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 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 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 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 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