Alayna’s pilgrimage experience in Medjugorje this past week at the Medjugorje Youth Fest. was posted by Stella Mar Films, creators of the Medjugorje documentary Apparition Hill, on their Facebook page for the film.
“I ended up coming on the trip because my nanny and my best friend was Meghan. Since she passed away, I wanted to come for her so she could come through me because she wanted to come back so bad, and she unfortunately passed away before she got the chance to do that. She was my aunt. We had a really, really, really close bond. She was my best friend in the whole world.
I wanted to experience Medjugorje for her. I didn’t expect it to be so beautiful. It’s a very pure and uncorrupted place. I didn’t expect to be so spiritually impacted. I was a very big skeptic. I barely really believed in God. [At the apparition] I didn’t expect anything to happen to me. I just expected it to be almost like a placebo effect/affect, like people only think the Blessed Mother is here because people say that She is, you know? And then when She ended up coming down, I did have a lot of physical reaction but also spiritual reaction.
I ended up speaking to Mirjana about the experience. I will never forget what she said. I was like, “You’re book [My Heart Will Triumph] brought my nanny here and it brought a lot of peace. Your apparitions and your kindness influence a lot of people. What you have done and what you continue to do gave my nanny a lot of peace when she passed away.” She had a spiritual connection with God, and she would always say, “I get it now,” because of what Mirjana does. And then I told her that what she does, through her kindness, brings people here, and it brought me here, and now I’m a believer. And just two days ago, I wasn’t.
Mirjana ended up crying because she was like, “Now you make me cry.” She was saying it’s so important for me to believe because of how young I am, and eventually this is going to be my world. The young people need to believe and impact people because every day people’s faith is dwindling.
I didn’t know that all of the visionaries have a different mission, and that Mirjana’s mission was for the nonbelievers. Because that’s what my nanny prayed for the most was the nonbelievers. So I thought it was a weird thing that they both had the same motivation, spiritually.”
~ Alayna, 15 years old
For more pilgrim stories visit, iMedjugorje.com
To read the full post and see more from Stella Mar Films and Apparition Hill, visit the Apparition Hill Facebook page.