Who is Mirjana Soldo?
Mirjana Dragičević-Soldo was born in Sarajevo, ex-Yugoslavia, on March 18, 1965. Her life was dramatically changed in 1981 when she and five other young people experienced an apparition of the Virgin Mary in a small village called Međugorje. My Heart Will Triumph is her first book.
Mirjana’s 1st Apparition
“Until that moment, I never imagined that a person could see Gospa—the Croatian name for the Blessed Virgin Mary—on Earth. I had never heard of other so-called “apparitions,” and I assumed that this was the first time she had appeared to anyone” (16).
“The first time I gazed upon the woman up close, I realized she was not of this world. Immediately—and involuntarily—we fell to our knees. Not sure what to say or do, we began to pray the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be. To our astonishment, the woman prayed along with us, but she remained silent during the Hail Mary. A beautiful blueness encompassed the woman. Her skin was imbued with an olive-hued radiance, and her eyes reminded me of the translucent blue of the Adriatic. A white veil concealed most of her long, black hair, except for a curl visible near her forehead and locks hanging down below the veil. She wore a long dress that fell past her feet. Everything I saw seemed supernatural, from the unearthly blue-gray glow of her dress to the breathtaking intensity of her gaze. Her very presence brought with it a feeling of peace and maternal love, but I also felt intense fear because I did not understand what was happening. “Djeco moja, ne bojte se,” she said in perfect Croatian. My Children, be not afraid. With a resonant, melodic tone that no human could ever replicate, her voice was like music. I was simply awestruck. My only desires were to gaze at her beauty and bask in the tremendous love I felt when she looked at me” (28-9).
“Later, hearing other people describe the apparition unsettled me, almost as if strangers had been watching me sleep. But what the villagers saw convinced them that we were experiencing something incredible. Here were six children, only a few of whom had been friends before that day, kneeling on sharp rocks and briars, faces aglow and eyes transfixed onto something unseen. Scientists, I later learned, categorized our experience as being in a state of ecstasy. I called it being in Heaven” (29-30).
“We were all so different, but the extraordinary gift of seeing Our Lady bonded us together. Our interpretations of the experience were and would remain as varied as our personalities, but, through the years, we have always agreed on one thing… No words can describe the beauty of Our Lady and the feeling that comes with seeing her” (31).
“After seeing Our Lady and experiencing Heaven, it was nearly impossible to be afraid of anything” (81).
Mirjana’s Ongoing Apparitions
“After she left, I immediately withdrew to my room and cried. When someone asked me later why I had been so distraught, I explained that every encounter with Our Lady was like a fulfilment of everything—I felt completed. “For example,” I said, “I love Marija and Veronika with all my heart, and like any normal mother, I would give my life for them. But when I’m with Our Lady, even my daughters do not exist. My only desire is to go with the Blessed Mother. When the apparition ends, I feel so much pain—it’s like being in a paradise one second and a desert the next. I feel abandoned, even though I know I’m not. Only after several hours of prayer do I understand that I have to stay on Earth and Our Lady has to be in Heaven.” Have you ever loved someone you could not be with? Yearned for a time or place you could never return to? Mourned for someone close to your heart? If so, then you might understand my heartache. Separating from Our Lady feels like a mixture of unrequited love, exile, and grief—and yet it is none of those things” (271).
For more information on scientific tests done on the visionaries, click here.
Mary’s Beauty
“Is she beautiful?” asked Fr. Jozo. “Oh! Incredibly! She has black hair, a little bit pulled back, and blue eyes.” “Have you ever seen a girl like her?” “Never.” “How tall is she? Is she smaller than you?” “Like me, but she’s slimmer. She’s really beautiful.” I wanted to describe what made her so beautiful, but I couldn’t pinpoint anything specific. When people speak of physical beauty, they often highlight someone’s eyes, hair, or other distinguishing feature. But Our Lady’s beauty was different. Every feature was beautiful, and everything was harmonized. A white veil framed her oval face. The color of her skin was similar to the sun-glazed complexion of most Mediterranean people, and, paired with her black hair, she resembled a person from the Middle East. Her diminutive nose was perfectly aligned with her almond-shaped eyes, and the slight rosiness on her cheeks was similar to the color of her lips, which were small, full, and tender-looking” (47).
“Our Lady’s ethereal beauty captivated us from the very beginning. One day during an apparition, we asked a childish question. “How is it possible that you are so beautiful?” Our Lady gently smiled. “I am beautiful because I love,” she said. “If you want to be beautiful, then love.” After the apparition, Jakov, who was only ten years old, looked at us and said, “I don’t think she was telling the truth.” I reproached him. “How can you say that the Blessed Mother didn’t tell the truth?” “Well, look at some of us,” he replied. “Some of us can love our entire lives and we’d still never be beautiful like she said!” We all laughed. Jakov did not understand the type of beauty that she was talking about. Hers is eternal and comes from within, and she wants that kind of beauty for each of us. If you are clean inside, and if you are full of love, then you will be beautiful on the outside as well” (83).
As I gazed at her beauty and savored the love that radiated from her, my only desire was for her to take me with her. Life on Earth seemed meaningless and bleak in comparison to that moment in her presence. I longed to be with her forever. But it was over all too soon, and after she left, I was crushed with the realization that I would not see her again for another 365 days. Wrought with emotion, I knelt there sobbing for a long time. People who see me when an apparition ends say I have a tough time “coming back to reality,” but I think of it differently: nothing is closer to reality than being with Our Lady. Heaven is the ultimate reality, and the Blessed Mother is more real than any person on this planet. The pain of leaving such indescribable bliss is immense. Still, her return filled me with peace because it confirmed that she’d visit me at least once a year for as long as I live. (159).
Mary’s Love
“But her “appearance” was also a feeling, one best described by the word maternal. Her expression conveyed the qualities of motherhood—care, compassion, patience, tenderness. Her eyes held such love that I felt like she embraced me every time she looked at me” (48).
“The immense feeling of love I felt during the apparitions was like nothing I had ever experienced on Earth, and my only desire whenever I saw Our Lady was to stay with her forever” (48).
“Only through prayer did I finally understand that I was no different from anyone else who suffered. Our Lady remained silent about my situation out of respect for my free will and out of love for all her children—those who could see her and those who could not. Like any good mother, I realized, Our Lady did not choose favorites” (105).
“I know your pain and suffering because I lived through them. I laugh with you in your joy and I cry with you in your pain. I will never leave you.” — From Our Lady’s Message of May 2, 2015
“When you see Our Lady, it is impossible to hate anyone because you become aware that she loves even the person who mistreats you. That person is her child as much as you are, and her love for all of her children is indescribable. I have never seen that kind of love on Earth” (135).
For more on Mary’s maternal love for the priesthood, click here.
Mary’s Sorrow
During the 2nd of the month apparitions, I sometimes see tears on Our Lady’s face. She loves her children more than we can ever imagine and she cries for each one who goes astray. If you saw her tears just once, I’m certain you would dedicate your life to praying for her intentions. (209).
She will continue to cry as long as there is even one person in the world who does not believe. That is why we need to pray. When we do, however, we do not need to pray for what we desire; God knows everything that is in our hearts, and He knows what is best for us in the long term—eternally speaking, of course. We should pray instead for our brothers and sisters. Every time we pray for someone who does not believe, we essentially wipe a tear from Our Lady’s face. (213)
Our Lady showed me something during that apparition which I cannot speak about, but what shook me the most was the intense sadness on her face. I’ve seen women on Earth who were suffering, but nothing compares to the pain on Our Lady’s face. In a way, I envy those who have never witnessed her sorrow. It hurts her most when she sees that we haven’t even tried to change, when our hearts remain hard and indifferent, when we’ve chosen a path of ruin rather than salvation. She has so much love and patience, and she does so much for us, but we are often deaf to her call and reluctant to take even the slightest step forward. Imagine a mother here on Earth whose son has fallen into the wrong crowd and lives in darkness. He doesn’t talk to his mother anymore because he knows how much he’s disappointed her. Think of that mother’s pain. Now, multiply that pain by a billion and imagine looking into her eyes. That’s what it’s like to see Our Lady when she prays for her countless children who have gone astray. Or consider the indescribable grief of a mother who has lost a child. Our Mother in Heaven grieves for every child she loses.
The 5 Stones
During these daily encounters, Our Lady emphasized things like prayer, fasting, confession, reading the Bible and going to Mass. Later, people identified these as Our Lady’s “main messages”—or, as Fr. Jozo called them, her “five stones,” an allusion to the story of David and Goliath. She was not asking us to pray or fast just for the sake of it. The fruit of living our faith, she said, was love. As she said in one of her messages, “I come to you as a mother, who, above all, loves her children. My children, I want to teach you to love.”
For more information on the 5 stones, which I HIGHLY recommend, click here.
The 10 Secrets
At other times during my daily apparitions, Our Lady spoke about the secrets. By then, they had become a source of intense curiosity and speculation for everyone who followed Međugorje. The six of us were together when she began to divulge the secrets to us one by one. There is so little I can say about the secrets. They are, after all, secrets. When Our Lady entrusted me with the third secret, though, she allowed me to reveal a few details about it, perhaps because we had asked her so many times to leave a sign. I can say this much—after the events contained in the first two secrets come to pass, Our Lady will leave a permanent sign on Apparition Hill where she first appeared. Everyone will be able to see that human hands could not have made it. People will be able to photograph and film the sign, but in order to truly comprehend it—to experience it with the heart—they will need to come to Međugorje. Seeing it live, with the eyes, will be far more beautiful. The six of us visionaries do not speak to each other about the secrets. The only part of the secrets that we know we share in common is the permanent sign. I cannot speak about the details of the other secrets before the time comes to reveal them to the world, except to say that they will be announced before they occur. After the events take place as predicted, it will be difficult for even the staunchest skeptics to doubt the existence of God and the authenticity of the apparitions. All of the secrets are for the world; none are for me personally. Our Lady relayed most of the events of the secrets through words, but she also showed me some of them like scenes from a film. When I saw these glimpses of the future during apparitions, people near me often noted the intense expressions on my face and asked me about it later. Each secret will happen exactly as it was relayed to me, with one exception. I was alone in our apartment when Our Lady entrusted me with the seventh secret. Its contents troubled me greatly. “Is it possible for the secret to be lessened?” I begged her. “Pray,” she replied. I rallied friends, family members, nuns and priests to pray and fast for the intention of changing the seventh secret, and we did so with intensity and conviction. We often met in Sarajevo as a group to pray about it. Eight months later, during an apparition, I asked Our Lady again about the seventh secret. “By the grace of God, it has been softened,” she said. “But you must never ask such things again, because God’s will must be done.” (120-1).
“She entrusted me with the tenth and final secret, and she explained that I will need to choose a priest for a special role. Ten days before the date of the event foretold in the first secret, I am to tell him what will happen and when. He and I are then supposed to pray and fast for seven days, and, three days before the event, the priest will reveal it to the world. All ten secrets will be revealed in this way” (136).
For more information on the secrets from Mirjana, click here.
Mirjana’s Mission to Pray for “Non-believers”
Our Lady also gave prayer missions to the other visionaries. She asked Vicka and Jakov to pray for the sick, Ivanka for families, Marija for nuns and the souls in Purgatory, and Ivan for priests and young people. (213).
God hears the six of us at the same “volume” He hears everyone. The fact that we see Our Lady doesn’t mean that our prayers get priority. I believe that every person on the planet has a special mission. Through prayer, we can discover God’s plan for our lives. Just as I was prepared for my mission, think about your own trials, experiences, and dreams, and then ask yourself: What mission is God preparing me for? (213).
For more on Mirjana discerning a vocation, click here.
Mirjana’s mission from Mary is “to pray for those who do not believe—those have not yet come to know the love of God.” Speaking about non-believers—whom she called “those who have yet to experience God’s love”—she said, “They are my children too and I suffer for them because they do not know what awaits them if they are not converted to God.”
When I asked her who these “unbelievers” were, she said, “All those who do not feel the Church as their home and God as their Father.” She added, “Do not call them unbelievers, because even by saying that, you judge them. You should think of them as your brothers and sisters.” (208).
Our Lady said that she would come on the second day of every month to pray with me for my mission. Everything was suddenly clear—even the worst of my suffering was part of a greater plan. Growing up among unbelievers in Sarajevo, attending communist-run schools, having to hide my faith, being persecuted by police—it seemed like everything had been a kind of preparation. Even getting expelled and sent to a school for delinquent children was a blessing; it helped me understand the mission Our Lady would later ask of me. I suddenly regretted ever complaining about my hardships, because it was only through them that I came to see “those who do not know the love of God” as my brothers and sisters. “You cannot consider yourself a true believer,” Our Lady said, “if you do not see Jesus Christ in every person you meet” (208).
During the earliest 2nd of the month apparitions in 1987, Our Lady taught me a special prayer, which she and I still pray together today. It’s a prayer for those who do not know God’s love. I cannot yet reveal many details about this prayer because it is connected to the secrets, but I can say that it’s a continuous prayer like the rosary. Otherwise, it’s different from the rosary. In fact, I never pray the rosary with Our Lady because she doesn’t pray to herself. Instead, this special prayer is directed at Jesus, and the words are addressed to Him. One day, the world can know the entire prayer, but only when Our Lady allows me to reveal it. (209).
All of the horrible things happening in our world today come from those who do not know the love of God. But she’s not necessarily speaking about atheists. Unfortunately, many people who think of themselves as religious do not know His love yet, either. 209
In a way, I think we are all unbelievers. No one can truthfully say, “I’m a good believer and I’m doing everything that God wants.” Everyone makes mistakes. But it’s important that we try, and if you desire to be an example—if you desire to show that you have faith and love—then you have to smile. You have to laugh and joke. If you are always nervous, fearful, or serious, then an unbeliever will say, “He’s no different from anyone else. Why would I want to change and be like him?” “Peace begins with a smile,” said one of the great believers of our time—Mother Teresa—who was actually born in Yugoslavia and was said to have followed the messages of Međugorje. Most importantly, we should never judge or criticize. When Our Lady asks us to pray for those who do not believe, she wants us to emulate her. First, we should feel love for them, to see them as our own brothers and sisters who were not as fortunate as we were to come to know the love of God. Only then will we be able to pray for them; otherwise our prayer will be ineffective and even hypocritical. “The first and the last intention of our prayers needs to be for the grace to love God and our neighbor with our heart,” said Fr. Slavko. “If our heart is not steeped in and completely permeated with divine love, nothing we do will have any value, nor will we be happy. The one who prays for the grace to love prays for happiness and peace for himself, for his family and for all mankind.” (210).
Key Messages of Medjugorje: Peace and Love
“The only true peace,” Our Lady said, “is the one which my Son gives.”
Everyone hungers for peace, but most look in the wrong places. Only God gives peace. You can have millions of dollars, but without Him, you are destitute. You can live in a mansion, but without Him, you are homeless. No matter how much you acquire, you’ll never be satisfied because you’ll always think that peace is just around the corner. Many people think, “If only I can make more money, then I’ll be happy.” But peace is never around the corner. It’s right in front of you, and to find it, you simply have to get on your knees and ask. That’s why the Queen of Peace has been coming. If you live her messages, then you’ll be walking with Jesus. She basically repeats what’s written in the Gospels, but in a simpler way. “Extra-biblical revelations, in general, do not bring any new truths,” wrote Dr. Fr. Ljudevit Rupčić, “but perhaps just a better recognition of the biblically revealed truths.” Let her lead you to love. Eventually, others will see in you what they’re looking for, even if they didn’t know they were looking for it, and your peace will spread to the people around you. According to Our Lady, we who call ourselves believers must remember that we have a great responsibility (210).
“When Our Lady came to Međugorje eleven years ago, she presented herself as the Queen of Peace. That was a little strange to us because we already lived in peace, like here in Italy, but now we know why. We prayed for peace only a little, no different than we prayed for everything else. But I don’t think Our Lady wants us to pray for peace only in Yugoslavia. She wants us to pray for peace on Earth. To her, Yugoslavia, Germany, Italy, and all other countries do not exist. From her perspective, we’re all children of the same planet, so we should pray for peace in the entire world.” (245).
“Why does God allow war?” Only those who do not know the love of God can ask such a question. In her messages, Our Lady has called God “the Great Love.” God does not cause war—we do. God gives every man the freedom to choose how he lives his life and what he wants out of it. Every person must look inwardly and ask himself: Do I want peace, or do I want to kill my brother? God is not to blame for our choices. To suggest otherwise is to deny the gift of free will. 269.
“Our Lady taught me to love everyone, and she said that we were all brothers and sisters regardless of our differences. She never said Dear Italians or Dear Croats or even Dear Catholics—only Dear Children. She came as a mother of all people” (274).
I remembered that Jesus even pardoned those who crucified Him as they were doing it, saying, “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.” Many would argue that Milošević and his allies knew what they were doing, but I came to see it in a different way: if they did not know God, then in reality they knew nothing. 275.
In her message on March 18, 1997, Our Lady said, “Genuine peace will be had only by the one who sees and loves my Son in his neighbor.” And on March 18, 2005, she said, “The way to my Son, who is true peace and love, passes through the love for all neighbors.”
Nothing should prevent us from seeing Jesus in other people—not differences in race, religion, politics, or trivial things like the way someone dresses or what they do for a living. Our Lady asks us to see Jesus in everyone. In the homeless man begging for spare change. In the Muslim and the Serb. In the atheist who doesn’t believe in Jesus and the Christian who doesn’t understand Him. In the newborn baby and in the unborn baby. In your priest, in your bishop, and in the pope. In those who have hurt you and those you have hurt. In the thief. In the drug addict. In the worst sinner you know. And, perhaps most importantly, in yourself. See Jesus in everyone. As human beings, we make all sorts of excuses to circumvent the commandment of loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. Forgive but don’t forget, some say. Or the Croatian proverb, The wolf changes his fur but never his temperament. True love, however, has no conditions. 277.
“When you go home,” I tell pilgrims, “resist the urge to tell everyone what you’ve experienced. Instead, focus on living the messages of Our Lady, and when people see the changes in you, they will ask you about it.”
“To change the world, lukewarm faith and tepid love will never be enough—in these trying times, our faith must be radical, and our love, limitless. We should endeavor to have our feet on the ground but our hearts in Heaven” (223).
“After experiencing Heaven for all these years, I believe I can finally answer the question that burned inside my heart for so long—the same one that burns in every human heart: What’s the meaning of life? Many people expect a complex answer. My answer, however, is the shortest sentence in this book. Love. Our Lady has said the word love over 400 times in her messages on the second of the month and March 18. God is love. Jesus is love incarnate. The Blessed Mother leads us to love. And everything happening in Međugorje today originates from that love. On March 2, 2007, Our Lady appeared with particular conviction and gave me the following message. “Today I will speak to you about what you have forgotten: Dear children, my name is Love. That I am among you for so much of your time is love, because the Great Love sends me. I am asking the same of you. I am asking for love in your families. I am asking that you recognize love in your brother. Only in this way, through love, will you see the face of the Greatest Love. May fasting and prayer be your guiding star. Open your hearts to love, namely, salvation. Thank you.” (333-4).
Problems arise among people, nations, and religions when they forget the fundamental truth that God is the Greatest Love. Our Lady doesn’t simply say that God has love; she says that He is love, and furthermore she tells us that her name is Love. It’s clear to see how the Blessed Mother is synonymous with love, but was she also speaking literally? Scholars believe that Miriam (מִרְָיָם), the Hebrew name for Mary, likely comes from the Egyptian word for love. (334).
My prayer mission, too, is rooted in love. On July 2, 2015, Our Lady asked us to transmit faith “to those who do not believe, who do not know, who do not want to know. But for that you must pray a lot for the gift of love, because love is the mark of true faith and you will be apostles of my love.” (334).
Prodigal Catholic 
Leave a comment