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At the end of my reflection on the last monthly message of Our Lady I quoted her Christmas message of 2004 in which she said: Be courageous witnesses of the Good News (Gospel) in every situation. In this message Our Lady concentrates on the family situation in which the Gospel, the Word of God, should play a very important role.

During all these years of Our Lady’s visitation through Medjugorje, she has often called us to pray in the family, especially by reading Holy Scripture, in order to strengthen the family, the basis of all communities and nations, because in our time marriage, family life and the upbringing of children are in grave crisis. The Holy Scripture tells us about God’s infinite love for us, revealed in a special way through Jesus Christ who said at the Last Supper: I give you a new commandment: love one another; just as I have loved you, you also must love one another. By this love you have for one another, everyone will know that you are my disciples. (John 13: 34-35)

During the past year Our Lady often urged us to come closer to God through growing in deep prayer, in love and in holiness of life, to become carriers of God’s peace and love to our troubled world. The best way of growing in prayer, love and holiness of life is to read, pray and live Sacred Scripture, as Our Lady told us on 25th August 1993:

Dear Children, I want you to understand that I am your Mother, that I want to help you and call you to prayer. Only by prayer can you understand and accept my messages and practice them in your life. Read Sacred Scripture, live it, and pray to understand the signs of the time. This is a special time. Therefore, I am with you to draw you close to my heart and the Heart of my Son Jesus. Dear little children, I want you to be children of the light and not of darkness. Therefore, live what I am telling you. Thank you for having responded to my call.

Among the signs of the times one may include the growing attack on faith in God, on the sacredness of family life and on moral values. This is a special time indeed as Our Lady said in the message and that is why Our Blessed Mother wants to guide us and to involve us in her great mission to save the world from moral destruction. In this task the education and formation of children is of vital importance and that is why Our Lady is urging families to read and pray God’s Word. The first time she told us about this important task was during one of her Thursday messages to the parish of Medjugorje and to all parishes:

Dear Children, Today I ask you to read the Bible in your homes every day and let it be in a visible place there so that it always encourages you to read and pray. Thank you for your response to my call. (18 October 1984)

The role of Holy Scripture is very important for teaching children about God’s love for us so that they too may lead a life of love as Our Lady told us on 25th August 1996:

Dear Children, Listen, because I wish to speak to you and to invite you to have more faith and trust in God, who loves you immeasurably. Little children, you do not know how to live in the grace of God, that is why I call you all anew, to carry the word of God in your heart and in thoughts. Little children, place the Sacred Scripture in a visible place in your family, and read and live it. Teach your children, because if you are not an example to them, children depart into godlessness. Reflect and pray and then God will be born in your heart and your heart will be joyous. Thank you for having for responded to my call.

Our Lady’s immense love for us is a great inspiration to all of us to open our hearts to God’s love so that we and our families may become the carriers of God’s peace and love to the world.

It is significant that the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has issued his first Encyclical Deus Caritas Est on love on the same day as Our Lady gave her message on 25th January 2006.

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With Lent about to begin Our Lady through her messages wants us to start with serious resolve to use this holy season for growing in holiness of life so that we will become effective instruments in her mission to the world, bring universal peace and reconciliation. Growing in holiness of life involves conversion and change of heart as she told us in one of her Thursday messages:

Dear Children, This Lent is a special incentive for you to change. Start from this moment. Turn off the television and renounce other things which are useless. Dear children, I am calling you, individually, to convert. This time is for you. Thank you for your response to my call. (13 February 1986)

Change and conversion of heart are a special grace of God, and therefore we need to open our hearts to God’s gifts, as Our Lady told us also in an early message

Dear Children, Today I wish to tell you to open your hearts to God like flowers in spring yearning for the sun. I am your Mother and I always want you to be closer to the Father, that He will always give abundant gifts to your hearts. Thank you for your response to my call. (31 January 1985)

What are those special gifts that God wants to give us? They are the joy of life and love through which we are witnessing to God’s love for everyone, thus drawing other people to God. Using the analogy of nature as Our Lady often does, she told us in an early monthly message:

Dear Children, I am calling you to openness to God. You see, little children, how nature is opening herself and is giving life and fruits. In the same way I am calling you to a life with God and a complete surrender to Him. Little children, I am with you and unceasingly I desire to lead you into the joy of life. I desire that each one of you discover the joy and the love which is found only in God and which only God can give. (25 May 1989)

What are the best ways of opening ourselves to God’s gifts? Prayer and renunciation, as Our Lady tells us in her present message. For Lent she emphasises the importance of prayer of the heart, especially through the devotions of the Stations of the Cross, Holy Rosary and other prayers which unite us with Jesus, without whom we cannot come to the Father, as Jesus told us: I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. (John 14:6) This is what Our Lady is telling us too:

Dear Children, Today I am calling you to prayer of the heart. Throughout this season of grace, I desire each of you to be united with Jesus; but without unceasing prayer, you cannot experience the beauty and greatness of the grace which God is offering you. Therefore, little children, at all times fill your heart with even the smallest prayers. I am with you and unceasingly I keep watch over every heart which is given to me. (25 February 1989)

Renunciation, self-denial, fasting, are the best means of making our prayer very effective and helping us to surrender ourselves completely to God, as Our Lady told us in another monthly message:

Dear Children, I am calling you to surrender to God. In this season (Lent), I want you to renounce all the things to which you are attached but that hurt your spiritual life. Therefore, little children, decide completely for God, and do not allow Satan to come into your life through those things that hurt both you and your spiritual life. (25 February 1990)

In the above undertaking during Lent we are greatly helped by Our Lady’s tender love.

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I think it is the first time that Our Lady begins her message with the word 'courage'. It implies that something is holding us back, preventing us from following Our lady's guidance with determination whatever may happen to us by our participation in Our Lady's mission for the peace of the world. The only other time Our Lady used the word 'courage' was in one of her early messages when she encouraged the parish of Medjugorje to loving service of the church and for Jesus:

Dear Children, Today I wish to call you to work in the Church. I do love you equally. I want you to work as much as you can in the Church. I know, dear children, that you can work but you do not want to work because you feel that you are unworthy of the duties. You have to be courageous. With the little flowers, you enrich the Church and Jesus so that we can all be happy. Thank you for your response to my call. (31 October 1985)

In the present message courage has a special meaning in the light of Our Lady's words: I decided to lead you on the way of holiness. In fact Our lady has been guiding us all these years on the way of holiness by calling us to turn away from sin, to pray and to fast, to led a life of love, etc., but this time she is more specific in calling us to set out on the way of salvation, on the way of Jesus sacrificed himself out of love for the salvation of the world.

We are in the middle of Lent, coming nearer to Holy Week, which will put before us clearly the meaning of the sacrifice of love. Our Lady wants us to be united with our suffering Saviour by opening our heart to prayer of the heart as we are reflecting on the suffering of Jesus during this time of grace by many devotions, Stations of the Cross, the Holy Rosary, the Chaplet of Devine Mercy, and by offering our own tribulations and sufferings in atonement for the sins of others, thus God's gift of peace and holiness of life will flow from our heart into the world as Our Lady told us in another Lenten message two years ago:

Dear Children, Also today, I call you to open yourselves to prayer. Especially now, in this time of grace, open your hearts, little children, and express your love to the Crucified. Only in this way, will you discover peace, and prayer will begin to flow from your heart into the world. Be an example, little children, and an incentive for the good. I am close to you and I love you all. Thank you for having responded to my call. (25 March 2004)

When we experience tribulations and sufferings, the last thing we would think of is joy in suffering. Yet this is exactly what Our Lady wants us to experience, joy, which enables us to accept all kinds of sufferings, in union with the Suffering Redeemer who said at the last supper before he suffered: I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. (John 15:11) By offering our sufferings in union with Jesus for others, and by seeing the fruits of our self-sacrifice, we come to experience the joy of a special healing as Our Lady told us:

Dear Children, For these days when you celebrate the Cross with joy, I wish your cross to be joyful. Dear children, pray that you can accept sickness and suffering with love like Jesus. Only in that way can I give you the graces of healing with the joy Jesus allows. Thank you for your response to my call. (11 September 1986)

In my own ill-health I find great consolation in Our Lady's present message and I hope that others will find it too.

In following the way of Jesus there is a great encouragement for us all to know that we are loved by Jesus and our Blessed Mother very much.

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During the Easter celebrations we have often heard from the Gospel readings of the great joy the disciples of Jesus experienced when they recognised Him after His resurrection. The tragic events of Good Friday must have caused tremendous sadness in the hearts of the disciples and friends of Jesus, but their sadness turned into glorious joy when they realised that Jesus had conquered death and the power of Satan through His death and resurrection. This Easter joy was foretold by Jesus when at the Last Supper He prayed to His heavenly Father: Holy Father, now I am coming to you and while still in the world I say these things to share my joy with them to the full. (John 17: 11-13)

Nobody had greater joy than the Sorrowful Mother who experienced the agony of Jesus as she stood by the cross where she received from the lips of her dying Son a special vocation to be our Mother too. Jesus wishes top share with us His Easter gifts of peace, joy, and love through His Mother. Our Blessed Mother wants to share with us her joy which the Lord gave her, and that is the main purpose of her present message. Our Lady told us about her desire to share with us this special joy in an earlier Thursday message (19th June 1986):

Dear Children, In these days the Lord has allowed me to intercede for more graces for you. Therefore, dear children, I want to urge you once again to prayer. Pray constantly and, in this way, I will give you the joy which the Lord gives me. With these graces, dear children, I want your sufferings to be, for you, a joy. I am your Mother, and I want to help you. Thank you for your response to my call.

Unceasing prayer, prayer of the heart, is the channel through which we can experience the nearness of God and, therefore, His joy. How can we experience God's joy through prayer? Our Lady told us the secret of this mystery: it is possible only if our heart is like Mary's heart, and she wants our hearts to be like hers, as she told us in an earlier monthly message (25th November 1994):

Dear Children, Today I call you to prayer. I am with you all. I am your mother and I wish that your hearts be similar to my heart. Little children, without prayer you cannot live and say that you are mine. Prayer is a joy. Prayer is what the human heart desires. Therefore, get closer, little children, to my Immaculate Heart and you will discover God. Thank you for your response to my call.

The final motivation for our longing to share the joy of Jesus through Our Lady is her assurance that we are very much loved by Jesus and by her, as she told us in her previous message (25th March 2006): We are close to you with our love. When we are loved we are willing to do anything to respond to that love. Our Lady's mission through Medjugorje is to give us Jesus in a special way, to be united with Jesus and so to be able to witness for Him in our world. God's love for us and for the world is the reason why Jesus came into this world, to give us joy and new life, as He told Nicodemus: God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life. (John 3:16)

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Our Lady gave her message on the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord, calling us to decide for holiness, the way to heaven, so that we too may share the heavenly glory of Jesus and Mary.

Our Lady is urging us again, as so many times before, to put into practice and to live by her messages, which are the messages of the Gospel, so that we may grow in holiness of life to receive God’s gift of peace and to become instruments in the hands of Our lady, the Queen of Peace, for the peace of the world. Through her messages, Our Lady wants us to ‘become peace’, to become light for others in this dark world as she told us in an earlier message:

Dear Children, today I call you to become missionaries of my messages, which I am giving here through this place that is dear to me. God has allowed me to stay this long with you; and therefore, little children, I invite you to live with love the messages I give and to transmit them to the whole world, so that a river of love flows to people who are full of hatred and without peace. I invite you, little children, to become peace where there is no peace and light where there is darkness, so that each heart accepts the light and the way of salvation. Thank you for your response to my call. (25th February 1995)

In recent weeks one of the Catholic papers in the UK published letters and articles against Medjugorje causing confusion in the hearts of many faithful people. The saddest thing about those who are against Medjugorje is the fact that they have no idea of the unique importance of Our Lady’s messages for our time. For me and for all those who are trying to live by Our Lady’s messages it is absolutely clear that through her messages Our Lady has established her special school of prayer and love, a school of holiness to guide us and share with us her holiness, to prepare us to become ‘apostles of the last times’, as she foretold at La Salette in 1846, and to help her Immaculate Heart to triumph in our sinful world, as she promised at Fatima. She asked for this again at the beginning of the war in former Yugoslavia (25th September 1991): ... 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 ....

To be prepared for such an important mission takes time, and Our Blessed Mother is teaching us with great patience and love. Jesus was living with his Mother for thirty years preparing himself for his mission to redeem the world. I would not be surprised if it would take another five years before the willing children of Mary will be ready to be apostles of peace for our time.

As we look at the world around us we can sense how desperately Satan is trying to prevent peace in the world, as Our Lady indicated on 25th March 1993:

Dear Children, today I call you to pray for peace like never before: peace in your hearts, peace in your families and peace in the whole world, because Satan wants war. He wants unrest, he wants to destroy all that is good. Therefore, dear children, pray, pray, pray! Thank you for having responded to my call.

Our Lady encourages the formation of prayer groups through which she can achieve her plan more effectively:

Dear Children, ...Each of you is important, therefore, little children, pray and rejoice with me for every heart that has converted and become an instrument of peace in the world. Prayer groups are powerful, and through them I can see, little children, that the Holy Spirit is at work in the world. Thank you for having responded to my call. (25th June 2004)

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Our Lady is highlighting the 25th anniversary of her coming to us through Medjugorje with great joy in her heart and giving her thanks for all the prayers her children have offered for her intentions. During the past twenty-five years Our Lady has asked us many times to offer prayers, especially the Holy Rosary, novenas and sacrifices for her intentions, to help her Immaculate Heart to triumph over the power of Satan who is causing so much evil in our world, especially these days, and that is why Our Lady is so appreciative of our prayers. Because of our efforts in helping her, Our Lady, the Mediatrix of all graces, is assuring us of God's graces and of eternal life.

What are Our Lady's intentions? She spoke about her main intentions in her very first message 25 years ago: I wish to be with you to convert and reconcile the whole world (26th June 1981). That means peace in our hearts, in our families, in our communities and among nations. That is why she called herself Queen of Peace. In order to achieve her main intentions Our Lady needs our help, and in order to be able to help her she is teaching us and guiding us in her school of prayer and love, in her school of holiness, and that is why she is staying with us for such a long time, a unique phenomenon in the history of the Church. In her message Our Lady is expressing her thanks to all those of her children who have accepted her messages, which are the messages of the Gospel, and are living by them. Through living by the messages of Our Lady we are witnessing to the Gospel, to the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, without whom there will be no peace in the world, as Our Lady told us at her monthly meeting with Mirjana Soldo on 2nd June 2006: There is no way without my Son. do not hink that you will have peace and joy if you do not have Him in the first place.

Talking about the intentions of Our Lady, at her meeting with Mirjana on the second day of every month they pray for the unbelievers, and we should join with them to pray for the unbelievers whose number is growing under the influence of Satan. At their last meeting on 2nd June, Our Lady told Mirjana about 'some things that are supposed to happen'. When Ivan Dragicevic was interviewed by Maria Dugandic on Radio Mir, he was asked about Our Lady's words to Mirjana and Ivan said: 'Yes, something is going to happen. I know what it is and when it is going to happen.' Could this 'happening' refer to one of the ten secrets? We shall not know until it happens. But one feels that this sinful world is ready for a warning sign from Heaven.

In conclusion I refer again to the joyful thanks of Our Lady. She is like a good mother who praises her children for their good efforts, hoping that her praise will encourage them to do more to please her. This is the time for us all to decide for holiness and peace with all our hearts to help our Blessed Mother for the triumph of her Immaculate Heart in our sinful world.

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We are in the holiday season when we hope to have a good rest from work, or to enjoy ourselves by going to special places. Our Lady reminds us that we should not think of rest or enjoyment for our body only, - but what is more important - also of rest for our soul in prayerful silence. Such rest of the Soul is an opportunity for spiritual renewal which includes silence of our heart in order to listen to the Holy Spirit.

Our Lady has urged us many times to open our hearts to the Holy Spirit, like flowers in the spring open to the sun, to receive the gifts and strength of the Holy Spirit which we need on our way to holiness of life. Our path to holiness includes the conversion and transformation of our hearts in order to become the "reflection of Jesus", to become effective instruments in Our Lady's hands for the salvation of the world. In one of her messages Our Lady describes the work of the Holy Spirit in us as effecting miracles in us and through us (25th May,1993):

Dear Children, Today I am calling you to open yourselves to God through prayer so that the Holy Spirit may begin to work miracles in and through you. I am with you and I intercede before God for each one of you, because dear children, each of you is important in my plan to save. I call you to be bearers of peace, and of all that is good. God can give you peace only if you change and if you pray. That is why, my dear children, pray,pray, pray, and do that which the Holy Spirit inspires to do. Thank you for your response to my call.

When Our Lady speaks of change and conversion, she means an ongoing process, "daily conversion" (25th February 1993), in the spirit of Our Lord's gospel call: "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect"( Mt.5:48). In fact all Our Lady's messages, teaching and guidance in her school of prayer and love to mould us into instruments of God's peace for the salvation of the world can be summed up in a few words which she spoke to the servants at the wedding of Cana: "Do whatever my Son tells you" (John 2:5).

Change and transformation of our life, our life of holiness, is not the result of our own efforts, but it is the work of the Holy Spirit with our co-operation through prayer, especially through prayer of the heart. Let us allow the Holy Spirit to work in us, leading us on the way of truth and salvation towards eternal life as Our Lady told us on 25th May, 1998:

Dear Children, Today I call you to prepare yourselves for the coming of the Holy Spirit. My dear 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. Prepare your heart to listen to, and live everything that the Holy Spirit has in His plan for each one of you. My dear children, allow the Holy Spirit to lead you on the way of truth and salvation towards eternal life. Thank you for your response to my call.

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In her last monthly message, Our Lady has urged us to open ourselves to the Holy Spirit to convert, change and transform us so that through holiness of life we may become effective instruments in her plan to save the world.

In her present message she renews her frequent call to pray with the heart, a special aspect of holiness of life which takes us closer to God, helping us to experience true joy which will touch the hearts of other people and enable them to seek God.

Our Lady uses her frequent and simplest expression in teaching us the prayer of the heart, or from the heart: 'pray, pray, pray', in order to be continuously in a prayerful state of mind and heart. Our Lady explained to Jelena Vasilj on 26th June 1984 what she means when she says 'pray, pray, pray': When I say ‘pray, pray, pray’ I don’t mean increase the hours of prayer, but the desire to pray and be in contact with God, to be in a continuously prayerful state of mind”.

Few months later, Our Lady gave her reason for the importance of prayer of the heart:

Dear Children, Pray, because Satan continues in trying to thwart my plans. Pray with your heart and in prayer give yourselves to Jesus. (11th August 1984)

In the presence of Jesus and Mary through prayer of the heart, we realise how short our earthly life is and we grow in the desire for Heaven, for eternal life. This in turn makes us joyful, and in order to experience this joy throughout our life, Our Lady wishes our hearts to be like hers:

Dear Children, Today I call you to prayer. I am with you and love you all. I am your Mother and I wish your hearts to be like mine. My little ones, without prayer you cannot live and say that you are mine. Prayer is joy. Prayer is what the human heart thirsts for. Therefore, my little ones, draw closer to my Immaculate Heart and you will discover God. Thank you for your response to my call. (25th November, 1994)

Sharing the joy of Our Lady helps us to realise the greatness of God’s gift of our life and this joy makes us grateful for everything in our life and for all the blessings of God as Our Lady told us in another message:

Dear Children, Today I invite you all to rejoice in the life which God gives you. My dear children, rejoice in God the Creator because He has created you so wonderfully. Pray that your life will be a joyful thanksgiving, which flows out of your heart like a river of joy. Dear children, give thanks unceasingly for all that you possess, for each little gift, which God has given you so that a joyful blessing always comes down from God upon your life... (25th August,1988).

Also Saint Paul teaches us to appreciate prayer of the heart (unceasing prayer), the fruits of which are joy and thanksgiving: ‘Always be joyful, pray unceasingly, and for all things give thanks; this is the will of God for you in Jesus Christ.’( 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Cf. Romans 12:12)

Finally, Our Lady wishes to clothe us day by day with holiness of life and that is why she urges us to live the messages:

Dear Children, I wish to clothe you day by day with holiness, goodness, obedience and with the love of God so that with each day you will become more beautiful and better prepared for your Lord. Dear children, listen to my messages and live them.(24th October,1985)

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During the past twenty-five years Our Lady has often called us to conversion, to a change of heart, to become holy so that through holiness of life we may become effective instruments in her plan to save the world. She begins her message with the most encouraging words: 'I am with you'. She is with us today and everyday in our undertaking for conversion, as a loving mother who helps her child to develop and grow up.

The most important step in our conversion is our decision for God, a decision which Our Lady has asked us to make so many times, because only God's grace can effect in us a true transformation of life. This is the special work of the Holy Spirit, as Our Lady told us in an earlier message:

'Dear Children, Today I call you to prepare yourselves, through prayer and sacrifice, 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.'
(25 May 1998)

As we have often reflected before, it is through prayer of the heart that we open ourselves to the workings of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Our Lady talks about 'complete conversion', that is, a state of mind and heart where our lives are totally in the hands of God, accepting his holy will in every situation of our lives.

The fruit of complete conversion is peace and joy in our hearts and that is a special gift of Jesus to us as He promised at the Last Supper: 'Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give to you, a peace the world cannot give, this is my gift to you. (John 14:27) Our Lady gave us a beautiful message about how to receive the gift of Jesus.

'Dear Children, I am calling you to open the door of your heart to Jesus as the flower opens itself to the sun. Jesus desires to fill your hearts with peace and joy. You cannot, little children, realize peace if you are not at peace with Jesus. Therefore, I invite you to confession so Jesus may be your truth and peace. So, little children, pray to have strength to realize what I am telling you. I am with you and I love you. Thank you for your response to my call.' (25 January 1995)

Our Lady reminds us that there is another source of help open to us to grow in holiness of life and that is the example of the saints, which we should imitate, and for whose intercession we should often ask to help us become effective witnesses for God in our world. Our Lady is with us and is guiding us to be faithful to our Christian vocation in these very disturbing times and I conclude my reflection with a message of Our Lady when she called us to understand our Christian vocation.

'Dear Children, Today I invite you to understand your Christian vocation. Little children, I led and am leading you through this time of grace, that you may become conscious of your Christian vocation. Holy martyrs died witnessing: I am a Christian and love God over everything. Little children, today also I invite you to rejoice and be joyful Christians, responsible and conscious that God called you in a special way to be joyfully extended hands toward those who do not believe, and that through the example of your life, they may receive faith and love for God. Therefore, pray, pray, pray that your heart may open and be sensitive for the Word of God. Thank you for having responded to my call.' (25 November 1997)

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Our Lady has often reminded us that this time, this present period of history, is a time of grace, because we are surrounded and troubled by all kinds of evil through which Satan wants to lead astray all God's children and, therefore, we need God's grace and gifts more than ever. However, Our Lady has promised at Fatima that ultimately her Immaculate Heart will triumph over the power of the evil one and during all these past years she has been training us through her school of prayer and love, through her messages, to become effective instruments in her hands for the salvation of the world.

This is a time of grace indeed, the new period of time during which Our Lady is teaching us the way of holiness, a life of love, so that we may be able to recognise the signs of the times and to live accordingly, as she told us in an earlier message:

Dear Children, Today I call you to accept and live my messages with seriousness. These days are the days when you need to decide for God, for peace and for the good. May every hatred and jealousy disappear from your life and your thoughts, and may there only dwell love for God and for your neighbor. Thus only thus, shall you be able to discern the signs of this time. I am with you and I guide you into a new time, a time which God gives you as grace, so that you may get to know Him more. Thank you for having responded to my call. (25th January 1993)

The special task for us in this time of grace is our complete conversion, the total transformation of our hearts and lives, as Our Lady told us in her previous monthly message, to become a reflection of Jesus so that He may lead us on the way of peace and joy, as she told us on 25th November 2002:

Dear Children, I call you also today to conversion. Open your heart to God, little children, through Holy Confession, and prepare your soul so that little Jesus can be born anew in your heart. Permit Him to transform you and lead you on the way of peace and joy. Little children, decide for prayer. Especially now, in this time of grace, may your heart yearn for prayer. I am close to you and intercede before God for all of you. Thank you for having responded to my call.

In this secular and materialistic age it is a great temptation for all of us to be concerned too much with earthly things. We need more than ever the gifts of the Holy Spirit not just for our own salvation but above all to become witnesses for everything that Our Lady is giving and teaching us, as she told us in a Thursday message on 17th April 1986:

Dear Children, Now you are preoccupied about material things and, in the material, you lose everything that God wants to give you. I am inviting you, dear children, to pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit that you need now in order that you may witness my presence here and in everything I am giving you. Dear children, abandon yourselves to me so that I can lead you totally. Do not be so preoccupied about the material things of the world. Thank you for your response to my call.

Our Lady loves us so much in spite of our being lukewarm and she wants to lead us towards eternal life in Heaven. Her way must become our way, a life of love.

Dear Children, Today also, I am calling you to live and to attend, with a special love, all the messages I am giving you. God does not want you lukewarm and indecisive, but totally committed to Him. You know that I love you and that I am burning out of love for you. Therefore, dear children, commit yourselves to love so that you will comprehend and burn with God's love from day to day. Decide for love, dear children, so that love may prevail in all of you; not human love, but God's love. Thank you for your response to my call. (20th November1986)

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Our Lady often uses the expression Pray, pray, pray! and she explained the meaning of these words to Jelena Vasilj, who communicated with Our Lady through interior locution on 26th June 1984:

When I say 'Pray, pray, pray!' I do not only want to say to increase the number of hours of prayer, but increase the desire to pray, to be in contact with God, to be in a continuous prayerful state of mind.

Many other times Our Lady has asked us to pray with the heart, which is not so much the recital of prayers known by heart, but rather a reflective, a contemplative way of praying, when we for instance pray to God in our own words, or contemplating on the mysteries of the Holy Rosary, or on a passage of Holy Scripture. Such prayer may bring us into personal cotnact with God, the Persons of the Holy Trinity, as Our Lady told us on 25th September 1990:

Dear Children, I invite you to pray with the heart in order that your prayer may be a conversation with God. I desire that each of you dedicate more time to God. Satan is strong and wants to destroy and deceive you in many ways. Therefore, dear children, pray every day that your life will be good for yourself and all those in need. I am with you and I am protecting you even though Satan wishes to destroy my plan and to hinder the desires which the Heavenly Father wants to realize here. Thank you for having responded to my call.

St Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians and in his other letters recommends unceasing prayer, which is in accordance with the will of God:

Always be joyful, pray constantly, and for all things give thanks; this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus (1 Thess 5: 16-18; cf. Col 4:2).

Prayer of the heart, or unceasing prayer, opens our heart to God's graces and the gifts of the Holy Spirit and so we permit God indeed to change us, to lead us as a shepherd leads his flock, and to walk on the way of holiness of life, which enables us to be with God for ever sharing His happiness for all eternity. This is the great wish of Our Lady for all of us, to be with her in Heaven, and with the help of her messages she is guiding us on the way of holiness so that we may be able to accept God's holy will always and give witness to others so that they may find their way to God. Our Lady is blessing us and always praying for us so that our way of life and our witnessing may be a joy for God as she told us on 25th September 1988:

Dear Children, today I am calling all of you without exception to the way of holiness in your life. God gave you the gift of holiness. Pray that you may more and more comprehend it and in that way, you will be able by your life to bear witness for God. Dear children, I am blessing you and I intercede for you to God so that your way and your witness may be a complete one and a joy for God. Thank you having responded to my call.

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Our Lady’s message is very similar to her previous messages, and the reason for this is that Our Lady wants us to realise that there will be no peace in the world wtihout Jesus, the King of Peace. As we look into the world around us, we sense fear for the future and we must listen with all our heart and mind to Heaven’s messages through Our Lady the Queen of Peace, the Queen of Prophets, and live her messages which are the messages of the Gospel.

Only Jesus can give us true peace, as Our Lady told us in an earlier Christmas message:

Dear Children, Today also I rejoice with you and I bring you little Jesus that He bless you. I invite you, dear children, that your life be united with Him. Jesus is the King of Peace, and only He can give you the Peace that you seek. I am with you and I present you to Jesus in a special way now, in this new time when it is necessary to decide for Him. This time is the time of grace. Thank you for having responded to my call. (25th December 1995)

At the Last Supper, before he died, Jesus himself talked about his peace, a peace which is his gift to us: Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you. A peace the world cannot give, this is my gift to you. (John 14:27)

The secret of true peace is love, which is another gift of God, and we must live that love as Jesus told us at the same time as when he spoke of peace: I give you a new commandment: Love one another; just as I have loved you, you also must love one another. (John 13: 34)

For these gifts, however, we must pray, pray with the heart, as Our Lady told us in so many of her mesages. Then we shall be able to share these gifts of God with others.

Our Lady emphasises in her messages that Jesus himself is our peace. That is what St Paul told the Christians of Ephesus (Eph 2:14) who were converts from paganism: Christ is the peace between us, and has made the two into one and broken down the barrier which used to keep them apart.

Our Lady in her present message is telling us about two important ways to make the peace of Jesus our own. The first way is through adoration of the Blessed Sacrament through which Jesus becomes our friend and we will become witnesses to his love and peace, as Our Lady told us on 25th September 1995:

Dear Children, Today I invite you to fall in love with the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Adore Him, little children, in your parishes, and in this way you will be united with the entire world. Jesus will become your Friend, and you will not talk of Him like someone whom you barely know. Unity with Him will be a joy for you, and you will become witnesses to Jesus' love, which He has for every creature. Little children, when you adore Jesus, you are also close to me. Thank you for having responded to my call.

The second important way to make the peace of Jesus our own is ‘choosing Jesus’, that is, we must put Jesus at the very centre of our life, as Our Lady told us in another Christmas message, on 25th December 1999:

Dear Children, This is the time of grace. Little children, today in a special way with little Jesus, whom I hold in my embrace, I am giving you the possibility to decide for peace. Through your 'yes' for peace and your decision for God, a new possibility for peace is opened. Only in this way, little children, this century will be for you a time of peace and well-being. Therefore, put little newborn Jesus in the first place in your life and He will lead you on the way of salvation. Thank you for having responded to my call.

NOTES

With this Christmas message Our Lady has completed twenty years of monthly messages from January 1987, that is, 240 monthly messages, and I am pleased to mention that I have made reflections on all her monthly messages, although the reflections on the monthly messages during the first six years have never been published. We do not know for how long Our Lady will continue to give us messages, but in the light of her messages I can say with certainty that Our Lady has given to all of us and to the whole Church a most wonderful guidance for the renewal of the Church and for a new evangelisation of the whole world.

Through the Second Vatican Council of the Church we were given a very important document about Our Lady’s role in the life of the Church (Lumen Gentium, Chapter 8) in which Our Lady is described as Mother, Teacher and Model of the Church. Should we be surprised that Our Lady is actually fulfilling this mission for our time through Medjugorje? As I stated in all my publications, I subject myself to the final decision of the Church regarding Medjugorje, but in conscience I have also to listen to the Word of God in Sacred Scripture: Do not stifle the Spirit, or despise the gift of prophecy with contempt; test everything and hold onto what is good and shun every form of evil. (I Thess 5: 19-22), and to the words of Jesus: Listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. (Rev 2:7)

My only fear is this: Our Lady’s messages at Fatima were fulfilled too late, after a terrible world war and godless communism about which Our Lady gave warning through the children of Fatima. If Our Lady’s requests through her Medjugorje messages are not followed up, what will happen to our world?

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