Reflection on the Message of November 25, 2004

PRAY FOR MY INTENTIONS

“Dear children! At this time, I call you all to pray for my intentions. Especially, little children, pray for those who have not yet come to know the love of God and do not seek God the Savior. You, little children, be my extended hands and by your example draw them closer to my Heart and the Heart of my Son. God will reward you with graces and every blessing. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of November 25, 2004

Mary, Mother of the Church and our mother, is walking with us. She is awakening us and she is calling us. In this time of Advent, which is approaching, she is inviting us to pray for her intentions. The Mother knows better than us, because she has already made the way, which we must still cross. She has lived on this earth and she entered into the glory of the heavenly fatherland, which is our goal, the goal that she also desires for us. We will not make a mistake if we put our prayers, our desires and our intentions into her heart and into her hands, because she knows better than us what we need, what is necessary for our families and for the world in which we live. “God created us without us, but he will not save us without us”, said Saint Augustine. We have the responsibility for our lives and the lives of others. God desires that we are co-creators of a new and a better world.

This is why Mary calls us to pray and to feel the responsibility for all those who did not yet know the love of God, and who do not seek God, the Savior. Human freedom is wounded, but the desire remains in the heart, the desire of God, that nobody and nothing can fill, except God alone. Mary calls us to prayer, and prayer is to come in touch with the desire that is in us, the desire of God.

If the human heart is not filled with the desire and the love of God, it will seek elsewhere, and it will fill its vacuum by other things, by idols. We see that human beings are capable of uplifting themselves towards an ideal and of falling down towards an idol. We are created in the image and likeness of God, and this is why God is our unique ideal. All the rest are idols. God alone can fill the soul with the light of meaning, and give the strength for life in hi footsteps. Through Mary, God is bending towards us, eager to attract us to himself, not by force but by love. However, love, so to speak, cannot remain quiet as long as it does not see the happiness of the beloved creature. Love is the power, which attracted Mary to us, her children. Love is giving her strength during all these years. Love is the source on which she is drawing strength, and obtaining the victory in so many hearts. We can help her, and this is what Mary desires.

To be able to help Mary, we must approach her and her heart. We should obtain in ourselves the transformation, which we want to obtain and see in others. There is no other means or another way. We know, that it is impossible to change the others by our councils, our admonitions, our words of wisdom or our criticism. We can change them only by love, by transformation and conversion that they will see in us. Our Lady almost implores us to be her hands. She does not have other hands but ours. She wants that our hands, our feet, our words and our hearts belong to her and to her son Jesus.

Love tends towards resemblance. Day after day, we will become what is in front of us, what we have taken as the ideal of our life. In this way, our thoughts, our feelings, our words and our hearts will become similar to the thoughts, the feelings, the words and the heart of Mary and of Jesus. Then only will we be able to bring the others closer to the heart of Mary and of Jesus, or rather, through us, they will be able to attract them to their hearts.

Let us pray with blessed Mother Teresa: “Do you want my hands, my God, to assist all the day those who need assistance? My God, I give you my hands. Do you want my feet to go all the day, each day, towards those who need a friend? Today, my God, I give you my feet. Do you want my voice, my God, so that it speaks all the day to those who need your words of love? My God, I give you my voice today. Do you want my heart, my God, from dawn to the evening, to love without exception? My God, I give you my heart today.”

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje 26.11.2004

Reflection on the Message of December 25, 2004

I CARRY MY SON JESUS IN MY ARMS TO YOU

“Dear children! With great joy, also today I carry my Son Jesus in my arms to you; He blesses you and calls you to peace. Pray, little children, and be courageous witnesses of Good News in every situation. Only in this way will God bless you and give you everything you ask of Him in faith. I am with you as long as the Almighty permits me. I intercede for each of you with great love. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of December 25, 2004

Mary is joyful because she is coming from the joy, the glory, from the celestial fatherland, which we must still join. She appears because she wants that we also arrive and be where she is. Her maternal desire to see us where she is, is as great as the joy that she is carrying in her heart. As on the first day of the apparitions, today also, she is carrying in her arms Jesus, her Son and our Saviour. In her arms and in her heart, she is carrying God, she is giving him to us and she is leading us towards him. Mary, our Mother, desires that we also can hear and listen to the words of the angel, like the shepherds: “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” (Lk 2,10-11) The Saviour of the world is born for you and for me, for each person.

God is born, “and to as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.” (Jn 1,12)

Jesus is unique in all the history of humanity. Because he lived, because he existed, we do not have the right to despair, whatever our cross, our illnes and our suffering may be.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (Jn 3,16) God gave his Son Jesus to save you, to save me. God so much loved the world that he desired to become man and to take upon oneself human life, human sufferings, even death, to destroy it.

We celebrate Christmas, the birthday of Jesus. It is a day of joy and of blessing for the earth, for all humanity. Since his coming, nothing is the same any more in the history of humanity.

“The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.” (Is 9,1) We also, we can leave our darkness, our illnesses and our fears, because God came in our darkness, in our sins and in our illnesses to destroy them.

The birth of Jesus was neither pleasant, nor idyllic. He was born in a manger, among the animals, “because there was no room for them in the inn.” (Lc 2,7) The manger inside of us, it is the space in which live the animals. It is the space which we would like to hide of ourselves and of others. We are ashamed of it, because it is not clean and it does not smell good. But he wants to be been born today in the manger of our heart, where all is not perfumed or pleasant. But Jesus wants to come in our hearts, to illuminate everything by his blessing, by himself.

It is such a God that Mary, our Mother, brings to us and offers to us today. We can be united with Jesus, because he is within us. We have the possibility of becoming almighty by the faith in him, because he is the Almighty and the Highest. Then, we can become courageous witnesses of the presence of God, and his Almightiness on this earth, in our situations and in the circumstances in which we live.

The Mother is with us, and with her, we are in safety. We are under her protection and her intercession. Let us do all that we can to be day after day closer to the heart of Jesus and of Mary. Let us allow her to take us by the hand and lead us to peace that God gives us.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje, December 26, 2004