Medjugorje,  Year 2009
Praise be Jesus and Mary!
  
2009 Messages:   "I am with you to instruct you and to lead you towards eternity." [09/9]:   During 2009 our Mother Mary in her 25th-of-the-month messages has been deeply concerned that many are on the wrong path to eternity.  Three times Our Lady has mentioned "eternity" as she continues to remain with us directing us on the only way to eternal happiness in God's love.  "I desire, little children, for each of you to fall in love with eternal life which is your future, and for all worldly things to be a help for you to draw you closer to God the Creator.  I am with you for this long because you are on the wrong path." [09/1]  In Lent the Gospa called us to convert.  "In this time of renunciation, prayer and penance, I call you anew: go and confess your sins so that grace may open your hearts, and permit it to change you.  Convert, little children, open yourselves to God and to His plan for each of you." [09/2]  "Awaken your souls with prayer so that the risen Jesus may draw you closer to His Heart so that you may become open to eternal life." [09/3]  In Easter time our Queen of Peace called us "all to pray for peace and to witness it in your families so that peace may become the highest treasure on this peaceless earth." [09/4]  "I call you all to pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit so that the Holy Spirit may renew you all and lead you on the way of witnessing your faith." [09/5]  On the 28th Anniversary she reminded us of the reason God sends her to us.  "Pray that, in your hearts, God may be in the center of your life and with your life witness, little children, so that every creature may feel God's love." [09/6]  Then in the summer Our Lady urged us to "pray, pray, pray."  "Dear children, may this time be a time of prayer for you." [09/7]  "You are not holy enough and you do not radiate holiness to others, therefore pray, pray, pray and work on your personal conversion, so that you may be a sign of God's love to others." [09/8]  How do we work on our conversion?  "Offer all your joys and sorrows to my Immaculate Heart that I may lead you all to my most beloved Son, so that you may find joy in His Heart." [09/9]  The Gospa tells us that God sends her to show us the way to salvation.  "Pray, fast and joyfully witness your faith, little children, and may your heart always be filled with prayer." [09/10]  We begin with ourselves so that our lives witness God's love to our families and then to all.  "In this time of grace I call you all to renew prayer in your families.  Prepare yourselves with joy for the coming of Jesus.  Little children, may your hearts be pure and pleasing, so that love and warmth may flow through you into every heart that is far from His love." [09/11]  Every message concludes, "Thank you for having responded to my call."  Thank you, Mother Mary.
 
Medjugorje Happenings 2009:   Three of the six visionaries continue to have daily apparitions.  Ivan with his family lives in Boston during the school year.  Upon returning to Medjugorje in May for the summer months he prayed with his prayer group at the Blue Cross.  Our Lady again insisted that now as never before Satan wants to destroy the family.  She invites us to pray in the family and for the family.  Vicka has not been able to meet the pilgrims this year.  She fell on the staircase in her home in February and badly hurt her back.  She is suffering terribly, yet offers it joyfully as a gift to God calling it a great grace.  She continues intensive therapy at the Zagreb Clinic and needs a lot of rest in order to recover.  Marija was welcomed by Cardinal Schönborn to St Stephan Cathedral in Vienna, Austria, on September 15 at a five-hour evening of prayer.  Cardinal Schönborn spoke of the importance and many graces of conversion, reconciliation, and healing at Medjugorje through Our Lady in his concluding testimony.
 
Mirjana, Ivanka, and Jakov have an annual apparition for the rest of their lives.  Mirjana also has an apparition the 2nd-of-the-month at the Blue Cross at the foot of Apparition Hill to pray with Our Lady for those who do not know God's love.  Many pilgrims gather to pray with her and receive Our Lady's message through her.  Her annual apparition on March 18 was also at the Blue Cross, and in her message our Mother Mary asked us, "Today I call you to look into your hearts sincerely and for a long time.  What will you see in them?  Where is my Son in them and where is the desire to follow me to Him?"  On May 2nd the Gospa addressed us, "My poor children."  Have we welcomed her maternal Heart, and placed her Son Jesus in the first place?  Many reject or ignore her, her messages and her blessings!
  
Fr Jozo Zovko OFM, the pastor of Medjugorje when the apparitions began, is on sabbatical this year for health reasons, in need of a good long rest.  He has given us so much in retreat days with long teachings to pilgrims at the monastery in Siroki Brijeg.  The pilgrims missed Fr Jozo this year.
  
The 19th annual Medjugorje Youth Festival was the biggest ever with over 50,000 youth accompanied by over 600 priests.  It was reported that at one Mass 675 priests concelebrated.  It was joyful and prayerful.  Each year the Youth Festival on August 1-6 has increased beginning with 800 in 1991.  The teachings and testimonies were outstanding [go to www.mladifest.com to listen to them].
  
Pilgrimages 2009:   While the crowds of pilgrims to Medjugorje increase from all over the world, the number of Americans has gone way down.  I longed to return since my last pilgrimage was for the 2007 Youth Festival.  By getting my own airline ticket I was able to join a small group of six as spiritual director in mid-October for my 49th Medjugorje pilgrimage.  St James Church has been enhanced with a new large sacristy to accommodate the many concelebrating bishops and priests.  It goes across the back of the church connecting it with the outside large rotunda altar used in the summer when the crowds are very large.  The vast area in front of the outside altar, once vineyards, now has the walkways between large sections of benches newly paved with stone tiles, which is a great help for priests giving thousands of Communions.  I was the main celebrant for the English Mass one morning and preached on praying and living the Mass.  One of many priests from India serving in Saskatchewan met me in the sacristy and invited me to give a mission in Regina, which developed into four parishes this coming Lent.  Construction of family guest houses and hotels continues to take care of this growing Marian shrine.
  
In December I was invited by Renaissance Pilgrimages to be spiritual director for a pilgrimage to Mexican shrines and Guadalupe for the December 12 feast day of Our Lady Queen of the Americas.  I concelebrate the Mass of the Roses with 12 bishops and about 100 priests.  The bishops and priests were given roses at the end of the Mass, and I brought mine to Our Lady at the Apparition Chapel on top of Tepeyac Hill.  The next day before returning home we had Mass at the Jesuit Holy Family Church.  This was the parish of Blessed Miguel Pro SJ, who was executed in 1927 during the persecution of the Catholic Church by the Mexican government from 1910 into the 1930s.  He had the reputation of going among the people in various disguises to minister the Sacraments.  Before the firing squad he extended his arms in the form of a cross and cried out, "Long live Christ the King!"  His brother was executed after him, for having aided him in his ministry.  Fr Miguel's remains are enshrined at Holy Family Church.
  
Medjugorje Ministry 2009:   My year started quietly at home in Weston.  I am one of the regular chaplains for the "Road to Calvary Prayer Group" in Norwood MA since September 1993.  They have been praying the Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet, and Mass every Wednesday evening for priests.  In Lent I had a full schedule of six parish missions in western Massachusetts and Rhode Island.  After Easter I was chaplain for the passengers and crew on Celebrity's ms Century for five weeks on cruises to the Western Caribbean, TransAtlantic, and Scandinavia & Russia.  Back home I made my own eight day retreat before heading down to Texas.  There I was invited to give the 28th Medjugorje Anniversary Evening in Dallas on June 25th, and once word got out I was invited to come to seven other parishes in Fort Worth and Dallas, beginning with a week-long Rosary Congress in Fort Worth, three parish missions, Marian Evening & Eucharistic Healing Evening in three other parishes, and weekend Masses in another.  This preaching tour was so well received that I was called back to Fort Wroth in November to give three more parish missions and evenings of prayer in a fourth parish.  Further I will return again next year for a Lenten mission and a post-Easter mission.  This ministry of Our Lady Queen of Peace is mainly supported by those who have been with me in a parish or on a pilgrimage and have taken word of my Marian Renewal Ministry to other parishes and friends who would be interested in my coming to their parishes.
  
Projected Ministry 2010:  Next year I'll begin with ten parish missions in RI, FL, TX, SK Canada, NY & TX.  I've been asked to be the spiritual director of a Shrine of Italy & Medjugorje Pilgrimage [4/27-5/10] and Oberammergau Passion Play & Medjugorje [9/14-27].   Please call/write to me if interested in joining these pilgrimages.
  
It is so vitally important for us all in these troubled times to accept God's gift of our Mother Mary calling us to peace through prayer, fasting, and daily conversion to live her messages in God's love.  Any assistance you can give in letting parishes know of my ministry with Mary is appreciated and vital to this ministry.
  
May each one experience God's love more and more each day.  You are in my daily Masses and prayers.  Blessed CHRISTmas and a Happy New Year!
  
Peace in Jesus and Mary, 
Fr. Al Winshman, S.J.
  
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Medjugorje,  Year 2008
Praise be Jesus and Mary!
  

2008 Messages:   "Be joyful carriers of peace and love in this peaceless world." [08/6]:   In her message on the 27th Anniversary of her ongoing daily apparitions at Medjugorje our Mother Mary calls us to witness peace and love in our world.  In her 25th-of-the-month messages this year we again see the key facets of her call to peace which is God's gift.  Yet God needs each of us to daily convert to His love to become His love, joy and peace for others.  "Plant joy and the fruit of joy will grow in your hearts for your good, and others will see it and receive it through your life.  Renounce sin and choose eternal life." [08/1]  "In this time of grace, I call you anew to prayer and renunciation.  May your day be interwoven with little ardent prayers for all those who have not come to know God's love." [08/2]  Our Lady tells us: "You are still far from meeting with God in your heart.  Therefore, spend all the more time in prayer and Adoration of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, for Him to change you and to put into your hearts a living faith and a desire for eternal life." [08/3]  "Seek God's will and do good to those whom God has put on your way, and be light and joy." [08/4]  Five times this year she has said that this is a "time of grace".  It is a time to listen to God in prayer and to do whatever He tells us.  This takes a lot of effort.  "Work on the salvation of the world in a special way while I am with you.  God is merciful and gives special graces, therefore, seek them through prayer." [08/5]  "With great joy in my heart, I call you to follow me and to listen to my messages.  Be joyful carriers of peace and love in this peaceless world." [08/6]  "Pray and work so that your heart yearns for God the Creator who is the true rest of your soul and your body." [08/7]  God's peace plan begins with each one of us.  "You be those who will convert and, with your life, will witness, love, forgive, and bring the joy of the Risen One into this world, where my Son died and where people do not feel a need to seek Him and to discover Him in their lives." [08/8]  "Be joyful carriers of peace and do not forget that you live in a time of grace, in which God gives you great graces through my presence." [08/9]  We are at war with the evil one and our weapons are to be one with God in prayer of the heart and doing His will as Mary did.  "Pray for my intentions so that, through your prayers, you may stop Satan's plan over this world, which is further from God every day, and which puts itself in the place of God and is destroying everything that is beautiful and good in the souls of each of you." [08/10]  "Therefore, little children, pray without ceasing for this turbulent world without hope, so that you may become witnesses of peace for all." [08/11]  On Christmas Day our Mother Mary warned us,  "Meditate on Jesus... without Him you have no future." [08/12]  Mary's role in the Church is always to bring us to her Son Jesus.
 
Medjugorje Happenings 2008:   Vicka, Marija and Ivan continue to receive daily apparitions of Our Lady now for 28 years.  Mirjana, Ivanka and Jakov no longer receive daily apparitions.  However, our Mother Mary has promised them an annual apparition on March 18, June 25, and December 25 respectively.  God's gift of Mary's Medjugorje apparitions will continue for many years.  Vicka due to serious illness was not able to give her usual witness talks to pilgrims most of last year.  Asked about her being so joyful even in the great suffering she has had to bear over these years she said, "I know that everything God does is a blessing.  I am in His hands in order to serve Him.  He can do as He wishes and, whatever He does, it's His choice and I always thank Him."  What a beautiful witness she is with her joyful smile and thankful heart to God even in the midst of her suffering.  Mirjana tells us that Our Lady has never addressed us as she did on March 18: "Dear children, today I extend my hands towards you.  Do not be afraid to accept them.  They desire to give you love and peace and to help you in salvation. ... Be persevering so that, at the end of the way, we can be all together, in joy and love."   Let our Mother Mary into your heart and life for she brings us Jesus.  Ivan's family lives in Boston during the school year.  His wife Laureen  just gave birth to their fourth child, their second son.  Each visionary has 2 to 4 children.  As always, there were very large crowds in Medjugorje for the 27th Anniversary.  In her message Our Lady said, "Listen to my messages!"  "Listen" is a biblical word.  The Hebrew word for "listen" means to hear, to understand, and to do.  Mary calls us repeatedly to live and witness her messages, God's love, to the world.
 
Pilgrimages 2008:   Last year I was privileged to accompany two groups to Medjugorje; this year I missed going since the invitations for two groups did not have enough registrations.  However, at the beginning of November I went to a Medjugorje weekend conference at the Marian Community in Medway MA.  Fr Petar Ljubicic OFM and Sr Janja Boras OFM were the speakers.  Fr Petar is the priest whom Mirjana chose to make public three days before they occur the ten secrets that Mary entrusted to her.  In my early pilgrimages to Medjugorje in the mid 1980s Fr Petar and Sr Janja were stationed there.  They were great.  Ivan had his apparition and gave a talk on Saturday evening.  I got to visit briefly with Ivan, Laureen and their children.
 

A few days later in November I was invited to be co-chaplain for a large group of 150 pilgrims to Egypt and the Holy Land, walking in the footsteps of Jesus. Some of the highlights for me included Zeitun, Egypt, St Mary Church of the Apparitions where in 1968-1969 Our Lady appeared to thousands of people standing or walking on the roof of the church.  One of the first to see her was a man working across the street who thought it was a young lady about to commit suicide.  He rushed to plead for her to come down.  Do an Internet search for <Zeitun Egypt> and you can find a lot about these recent apparitions.  In the Holy Land we stayed at a kibbutz in Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee and then in Bethlehem.  A unique moment for me was celebrating Mass at the site of Jesus' tomb within the small Tomb Chapel at the Church of the Resurrection.  On our last day our group was part of a major celebration in Bethlehem for the 1,000,000th pilgrim to come to stay in a hotel there this year.
 
Medjugorje Ministry 2008:   Our Lady took over my life in 1981 when she began to appear daily in Medjugorje.  In 1984 I learned of her apparitions and began studying andteaching her messages through my Ignatian retreat ministry.  I've now been with Our Lady in her ministry since early 1985 and full time going out to parishes, prayer groups, conferences, etc. since 1988.  This year turned out to be mostly an international year of ministry.  It was a full year with 217 nights on the road, many beyond the US boarders.  There have been fewer requests for ministry within the States, which may reflect our country's drifting further from living God's love and commandments as the culture of death and unorthodox stances in the Church have increased.
 

I have been taking Our Lady's ministry abroad and to the high seas.  As a member of the Apostleship of the Sea I have been chaplain to passengers and crew on several  extended cruises, usually combining them with parish ministry.  It gives me a wonderful opportunity in the daily Masses and Sunday Interdenominational Service to evangelize through Mary's message of peace with many people who have never heard of her apparitions at Medjugorje these past 28 years.  I began the year began as chaplain on the Maasdam and then the Zuiderdam in the Caribbean followed by two weeks of Marian ministry in seven parishes in the Miami Archdiocese.  In February I preached a weekend retreat on the Luminous Mysteries at My Father's House in Moodus CT and then flew out to give three parish missions and a Day of Prayer in parishes in Oregon City and Portland OR.  March took me out to sea on the Summit for a month in the Caribbean and a transAtlantic crossing.  This brought me to England and onto Jersey, Channel Islands, to cover three parishes for a priest on pilgrimage to Medjugorje and  to give a Medjugorje triduum there.  In May I was invited to give a Marian Novena in Monaghan, Ireland, and preach in three parishes there.  Then I made my own annual eight day retreat before flying to Vancouver BC, Canada, to give a Eucharistic Novena.  This brought me back to Vancouver in August and September for two parish missions and to be chaplain on the Volendam to the Alaskan glaciers between these missions.
  
At home I have been one of the chaplains for "The Road to Calvary Prayer Group" since 1993.  They meet each Wednesday evening to pray for all priests and vocations to the priesthood.  Two Secular Franciscan Fraternities invited me to celebrate Mass and give a Medjugorje teaching.  I have also assisted in several local parishes, and covered my sister's parish in Stoughton in September and again October while the pastor was leading a pilgrimage to the California missions.  While there I gave a triduum on Genealogy Healing of the Family Tree.
 

As I write this I have just returned from going out to sea again as chaplain on the Volendam in Australia and New Zealand.  The priest who was assigned was ill.  Holland America flew me to Sydney and back from Auckland to take his place, or I never would have been able to do it.  What a wonderful opportunity it was to visit some friends who supported my extended ministry in New Zealand for eight week in their fall and again in their spring of 2006.  What a change coming from New Zealand's summer back to a New England northeaster snow storm on December 19th.

Thank You and God's Blessings:   Again I thank you all for your response to our Mother Mary's call to peace through prayer and fasting leading to conversion to living in God's love through obedience to His Commandments.  I appreciate any assistance you can give in letting parishes know of my ministry and availability.  Each day I remember you in thanksgiving in my Masses and prayers.  As Mary desires may you experience God's love more deeply each day, for His love brings us life.  Joyous CHRISTmas and a Blessed New Year!

Peace in Jesus and Mary,
  
Fr. Al Winshman, S.J.
 
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Medjugorje,  Year 2007
 
Praise be Jesus and Mary!
  
 
2007 Messages:    “Little children, from the depth of my heart, I call you all to open yourselves to this great grace that God gives you through my presence here.” [07/6]:   On the 21st anniversary our Mother Mary was joyful and shared her heart in calling us to open our hearts to God’s love and grace.  This year her 25th-of-the-month messages call us again to holiness, as at Fatima.  “Dear children!  Put Sacred Scripture in a visible place in your family and read it.   In this way, you will come to know prayer with the heart and your thoughts will be on God.” [07/1]  “Make good use of this time and through meeting with God in confession, leave sin and decide for holiness.  Do not forget, little children: your freedom is your weakness, therefore follow my messages with seriousness.” [07/2]  “I desire to inspire you to continue to live fasting with an open heart.  By fasting and renunciation, little children, you will be stronger in faith.  In God you will find true peace through daily prayer.” [07/3]  Taking a line from each message we can feel her presence with us leading us into the way of God’s love and holiness.  “Also today I again call you to conversion.  Open your hearts.  This is a time of grace while I am with you, make good use of it.” [07/4]  “And you, who are far from prayer, convert and, in the silence of your heart, seek salvation for your soul and nurture it with prayer.” [07/5]  “Do not forget that you are all important in this great plan, which God leads through Medjugorje.  God desires to convert the entire world and to call it to salvation and to the way towards Himself, who is the beginning and the end of every being.” [07/6]  “I call you to imitate the lives of the Saints.  May they be, for you, an example and encouragement to a life of holiness.” [07/7]  God creates and recreates us to be a reflection of His love.  “May your life, little children, be a reflection of God’s goodness and not of hatred and unfaithfulness.” [07/8]  “Also today I call all of you for your hearts to blaze with more ardent love for the Crucified, and do not forget that, out of love for you, He gave His life so that you may be saved.” [07/9]  “Many of you opened your hearts and accepted my messages, but many have become lost on this way and have never come to know the God of love with the fullness of heart.” [07/10]  Again Our Lady insists on our deciding to give time to God in prayer of the heart to know His love and guidance to holiness and peace.  “Little children, give time to God that He may transform you and fill you with His grace, so that you may be a grace for others.  For you, little children, I am a gift of grace and love.” [07/11]

Medjugorje Pilgrimages 2007:   Twice this year I was invited to be spiritual director for pilgrimage groups to Medjugorje.  The first was with Totally Yours Pilgrimages for Holy Week and Easter Week.  Palm Sunday we flew to Rome and unexpectedly arrived in time to be at Pope Benedict’s Mass for the 2nd Anniversary of John Paul II’s death.  The next two days we visited the four major basilicas and Pope Benedict XVI’s papal audience in St Peter’s Plaza.  Then off to Monte Cassino, St Philomena Shrine, Sanctuary of Monte Sant'Angelo where I celebrated Holy Thursday Mass.  Overnighting at San Giovanni Rotondo we spent the next morning at the shrine and went on to the Church of the Eucharistic Miracle in Lanciano to celebrate the Liturgy of Good Friday with the parish.  By ferry and bus to Medjugorje we celebrated the Easter Vigil there to begin our five day prayerful pilgrimage.  On Easter Monday I had the privi­lege of celebrating and preaching the English Mass.  We visited the visionaries Vicka and Mirjana, and Fr Jozo at Siroki Brijeg.  Returning on the overnight ferry and bus I celebrated Mass in the Holy House of Loreto.  Our pilgrimage concluded with two days in Assisi.  It was a blessed two weeks.

  
The 18th annual Medjugorje Youth Festival brought me back to Medjugorje as the spiritual director for a small private group.  Fr Slavko Barbaric OFM, well known for his 18 years serving the pilgrims until his sudden death on Cross Mountain in 2000, began many of the spiritual programs there, such as the annual Youth Festival on August 1-6.  It began with 800 in 1989, each year it grew geometrically to well over 30,000 with 500 priests this August.  I feared the sweltering summer heat there, but we were blessed with a pleasant week.  The opening ceremony was very touching with representatives from each country in an endless line giving their country’s greetings to all there.  Every continent was represented with a multitude of countries.  We gathered for prayer, singing, witness talks and teachings every day at the outdoor Rotunda Altar at 9-12 noon and 4-5:30 pm with the multitude spreading out into the fields and beyond.  Each evening 6-11 pm there was Rosary, Confessions, Mass, healing prayers, and Adoration.  The number of priests concelebrating the Evening Mass reached a high of 455 priests one evening.

Medjugorje Happenings 2007:   There were 600 priests in Medjugorje for the Priests Retreat in July.  Many priests and bishops are coming to Medjugorje with pilgrimage groups and privately.  Medju­gorje continues to have the support of the Vatican, not accepting the private negative opinion of the local bishop.  The Bishops Conference of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which now has the authority to investigate the appari­tions and messages, remains strongly positive.  Medjugorje is one of the world’s major pilgrimage sites and construction of large family pansions continues for hosting the increasing number of pilgrims.

  
Mirjana continues to have her 2nd-of-the-month apparitions to pray for all who do not know God’s love.  Hundreds join her at the Sr Elvira’s Cenacolo Community to pray.  Mirjana was deeply pained at our Mother’s grief expressed on December 2: “Dear children!  Today, while I am looking at your hearts, my heart is filled with pain and apprehension.  My children, stop for a moment and look into your hearts.  Is my Son, your God, truly in the first place?  Are His commandments truly the measure of your life?”

Marian Renewal Ministry 2007:   This year I had a new experience in my ministry with Our Lady.  Margaret Penicaud in Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the coast of Massachusetts, contacted me.  Our Lady of Medjugorje changed her life like so many others.  She began “Little Children of Mary Prayer Group” in a nursing home on the Vineyard, meeting weekly to pray the Rosary.  Twice this year I ferried over to the Vineyard for a few days, to join prayer group and give teachings on our Mother’s messages.  Ten years ago Margaret joined by others, mainly summer residents on the Vineyard, began a ministry to the poor in Haiti working with a new Haitian congregation, Daughters of Mary Queen Immaculate.  Working closing with the Sisters they make regular missionary pilgrimages to Haiti to assist them at their school in Lilavois in Port-au-Prince where they are building the school, this year adding a second level of class rooms.  Lilavois goes from kindergarten to older girls learning cooking and sewing to prepare them for domestic employment.  The unemployment in Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, reaches 80%.  Recently they have added a fish farm of tilapia fish on the property to add protein to the local people’s diet.  I joined their pilgrimage in November as chaplain, celebrating daily Mass for the sisters and girls at the Motherhouse, Ste Marie College, where we were housed.  Three ladies in the group taught quilting to a small group of girls.  They purchased many paintings from local artists and other works of art to sell at a fair on the Vineyard to raise funds for their ministry in Haiti.  While there we visited Mother Teresa’s Home for the Destitute Dying where I administered the Sacrament of the Sick to about 80 there.  We also visited Mother Teresa’s Home for Children, 58 abandoned infants and toddlers and nearly 100 sick infants and youngsters, some abandoned.  It was a profound experience.

  
My full time ministry with Our Lady of Medjugorje, Queen of Peace, proclaims her call to peace through witnessing our faith, prayer of the heart, fasting and penance, conversion through monthly Confession, and living the Mass.  This year I was invited to give parish missions in parishes throughout the U.S., and preached on Mary’s Medjugorje messages at many Marian Evenings, Eucharistic Healing Evenings, prayer groups and parish Masses.  “The Road to Calvary Prayer Group” meets locally every Wednesday evening for thirteen years now to pray for priests and vocations.  I’ve been grace to pray the Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet, and celebrated Mass for them many times.  For this gift of ministry I’m grateful.
  
My Marian Renewal Ministry has spread through word of mouth throughout the world.  I welcome any contacts you can make to let parish priests and others, know of my ministry and availability.  During the year when not in parishes, which are always my priority, I was chaplain twice on cruise ships, giving me another opportunity to tell many passengers and crew of God’s love for us through Mary at Medjugorje.  I pray in thanksgiving to you for your prayers and support of Our Lady’s call to peace.  Each day you are remembered in my Masses and prayers.  I pray that we all may experience every day more deeply God’s tremendous love for us.  Jesus and Mary bless you all always.  Blessed and Joyful CHRISTmas!

Peace in Jesus and Mary,

Fr. Al Winshman, S.J.
 
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Medjugorje,  Year 2006
Praise be Jesus and Mary!
 

2006 Messages:   “I am near you and thank all those who, through these years, have accepted my messages, have poured them into their life and decided for holiness and peace.” [06/6/25]:  Our Mother Mary spokes these words to us on the 25th Anniversary of her ongoing daily apparitions at Medjugorje.  This has been the twentieth year of her monthly messages, as she leads us to holiness and peace.  True to her Son she guides us in living the Gospel.  “Be carriers of the Gospel in your families.  Do not forget, little children, to read Sacred Scripture.  Put it in a visible place and witness with your life that you believe and live the Word of God.” [06/1]  “Do not be closed, but with prayer and renunciation say ‘yes’ to God and He will give to you in abundance.” [06/2]  “Renounce sin and set out on the way of salvation, the way which my Son has chosen.  Through each of your tribulations and sufferings God will find the way of joy for you.” [06/3]  Mary leads us to God and His gift of peace through prayer of the heart.  “You do not see God, little children, but if you pray you will feel His nearness.” [06/4]  “Decide for holiness, little children, and think of heaven.  Only in this way, will you have peace in your heart that no one will be able to destroy.  Peace is a gift, which God gives you in prayer.” [06/5]  “God will reward you with great graces and you will earn eternal life.” [06/6] Our Lady draws us close to God in thanksgiving.  “In silence may the Holy Spirit speak to you and permit Him to convert and change you.” [06/7]  “Pray, pray, pray.  Only in prayer will you be near to me and my Son and you will see how short this life is.  In your words there will only be thanksgiving to God for having created you and the desire for holiness will become a reality for you.” [06/8]  Mary leads us on pilgrimage to eternal life.  “Imitate the lives of saints and may they be an example for you; and I will inspire you as long as the Almighty permits me to be with you.” [06/9]  “You are not conscious, little children, that God is giving you a great opportunity to convert and to live in peace and love.  You are so blind and attached to earthly things and think of earthly life.  God sent me to lead you toward eternal life.” [06/10]  “Do not forget that you are travelers on the way toward eternity.  Therefore, little children, permit God to lead you as a shepherd leads his flock.” [06/11]  As always, “Thank you for having responded to my call.”

Medjugorje 25th Anniversary:   Beginning on Christmas 1995 the Gospa has called these times a “time of grace” in thirty of her monthly messages.  Indeed God our Father in His unfathomable love for us has allowed Mary to come to us every day for twenty-five years.  This year I was invited to be spiritual director for an Italy and Medjugorje pilgrimage with “Totally Yours Pilgrimages” on June 15-29 and so was privileged to be at Medjugorje for the 25th Anniversary.  In recent years the number of pilgrims including bishops and priests has exceeded the many who came before the war.  During the anniversary week there was an estimated quarter of a million, with 4 bishops and 322 priests concelebrating the 25th Anniversary Mass at the Rotunda Altar behind the St James Church.  Pilgrims overflowed fields behind the church and all around the church.  There were simultaneous translations on June 23-25 for the evening Mass and homily, and during the week Mass was celebrated in up to 26 languages.
  
During the Joyful and Sorrowful Rosary before the Mass a multitude of priests with lines of penitents were hearing confessions. Preparing for the anniversary the visionaries Marija and Ivan lead the "Magnificat" for nine days at the end of the evening Mass. On the anniversary Marija, Ivan, Mirjana, Ivanka, and Jacov lead the "Magnificat." Regretfully Vicka was ill and not able to be there. Following the Anniversary Mass these five visionaries lead the Glorious Rosary with the pilgrims and then joined with the adult and children choirs for a festivity of prayer and songs at the Rotunda Altar.
   
Mirjana and her husband Marco arranged the housing for our group.  She gave a private interview to us in her home.  This is special as she personally shares with her groups.  We presented her with a bouquet of flowers to mark the 25th anniversary.  For the first time in my 48 pilgrimages to Medjugorje I did not climb Krizevac, Cross Mountain, due to my March accident in New Zealand related below.
 
Medjugorje Visionaries 2006:   Marija, Ivan, and Vicka con-tinue to receive daily apparitions wherever they are.  Marija with her husband and four sons live near Milan, Italy, where her husband Paulo has his business.  They come to their Medjugorje home frequently, especially in the summer.  On the 25th of each month Maria receives Our Lady’s messages to the world, which the Gospa has given now for twenty years.  Ivan and his Boston wife, Laureen, and their three children have homes in Boston and Medjugorje.  Ivan spends the summer in Medjugorje hosting pilgrims in his home and shares the Gospa’s messages throughout the U.S. and Pacific countries the rest of the year from his home in Boston.  Vicka’s presence in Medjugorje and her radiant joy as she shares Our Lady’s messages and prays over pilgrims are sorely missed over the past several years.  She and her husband Mario live near Medjugorje, caring for their two infant children.  Mario is the manager of Fr Slavko’s “Mother’s Village” in Medjugorje.
  
Mirjana, Ivanka and Jakov no longer have daily apparitions and continue to receive an annual apparitions promised by Our Lady for the rest of their lives on March 18, June 25, and December 25 respectively. Mirjana also continues since August 2, 1987, to receive an apparition to pray with the Gospa for those who do not know God’s love. She related on March 18th that Our Lady told us, "Only with total interior renunciation will you recognize God’s love and the signs of the time in which you live." On the June 25th anniversary Ivanka received the message, "Dear children, thank you for having responded to my call. Pray, pray, pray." Christmas Jakov related Mary’s call to family holiness: "Open your hearts today on this day of grace, decide for God and put Him in the first place in your family."
  
Marian Renewal Ministry 2006:   This has been a most unusual and blessed year with many unexpected joys and sorrows.  This year I spent 229 nights on the road with four months in New Zealand.  From February 28 to April 25 I traveled to NZ for the third time invited to speak at the Wellington Eucharistic Convention on March 4-5 on “Mary, Mother of the Eucharist” and “The Eucharist and the Magnificat,” and at the Auckland Eucharistic Convention on April 21-23 on “Our Lady and the Cross” and “Our Cross, Our Gift.”  Little did I know that I would have a personal cross to carry during Lent by which I would experienced the Auckland conference theme, “Accepting the Cross.”  Between these two conventions 12 parishes invited me to give a Mission, Triduum, or Medjugorje Evenings and Eucharistic Healing Evenings.  I journeyed to South Island of NZ for the first time as well as North Island where I had been twice before, the last time to speak at the Auckland Eucharistic Convention in 2004.
 

After speaking at the Wellington Convention I had well attended missions in Plimmerton and Wellington and spoke at five other parishes.  Then I flew down to Christchurch for an intended week in South Island.  Everything changed when I went over the mountains by train to Greymouth to give a Triduum.  On March 24 while there I made a day trip with Fr John further south to visit NZ’s Franz Josef Glacier, a majestic inland glacier.  Climbing over the rocks to take pictures I stepped on a loose shale, lost balance, passed out and fell head first off a six foot moraine onto boulders below.  Unconsciously I must have extended my left hand and broke what could have been a fatal fall had I landed on my head.  Was I hurting with two fractures to my left wrist, four to my pelvis on my right side and two to the ribs.  I had to be airlifted to a first aid station and then by ambulance to Greymouth Hospital for three days and across country to Christchurch Hospital for another ten days.  Fortunately Nancye Price who had organ­ized my venues lived nearby in Rangiora and I spent the next two weeks healing further at the Price family home.  On crutches I was able to fly back north to Auckland for the scheduled convention and shared on the gift of accepting our crosses.  The next day I managed my scheduled return flights home.

  
We had to cancel seven parish venues due to my accident, which was reported in the diocesan newspaper.  At the Auckland convention I announced that I’d return in September-October to reschedule those parishes and add others.  And so I returned to NZ in our fall, the end of their winter, to give two missions, seven triduums, and evenings of prayer in three other parishes, going to four of the six dioceses in NZ.  I even got to participate in the Episcopal ordination and first Mass of Bp Barry Jones who was the pastor at Greymouth when I had my accident.  In November I went next to Hawaii to three parishes and a chaplaincy at sea.  My 2006 ministry also took me to parishes in Florida, Maryland, and Massachusetts.

  
I have moved and now continue my Marian and Eucharistic ministry from Campion Center in Weston MA.  I am indebted to everyone for your prayers and assistance in Our Lady’s call to living in peace by doing God’s will.  Every day you are remembered in my Masses and prayers.  I pray that we all may experience each day more deeply God’s tremendous love for us.  Jesus and Mary bless you all.