A new book on meditating on Jesus’ love comes from hard-won experience, writes Martin O’Brien   You come from a conversation with Jim Deeds uplifted and refreshed. Those who have attended the retreats he has recently conducted at Lough Derg (with his friend and fellow author Fr Brendan McManus SJ) or listened to his talks…

Being the child of donor-assisted reproduction can be like having an invisible disability, Susan Gately is told   Joanna Rose was conceived in 1971 using an anonymous sperm donor. She found out when she was eight. Her dad was crying. “I wouldn’t let it go until he told me what the matter was.” As they…

It’s all in your head anyway! The Camino is more than just a physical trail, writes Colm Fitzpatrick   As I walked through the town of Arzúa on a blistering hot day, a message engraved into a wooden post stopped me in my tracks. It read: ‘Why go to Santiago – it’s all in your…

The Annual ‘Fan the Flame’ Mass for all children who received the Sacrament of Confirmation in the Diocese of Derry during the past year was celebrated in Celtic Park GAA Ground earlier this month. The Mass also marked the end of their primary education. Around 3,000 young people from Donegal, Derry and Tyrone attended, many…

Louise Hall On June 24, 1981, six young children claimed to have seen a vision of Our Lady on a small hill called Podbrdo in the poor Catholic farming village of Medjugorje. Although they ran away terrified at the sight of the apparition, they returned to the same spot at the same time the following…

Finbar O’Leary It was the Feast of St John the Baptist on the June 24, 1981, when the young visionaries had their first encounter with Our Lady or Gospa in Croatian. Frightened and bewildered they ran away. Returning the following evening Vicka still only 16 years of age and the eldest of the six carried…

Aleksandra Januszewska and Gabriela Zarzycka A couple of weeks ago, we had a very spontaneous idea to go together on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje. Medjugorje is a small village in Bosnia and Hercegovina where the Blessed Virgin Mary has been appearing since 1981. We are sisters – the elder Aleksandra is a busy homeschooling mother…

Carmel Kelly With the boys both married and after my mother’s death in 1994, my husband Bill and I were free agents and enjoyed the following few years having no one to really worry about and going wherever we wanted to. A regular thing with myself and some friends was a biannual visit to Lourdes.…

Ann Corrigan This is our experience of a trip to Medjugorje in a little village in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Counting down the days to ApriI 22, 2019, I would join a group parish pilgrimage to Medjugorje. One day out of the blue the husband of my sister Margaret said that he would be on holidays…

On June 24, 1981, Our Lady first appeared in Medjugorje to two young woman, Mirjana Dragićević and Ivanka Ivanković. The next day she appeared again to the girls and four other young people. These six visionaries, aged 10 to 16, had no relation to one another. Three of the six still report daily apparitions, while…