Jakov’s Talk before the 25^th Anniversary, 6/21/06

 

    I would not call this an anniversary, but call it a gift from God, a gift which was given to all of us, not only to us 6 visionaries, but a gift which was given to the entire world. Our Lady is the Mother of all of us, and She gives the same love to all of us. She comes to us because all of us are Her children.

   Many people are wondering why Our Lady has been appearing to us for so long. Why? Why do we get so many messages? And many people say Our Lady gives the same messages all the time. But instead of asking why, we should say something else. We have to thank Her. We have to thank God because He allows Our Lady to spend time with us.  If we open our hearts, we’ll be able to understand why Our Lady comes here. And this is what I said a little bit before – Our Lady comes because of all of us. She comes because She loves us all, because She wants to lead us to peace, because She wants to bring joy to us. All of this we can find in Jesus Christ. That is why Our Lady gives the messages to us. And the messages Our Lady gives us are the way to get to Jesus Christ. The way She gives us is the way of prayer and  conversion, of peace, and the way of penance and fasting and Holy Mass.

   We are able to accept the messages of Our Lady. We have to do what Our Lady asks us to do, and that is to open ourselves completely toward Her. In one of Her messages Our Lady says, “Dear children, it is enough if you open your hearts, and I’ll do everything else by myself.”  That is the first thing you have to do here in Medjugorje. We have to surrender ourselves to Our Lady and we have to give Her our entire life.

   Our Lady wants us to pray.  Our Lady wants us to pray the Holy Rosary. Also Our Lady says that every prayer we say with the heart is important, and that’s why Our Lady says all the time, “Pray with the heart.” Many people wonder what prayer of the heart is. It is a gift which is given to us by God, and this is a gift which God desires to give to every single man. We have to pray for this gift from God, especially here in Medjugorje. Our Lady repeated so many times She wants to give gifts to all of us. She wants to give us the gift of prayer of the heart, and we have to be ready to ask for this.

   Our Lady wants us to pray in our families. She wants us to place God in the very first place in our lives so that we can find the time for God and for our families. And if God is present in our families, we are going to have peace in our families, we are going to have love in our families. This is the most important thing – this is what every family needs.  In Her messages Our Lady has been repeating so many times that nothing but family prayer can unite families so much. That is why we have to place God in the very first place in our lives. We have to become an example to our children. The late Fr. Slavko used to say very often that if we give the rules of the faith to our children from the very beginning, even if they distance themselves from God one day, they’ll always come back to Him. And even those rules we placed in their hearts stay in their hearts forever.

   Our Lady invites us to fast. She wants us to fast on bread and water on Wednesdays and Fridays. Today is Wednesday! So I’m reminding you, in case you forgot. But how do we fast? You have to fast out of love. You have to fast in silence. Many people wonder why fasting is important. It is important because Our Lady wants us to fast. Just try to remember what Our Lady says:” Dear children, with prayer and fasting you can reach every goal you want. You can even stop wars.” And that is why fasting is important. important.

   So often in our lives when we have a crisis, we wonder, “God, where are You? Why don’t You help me, God? Why did You forget me, God? “  But we have to ask ourselves some other questions: “Where have we been?  What have we done? How much time have we spent with God?  Did we respect His commandments? “ God is always with us, but so often we do not want His presence, through our sins we committed.

   So you see, Our Lady says, “Convert yourselves. Convert your hearts.”  Without conversion of your heart you are not able to get to God, and this is very important for every single pilgrim who comes here to Medjugorje. Why did you come here? You did not come here to see us visionaries, and you did not come here to see the signs or miracles, because the greatest sign, the greatest gift that we can receive here is our own conversion. Here we can start a new life, a new life with God.

  What is even more important, we are going to take this life back to our homes. You see, Medjugorje does not stop here. Medjugorje continues back in our homes. Medjugorje continues in every family, and this way we are able to become an example to other people. But what kind of example are we to be? You see when we preach, when we talk, then we have a big mouth!  All of us can do that!  All of us can talk, but the question is – do we live what we are talking about? This is a question we should ask ourselves. We have to talk to other people with our example, with our lives. And when you leave Medjugorje, when you go back to your homes, what do you need to carry back? The greatest and most beautiful souvenir you can get here are the messages of Our Lady, so that other people can recognize within you God’s love, so that other people can see God within you and how God acts and works through you. This is the example Our Lady asks from all of us.

 

Special thanks to "Spirit of Medjugorje" for this article. http://www.spiritofmedjugorje.org/