“I am a young student and believe in the authenticity of Naju”

A letter by Miss Michaela Ji-Eun Kim to MBC TV’s PD Notebook
Seoul, Korea
November 15, 2007

Lord!  I pray that everything that I do will become a glory to Thee, a consolation to the Blessed Mother, and a benefit to all of us.  Let us never be forgetful of Thy mercy and goodness in everything and at every moment.  Amen.

My testimony is truthful, and I have nothing to hide.  Anyone who wishes more information about this testimony is welcome to contact me at the phone number listed below (Translator’s note:  Later, Miss Kim’s phone number was removed at her request.)  I also sincerely ask the MBC TV staff in charge of the PD Notebook program to discontinue the practice of altering some of the testimonies without the witnesses’ permission.

I live in Seoul and first heard about Naju two years ago.  In June of this year, I began making regular pilgrimages there, once every month.  As I have continued visiting Naju, I have found myself undergoing many changes — in my thoughts, words, and deeds.  The Blessed Mother of Naju has been reforming my soul!  Furthermore, as I have felt the boundless love of the Lord and the Blessed Mother, which, it doesn’t seem, the PD Notebook staff have experienced or know about, I am earnestly crying out like this to defend that love, which I would never trade for anything, even my life.

I am a junior in the College of Law at Ewha University in Seoul.  Before I knew the Blessed Mother of Naju, I had been very proud and extremely sensitive to others’ eyes.  Even to the strangers with whom I chat on the Internet, I had pretended to be smart and high class.  I had insisted on wearing expensive clothes and shoes.  I had despised others who appeared to be inferior to me, but had become easily irritated and upset before those who seemed to be better and prettier than I.  I had been conscious of these shortcomings in me, and had made Confessions, attended retreats, and sought counseling to no avail.  I made one short-lived resolution after another only to return to old habits.  I had continued to be a slave of others’ eyes.

Even after I first learned about the Blessed Mother’s Chapel in Naju, I had doubts and could not believe; and my life continued to be miserable.  Since June of this year, however, I made a promise with the Blessed Mother and have been visiting Naju on every First Saturday.  Since then, I have been greatly surprised to find myself gradually changing, as I have continued the pilgrimages.  I have felt so grateful to the Lord and the Blessed Mother for calling me and pouring so much love and grace into me. 

In Naju, I have personally witnessed many miracles, but the most precious fruit has been the grace of repentance.  While walking on the Way of the Cross in Naju, I have realized the Love with which the Lord laid down His whole Body and the motherly Love of the Blessed Mother.  This Love is so sublime and pure and has so powerfully touched and changed me.

I have also seen the beauty of Mrs. Julia Kim who leads a life of simple, pure, and sacrificial love.  This beauty is entirely different from the kind of beauty that I was seeking in the secular world.  Also, her humility in saying, “If there has been anything good in my life, that has been the work of the Lord and the Blessed Mother; and if there has been anything bad and shameful, that has been done by me, a sinner,” contrasted so starkly with my past life filled with pride and complacency.  She is like a lighthouse erected by the Lord and the Blessed Mother for our sake.  Because we commit so many sins, which is so obvious in the news reports on TV and so on, the world is being flooded with sins, Mrs. Julia Kim loves the Lord and the Blessed Mother so much and practices the love from Them in her life.  She is not an object of idolization.  You should know this clearly.

We believe in the Lord and worship Him; we venerate and love the Blessed Mother as our Mother in Heaven who constantly makes sacrifices and prays for us to the Lord at His side; and Mrs. Julia Kim is a person who willingly participates in the Passion of the Lord by suffering so many severe pains every day in reparation for the sins in the world to soften the just wrath of the Lord and to help the sinners to repent.  She is the littlest of the little souls who offers up everything in her life, not even neglecting the most trivial things in her life for the conversion of sinners.

So, I have become a reborn person after repeated pilgrimages.  I have sought not the external beauty but the beauty of my soul.  In the past, if someone begged for money in the subway train, I wished to help him but could not do so being conscious of others’ eyes.  Now, I can gladly give them money, thinking about Mrs. Julia Kim who practiced charity regardless of persecutions, jealousy, or criticism.  I am even able to help an old lady getting off a bus with a large, heavy bundle, by carrying it for her to the outside of the bus.  In the past, when I entered a public restroom and found it dirty and with scattered bathroom tissue, I only complained and blamed others.  Now, I can gladly pick up the bathroom tissue and put it in the trashcan.  I am surprised at myself, so different from the past.

I also find myself being kind and warm to everyone I meet.  In the past, I was rough and haughty to the clerks in department stores, libraries, and so on, but, after I knew the Blessed Mother of Naju, I have realized that the life of practicing humility and lowliness is far happier than the life of struggling to be higher than others.  I have been coming out of the thick shell of pride, which has been replaced by new buds sprouting in me.

Also, in the past, making my Confession was so difficult and inconvenient.  Now, I am aware that the confessional is a place of love where the Lord is present and forgives our sins with His mercy.  In the past, I only superficially believed in the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Eucharist.  After I made visits to Naju, I have realized that the living Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist and that the Eucharist is a Sacrament in which Jesus comes to us as our Food to be united with us.  Now, every time I receive Communion, I am so moved and shed tears.  How can I adequately explain this?

Now, I attend Mass more frequently and pray the rosary with the great joy of praying with the Blessed Mother.  In the past, I complained, “Lord, why should I suffer such great pains?  Why?  Why?”  Now, I can offer them up in reparation for my sins and others’ and as a gift to God the Father for the conversion of sinners, as Mrs. Julia Kim does.  I am overjoyed for being able to participate in the love of the Cross and meet Jesus.  This is how the Blessed Mother has been nurturing and bringing us up.  Truly, I do not want to go back to the old life before I knew the Blessed Mother of Naju — even if a sword threatens to penetrate my neck.  I do not want to live as before.  I have seen miracles and experienced them.

The Blessed Mother’s Chapel and Mountain in Naju frequently becomes filled with powerful fragrance of roses, which is a sign of the Blessed Mother’s love, friendship and presence.  This fragrance does not come from a bottle of any artificial perfume or a piece of cloth wet with perfume as reported in your TV program.  Don’t you have any fear of God?

When I pray in Seoul thinking about the Blessed Mother of Naju, I frequently smell the fragrance of roses.  (This fragrance is not exactly the same as the natural fragrance of roses.  It is not like any natural or artificial fragrance in the world.  It is uniquely sweet and pleasant and never makes anyone tired of it however long it may be smelled.)  How can you explain that I smell this fragrance in Seoul, so far from Naju?  Not only that, I often smell it when I enter the Naju website on the Internet.  I am smelling it right now as I write this testimony.  This is a sign that the Blessed Mother is with me.

I also saw the unusual phenomena of the sun in Naju.  I could look at the sun without straining my eyes.  The sun turned into an amazing image of a white disk, looking like the Eucharist, pulsating and surrounded by different colors.  How can anyone make this up?

What I have experienced is but a small portion of the signs that occur in Naju.  The Blessed Mother said in her message through Mrs. Julia Kim, “The tears are important, but the messages that I give you are more important.”  She brings us the miracles, because our minds and hearts are hardened and would not accept the messages unless the messages are accompanied with miraculous signs.  Especially in our age, there are many who say, “Where is God?  I will believe Him, if I can see Him.”  The Lord and the Blessed Mother are giving us the signs of Their presence, because They so anxiously wish that all of us will repent of our sins and be saved.

Naju is truly a holy, pure, and beautiful place.  I sincerely hope that the PD Notebook staff, who joined hands with the false witnesses in producing this program on Naju filled with distorted information, will not hold on to their mistakes and, then, wail bitterly, beating the ground with their hands.

The Lord truly lives.  I earnestly pray that those who watched the MBC’s PD Notebook program on Naju will not commit the sins of falsely judging and condemning the works of the Lord and the Blessed Mother and those who believe in them.

Lord, have mercy on them; they know not what they are doing.

I pray that the love and blessing from the Lord and the Blessed Mother will descend on everyone who reads this testimony.