Reflection on the Message of February 25, 2002
PRAYER IS A NEED
"Dear children! In this time of grace, I call you to become friends of Jesus. Pray for peace in your hearts and work for your personal conversion. Little children, only in this way will you be able to become witnesses of peace and of the love of Jesus in the world. Open yourselves to prayer so that prayer becomes a need for you. Be converted, little children, and work so that as many souls as possible may come to know Jesus and His love. I am close to you and I bless you all Thank you for having responded to my call." Message of February 25, 2002
The time of Lent we now go through is a time of grace, the Blessed Virgin Mary tells us in her message. The time of grace began with the coming of Jesus Christ. In many preceding messages, Our Lady attracted our attention to this reality within us and around us. Her presence here is a grace and a gift for those who receive Her as the Mother of their lives and the Mother of their peace. Each word of hers and each message is a call of a motherly heart addressing the heart of men.
Also through this message, Mary, our Mother, wants us to become the friends of Jesus: to be strangers no longer, but friends who come to know Him better each day. Also amongst ourselves, we can become true friends for one another only if we are the friends of Jesus. We can be considered believers and Christians, we can go for Sunday Mass, we can go for confession regularly, we can live our faith more or less exteriorly without knowing Jesus and without being His friends. We can never say that we know Jesus enough. We can only seek Him and find Him, because He went first to seek us. According to St John the Apostle: "In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins."(1 Jn 4:10)
A most beautiful experience of the love of God and of His closeness, obtained through prayer by Saint Monica for her son, can be found in St. Augustine's "Confessions":
"Late have I loved You, beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you. You were in me and I was outside of myself. You were with me, and I was not with You. You called and you shouted, and You broke my deafness. You sent a lightning, you enlightened and dispersed my blindness. You spread your perfume, I breathed it in, and now I languish after You. I tasted, and I am hungry and thirsty. You touched me and I burn for Your peace. When I shall cling to You with all my being, there will be no more pain nor suffering for me, and my life shall be alive, full of You. Behold, I do not hide my wounds. You are the doctor, I am the ill one. You are merciful, I am miserable. And all my hope is only in Your great mercy, o Lord my God." We need such experiences of the nearness of God, and Our Lady wants to lead us to these experiences, this nearness and this friendship.
It is necessary to work for conversion. But the conversion is so immense, it is not only depending on us. It is much beyond human power. Evil is stronger than man and wants to paralyse him. This is why we need God. Only Jesus Christ can save us from sin, laziness, selfishness, lies and evil. But it is expected from us to do the decisive step. We can neither change nor convert ourselves, but we can say "yes" to God. We can do a turn around in our lives, we can take the words of Jesus as Gods' words and not human words. These words have the power to heal, to convert, to save man. Only then will we be able to say with St. Paul: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."(Ga 2:20).
Thank you, Mary, our Mother, for giving us the means which can lead us to Jesus. May, through your intercession, our hearts discover more and more prayer as a need. May there be more and more of those who will, out of love of God and themselves, discover prayer not as something that has to be done but as something they can do.
Medjugorje, February 26th, 2002
Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic, OFM
Reflection on the Message of January 25, 2002
Look Deeply Into Your Heart
"Dear children! At this time, while you are still looking back to the
past year I call you, little children, to look deeply into your heart
and to decide to be closer to God and to prayer. Little children, you
are still attached to earthly things and little to spiritual life. May
my call today also be an encouragement to you to decide for God and for
daily conversion. You cannot be converted, little children, if you do
not abandon sins and do not decide for love towards God and neighbour.
Thank you for having responded to my call." Message of January 25, 2002
Mary, our Mother, calls us to turn our eyes away from the past, from the
past year, and to look into our own heart where God dwells. The past has
passed, the future is not yet here, all that exists is today, now, this
moment, which will never be repeated. It is from our "now" that depends
our future. It is now that I decide or do not decide for God. It is now
that I can decide for prayer, now I can open or close my heart to God.
In her messages, Mary has often spoken about the heart. "Pray with the
heart, fast with the heart, adore my Son with the heart, follow me with
the heart..." We have physical organs: eyes to see, ears to hear, and we
have a heart with which to pray. We can recite prayers without the
heart; we can do so many things without the heart. Cooks can prepare
meals without the heart, doctors can treat patients without heart,
sellers can work in shops without the heart, employees in a bad mood can
wait for their clients in their offices. All of this is like food
without salt, and so everything becomes insipid and lifeless. This is
why Mary, our Mother, wants to awaken our sleeping hearts.
The Little Prince tells in the tale: "Only with the heart one can see
well. The essential remains hidden to our eyes." Sometimes, it is
necessary even to close our eyes to see better. It is with our heart
that we can feel God, not with our intellect.
We can also approach God with our heart, not only with our intellect.
When the Bible and Our Lady speak about the heart, they think neither of
a bodily organ, nor of emotions, feelings of joy or sorrow, but of a
spirit, which - although we do not see it with our eyes - we feel that
it is at work. It is just like seeing a tree: We do not see the roots,
but we know that they exist, because the tree lives from it.
Why is it so difficult to detach ourselves from the earthly things that
do not satiate us, but cheat us? Saint Paul said: I do know what is
good, but I do not have the strength to realise it. Poor man that I am!
Who will deliver me from this body submitted to death? Praise be to God
through Jesus Christ, our Lord! (Cf: Rm 7:14-25)
Our Lady puts the means into our hands, and it depends on us whether we
will listen to her or not. We are like a drowning man to whom someone
has thrown a life raft. It depends on him, if he will catch it or not.
Our Lady's hand is extended to each one of us. Let us take it today, not
tomorrow! Let us clasp at least the fringe of her robe, so that she may
take us from darkness, from lack of trust, doubts and disappointments
into a new life with Christ.
Our Lady's hand is outstretched to each one of us. Let us take it today,
not tomorrow! Let us catch at least the fringe of her robe, so that she
may save us from darkness, from distrust and deception and take us into
a new life with Christ. It is therefore necessary to reject every sin:
lying, egoism, hatred, pride, blaspheme, licentiousness, drunkenness,
wickedness... Without this, we cannot go forward, just as we cannot
navigate on the sea in a boat, which is tied to the shore. We can row in
vain. It is necessary to untie the boat. We also have to untie ourselves
from all that makes us captive and trapped, so that Mary, our Mother,
may take us to Christ.
Peace and good to you!
Medjugorje, January 26th, 2002
BE A SIGN FOR THIS PEACELESS WORLD
"Dear children! I call you today and encourage you to prayer for peace. Especially today I call you, carrying the newborn Jesus in my arms for you, to unite with Him through prayer and to become a sign to this peaceless world. Encourage each other, little children, to prayer and love. May your faith be an encouragement to others to believe and to love more. I bless you all and call you to be closer to my heart and to the heart of little Jesus. Thank you for having responded to my call." Message of December 25, 2001
Decisions for good and for war come from the human heart. Without Jesus, peace is impossible. Without Jesus, all human efforts, all initiatives and politics to establish peace are in vain. Trouble and hatred come from a peaceless heart, just as peace and love come from a heart, pacified in God. All depends on where the roots of my being and of my existence are seated, where I have planted the tree of my life. We can approach God only with an open heart that is not asleep, with a heart that believes, with a heart that is not chained up by haughtiness, which finds it difficult to bend the knee before another man and before the Creator.
To avoid this Christmas passing us by, to meet the Child, we have to bend down to the level of a child. Jesus told us: "Unless you turn and become like children." (Matthew 18:2-4) - which means not childish, but with a childlike heart in the matter of purity and of evil. We have to come to a standstill in front of the manger and imbibe ourselves with this sight, this mysterious event of an unusual birth, which happened on our earth. Since this event, nothing is the same any more, this earth is no more cursed nor condemned to perish. We have to sit at the feet of Jesus, descend from the mountain of our haughtiness and arrogance which believes that we know everything and that we can do everything alone, in order to allow the Child Jesus to talk to us and to fecund us with his peace. This Christmas also, let us learn from children what trust is, let us learn from the Child Jesus who came down to earth, descended into the helplessness of a newborn child, to become able to understand him and to receive him. Children also receive, understand and follow the words of their parents who know how to bend down to their level and to talk to them. This is how God bended down to our valleys in order to become comprehensible for us, this is how the Blessed Virgin Mary came down to us and spoke to us in a language we understand. All her messages can be condensed in two words: pray and be converted. Be converted from dead things and objects to the living God, from whom comes every joy and peace.
Also in this message, Our Lady talks to us and encourages us to peace, not without reason, because we see that we are surrounded and filled by troubles of all kinds and colours. Nothing in life happens accidentally. Everything has its cause, which we maybe do not recognize. Peace and trouble have their causes and reasons. There is no blind destiny in our life, as some like to say often.
As on the first day, June 24th 1981, when Our Lady appeared to the visionaries with the Child Jesus in her arms, so in this message she brings and gives us Jesus, who has the answer to all our questions, the solution to all our problems. Also today, Mary gives us Jesus who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. She gives Him anew, as she gave Him once and forever to this humanity, when she had given birth to Him in her body and in her faith, in Bethlehem. This event is not a pious story but a reality that happened on this planet. Without Jesus, we are lost creatures erring on this earth without meaning and without goal, without Him, our life knows no way but is only a wayward life. If we do not have Him, what remains is only lie, death and despair.
While He was walking on this earth, Jesus asked: "When the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:8) Jesus comes not only on Christmas, but wants to visit you every day. He wants to find an open door, an extended warm hand, a burning light of faith. Jesus wants to visit you in your daily life, monotonously coloured and full of heaviness of your duties; He visits you in people whom you like and whom you like less, Jesus visits you in all encounters and all conversations with people. Will you recognize Him? Jesus asks: will you listen to his word, will you - like Peter - throw your nets, will you - according to His word - forgive and bless people, life, your ways and crosses, or curse and despair? Jesus asks today also whether he will find faith on earth.
Our Lady does not cease to encourage us and to enthuse us, counting on us who want to receive and to accept the words of her messages. She knows that we cannot be threatened by our enemies and by those who hate us, but mostly by our lack of faith, of love and of friendship for Jesus. We are responsible for our own life, but also for lives of those whom God has placed on our way. Our happiness depends on happiness of others. Let us try today - not tomorrow - to listen to the echo of the voice of God as the longing of our own heart. Let us calm down the noise and voices which consume us - bad news and catastrophes from newspapers, radio and television - in order to feel the nearness and the warm heart of our heavenly Mother and of the little Jesus whom Our Lady bears for us and gives to us.
Medjugorje, December 26th, 2001
LET US PREPARE OUR HEARTS
"Dear children! In this time of grace, I call you anew to prayer. Little
children, pray and prepare your hearts for the coming of the King of Peace,
that with His blessing He may give peace to the whole world. Peacelessness
has begun to reign in hearts and hatred reigns in the world. That is why,
you who live my messages be the light and extended hands to this faithless
world that all may come to know the God of Love. Do not forget, little
children, I am with you and bless you all. Thank you for having responded to
my call." Message of November 25, 2001
In the message of the last month, Our Lady told us: "Little children, you
are chosen to witness peace and joy", and today she tells us about
restlessness in hearts and hatred in the world.
Everyone seeks joy. Everybody wants to be happy and seeks joy. We all want
to be happy. The good and the bad are equal in their desire to be happy. The
good ones are good to be happy, and the bad ones would not be bad if they
would not hope to become happy in such a way. In his Confessions, the great
St. Augustin told us: If we all love joy, it is because we have already
known it in a mysterious way. If we had not come to know it - if we were not
created for it - we would not love it. The one who knocks at the door of a
church - even it he does it with violence and anger - does so because he
seeks joy. However, we see that the world around us is mostly sad. Sadness
and restlessness strangle our throats and almost suffocate us. There are
less and less joyful people and joyful Christians. Nietsche has already
criticised Christians because their faces were too gloomy frowning.
Sadness and restlessness walk on our streets, in our villages and in our
cities. Sadness has even sneaked into our families. Sadness and restlessness
infect even our children to whom, instead of joy, we give things to eat,
bigger and bigger and more and more ugly toys to destroy. Joy does not come
from things, from toys, from food, from cars, motors, techniques, money or
pleasure. Our heart and our soul seek the real food. You cannot cheat your
soul while giving it things. If you don't feed it with God and His Word, it
will rebel and seek vengeance. Your soul gives you signs like emptiness,
lack of meaning, nervousness, aggressiveness, anger against everything and
everybody. You have to recognize these signs, you have to learn again to
enjoy in little things and to recognize so many things around us - that
everything is given, and that we hove not earned or merited anything.
Gospa, our Mother, walks with us for more than twenty years now. By this
message, she prepares us for the time of Advent, which is approaching, and
she puts in front of our eyes the King of Peace. Restlessness and hatred
govern the world, our Mother tells us in this message, and we know and see
that very well. And not only in the world, but they sneaked also into human
relationships, families, amongst nations. Our Lady shows us the way, she
puts into our hands a powerful means with which we can reach peace, if only
we want it and seek it. It is not enough to see and to understand the state
of your heart and your soul, of your family. It is not enough to know it, as
it is of no use to a hungry man to know that bread is good. It is of no use
for us to know that God is love, of no use to know that Our Lady is here out
for love for us. We have to follow her words, to make the decision, to start
today. We need the encounter and the experience of the God of Love. It is
useless to curse darkness; let us light a lamp instead, and darkness is
already gone. Sometimes it is enough to lift our eyes just a bit above the
mud of this world, above our heads, to pronounce a good and positive word,
and darkness is already gone. We have to heal our negative, black, tragic
thoughts and pronounce pure words, so that God's health and peace may reach
us. It is not enough to say that there is no prayer in my family, that we
can never get together, that every one goes his own way and after his own
business. If nobody wants, then you start, have the courage to say to God a
word of prayer and a cry, so that through you the light may come down,
little by little, on those who are with you.
There are many hearts that follow Our Lady's messages, which she gives to us
still today. Our Lady counts on us, who want to hear her messages; she
counts on our perseverance, even when we do not see immediately the fruits
and successes. Our security is her presence, her words that she is with us
in spite of everything. Let us be and let us remain with Her. Peace and good
to you.
Medjugorje, November 26th, 2001
OUR LADY COUNTS SERIOUSLY ON US
"Dear children! Also today I call you to pray from your whole heart and to
love each other. Little children, you are chosen to witness peace and joy.
If there is no peace, pray and you will receive it. Through you and your
prayer, little children, peace will begin to flow through the world. That is
why, little children, pray, pray, pray, because prayer works miracles in
human hearts and in the world. I am with you and I thank God for each of you
who has accepted and lives prayer with seriousness. Thank you for having
responded to my call." October 25, 2001
I believe that words are too weak, too small and insufficient to express the
desire and the love of the Blessed Virgin Mary for her children. Her purity
and the greatness of her love cannot be contained in words. Each and every
word has the power to hurt or to heal. Each and every word contains a spirit
and a heart, but it also can transmit rudeness and emptiness. We know that
Our Lady's words come from a pure heart, pacified in God, filled with an
untiring love. This is why this month's message wants to show us the way,
the direction.
On the road, a sign is useless if we do not follow it. If we remain standing
next to it, we will never reach our goal. Signs are there to help us not to
get lost and thus reach our goal. It is the same with Our Lady's message -
it wants to speak to us, to guide us, and we are those who will or will not
follow. For more than twenty years now, Our Lady not only speaks to us, but
wants to cry to each one's heart: Pray. We can easily find thousand of
reasons not to pray, but there is one sufficient reason to pray: the joyful
encounter with our Saviour. The fruit of our prayer is the love we are
longing for, but maybe in a wrong way and in wrong places. We encounter less
and less love in human relationships, more and more envy, backbiting,
exploitation and lack of understanding. And we are surprised by it, and we
ask ourselves how these kind of corrupted people can be human. Maybe we are
not surprised enough as to why such a small number of people choose prayer.
We are not surprised and we do not ask ourselves why there are less and less
families who pray together, less and less families where members carry each
others' burdens. We are not surprised much when someone blasphemes the name
of God because we are used to this kind of poison. We are not surprised very
much when families, parents in the family, are ashamed to pray in front of
each other and in front of their children. Our Lady does not point out our
wounds, which she knows too well - she wants to cover them with the purity
of her love.
We ask ourselves why prayer is so difficult. Maybe because we do not believe
in its power, perhaps better to say in the power of God who has no other
possibility to reach and to save us, to deliver and to heal us. God can give
us only what we ask him for. Peace can come only there where you open the
door to it. Peace stands in front of your door.
Maybe we pray for peace, but we accept so easily all the sources of
conflicts: negative thoughts, accusations, judgments and opinions,
suspicions, backbiting and defamations. Peace has its price, but it cannot
be bought like a thing in a shop. Peace is not a cheap thing; it demands a
certain silence, sometimes even a heroic silence. The struggle for peace is
a permanent struggle. Who ever wants to be a fighter for peace has to be
ready to make war against himself, against his own negative tendencies,
which bring forth fruits of death and destruction. It is necessary to put a
guard on one's mouth, in order to dwell in the presence of Him who gives
peace and who is peace. Only through peaceful hearts can the Lord establish
a kingdom of peace; first in our families, and then in the world. Let us do
what we can, and God will do what seems impossible to us. If we do not do
what is in our power, God will not force a hardened and cold heart.
I believe that Jesus was most hurt by people who did not take Him seriously.
Our Lady said once that many have taken my messages seriously, but they have
given up when they met difficulties and suffering. Jesus takes us seriously,
Our Lady counts seriously on us; this is why she has remained with us for
such a long time. As our Mother, she is grateful for all of those who
seriously follow Her call. Let us not become tired in following Her words.
Let us approach Jesus through Mary with an open heart. Let love attract us
to God, and not fear. Let us approach Him before an affliction forces us to
go towards Him. Let us wake up before a sudden distress or illness awaken us
from our spiritual stupor.
Mary, thank you for your appeals, your words and your coming. Thank you for
having obtained so many graces for all those who have opened their hearts,
who follow the call of your heart with seriousness. Thank you, Mary, for all
those who will, in visiting this place, make the experience of a new birth
in the encounter with their Saviour. Thank you, Mary, for so many families
who gather for prayer and nourish themselves at the source of life. Thank
you, Mother, for so many hearts awakened thanks to the sacrament of Holy
Confession and Holy Mass. Thank you, Mother, for not becoming tired with us.
Do not become tired in calling us, even when we become tired and distant.
Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Commentary of the message of September 25, 2001
"Dear children! Also today I call you to prayer, especially today when Satan
wants war and hatred. I call you anew, little children: pray and fast that
God may give you peace. Witness peace to every heart and be carriers of
peace in this world without peace. I am with you and intercede before God
for each of you. And you do not be afraid because the one who prays is not
afraid of evil and has no hatred in the heart. Thank you for having
responded to my call." Message of September 25, 2001
Today, the whole world is in a big crisis: economical, material, social, and
especially political. Our Lady knows it, and as a true mother, she takes
care of her children. She wants our good, and this is why - in the last
message - she calls us to pray for peace.
Prayer is one of the principal messages of Our Lady, so often repeated,
because through prayer, man decides for God and puts God in the centre of
his life. Our Lady repeats it so often for only one reason: we have not yet
completely answered to her call to conversion, to peace and to prayer.
Prayer prepares man to open up to God and to allow the Holy Spirit to act in
him. This is the first condition for building new heavens and new earth,
where peace will reign.
The message of peace resounds strongly from Medjugorje, stronger then from
any other place in the world, and with a voice stronger than other voices.
This peace is incomparably richer than any other peace, because its
substance is God Himself. It touches the root of the heart of man and
permeates the whole person. Peace, which has not germinated in the heart of
man, cannot germinate anywhere. The same: peace, which has not its root in
God, cannot exist.
"Who prays is not afraid of evil and has no hatred in the heart" - says Our
Lady to all of us. Her voice is stronger than the strength of the strong and
the weakness of the weak. By the power of her voice have fallen many walls
of Jericho, which encircled this world. Let us answer to her call of love,
in order to become participants in the creation of new heavens and new
earth, where the place of honour shall belong to the sons and daughters of
God, to those who belong totally to God and who are totally consecrated to
Him.
Fra Danko Perutina
Peace to All! Below if the official English translation of Fr. Ljubo's
commentary on Our Lady's messge of August 25, 2001 as provided by the
Information Center in Medjugorje.
Our next mailing will be Our Lady's monthly message of September 25, 2001.
I am leaving for Medjugorje next weekend and will carry all of you in my
prayers! If you have any special intentions/petitions, I will be happy to
carry them to Medjugorje for you. Simply email them to: petition@nibcomp.com
Take care and God Bless!
Steve and Ana Shawl
WALKING ON THE PATHS OF HOLINESS
"Dear children! Today I call all of you to decide for holiness. May for you,
little children, always in your thoughts and in each situation holiness be
in the first place, in work and in speech. In this way, you will also put it
into practice; little by little, step-by-step, prayer and a decision for
holiness will enter into your family. Be real with yourselves and do not
bind yourselves to material things but to God. And do not forget, little
children, that your life is as passing as a flower. Thank you for having
responded to my call." Message of August 25, 2001
The messages of Our Lady allow us to see her desire, the love of the Mother
who desires to accompany her children on the paths of life. We can see that
she lives, breathes and walks with us. In the message of July, she calls us
to rest in God, because only God gives us rest. It is not prayer as such,
but God, whom we find in prayer. Prayer is not the goal, but a way to reach
the goal, which Our Lady wants us to take to heart. There are prayers, in
which God cannot enter, because the entrance door is closed and locked. It
is closed, because our heart is closed. A formalistic and superficial
prayer, done out of duty and not out of love, is tiring, because God is not
there. This is why our Mother calls us to the prayer of the heart, with love
and with the desire to meet God who makes us healthy, pure and strong, able
to carry our days and our burdens joyfully throughout our lives.
Mary calls us to holiness. God alone is holy. He is thrice holy. We are not
worthy to approach Him, to come near Him and be in His presence. But He has
proved and confirmed with His life that we can come to Him without fear.
Jesus lived in such a way that no one had to fear Him or dread Him. We come
to Him not because we are good, holy, pious and devout but because we need
Him as dry and waterless earth needs the rain. We receive Jesus in Holy
Communion not because we are worthy to receive Him, but because we need Him
in order to survive.
Our part is to decide for holiness, and God's part is to make us holy,
according to the words of Jesus: "Without me you can do nothing." What we
can do is to decide: God cannot and will not decide for us. He cannot give
us freedom, faith, trust and love by force. He can help us only when we ask
for it. He asks us as He asked the blind man from the Gospel: "What do you
want me to do for you?" Jesus wants to hear our answer, He wants to hear our
heart speak, He wants to hear our decision, the cry of our soul after Him,
so that - day after day - we may become more like unto Him.
Usually, we have a distorted image of saints: we think they are strange,
difficult and eccentric. Yet only saints were completely healthy and the
most normal people of the world. People were longing for them, because in
them they discovered the face of God. People sought them and longed for
them. Also today, people cry out for God, seek God, seek those who will tell
them that God exists, that He is deeply interested in the destiny of men and
theirs lives. To decide for God is not something cheep, but demanding. God
does not demand us to give Him little pieces of the time, which is left over
in our day, but much more. He demands a bit of our heart, a bit of our love,
a bit of enthusiasm for Him and His Word. Just as God needs Mary, the Mother
of His Son Jesus, He needs you to give a smile to someone, He needs you to
defend someone who is unjustly accused, He needs you to bandage a wound of
someone who is injured. He needs you to tell people that you have nothing
against them and wants you to resist any bad-mouthing. Also today, God wants
you to look beyond the surface, to look with the heart, because everybody
desires love, desires to meet people who do not look for their personal
interests, their personal advantage, but God's advantage and God's desires.
Do have the courage to be considered as abnormal in this world, so that the
world may seek you and long for you, who had the courage to walk on the path
of God, because He needs just you: you who have the courage to believe, the
courage to pray when everyone is cursing, the courage to believe when
everyone is doubting and despairing.
Let us be real, let us be true with ourselves. Look and see that you do not
hold your life in your hand, that you are not the master of your life as
much as you try, as much as you work, as much as you acquire richness... You
can nor preserve your earthly life. You are here to spend you life: not in
vain but wisely, as Jesus and Our Lady invite us in this message. If the
grain of wheat does not die, it cannot bring fruit; but if it dies, it bears
fruit a hundredfold. Your life can flourish again independently of your age,
independently of illness or old age that may have bound you on your bed.
Accept your situation, your life and people whom God has put on your way.
Thank God from the heart even for unpleasant things, knowing that He has the
solution, that He knows why it is this way - and already you have entered
into the space of confidence and peace. Stand at the side of God, rely on
Him as on a rock, a solid foundation where you cannot be threatened nor
condemned by this world. You cannot cheat your soul: it seeks God. Seek Him
where He dwells. Seek Him in your heart, seek Him in the community of the
faithful who gathers for Eucharist and the listening of His Word, seek Him
in the Gospel, seek Him in every person, whom you like or dislike. Wherever
you go, God is there. Let Him open your eyes for new horizons of life, of
trust and of peace.
And to you, Mary, I pray: as you gave birth to Jesus, give birth to each one
of us, give us birth to a new life. May your words, O Mary, feed us with
confidence that God is on our side, that He intervenes and cares for us.
Fr Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje 26th of August 2001
Peace to All! Below you will find the official English translation of Fr. Ljubo's commentary on Our Lady's latest message of 07/25/2001.
I want to take a moment to let everyone know of an important project that we have been entrusted with by the Pastor of St. James Church in Medjugorje, Fr. Ivan Sesar. Please take a moment to look at the "Risen Christ Expansion Project" on our web site at: http://www.medjugorje.org/rcproject.htm
Thank you for your prayerful consideration in helping/supporting this project!
Our next mailing will be the Press Bulletin later this afternoon...
God Bless!
Steve and Ana Shawl
The Medjugorje Web
http://www.medjugorje.org
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GOD IS OUR REST
"Dear children! In this time of grace, I call you to come even closer to God through your personal prayer. Make good use of the time of rest and give your soul and your eyes rest in God. Find peace in nature and you will discover God the Creator Whom you will be able to give thanks to for all creatures; then you will find joy in your heart. Thank you for having responded to my call." Message of July 25, 2001
According to the words of Pope Pius XI, "Each mother feels a delight when she sees the face of her child reflecting one or another characteristic of her own face. In the same way, Mary, our Mother, has no greater desire nor joy then to see the qualities and the virtues of her soul in the thoughts, words and deeds of those, whom she received for her own children at the foot of the Cross of her only begotten Son."
Looking at Mary, we are encouraged by the hope that we shall also be there one day, where she already is. She is our pride. One of us has arrived so high! This is why we have to invoke Mary. Our devotion to Mary is justified. This is what God desires, what Jesus encourages and what the Church keeps and defends faithfully. Do not be afraid to take Mary by the hand! Joseph was also afraid, but an angel appeared to him in his dream and told him: "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary, your wife, into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her." (Mt 1,20) Do not be afraid to take Mary as your mother, your intercessor, your advocate and your friend, because what happens in the Church, and in Medjugorje, comes from the Holy Spirit. Let us learn from her how to pray, how to be freed from doubts, complexes, addictions, sin, lukewarmness, and from a superficial Christianity, a Christianity which begins and ends with the Sunday Mass. Who loves Jesus will come to love Mary. Who turns to Mary will be led to Jesus, because Mary has received a special charisma, the gift to lead us to Jesus. Without Jesus, Mary is a simple woman, like all the other women of the world. In Him and through Him, she is the Queen of the world and the Queen of peace.
Today again, she tells us that we live in a time of grace, a time of the favour of God. God is favourable to us, and Gospa tells us that we have to be favourable to Him, and to come even closer to God through our personal prayer, our personal 'Yes', our personal choice to follow Him.
Make good use of the time of rest, Mary tells us, Mary, our Mother. We all want to take rest; we all have right to take rest. We want to leave our daily work, obligations and burdens. Maybe we do it, but we come back more tired and more burdened. Our body cannot find rest if our soul is burdened, if our conscience is stained and trampled down by sin, if we live in conflict with our neighbour, if we carry within us the burden of unforgiveness and of hatred, if we live unreconciled with ourselves, with God and with others... Our body is tense, our blood pressure is high, and nervousness and anguish dominate even our subconscience and take away our peace and our rest.
In God alone I find peace for my soul, only in Him my hope and my salvation, sings the psalmist. The most beautiful rest is in God, because in the end, only God gives rest for the soul and for the body. We have to break through to God, we have to strive to reach Him, we have to open our eyes. This is why our Lady calls us: find peace in nature. The nature is the book of God written by His own hand. May we know how to admire His works and may we never cease to be astonished by the beauties which we find within our reach. Let us recognize God in the smile of a child and in the flight of a bird, in the murmur of the sea and in the high mountain. All this speaks to us about Him.
Nature is not a work of men; this is why we have to explore it, to question it and to admire it. When we cease to admire, we cease to live. When we say to someone: "I know you!", we have ceased to explore, to admire and to love this person. We have then not only killed this person within ourselves, but we have also mutilated ourselves. But man and nature can never be definitely explored, they are inexhaustible, as God is inexhaustible in the richness of His peace and His love.
Let us listen to the voice of Our Lady within us. Let our eyes be opened to the marvellous deeds of God, so that we may find rest for our souls and for our bodies.
Fra Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje, July 30, 2001
I am with you
"Dear children! I am with you and I bless you all with my motherly blessing. Especially today when God gives you abundant graces, pray and seek God through me. God gives you great graces, that is why, little children, make good use of this time of grace and come closer to my heart so that I can lead you to my Son Jesus. Thank you for having responded to my call." June 25, 2001
Everyone finds it difficult to express, to describe, to put into words his spiritual experience, his love. Words are too poor to express the inexpressible, to describe the indescribable. It is the same with the words of Our Lady's messages. They may seem to us too poor and too simple. The same word, expressed by different lips, does not have the same meaning. The newness of Our Lady's apparitions is not so much in Her messages, but in Her strong presence, which can be felt. He motherly heart is open and everyone can take and drink, as from an inexhaustible fount of love and of grace, which overflows on all men.
Also in this message, Our Lady tells us: I am with you! She wants to say: Do not be afraid, I am with you, but you also, be with me! Where Mary is, there is the Lord. To Mary, who mediates the supreme realisation of God's presence in history, the angel says: "The Lord is with you!" The power of the Most High reposes on Her. For so many years, She transmits today this strength and this power of grace. A mother cannot abandon her children, cannot deny them, as disobedient and as stubborn they may be. In Medjugorje, Our Lady gives us not only Her words, but also Herself, Her person. Through Her, we come more easily to God.
She tells us that we live in a time of grace, when God is particularly inclined to men. In Jesus Christ, God totally approached men. In our days, through Mary, He comes close to us. Mary reflects the face of God and manifests the truth of Jesus' words: "For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mk 10,45) In our times, Jesus never stops to do the same. The apparitions of Our Lady, and all the graces, are a gift and a sign that God serves man and does not cease to love him. The love of God is inventive; it finds means and ways to the human heart.
God did not want to help man without man. He chose Mary, one of us, one of our human race. This is why we can be proud, because in Her, we have the full realisation of what God wants for each one of us. He came to men through Mary. He needed a heart to say Yes, a heart to believe. Through Mary, He comes to us today. This is why Mary gives Herself as a mediator to lead us to Her Son Jesus, our Saviour.
In life, we need the other. We would not be here, if there were not those who welcomed us, who loved us, who educated us. In the life of faith, we need the other to encourage us, to guide us and to lift us up. We all need models, ideals, people with a magnanimous spirit who will wake us up from our spiritual stupor, our dissatisfaction, our moodiness. We need persons to identify with, as children identify themselves with their parents, and say: "I want to be like dad, like mum." Children need that and, if they do not have good models in their parents with whom they are physically and spiritually most intimately linked, they will have many difficulties to develop into healthy human beings, able to face life. Mary gives Herself to us as a perfect mother, in whom we can recognize what we need the most.
Human beings grow with the model, which stands before them. Our Lady offers us the immaculate ideal of Christ, God-Man. She calls each one of us to follow Him and to learn from Him, in order to grow into the fullness of our own perfection.
Today, other values, ideals and models are offered to us. Today, the sense of sin is lost more and more and, consequently, the knowledge of the real cause of injustice, evil, exploitation, dissatisfaction, divorce, infidelity and the sufferings men inflict upon men. We cannot cheat our own soul. Nothing and no one can feed and satisfy it except the living God.
Let us hear the call of the motherly heart, let us take seriously Her words, which lead us to Jesus Christ.
Fra Ljubo Kurtovic
Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic, OFM
Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic, OFM
Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje, October 26, 2001
Medjugorje, September 26, 2001
The Medjugorje Web
http://www.medjugorje.org
Medjugorje, June 26, 2001