I beseech you, Listen to My Messages and live them

I shall Offer My Peace to the world this year

The characteristic feature of Christmas up to now has been peace. Peace has been a characteristic of Medjugorje since the beginning, because Our Lady's main message is peace. I say "of Christmas up to now" because it is really which is the main theme this month because certain messages emphasize this reality and, at the same time, we have felt it within us.

Above all in the prayer group Our Lady asked for a long preparation for Christmas and promised the special grace of peace for Christmas. And everyone has felt it, has experienced it ; they really received peace, an inner certainty which leads forward. Then for the New Year vigil, there were two messages. One, through Jelena, in which Our Lady invited the prayer groups to make the New Year's vigil and to begin the year by praying the rosary. She said, 'Next year will be the year of peace ; not because men have called it so, but because God has planned it. You will not have peace through presidents, but through prayer.'

Then, through on of the little visionaries, during the New Year vigil, Jesus said, "When you hear the bells at midnight, kneel down, bow your heads to the ground because the King of Peace is coming. This year I shall offer my peace to the world, but afterwards I shall ask you where you were when I offered you my peace." This is why I said that the characteristic of this period is peace ; you can also see it through the messages that Jesus and Our Lady give to the prayer group and which always lead to a lasting depth of peace.

It is not a question of political peace, but a heartfelt peace which is given by God and from this root, from peace, spiritual life really springs forth.

One characteristic I have discovered about peace is humility, as an element of peace. Satan makes use of all the power in the world ; he really swells with pride, whereas whoever wants to fight with Our Lady against satan must also be humbled because victory does not come through our strength, but through God's strength. My humiliation does not impede God's actions. But rather if I, in my humiliation, accept with all freedom what God permits, then I offer myself to God and through my humiliation God is glorified.

You see, on the one hand, Our Lady is hymble, Our Lady knocks at the door of our hearts, She doesn't force us, She doesn't menace, She is sweet and humble ; on the other hand, satan menaces, swells up with pride, he is proud and makes use of all power.

If we want to live this peace of God and Our Lady, we must understand that we must accept all the humiliation and, when it seems to us that the powers of this world are stronger, we must abandon ourselves to God ; it is God who will win. Our spiritual life must be profoundly rooted in this reasoning otherwise we will not reach the depth of peace because by our efforts and our strength we cannot carry Medjugorje forward.

Lately I have discovered in a special way, and I wish to stress this, that we are not able to change hearts by human reasoning, or even by human logic. All that the doctors are doing is to tell the world that the visionaries are sound of mind and body and that the apparitions go beyond medical science ; all this is logic, but this doesn't change men's hearts. Hearts can be changed only through God's grace. So we must remain humble in the depth of our soul, praying and fasting, not worrying because things are not going in the logical way we want them to go, but waiting for victory and God's glory even when we are incapable of doing anything.

Recently two pictures came to my mind. The picture of Pharaoh who refuses to accept the miracles ; he sees the sea divide into two and enters it. I cannot understand this hardness of heart, because he is going to his death.

We can change this hardness of heart through prayer and love, because God, who is able to change hearts, acts through prayer and love. The second picture which comes to my mind is Jesus in the Garden of Olives. He who is able to perform miracles offered Himself, became humble, powerless, and helpless. I think this picture is the opposite of the picture of Pharaoh.

Jesus puts all his miraculous powers in God's hands and takes a step, the last step in spiritual life : the offering of his own life, with humility. I believe that each one of us must take the following step if we want to be true pilgrims, even if the powers of this world overwhelm us or repress us : we must offer our lives in peace, and continue to live our offer in humility. Only in this way will God be glorified in us.

I feel that this is very important, because we are all ready to fight for Our Lady, to argue, to draw logical conclusions, to use human reasoning ; but all this is of little importance.

We must ponder, we should also bring human discernment ; but in the end it is God who is acting and, when we have no human strength, there again we must remain in peace, certain that God will win.

We all want success, success on earth ; but there will be no success on earth : only those who offer themselves, as Jesus offered Himself, will reach success in Heaven. Here on earth the only success is to offer our life so that our brother may be saved.

(Fr. Tomislav Vlasic - 8th Feb. 1986)

Do not prevent Jesus from loving you

You are going home from Medjugorje and I believe that your task is to be witnesses of Easter and the Resurrection. On this occasion I want to tell you that you must be aware that the Christian is the only person capable of bringing hope to the world. By now we all know that the whole world analyses its problems and complains about them, but cannot find the way out of them. By his Resurrection Jesus has shown us the way and has given us the strength to find the way out.

If you have followed the Sunday passages from the Gospel this year, you will be able to see that Jesus has a way out for everyone; for a public sinner, for the prostitute, for the poor, for the prodigal son, for the thief who was on the cross next to Him, for everyone. He has shown us the way out, but at the same time has given us the strength to fine it and this is the guarantee for our hope.

And He has also given us another means; He has sent Our Lady who has come to meet us along the road to make it clear to us how to go towards Our Father, and to help us.

This is the heart of the matter, so that we can live in hope and bring hope to our brothers. What I want to say to you is that you must be witnesses of the Resurrection, and when I say this I mean that you must carry the peace of the Risen Lord within you, the joy, the hope, the certainty, a new life. With this new life in you, you will bring the Resurrection to your brothers. This is what Our Lady has come for, to bring us to the Resurrection and to that Easter which we will celebrate in Heaven.

In order to live this hope along the way, I want to stress prayer once again, from various points of view.

When we consider what Our Lady has done during this period of the apparitions at Medjugorje, we can say that we have been at a school of prayer. If we want to be her disciples then we must enter the school of prayer and live prayer.

On this occasion, I want to talk to you about three aspects of prayer, so that you will be able to become witnesses of hope. The first aspect is that your prayer must meet the Risen Christ, just as the Apostles did during this Easter time when each meeting with Jesus was the resurrection for them. For us, too, each prayer must be the moment of resurrection and the moment of a meeting with God.

In her last but one message, Our Lady said that we must be active in our prayer. She stressed the fact that I personally must be active in prayer; I must meet Jesus personally with all my inner needs. This is the personal meeting; so, if I meet God who loves me, who comes to meet me, who wants to save me, then I have to meet the Risen Jesus and all within me is resurrected. This is why I am inviting you to live personal prayer. When I say personal prayer I am thinking of the Rosary because in those mysteries I have expressed myself with my whole personality.

Try to live prayer as a personal meeting with Jesus and then you yourselves will arise in each prayer and the strength of the Risen Jesus will be more and more present within you.

There are two other means you should consider in order to reach the depth of prayer.

One of these means was pointed out to us in the prayer group by Jesus, half way through Lent, when He urged us to turn to Our Lady to ask for the gift of silence. You are able to learn continuous prayer with the gift of silence.

I invite each one of you, to ask for this gift of silence from the Virgin and to live it so that all of you may live continuous prayer. What does it mean to live continuous prayer ? It means meeting Jesus personally, with all my needs; when I can rest in God in my prayer; when I can smile with God; when I can gain strength in God; when the whole of my personality receives new energy.

In silence I am able to practise this prayer. if you begin to reflect and to experience what peace is and what silence is, you will discover everything there by means of prayer.

Prayer must advance within us and it can be deepened only to the extent that there is the peace and silence of the Risen Jesus in us, because the silence and peace of the Risen Jesus guarantee a continuity for us. Our inner strength is not wasted, but increases more and more. You can compare people who enjoy themselves in a pagan way; that joy wearies and has its end, whereas the joy that springs forth from a deep an continuous silence is eternal.

This is why Jesus invited us to live prayer from this inner silence which leads us to continuous prayer.

There is not a great deal to say about this aspect because you yourselves well know how the endless rush of everyday life keeps you from prayer. On the other hand, if you enter silence every day and into Divine peace, then your daily rush will lessen because you will rely more on God and it will not be you trying to do everything, but you will allow God to sort things out and you will find time to rest, because God is acting for you.

This is marvellous; when you give everything to God and when you abandon yourself to God, it is God who abandons Himself to you.

The third means by which to achieve prayer is to reach the Cross of the Risen Jesus. I recently read a poem about suffering: Two shells met, one large and powerful, the other which sighed, 'There is suffering inside me, I feel a great pain.' Then an animal passed by who replied, 'Do not complain because you have conceived a pearl inside you. You will become mother-of-pearl.'

If we discover that every suffering inside us is a pearl, that through every pain we can become mother-of-pearl, we will be able to discover the strength derived from the Resurrection. If we do not discover the possibility that our sufferings can become mother-of-pearl, then we have not allowed God to reach us by means of his Resurrection and we have kept many areas within us from the strength of the Resurrection.

Jesus came especially for the weak, He came for sinners, He came for the suffering; He came to save. If we do not offer our crosses and our suffering to the Risen Jesus then we have not offered anything and have not opened ourselves. So the depth of our prayer will be the depth of our acceptance of the Cross. If we accept our crosses in the light of Jesus Christ, then there will be a total transformation within us.

On 22nd March, at the end of the meeting of the prayer group, before the blessing, Our Lady told us, "Dear children, you will be able to accept Divine love only to the extent in which you understand that in your crosses God is offering you his immense love."

The wise old saints used to tell us, 'Those who are chastised by God are loved by Him in a special way.' When God offers suffering, He also offers great love.

At this point I would like to tell you not to prevent Jesus from loving you. If you want to run away from your crosses then you are not allowing God to love you. Accept all your crosses. I say this to you from a personal point of view so that each one of you may be able to accept God's cross with joy.

Our Lady said something wonderful to us during Lent. In a message, She said, "Carry your crosses with joy, carry your crosses immediately. Do not complain. Your hearts must flower with your crosses."

This is the strength of the Resurrection, and it is the strength of hope.

(Tomislav Vlasic - 31st March 1986)

Dear children, you forget that you are all important

I will read to you last Thursday's message and try to explain it in the context of all the other messages, "Dear children, you forget that you are all important. The elderly are especially important in the family. Urge them to pray. Let young people be an example to others by their lives, let them give witness to Jesus. Dear children, I beseech you, begin to change through prayer and you will know then what you need to do. Thank you for having responded to my call."

The apparitions show us in a practical way how to go towards peace and how to achieve peace. I think all of us can find the answer to 'why am I here' ? from this fact. Perhaps because I believe that this place, over the last five years, has become a place of prayer, of fasting, of re-awakening of faith, where peace is found, where it is possible to live reconciliation with God and other people.

In her first five messages, Our Lady said "Prayer". Since last March, 1984, She has been giving us a message every Thursday. When we read these messages it can be seen that no message is without this strong invitation to "Pray".

Naturally we must ask ourselves why there is this invitation to pray. If you read the messages you will understand the reason. Our Lady repeats many times, "Pray and you will have all you desire", "Pray and you will have peace, a deeper joy, you will overcome your tiredness, you will have love, strength for reconciliation", and much else.

Many people have discovered something very important here : that they can pray and that they have time for prayer.

Many of us caught up in the hectic routine of our modern world lose the time to pray and may people excuse themselves, "I haven't enough time". It would be more honest to say, "I don't see the need for prayer." We can't see the value of prayer any more. Thinking of all of us who wish for peace, wish to love and be loved, it is true what Our Lady is telling us, "Pray and you will have all of this." And what do we do ? We leave prayer, we haven't got time for it, we believe that we can resolve everything with our money, by our devices, and I don't know what else. This is a great mistake, also in the lives of us Christians.

But when we discover the value of prayer, then we find the time for prayer and we start again to organise our life with God.

This is our conversion. This is the significance of the words in the messages where Our Lady says, "Abandon yourselves, let yourselves be guided by me."

In her last but one message, She said, "You are too preoccupied with material goods, and in these goods you lose everything that God wishes to give you."

In other words, in the first place in your lives there is not God, love of God, or peace ; material goods take the first place.

Naturally, if we do not meet each other through our hearts, but with our money, our muscle, our heads, then conflicts and wars must follow. I would like to explain to you that Our Lady has never spoken against our belongings, against our money or against our work, never. But She has spoken many times about changing our relationship with all our possessions and finding a new order of values in our lives. This is what the apparitions are for, to produce this new order of values in our life. God is not inviting us, through Our Lady, to lose something, but to change our values in the light of our faith. This is why Our Lady is always telling us, "Pray". Without prayer, this change is not possible. But not all prayer helps us to change our lives and to bring harmony to them. You know that Jesus told us not to pray as the pagans do, only with our lips, but to pray from the heart; seeking first of all the will of God and the Kingdom of Heaven and then all else will be given to us.

Here Our Lady is inviting us to heartfelt prayer and asks that it be active prayer, that the words be active. She said, "I invite you once again to pray."

What does heartfelt prayer mean ? It means feeling the words of God in our heart and allowing ourselves to be moved by these words. Do God's words move me or not ? What does it mean to me when God says, "I give you my love", "I give you My Body", "Here is My Word for you", and from the Cross, "Here is your Mother. Here is your son", "Be reconciled to your neighbour", "Love your neighbour, love your God above all else, love yourself, do not destroy yourself". If these words leave us indifferent and if we continue to find excuses it means that our prayer is not active, it cannot move us and we are closed. Or, in other words, what does the Cross mean for you in your family ? When you look at it does it invite you to love and to reconciliation ? Does it help you not to blaspheme and not to use swear words ? Does it help you to love your neighbour ? Does it help you to accept Our Lady ? To pray or not ?

If we continue to behave selfishly in front of the Cross, if we affirm that we cannot forgive when someone has offended us, then it means that the Cross is silent and is no longer speaking to us. Our Lady, by inviting us to pray, want us to be touched by God's Word once again, and not to be afraid in the face of these things. Like a Mother, Our Lady invites us, "Do this and you will receive all that you need." In one of her messages, She said, "I know that you want to live all that I tell you, but you are not able to do so because you haven't yet started praying."

In this message too, we have an example of whether the word moves us or not: Our Lady said, "Dear children, you forget that all of you are important." These words said by Our Lady are serious. She is telling each one of us personally, "You are important."

Sometimes we talk about inferiority complexes in psychology; how many people, especially amongst the young, have lost the meaning of life, of sacrifice, of love and many other aspects and do not want to live life and so the way is opened for drugs, alcohol, crime and all that is negative. Our Lady says to each one of us, "You are important". I believe that these words must heal our soul and our heart of every fear and worry. We are important for Our Lady and important for each other.

If we accept thsi and begin to live it, who will dare to hate someone any more, or with hate destroy someone ? What parent will dare to fight or get divorced if they become important to each other, and if their children become important to them ? Look how important what Our Lady is telling us is. In the Kingdom of Heaven no one can be idle because no human being refuses love.

So, if I make up my mind to love I will always have much to do. Do not complain that you do not have any work to do. You have work. Many people are waiting for your help, a word from you, and your presence.

In this message we have an example, "The elderly are especially important in the family." Guided by this message, I often ask myself and I ask you too, when did we last tell some elderly person in the corner of our home, or in the family: you are very important ? Perhaps because we have never said this they have lost every desire in life, and all joy in it. Many of them have lived in the belief that someone is of value if they work, and after retiring they lose the meaning of living, they lose joy, and they feel of no importance.

Look at how Our Lady is educating us, how she wants to open our eyes to each other's needs. From my words, perhaps from the words of a young person, depend the parents' joy ; and from the words of a parent depend the children's lives. So you see how important we are to each other, the life of another person can rwally depend on me, on you. If we discover these values life will change and perhaps we will have a new chance to discover and realise the nonsense of our fights, our hate, our envy, of our being closed and looking just for something for ourselves.

Our Lady said for the elderly people, "Urge them to pray." These words must be understood in connection with the last words of this message, "Begin to change through prayer and you will know then what you need to do." Through this message, prayer is once again a way to discover that I am important, that you are, that each on if us is. Through prayer, we can discover what we must do.

In her last but one message, She said, "Dear children, I want to guide you completely." Why say, I don't know what to do ? I am frightened. If Our Lady tells us seriously, "I want to guide you completely", we must give Her our hand. I am sure that by coming here this is what you want to do.

And now a few words for the young people. Our Lady is asking a lot from you. She said, "Let young people be an example to others by their lives, and let them give witness to Jesus."

If you ask me how to give witness, I say "Try". How can you be an example for Jesus ? By testifying. Jesus has invited us to live a life full of joy, of love for everyone, and life full of peace and a heart ready to bring peace. Jesus has invited us all to forgive when we are offended and not to be revenged; He has invited us to develop the gifts we have been given by God, and this is particularly valid for young people. You have many possibilities of developing them. In the life of a young person, all laziness, all letting one's self go is really a sin against the Holy Spirit. Our Lady has suggested two days' fasting and prayer; why ? Not in order to annihilate us. If a trainer wants to get the young people in his team ready, he doesn't to reduce them to nothing, but to prepare them in order to have a good team for the new season. In the same way, Our Lady is asking certain things in order to prepare you young people to be able to face up to life, not to make you tired. We elderly can also be young on one condition, to be young in our spirit and soul. Someone who wants to renew his life doesn't lose hope, and even if difficulties come remains youthful.

What does Our Lady want of us ? She wants to help us to open our hearts to peace, be ready to live the fullness of life; then it doesn't matter how old we are.

We must be ready to open ourselves in prayer; as I open myself when I am with a friend, so I open myself to God. If I don't spend time with someone, I will never open myself up; and it is the same with prayer.

Now I beseech you all to begin to change yourselves by prayer. I have already told you that Our Lady is asking for active prayer ; this means that She is inviting us to be changed. If we accept the Word of God with our heart then it will speak to us. The condition required to accept it with a new heart is prayer. If you read the messages you will realise that this is repeated in other words in every message.

But there is another important means available to us and that is fasting. It is a speciality ofr Our Lady. All our cookery recipes have become very complicated, but Our Lady has remained just a two thousand years ago; She has not changed the recipes of her kitchen which She is suggesting to us in our modern world where we have everything available. She says : the ideal is bread and water. But the stress is on bread.

When we come to Italy we find your specialities and, when you come to Medjugorje, you find this speciality. Why ? Our Lady is not asking us for fasting because She is happy if we are hungry. This is not so. This is the chance to live on bread and it is an aspect, perhaps the first which we should discover, the eucharistic aspect of this fasting. By living on bread for two days a week we will discover how important bread is and by discovering our daily bread we will more easily be brought to realise our eucharistic bread. This will come to us step by step, slowly.

Fasting has its own value; it serves as a means, it serves us for our faith, for our prayer, for love and for reconciliation.

In the Beatitudes Jesus said that those who are poor of heart before God are blessed. He did not say blessed are those who do not have anything, but those who are poor of heart. We can interpret this as meaning blessed are all those who feel a need for God. This is what being poor means, that is, open.

Today, the editors of Spot (a local magazine) asked Vicka how Our Lady guides her, how she could describe Our Lady: friend, mother, unapproachable being from above; Vicka described her in the loveliest way, "Mary is Mother".

Afterwards they asked her, "What do you like most about this Mother?" She said, " Her exceptional goodness and tenderness. She is a Mother who loves everyone and wants us all to be saved, the whole of humanity."

I tell you this because we must understand that everything Our Lady offers us, She offers to us as a mother who has understood and taken seriously the words of Jesus, "Here is your son." She has kept these words in her heart. They are words which have moved Our Lady. If someone says, "She is asking a lot, it is not possible", we must accept. Our Lady loves us and this is why She is inviting us and I am sure that by coming here you will have understood and accepted her voice and will wish to continue.

I am inviting you. Our conversion will never be finished. So, be patient with yourselves. Conversion means growing in love, in peace, and in the spirit of prayer and penance.

Who of us is able to say that they have already grown enough, cannot love any more and cannot grow any further in faith ?

(Fr. Slavko Barbaric - 26th April 1986)

Opening our heart to the Holy Spirit leads us to deep understanding

A few explanations about the messages. Whilst I was praying for you pilgrims today I searched for God's Word and found these words in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 13, verse 26, "Brethren, you who are sons of Abraham, and you others who fear God, this message of salvation is sent to you. The people of Jerusalem, like their rulers, did not recognise Jesus for what he was; unwittingly they fulfilled, by condemning Him, those utterances of the prophets which they had heard read, Sabbath after Sabbath ... "

And then in verse 41, "Look upon this, you scornful souls, and lose yourselves in astonishment. Such wonders I am doing in your days, that if a man told you the story you would not believe him."

Dear brothers, I want us to be able at least to understand how to go towards today's Feast Day. All Israel knew the Scriptures and the Law; the priests and Pharisees, in particular, really knew the Scriptures, but when Jesus Christ came their eyes were closed to Him. Why ? If you want to know why, read Our Lady's last message again, when Our Lady called us to give Her our hearts so She can change them to be like her Heart. If we want to go on, we can see that the Apostles followed Jesus Christ for three years, and during that time they saw many signs, miracles, healings and even resurrections, but they still did not believe completely in Jesus. Let us go further along the story of salvation; for forty days the Apostles met the Risen Christ, they touched Him and they ate with Him. They saw Him but they did not believe in Him completely. Today's Feast is the day when God's Word is accepted from the very depth. You see, all the signs of salvations were not sufficient for the people; but opening our heart to the Holy Spirit leads us to deep understanding.

What do I want to tell you today ? You, too, be converted. I, too, must be converted today, this very day. If you have already been here and think you are converted, you are making a mistake; you are closed to God. Today we recall how the Apostles, locked in the upper room, waited for Jesus because they felt their own weakness; they were waiting for what Jesus had promised them, they were waiting for the Holy Spirit.

All the signs which happened here in Medjugorje are not sufficient to convert you, and I have seen that they are not even enough to convert the visionaries; they are not sufficient to convert people who have seen many signs in the sky, and have not been sufficient even for those who have been going to Mass each evening during the past five years.

They are only sufficient for those who have opened their hearts. The Apostles spent nine days in prayer while they were waiting for the Holy Spirit. Do you know which is the most profound message Our Lady has given us ? 'Pray, pray, pray'. Through prayer you will understand the significance of Our Lady's presence. If you understand Our Lady's presence, you will understand the Divine plan given to humanity through Her. If we are not whole-heartedly converted, if we do not listen to God's Word, and if we do not start to pray we cannot understand Jesus. I will share with you my experience. When I remain in prayer for hours I am able to say, "God, I understand". When I do not pray enough then I am disturbed, worried and see problems, but as soon as I live the reality of the Gospel again with an open heart I am able to say, "God, I understand, thank you. Give me strangth, because now I understand."I do not want to repeat everything Our Lady had said in these five years, but I want to say that these five years here in Medjugorje are years in the school of prayer, nothing else. The school for learning to pray and to start to pray. Our Lady has called us to frequent Mass, to Communion, monthly confession, to pray the whole Rosary each day, and to read the Scriptures. You have already heard all this just as I have, but when I got up earlier this morning to contemplate the Word of God and to open myself to the Holy Spirit I said to myself, "Up to now I have not understood. Just this morning I understand better." By praying more I understand more of what God means.

This evening I want to explain to you the attitude of peace and joy. While I was praying to the Holy Spirit this morning, the Lord made me remember that I must stay in silence, not asking for anything bu must remain in silence waiting for God; not thinking of anything, but remaining before God as Elijah did in the cave on Horeb. Our Lady made me remember this, 'Do not pray today, today you must praise God'. But inside myself I said ,"Mother, how is it possible not to pray when you have given me many Rosaries to pray each day ?" Again I received an admonition; that is, Our Lady made me remember what She had said in a message to the group, 'I have taught you that your prayer must be a continuous melody'. So this morning I understood that prayer must become a melody, it must become music. When our prayer becomes melody, music, then prayer becomes easy; we can pray continuously and prayer is transformed into life which is a melody. Two women came to my parish last week. One of them had already come two weeks earlier; she had been upset because she couldn't sleep and had fainting fits. I talked to her and then introduced her to silent prayer before God, to desire truly what Our Lady told us to read each Thursday, that is the passage from the Gospel of St. Matthew 6,24-34. I taught this woman not to worry but to entrust her life and the lives of her husband and children to God. The following week the woman returned, quite changed, bringing with her another family, another woman with her husband and three children, all as disturbed as she had been.

When I began to pray and to speak with them I realised the only problem that exists in that family is the fact that the woman worries about everything. I tried to bring her to an attitude of abandonment to God but she resisted, defending herself with, "But I must do this, I must do that." She was not able to listen to God, and I do not know how it will end up. I saw the consequences of her worrying on her children and husband. Now, brethren, if you have come here to listen to Our Lady and God, please listen to them; do not be worried. Brethren, you cannot accept what God is offering you if you are worried, because you are looking for something egoistic or material, you are worried about this earthly life, and you are not able to accept Him. If you want to open yourselves to the Holy Spirit during this Feast of Pentecost, accept this message, begin to pray and follow the path of prayer, so that, little by little, you will be able to understand Jesus and reach an inner silence in which to listen to Him. If you are in silence to listen, you will be able to accept. If you are not in silence, you will not be able to understand what God is offering you. I implore those of you who have come to Medjugorje many times to folow silent prayer, prayer of peace, and there you will find God and God will make everything clear to you and will offer you all you need. Silence before God is a sign of trust and our abandonment to Him. If you are able to offer all things to God and to wait for God without all your worries, you will soon make progress in spiritual life.

This morning I felt within me the need to praise God today. A long time ago I read a book by an Anglican priest who wrote that he had had a vision of many people going up towards Heaven but when they reached a cloud they fell down to earth again. The author said that he too felt he wanted to go up but when he reached the cloud he felt faint; however, a power held him, raised him up, and made him pass above the cloud. Then he asked God this question, "Lord, why does everyone fall down and not go beyond the cloud ?" The Lord answered, 'Because they do not praise God in their difficulties." People did not go beyond the cloud because they did not praise God in their difficulties. Brethren, recently while hearing confessions, I perceived that many go home with empty hands because they do not know how to recognise God as the Lord of their difficulties. They close up, wanting what they want, and when they see difficulties thay begin to complain and go no further. If you want to overcome your difficulties start praising God in the midst of them. You must recognise that God is Lord and Master of your difficulties. If your heart praises God then say, 'Thank you, Lord, You are master of these problems. You can change them. I know that You will deal with them better than I can. I praise You and I thank You. I trust You completely because You are love, You came on earth to save us'. If your heart is able to give praise in your difficulties, you will be an express train to Heaven and no difficulty, not even death, not even a sword, as St. Paul says, will be able to separate you from God.

Today, during the Feast of Pentecost, I invite you to put this into practice; pray so that you may reach silence in your heart, not to listen to yourself and your problems, but to listen to what the Gospel tells us and what God suggests in our hearts. Above all, pray that you may understand the messages of peace, trust and total abandonment in order to reach complete openness to God. Start praising God in your difficulties and recognise him as Master of them; He who is guiding everything. Then you will soon grow in spiritual life.

A week ago, at the start of the Novena of Pentecost, Our Lady told us in the group, "You will be happy if you do not judge yourselves according to your faults, but if you understand that in your faults even graces are offered to you." So you see, not only difficulties but also our mistakes offer us the means of progress, to understand and deepen our love of God and our neighbour. If we are able to reach this state of inner peace, of silence, of continuous joy, and of recognising God as the Lord of our difficulties, soon we will blossom like flowers.

Our Lady did not come by chance to give us the gift of peace. In today's Gospel Jesus continually tells the Apostles, 'Peace be with you.' The Gospel tells us repeatedly, 'Do not worry, have faith.' You have not come here mainly for external signs but, above all, you have come here to change your hearts. The signs Our Lady gives us here are only invitations to open our hearts. If you are able to open yourselves to the Holy Spirit, He will teach you everything. As Jesus said, 'I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now.'

This evening God is before us, He will come in our midst and practically says, 'I want to offer you much.' I ask you, 'Are you ready to accept it ?' You will only be ready if your hearts are open, if you have made a very good confession, if you are open towards God, if you have not come here only for healing or for the solution to some problem, but to find Jesus Christ, to recognise eternal life and to understand that we will live eternally. If you open yourselves in this way to God, then you can receive the other gifts too. 'I still have many things to say to you' said Our Lord, 'but they would be too much for you now.'

During the five years that Our Lady has been present in Medjugorje there has been a continuous invitation, "Pray, pray, pray, be converted." It means being more open to receive more.

Dear pilgrims who are here for the first time, place yourselves before God in all seriousness, and before these happenings and Our Lady who is appearing every day. Take this seriously so that these happenings can urge you each day to pray, to contemplate, and to live prayer in deep silence where you will receive a new strength from the Holy Spirit. Start out seriously and accept that God is the God of your tragedies and the tragedies of the world. He will put everything in order. Praise God, praise Him continuously. If at this moment it were possible for me, I would take each one of you and put you in front of God, in silence, for hours and hours so that each one of you could remain in silence, open out, and enjoy the presence of the Holy Spirit.

On Christmas evening, you know how you celebrate Christmas and how open everyone is, Our Lady said to Jelena a little critically, "Not one of you has remembered to stay alone a while in silence to experience God's presence."

You see, everybody was celebrating, but Our Lady chastises, "Not one of you has stayed alone in slience to experience God's presence." I invite you this evening, especially during this time when you are in Medjugorje, to seek moments of silence, also in your hotel rooms, to listen to God rather than the priest, and to listen to Him in your heart. The Holy Spirit will remind you of everything that you have heard, even years ago, and it will become clear to you; you will understand it, and these happenings will not remain closed to your eyes.

(Fr. Tomislav Vlasic - 18th May 1986)

Mirjana had a rather special meeting on the 4th June. We wanted to know more about that meeting and about the special meetings she had had, but the girl told us only this , "The great events contained in the secrets are near to mankind. Be converted, do not be afraid of death, because death is only a transition towards a better life." We noticed that the girl was very sad during these special apparitions, in fact several times she wept when she saw these secrets as if in a film. She explained to us that the warnings to mankind are very serious and at times hard, "therefore, I began to cry", but she then added, "in spite of these difficulties and this severity of the warnings, I always felt strong with Our Lady because a powerful force comes from her face, a life-giving force. I very much miss these special apparitions."

Our Lady continues to appear. I do not want to explain to you whether these apparitions are a fact or not. You have books and in particular the medical dossier where you can reach a scientific certainty that the ecstasies are a fact. It is another matter for those who believe because matters of faith cannot be shown by scientific conclusions. I would now like to pause and say something on the level of faith, as to how to accept these events, these apparitions of Our Lady.

In these last five years, every message of Our Lady bore the message of prayer, an invitation to conversion and an invitation to seek God. To seek God means to practise prayer. Sacramental life is prayer, fasting is prayer.

In last Saturday's message to the prayer group, Our Lady said : "Dear children, this is the last moment for you to begin in earnest to be converted, time is passing by, but many of you are still the same. You are only able to be converted through prayer."

She then added : "I do not wish that you will be the ones who in the last moment cry out, 'Jesus save us' : I want you to be full of peace, joy and that you may go ahead as if to a wedding." You see this last message to the prayer group is something fundamental, it places us in front of the reality of the meeting with Christ. If we now want to understand this message of prayer we must welcome this meeting with Jesus Christ.

I have repeated many times Our Lady's message : "Many pray, but do not enter into prayer." You see, if we through prayer, whatever prayer we say, do not reach this peace, this joy, this inner certainty, it means that our prayer is not working properly. At this meeting I only wish to outline some of the concrete elements - what does it mean to pray ? We accept the part of the Virgin Mary ; She was ready for that meeting with the Angel, She was immaculate, free from sin, ready. We must take this step in order to enter into prayer. To be freed from sin means to practise penance, to go to confession, express (a) deep and substantial act of contrition.

I truly discover in a decisive way that this is my sin, it prevents me from being happy or recollected in prayer, one thing or another are these obstacles which prevent me from being with God. I must then free myself from these obstacles because it is sin which prevents me from entering into communion with God.

Once I have done this in a really decisive way, namely to eliminate these obstacles, only then can I be in touch with God and take the next step. But not even the next step, which I will show you, was enough for the Blessed Virgin Mary and cannot also be enough for us. Even listening to a message attentively is not sufficient to know that message. It was not enough for the Blessed Virgin Mary to see the Angel or receive the Word. She acted, She started praying, "How can this be ?" She took steps forward. When you come to Medjugorje and say, 'Yes, I believe in these apparitions', this is not enough, it cannot satisfy you, you must take steps forward.

'What is your will, O Lord, for me ? What must I do ? Enlighten me concerning my problems, give me light. I want to understand your will here and now, for my family, for my marriage, I want to understand all this.'

If we do not take these steps forward, if I do not succeed in truly understanding the presence of God, and if I do not understand what God is telling me, my prayer is useless. I meet the living God and must receive the answer which is for me. If my prayer lasts for hours and hours, days and days and I do not reach this inner certainty, this light, my prayer does not bear fruit, That is why Our Lady says, "Many pray but do not enter into prayer."

On this level many people are stopped and fail to progress; there are those who have problems and when they go to Medjugorje do not ask themselves what is God's will, but immediately ask, 'Give me healing, give me this or that grace.' There is no inner opening of the heart and as a consequence if we do not wish it, the will of God cannot be manifested. Every prayer of ours must take this step and consequently every prayer of ours will increase the light within us and God's will becomes ever more evident. If we do not do this in our prayers we remain with only empty words, words which do not reach God. These words according to the Scriptures are dangerous as they put us on the road to becoming as the Pharisees.

Now, even if we have taken this step to discover the will of God we have not brought our prayer to conclusion. Our prayer must continue, it must take the last step, 'Your will be done'. Whoever does not put this into practise does not finish his prayer. I have often met people who live in a well of evil. For them to go to monthly confession is to climb up to the edge of the well, to see a bit of sky and the next day they fall down again. Or people - it may be in prayer groups or various movements - who when they meet, they find an immense joy, they are really happy, but on returning home they are the same, completely empty.

Why are they empty ? Because they do not put prayer into practise. "May it be done according to Thy will" said the Blessed Virgin Mary. And She did just this. Why do not Christians bear effective witness to atheists ? Because for them neither prayer nor faith is a reality. Yesterday a preacher said, 'The danger for our faith is not because there are declared atheists, nor because there are people who have left their faith. The real danger of faith lies in those Christians who say 'I believe', but their faith does not change, nor their own lives nor the lives of others.' I believe and I am convinced that this change of life can only come from prayer which is lived and practised. I must discover in prayer the will of God, I must accept it and try in every way to put it into practise. Without this journey into faith, this path of prayer, we are unable to advance in our spiritual life. It is for this reason that in the last message to the prayer group Our Lady said: "Time passes but many remain the same." They remain the same because they utter words but do not live them, they do not live their prayer. If one does not take these steps in prayer then it amounts to the attitude of crying out, 'Lord, help me, but why do you not come to my aid ?' It is always a cry, 'Help me'. Our Lady, instead, in a message says, "Do not remain with paralysed hands and do not repeat 'Jesus, help me', but open your hands and accept all that God offers you." When we advance in our prayer we discover that everything is at our disposal, that we can take it, just as in our family we take our food and everything we need. So long as we do not follow this attitude of faith we are unable to feel that interior peace and we are always like those who cry out but never obtain anything.

People pray, but do not receive and ask themselves, 'Why does God not comply ?''Why is He so hard of heart ?' God is not hard, but I am hard. I talked to a boy for two consecutive evenings; the first evening I explained to him the way how to open up to God. The next day he returned and said, 'I have prayed, but God has not complied, He has not answered anything, He is hard.' So then I began to be severe and said, 'Do not offend my Lord. You are continuously offending Him. What has changed in your life during the last month ? The Lord is telling you to be converted, change your life, open your heart, leave behind your worries. What have you left behind ? What have you done ? ' I began to be severe and said, ' Do not offend my Lord. if you go to confession with this attitude it is offensive. It is offensive to the Lord.'

We all commit these offences against the Lord to a certain extent. He is hard, He does not answer. What could Christ have done more than He did ? He sacrificed Himself and remains at our disposal, even at this very momentwhen He has sent His Mother to give us warning, to show us the path to our salvation. What more can we expect ? So the problem is to move our hearts. If I say my prayers but do not listen, my prayer is not right. Therefore, the figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary in front of the Angel must always be in front of us as an image by which we must learn how to pray. We must purify ourselves of sin, we must ask for the light in order to enlighten our problems. The light, 'what must I do ?' and then, 'Lord, please act for me.' I must make an effort because as St. Augustine said, 'God created you without yourself but He will not save you without your help.' I must ask myself,'What must I do ?' 'What must I change within me ?' 'Lord, what is your will.' God is not a deaf or bad father. The Scriptures say, he who seeks will find.

Our heavenly Father is better than our fathers and listens to each one of us. If we do not succeed in understanding His presence, the problem lies in our hearts, we must reflect on what needs changing within us and how to change our hearts. And when we have understood this we must then put it into practise. In this way, by putting our prayer into practise we can then advance in our spiritual life.

What is prayer ? Prayer is a vital relationship with God. I put all my problems and He answers me; I put them all with my heart and He answers in my heart. If you start praying today or tomorrow, prayer in your hearts will will become stronger as a plant sprouts in Springtime and its branches develop; in the same way my prayer will develop as my life does with all its vital branches. One does not then ask, how can I pray ? In one's prayers one must express life with all its necessities.

A practical way in your life is to go forward through the Rosary, entering into the mysteries, trying to understand what a mystery of the Rosary is saying to you. When you understand what has happened and what Our Lord has said to you in this mystery, in your particular situation, then your Hail Mary will mean something new to you and each time will be further enriched. You will be neither tired nor distracted in the Rosary because you are seeking something concrete and will hear God's answer in every prayer.

When going to Medjugorje my wish is that you put yourselves on the path to prayer. To anyone who says it is difficult to believe in these apparitions, I say, start praying and you will understand.

(Fr. Tomislav Vlasic - 4th August 1986)

Pray in order to be able to accept the Cross

If we ask ourselves what Our Lady has said about suffering and the cross we will not find much except several references, for invitations. Once, it was Good Friday, She said in a message, "Do not be afraid to carry your cross, my Son Jesus is with you." Our Lady knows that we have the cross but She invites us to carry it, as we are not alone, "My Son Jesus is with you."

Last year, before the Feast of the Cross, She again said, "I invite you to pray before the Cross because many great graces come from it", and She also invited us all to consecrate ourselves. Why consecrate ourselves to the Cross and how ? Our Lady did not explain how, but we can understand what it means to consecrate ourselves. On this point we are helped by the tradition of the Church and the mystic experience of many saints. To consecrate oneself to the Cross and through the Cross to Our Lord means to abandon ourselves, to give one's own life. The following is very important with regard to consecrating ourselves to the Cross and that is to ask ourselves if this Cross speaks to me. In every Christian family and certainly also in your family there is a cross either on the wall or on your Rosary. How often do we swear in the vicinity of the Cross or behave badly, selfishly, with pride, offend others or do not want to be reconciled. If this is so and it is often so, this means that we are not consecrated to the Cross ; that is the Cross does not speak to us, because the words of the Cross are always, "be reconciled, forgive, love unconditionally".

If we have understood the Cross we have understood everything. But if we do not understand the Cross we will never understand anything of our life as a Christian. Our Lady wants us to understand the Cross because She herself understood it, not because She ran away from it, but because She accepted it, with her Son Jesus.

In the last message She spoke about the Cross and about suffering, expressing a wish, "I wish that your cross may be a joy." If She so wishes, this means that it is possible. She never utters a word which is out of place ; so if She expresses this wish, it must be possible for me and for you, your suffering and mine, and our crosses become a joy. She also showed us how we can do this, "Especially, dear children, pray to be able to accept the cross and suffering, with love".

She does not invite us immediately to accept this, but to pray in order to be able to accept it. If we are sad or have many problems, much suffering or if we are desperate, perhaps at this point we are unable to accept this message. Maybe it will make us angry if one says, "Take your cross and accept it with joy and love." We may ask ourselves, when was it last that we prayed for the grace to accept the cross and suffering, with love, as Jesus did ? This is the point we must understand, but can only do so through prayer. Our Lady is not happy when we suffer and is certainly not pleased when we have to carry our crosses. We should not feel afraid in the face of this invitation, "Accept with love your suffering." Our Lady wants to teach us a strategy by which we can bear the cross and suffering. We have already so often found false methods of facing suffering. So when we try to run away from suffering, from the cross, and we do not want to accept it, every cross we do aceept becomes twice as heavy. By inviting us to accept suffering She shows us a path, a way for healing. In fact She goes on to say,"I can only in this way give you with joy the graces and healing which Jesus allows me."

You see, when you accept suffering with love, as Jesus did, this is the final condition for being healed. I want to tell you something else in regard to perceiving two sources of suffering. One kind of suffering comes because we love and the other because we do not want to love, that is because we sin, because we hate. When one loves, this love is always connected to suffering and to the cross because love always guides us towards others and we always meet with so much suffering in others. If we love them we are bound to suffer, but this suffering makes us grow, helps us and the others too. For example, when a mother loves her child who is ill she suffers and the mother being with her child becomes a more mature mother and her love is purified. It is always like this. This suffering always accompanies love and at this juncture we can perhaps better understand the cause of Jesus' and Our Lady's suffering.

Humanly speaking Our Lady says she suffers and the visionaries have seen her cry many times. Those in Heaven cannot suffer, but Our Lady tells us in this way that She loves us and wants to teach us about love so that we can understand suffering and be able to bear it and be able to help others to be saved by suffering. From this suffering which comes because we love, we cannot be saved because Jesus himself was not saved. But there is another kind of suffering. If somebody hates and does not want to forgive, what is this ? Rancour. He can never be content or happy because hate destroys ; he cannot bring life to us. This hate is dangerous because it personally destroys those who bear hate and do not want to be reconciled and these people then destroy others. Think of an alcoholic, one who drinks excessively, what is his suffering ? How does his family suffer ? it becomes a problem and the cause of much suffering. And is somebody takes drugs, how much suffering there is ! Do you see the point ? If only we Christians understood this suffering that comes from sin we would understand that we must leave sin in order to have love. I am telling you that when we possess love, suffering does not interest us any more , only one thing interests us and that is to love in every circumstance and every moment. And here today in celebrating the Feast of the Cross we should understand this point of Christian life. And so Our Lady invites us to come near to the Cross, pray before it and consecrate ourselves to it. And She is not afraid because She knows what significance the Cross and suffering had in her life and that of her Son. Our Lady has understood what her duty was ; we are born under the Cross when Jesus said, "Mother, this is your Son " and then to the disciple, "Here is your Mother". We can well say that in that instant our Church and our community were born. As every mother, Blessed Mary wants to educate us and as Queen of the prophets She could not hide the Cross from us, She could not fail to speak about suffering and had to invite us to conversion, because all prophets had to do the same. Only the false prophets have promised peace and have not spoken of suffering or the need for conversion. Our Lady as Queen of the prophets invites us to pray in order to accept our crosses and wth our cross and our suffering to be able to build a new world.

(Fr. Slavko Barbaric - 14th September 1986)

I want to invite you to accept and live seriously the messages I am giving you

Our Lady in her last message said, "Dear children, today again, I want to invite you to accept and live seriously the messages I am giving you. Dear children, I have stayed so long for your sake, in order to help you put into practice all the messages I am giving you. Therefore, dear children, live with love towards me all the messages I give you."

With this message Our Lady sums up all the messages and urges us to take them seriously. What does this mean ?

Many people, on hearing about the existence of the ten secrets from the visionariesand that among these secrets there are some which are very harsh for mankind, become alarmed for the future. But this means that they are not taking Our Lady seriously, as She has always taught us not to think of wars and evil, but has urged us to put our hope in the Lord, to live in hope, and with our hope strengthened by our prayer, to face all difficulties which mankind will encounter and also those we meet in our daily lives.

In the message received yesterday evening, Our Lady emphazises once more that her long stay here on earth is to help us live these messages. On 9th October Our Lady said, "All this time that I am with you is a sign that I love you immensly."

If God gives us such a grace for his Mother to remain with us for so long, it is a sign of the seriousness of events. And we must accept what She said yesterday evening. It appears that many pilgrims, having experienced the presence of God and Our Lady here, have after a while become lukewarm and others who have only heard about Medjugorje still continue along their old path.

A month ago the visionary Mirjana told me, 'At least one day a week is a day of tears for me.' I asked her ,'Why?'. She replied, 'Because I know what will happen and people still go on as if they had heard nothing.'

This is even more serious, both with regard to the events which await us and to the hardness of heart of men who, even after five years of the presence of Our Lady on earth, are still asking,'What is it ? Must I change ? No, I will go on in the same way.' And we go on being attached to earthly values. Pilgrims often say, 'But where is God's mercy ?' God's mercy is shown in Our Most Blessed Virgin Mother who has come amongst us, but who we do not want to accept. it is useless to have a gift if we do not want to accept it. If mankind gos on increasing armaments, living in an immoral world, if it continues to live an injustice where a third of the world is dying of hunger, the world cannot tolerate this injustice. It is for this reason that Our Lady has given us the message of immediate conversion. In the beginning I said that those who are afraid do not take what Our Lady says correctly. Our Lady has given us the main message, Peace. And also Mirjana, the visionary says, 'Do not be afraid, for those who believe in God, death is not a punishment, it is a transition to a better life.' My dear faithful, this is a crucial point. Life is not a punishment for us, it is not a tragedy, but a transition to a better life. Do you seriously believe this ? Do you accept it ? While we do not accept this seriously, we have not accepted our faith.

Because the centre and essence of our faith is the death and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and it is also our death and resurrection. Until we accept this we have not accepted our Christian faith. In the same message Our Lady said, "Dear children, you know I want to guide you on the path of holiness, but I do not want to compel you to be saints by force."

We are coming to the feast of All Saints. I will ask you a question, 'Have you decided to become holy ?' But we do not enter Paradise if we do not mean to become holy. Christians often make this calculation; holiness is not meant for me, it is meant for somebody else; it is a false calculation. We often see pilgrims come here for two reasons, to pray for healing, for worldly needs and in order to prevent wars and punishments. It is good to come and ask for these things, but it is not enough. We are like this on earth and we well know that our life will end after say 70, 80, 90 years, and then ? We know that after our life there comes a more beautiful one, that life for which we also live on earth. So the main point is holiness.

Not only are we unable to go to Heaven if we are not holy, but without holiness we cannot even live a happy life on this earth. Only the saints - and we know this from the history of salvation and of the Church - were contented men. Those who live only for a materialistic life were not happy and their names have soon been forgotten. The names of the Saints are always alive amongst us and from the history of the Church we know that only the Saints gave the breath of life to Christianity and humanity, and only they gave the Spirit to our faith. So if we also want a happy life here on earth we must live it only as saints. This can be explained in a message to the prayer group from Our Lady, "Dear children, make a Paradise here on earth amongst yourselves."

Our Lady continuously calls us to prayer in her messages. Why pray ? Why so much prayer ? In order to increase my desire for God.

In order to increase within me the desire to grow in the likeness of God. Prayer is the process of spring where everything bursts into bloom and flowers ; prayer brings me to long for God and for Paradise more than anything on earth. So, if through this process of conversion, and of prayer, the longing for God increases within me, then I am happy because within me God's life is already beginning. I cannot otherwise obtain this at the moment of death because death should only be an easy stepping stone to enter Paradise when we hear the voice of Jesus, "Come you that are blessed". It will be a difficult step for those who have to go to Purgatory, a terrible step forward for those who hear the voice saying, "Depart from me you cursed." You have come to ask what Our Lady wants - She wants conversion in order that you become saints, for your sanctification. It is only in this way that you will achieve the purpose of life and will be able to give evidence of the presence of Our Lady, to bring the joy of salvation and the peace of which both Our Lady and Jesus speak.

Without sanctification we will not be among those who save the world, we will not be counted among those who profess to be friends of God, or those who are able to implore God to take away chastisements as a consequence for the sins of humanity. Without sanctity we are unable to be happy on this earth or to enter Paradise. In conclusion, therefore, I invite you to accept seriously the presence of Our Lady and to live all her messages. Your daily aim must be the sanctification of your life.

(Fr. Tomislav Vlasic - 1st November 1986)