you thought you were living in.

What I do know is that all are welcome there. A contrite heart will find its rest. If you know you need it, jump on the next plane.