Reflection in November 2006

Reflection in November 2006

Reflection on the Message of Novewmber 25, 2006

WHEN YOU PRAY YOU ARE CLOSE TO GOD

“Dear children! Also today I call you to pray, pray, pray. Little children, when you pray you are close to God and He gives you the desire for eternity. This is a time when you can speak more about God and do more for God. Therefore, little children, do not resist but permit Him to lead you, to change you and to enter into your life. Do not forget that you are travellers on the way toward eternity. Therefore, little children, permit God to lead you as a shepherd leads his flock. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of November 25, 2006

In her recent message, just like in many of her previous messages, the Blessed Virgin Mary repeats and calls us three times in a row to: “pray, pray, pray”. She utters these words wanting to remind us and to emphasize the importance of prayer for our spiritual life. It is not about some pious exercise or an imposed law. It is not a call to follow a forgotten custom. Prayer is not some spiritual training. Prayer is life. Just as our body needs air, food and other conditions in order to live, our soul needs prayer. We become well aware when we neglect our body. When we become undisciplined with our diet, our body easily falls ill. The same happens when we neglect prayer. Then spiritual viruses and bacteria find an easy way to our soul and man easily becomes a slave to all sorts of sins. He becomes prey of evil, hatred, wickedness, bad habits, curses, harsh words, selfishness, laziness and other evils.

Being a Mother, Mary wants to tell us that there is no other way and no other means towards God but through prayer. “Little children, when you pray you are close to God” – she speaks to us. In prayer we hear the echo of eternity in our souls. Or as the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us: ” As “the seed of eternity that we bear in ourselves is irreducible to the merely material, man’s soul can have its origins only in God ” (CCC 33).

Only in prayer to which Our Lady calls us so tirelessly can we experience and feel that deep desire hidden in our hearts. Only in prayer can we experience the truthfulness of St. Paul’s words: “But our homeland is in heaven. And we eagerly await Our Saviour from there – the Lord Jesus Christ“ (Phil 3,20).

Eternity does not begin when we die. We are immersed in eternity. It has already begun. We are to commit ourselves to it and struggle for it every single day. To be devoted to the Holy Spirit is to find eternity in time. The experience we have about the reality before a prayer is an experience of a limited nature of this reality to begin with. We experience how everything passes and goes into its own direction. However, after a prayer we see that everything is becoming different, new and never-ending. We then become fulfilled with eternity and discover an eternal dimension in everything. Or as St. John of the Cross wrote: “Lord God, anything can change as long as you permit us to have our dwelling place in You. Once we find our dwelling place in God through prayer, we no longer live in changes. At the end of our lives events continue to take place. We, however, are no longer involved in them. We find ourselves in a deeper place, in God, who is the very stability.

Once we have accepted God and taken His side that is against sins, evil, darkness and hatred, we already are in eternity. It is here that we need to struggle and create God’s Kingdom. It is here that we need to be allowed and to allow God to guide us, change us and enter into our lives just as Mother Mary invites us to do.

With sincere and humble hearts we pray to Mary, the Mother of Jesus and our Mother, who has become great because she has let God perform His works in her and through her. Let Her teach us how to believe and how to surrender completely to God and to our fellow creatures in order to truly experience in us the eternity that we have been created for.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medugorje, 26 November 2006

Reflection in December 2006

Reflection in December 2006

Reflection on the Message of December 25, 2006

JESUS IS YOUR PEACE

“Dear children! Also today I bring you the newborn Jesus in my arms. He who is the King of Heaven and earth, He is your peace. Little children, no one can give you peace as He who is the King of Peace. Therefore, adore Him in your hearts, choose Him and you will have joy in Him. He will bless you with His blessing of peace. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of December 25, 2006

In the Christmas messages that the Virgin Mary has been giving us, she has spoken about peace and called us to it: “Dear children! Also today I bring you little Jesus, who is the King of Peace, in my arms to bless you with His peace. I call you to be my carriers of peace in this peaceless world. I am bringing Jesus, the King of Peace, to grant you His peace. Put the little Newborn Jesus in the first place in your life. In a special way I bless you, little children, with a blessing of little Jesus. Let Him fill you with His peace. ”

Christmas is the utmost manifestation of the love of God. “But when the goodness of God our Saviour and His love to man appeared” (Tit 3, 4). It is dew fallen from the sky at Christmas, tenderness raining from above.

Evangelist Luke describes that a great heavenly army joined the angel and praised God: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests” (Lk 2, 14). With their song the angels express the meaning of what happened, saying that the glory of God is materialized through the birth of the Child bringing peace to people. In the biblical sense peace refers to a whole of all things, particularly to forgiveness of sins and the gift of God’s Spirit. The biblical expression for peace is close to the expression “grace”. The peace granted by God stands for much more than a mere absence or elimination of wars and conflicts among men. It stands for a re-established, peaceful relationship of a son towards God, that is, in one word, salvation. Justified by faith – an Apostle says – we are in peace with God. In this sense, peace is identified with the very person of Christ. “For He Himself is our only peace” (Eph 2, 14).

The Virgin Mary continues coming and bringing us Jesus just as she did when she came and appeared on Apparition Hill for the first time, with the Baby Jesus in her arms. Our Lady’s words and presence are neither loud nor unusual or noneveryday. Her presence with us here and among us is hidden in the commonness of the human word and simplicity. God is revealing Himself in the commonness and simplicity of a child. Jesus remains with us dressed and hidden in the simplicity of the Eucharist bread. And it is precisely this simplicity where the omnipotence of God’s love and closeness resides. This greatness and omnipotence is capable of creating new life and transforming the hearts of men. The words of Our Lady are nothing new or unfamiliar. They are a reminder of the wisdom and truth of God’s word.

The Virgin Mary is full of grace and full of God. She has emptied herself completely in order for God to reside in her fully. She is all turned to God. Therefore, she speaks to us: “Adore Him in your hearts, choose Him, no on can grant you peace as He can, and you will have joy in Him.” Let this happen in our lives every day, not only at this Christmas.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medugorje, 26/12/2006