The Visitation

The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

WALKING THE TALK...

The Feast of the Visitation is a reminder that Our Lady is a woman of action. On hearing from the Angel Gabriel that her cousin Elizabeth was with child, Mary immediately set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah. The journey was some 80 miles which included travelling through Samaria. It must have taken her two or three days at least. But she wasted no time and stayed with Elizabeth for about three months.

Mary put the message of the angel into action. Likewise she asks us to do the same with her words given through the Medjugorje visionaries, to walk the talk, to live the messages.

Dear children! Today I invite you all so that your prayer be prayer with the heart. Let each of you find time for prayer so that in prayer you discover God. I do not desire you to talk about prayer, but to pray. Let your every day be filled with prayer of gratitude to God for life and for all that you have. I do not desire your life to pass by in words but that you glorify God with deeds. I am with you and I am grateful to God for every moment spent with you. Thank you for having responded to my call. April 25, 1991

A slave set free...

When John went to confession in Medjugorje he was greeted with a warm welcome from the Irish American priest that sat in the box sheltering from the cold and rain outside. All went well and before he gave absolution the cheery priest asked John if he was familiar with the parable of the Prodigal Son.
John replied, “Yes, Father, I am.”
“So you will know about the significance of the father giving his son sandals to wear?” responded the priest questioningly.
John was hesitant in his answer, “Now, about that, I am not sure.”
“Well, it’s like this,” said the priest, “In those days only slaves and servants went barefoot. Free men wore sandals. So before you go I am going to put sandals on your feet to make you a free man!”

John wasn’t sure about this and glanced around to see where the priest would produce the sandals from. He didn’t realise the priest was referring to absolution until he heard the words: “God, the Father of mercies, through the death and the resurrection of his Son, has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

Shortly afterwards John decided to go to Mt Krizevac and pray the Way of the Cross. The rain had stopped and John took his time to pray at each station and gaze at the amazing detail cast in the bronze reliefs. It was at the fifth station, where Simon of Cyrene is forced to carry the cross for Jesus, that John’s eyes were drawn to the base of the plaque. All of a sudden, the words the priest had spoken to him in the confessional came echoing back: “In those days only slaves and servants went barefoot. Free men wore sandals...”

And as John stared at the plaque, he could clearly see that it was Jesus who stood barefoot and Simon who wore sandals.

• The feet of Simon of Cyrene and Jesus.
• photographs courtesy of Mate Tunin Vasilj.

Trinity Sunday

PRAY... with the daughter of the Father

PRAY... with the mother of the Son

PRAY... with the spouse of the Holy Spirit

and glorify the THREE in ONE

• Saint Patrick would hold up a shamrock and challenge the people, “Is it one leaf or three?”
“It is both one leaf and three,” was their reply.
“And so it is with God,” he would conclude.

• The eleven disciples set out for Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had arranged to meet them. When they saw him they fell down before him, though some hesitated. Jesus came up and spoke to them. He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And know that I am with you always, yes, to the end of time.” Matthew 28 : 16-120

Dear children, With a motherly heart, today I desire to remind you of, namely, to draw your attention to, God’s immeasurable love and the patience which ensues from it. Your Father is sending me and is waiting. He is waiting for your open hearts to be ready for his works. He is waiting for your hearts to be united in Christian love and mercy in the Spirit of my Son. Do not lose time, children, because you are not its masters. Thank you.
Medjugorje message, February 2, 2009

Live from Medjugorje

Live from Medjugorje

Papal nuncio says Medjugorje Commission confirms Pope’s personal interest in future of Church in Herzegovina...

At the end of a special Mass held today in Mostar Cathedral, Archbishop Alessandro D’Errico, the papal representative in Bosnia Herzegovina, made mention of Medjugorje in his address to the assembly of cardinals, archbishops and bishops of Bosnia Herzegovina and Croatia.

The nuncio said that the Holy See is known for the careful attention to which she looks at Herzegovina because of its high percentage of Catholics, hence the visits to Mostar of Cardinal Bertone last year and Cardinal Mamberti in 2008.

Nuncio D’Errico added that for this reason the Holy Father continues to personally follow some questions concerning the future of the Church in Herzegovina, as confirmed with his important decision to set up an International Commission to study the Medjugorje phenomenon.

Medjugorje Message May 25, 2010

Dear children! God gave you the grace to live and to defend all the good that is in you and around you, and to inspire others to be better and holier; but satan, too, does not sleep and through modernism diverts you and leads you to his way. Therefore, little children, in the love for my Immaculate Heart, love God above everything and live his commandments. In this way, your life will have meaning and peace will rule on earth. Thank you for having responded to my call. Medjugorje message, May 25, 2010

Fr Neil Buchlein’s audio commentary

Medjugorje seer Ivanka... witness to Our Lady

• I would like to greet you all with the most beautiful of greetings: Praised be Jesus and Mary. I am so pleased to be here with you today and even more pleased that you are ready to hear the message of Our Lady.

For 28 years I have been asking God the very same question: Why did you choose me? I know that I was given a great grace and also I know that at the same time I was given a great responsibility.

I have accepted this as a gift but at the same time I have been praying all the time that God gives me strength to fulfil all the assignments he has for me.

I lived with my family at Mostar at that time and as always, after school, I used to come to Medjugorje. This is what happened that day on June 24, 1981 when I saw Our Lady for the first time.

On that day, like every day, I was outside the village with Mirjana and we were waiting for other friends to come. I do not how long we were waiting but we got tired of that and then we started walking towards the houses.

While we were walking towards the village I was really forced by something to look towards the hill and then I saw Our Lady. I said to Mirjana, “Mirjana, I see Our Lady on the hill” but Mirjana said, “ Don’t tell me these foolish things.”

I followed Mirjana who was walking back to the village and then we met Milka, the sister of the visionary Marija. Milka saw that something was wrong with me and she asked me what happened, and I told the girls to come back with me, that I had seen Our Lady. We went back and then all three of us saw Our Lady. Vicka also came to us and then two boys, the two Ivans. The apparition kept calling us but none of us dared to climb the hill.

Our Lady was four or five hundred metres away from us. She kept calling us and emotions we felt in our heart were huge. We felt all kinds of emotions in our heart and none of us dared to get closer to her.

Whoever we told that we saw Our Lady that evening, they did not believe us. They told us not to tell such things. That night was the longest night in my life. I was only 15 and I questioned myself the entire night whether what I saw was true or not.

So the next day at the same hour we went back together to the apparition hill. Before we saw Our Lady we saw the light, three times, and when we finally got to her, I cannot describe that moment of meeting with Our Lady because we felt so much love, felt so secure, so much happiness in our hearts.

When we came to her we saw this most beautiful person, maybe 19 or 20 years of age. She had a crown of stars, white veil, greyish dress, and she was standing on a cloud She had the most beautiful blue eyes and long black hair.

I knew that it was the Blessed Mother You see, two months before that day my mother had passed away. Because I knew in my heart that this was the Blessed Virgin Mary I asked her, “Mother, where is my mother?” And she said, “Do not worry, my child, your mother is with me.”

Our Lady told us, “Do not worry. I’ll pray with you always. I’ll come again tomorrow.”

The word spread very quickly so that on the third day people started following us because they saw something was happening with us, so they gave us holy water to bless the apparition. On that third day when Our Lady came, Vicka blessed her and she said, “If you come from God, stay. But if you do not come from God, please leave us.” And then Our Lady smiled back at us and said, “I am the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace.

On that day Our Lady gave the first public message, which was the message of peace. As the days passed by Our Lady asked us to convert, to fast, to do some penance, to pray and go to confession and attend Holy Mass. These are the main messages of Our Lady of Medjugorje.

From 1981 until 1985 I received the apparitions on a daily basis. During that period Our Lady dictated to me her biography. I wrote everything down. She also told me the future of the world and the future of our Church. When I have permission from Our Lady, this will be published.
On the 7th May, 1985, I had the last daily apparition and that was the longest apparition that I have ever had because Our Lady stayed with me one hour.

On that day Our Lady gave me the final and tenth secret and I was told that I would not have the apparitions on a daily basis anymore, but Our Lady promised me that she was going to appear to me once a year on June 25.

From 1985 to today I received the apparition once every year on June 25. But at that last daily apparition I was given the greatest gift, not just for myself but for the entire world. And because every single human being is asking is there a life after this life on earth, I am standing before you here today, I am standing before the entire world and I can easily answer that question. Yes, there is a life after this life, because by God and Our Lady I was given this great grace, that I was able to see my late mother during that apparition time and my mom told me: “My dear child, I’m proud of you.”

For 28 years Our Lady has been telling us which road we need to take in our life. She is showing us the way and we have to decide which road we are going to take in our life.

Our Lady has given a different mission to each one of us visionaries. My mission is to pray for families. So every day I pray for families.

The last apparition I had was this year on June 25 and that apparition lasted ten minutes and Our Lady spoke to me about the tenth secret and she advised for all of us to become apostles of peace and to pray for peace. Our Lady ended her message with “Peace, peace, peace.”

Let us be reminded in prayer. Let us pray for each other. Our Lady wants us to be be in peace, not to be afraid, to know that she is there for us all of the time.

Finally, when you leave Medjugorje I would like you to take peace and love from Medjugorje back to your home and to your country. Thank you all for everything.

• This short talk by the visionary Ivanka was given at Medjugorje on August 1, 2009 and concurrently translated into six languages from Croat. Ivanka rarely gives talks to pilgrims and lives a discreet, almost private life, close to the village of Medjugorje. She was the first of the six visionaries to see Our Lady at the start of the apparitions in June 1981. She has been married for 22 years and has four children.

Praying with Mary... Novena day nine

Paul welcomed all who came to visit him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ with complete freedom and without hindrance from anyone. Acts 28 : 30-31

We exist to show God to men. And only there where God is seen, does life really begin. Only when we find in Christ the living God, do we know what life is... There is nothing more beautiful than being overtaken, surprised by the Gospel, by Christ. There is nothing more beautiful than knowing him and communicating to others friendship with him. Benedict XVI, April 24, 2005

Dear children! Tomorrow night pray for the Spirit of Truth! Especially, you from the parish. Because you need the Spirit of Truth to be able to convey the messages just the way they are, neither adding anything to them, nor taking anything whatsoever way from them, but just the way I said them. Pray for the Holy Spirit to inspire you with the spirit of prayer, so you will pray more. I, your Mother, tell you that you are praying little. Thank you for having responded to my call. Medjugorje message, June 9, 1984

Heavenly Father, we wish to thank you for Mary’s presence among us. We thank you for all that you have given us through her. We thank you for every word that she expresses in your name. We thank you for all the graces, for every blessing, for every inner and outer healing that you, in the name of your Son and through Mary's intercession have given to us. We adore and praise you along with Mary who calls upon us to convert. We ask you for the grace that we decide to convert. Send us your Holy Spirit so that we can, through him, open ourselves to prayer and that he then help us to grow in prayer. Father, take our hearts of stone and cleanse them so that they may become new hearts. Free us, O Father, of everything that turns our hearts into hearts of stone. Free us from every hate, from very jealousy, from every greed, from every obsession and dependency and from every distrust and fear. Free our hearts from all wounds, from all stresses and traumas, so that our hearts may be formed according to that of your Son – humble and mild – and formed according to that of your servant, Mary, so that we may live with one another in love and peace. Amen. Fr Slavko Barbaric

Joint Bishops’ conference at Mostar

A two-day joint meeting of the Croatia bishops’ conference and the Bosnia & Herzegovina bishop’s conference gets underway at Mostar on Monday, May 24.

Two of the bishops are prominent members of the International Commission announced recently by the Holy See to study the Medjugorje ‘phenomenon’. They are Cardinal Vinko Puljic (president of the Bih bishops’s conference, and Cardinal Josip Bozanic, Archbishop of Zagreb and vice-president of the Council of the European bishops’ conference.

As the venue for meeting is just a short distance from Medjugorje, will the subject of the ‘phenomenon’ be on the agenda?

Praying with Mary... Novena day eight

The Holy Spirit will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you. John 14 : 26

Dear children! You are not conscious of the messages which God is sending you through me. He is giving you great graces and you do not comprehend them. Pray to the Holy Spirit for enlightenment. If you only knew how great are the graces God is granting you, you would be praying without ceasing. Thank you for having responded to my call. Medjugorje message, November 8, 1984

• Only in the Holy Spirit can we believe in God. Without the Spirit, there is no life, no love, no trust, no unity and no common life. The question of openness to the Holy Spirit is the fundamental question of our time, of our surroundings, of the whole earth and of our life on this earth. Only in the power and the force of the Holy Spirit can we approach our Mother, the Queen of Peace, who comes to us here. We cannot possess the Holy Spirit; we can only let him possess us. God gives him to those who desire and seek him. By the Spirit, we know God, ourselves and this world. Fr Ljubo Kurtovic OFM

Dear Mother Mary, pray with us to the Holy Spirit so that we may be enlightened and open to the messages that God is sending through you. Help us to pray without ceasing and so come to know the graces the God grants us. Thank you for your presence amongst us.

Praying with Mary... Novena day seven

You will show me the path of life,
the fullness of joy in your presence,
at your right hand happiness for ever.
Psalm 15 : 11

Dear children! These days I call you especially to open your hearts to the Holy Spirit. Especially during these days the Holy Spirit is working through you. Open your hearts and surrender your life to Jesus so that he works through your hearts and strengthens you in faith. Thank you for having responded to my call. Medjugorje message, May 25, 1985

• Wherever Mary is present, the Holy Spirit is at work. We know it by the word of the angel Gabriel: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” (Luke 1 : 35). We also know it by Jesus´ words to the apostles, when he recommended them to stay in the town until the Spirit, which was promised, descends upon them. They received the outpouring of the Spirit united in prayer with Mary in the room of the Last Supper. With Mary we are secure; that is her promise given to us. Whoever loves Jesus will also love Mary, and whoever prays to Mary will be led to Jesus. Fr Ljubo Kurtovic OFM

Dear Mother Mary, with open hearts we await the coming of the Holy Spirit and surrender our life to Jesus so that through the power of the Holy Spirit he may work through our hearts and strengthen us in faith. Amen

Praying with Mary... Novena day six

The Lord says: When the Holy Spirit comes to you, the Spirit whom I shall send, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me, and you also will be my witnesses, alleluia. Communion Antiphon

Dear children! Tomorrow night pray for the Spirit of Truth! Especially, you from the parish. Because you need the Spirit of Truth to be able to convey the messages just the way they are, neither adding anything to them, nor taking anything whatsoever way from them, but just the way I said them. Pray for the Holy Spirit to inspire you with the spirit of prayer, so you will pray more. I, your Mother, tell you that you are praying little. Thank you for having responded to my call. Medjugorje message, June 9, 1994

God, our Father, send into our heart your Spirit of Truth, that we may recognise you, our true God, and that we may allow ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit on your path to eternal life. Lord, during this Novena we beg you, send your Spirit of Truth and Love into the hearts of all those who are responsible in the Holy Church, and in the world. Send your Holy Spirit into the hearts of those who, at this moment, are resisting you, who still distrust you, and change their hearts. Send the Spirit of Love into the hearts of those who hate, send the Spirit of Strength into the hearts of those who have become enslaved by sin, so that we, as your children, may come to be able to love in freedom. Give us the grace that we may come to understand the message that the Mother of your Son Jesus Christ has given us through her, and that we all may come to live better lives with the strength of your Spirit. Bless us and heal us, and bless all those who have ever asked for our prayers, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Fr Slavko Barbaric OFM

Praying with Mary... Novena day five

You poured down, O God, a generous rain:
when your people were starved you gave them new life.
Psalm 67 : 10

Dear children! Tonight I wish to tell you during the days of this novena to pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on your families and on your parish. Pray, and you shall not regret it. God will give you gifts by which you will glorify Him till the end of your life on this earth. Thank you for having responded to my call. Medjugorje message, June 2, 1984

• 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! Fr Ljubo Kurtovic OFM

Dear Mother Mary, today, during this novena, we pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, a generous rain, on our families and on our parish, confident that our prayer will be heard by God. May he give us gifts and nourish us to enable us to glorify him to the end of our life on earth. Thank you for being present amongst us. Amen

Praying with Mary... Novena day four

Paul made his way overland as far as Ephesus, where he found a number of disciples. When he asked, “Did your receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” they answered. “No, we were never told there was such a thing as a Holy Spirit.” Then how were you baptised?” he asked. “With John’s baptism” they replied. “John’s baptism said Paul “was a baptism of repentance; but he insisted that the people should believe in the one who was to come after him – in other words Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus, and the moment Paul had laid hands on them the Holy Spirit came down on them and they began to speak with tongues and prophesy. There were about twelve of these men. Acts 19 : 1-8

Dear children, In this time, I call you all to pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit upon every baptised creature, so that the Holy Spirit may renew you all and lead you on the way of witnessing your faith – you and all those who are far from God and his love. I am with you and intercede for you before the Most High. Thank you for having responded to my call. Medjugorje message, May 25, 2009

• In this message Our Lady calls us also to pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit upon every baptised creature. We have become the children of God through baptism and have entered into communion with Jesus and his act of redemption. Our Lady calls us to pray because prayer is a means that opens our hearts so that the Spirit of God can operate in it. Opening up to the Holy Spirit leads to a renewal of spiritual life, encouraging us to bear witness to our faith. We Christians have been called to be carriers of the message of God in this world, of the Word of God, and to spread the acts of the love of God. Mary, our mother and intercessor, the teacher of prayer to the Holy Spirit, helps us to do this. Together with Mary we pray that the Spirit of the Truth and Love operates in us and around us, that it teaches us and makes us stronger in order for us to live a new life doing the will of God.
Fr Danko Perutina OFM

Dear Mother Mary, thank you for calling us once again to pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit so that we may be renewed and so able to witness our faith. Thank you for interceding for us before the Most High and for being present amongst us even when we are far from God. Amen

Praying with Mary... Novena day three

So from the Mount of Olives, as it is called, they went back to Jerusalem, a short distance away, no more than a sabbath walk; and when they reached the city they went to the upper room where they were staying; there were Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Jude son of James. All these joined in continuous prayer, together with several women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. Acts 1 : 12-14

Dear children! Today I pray for you and with you that the Holy Spirit may help you and increase your faith, so that you may accept even more the messages that I am giving you here in this holy place. Little children, comprehend that this is a time of grace for each of you; and with me, little children, you are secure. I desire to lead you all on the way of holiness. Live my messages and put into life every word that I am giving you. May they be precious to you because they come from heaven. Thank you for having responded to my call. Medjugorje message, June 25, 2002

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

Dear Mother Mary, thank you for praying for us and with us so that the Holy Spirit may help us to increase in faith and accept your messages more readily, knowing that this is truly a time of grace. With you we know that we are secure and your desire is to lead us all to holiness. May we respond and live your messages putting into life every word that you give to us because they are precious and come from heaven. Thank you for your presence with us.

Praying with Mary... Novena day two

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth. Acts 1 : 8

Dear children! Today I invite you to open yourselves to God by means of prayer so the Holy Spirit may begin to work miracles in you and through you. I am with you and I intercede before God for each one of you because, dear children, each one of you is important in my plan of salvation. I invite you to be carriers of good and peace. God can give you peace only if you convert and pray. Therefore, my dear little children, pray, pray, pray and do that which the Holy Spirit inspires you. Thank you for having responded to my call. Medjugorje message, May 25, 1993

• 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 spouse 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 Sacraments 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. The only way towards the experience of the strength of the Holy Spirit is prayer. Fr Ljubo Kurtović OFM


Dear Mother Mary, thank you for inviting us to open our hearts to God by means of prayer so that the Holy Spirit may begin to work miracles in us and through us. Thank you for being with us and interceding for each one of us before God. Thank you for reminding us of our importance in helping to realise your plan of salvation. We accept your invitation to be carriers of good and peace, knowing that we can only receive God’s peace if we convert and pray. And so, inspired by your words and the Holy Spirit we promise to pray, pray, pray and respond to your call. Amen

Gospa’s Immaculate Heart continues to call...

May the seven years which separate us from the centenary of the (Fatima) apparitions hasten the fulfilment of the prophecy of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity. Pope Benedict XVI, May 13, 2010

Dear children! I desire to share my joy with you. In my Immaculate Heart I feel that there are many of those who have drawn closer to me and are, in a special way, carrying the victory of my Immaculate Heart in their hearts by praying and converting. I desire to thank you and to inspire you to work even more for God and His kingdom with love and the power of the Holy Spirit. I am with you and I bless you with my motherly blessing. Thank you for having responded to my call. Medjugorje message, August 25, 2000.

Praying with Mary... Novena day one

When Jesus had been at table with his apostles, he had told them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for what the Father had promised. “It is” he had said, “what you have heard me speak about: John baptised with water but you, not many days from now, will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.” Acts 1 : 4-5

Dear children! Today I call you, through prayer and sacrifice, to prepare yourselves for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Little children, this is a time of grace and so, again, I call you to decide for God the Creator. Allow him to transform and change you. May your heart be prepared to listen to, and live, everything which the Holy Spirit has in his plan for each of you. Little children, allow the Holy Spirit to lead you on the way of truth and salvation towards eternal life. Thank you for having responded to my call. Medjugorje message, May 25, 1998

• Before his Ascension Jesus told his disciples not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for the promise given by his Father, that they would receive the strength of the Holy Spirit and would be his witnesses not only in Jerusalem but to the ends of the earth. After he said this Jesus was taken up to his Father (cf. Acts 1:4-9). The disciples and apostles were preparing for this coming through prayer. They were not alone. Mary, the Mother of Jesus, was with them. Among those present she was the only one who had the fullness of the Holy Spirit that had come upon her at the conception of Jesus. She must have encouraged the disciples to abandon fear and to take practice of fervent prayer. Before the coming of the Holy Spirit the apostles and disciples were timid and fearful. When the Holy Spirit came upon them, they changed. They were transformed into fearless witnesses of Christ. They witnessed what they had seen and heard when they were with Jesus. The flame of love and truth alight inside them encouraged them to immediately start announcing the Joyful News. • Fr Danko Perutina OFM

Dear Mother Mary, thank you for calling us to prayer and sacrifice in preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Thank you also for reminding us that this is a time of grace, and also calling us to decide for God the Creator. We invite him to transform and change us as we open our heart to listen to and live everything he has planned for each of us. Dear Mother, we invite the Holy Spirit to lead us on the way of truth and salvation towards eternal life. Thank you Blessed Mother for your presence amongst us. Amen

Pope consecrates priests to Immaculate Heart

This is the consecration prayer of Pope Benedict XVI made to the Immaculate Heart of Mary at Fatima today for the renewal of the Church entrusted to holy priests:

Bride of the Holy Spirit, obtain for us the inestimable gift of transformation in Christ. Through the same power of the Spirit that overshadowed you, making you the Mother of the Saviour, help us to bring Christ your Son to birth in ourselves too. May the Church be thus renewed by priests who are holy, priests transfigured by the grace of Him who makes all things new.

Help us, through your powerful intercession, never to fall short of this sublime vocation, nor to give way to our selfishness, to the allurements of the world and to the wiles of the evil one.

Mother of the Church, we priests want to be pastors who do not feed themselves but rather give themselves to God for their brethren, finding their happiness in this. Not only with words, but with our lives, we want to repeat humbly, day after day, our “here I am”.

The Gift of Peace

...a peace the world cannot give,
this is my gift to you. John 14 : 27

Dear children! Today I invite you to decide for peace. Pray that God give you the true peace. Live peace in your hearts and you will understand, dear children, that peace is the gift of God. Dear children, without love you cannot live peace. The fruit of peace is love and the fruit of love is forgiveness. I am with you and I invite all of you, little children, that before all else forgive in the family and then you will be able to forgive others. Thank you for having responded to my call. Medjugorje message, January 25, 1996

The mystery of the face of Christ

This is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave yesterday before praying the midday Regina Caeli during his visit to Turin.

As we come to the conclusion of this solemn celebration, we offer a prayer to Mary Most Holy, who in Turin is venerated as the principal patroness with the title Blessed Virgin of Consolation. To her I entrust this city and all those who live here. O Mary, watch over the families and the workers; watch over those who have lost faith and hope; comfort the sick, those in prison and all who suffer. O Help of Christians, sustain the young people, the elderly and persons in difficulty. O Mother of the Church, watch over her pastors and the whole community of believers, that they may be “salt and light” in the midst of the world.

The Virgin Mary is she who more than any other contemplated God in the human face of Jesus. She saw him as a newborn when, wrapped in swaddling clothes, he was placed in a manger; she saw him when, just after his death, they took him down from the cross, wrapped him in linen and placed him in the sepulchre. Inside her was impressed the image of her martyred Son; but this image was then transfigured in the light of the Resurrection. Thus in Mary’s heart was carried the mystery of the face of Christ, a mystery of death and of glory. From her we can always learn how to look upon Jesus with a gaze of love and of faith, to recognize in that human countenance, the Countenance of God.

To Mary Most Holy I entrust with gratitude those who worked to make my visit possible as well as the display of the Shroud. I pray for them and that these events might bring about a profound spiritual renewal.

source: Zenit.org

Our Lady’s May message to Mirjana

Dear children, Today through me the good Father calls you, with your soul filled with love, to set out on a spiritual visitation. Dear children, be filled with grace. Sincerely repent for your sins and yearn for the good. Yearn also in the name of those who have not come to know the perfection of the good. You will be more pleasing to God. Thank you. Medjugorje message, May 2, 2010

SET OUT ON A SPIRITUAL VISITATION...

Persevere with this lengthy transcript of a talk given by Fr Svetozar Kraljevic in Medjugorje. You will be greatly rewarded. Thanks to Angela Callan for writing every word by hand!

• There are a number of things I would like to share with you and I don’t know where to start. We are pilgrims, and in this pilgrimage, in this journey of life, everything is ‘fast forward’. There are many surprises and many challenges and we always wonder how we are doing in this art of living.

We always address ourselves to finding the best answers, the best solutions, the best avenue to get there; to accomplish things and sometimes be good, to be victorious, to be sensible, to be useful. We answer our calling to be good human beings, to be a good worker, a good mother or father, a good friend, neighbour, brother or sister. So we always wonder and pray and think ‘how can we be the best we can be?’ And don’t we make some terrible mistakes? Someone said, “God help me to protect my friends from myself.” And that is more critical than helping protect myself from others.

WE ARE LIKE SCIENTISTS...

Probably on a pilgrimage like this we want to answer some of those questions. We want to investigate – basically, we are scientists every day. Did you ever think of that? These scientists have the privilege that they know the formulas of physics and mathematics, to make machines.

But how about the mother who is trying to be the best mother possible? She is using everything she has to be the best she can be. Every day she is a scientist investigating her own soul and the soul of her child, and the mysteries of the world, to be the best she can be. And that curiosity that will keep us curious every day to know that the secrets and mysteries have to be part of our living, every day.

We will be the best when we are in the image of God. In this world, unfortunately, our basic mistake is that we create God and others in OUR image. That is where we go wrong – we would like to create God and the world, including every human being around us, in our image. That is where we go wrong and where we are broken. So we are becoming these curious scientists of the soul to investigate the mysteries of life, to become the best we can be, the best we need to be for the well-being of our brothers and sisters and for the glory of God.

What is the best way to do this? We all have to invest our lives to know. When Our Lady comes to speak to mankind with the message of God, with the message of the Holy Spirit, she is addressing precisely that: our human, existential need to be the best we can be.

PILGRIMAGE IS PRAYER...

Basically I would like to reflect on how we can improve our human relationships. Of course, God is very much a part of all this and He would like to help us to be active in these human inter-relationships. There is one message that comes from God the Holy Spirit, (and Our Lady is at the service of this message) and that is prayer. It’s as simple as that. She is calling us to prayer.

The purpose for us here today is to see what does it mean to pray. We are all called to enter into the business of prayer. I said earlier that we all create God and those around us in our own image, so we create our own prayer, our own beliefs. So we say, “I’m nice, really, I believe in God.” – and we do it all wrong. So in pilgrimage Our Lady would like to actually teach us how to pray. In pilgrimage we are into the business of prayer.

Many people will be speaking to you and people from all over the world are in the same position – we are all pilgrims. You don’t come to me or anyone here, you don’t come to the visionaries for them to make your pilgrimage – but we all involve ourselves in the business of pilgrimage.

The other word for pilgrimage is prayer. Prayer or pilgrimage is a whole cultural way of living, a whole mentality, a whole approach to life. Prayer is something we need to be and prayer is the way to be. Pilgrimage is the way to be. Pilgrimage is basically when I say to God, “I am ready. I would like to be curious and ready. Whatever surprise you might have for me today, tomorrow... I am ready.” That is the mentality the Holy Spirit would like to create in us! Without this ‘I am ready for you my Lord’ I will do my own thing. But with this ‘I am ready’ we say those words of Peter: “Speak to me Lord, I am ready to listen.”

Those are the words in the Old Testament, the major words in the Old Testament and the New Testament: “Lord, speak to me, I am willing to listen.”

WILLING TO LISTEN...

So in pilgrimage you are basically coming to that attitude. “I am willing to listen”. There are many things that need to happen in this process of becoming willing to listen. These things will happen in pilgrimage. So pilgrimage is the most profound, the best way of becoming a person of prayer. Actually, without pilgrimage we cannot become a person of prayer. In pilgrimage we are being thrown into a mill and crushed. Our old ways are crushed so that we can receive new ways.

In the book of Revelation we have, “Behold, I am making all things new,” so this is Revelation happening to you. So suddenly you are not reading about Peter, but Peter is YOU. You are not far distant and an observer of events, but you become the very centre; this is happening to YOU. You become a biblical person, with biblical things happening to you. God is calling you name and bringing you on this long journey so that you can encounter Him.

This pilgrimage is tailored precisely according to your needs. Whatever your thoughts are in the process of pilgrimage, this is something responding to your situation. Your pilgrimage is the most unique, intimate experience that happened to you that only you and the Lord do know. It has absolutely nothing to do with Medjugorje. Your coming to this place is to do with the drama in your own life. Medjugorje is just a challenge, a spark from God, that initiates this process in you.

So we are not investigating the mountain. The mountains are helping us to investigate our own soul. We are not investigating the Church’s stand on Medjugorje, we are investigating where we stand with the Lord. We are not investigating whether the children are telling the truth or not because, after everything is said and done, there is only you and the Lord, face to face, to speak to. We cannot avoid that reality – in pilgrimage there is that intimate process, you and the Lord. I walk my walk, you walk your walk. I deal with my own stupidity and troubles, you with your own. We will answer to the Lord for these and we will be glorified or punished, but this something intimate that each of us have to do.

MAKING SPACE IN OUR LIVES...

In pilgrimage we create space in our lives for God. That is the basic. Suddenly, you leave your family, your brothers and sisters, your work, your friends, your power, your comforts. In the New Testament Jesus spoke about leaving brothers and sisters for His sake. In pilgrimage you do precisely that.

You register these moments when your are packing your suitcase. You cannot take your car, you cannot put your kitchen into your suitcase, your friends, your jobs. You have to leave the props that support the whole system of your life. You have to leave your comfort and security zones and suddenly learn to live without all that, to learn a new art of living.

Suddenly you learn in pilgrimage that you can survive the mountain, and that you are able to climb the mountain. That’s prayer. That’s the process of surrender.

We all have a kingdom of our own. Sometimes it’s not large – it’s as large, maybe, as your own kitchen. But we do have that kingdom, and suddenly that little we have is gone and lost. We don’t have it anymore. It is surrendered. That’s pilgrimage. That’s prayer.

WALKING IN PRAYER...

Through pilgrimage, prayer is something that is happening to your body and your soul. It’s a total experience of your life. That is the way God likes us to pray. We usually pray in our ordinary life with portions of our being.

So we say a few prayers, even spend one hour in prayer every day, but then all the rest of the time we live in this secular world where God is not present that much any longer. We attend church on Sunday, but then we have our business as usual where God doesn’t have much to say.

In pilgrimage God would like to change that. Suddenly, God enters into all corners of your life. That is the way he would like to teach us to walk in prayer, to live in prayer by becoming pilgrims, to enter into this amazing journey of pilgrimage which is the business of God.

It wasn’t wise in Peter’s eyes that Jesus went to Jerusalem. He allowed himself to be crushed, and that is part of the pilgrimage. So basically, pilgrimage is a stupid thing to do, not wise, not sensible. Don’t expect others to approve it, to confirm it, or to praise you for it, or to understand you. On the contrary, you can be judged harshly, condemned by your own family and friends, and by many you thought would affirm you, encourage you. Pilgrimage is a daring journey, but that is all in the school of prayer.

WHEN HEARTS ARE CRUSHED...

I am going to share something with you. I am the Rector of Mother’s Village and 83 people are employed there. Today there are 350 there for lunch. You get into a situation of human relationships when someone is in charge of a portion of the work there and takes it very seriously. I am sharing my frustrations with you.

This person in charge, he suddenly sees that someone is doing something wrong. Wrong, period! The mistake that people make is that with the justice of God and their righteousness, they go charging in and in a rage crush the heart of another person. If someone then reprimands them for the tension that is suddenly in the workplace, they will say, “Don’t you know I’m right?” So with vengeance and justice they walk around ‘right’. They are able to crush their fellow co-workers and make tension in the whole place and create situations that are not desirable.

This happens because we are not willing to suffer. We are so often so willing to condemn, judge and be righteous. The most damage we do to ourselves and others is by being righteous, by being right. That is why Christ goes to be crushed on the Cross. He didn’t say a word to the person who was crucifying him. He allowed that person to learn himself, in his own time. At that moment he didn’t know what he was doing. He allowed him to learn, to grow, to find out in his own way.

That is the way we will be brothers and sisters and pilgrims: allowing the person next to you to be stupid, to be wrong, and you remain silent again and again and again, and be calm and then the situation will be resolved by itself.

Pray to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God will teach you, but only after you have suffered and prayed. Then you become a redeemer yourself, a co-redeemer with Jesus Christ for your family, for your children for your friend, for your neighbour, in such a way that we stand not as judges but as brothers and sisters who will bring blessings to others, not condemnation. This person might be wrong, but the damage that is coming to this person in this harsh way is far greater damage than the initial wrong that this person was doing. Then we inflict greater sufferings with greater consequences than the initial damage that was there, that we thought we needed to address.

WOUNDS TO ATTEND...

In pilgrimage, we actually learn to walk, willing to suffer, to experience injustices, willing to be misunderstood. We walk with the shortcomings, wrongs, injustices done against us. The time will come, but only after we have suffered a bit, when we will be able to address the situation, to dress the wound and clean it and let it grow better. Then these people around will realise that they were seen doing wrong, and they were not rejected or crushed – and they will appreciate that and they will grow. This is the area where we need to investigate the mysteries and secrets and wisdom of life.

We pilgrims pray in such a way because all this is common sense. we don’t need to wait for a child to do something stupid to warn them, gently, with the love of God, and not with vengeance and poison of our own, fears and selfishness. Pilgrimage is something we allow to happen. As we go with pilgrimage we go with God, and we meet other people because this is where we are meant to be, where we are created to be. We will be allowed to have the cup to drink, but also where we will bless abundantly so many we will encounter on the journey of our life.

We are so quick with this judgement against others that with the same mentality we accuse God, where we even see him doing something wrong to us.

When Christ walked towards the Cross, to embrace it, to lift it on his shoulders, he questioned God for letting be in such a position. If Christ was able to come to such a position then we too will be in a similar position where God will allow us to walk into this encounter with the Cross; then in our justice we will condemn even God for being wrong. This is the same mentality we use in our relationships with the people around us. In this mill, in the prayer, in this pilgrimage we are crushed in those selfish attitudes. Our selfish ways are crushed.

Often we are like an angry dog who has experienced beatings and thinks that everyone wants to harm him. So before he is hit, he bites. In pilgrimage we need to allow ourselves be crushed, to become a new person, so that we become blessed ourselves, like Our Lady, and not only blessed ourselves but medicine for the wounds of others. So God will be able to bring you to where he is expecting you to be, there to bless. There is somewhere a wound for you to attend to and heal, just by being there, present. So in this pilgrimage we allow a similar process to Christ allowing himself to be crushed. “God count on me.”

SACRAMENTS...

There is an area of major crisis in the Church where we decide what our faith needs to be, what we need to believe, especially in the area of morality. Sometimes people realise that they are wrong. They realise that they are broken and they know that sometime they will change that. Others refuse to change and they say, “If I am wrong, God will forgive me,” without realising that they need to receive forgiveness from people.
How do we find true faith, true life, true prayer, not made in my image but in the image of God? That is something we are searching for. That is the whole problem of faith today, where Christians stand or fall.

In pilgrimage our ways are crushed and the ways of God discovered – and this is in Sacraments. So the ultimate objective of our pilgrimage is Sacraments. We find God in Sacraments. So all the questions that you have in this area of morality, dogmas, human relationships, prayers – all the answers are in the Sacraments. There is the solution to every problem and every question there could be, or would ever be – in the Sacraments.

So in pilgrimage our ultimate goal is to encounter God in the Sacraments. In Sacraments we will see his face. Outside the Sacraments we will not be able to find him and he will not be able to find us. This means something very, very important, like Sunday Mass. The Eucharist is THE Sacrament of our faith. All the other Sacraments lead us towards the Eucharist, the Holy Communion with God and with each other. The fulfilment of this Sacrament will be in Heaven, the Holy Communion with God.

NOT TO BE THERE...

When we return home, the pilgrimage begins. We don’t really realise the consequence of our physical appearance. The world has led us to believe that the power of opinion is crucial – and that’s as wrong as it could be.

It’s not feelings – we say, “I didn’t feel right, so I didn’t go to church. I didn’t feel I wanted to go.” The ultimate act against God is not to be there. That’s all one could do, not to be there. That’s the sin of every sin and the source of every other sin – not to be there. That’s as far as we can go in sin, not to be there. If you are not there you are absolutely not there. We don’t realise that. If you are not there you are somewhere else, so you are or you are not.

It’s more than a soldier who has to be in his own place and nowhere else. When a soldier is not in his own place at the time he needs to be, that’s treason. In war, that’s as far as you can go. When I am not at church on Sunday, every church in the world is empty and broken, annihilated because I am not there. We don’t realise this.

When you come, it’s the most you can do. So pilgrimage is when I come. So when you come to church you might be crushed, you might have doubts, you don’t like the priest, you don’t like this or that, BUT you are there. The problems of the Church arise when we decide not to be there, to be anywhere, to do anything.

ABORTION MENTALITY...

This attitude begins with the mentality of abortion. This may be challenging for you. Not to be in church on Sunday is the touch of abortion, to be pulled out of the Body of Christ and to be thrown into the garbage of the world. When we are not in the Body of Christ we are thrown into the garbage. That’s when the mentality of abortion comes.

With prayer, Our Lady would like us to be in the right place at the right time. When you are there, in the right place at the right time, then the world can count on you. Otherwise the world will lead you anywhere, the world will decide where you go. The things of the world, the attitudes of the world, the values of the world, will take over – and who cares? In pilgrimage we go on a journey for God, that we are able to say, “God, count on me. I will go wherever you call me.” When we create a mentality of pilgrimage and prayer then we will be there when God calls us.

A prayer we should say every day is, “God, please protect other people from me.” When we want to squeeze someone’s neck and not feel sorry for it, we have to postpone our JUST reaction (and God will give us a hint). That’s when we suffer most, when we postpone our just reaction.

• Fr Svetozar Kraljevic OFM

• 2010 Pilgrimage dates to Medjugorje from the U.K.

Dear Children...

St Joseph the Worker

Today is the Feast of St Joseph the Worker, husband of the Virgin Mary, and a day of prayer for God’s blessing on human work. Joseph is patron of the universal Church, fathers, carpenters, and social justice
• illustration by
Michael D. O’Brien