I first heard about Medjugorje last year for the youth festival. I attended a conference called Encounter where we found some friends that told us about this amazing pilgrimage in Medjugorje.

I’d never been on a pilgrimage. We’re going to walk around, learn some stuff. That’s about all I knew about it. And someplace in Europe where a lot of people go for a pilgrimage. I didn’t even know what a pilgrimage was. We just did it. 

It was pretty much life changing seeing the lively environment in Medjugorje. At the Youth Fest, there’s like tens of thousands of people here. And during adoration, everyone was praying, and everyone was willing to walk up Apparition Hill and Cross Mountain because we know that Our Lady came to six visionaries multiple times over the last few decades. People truly believe in that. That is so encouraging for newcomers. 

I didn’t quite understand that this place was an apparition site that was officially declared by the Vatican. I thought it was just a tourist attraction. Our tour guide wrote a book about his experience. He was an engineer, and he was like, “Well, this surely can’t be real. This is probably just some lighting incident or something.” He had his own experience, and he wrote a book about it because it was so life-changing he completely converted from an atheistic engineer to a full time tour guide of Medjugorje. 

From my first trip, I definitely started praying the Rosary more. Even if it was just a decade or two, I still love praying the Rosary. It is repetitive, but I think it’s a good sense of repetitive.

When I go for my walks in between my study breaks at Wheaton College, I’ll typically pray the Rosary because, well, it’s just a good habit to have.

What’s it like to be back here again?

I might be hearing the same things from a different tour guide, I might be learning the same facts, but praying here is so powerful and motivating. Just being at adoration or being at Mass or being at confession, which obviously I have done before, but I feel like here there it’s a greater sense of power that I do not and cannot explain. I feel comforted while practicing my faith here. 

I’d try not to spread my experience to some of my friends because some of my friends aren’t Catholic, and some of them are maybe orthodox, most of them are Protestant because they go to a Protestant school. I have one friend who is agnostic. I won’t share about Medjugorje unless they ask about it. But when I do share about it, I really can’t stop talking. There’s so many things that are happening. It’s an amazing experience for anyone of all ages.

From a Catholic stance, Medjugorje is a Marian apparition site where apparitions are still occurring to this day. It’s also a very peaceful place in Bosnia Herzegovina. It can be a tourist attraction depending on what type of person you are. But for the most part, in terms of faith, it is a place that I would definitely recommend, not just for Catholics, but for people of all sorts of beliefs, to see what it truly means to be Catholic and what it is to live a Catholic life.

I’ve heard a lot of older people, not just in my group, but in other groups I’ve talked to, share that they wish they had gone here when they were younger. Because it is an experience to have early in your life. You shouldn’t forget about it. So I think it’s beneficial to come here when you’re younger. That’s a wide range of ages, but if you’re able to hike, climb rocks, hike up, maybe maximum a thousand feet of elevation, I think it’s definitely beneficial. 

———

My testimony is quite different from many other Catholics, but I am Catholic now. I was born Jewish. It was a difficult life living in a separated household.

When I was six, we moved to an apartment in West Rogers Park, Chicago, where our downstairs neighbors were Catholic, and their children were roughly my age. I was interested in why they prayed before meals and why they did the Sign of the Cross. I was like, “What is that?” Why they have crucifixes in every single room in their house and they have an altar in their living room. What is that? 

I kind of got involved in the Catholic faith. I got invited to go to Mass at the church called Saint John Cantius in Chicago, where eventually I was confirmed, baptized, received my First Communion, all in the same service when I was eight. It was the Easter Vigil service, the six hour Mass with Bishop Perry. 

My mom grew up Protestant, and in the middle of her life, during her education, she was kind of mixed. She was in between Buddhism, maybe a little bit dabbling in Hinduism. When she met my dad, she went to Judaism. When I went to the Catholic Church, she followed me because she was inspired by my faith for the Catholic Church and for Jesus at six years old. 

Just because I was confirmed and baptized and received my confirmation name and everything, my dad still didn’t entirely agree that I was Catholic. So I continued to live my life as if I was Jewish, even though my beliefs argued against that. 

I was bar mitzvahed when I was 13 years old. I went on a Jewish trip with a bunch of Jewish teenagers when I was in between junior and senior year of high school, I was 17. We went to Poland and Israel. 

After I turned 18, I had full access to the First Amendment, and I declared for my entire family that I’m Catholic. Right after I turned 18. Unfortunately, my dad keeps telling some family members I’m still Jewish, even though I’ve said definitively that I am Catholic. They should know that by now because I’m attending a Christian college. It’s kind of irritating that I have to keep repeating what I believe in. My dad still doesn’t quite agree with the origin of my belief, but I think he’s hung up on the past and he should move on to the present. I’ve already done my research, and I’ve read part of the Catholic Catechism, and I’m meeting all these amazing people on pilgrimages, at Masses, at conferences, at other churches, other parishes, shrines, other countries. I’m living the life as a Catholic.

It’s unfortunate that he still doesn’t understand that. While I was here last year, I prayed for my dad’s conversion, and this time while I’m here, I’m also praying for my dad’s conversion. 

The first time, when I climbed Apparition Hill barefoot, I just wanted to see how resistible my feet were. They were not that resistible. Then for Cross Mountain, I did it for my dad, which kind of hurt, but I kept going. I’m glad I was able to complete that. 

There is no really good part. The only really memorable part is adoration, and everyone’s kneeling before the Eucharist for like, an hour. That’s the top of my experience.

Everything else is just positive, just spending time and meeting people. It’s so much fun.