Reflection on the Message of December 25, 2006

JESUS IS YOUR PEACE

“Dear children! Also today I bring you the newborn Jesus in my arms. He who is the King of Heaven and earth, He is your peace. Little children, no one can give you peace as He who is the King of Peace. Therefore, adore Him in your hearts, choose Him and you will have joy in Him. He will bless you with His blessing of peace. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of December 25, 2006

In the Christmas messages that the Virgin Mary has been giving us, she has spoken about peace and called us to it: “Dear children! Also today I bring you little Jesus, who is the King of Peace, in my arms to bless you with His peace. I call you to be my carriers of peace in this peaceless world. I am bringing Jesus, the King of Peace, to grant you His peace. Put the little Newborn Jesus in the first place in your life. In a special way I bless you, little children, with a blessing of little Jesus. Let Him fill you with His peace. ”

Christmas is the utmost manifestation of the love of God. “But when the goodness of God our Saviour and His love to man appeared” (Tit 3, 4). It is dew fallen from the sky at Christmas, tenderness raining from above.

Evangelist Luke describes that a great heavenly army joined the angel and praised God: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests” (Lk 2, 14). With their song the angels express the meaning of what happened, saying that the glory of God is materialized through the birth of the Child bringing peace to people. In the biblical sense peace refers to a whole of all things, particularly to forgiveness of sins and the gift of God’s Spirit. The biblical expression for peace is close to the expression “grace”. The peace granted by God stands for much more than a mere absence or elimination of wars and conflicts among men. It stands for a re-established, peaceful relationship of a son towards God, that is, in one word, salvation. Justified by faith – an Apostle says – we are in peace with God. In this sense, peace is identified with the very person of Christ. “For He Himself is our only peace” (Eph 2, 14).

The Virgin Mary continues coming and bringing us Jesus just as she did when she came and appeared on Apparition Hill for the first time, with the Baby Jesus in her arms. Our Lady’s words and presence are neither loud nor unusual or noneveryday. Her presence with us here and among us is hidden in the commonness of the human word and simplicity. God is revealing Himself in the commonness and simplicity of a child. Jesus remains with us dressed and hidden in the simplicity of the Eucharist bread. And it is precisely this simplicity where the omnipotence of God’s love and closeness resides. This greatness and omnipotence is capable of creating new life and transforming the hearts of men. The words of Our Lady are nothing new or unfamiliar. They are a reminder of the wisdom and truth of God’s word.

The Virgin Mary is full of grace and full of God. She has emptied herself completely in order for God to reside in her fully. She is all turned to God. Therefore, she speaks to us: “Adore Him in your hearts, choose Him, no on can grant you peace as He can, and you will have joy in Him.” Let this happen in our lives every day, not only at this Christmas.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medugorje, 26/12/2006

Reflection on the Message of December 25, 2004

I CARRY MY SON JESUS IN MY ARMS TO YOU

“Dear children! With great joy, also today I carry my Son Jesus in my arms to you; He blesses you and calls you to peace. Pray, little children, and be courageous witnesses of Good News in every situation. Only in this way will God bless you and give you everything you ask of Him in faith. I am with you as long as the Almighty permits me. I intercede for each of you with great love. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of December 25, 2004

Mary is joyful because she is coming from the joy, the glory, from the celestial fatherland, which we must still join. She appears because she wants that we also arrive and be where she is. Her maternal desire to see us where she is, is as great as the joy that she is carrying in her heart. As on the first day of the apparitions, today also, she is carrying in her arms Jesus, her Son and our Saviour. In her arms and in her heart, she is carrying God, she is giving him to us and she is leading us towards him. Mary, our Mother, desires that we also can hear and listen to the words of the angel, like the shepherds: “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” (Lk 2,10-11) The Saviour of the world is born for you and for me, for each person.

God is born, “and to as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.” (Jn 1,12)

Jesus is unique in all the history of humanity. Because he lived, because he existed, we do not have the right to despair, whatever our cross, our illnes and our suffering may be.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (Jn 3,16) God gave his Son Jesus to save you, to save me. God so much loved the world that he desired to become man and to take upon oneself human life, human sufferings, even death, to destroy it.

We celebrate Christmas, the birthday of Jesus. It is a day of joy and of blessing for the earth, for all humanity. Since his coming, nothing is the same any more in the history of humanity.

“The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.” (Is 9,1) We also, we can leave our darkness, our illnesses and our fears, because God came in our darkness, in our sins and in our illnesses to destroy them.

The birth of Jesus was neither pleasant, nor idyllic. He was born in a manger, among the animals, “because there was no room for them in the inn.” (Lc 2,7) The manger inside of us, it is the space in which live the animals. It is the space which we would like to hide of ourselves and of others. We are ashamed of it, because it is not clean and it does not smell good. But he wants to be been born today in the manger of our heart, where all is not perfumed or pleasant. But Jesus wants to come in our hearts, to illuminate everything by his blessing, by himself.

It is such a God that Mary, our Mother, brings to us and offers to us today. We can be united with Jesus, because he is within us. We have the possibility of becoming almighty by the faith in him, because he is the Almighty and the Highest. Then, we can become courageous witnesses of the presence of God, and his Almightiness on this earth, in our situations and in the circumstances in which we live.

The Mother is with us, and with her, we are in safety. We are under her protection and her intercession. Let us do all that we can to be day after day closer to the heart of Jesus and of Mary. Let us allow her to take us by the hand and lead us to peace that God gives us.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje, December 26, 2004

Reflection on the Message of May 25, 2003

PRAY TO THE HOLY SPIRIT

“Dear children! Also today I call you to prayer. Renew your personal prayer, and in a special way pray to the Holy Spirit to help you pray with the heart. I intercede for all of you, little children, and call all of you to conversion. If you convert, all those around you will also be renewed and prayer will be a joy for them. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of May 25, 2003

All along these years of apparitions, the Blessed Virgin Mary tells us with the same love and with the same exigency (or better insistence?): “Today I call you to prayer.” Into these few words, she has put her heart and all her love for us, her children. She aspires after our conversion; she desires it, so that we may be happy. She is neither predicting the future nor satisfying our human curiosity; she distinctly tells us what God wants of us today. Through her, God tells us what is most important – he tells us everything – because she gave birth to Christ, the Word of God.

“Renew your personal prayer.” Mary speaks to each heart individually. She does not address herself to the crowds, but to the individual, to the person, by name and first name. To you and to me. She knows well that the world can be changed only while beginning with the individual. Nothing will happen if we wait until the others change, until they become better, until they start to pray, to forgive, and to live their life and their faith more consciously and with more responsibility. It is much easier to change and to overcome others then oneself.

Prayer is a means that helps us to change ourselves. If our prayer does not change us, we should change our prayer and our manner to pray. The prayer has no meaning in itself if it does not transform us, if – through prayer – our heart is not growing, is not coming closer to God. This is why Our Lady tells us: “Pray to the Holy Spirit.” In the Letter to the Romans, Saint Paul tells us: “Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” (Rm 8,26)

A prayer says: “Come, Holy Spirit, come in our cities, in our homes, in our families, in our glances, in our hearts. Without you, we read books and do not become wise. Without you, we dialogue much and do not come closer to one another. Without you, reality consists in dry events, facts and numbers. Without you, our life falls apart into a succession of meaningless days. Without you, there is no fidelity. Without you, our thoughts become delirious. Without you, technology destroys us. Without you, churches become museums. Without you, prayer is just babbling. Without you, our smile becomes petrified. Without you, our environment becomes a desert. Come, Holy Spirit, our emptiness cries after your fullness! Come, Spirit Creator, make your dwelling in our world!”

We could and should continue to pray and to invoke the Holy Spirit to come, to descend on all the spaces of our life where He has not come yet. We need Him to come down and enter into our families, where there is incomprehension, ill treatment, exploitation and accusation. We need Him to come where there is hatred, blasphemy, drunkenness and immorality, where people are captive, bound by sin and despaired.

“If you convert, all those around you will also be renewed.” It is impossible that those around us remain unchanged, if we are on the way of conversion. This is why Gospa told us in the message of the last month: “Decide for God, that in you and through you He may change the hearts of people.”

For all these reasons, God sends us Mary, our Mother. Wherever she appears, the presence of the Holy Spirit ignites and flowers. Many people made this experience in Medjugorje, coming on pilgrimage with an open and contrite heart, with the desire to come closer to Jesus through Mary. Where there is Mary, there also is the Holy Spirit. She is the spouse of the Holy Spirit. We know it with certainty through the word of the angel Gabriel: “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Almighty will overshadow you.” (Lk 1,35) We also know it through the word of Jesus to the apostles, namely to remain in town waiting for the descent of the Spirit that was promised. Indeed, they received the Spirit, in the Last Supper room, united in prayer with Mary.

May the Pentecost that is approaching be not spiritless – without the Spirit of God whom God wants to give us through Mary.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje May 26, 2003

Reflection on the Message of June 25, 2003

RENEW MY MESSAGES EVEN MORE, WITH NEW ENTHUSIASM AND JOY

“Dear children! Also today, I call you with great joy to live my messages. I am with you and I thank you for putting into life what I am saying to you. I call you to renew my messages even more, with new enthusiasm and joy. May prayer be your daily practice. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of June 25, 2003

The Gospel is the Joyful News. Joy resounds in all its pages, because God has decided to visit and save his people. At the Visitation to Elizabeth, Mary cried out: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour!” (Lk 1,46) At the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel greets Mary with the words: “Hail (rejoice), full of grace… Do not be afraid, Mary: for you have found favour with God.” (Lk 1,28.30)

Today, Mary, Queen of Peace, speaks to us with great joy, and she wants us also to be joyful. To live her messages means to be led to true joy. To follow the voice of the Mother means to find a home and safety. To obey to her voice means to become more joyful, liberated and redeemed; friends of God, to whom Mary guides us. Her messages are like signposts on the road, so that we do not get lost. We need these signals to find an unknown place. However, if we remain still, we will never arrive. We have to start walking and to keep on walking. The way will perhaps not always be paved or straight, but it is important to walk. On the way, we will stumble, fall, bleed… but it is the goal that counts, God, the source of life, for whom our heart languishes.

Mary knows the way better than us; she knows Jesus better than we know him. The purpose of her messages is to make us join with and meet Jesus. Mary wants us to be joyful. Our joy is also her joy, just as our sufferings are also her sufferings.

Mary thanks us, whereas it is us who should thank her for her presence, her proximity, her patience. She loves us with a disinterested love, as if she was asking us: “May I love you? Will you allow me to lead you to life, to joy?”

Mary knows well the human heart. She knows that it glows easily, and that its enthusiasm disappears even more easily. This is why she told us: ‘Renew the enthusiasm of the first days of my coming’, and today, she tells us: “Renew my messages even more, with new enthusiasm and joy”. The first days and the first years of her coming were full of enthusiasm, of joy, of readiness to suffer and to give all for Our Lady and for God. However, narrow and selfish human interests enter easily into this small corner of Heaven that Mary offers to us here; interests that darken the eyes of our hearts, which, then, cannot recognize any more the Heaven that came to us, and that continues to come here, to Medjugorje, through Mary.

What occurs here is a gift from Heaven, a visitation of grace, which can remain fruitless for us if we do not receive it with a humble and open heart. We receive Mary in so far as we love our neighbours, in so far as the strength to support daily crosses grows in us. We receive Mary in so far as we are able to forgive more easily, to raise ourselves above the earthly dirt towards which our weakness attracts us, towards which this world draws us, offering much, but finally taking away everything.

Mary does not threaten us when she says: “A time will come when I will no longer be with you in this way”. The nearness of her heart, and of her soul means time of grace. This is why Mary, Queen of Peace, today, on this 22nd anniversary of her apparitions, attracted so many hearts and such crowds, who are hungry and thirsty for God. Mary knows to whom she is coming, but all the pilgrims, who came today and who came on pilgrimage to Medjugorje during all these years, also know to whom they are coming to. In Mary, they recognized their Mother, the Mother of the Saviour (like Elisabeth did), and they were not mistaken.

Today, Mary wants to awaken all the hearts that are asleep. She can do it and she wants to do it. She is doing it today. Let us help her, so that she can help us. Let us approach her by our daily prayer; because without prayer we cannot be close to her Heart and to the Heart of her Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Let us allow her to lead us to joy and peace – to Jesus. Let us allow her that.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje 26.6.2003

Reflection on the Message of July 25, 2003

ONLY IN THIS WAY EACH OF YOU WILL DISCOVER PEACE

“Dear children! Also today I call you to prayer. Little children, pray until prayer becomes a joy for you. Only in this way each of you will discover peace in the heart and your soul will be content. You will feel the need to witness to others the love that you feel in your heart and life. I am with you and intercede before God for all of you. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of July 25, 2003

Gospa, Queen of Peace and Mother of all men, is perseverant as all the mothers who want that their children walk on the right path into life. Mary, our Mother, does not want to remove from us the weight of the responsibility, of a personal and free choice of God, as she was never deprived from the free decision when she said to the angel: “Let it be done to me according to your word”. Mary, just like Jesus, treats us with much patience. While addressing herself to us, she never offends our freedom. In the Gospel, Jesus speaks in the form of parables, so that each one may freely and without any pressure decide for the Kingdom of God. Our Lady could appear without problem to all, but she wants to leave intact our freedom and our choice of God, who comes so close to us here through her. Today – as much as in the Gospels – we can despise this grace, leave it unused. God gives Himself to us completely freely and so simply. The messages of Our Lady, given during these 22 years of grace, speak precisely in favour of this simplicity.

Mary calls us also today, putting between our hands the same means: prayer. The means is always the same, but God is never the same. He never repeats himself. With Him, one is never bored. Only when we follow Him, we discover how little we know Him, how little we know ourselves. Prayer always leads to joy, more precisely to God who is the source of joy.

“Only in this way each of you will discover peace”, tells us Mary. There is no other way or other means to approach God. This is precisely the means, which appears most difficult today, and which one escapes mostly, finding thousand reasons and excuses. In front of oneself and of God, we can always recognize to oneself and to God how little we pray. We pray much less then our soul needs. As for our body, we can easily feel when it needs food. Our soul is hidden within us, and it is thus easier for us to neglect it. It arrives thus that it cries and shouts, and we forget and neglect it. Our body needs hygiene and bathing, and it is the same way with our soul. Only the One Who created it and Who knows it best can bathe it. We do not know ourselves enough, the others know us even less; God alone is the One who knows and who scrutinises the secrets of our hearts. If we neglect ourselves, we discover consequences: nervousness, dissatisfaction, restlessness, tension, incapacity to forgive and to live in joy. We ask then ourselves from where all can that may come? The reason is in the malnutrition and the negligence of our soul. Our Lady does not talk about possible negative consequences, but her words show us the way to God, all the positive, good and holy for which human heart yearns.

“You will feel the need to witness to others the love that you feel in your heart”, tells us Mary. The meaning of our seeking of God and of our coming closer to God is not to remain next to Him, which would be a spiritual selfishness. The meaning and the goal of our life is to carry God to others, to testify that He is a living God, and not a remote and hidden god. This is what Mary, our Mother, does during all these years. This is what she did after the encounter with the angel Gabriel: she carried Jesus to her cousin Elisabeth and was thus the first missionary of the love of God and of His Kingdom.

We are neither alone nor abandoned, ensures us Mary, our Mother. She is our intercessor and our advocate. No one who sought her intercession was ever forsaken. Let us entrust ourselves to her, let us entrust to her our families, in order to remain on the path of life.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje, July 26, 2003