Originally published at National Catholic Register
Beth Racine had just come out of church after confession in Medjugorje and was leaning against a wall when something caught her eye.
A disc covered the sun. She saw swirling colors to the sides — red on one side and white on the other — that made her think of the image of Divine Mercy.
The experience lasted about 20 minutes, she told the Register.
“You don’t need to see those things to have the faith in God, but sometimes he gives us those things to show us that he loves us,” she said.
“It was a feeling of closeness to God that I had never experienced before,” said Racine, 61, of Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
Racine’s description of a possibly supernatural event in the fall of 2005 is one of many associated with Medjugorje, a village in Herzegovina where several natives have reported receiving messages from the Blessed Virgin Mary since 1981.
Racine, who plans to visit Medjugorje again later this month, is also one of many believers in the reported apparitions at Medjugorje encouraged — and somewhat relieved — by a largely positive Vatican statement released Thursday in Rome.
“It’s nice to have an official green light from
