Our Lady of Medjugorje

Reflection on Our Lady's Message of May 25, 2001

"Dear children! At this time of grace, I call you to prayer. Little children, you work much but without God's blessing. Bless and seek the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to lead you at this time so that you may comprehend and live in the grace of this time. Convert, little children, and kneel in the silence of your hearts. Put God in the center of your being so that, in that way, you can witness in joy the beauty that God continually gives in your life. Thank you for having responded to my call."

Peace to All! Below is the official English translation of Fra Ivan Landeka's reflection on Our Lady's message of 25th May, 2001 as provided by the Information Center in Medjugorje.

TWENTY YEARS AFTER

Twenty years since the beginning of the events of Medjugorje is enough time to give us a sufficient distance to observe the beginnings and the ensuing development. A greater chronological distance facilitates a sober distinction between what is central from what is secondary, and allows the focusing on what was essential all the time, without ever being questioned.

One of the main elements in the messages of Our Lady is that piety and spirituality are not to be hidden or to be ashamed of. Our Lady underlines this at a time, which is unfavourable for expressions of piety and of spirituality, which are indispensable for life. Let us not forget that these themes are very poorly and shyly represented in the preaching of the Church.

While we hear more and more about renouncing food for the sake of bodily beauty, Our Lady speaks of renouncing food - fasting - as an exercise in the imitation of the life of Jesus, and finding inner peace. While the opinion prevails that prayer can be replaced, as it is supposed to be just demanding and asking - Our Lady calls to prayer, without necessarily saying why or for whom. While speaking of reconciliation, we strongly think about its
underlying political, social and public aspect - Our Lady speaks of reconciliation with God and with oneself. Integral reconciliation means reconciliation of inner tensions and enmities within a person, because these tensions and enmities remain within man even when political, social and public peace is assured. All this says that Medjugorje and similar movements in the world are a real need of Christianity today, and that - if we approach them with faith - they will fulfil their role in a period of the life of the Church. They will fulfil it also because, in their way, they underline principally what is essential in the Gospel.

Fra Ivan Landeka
Medjugorje, May 26th 2001

Peace to All! Below is the official English translation of the Reflection/Commentary on Our Lady's monthly message of May 25, 2001 as provided by the Information Center in Medjugorje.
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GOD IS THE SOURCE OF BLESSING

In this message, like in preceding messages, Our Lady tells us that this is a time of grace. Her presence among us is a time of grace, which She wants us to use well, so that our days and years do not pass in vain. And life and years are passing and flowing like a river.

Our Lady invites us to the silence of the heart. As someone said in a prayer: "My God, when you pass by and knock at my door, let me hear you and open the door, let me be at home, within myself."  Often, we are tempted to be outside of ourselves, occupied with something and very distracted, while God, through Mary, wants our recollection and to gather us. We are afraid of the encounter with ourselves and with God, and we need to do something, to talk and to be occupied permanently. Today, man is afraid of silence, but only in the silence of the heart can he meet and hear God and himself.

Our Lady tells us that we work much but that, in this work, there is no blessing of God, no salt which gives taste to bread and to food. Just as bread without salt is insipid and not edible, so our work is void without the blessing, which God gives to all those who seek it. Blessing is the strength and the light for our paths. Through the blessing, light and peace enter into us. As soon as someone starts to bless instead of cursing, wishing good to others instead of cursing them, he becomes healthy, happy, saved from the hands of the enemy. Pronouncing the name of God in vain and cursing the name of God brings death, illness and ruin. The words we are pronouncing say much about ourselves. A word can wound and heal, it can kill and bring back to life. This is why it is important to overcome what is bad and evil within us with what is good, pure and blessed. Whatever is blessed brings blessing. Bless a thing and it will bless you! Curse it and it will curse you! Whatever you judge in your life will come back to you and hurt you. If you bless a situation, it has no more strength to hurt you and, even if for a time it causes you trouble, little by little this trouble will disappear, and the blessing coming from a pure heart will become a blessing for others. When you bless, you become ready to receive blessing.

It is in the nature of man to be envious, to speak badly about others, even to curse those who have a successful life and richness. We become envious and find it difficult to bless those who have achieved something in life, who obtained something. Instead, we have the tendency to criticize and to speak evil. If God has given visible gifts to someone, be great and give thanks for this goodness of God, expressed in the life of your brother, let your eye not be envious! If you see someone blessed by the strength of God, bless this person and blessing will come into your life also. This is the promise of God. Bless also the circumstances of your life. Bless, so that an improvement may happen in your life, because you change others through what you think, speak and expect of them. If wee feed people with hope, faith,
love and trust, they will succeed. To satiate oneself and others with blessings and positive thoughts and words, means to give life within oneself and within others to all the treasures, which we are and which we carry.

In the fullness of Her love and the blessing of Her motherly heart, Mary offers to us for almost 20 years the graces of Her presence among us. Let us approach our heavenly Mother with the heart, in order to become able to overcome all hatred, cursing, envy, gossip and slandering. She invites us to pray to the Holy Spirit, which God wants to send to all who desire and seek Him. God cannot remain deaf, cannot but answer to the sigh emanating from the heart. We have to open to Him the door of our life. He will not and He does not want to enter by force into anyone's life. Let us resist to every indolence and coldness of the heart.

And to you, O Mary, Queen of Peace, we pray: do not tire of us, speak to us, warn us and guide us on the way of life.

Fra Ljubo Kurtovic Medjugorje 26.5. 2001