Reflection in January 2007

Reflection in January 2007

Reflection on the Message of January 25, 2007

PUT SACRED SCRIPTURE IN A VISIBLE PLACE

“Dear children! Put Sacred Scripture in a visible place in your family and read it. In this way, you will come to know prayer with the heart and your thoughts will be on God. Do not forget that you are passing like a flower in a field, which is visible from afar but disappears in a moment. Little children, leave a sign of goodness and love wherever you pass and God will bless you with an abundance of His blessing. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of January 25, 2007

The Virgin Mary loves and keeps on calling her children to a life with God. She does that once again in her message beginning with the following words: “Put Sacred Scripture in a visible place in your families and read it.” We have already become familiar with these motherly words and calls from her previous messages in which she invited us to read Sacred Scripture. Just as she spoke in January last year: “Do not forget, little children, to read Sacred Scripture. Put it in a visible place and witness with your life that you believe and live the Word of God. ” In her message of 25th June 1991 Mary said to us: “Little children, pray and read Sacred Scripture so that through my coming you discover the message in Sacred Scripture for you .” In her message of 25th August 1993 she spoke: “Dear children, read Sacred Scripture, live it, and pray to understand the signs of the times.“ In her message of 25th August 1986: “Put, little children, Sacred Scripture in a visible place in your families and read it and live it.“ On 25th January 1999 she spoke to us: “Put Sacred Scripture in a visible place in your families, read it, reflect on it and learn how God loves His people. His love shows itself also in present times because He sends me to call you upon the path of salvation.” In September of 1999 she said: “I call you to renew prayer in your families by reading Sacred Scripture and to experience joy in meeting with God who infinitely loves His creatures.”

So many times in her motherly messages the Virgin Mary has confirmed to us and said the following: “Dear children, live my messages and put into life every word that I am giving you. May they be precious to you as they come from heaven. Dear children, joyfully live the messages of the Gospel that I am repeating in the time I am with you.“

Maybe somewhere deep inside of us we expect the Virgin Mary to explain her messages in more detail and make them more clear. However, Our Lady’s messages do not provide us with ready-made recipes for happiness. She has come to direct our look at Christ who is our only Saviour and the aim of life. She helps us with her presence, calls and love so that we can walk on the path of conversion and salvation. She does not come to tell us tales, play with us or entertain us. She has come to call us to the truth, to the light and high demands of the Word of God. She invites us to read and live Sacred Scripture so that we may discover the life-giving power of the Word of God that speaks to us. As the Holy Spirit has inspired Sacred Scripture, Sacred Scripture is permeated with it. We discover that by reading Sacred Scripture which encourages us to do good enlightening our mind and the feelings in our hearts. St. Gregory the Great asked himself: “What can a word of Sacred Scripture be compared with?” And he answered: “It is like flint and steel, like flint which is cold when we hold it in our hand, but when used to strike iron, it sparks and lights a fire. The words of Sacred Scripture remain cold if taken for granted. When, however, a person embraced by the Holy Spirit gives them a gentle knock, they make a mystical fire.”

Only if we rely on the truth of the Word of God shall we disclose the transience of our lives and the certainty of Jesus’ words: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Matt. 24:35). Let us listen to the Virgin Mary for the sake of our lives and our good.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medugorje 26 January 2007

Reflection in February 2007

Reflection in February 2007

Reflection on the Message of February 25, 2007

OPEN YOUR HEART TO THE GOD’S MERCY

“Dear children! Open your heart to God’s mercy in this Lenten time. The Heavenly Father desires to deliver each of you from the slavery of sin. Therefore, little children, make good use of this time and through meeting with God in confession, leave sin and decide for holiness. Do this out of love for Jesus, who redeemed you all with His blood, that you may be happy and in peace. Do not forget, little children: your freedom is your weakness, therefore follow my messages with seriousness. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of February 25, 2007

God ceaselessly searches and calls men to His side, so they can live and find the fullness of bliss in Him. His merciful love was manifested when He sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us and save us by His passion, death and resurrection. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3, 16)

“Open your hearts to the God’s mercy in this time of Lent”, Virgin Mary is saying to us. Where, if not in the God’s mercy, can a man find salvation and hope? We can ask ourselves: why is it so hard to believe in the God’s mercy? By believing in the God’s mercy, we return to the very roots of sin. The hardest thing for a man is to admit his own sins. When a man does not feel himself a sinner, he will not feel the need to beseech the God’s mercy. On the other hand, the world and every single human being wail for mercy, forgiveness and love.

In the depths of the God’s heart there is a yearning and a desire to save His own creature from the slavery of sin. Although the awareness of the sin is decreasing, it nevertheless remains a reality which exists and whose consequences are damaging us and our families daily. Most often, a man is haunted by the very thing he denies, by the very thing he is running from. Only if he has enough courage to stand up to the thing which hurts him most, which is most embarrassing for him – only then does the process of healing and deliverance begin. However, it is also the hardest step for a man. For a drug, gambling or alcohol addict, the hardest thing is to admit his addiction. Only when he admits it, he becomes a winner fighting for his freedom, only then he becomes a free man.

Mother Mary, who invited us to confess more often, in this message invites us also to seek the shelter of the God’s mercy in the sacrament of the holy confession, through which God forgives our sins, and also gives us strength to fight and to persist on the path of peace, freedom and conversion.

“Your freedom is your weakness”, Virgin Mary is saying to us. The time of the Lent is the time which warns us we did not reach our goal yet. The Lent is telling us we are still in the desert. In this desert, we are not yet safe. We always have the possibility to fall, to lose our freedom or to sell it for a little happiness, pleasure and joy which the sin promises us. God does not want to give us just a little of something, he wants to give us everything, His own self. The freedom which God gives us is a gift, a burden and a responsibility. In such freedom, we are responsible in every moment, and we cannot be released from that responsibility.

On this road of life, we are not alone and deserted, nor are we left to ourselves. We should take sincerely the words of the Heavenly Mother, so we can meet Jesus and walk the path of holiness, peace and freedom.

Fra Ljubo Kurtovic
Medugorje, February 26th 2007

Reflection in March 2007

Reflection in March 2007

Reflection on the Message of March 25, 2007

FASTING AND RENUNCIATION WILL MAKE YOU STRONGER IN FAITH

“Dear children! I desire to thank you from my heart for your Lenten renunciations. I desire to inspire you to continue to live fasting with an open heart. By fasting and renunciation, little children, you will be stronger in faith. In God you will find true peace through daily prayer. I am with you and I am not tired. I desire to take you all with me to Heaven, therefore, decide daily for holiness. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of March 25, 2007

As a mother, Mary, the Queen of Peace, thanks us for our Lenten renunciations. Mother Mary thanks us because she loves us. Only a heart filled with love can be a grateful heart. We should be thanking her for her encouragement, her call and love, her interceding with her son Jesus for us. She calls us because it is her desire that we continue to live fasting. She speaks to us about it and calls us to fast and make renunciations for ourselves and because of us, for our happiness and joy.

“By fasting and renunciation, little children you will be stronger in faith”, – Heavenly Mother says to us. Fasting and renunciation are necessary in order for us to earn God’s mercy. Our renunciation is like a bowl into which God pours His mercy. Blessed Mother Teresa said: “We need to be emptied before God can fill us”. Fasting and renunciation are our part of the job in faith. Saint Augustine teaches us: “God created us without our aid; but he did not choose to save us without our aid.” In Lent we should practise self-renunciation and do penance as if our salvation depends solely on us, but pray as if our salvation and everything else depends solely on God. Praying without self-renunciation is just like stopping halfway. It is as if you were rowing in a boat tied to the shore. We shall never move until the boat is untied. We cannot empty our body of sins nor eliminate sins from the world we live in. But we can die to sin and then He no longer has authority over us. Renunciation is dying to sin.

When Our Lady speaks to us about renunciation, she does not have in mind the mere physical penance and renunciation, but the spiritual side of it. The mere physical penance and fasting are not enough. They may lead us to arrogance, pharisaism and formalism. They may make us want to display our strength, not to subdue our will to God’s will. Therefore in one of her messages Our Lady says to us: “Little children, fasting has become a custom which no one wants to stop. Fast with the heart.” Fasting and love are indivisible. One cannot fast without love, nor can one love without fasting in its broadest sense. Prayer is also our answer to God’s love. That is why fasting and prayer are inseparable. Fasting without prayer is a mere slimming diet. By fasting without prayer we in fact just revolve around ourselves. Fasting turns all our spiritual forces and powers of the heart, all of our inner being towards God.

Our Lent should not finish with Easter. Setting our mind on fasting and living it means to struggle for freedom. It will not mean much if we renounce some of our bad habits only during the time of Lent, whereas we continue pursuing them afterwards. If this is the case, our renunciation can become self-deceit. One may indulge in arrogance and self-sufficiency and say to oneself: “I am strong, I can do that. ” Lent then becomes just another break of this habit, while there has been no change in the man himself. Fasting and renunciation is not proving your strength, but subduing your will to God’s will. The best and the most fruitful renunciation is denying one’s own self. Even Jesus will say: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself.” (Mark 8 : 34).

The Virgin Mary comes and speaks to us not to steal something from us or to deprive us of our joys of life. She comes because she wants us to be happy, normal and free in God. Let us thank Mary from the bottom of our hearts because she has not become weary with us. Let us not become tired of everyday responding to the call of our Heavenly Mother.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medugorje 26/03/2007

Reflection in April 2007

Reflection in April 2007

Reflection on the Message of April 25, 2007

THIS IS A MERCIFUL TIME WHILE I AM WITH YOU

“Dear children! Also today I again call you to conversion. Open your hearts. This is a time of grace while I am with you, make good use of it. Say: “This is the time for my soul”. I am with you and love you with immeasurable love. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of April 25, 2007

Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace, invites us again to convert through her message. It is the most important message of Our Lady, which echoes in this place. It is an echo of the words of Jesus from the Gospel. Our Lady wants to tell us the same thin which Jesus said to us. She does not come to teach us some new sciences; rather, it is her intention to wake us, so we can understand Jesus and his words seriously and practice them in our lives.

Lady’s presence, appearances and messages which she gives us in these times are a mercy, God’s gift to us. Sometimes, we learn to appreciate something precious only when we lose it. For instance, this can be said of our health. We learn to appreciate it only when we lose it, when we fall ill. Our Lady does not want us to be sad because we did not use this gift of merciful time.

We live in this time which is gifted to us, which flows and carries us. Therefore, the time is a precious thing which should be filled with something. Time can be empty, and time can also be full. You can miss the days and times of your life by wandering, by losing time in superficial things, by partying, after which there is only emptiness. The ways in which you spend your time will shape your future. Time is like a bowl which is offered to you. If you fill that bowl with a good deed or with a prayer which releases you from fear or depression, then your time will be filled by goodness and light, and your future is safe.

It is wrong to turn back in life and to bind yourself to bad or negative things. Many people spend their lives pondering about their past, burdened by the fear of future, so they are never able to live today. It is today that you can decide to do something good for yourself and your soul. Today you can pray boldly, you can believe and you can surrender your day and your life to God. Today you can begin some work which you have postponed, or fulfill some obligation which is waiting for you, and you are afraid to finish it. Today you can look into your heart and recognize your deepest yearning for God. Today you can enrich your day and times in which you live. We live only once on this Earth, and it is like theatre stage. This day is given to you only once. It will not return again. What you miss today, you cannot bring back. It is today that we make decision about the eternity, not after the death. If we choose God, justice, truth and goodness today, we will enjoy them in eternity. Time is a gift in which we can grow to our full size which God intended for us.

Our heavenly Mother Mary wants us to meet her Son Jesus; only he gives us true peace and joy. Mother Mary lived her whole life on this Earth and remained faithful to God to the end. She is only a human being like us, but she ascended to such a high place, and she wants us to be where she is. She had a heart for God and for men. She is not idle, she cannot be idle. She calls us and answers our wails, she advocates us before the Heavenly Father. She comes to us as mother and a friend; she tends our wounds and leads us to her Son.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medugorje 26/04/2007

Reflection in May 2007

Reflection in May 2007

Reflection on the Message of May 25, 2007

SEARCHING FOR GOD’S WILL

“Dear children! Pray with me to the Holy Spirit for Him to lead you in the search of God’s will on the way of your holiness. And you, who are far from prayer, convert and, in the silence of your heart, seek salvation for your soul and nurture it with prayer. I bless you all individually with my motherly blessing. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of May 25, 2007

The Virgin Mary calls us to pray with her to the Holy Spirit in order for us to draw strength and force from above, to be wrapped in the power coming from God. Together with the apostles she was perseverant in her prayer waiting for Jesus’ promise – the Holy Spirit. She is the fiancée of the Holy Spirit and full of mercy. She is the one who knows best the mysterious power of the Holy Spirit and therefore knows how much we still need His strength today. We received the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Baptism and Confirmation, and we have heard that he exists. And yet, it seems as if all other spirits are around us but the Holy Spirit. That is why Our Lady’s call is serious and so much needed to all the hearts, families and to this world. The only way towards the experience of the strength of the Holy Spirit is prayer.

The first thing we should do is to convert. In other words, it means to stand before God in prayer over and over again, to confess our sins, forgive to others, renounce everything that prevents us from embracing the will of God, disown all idols, renounce dependence, and our false images of God. To convert means to take God as the master of our lives, to let it be His will. It is only the Holy Spirit that may enlighten our hearts so we can find God’s will and live by His will. Only the moment in which we renounce our will, our plans, designs and intentions may we start praying for God’s design, God’s plan for our lives. By having given up our plans, we in fact remove the ties and become free, capable of accepting God’s will. That is why Jesus says: „If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me!“ (Luke 9, 23). To be Jesus’ disciple does not mean receiving information or schooling of any kind from Jesus. It means to be the one who can receive Jesus’ grace and strength, his miracles and his kingdom. A disciple is the one who becomes like his teacher. That is why Jesus was able to say that anyone who had faith in him would do what he had been doing, and even greater things (cf. 14:12).

While in the search of God’s will on the way of one’s holiness, one should thank God for every single moment of life, either good or bad. Accepting everything that happens in our lives means entering the will of God thus receiving His strength to conquer evil we have entered. We shall always recognize God’s will while in prayer getting closer to Him. We also observe ways of life, as well as pathways to work and vocation that God opens or closes for us. If we constantly surrender ourselves to the will of God, God will close those ways He does not want us to take and those doors He does not want us to enter, whereas he will open the ones He wishes us to embark upon. Rarely does God lead one from the inside by speaking to him/her where he/she must go. It is not in our mind, imagination or feelings, but in the bottom of our souls where God dwells in us and where we are inspired, enlightened and led by the Holy Spirit. God will use signs to reveal His will to us. We should recognize these signs with our spiritual senses that grow sharper and stronger in those who take these motherly words more seriously, in those who have been following them throughout all these years of her appearing and being close to us. Let us listen to the words of our heavenly Mother with our hearts so that we can find a new life that only God may give.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medugorje, 05/26/2007

Reflection in June 2007

Reflection in June 2007

Reflection on the Message of June 25, 2007

OPEN YOURSELF TO THIS GREAT MERCY

“Dear children! Also today, with great joy in my heart, I call you to conversion. Little children, do not forget that you are all important in this great plan, which God leads through Medjugorje. God desires to convert the entire world and to call it to salvation and to the way towards Himself, who is the beginning and the end of every being. In a special way, little children, from the depth of my heart, I call you all to open yourselves to this great grace that God gives you through my presence here. I desire to thank each of you for the sacrifices and prayers. I am with you and I bless you all. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of June 25, 2007

Today, too, echoes the voice of the heavenly Mother. Today, too, she does not give up on us, even when we give up on ourselves and when we give up on her. We can hear her motherly words and her call for conversion. Our Lady knows that the conversion is a process and a way to the Promised Land in which peace, freedom and joy abide that only God can give. Like Israelites, we need to abandon slavery and to cross the desert to the freedom of the Promised Land into which the God wants to lead us through the Mother of his Son. Mary crossed the desert of earthly life. With Her, we will certainly come to God.

God’s love does not exclude anybody. God created man in His own image and therefore he cannot give up on man. “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them”(Gen, 1, 27)

Queen of Peace says to us: “Don’t forget, all of you are important in this great plan which God carries through Medjugorje.” Mother Mary said to us: “Dear children, this is a time of mercy, this is a holy place.” The appearances of Our Lady are God’s bending toward man, toward you and me. The appearances of Our Lady are God’s service to man. How is it possible not to see, not to recognize God’s immense love which is manifested through the presence of Our Lady in Medjugorje?

Because she is a mother, Our Lady does not give up and does not tire, despite all our resistances. She knows that not everyone will believe and accept her messages and God’s love which is manifested today through her presence. Despite that, she talks, she appears to us, she invites us and she loves us, her children. We, too, are in danger that God’s words, which He gave us through the prophet Isaiah, will manifest on us: “Go and tell this people: Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

The words of Our Lady are full of hope and joy. She knows that man can accept and fulfill what the God asks of him. Mother wants us to experience the truth that God is the deepest foundation of our existence. In the words of Our Lady we find that the God accepts us exactly as we are. We all know that we do not always walk the straight way in our lives. There are many turns; many wrong decisions which, through our lives, have lead us to our present situation. Still, God loves us and accepts us as we are. God knows you and me by our names: “Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands” (Is 49, 16); God never looks at His hands without seeing yours name and mine. Such God’s love and mercy manifested to us throughout the past 26 years of appearances of Our Lady. Let us open to the God’s mercy through the presence of Our Lady, here in Medjugorje.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medugorje, 06/26/2007

Reflection in July 2007

Reflection in July 2007

Reflection on the Message of July 25, 2007

LET PRAYER BE LIKE THE AIR THAT YOU BREATHE

“Dear children! Today, on the day of the Patron of your Parish, I call you to imitate the lives of the Saints. May they be, for you, an example and encouragement to a life of holiness. May prayer for you be like the air you breathe in and not a burden. Little children, God will reveal His love to you and you will experience the joy that you are my beloved. God will bless you and give you an abundance of grace. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of July 25, 2007

Our Lady calls to us as our Mother and invites and encourages us today, on the day of Saint Jacob the apostle, the patron saint of the Parish of Medugorje and pilgrims to inherit the life of the saints, the lives of those who came to heaven into a homeland we shall never leave. In her message on the 25th of July 2002, Our Lady also said: Dear children! Today I rejoice with your patron saint and call you to be open to God’s will… Ask your holy protectors to help you grow in love towards God.” The saints are those who intercede for us and stand up for us before the face of God. That is why we turn to them and give up our prayers to them so that they may present them to God. The holy are an example to us that it is worth being faithful to God and that God will never betray us.

“Let prayer be like the air that you breathe” – says Our Mother Mary. Our body needs air. We know how we feel when we don’t have enough air. Without air our body cannot live. So as we have a physical body we also have a spiritual body. We can imagine that we are spiritually dead without prayer. Without prayer man’s life only consists of the body, material things, on dead things which do not have any life. Prayer is not something that is stipulated or ordered by the Church, God or Our Lady. Prayer is not only a devout exercise. Prayer is much more than this. Prayer is life. Without prayer we are dead and there is no life in us. Without prayer God has no room in us in which he can visit and heal us, save us and heal our hearts and souls.

It is only in prayer that God can reveal his love and we can experience the joy of being beloved children of God and Our Lady. From experience we know that it is not enough to only know that food is good, it is necessary to eat it to be able to live. It is not enough to know that God and Our Lady love us, rather it is necessary for us to experience this, experience it in out life as a reality more true than the physical one we see with our eyes.

“You will experience the joy of being my loved ones” – Our Lady says to us. However, it is necessary to fulfil one condition and this is prayer with our heart in which the soul opens and surrenders to God through Our Lady. The Gospel tells us at Jesus’ baptism at the River Jordan from the heavens thundered the voice of our Heavenly Father: “Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mark 1, 11). These words apply to Jesus. But through Jesus and in Jesus, also to you and me. Everyone of us are in Jesus and through Jesus the beloved son of the Father, beloved daughter of the Father, the chosen one, favourite of Our Father’s Heart. In Jesus and through Jesus we are also Our Lady’s beloved children.

Throughout our lives we have been told many times that it is important to love God. However it is far more important that God loves us. Our love towards God is of secondary importance. God’s love for us has precedence: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4, 10) – tells us the apostle John in his gospel. And still adds: “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. (1 John 4, 16).

Let the Virgin Mary, full of grace and Immaculate lead us and introduce us to the secrets of Our Father’s heart and love which he has for us.

Fra Ljubo Kurtovic
Medugorje 26.7.2007

Reflection in August 2007

Reflection in August 2007

Reflection on the Message of August 25, 2007

MAY YOUR LIFE BE A REFLECTION OF GOD’S GOODNESS

“Dear children! Also today I call you to conversion. May your life, little children, be a reflection of God’s goodness and not of hatred and unfaithfulness. Pray, little children, that prayer may become life for you. In this way, in your life you will discover the peace and joy which God gives to those who have an open heart to His love. And you who are far from God’s mercy, convert so that God may not become deaf to your prayers and that it may not be too late for you. Therefore, in this time of grace, convert and put God in the first place in your life. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of August 25, 2007

The motherly words of Our Lady are words from the Gospel said with simple, motherly words. In this message we also hear a reflection of Jesus’ words from the beginning of the Gospel: “Convert and believe the Gospel.” Conversion is a continuing process. It is everyday walking with Jesus, everyday following His word which is demanding and at the same time embraces the very life of God, of Jesus. The Virgin Mary has emptied herself, subdued her will to God’s will. Our Lady did not expect a message from God. It was she who renounced her will and therefore was able to understand so clearly that God called her to be the mother of His son Jesus. Her life became God’s life. She is full of God and all turned towards God. She is persistent with us because she knows that there is no other, easier or faster way that will lead us to God and to His gifts of joy and peace He wishes to bestow upon us. Her messages reveal Her determination and motherly love that wishes us wellbeing, the salvation of our souls and eternal life in God. Mary has remained a reflection of God. That is why she calls us and wants our lives to be a reflection of God’s goodness, not of hatred and unfaithfulness.

“Pray, little children, that prayer may become life for you.” Some say that they do not like to pray as they cannot bear to dive into their own souls. Prayer is not looking at oneself. It is looking at God. To pray is to direct a spotlight towards Christ. What I need to do reveals to me gradually. It happens inside of me. By getting to know Christ I get to know myself. The mystery of man reveals itself only in Jesus Christ. Without Jesus we are unknown to ourselves. Who knew Jesus better but the very Virgin Mary who carried him under her heart, who raised him and believed in him until the end of his life, all the way to the foot of the cross at Calvary . Even today she is still the One who leads us to Jesus through Calvary towards resurrection.

The Gospel is not the past. God did not love us only once. He loves us every day, every moment throughout our life. This very moment is also filled with God’s love and presence. This is why mother Mary and the Queen of Peace is coming to encourage us, to wake us up, to open the eyes of our souls in order for us to open our hearts and meet the source of life, of peace and joy – God. God brings us to truth with love, and if it must be so – with suffering, too. He does everything to save our souls. He cannot remain still and indifferent to us – people – who are the crown of His creation.

The time when the Virgin Mary comes to us and appears before us is a time of grace, time bestowed upon us as a gift. This is why she says to us: “In this time of grace, convert so that it may not be too late for you.” We are free to think that besides this time of grace, there is also a time when God denies His grace and pulls back His held out hand. Let us listen to the voice and words of our heavenly Mother Mary which save our souls and make us feel the joy of life, so that we are not too late to enter the feast of life.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medugorje 26/8/2007

Reflection in September 2007

Reflection in September 2007

Reflection on the Message of September 25, 2007

PRAYER – PATH TOWARDS PERFECT LOVE

“Dear children! Also today I call all of you for your hearts to blaze with more ardent love for the Crucified, and do not forget that, out of love for you, He gave His life so that you may be saved. Little children, meditate and pray that your heart may be open to God’s love. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of September 25, 2007

In her latest message, Our Lady encourages us with her motherly words to feel an ever greater love for the Crucified. This love must flow from our hearts as the heart is the centre of human being. We may very well say that man is his heart. So many times has Our Lady called us to wake up, to begin to feel love because only love is fruitful. Only deeds done out of love and only prayer said out of love reach directly God’s heart.

God has done everything for us. He has given about his Son so that every man who lives his testimony has eternal life (cf. 1 John 5,11-13). There is nothing God desires more than the salvation of man. If God desires it so ardently, what are we then waiting for, why are we defying him, why do not we open ourselves to Him fully?

In the second part of her message, Our Lady calls us to meditate about God’s words so that the word of God may enter the depths of our soul and blaze with more ardent love for God. The more we enter the spirit of God’s word, the more ardent our devotion becomes. Our Lady is aware of that as she too has cherished God’s words in her heart, meditated about them and lived by them (cf. Luke 2, 19.51).

The Blessed Virgin Mary is a role model of the Church for she is also the Praying Virgin (Virgo orans). By being a role model she is the one that encourages us to adopt a correct attitude towards prayer and towards God. She often calls us to prayer because we are weak and unable to pray in the correct manner. Some pray only during hardship or when they carry their cross or when burdened with pain and suffering. It is not only then that one should pray. We are also called to prayer when life is good to us, when we feel fine. It is then when we should say a prayer of gratitude so that God may give us more blessing and multiply the gifts that he has given to us. Prayer is not of secondary importance. Prayer is a matter of life and death. Just as a man drowning needs air, so do all the faithful need prayer because it is through prayer that we receive grace and turn our hearts towards God. While we think of Mary, the Mother who is the embodiment of the Word and the Teacher of spiritual life, we thank her for being our teacher and instilling in us love.

Fr. Danko Perutina
Medugorje 26/09/2007

Reflection in October 2007

Reflection in October 2007

Reflection on the Message of October 25, 2007

BE THE LOVE AND THE LIGHT

“Dear children! God sent me among you out of love that I may lead you towards the way of salvation. Many of you opened your hearts and accepted my messages, but many have become lost on this way and have never come to know the God of love with the fullness of heart. Therefore, I call you to be love and light where there is darkness and sin. I am with you and bless you all. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of October 25, 2007

At the beginning of her message, our Lady repeats the main goal of her mission – our salvation. Not once did she place herself in the first place. The words she uttered two thousand years ago at the wedding feast in Canaan in Galilee : Do whathever my son Jesus tells you (comp. John 2:5), are still relevant for us. To do whatever Jesus want, that is, to do God’s will – there lies the salvation.

As a true mother, our Lady wants for all her children to be saved. Therefore she constantly calls us, but she also warns us, like she did in the message of November 25th 1998, when she said: My children, I invite you all to the road of salvation and I want to show you the way to the heaven. There is only one way which leads to the eternal life, which leads to paradise, and that is Jesus Christ. He said of himself: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”. (John 14:6).

Our Lady says that many people have opened their hearts. To open our heart means to give our whole being to the God who is love, but also to the messages which invite us to such giving. The heart is the most precious, most beautiful possession of a human being. The heart is a symbol of life and love, of all good things which humans have. Our Lady has already asked of us to dedicate ourselves again to her heart and the heart of her Son Jesus. In her message of October 25th 2003 she said: Do not hesitate, my children, but say with all your heart: I want to help Jesus and Mary to introduce more brothers and sisters to the way of holiness. She reminds us that there are those who became lost on this road of dedication, because they never did give their hearts to the God. In the Gospel, Jesus often reminded his listeners that they have closed hearts, hearts of stone. And the people who have such hearts have inverted systems of value, in which the first place does not belong to the God, but to some person, wealth, honor, human considerations or something else. To have pure heart, heart of flesh, religious heart, means to turn completely to the God, who awaits us in secrecy and in silence.

Our Lady encourages us to be the love and the light. To be love means to be a witness of the pure Christ’s love which was given for us. This love is unconditional; it does not ask for anything, it just gives. It always thinks of others before it thinks of self. We learn such love from Jesus if we give ourselves to Him with our whole hearts, because he invites us to love not just our friends, but also our enemies. People were always ready to love their neighbors and hate their enemies (Mt 5:43) because it was easier. Jesus has gone beyond that. His disciple, believer, Christian, cannot be fastidious with his/her love. He/she has to love all people, including the enemies, in the spirit of the Lord. That means to be the love. What does it mean to be the light? To be the light means to shine for the others, so they do not stumble and wander in the dark. We should be the light which Christ has ignited, so people can see the truth and the face of His heavenly Father, instead of wandering and stumbling in misconceptions. In this light, people can recognize all men as their own brothers and sisters. As a true mother, our Lady follows us and blesses us on this road.

Fr. Danko Perutina
Medugorje 26.10.2007