WEST VALLEY CITY - Terry Rivas of Wellington and her mother drove more than two hours Tuesday to hear a Catholic visionary tell of the messages he has been receiving, for a quarter of a century, from the Virgin Mary. 
Rivas was not disappointed, even though she and more than 200 others had to stand at the back and in the foyer of the packed Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church here.

Ivan Dragicevic speaks after Mass about his vision of the Virgin Mary at Holy Angels Church in Aurora, Ill., in January. He says the Virgin Mary has appeared to him every day for almost 25 years. Dragicevic spoke in West Valley City on Tuesday. (Terry Harris/Knight Ridder News Service) WEST VALLEY CITY - Terry Rivas of Wellington and her mother drove more than two hours Tuesday to hear a Catholic visionary tell of the messages he has been receiving, for a quarter of a century, from the Virgin Mary.     Rivas was not disappointed, even though she and more than 200 others had to stand at the back and in the foyer of the packed Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church here.     "It was so powerful," said Rivas. "I loved every minute of it. I felt so blessed."     More than 700 Catholics from throughout the West gathered in the western Salt Lake Valley church to pray the rosary, celebrate mass and listen to Ivan Dragicevic, one of six visionaries who say that Jesus Christ's mother began appearing to them in 1981 outside the village of Medjugorje in what was then Yugoslavia, but now is Bosnia-Herzegovina.     The Queen of Peace, as he says she wants to be known in Medjugorje, was not sent by her son to talk about his second coming or the end of the world, Dragicevic said in Croatian, his words translated into English.     "She is coming as a mother of hope," he said. "She is bringing to us divine medicine. . . . Our Lady wants to wake us up from this spiritual coma this world is falling in.''     Dragicevic said the virgin appeared to him for the first time at 6:40 p.m. as he and the other visionaries were reciting the rosary - the same time she appears to him daily wherever he is in the world.     Invisible to others, Dragicevic said she was as real as the person next to him.     She was accompanied by three angels, "happy and joyful," and was dressed as always in a gray dress and white veil, Dragicevic said.     Her eyes are blue, her hair is black and her cheeks are rosy, he said. She was on a cloud.     "The beauty of Our Lady is hard to describe," he said. She once told the visionaries she is beautiful because she loves.     Her message, delivered to him Tuesday before his talk, was that all families must pray together, a recurrent theme of her missives for more than two decades, Dragicevic said.     "Let this time be a time of renewal. . . . Let the river of love flow into your hearts," he quoted the virgin as saying. She extended her arms over those gathered and "blessed us all with her motherly blessing," he said.     The Rev. Javier Virgen, pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Church, reminded those gathered for the Mass that Catholics do not give the Virgin Mary the honor that is due to God alone.    "But we ask for her intercession," he said. "Rather than a distraction . . . it brings us closer. If we know who Mary is, then we will know who Jesus is."     Dragicevic Advertisement   lives in Massachusetts with his wife and three children during the school year. While in the United States, he travels to tell of his experiences and spread the virgin's messages. His trip to Utah capped of a series of engagements in California and Nevada.     Everywhere he went this year, Dragicevic said, there were crowds of about 2,000. He took that as a sign of spiritual hunger.     On Tuesday, Dragicevic retold the story of how the Virgin Mary began appeared to him when he was 16, along with four teenage girls and another boy, then 10. They were on a hillside outside of Medjugorje, where the girls were looking for sheep, on June 24, 1981.     The next day, on the hill, Mary spoke her first words, he said: "I am the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace. I am coming because my son is sending me to you. . . . Dear children, peace, peace peace.''     She told the children in that first message that humanity was in great danger of destroying itself if people did not turn back to God, he said.     In addition to Dragicevic, two of the other visionaries say they still see the virgin daily. The other three say she appears to them once a year. They are now all in their late 30s and 40s, with families of their own.     Over the years, Mary's prescription for what ails the world, Dragicevic said, has been prayer, fasting, conversion of heart, a return to Christ, reconciliation, penance, love, forgiveness and hope.     In the nearly 25 years since the apparitions were first reported, Medjugorje has become a major shrine and destination for pilgrims of many faiths. An estimated 20 million to 30 million have visited.     The Catholic Church has not declared the Medjugorje apparitions as authentic, a process that often takes decades.     The faithful are allowed to believe what they want about the apparitions, and clergy can accompany them on pilgrimages. However, no parish or priest is allowed to lead a pilgrimage to Medjugorje.