Reflection on the Message of September 25, 2004

OPEN YOUR HEART TO GOD’S LOVE

“Dear children! Also today, I call you to be love where there is hatred and food where there is hunger. Open your hearts, little children, and let your hands be extended and generous so that, through you, every creature may thank God the Creator. Pray, little children, and open your heart to God’s love, but you cannot if you do not pray. Therefore, pray, pray, pray. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of September 25, 2004

As our Mother, Mary can only call us, speak to us, love us and suffer with us, for us and because of us. She is coming to us and she is speaking to our hearts in a motherly way. She wants us to feel that God exists, and to make the experience of God in spite of evil, hatred, wounds, doubts and sufferings that we know in our human life. The Mother is coming to tell us that God has the last word. She is telling us that it is worthwhile to believe, to love, to forgive and to be honest in spite of passing sufferings that we experience because of our choice of what is good, honest, just and true. Mary knows well who we are and how we are. She knows our seeking and our falls. She lived in the body, she lived in our world, but she was clothed in grace in which she wants also to clothe us, by inviting us to walk on the path that she took. She is the best mistress because she kept in her heart the words of Jesus, she contemplated these words and all the events that she lived with him in this world. She did all that, while believing and trusting in God, and hoping against any hope in the most difficult moments.

Saint Bernard compares Mary with a channel, which leads the spring water in all the directions, the channel, which “receiving from the heart of the Father the fullness of the source, offers this water to us”. This water is clear and pure, because it is coming from the Heart of Jesus Christ, her Son, our Lord and our Brother.

Mary, our Mother, is inviting us to be love, to spread love, especially where there is hatred. In his book “In the school of love”, Fr. Slavko Barbaric reports the testimony of the visionary Marija who asked Our Lady: “Do you have anything concrete to tell me?” The answer was: “I give you my love so that you give it to the others.” According to Marija, it was for her the most beautiful and the most difficult message. The most beautiful thing that can arrive to a human heart is to make the experience of the love of a mother who loves you. It is always difficult to transmit and to offer to others this experience of love. It is not easy to love the others as Mary loves us. We feel our own powerlessness. According to the teaching of the Virgin Mary, we can obtain the daily victory over our powerlessness through prayer. It is the way, which enables us to make the experience of what is most beautiful, and to realize what is most difficult.

The love that Mary, our Mother, is giving us, the love to which she is leading us, is the remedy against our tiredness, our impatience and our despair. Those ho know that they are loved cannot be threatened by crosses or illnesses, not even by death. Success does not make them haughty, failure does not lead them to despair.

Let us listen to Mary, our Mother, in order to learn wisdom and maturity. Let us follow the words of the Mother, in order to learn that it is worth to spend our time with God, to “lose” something in order to receive much more from God. Today still, we need courage to believe in the words of the Mother. Only thus will we be able to enter into the mentality of the Gospel, this Gospel that – through her apparitions – the Virgin Mary is making alive here in the hearts that open themselves and that believe in the love of God.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje, September 26, 2004

Reflection on the Message of October 25, 2004

MAY JESUS BE IN THE HEART OF YOUR FAMILY

“Dear children! This is a time of grace for the family and, therefore, I call you to renew prayer. May Jesus be in the heart of your family. In prayer, learn to love everything that is holy. Imitate the lives of saints so that they may be an incentive and teachers on the way of holiness. May every family become a witness of love in this world without prayer and peace. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of October 25, 2004

In this message, our Heavenly Mother is addressing the families. Nobody else has such an experience and such virtues of the family life. Mary was a girl, promised in marriage and married to Joseph, virgin and mother, Mother of the Son of God and widow after the death of Joseph. She knew and experienced all the joys and all the sorrows of family life, exaltations and anguishes, fears and death, until the most painful tragedy of her crucified Son. She experienced the glory of Easter with her risen Son and finally the heavenly crown. She began as a humble servant and she finished as Queen of Heaven.

For her, this celestial glory is not a title of honour: she is coming, she is appearing, she is taking care of us, her children, who are still on the way towards the final goal and the glorification. She is speaking to us, she is inviting us, she is advising us and teaching us. The words of Mary are clear and simple and they relate to our everyday life, our relations in the family, where human life is generated and educated. Mary, our Mother, is concerned about families, parents and children. No one is closer to their children than the parents. Their love of the children urges them to accomplish their first and most important duty: the education of the children. This duty takes precedence over all the professional and official occupations, over any career and social advancement. Saint Paul says: “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” (Tim 5,8) Mary is our model of education and of the family life. In her heart, she is carrying the treasure, which she wants to transmit to us. The Gospel says to us: “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” (Lk 2,19) The same Gospel repeats that she “kept all these sayings in her heart.” (Lk 2,51) In Mary, we find the splendid treasure of the wisdom of God which wants to be given to us and to our families. Seen from outside, the human education that Mary gave was so ordinary that nobody in Nazareth could expect that her Son was the Messiah, that he was God. From outside, Mary was as ordinary as her messages, which contain the divine life that is offered to us. Seen from inside, the education that Mary gave was extraordinary in what is ordinary, perfect in every way and behaviour, because she was aware of the fact that she was humanly educating the Most Holy One. For such an education, it was necessary to have a perfect heart and a harmonious soul, which did not lack to the Immaculate full of grace.

Mary calls us to holiness. Holiness is what is extraordinary in the ordinary human life. It is well known that it is not so much the specialized teaching and knowledge, but the exemplary behaviour of the parents that educate the children. We find specialists in pedagogy who failed to educate their own offspring, as well as illiterate mothers who offered a splendid education to their children. A mother educates more through her being and her goodness than through her specialized knowledge.

Mary invites us to renew the prayer; the prayer will renew our hearts and our families. Jesus is standing at the door and he wishes to enter and eat with us. The family, which prays, will be able to hear when he is knocking. Let us not allow to anything else but Jesus to be at the centre of our families.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje 26.10.2004

Reflection on the Message of November 25, 2004

PRAY FOR MY INTENTIONS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje 26.11.2004

Reflection on the Message of January 25, 2005

PRAY FOR UNITY OF CHRISTIANS

“Dear children! In this time of grace again I call you to prayer. Pray, little children, for unity of Christians, that all may be one heart. Unity will really be among you inasmuch as you will pray and forgive. Do not forget: love will conquer only if you pray, and your heart will open. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of January 25, 2005

Today also, the compassionate heart of our Heavenly Mother is speaking to us. We are her children, and she knows well that we are still on the way towards our celestial fatherland. This is why she is coming to help us, so that we choose the way, which she took, to arrive where she is now.

Mary calls us to prayer. Prayer is the precondition of realisation of all that God can wish for us, of all that He wants to give us. There is not another way towards God and the gifts of God except prayer. This is why Saint Theresa of Avila said: “If somebody tells you that there is another way towards God except prayer, do not believe in it.” Mary repeats assiduously and unceasingly this first lesson of faith and walking towards God. Through her messages and her apparitions, she is showing that she is walking with us. She is our Mother and the Mother of the Church, and this is why she invites us to pray for the unity of Christians, so that all may be one heart. The Mother knows that this unity is possible and that we can and must implore it from God. This unity is a gift of God, a gift which He wants to grant to his children.

Today, on the feast of the conversion of Saint Paul, is ending the week of prayer for the unity of Christians. Our obligation, our prayer and our desire of unity of those who confess the faith in Christ should not however stop.

January 19, 2005, at the general audience of Wednesday, our Pope said: “Since the reconciliation of Christians exceeds human forces and possibilities, the prayer expresses the hope which does not disappoint, trust in God who makes all things new. Prayer must be accompanied by the purification of the intelligence, of feelings and of memories. The unity is a gift of God, and must be beseeched unceasingly in humility and in truth.”

Only Jesus Christ, the only foundation of the Church, can unite us. Saint Paul says this to us in his epistle to the Corinthians: “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.” (1 Co 3,11-14).

The Holy Spirit, which guides the Church, also inspires it to pray for the unity of Christians in Christ, because it is in Him that we are one.

Our Mother tells us that unity is possible, and that it will take place among us, insofar as we are ready to pray and to forgive. Mary also invites us to open our hearts, because God can come and bring his gifts only to an open heart. Prayer opens the human heart and makes it merciful and filled with compassion for all men, for each creature. Even in the midst of sufferings, prayer floods from such a heart, including for those who do evil. The world of today needs such hearts, opened and sympathizing, such prayers, which rise even in the midst of moaning.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje, January 26,2005

Reflection on the Message of February 25, 2005

PUT GOD IN THE FIRST PLACE IN YOUR LIFE

“Dear children! Today I call you to be my extended hands in this world that puts God in the last place. You, little children, put God in the first place in your life. God will bless you and give you strength to bear witness to Him, the God of love and peace. I am with you and intercede for all of you. Little children, do not forget that I love you with a tender love. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of February 25, 2005

Today also, the Virgin Mary is calling us. She is inviting us to be her “extended hands in this world”. She has extended, and she continues to extend her hands and her heart to us. She desires that we take her by the hand, that we open our heart to her and that we listen to her voice. The glance that we pose on her with the heart helps us to persevere on the path, on which we have to go, on the way that God intended for us. Mary, our Mother, desires to be present in our families, in our human relations, in our conversations through our life and our deeds. She is not expecting from us to do extraordinary things. She did not do any either. She fulfilled her work through simple and ordinary domestic services, but she was doing simple and insignificant things with an extraordinary love. The real greatness is not to do something extraordinary, but to do all that we do with an extraordinary love.

Mary was offering to the Lord small and daily deeds with love. In the privacy of her life, she wanted to please only the Lord. Her will did not waver. For her, God was in the first place, and this is why her life was entirely filled. This is why she is our Mother and our Teacher. As a Mother, she wants to wake us up, and to teach us that it is not important what we do, but how we do it.

Through this message also, she is encouraging us to put God in the first place in our life. When God is in the first place, all the rest finds its right place. The worst of all, it is that human beings have forgotten God, and all the rest that happens to us in life, are only the consequences of this. It is strange that human beings do not notice the creator and author of their lives. Even stranger is than human beings are able to turn away from God, and thus destroy themselves and those who are close to them.

If we put God at the first place, we will certainly find time for prayer, for the encounter with God. If we seek God sincerely, and if we do not know where to find Him, we must begin to pray, to pray daily. It will not always be easy, but it will be salutary. We find time for what we love. If we love ourselves, we will find prayer, the encounter with God who heals, who saves and who gives the strength to live and give witness in favour of God who is love and peace. Without God, we are weak and helpless, unable to forgive, to love and to give witness in favour of God who is alive and who languishes for us, his children. To believe in God means to abandon oneself to Him, to dare to jump into the arms of God. Then, we will experience that He is carrying us and maintaining every instant of our life.

Mary leads us to God, and she is promisins us her intercession and her presence. She offers us the love of her heart, the gentle, tender and salutary love. Let us ask Mary, not to be for us a remote and unknown being, but the Mother who is present and who does not refuse anybody who asks her help and her intercession. Let us listen to her in order to experience already here on earth, in our life and in our families, the foretaste of Heaven.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje, February 26,2005