Reflection on the Message of April 25, 2004

LIVE MY MESSAGES IN HUMILITY AND LOVE

“Dear children! Also today, I call you to live my messages even more strongly in humility and love so that the Holy Spirit may fill you with His grace and strength. Only in this way will you be witnesses of peace and forgiveness. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of April 25, 2004

The Virgin Mary is coming to us for 22 years and 10 months now. With a motherly heart, she is addressing her messages to us. Through her messages, she wants to lead us on the way of conversion and of holiness. Throughout these years, many children of Mary began to believe and encountered the vivifying force of her presence here, among us. The treasure of Heaven that is coming to us can remain undiscovered. This precious pearl can remain hidden and not found. Those who find it are able to give everything: their time, their love and their life. The Gospel is teaching us: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Mt 6,21) Mary wants that our treasure is in God, in spiritual values, and not in things and corruptible treasures of this world “that moth or rust corrupt”. (Cf.: Mt 6,20) Those who discover this treasure will not remain at the edge of the shore, attached to the banks of this world that is imprisoning us, but will dare to row to the open sea, where Jesus is calling us.

In the simplicity of the words of Our Lady is hidden the power of Heaven, the power of the Mother who is able to give a new beginning to our lives. In this message, she is calling us: “Live my messages even more strongly”. Our God is a God of humility and of simplicity. Simple motherly words that she is addressing to us are able to create in us a new mentality, the mentality of the Gospel, of the life of God that wants to blossom in us.

It is only in humility and in love that we can know God and recognize the messages of Our Lady as messages of the Gospel, as messages of the Kingdom of God that wants to begin to live in us, and through us in this world. In Jesus, God has humbled himself, he stooped down to us so that we can understand him and listen to him. During the Last Supper, Jesus washes the feet of his disciples. He – who is God – stoops down to his disciples to wash their feet. The washing of the feet is a task of a servant or of a slave. It is possible to wash somebody’s feet only if one bends down or goes on one’s knees in front of somebody. One must be at the feet of somebody. This is precisely what Jesus is doing. He is on his knees in front of his disciples, he is looking at them from down upwards, like a little child that – since it is small – is looking at the adults from down upwards, as if it wanted to ask: Do you accept me? God speaks to man from down upwards, his Word resounds in humility. However, one would expect to hear the Word of God coming from another direction – and this is why God is not heard.

One could say that, in this place, Gospa also is speaking to us from down upwards. She is using the words of a child that each one can understand, and she is asking us: Will you accept me, will you listen to me, so that the life according to the Holy Spirit can flower in you, so that you can become the witness of what we need most: peace and forgiveness.

Let us listen to the Mother who is speaking to us and we will be happy in this world already.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje, April 26, 2004

Reflection on the Message of May 25, 2004

LET US CONSECRATE OURSELVES TO THE HEART OF JESUS AND TO THE HEART OF MARY

“Dear children! Also today, I urge you to consecrate yourselves to my Heart and to the Heart of my Son Jesus. Only in this way will you be mine more each day and you will inspire each other all the more to holiness. In this way joy will rule your hearts and you will be carriers of peace and love. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of May 25, 2004

Also today, Gospa, our Mother and Queen of Peace, opens her motherly heart to us. Through these simple words, she is leading us towards the source of life and she is showing us the way towards this source.

Mary urges us to consecrate ourselves to her Heart and to the Heart of Jesus. As a Mother, she invites us to enter into these two Hearts that are united, in order to be able to feel at which point they care for us, and what they are ready to do for us. In one of her messages, Mary told us: “Dear children, I desire that the Heart of Jesus, my Heart and your heart are one heart of love and of peace. I desire that this place is not only a place of prayer but a place of meeting of the hearts”. It is only in the encounter with the Heart of Jesus and the Heart of Mary that our hearts can be healed and set free.

Mary, our Mother, knows well, which is the greatest, and the most serious illness of the contemporary world. It is not cancer or AIDS, but the feeling of being undesired, useless, unloved, without somebody who cares for you. Physical diseases can be cured with medications, but the only medication against loneliness, despair and hopelessness is the love of God. Many are starving for bread, but many more are starving for love and finally for God Himself. People are poor today, not because they have no money, but because they don’t have God. People are poor because they have no love, and God is love. This hunger of God can be felt at each step. Human beings seek to satisfy their hunger with food and drink, things, possessions, pleasures, and they fall more and more into addiction and slavery, from which Jesus alone can deliver us. Jesus does not only call us free, He alone makes us free.

We can give to the others only what we have. We must first feel the love of God, and only after, we can give this love to the others. Throughout all these years, God invites us through Mary to holiness, i.e. to health, to freedom and to peace. When we feel all that, and when we make the experience of it, we cannot enjoy it egoistically, but we are pushed towards the others, so that all can feel and experience what God wants to give to each one in his infinite love. When we start to love God deeply, we can love all that he has created. It is only then that we become missionaries in our surroundings, in our families, wherever God put to us to live.

It is only through total abandonment to God that we can feel secure. This abandonment can be a form of death, death to oneself, according to the example of Mary who died to herself and to her own will, Mary who emptied herself so that God can live in her and through her. Jesus teaches us this abandonment when he prays: “Father, may your will be done, not mine!” (Lc 22,42) Let us renounce to our own desires so that God can do according to his will and his good pleasure, because the will of God is our peace.

Let us allow Mary, our Mother, to lead us and to guide us on the path of joy, so that we can carry God, his peace and his joy around us!

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje, May 26, 2004

Reflection on the Message of June 25, 2004

EACH ONE OF YOU IS IMPORTANT

“Dear children! Also today, joy is in my heart. I desire to thank you for making my plan realizable. Each of you is important, therefore, little children, pray and rejoice with me for every heart that has converted and become an instrument of peace in the world. Prayer groups are powerful, and through them I can see, little children, that the Holy Spirit is at work in the world. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of June 25, 2004

Twenty-three years of love and presence of Mary passed, but Mary is still with us and in front of us. Also today, heart filled with love, she is addressing her maternal word to us. Also today, she is opening to us her heart, which is delighted for each heart that has been converted. Although each message begins with words “dear children”, she is speaking to you personally, she is thinking of you, of your heart; she cares for your life and your future.

Today, she is thanking us for all that we are doing so that her plan may be carried out. In the message of 25.08.1991, she told us: “I invite you to the renouncement during nine days, so that with your assistance, all that I wanted to carry out through the secrets that I began in Fatima may be accomplished”.

Mary has not become our mother 23 years ago. She is our Mother since Jesus gave her to us on the cross through his words: “Behold your Mother!” At this moment, the disciple took her to himself. (Jn 19,27) Mary wants us to take her to ourselves, into our house, as John did.

Today, it is her anniversary and our anniversary, her day and our day. Today, we are proud and joyful with her, for all the graces of heaven, which came into this world through her. We are joyful and we give thanks to God for each heart that has been awakened, which has been healed and released from evil that is destroying life.

This world needs God, it needs his grace, and these needs are enormous. Medjugorje may appear as a drop in the ocean of all these needs. It is an oasis in the desert of this world. Many have found it, but many more must still recognize that it exists, that God exists, and that He is waiting for them. It is important that people know that this oasis exists, and that they believe in the possibility of being refreshed there, of quenching their thirst for peace, for love and for God.

The Virgin Mary knows well that there are many who still must become instruments of peace in this world. Today, she is speaking principally to those who were converted: those who carry in them the love of God, and who have become carriers of healing of human relations, wounded by envy, selfishness, hatred and wickedness. Mary our Mother knows that it is better to light a small light than to become exhausted while cursing darkness. She is not pointing at our wounds and our sins, but she is encouraging what is good, holy and divine in us.

In the eyes of our heavenly Mother, we all are necessary and important. We do not need to boast or to claim to be what we are not. We do not need to carry a mask, as Adam and Eve did after the fall. In front of Mary, we can be like children: in front of her, we can expose our nudity, knowing that she will cover us with purity and strength of her maternal love, which can heal what the sin has wounded.

Neither God nor Mary expect from us the impossible. They do not expect from us great and magnificent deeds, but small things with much love and kindness.

We came into this world thanks to kindness and love of others. We cannot grow in faith and arrive to God without others. We have received so much from others. This is why Mary speaks about prayer groups, through which the power of the Holy Spirit is working, and in which we can grow as children of Mary.

Mary, our Mother, Queen of Peace, Queen of Heaven and earth, do not become weary of us; do not become weary to call us and to guide us on the way of Salvation.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje June 26, 2004

Reflection on the Message of July 25, 2004

I DESIRE, LITTLE CHILDREN, TO DRAW YOU ALL CLOSER TO MY SON JESUS

“Dear children! I call you anew: be open to my messages. I desire, little children, to draw you all closer to my Son Jesus; therefore, you pray and fast. Especially I call you to pray for my intentions, so that I can present you to my Son Jesus; for Him to transform and open your hearts to love. When you will have love in the heart, peace will rule in you. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of July 25, 2004

Behind the simple words of this message, there is Mary, our Mother, who loves her children. The heart of Mary feels our suffering and suffers when we suffer. She has compassion with us and she regrets when we are locked up and when we do not make any case of what she wants to say to us. Mary suffers with her children as a mother suffers with hers. The purer the heart is, and the more the love is great, the greater is sorrow because of evil, sin and all that destroys life.

Mary, our Mother, invites us to prepare the space in which Jesus will be able to come. Without our preparation, without our opening, Jesus remains powerless in his action. In the Gospels, we see that Jesus knew failures, that he could not help those who did not want to listen to him, to believe in him and to draw et the treasure of his life. Only the simple ones and the humble ones discover the force of the simplicity of Mary and of God. The words of the message of Our Lady are so simple. Seen from outside, they are ordinary, human words, just as Jesus, our God was wrapped in simplicity, smallness and humanity. We see Jesus each day on our altars, in Holy Masses, wrapped in ordinary simplicity of the bread, and it can happen that we do not recognize him and do not even meet him! It can happen to us to receive Holy Communion, the consecrated host, without meeting the living risen Christ, who – in the simplicity of the bread – gave to us the force of his resurrection and of his love. All that we need: love, peace, meaning of life, joy, Jesus gave to us in Holy Mass.

In a certain manner, the presence of Mary, our Mother, is hidden in simple, ordinary, human words in which – through faith and abandonment – we discover the force which attracts us and which leads us to Jesus and the encounter with him. Just like Jesus, who became man in a simple way and who thus approached us, Mary speaks to us in a comprehensible and simple way. Let us recognize with faith and the heart that, behind this simplicity, is to be fund the Holy One and the Pure One, for whom our hearts are longing. We are children of Mary, and each child needs a Mother, cannot live without her.

The desire of Mary is to bring us closer Jesus. She wishes that the desire to know and to meet Jesus might be born in our heart also. Without this desire, she cannot help us. It is necessary that our heart come into movement in order to encounter and to know Jesus. Mary knows her Son better than anyone else, but she knows also the way to reach him. We are in sure hands if we go to her to receive council and assistance.

To pray for Mary’s intentions means to pray that her maternal desires are carried out, and not our own desires. She knows what is for our good; she knows it better than us, because she loves us more than we are able to love ourselves. Her desire is to present us, to offer us to Jesus. As she presented Jesus in the Temple to the Heavenly Father, she wants to present us to her Son Jesus. He is the source of love and of peace. We need him, so that peace reigns in our families and in our human relations – not the peace of this world, but the peace that comes from his Heart pierced on the cross.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje, July 26, 2004

Reflection on the Message of August 25, 2004

I CALL YOU ALL TO CONVERSION OF HEART

“Dear children! I call you all to conversion of heart. Decide, as in the first days of my coming here, for a complete change of your life. In this way, little children, you will have the strength to kneel and to open your hearts before God. God will hear your prayers and answer them. Before God, I intercede for each of you. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of August 25, 2004

Mary, our Mother, invites her children to the conversion of heart. Each one of us is important for her; each one of us is her child. As our Mother, she cares for us and for our heart. She is calling to conversion, just like John the Baptist did it at his time. Matthew the Evangelist is writing: “In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”.” (Mt 3,1-2) It is not accidental that Mary came here, to us, precisely on the feast day of St John the Baptist, on June 24, 1981. Like him, she is calling and preparing the ways of the Lord in human hearts, at our time, during all these years. It is the voice of from Heaven that, through Mary, is resounding today through our world. It is the voice of the Mother who calls her children. This voice is resounding and renewing the lives of all those who are far from God, living in the desert and in the desolation of this world. This voice does not want to intimidate us. This is a voice that does not threaten, but says to us what God wants of us today.

The messages of Mary are neither comfortable nor light, but demanding. This voice can appear hard to the ears of this world. Mary, our Mother, is perseverant and patient with us. Her love is pressing her on to speak to us and to return us from evil and from sin. Our Mother wants to give us a new freshness, a new fervor and the breath of Heaven.

To convert one’s heart to God means to turn to Him Who alone can satisfy our hunger and quench our thirst for what is more necessary to us than bread and things of this world, which can neither fill nor set free. To convert one’s heart means to believe in God and to decide for Him. God made himself helpless in front of our freedom. Without our decision, He is almost unable to do anything in our heart, this heart that He Himself has created. This shows us at which point He loves us, without ever forcing us to love Him in return.

Our heavenly Mother knows well the enthusiasm of the first days of her apparitions, the enthusiasm that lived in the hearts because of her presence. The Virgin Mary and her maternal heart have not changed since the first days of the apparitions. It is not she who needs to change; we need it. We are filled with enthusiasm very easily, but this enthusiasm can also very easily be lost. We always need food to live. We also always need the contact with God in the prayer of the heart, in trust.

The Virgin Mary calls us to a life of integrity, to a radical change of our life. God does not want from us shallow words of our prayers, or a bit of our time. God asks us all, because He has given to us everything; He has given Himself to us, and He wants that we give Him all. We need a radical decision, which will make us fall on our knees. On our knees in front of God, we will know the heart of God. Then, God won’t be any more a foreigner for us, but a friend. He will become somebody for whom languish our heart and our soul, because in Him alone our heart can find peace, this peace that nobody and nothing can give us. Only on our knees, our heart can open to the Creator our lives. In front of Him, we are just creatures, but creatures that He loves. I believe that we are not conscious of this gift of Heaven which is offered to us today through Mary, our Mother, who is speaking to us and opening to us her maternal heart full of love, a heart that wants us to consecrate ourselves to Her. It reveals to us the immensity of the love of God and His perseverance, in spite of our blindness and our deafness. Only on our knees and in prayer, we will be able to know the heart of the Mother, this heart full of love for each one of us, but also the pain that lives in it because of each heart that is blind and deaf.

Mary, our Mother, we thank you for your intercession, for the prayer that you are addressing to God for each one of us. Thank you, because you are not abandoning me, you are not abandoning us.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje, August 26, 2004