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In Our Lady’s message we can sense her great concern for those who do not believe, who have not come to know God’s love. During the past year Our Lady has urged us several times to deepen our life of prayer, to offer more sacrifices and to consecrate our lives to her Immaculate Heart and to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in order to become effective instruments in helping Jesus and Mary to lead more souls on the way of salvation.

Her October message made our Lady’s concern very plain:

Dear children! I call you anew to consecrate yourselves to my heart and the heart of my Son Jesus. I desire, little children, to lead you all on the way of conversion and holiness. Only in this way, through you, we can lead all the more souls on the way of salvation. Do not delay, little children, but say with all your heart: “I want to help Jesus and Mary that all the more brothers and sisters may come to know the way of holiness.” In this way, you will feel the contentment of being friends of Jesus. Thank you for having responded to my call.

Our Lady has urged us again in her November message to become true reflections of Jesus through love, joy and peace enabling Jesus to be born in the hearts of those who do not know Him.

Dear children! I call you that this time be for you an even greater incentive to prayer. In this time, little children, pray that Jesus be born in all hearts, especially in those who do not know Him. Be love, joy and peace in this peaceless world. I am with you and intercede before God for each of you. Thank you for having responded to my call.

Perhaps it is time that we take very seriously to heart Our Lady’s concern for unbelievers, and join her and Mirjana by praying regularly for unbelievers whose number is growing day by day.

Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo, born 18 May 1965, ceased to see Our Lady daily on 25th December 1982, but Our Lady appears to her on her birthdays and she prays with Mirjana on the 2nd day of every month for unbelievers.

In a special apparition to Mirjana, on 15th August 1985, this is what our Lady told her:

My angel, pray for unbelievers. People will tear their hair, brothers will plead with brothers. They will curse their past lives without God. They will repent, but it will be too late. Now is the time for conversion. I have been exhorting you for the past four years. Pray for them. Invite everyone to pray the rosary.

On 18th March 1989, Mirjana’s birthday, Our Lady appeared very sad and she said:

One more time I beseech all of you to pray, to help by your prayers the unbelievers, those who do not have the grace to experience God in their hearts with a living faith. I do not want to threaten again! My wish is just to warn you all as a mother. I beg you for the sake of the people who do not know about the secrets... I want to tell you how I suffer for all because I am the Mother of all.

Our Lady’s words remind me of her warning given during her apparitions at La Salette (1846) about the grave dangers facing mankind in the future. But she also spoke about the ‘apostles of the last days’. Perhaps this is the time to become apostles of the last days, as Our Lady has been preparing us for nearly 23 years, through Medjugorje, to save the world. Let us now start in earnest to join Our Lady and Mirjana to pray the holy rosary every second of the month for unbelievers, so that Jesus and Mary can ‘transform them into people of peace and love’.

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Our Lady is continuing with the main theme of her January message: helping Jesus and Mary ‘to draw closer to their hearts all those who have not yet come to know God’s love, so that they may transform them into people of peace and love.’

We are called to become effective instruments in helping Jesus and Mary to lead more souls on the way of salvation. In order to become such effective instruments in their hands we ourselves have to be transformed so we can help others to be transformed. This is the main point of Our Lady’s present message.

Our Lady has helped us many times to live by her messages, not just reading them or merely listening to them. This time she is calling us to open our hearts to her messages which are in fact God’s messages, messages of the Gospel. She wants us to put all our hearts into following her guidance so that our example by our life of prayer and love may draw souls to God, whereas if we remain lukewarm we may drive people away from God. Our Lady needs our help very much to bring about the triumph of her Immaculate Heart over Satan as she told us in an earlier message:

Dear Children, Today in a special way I invite you all to prayer and renunciation. For now as never before Satan wants to show the world his shameful face by which he wants to seduce as many people as possible onto the way of death and sin. Therefore, dear children, help my Immaculate Heart to triumph in the sinful world. I beseech all of you to offer prayers and sacrifices for my intentions so I can present them to God for what is most necessary. Forget your desires, dear children, and pray for what God desires, and not for what you desire. Thank you for having responded to my call. (September 25, 1991)

It is a tremendously important mission for which Our Lady has been preparing us for nearly 23 years, and she knows what the world will become under Satan’s influence if her children are not responding to her call with all their hearts. She always assures us that she is with us in this great mission. She loves us immensely, and she intercedes before God for all of us.

Lent is a very special time for responding to Our Lady’s requests with all our heart and mind, as Our Lady reminds us in her present message. This is the time for repentance and conversion, prayers and fasting, works of charity and mercy, aided by our devotions of the Stations of the Cross and the Holy Rosary. As we meditate on the sufferings of Our Lord Jesus and of his Sorrowful Mother we come to see more and more how much God loves us and wants to fill us with His blessing of love, joy and peace.

Finally, it is Our Lady’s desire, expressed in several previous messages, that we should often pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit, opening our hearts to the Holy Spirit like flowers in the spring to the sun, to receive all the gifts and graces which are necessary for transforming us into the likeness of Jesus. Renewal in the Holy Spirit is vitally important for all of us in the Church to become effective witnesses to those who are far from faith in God, as Our Lady told us on 25th May, 2000:

Dear Children, I rejoice with you and in this time of grace I call you to spiritual renewal. Pray, little children, that the Holy Spirit may come to dwell in you in fullness, so that you may be able to witness in joy to all those who are far from faith. Especially, little children, pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit so that in the spirit of love, every day and in each situation, you may be closer to your fellow-man; and that in wisdom and love you may overcome every difficulty. I am with you and I intercede for each of you before Jesus. Thank you for having responded to my call. (May 25, 2000)

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Once again we are called to become instruments in Our Lady’s saving plan for the world. In order to become effective witnesses in this sinful world, we have to become shining examples for all that is good, so that it may touch the hearts of unbelievers and all those around us who may be lukewarm Christians.

We all know that there is a great need for conversion of all hearts to God if we do not wish to see more destruction and terrorism in the world. However, we as Mary’s children have to experience total conversion of heart and mind before we can become examples to others. This is what Our Lady has been concentrating on in her last few messages. Now again she is drawing our attention to the great opportunities which the present holy season of Lent is offering us.

In her school of prayer and love Our Lady has been urging us many times to grow in the life of prayer and love, Centring our life on Jesus who gave Himself for the salvation of the world. In a message thirteen years ago, this is how Our Lady told us what prayer should mean for us in this time of grace:

Dear Children, Today once again I invite you to live the passion of Jesus in prayer and in union with Him. Decide to give more time to God who gave you these days of grace. Therefore, dear children, pray and renew in a special way the love for Jesus in your hearts. I am with you and I accompany you with my blessings and my prayers. Thank you for having responded to my call. (25 March 1991).

Living the Passion of Jesus means being ready and willing to make sacrifices of love in helping others to find God’s peace in their hearts. Prayerful reflection on the suffering of Jesus through the Stations of the Cross, and Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ, may help us to deepen our love for Jesus and Mary who suffered so much for us and for the salvation of the world.

Our Lady wants us to take part in the redeeming sacrifice of Jesus by making reparation for sins and promoting the conversion of sinners by offering our own little sacrifices. Jesus sacrificed Himself in obedience to the will of His heavenly Father and this should be our attitude too, following the words of St Paul:

I urge you, brothers, remembering the mercies of God, to offer you bodies as a living sacrifice, dedicated and acceptable to God; that is the kind of worship for you, as sensible people. Do not model your behaviour on the contemporary world, but let the renewal of your mind transform you, so that you may discern for yourselves the will of God – what is good and acceptable and mature. (Romans 12:1-2)

Our Lady told us about the importance of such prayer and sacrifice, centring on the Passion of Jesus, in another beautiful message on 25th February, 1998:

Dear Children, Today once again I am with you and I, again, call all of you to come closer to me through your prayers. In a special way, I call you to renunciation in this time of grace. Little children, meditate on and live, through your little sacrifices, the passion and death of Jesus for each of you. Only if you come closer to Jesus will you comprehend the immeasurable love He has for each of you. Through prayer and your renunciation you will become more open to the gift of faith and love towards the Church and the people who are around you. I love you and bless you. Thank you for having responded to my call.

Once we are united with our suffering Redeemer and with our Sorrowful Mother, the power of example in prayer and love will flow out of our heart, spreading peace, love and joy in our world which is without peace, love and joy. Such example will become an inspiration to all around us, and good will overcome the power of evil. That is what the “apostles of the last days” means, as I have mentioned in my reflection on Our Lady’s January message.

Our Lady assures us again that she is close to us, that she is with us in this great work of new evangelisation, and she loves us all. Nothing should deter us, therefore, from committing ourselves totally, heart and soul, to everything Our Lady is asking of us

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Our Lady’s short but profound message urges us again as so many times in the past to live her messages, which are in fact the messages of the Gospel. Her main message is to pray, to pray with the heart, opening our hearts to the Holy Spirit, like flowers in the spring yearning for the sun, to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit which transform us into the likeness of Jesus and make us into effective witnesses in our sinful world.

Our Lady is anxious that we become an example and an inspiration for good, as she told us in her last monthly message, and she is also emphasising that all this is the work of the Holy Spirit in us, as she told us in an earlier message:

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 to do. Thank you for having responded to my call. (25 May, 1993)

We need the gifts of the Holy Spirit also for accepting and living the messages of Our Lady, as she has urged us in another message:

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, understand 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. (25 June, 2002)

Living the messages of Our Lady with the help of the Holy Spirit will produce in us the holiness of life which enables us to give a good example to the people around us, helping them to open their hearts to God’s gifts of peace and forgiveness. Our Lady knows about the powerful working of the Holy Spirit in her life, in the life of Jesus, and in the life of the early Church. She wants us to experience the same miracle of grace, guiding us towards renewal in the Holy Spirit, towards a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit, a New Pentecost, making us into effective apostles for the new evangelisation. This is in the heart and mind of Our Lady, expressed in another beautiful message:

Dear Children, I rejoice with you and in this time of grace I call you to spiritual renewal. Pray, little children, that the Holy Spirit may come to dwell in you in fullness, so that you may be able to witness in joy to all those who are far from faith. Especially, little children, pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit so that in the spirit of love, every day and in each situation, you may be closer to your fellow man; and that in wisdom and love you may overcome every difficulty. I am with you and I intercede for each of you before Jesus. Thank you for having responded to my call. (25 May 2000)

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At the Last Supper, in his prayer to his Father in Heaven, Jesus consecrated himself to the Father willing to fulfil completely his holy will. Jesus wanted his followers to do the same (cf. John 17:18-20) following his example, and he will send them the Holy Spirit to help them to continue his work for the salvation of the world.

This has been at the heart of the messages of Our Lady of Medjugorje for nearly twenty-three years, and links also to her request made at Fatima

...I urge you, dear children, that you pray and fast still more firmly... so that with your help, all that I wanted to realise through the secrets which I began in Fatima may be fulfilled. I ask you, dear children, to grasp the importance of my coming and the gravity of the situation. (25 August, 1991)

Through consecration to her Immaculate Heart she is able to make us into effective instruments in saving souls, like Blessed Francisco and Jacinta, and helping her to bring about the victory of her Immaculate Heart (25 September, 1991), and thus to prepare the way for the reign of Christ in all hearts. Our Lady renewed her request a few months ago, emphasising that through consecration we are helping Jesus and Mary to bring more souls on the way of holiness:

Dear Children, I call you anew to consecrate yourselves to my heart and the heart of my Son Jesus. I desire, little children, to lead you all on the way of conversion and holiness. Only in this way, through you, we can lead all the more souls on the way of salvation. Do not delay, little children, but say with all your heart: “I want to help Jesus and Mary that all the more brothers and sisters may come to know the way of holiness.” In this way, you will feel the contentment of being friends of Jesus. (25 October, 2003)

Our Lady’s call to consecration is addressed not only to us personally but also to our families and parishes, so that the power of many consecrated lives may be effective against the growing power of Satan, as Our Lady urged us many years ago:

Dear Children, my call that you live the messages which I am giving you is a daily one, especially, little children, because I want to draw you closer to the Heart of Jesus. Therefore, little children, I am calling you today to the prayer of Consecration to Jesus, my dear Son, so that each of your hearts may be his. And then I am calling you to Consecration to my Immaculate Heart. I want you to consecrate yourselves as persons, families, and parishes so that all belongs to God through my hands. Therefore, little children, pray that you may comprehend the greatness of this message which I am giving you. I do not want anything for myself, rather, all for the salvation of your souls. Satan is strong and, therefore, you, little children, by constant prayer press tightly to my motherly heart. Thank you for having responded to my call. (25 October, 1988)

The most important means for our consecration are prayer, acts of sacrifice and self-denial, identifying ourselves more and more with our suffering Redeemer and with our Sorrowful Mother, to become more effective instruments in their hands for peace, reparation and reconciliation in our sinful world which is without peace.

As we are celebrating the Feast of Pentecost, the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit enabling the followers of Christ to become powerful witnesses for the Good News (Gospel) of Jesus Christ, we should keep in mind Our Lady’s last monthly message urging us to live by her messages in humility and love so that the Holy Spirit may fill you with grace and strength, enabling you to be witnesses of peace and forgiveness.

As we are celebrating the last festivities of this holy season, the time of grace, through Our Lady’s guidance, we may grow in our devotion to the Persons of the Holy Trinity (6th June), to the Eucharistic Lord (10th June), to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (18th June), and to the Immaculate Heart of Mary (19th June), and we may sense that the Marian Age may come slowly to its close and, I believe, Our Lady has been preparing us through all these years for the new age, the New Pentecost, for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church, preparing us as apostles for the new evangelisation, renewing the face of the earth. (Psalm 104:30)

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The twenty-third anniversary of Our Lady's first apparition at Medjugorje is a joyful day indeed in the light of Our Lady's message. She is joyful and grateful because, with the help of many of her children, who committed themselves to live by her messages, her plan for the peace of the world can be achieved. At the beginning of the war in former Yugoslavia she referred to her plan to save souls which has begun in Fatima:

Dear children, today, also I invite you to prayer, now as never before, when my plan has begun to be realized. Satan is strong and wants to sweep away plans of peace and joy and make you think that my Son is not strong in His decisions. Therefore, I call all of you, dear children, to pray and fast still more firmly. I invite you to renunciation for nine days, so that, with your help, everything that I wanted to realize through the secrets which began at Fatima may be fulfilled. I call you, dear children, to grasp the importance of my coming and the seriousness of the situation. I want to save all souls and present them to God. Therefore, let us pray that everything I have begun will be fully realized. Thank you for having responded to my call. (25 Aug 1991)

Our Lady wants to bring the peace of Christ into our world with our help and that is why we are so important. She wants to share her prayer and joy with us for every new person who, through conversion, is willing to participate in Our Lady's crusade by becoming an instrument of peace in the world. In her last monthly message Our Lady has urged us to consecrate ourselves to her Immaculate Heart and to the Heart of Jesus, so that, by uniting ourselves with Jesus and Mary, we may be able to inspire each other to live a holy life and thus we can lead other people to Jesus and Mary, and we all will be carriers of peace and love.

The best way for such mutual inspiration is when we grow in holiness together with other people as in a family or prayer group, keeping in mind Our Lord's words: Where two or three meet in my name, I am there among them. (Matthew 18:20)

Prayer groups are very dear to Our Lady's heart and in the course of 1983 Our Lady invited the young people of Medjugorje through Jelena to form a prayer group, and promised that she would give them rules to follow and that she would guide them in their spiritual lives (Cf. my book Living the Gospel with Our Lady , pp. 183-86). Our Lady has encouraged all her devotees to join prayer groups if possible. She made a special appeal about this in the Jubilee Year of 2000.

Dear children! Today I call you to open yourselves to prayer. May prayer become joy for you. Renew prayer in your families and form prayer groups. In this way, you will experience joy in prayer and togetherness. All those who pray and are members of prayer groups are open to God's will in their hearts and joyfully witness God's love. I am with you, I carry all of you in my heart and I bless you with my motherly blessing. Thank you for having responded to my call. (25 September 2000)

In her present message Our Lady gives her reason why prayer groups are so important in our time. She sees the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in the world through prayer groups, and in another Jubilee Year message she has expressed her joy about the Church being renewed in the Holy Spirit. She has also indicated the coming of a new time - a time of spring, which I have interpreted in my previous reflection as the New Age, the New Pentecost.

Dear children! Today I desire to open my motherly heart to you and to call you all to pray for my intentions. I desire to renew prayer with you and to call you to fast which I desire to offer to my Son Jesus for the coming of a new time - a time of spring. In this Jubilee year many hearts have opened to me and the Church is being renewed in the Spirit. I rejoice with you and I thank God for this gift; and you, little children, I call to pray, pray, pray - until prayer becomes a joy for you. Thank you for having responded to my call. (25 October 2000).

 

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In her last monthly message Our Lady expressed her joy about her plan for peace in the world being achievable because many of her children have committed themselves to live by her messages.

As we are entering the twenty-fourth year of apparitions and messages of Our Lady of Medjugorje, she is now urging us all to open our hearts to her messages, the messages of the Gospel, the messages of love, joy and peace, to enable our Blessed Mother to draw us all closer to Jesus. Through all her shrines Our Lady's special role was and still is to draw us closer to Jesus, especially through the Eucharistic Mystery, as the Holy Father stated in his encyclical letter Redemptoris Mater in referring to the: profound link between devotion to the Blessed Virgin and worship of the Eucharist, and he adds: Mary guides the faithful to the Eucharist (no. 44).

In her present message Our Lady is calling us especially to pray and make sacrifices (fasting) for her intentions, so that she can present us to Jesus for Him to transform and open our hearts to love, to become images of Jesus (cf. Romans 8:29), to enable us to participate in his saving work, by becoming instruments in His hands and in Our Lady's hands, bringing love, joy and peace to others.

We must appreciate Our Lady's heartfelt desire to see us as the image of her Son Jesus by living her messages with all our heart. We must also realise that sooner or later she will cease to give us messages as she indicated in her message on 25th December 1989:

Dear Children, Today I bless you in a special way with my Motherly blessing and I intercede for you to God for Him to give you the gift of the conversion of the heart. For years I have been calling you to encourage you to a profound spiritual life in simplicity, but you are so cold! There- fore, little children, accept with seriousness and live the messages for your soul not to be sad when I will not be with you anymore and when I will not guide you anymore like an insecure child in his first steps. Therefore, little children, read everyday the messages I gave you and transform them into life. I love you and this is why I call you to the way of salvation with God. Thank you for having responded to my call.

In order to live by the messages of Our Lady with all our heart we have to pray for a sepcial gift of the Holy spirit, as Our Lady told us two years ago: (25 June 2002)

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, understand 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.

 

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This message follows on Our Lady’s last monthly message calling us to pray and make sacrifices for her intentions so that she can present us to Jesus for Him to transform and open our hearts in love. During the past twenty-three years Our Lady has called us many times to conversion, to change our heart and life, renewing her very first call to the people of Medjugorje and through them to us all on 26th June 1981: I have come because there are many true believers here. I wish to be with you to convert and reconcile the whole world.

In fact, Our Lady regards her call to our conversion as the most important one, renewing the first call of the Gospel: Repent and believe the Good News (Mark 1:15).

During all these years Our Lady has been preparing us to become instruments in her great plan for the peace of the world, guiding us to a life of prayer and love which will enable us to become effective witnesses helping others to conversion and reconciliation, so that the reign of Christ, the Prince of Peace, may come to our world, filling all hearts with love, peace and joy.

In her present message Our Lady is urging us to a complete change of life to be truly open to God’s gifts for the salvation of the world with her motherly help. Our Lady knows that such a change and transformation of our life is not easy in this sinful world, in which Satan is trying to make people turn against God and against everything that is good and holy. In an earlier message Our Lady reminded us of this :

Dear Children, Today I invite you to live peace in your hearts and families. There is no peace, little children, where there is no prayer; and there is no love where there is no faith. Therefore, little children, I invite you all to decide again today for conversion. I am close to you and I invite you all, little children, into my embrace to help you. But you do not want it; so Satan is tempting you, and in the smallest things your faith disappears. This is why, dear children, pray; and through prayer, you will have blessing and peace. Thank you for your response to my call. (25 March 1995)

Conversion, change of heart, transformation of our life is not the result of our own efforts, but it is God’s gift for which we have to pray with all our heart, turning especially to the Holy Spirit, as Our Lady told us on 25th May 1998:

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.

We must also realise that conversion according to Our Lady’s teaching is an ongoing process. It is a daily conversion with increased willingness on our part to be more and more active in the Church, as Our Lady told us on 25th February 1993:

Dear children, today I bless you with my Motherly Blessing and invite you all to conversion. I wish that each of you decides himself for a change of life and that each of you works more in the church, not through words and thoughts but through example, so that your life may be a joyful testimony for Jesus. You cannot say that you are converted, because your life must become a daily conversion. In order to understand what you have to do, little children, pray and God will give you what you concretely have to do, and where you have to change. I am with you and place you all under my mantle. Thank you for having responded to my call.

Then our hearts will be truly open before God who will answer our prayers for our brothers and sisters, and we shall become faithful and effective instruments in His hands for the salvation of the world. Our Lady assures us that she is with us and intercedes for each one of us.

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We live in a world which is marked by conflicts, violence and terrorism, causing hatred between communities and people. We are witnessing terrible natural catastrophes which are causing loss of many lives, destruction of homes, hunger and disease. In society in general criminality is on the increase; and the breakdown in human relationships, marriage and family is spreading, and producing its own evil consequences. No wonder Our Lady, the Mother of the Church, the Queen of Peace, is coming to our aid by urging us to rally round her, to live by her messages, and by calling us to conversion and change of heart, so as to become the reflection of Jesus and light for others, as she told us on 5th June, 1986:

Dear Children, Today I am calling you to decide if you wish to live the messages I am giving you. I wish you to be active in living and transmitting the messages. Especially, dear children, I desire you to be the reflections of Jesus, who enlightens an unfaithful world which is walking in darkness. I wish that all of you may be a light to all and witness to the light. Dear children, you are not called to darkness. You are called to light and to live the light in your lives. Thank you for your response to my call.

Now, Our Lady is urging us again to open our hearts to God’s love so that Jesus may be born in our hearts, to be love, joy and peace in this troubled world which is without peace, as she told us last November:

Dear Children, I call you that this time be for you an even greater incentive to prayer. In this time, little children, pray that Jesus be born in all hearts, especially in those who do not know Him. Be love, joy and peace in this peaceless world. I am with you and intercede before God for each of you. Thank you for having responded to my call. (25th November, 2003)

In order to realise such perfection in our lives, our hearts must be open to God’s love through deep prayer, like flowers in the spring opening to the sun, because only God’s love, through the Holy Spirit, can change us into people who live by love, as Our Lady told us several years ago:

Dear Children, Today I call you to love. Little children, without love you cannot live, neither with God nor with brother. Therefore, I call all of you to open your hearts to the love of God that is so great and open to each one of you. God, out of love for man, has sent me among you to show you the path of salvation, the path of love. If you do not first love God, then you will neither be able to love neighbor or the one you hate. Therefore, little children, pray and through prayer you will discover love. Thank you for having responded to my call. (25th April, 1995)

The urgency of Our Lady’s call reminds us that our mission to be instruments in Our Lady’s hands is to be realised now, in the midst of all the troubles in the world, and not some time in the future. The Gospel call of Jesus is for here and now in our lives: You are the light of the world... Your light must shine in people’s sight, so that, seeing your good works, they may give praise to your Father in Heaven. (Matthew 5:14-16)

Light means help for others to find their way to God and to be extended hands to those in need, as Our Lady reminded us on 25th November, 2001:

Dear Children, In this time of grace, I call you anew to prayer. Little children, pray and prepare your hearts for the coming of the King of Peace, that with His blessing He may give peace to the whole world. Peacelessness has begun to reign in hearts and hatred reigns in the world. That is why, you who live my messages be the light and extended hands to this faithless world that all may come to know the God of Love. Do not forget, little children, I am with you and bless you all. Thank you for having responded to my call.

Once again, as in every message, Our Lady reminds us that all the ideals of becoming light, love, joy, and peace for others can be realised only through prayer, prayer of the heart, unceasing prayer, as she interpreted to Jelena the words “Pray, pray, pray”.

When I say ‘pray, pray, pray’ I do not mean only increase the hours of prayer, but increase the desire for prayer and the desire to be in contact with God. Place yourself permanently in a state of spirit bathed in prayer. (26th June, 1984).

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In this message Our Lady is urging us, as so many times before, to look upon the family as the most important pillar of society that is threatened in our world in so many ways. Many governments are failing in defending marriage as an institution essential to the common good, and are planning to introduce legislation in favour of homosexual and lesbian unions by granting them equal rights to those in heterosexual marriage, thus undermining the sanctity of marriage and family, the very basis of human society.

Through His incarnation the Son of God sanctified marriage and family and Our Lady wants Jesus to be in the heart of the family, uniting parents and children through His love. That is why prayer in the family is so important, as the old maxim says: the family that prays together stays together.

Only God’s special grace can save the family from all the attacks in our time, and that is why Our Lady is urging families to renew prayer, so that in union with Jesus and Mary the family may learn to love everything that is holy. The family is the cradle of holiness, as Our Lady told us in a message:

Dear Children, I rejoice because of all of you who are on the way of holiness and I beseech you, by your own testimony help those who do not know how to live in holiness. Therefore, dear children, let your family be a place where holiness is birthed. Help everyone to live in holiness, but especially your own family. Thank you for having responded to my call. (24 July, 1986)

Our Lady often urged families to renew prayer in the family, as in a monthly message on 25 January, 1992:

Dear Children, today I am inviting you to a renewal of prayer in your families so that, in that way, every family will become a joy to my son Jesus. Therefore, dear children, pray and seek more time for Jesus and then you will be able to understand and accept everything, even the most difficult sicknesses and crosses. I am with you and I desire to take you into my heart and protect you, but you have not yet decided. There- fore, dear children, I am seeking for you to pray so that, through prayer, you will allow me to help you. Pray, my dear little children, so that prayer becomes your daily bread. Thank you for having responded to my call.

Attending Holy Mass together and praying the Holy Rosary in the family are the most important means of growing in holiness, centring our lives on Jesus, and for this reason the reading and praying of the Holy Scriptures in the family is warmly recommended by Our Lady.

Dear Children, Today again I call you to become carriers of my peace. In a special way, now when it is being said that God is far away, He has truly never been nearer to you. I call you to renew prayer in your families by reading the Sacred Scripture and to experience joy in meeting with God who infinitely loves His creatures. Thank you for having responded to my call. (25 September, 1999)

Our Lady is also asking us to imitate the lives of the saints who can inspire us and teach us the way of holiness. A book of the lives of the saints can be a very useful aid to us.

I firmly believe that families renewed by prayer and holiness in a life of love will be the most important witness of love to our world drawing people to learn to love God and each other.

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When Our Lady mentions ‘at this time’, and she did this many times in the past few years, she means this special period of history which is marked by very disturbing events and fearful tensions in the world. She is urging us to join her crusade to save the world by praying for her intentions. Our Lady’s whole mission through Medjugorje is a great invitation to all of us to become instruments in her hands to help her to bring about the triumph of her Immaculate Heart over the prince of all evil, Satan, as she revealed her plan at Fatima. Medjugorje is the continuation of her requests made at Fatima, renewed again in her message on 25th September, 1991, at the beginning of the war in former Yugoslavia.

Dear Children, my special call today is to invite you all to prayer and renunciation. For now, as never before, Satan wants to show the world his shameful face, by which he wants to seduce as many people as possible onto the way of death and sin. Therefore, dear children, help my Immaculate Heart to triumph in the sinful world. I beseech all of you to offer prayers and sacrifices for my intentions so I can present them to God for what is most necessary. Forget your desires, dear children, and pray for what God desires and not for what you desire. Thank you for having responded to my call

Prayers like the Holy Rosary, Holy Mass, adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, and sacrifices, especially in expiation (reparation) for the sins of the world, for the unbelievers, for the conversion of sinners, are the special ways of helping Our Lady, following the example of Blessed Francisco and Blessed Jacinta of Fatima. In later messages Our Lady simply calls us to holiness of life, a life of prayer and love, peace and joy, in union with Jesus and Mary, through surrendering and consecrating our lives to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, as she asked us to do in a recent message:

Dear Children, Also today, I urge you to consecrate yourselves to my Heart and to the Heart of my Son Jesus. Only in this way will you be mine more each day and you will inspire each other all the more to holiness. In this way joy will rule your hearts and you will be carriers of peace and love. Thank you for having responded to my call. (25th May, 2004)

In this way we become indeed the extended hands of Our Lady and an example to others, drawing them closer to Our Blessed Mother and to Jesus, the Saviour of the world. Three years ago, shortly after renewed brutal acts of terrorism hit the world, Our Lady spoke about our special mission to the world:

Dear Children, In this time of grace, I call you anew to prayer. Little children, pray and prepare your hearts for the coming of the King of Peace, that with His blessing He may give peace to the whole world. Peacelessness has begun to reign in hearts and hatred reigns in the world. That is why, you who live my messages be the light and extended hands to this faithless world that all may come to know the God of Love. Do not forget, little children, I am with you and bless you all.Thank you for having responded to my call. (25th November, 2001)

Our Lady concludes her present message by assuring us of God’s rewards and blessing for us. May her message inspire us all to become her extended hands for the salvation of the world.

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When an angel announced to the shepherds the joyful news about the birth of Jesus, the great host of angels were singing about the glory of God in the highest heaven and about peace to people on the earth. Glorifying God who wants to give His peace to us has been at the heart of the messages of Our Lady, the Queen of Peace, over the years, and her present message renews her frequent call to us to pray and to become courageous witnesses of the Good News, the Gospel of peace which God wants to give to the whole world.

When Our Lady appeared to the visionaries at Medjugorje for the first time on 24th June 1981, she showed the Baby Jesus to them, indicating the purpose of her great mission through Medjugorje: she wants us to accept Jesus, the Prince of Peace, into our lives so that we may become 'the reflection of Jesus that will enlighten this unfaithful world walking in darkness' as she told us in her message of 5th June 1986. Our Lady wants us, her children who are listening to her messages, to become effective witnesses to God's peace, so that through us people may accept Jesus and peace may come to our very troubled world. This is how she expressed her plan in her Christmas message two years ago:

Dear Children, This is a time of great graces, but also a time of great trials for all those who desire to follow the way of peace. Because of that, little children, again I call you to pray, pray, pray, not with words but with the heart. Live my messages and be converted. Be conscious of this gift that God has permitted me to be with you, especially today when in my arms I have little Jesus - the King of Peace. I desire to give you peace, and that you carry it in your hearts and give it to others until God's peace begins to rule the world. Thank you for having responded to my call. (25 December 2002)

To become 'courageous witnesses of the Good News' places great responsibility on all of us, urging us to pray with the heart, to live by Our Lady's messages which are the messages of the Gospel, to be converted and transformed to the likeness of Jesus, and to be conscious of Our Lady's presence with us, guiding and leading us on the way of salvation. In simple words Our Lady calls us to holiness of life, by which we can draw other people to God until peace begins to rule the world.

Such a way of life for us, Mary's children, means living the Gospel with our Lady as she told us in an earlier message.

Dear Children, Today I invite all of you who have heard my message of peace to realize it with seriousness and with love in your life. There are many who think they are doing a lot by talking about the messages but do not live them. Dear children, I invite you to life and to change all the negative in you so that it all turns into the positive, and into life. Dear children, I am with you and I desire to help each of you to live and, by living, to witness to the good news. I am here dear children, to help you and to lead you to heaven. In heaven is the joy through which you can already live heaven now. Thank you for having responded to my call.(25 May 1991)

In her present message Our Lady assures us that by leading such a holy life as explained above will make our prayer very effective indeed. It is because Our Lady is with us and praying with us. God will grant us everything we are asking of Him in humble faith, always willing to accept His holy will.

In our prayer we should also thank God for permitting our Blessed Mother to stay with us in a special way for such a long time, and we pray that she may remain with us, guiding and encouraging us. We should be very confident in God's love for us, because of Our Lady's intercession for each one of us, as she has assured us. May the New Year bring forth many fruits of her presence with us.

I wish to thank you for your kind wishes and prayers. May the God of love, joy and peace be with you all throughout the New Year.

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