Our Lady's Christmas message sums up her whole mission to the world through Medjugorje, stated in her very first message on 26th June 1981: I wish to be with you to convert and reconcile the whole world. We should experience God's peace and blessing first in our own life and in our families before we could share them with others. In an earlier Christmas message Our Lady explained how this should happen:

• Dear Children, Today, in a special way, I bring the little Jesus to you that He may bless you with His blessings of peace and love. Dear children, do not forget that this is a grace which many people neither under- stand nor accept. Therefore, you who have said that you are mine and seek my help, give all of yourself. First of all, give your love and example in your families. You say that Christmas is a family feast; therefore, dear children, put God in the first place in your families so that He may give you peace and may protect you not only from war, but also protect you from every Satanic attack during peace. When God is with you, you have everything; but when you do not want Him, then you are miserable and lost and you do not know on whose side you are. Therefore, dear children, decide for God and then you will get everything. Thank you for having responded to my call.(25 December 1991)

The peace of God is a special gift which Jesus promised to give us at the Last Supper about which we pray in every Holy Mass: 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). In our Lady's teaching Jesus Himself is our peace as she told us in a beautiful message three years ago:

• Dear Children, Today again I bring you the newborn Jesus in my arms. He who is the King of Heaven and earth, He is your peace. Little children, no one can give you peace as He who is the King of Peace. Therefore, adore Him in your hearts, choose Him and you will have joy in Him. He will bless you with His blessing of peace. Thank you for having responded to my call. (25 December 2006)

To be able to receive this wonderful gift, Our Lady wants her Son to be born in us, for us to be in a complete union with Him, as she told Mirjana earlier this month:

• Dear Children, At this time of preparation and joyful expectation I, as a mother, desire to point you to what is the most important to your soul. Can my Son be born in it? Is it cleansed by love from lies arrogance, hatred and malice? Above all else does your soul love God as your Father and does it love your fellow brother in Christ? I am pointing you to the way which will raise your soul to a complete union with my Son. I desire for my Son to be born in you. What a joy that would be for me as mother. Thank you! (2 December 2009)

Our important task as the reflection of Jesus and apostles of our time is to become carriers of God's peace in the word which is without peace, as Our Lady told us on 25 December 2005:

• Dear Children, Today again in my arms I bring you little Jesus, the King of Peace, to bless you with His peace. Little children, in a special way today I call you to be my carriers of peace in this peaceless world. God will bless you. Little children, do not forget that I am your mother. I bless you all with a special blessing, with little Jesus in my arms. Thank you for having responded to my call.

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

As we enter the season of Advent, a time of grace as Our Lady calls it, in preparation for Christmas, celebrating the birth of Jesus our Saviour, Our Lady is calling us to renew prayer in our families to be united with the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. It is in the family that we learn to pray, to love and to experience the importance of pure joy which enables the Christian family to become a witness of love in this world which is without prayer, love and peace, as Our Lady stated in another beautiful message on 25 October 2004:

We live in a world in which family life especially is under attack, threatening the future of children and of the whole society.
The other important call of Our Lady to us is to become her extended hands, hands of love for all those who have become lost, to draw them closer to Our Lady's heart and to the heart of Jesus, as Our Lady told us five years ago:

Love is the great gift of God who is love, and we can obtain it only by prayer of the heart, especially through prayer in the family and in prayer groups. Love is at the heart of holiness of life which is so much needed for our participation in Our Lady's mission to our world through Medjugorje. To strengthen our love, we must deepen our relationship to God the Father whose children we become through our baptism, thanks to the self-sacrificing love of Jesus. If we do not love our neighbours we do not love God either, as St John tells us in his first letter(4:20): A man who does not love the brother that he can see cannot love God, whom he has never seen.

Sadly, we live in a world in which financial worries and many other worldly concerns are disturbing our spiritual life, and about this great problem Our Lady gave us a beautiful message through Mirjana on 2 November 2009:

Our Lady begins her beautiful message by saying that she brings us her blessing as she told us in so many of her messages. This is joyful assurance for us indeed, knowing that Our Lady is praying for us and blessing us with her motherly blessing not only when we receive her monthly messages but every day, as she assured us in another beautiful message on 25 July 1992:

• Dear Children, today, again I invite all of you to prayer, a joyful prayer, so that in these sad days none of you feels sadness in prayer, but a joyful meeting with God, his Creator. Pray, little children, so that you can be closer to me and feel, through prayer, what I desire from you. I am with you and every day I bless you with my Motherly Blessing, so that the Lord may bestow you with the abundance of His Grace for your daily life. Thank God for the gift of my being with you, because I am telling you: This is a great Grace. Thank you for having responded to my call.

Our Lady is also calling us to grow in holiness of life, a special gift of God for which we must pray with the heart every day, and this way we grow ever closer also to Our Lady's heart, as she told us on 25 April 1990:

• Dear Children, today I invite you to accept with seriousness and to live the messages which I am giving you. I am with you and I desire, dear children, that each of you be ever closer to my heart. Therefore, little children, pray and seek the will of God in your everyday life. I desire that each one of you discover the way of holiness and grow in it until eternity. I will pray for you and intercede for you before God that you receive the greatness of this gift which God is giving me that I can be with you. Thank you for having responded to my call.

All these years Our Lady has been teaching and guiding us to become her instruments and her apostles by living a deep spiritual life by prayer, fasting and by giving joyful witness to our faith, to our holiness of life, for people around us so that they too may discover God's love for them. This way of living gives joy not only to us but also to God, as Our Lady stated in an earlier message:

• 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.

As we realise that Our Lady is encouraging us to live by her messages joyfully, we must also admit that we are failing in living by her messages, thus causing great sadness to Our Lady, as she told Mirjana on 2 October:

• Dear Children, As I look at you, my heart seizes with pain. Where are you going my children? Have you sunk so deeply into sin that you do not know how to stop yourselves? You justify yourselves with sin and live according to it. Kneel down beneath the Cross and look at my Son. He conquered sin and died so that you, my children, may live. Permit me to help you not to die but to live with my Son forever. Thank you!

In recent months so many attacks on Medjugorje have been published even in Catholic papers that the faith in Our Lady's mission to the world through Medjugorje may have become weakened in many of her children. I appeal to all who are reading this Reflection that they pray every day that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith may investigate the Medjugorje phenomenon as soon as possible and decide in favour of Our Lady's mission to the world.

In her last monthly message Our Lady called us anew to personal conversion through prayer of the heart in order to become a sign of God's love to others. In her present message Our Lady is again urging us to work on our conversion by offering all our joys and sorrows to her Immaculate Heart. Our conversion gives great joy to Our Lady because it makes her plan for the peace of the world achievable as she said in her message on 25th June 2004:

• Dear Children, Today again joy is in my heart. I wish to thank you for making my plan achievable. Each of you is important; therefore, my dear 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, my dear children, the Holy Spirit is at work in the world. Thank you for having responded to my call.

Shared prayer in the family and in prayer groups increases the effectiveness of our conversion because Jesus Himself is coming to those who share prayers with others as He told His disciples. I tell you solemnly once again, if two of you ask anything at all, it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three meet in my name, I shall be there with them. (Matthew 18:19-20)

Our Lady is asking us to offer her Immaculate Heart not only our joys but also our sorrows and crosses, because by leading us to Jesus our sorrows and crosses will turn into joy, as she said in a Thursday message on 11th September 1986:

• During these days (14th September) when you are joyfully celebrating the feast of the Cross, I wish your own cross would become a source of your joy for you. Above all, dear children, pray that you may be able to accept illness and suffering with love, as Jesus accepted them. Only then will I be able to give you joyfully the graces and healing which Jesus grants me. Thank you for having responded to my call.

In her teaching through her messages Our Lady is leading us to Jesus because by our opening our hearts to Jesus He will fill our heart with peace and joy, as Our Lady told us on 25th January, 1995:

• Dear Children, I am calling you to open the door to your heart to Jesus as a flower opens itself to the sun Jesus wants to fill your hearts with peace and joy. Little ones you cannot have real peace of you are not at peace with Jesus. That is why I am calling you to Confession, so that Jesus may be your truth and peace. My little ones, pray for the strength to carry out what I am telling you. Thank you for having responded to my call.

It may be helpful if I draw your attention to a beautiful devotion, called Life Offering, revealed, in the fifties, to a Hungarian nun, Sister Maria Dolores, by Jesus and Our Lady, through which we may become apostles of our time by saving souls. This devotion is spreading all over the world. Through the life offering prayer we offer ourselves as we are, our life, our Holy Masses and Communions, all our good deeds, joys and sufferings, for the adoration of the Holy Trinity, for unity in our Church, for the Holy Father and priests, for priestly vocations, for relatives and friends, etc. Our Lady gave five promises to those who offer their lives to her:

1. Their names will be written in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, inflamed by love.
2. Their life offering together with the infinite merits of Jesus, can save souls from damnation. All souls who will live until the end of the world will benefit from their life offering.
3. None of their family members will go to hell, even if it seems otherwise, because they will receive in the depth of their souls the grace of sincere contrition before their souls depart from their bodies.
4. On the day they offer their lives, their loved ones suffering in purgatory will be released.

Our Lady has called us many times to conversion, personal conversion, to become a reflection of Jesus, to radiate love and holiness so that others may be drawn to Jesus. This latest message makes me feel the sadness of Our Lady that after all these years she still has to urge us to personal conversion. The most important aids for our personal conversion are prayer and adoration of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, as she told us over a year ago:

• Dear Children, I call you to work on your personal conversion. You are still far from meeting with God in your heart. Therefore, spend all the more time in prayer and Adoration of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, for Him to change you and to put into your hearts a living faith and a desire for eternal life. Everything is passing, little children, only God is not passing. I am with you and I encourage you with love. Thank you for having responded to my call. (25th March 2008)

When Our Lady says 'pray, pray, pray' she means the prayer of the heart, the prayerful state of mind and heart, as she has explained to Jelena on 26th June 1984: When I say 'pray, pray, pray', I do not mean only to increase the hours of prayer, but to increase the desire for prayer and to be in contact with God. Place yourself permanently in a state of spirit bathed in prayer. Such prayer enables us to receive many graces from God. Holiness of life is not our doing, but God's gift by changing our ways so that we may become signs of God's love to others and be prepared for eternal life, as Our Lady told us in another message:

• Dear Children, Also today I call you to pray, pray, pray. Little children, when you pray you are close to God and He gives you the desire for eternity. This is a time when you can speak more about God and do more for God. Therefore, little children, do not resist but permit Him to lead you, to change you and to enter into your life. Do not forget that you are travellers on the way toward eternity. Therefore, little children, permit God to lead you as a shepherd leads his flock. Thank you for having responded to my call. (25th November 2006)

We live in a world in which love becomes more and more absent from the lives of people and communities. Our Lady wants to change this situation by leading us to become love, food and extended hands for others, as she told us on 25th September 2004:

• Dear Children, Also today, I call you to be love where there is hatred and food where there is hunger. Open your hearts, little children, and let your hands be extended and generous so that, through you, every creature may thank God the Creator. Pray, little children, and open your heart to God's love, but you cannot if you do not pray. Therefore, pray, pray, pray. Thank you for having responded to my call.

Our Lady assures us as always that she is with us, helping and guiding us towards a new life, as she told us in a beautiful message:

• Dear Children, I invite you to prayer now when Satan is strong and wishes to make as many souls as possible his own. Pray, dear children, and have more trust in me, because I am here in order to help you and to guide you on a new path towards a new life. Therefore, dear little children, listen and live what I tell you, because it is important for you, when I shall not be with you any longer, that you remember my words and all which I told you. I call you to begin to change your life from the beginning and that you decide for conversion, not with words, but with your life. Thank you for having responded to my call. (25th October 1992)

Our Lady's short message is very suited for the present holiday season when we have more time to pray. In my understanding of her message, she is calling us to concentrate on prayer during this period of time, to grow in the life of prayer, so that we may become more effective instruments in her hands for saving the world, which is her mission through Medjugorje. At Fatima Our Lady promised that in spite of all the terrible events in the world ultimately her Immaculate Heart will triumph. To achieve her triumph, however, Our Lady has asked us several times to help her through prayers, fasting, self-denial and by witnessing for Jesus by our holiness of life. During all these past years Our Lady has been guiding and teaching us how to live the Gospel, how to obtain holiness of life, how to become the reflection of Jesus.

Our Lady taught us several ways of praying and in my reflection I concentrate on some of the main ways. The first type of prayer should be adoration as in the first petition in the Lord's Prayer: Hallowed by Thy name. Our Lady asked us to adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament:

• 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. (25 September 1995)

Our Lady has asked us several times to live the Holy Mass, the Eucharist, which means thanksgiving to the Father in heaven who loved us so much that He sent His son into our world for our salvation. Through Holy Mass we are growing in holiness of life, as Our Lady told us on 25th January 1998:

• Dear Children, Today again I call all of you to prayer. Only with prayer, dear children, will your heart change, become better, and be more sensitive to the Word of God. Little children, do not permit Satan to pull you apart and to do with you what he wants. I call you to be responsible and determined and to consecrate each day to God in prayer. May Holy Mass, little children, not be a habit for you, but life. By living Holy Mass each day, you will feel the need for holiness and you will grow in holiness. I am close to you and intercede before God for each of you, so that He may give you strength to change your heart. Thank you for having responded to my call.

Another way of praying is Prayer of the Heart, which Our Lady has asked of us many times, because this way of praying unites us with God and helps us to receive many graces. The Holy Rosary can be a very useful devotion to practice prayer of the heart as we are meditating and contemplating the various mysteries of the Rosary. Our Lady gave us a beautiful message about the Rosary:

• Dear Children, Also today, I call you to prayer. Little children, prayer works miracles. When you are tired and sick and you do not know the meaning of your life, take the Rosary and pray; pray until prayer becomes for you a joyful meeting with your Savior. I am with you, little children, and I intercede and pray for you. Thank you for having responded to my call.(25th April 2001)
  

Another way of praying is offering prayers in reparation to save souls from purgatory and to help sinners and unbelievers to conversion, as Our Lady does with Mirjana on the second day of every month, and we should join them in this devotion. Our Lady has asked us many times to pray also for her intentions. It is very important to pray for the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit in order to grow in holiness of life and, finally, an important way of praying is praying together in the family or in groups, mindful of the words of Our Lord: I tell you solemnly, if two of you on earth agree to ask anything at all, it will be granted to you by My Father in heaven. For where two or three meet in My name, I shall be there with them (Matthew 18:20).

On the 28th Anniversary of the presence of Our Lady with us through Medjugorje we are rejoicing indeed with our Blessed Mother and we give thanks to God for this great and wonderful gift, a unique phenomenon in the history of the Church. Our Lady as the Queen of Peace told us the purpose of her mission 28 years ago, on 26th June 1981: I want to be with you to convert and reconcile the whole world.

In order to achieve the purpose of her mission. The first important task for Our Lady was to convert us all, all her willing children, to become a reflection of Jesus through holiness of life and this to become witnesses to the presence of Our Lady, with us through the joyful conversion of our life, centered on God, as Our Lady told us 25th July, 1989:

• Dear Children, I am calling you to renew your heart. Open yourselves to God and surrender to Him all your difficulties and crosses so that God may turn everything into joy. My Dear Children, you cannot open yourselves to God if you do not pray. Therefore, from today, decide to consecrate a time in the day for an encounter with God in silence. In that way, one with God, you will be able to witness my presence her. My dear children, I do not wish to compel you; rather, freely give God your time like children of God. Thank you for having responded to my call.

As we look around the world, we sense the grave dangers facing all of humanity and we realize the important task for us, children of God and Our Lady, to be apostles of Jesus in our time. In the Old Testament God sent prophets to His people to teach them to live by the laws of God and to turn away from pagan gods. They did not listen to the call of the prophets and we know what has happened to His people.

In our time God sent His Mother, the Queen of Prophets, to teach and guide us with her motherly love to live the Gospel and thus to help her save the world. The Second Vatican Council gave us a beautiful teaching about the role of Our Lady in the Church, on the Dogmatic Institution of the Church, Lumen Gentium, Chapter 8. It is clearly stated that She is the Mother, the Teacher and Model of the Church (No.63). Through her mission through Medjugorje Our Lady is doing what the Church teaches us about her mission.

Our Lady and Mirjana are praying on the second day of every month for the unbelievers. Unbelievers are not only pagans who have never been baptized and people of non-Christian religions, but also many lapsed Catholics. Also we should join Our Lady and Mirjana in the spirit and to make sacrifices for the unbelievers, and so to become the extended hands of Our Lady and by our example to draw others to the love of God as Our Lady told us on 25th November, 2004:

• Dear Children, pray especially for those who have not yet come to know the love of God and do not seek God the Saviour. You, my dear children, be my extended hands and by your example draw them closer to my Heart and to the Heart of my Sons. God will reward you with graces and every blessing. Thank you for having responded to my call.

In receiving the motherly blessing of Our Lady, we should be joyful in becoming her extended hands.

Before the feast of Pentecost Our Lady is calling us - as she did so many times in the past - to pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon us and all Christians so that we may all become effective witnesses to our faith. She is calling also on the non-practising Christians, 'all those who are far from God and His love', because they are her children too (see Our Lady's message to Mirjana on 2nd May 2009).

The ideal way of preparing ourselves for Pentecost is by making the Novena to the Holy Spirit, as the Apostles and Our Lady prayed after the Ascension of Our Lord into Heaven. It was through the power of the Holy Spirit that the Apostles were able to proclaim the Good News, leading to the conversion of many people. In our age of godlessness we need more than ever the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, as Our Lady told us on 25th May 1988:

• Dear Children, I am calling you to a complete surrender to God. Pray, little children, that Satan does not sway you like branches in the wind. Be strong in God. I desire that through you the whole world may get to know the God of joy. Neither be anxious nor worried. God will help you and show you the way. I want you to love all men with my love, both the good and the bad. Only that way will love conquer the world. Little children, you are mine. I love you and I want you to surrender to me so I can lead you to God. Pray without ceasing so that Satan cannot take advantage of you. Pray so that you realize that you are mine. I bless you with the blessing of joy. Thank you for having responded to my call.

We must pray especially for the gifts of the Holy Spirit through which we can be transformed into the likeness of Jesus (the 'reflection of Jesus', as Our Lady told us in an earlier message on 5th June 1986), so that we may become effective witnesses to our faith, enabling us to help those who are far from faith to find Jesus, the Saviour. This means our spiritual renewal about which Our Lady spoke in a beautiful message 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.

Prophet Isaiah lists the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11: 1-2). Through our baptism we became the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16), and so the Holy Spirit, in union with Jesus, can produce in us the twelve spiritual fruits that St Paul describes, which enable us to become effective witnesses of our faith: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, kindness, fidelity, humility, tolerance, self-control and purity of heart (Galatians 5:22).

Our Blessed Mother assures us that she is with us and intercedes for us before God. We must be very grateful to Our Lady for guiding us on the path of holiness of life, so that we may become effective instruments in helping her and Jesus to dispel the darkness from our world and to bring about the reign of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in all hearts.

Our Lady is calling us to pray for peace and to witness to it, because our troubled world creates only fears and worries in most hearts, as we hear the daily news about conflicts and terrorist killings in many parts of the world. Present-day financial and industrial worries in the world are adding more fears for the future and when we consider the juvenile delinquency and breakdown of families we wonder what will happen to our society and nation. No wonder Our Lady is very much concerned about the state of the world, and in order to bring peace into our communities and into the world she is bringing peace to families first. She came to us through Medjugorje as our Mother, Teacher, Model and Queen of Peace, with a mission to lead us all on the way to peace, as she told us in many messages, as for instance on 25th July 1990:

• Dear Children, today I invite you to peace. I have come here as the Queen of Peace and I desire to enrich you with my Motherly Peace. Dear children, I love you and I desire to bring all of you to the peace which only God gives and which enriches every heart. I invite you to become carriers and witnesses of my peace to this unpeaceful world. Let peace reign in the whole world, which is without peace and longs for peace. I bless you with my Motherly Blessing. Thank you for having responded to my call.

Our first task as carriers and witnesses of peace is to establish peace in our families, which are in grave danger in the present world situation. In order to secure peace in our families, Our Lady calls us to have a life of prayer, faith and love, the fruits of our conversion, and then God grants us the gift of peace. Our Lady called us many times to a life of prayer and love in order to become effective witnesses of peace, as on 25th March 1995:

• 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.

When Our Lady calls us to a life of prayer, she does not mean only saying prayers, but to be in an unceasing prayerful state of mind and heart, as when she explained her frequently used expression 'pray, pray, pray' to Jelena 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 also to reinforce the desire for prayer and to be in contact with God. Place yourself permanently in a state of spirit bathed in prayer.

Through such prayer, prayer of the heart, we open our hearts to the gift of peace, as Jesus promised at the Last Supper: 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)

Our Lady is comparing the awakening of nature in springtime with the awakening of our souls through prayers in the season of Lent to receive the light of the risen Jesus. Through our Lenten exercises, prayers, self-denials and repentance for our sins we open our hearts more and more to celebrate Easter with joy and thanksgiving as children of light who have received the grace of the risen Lord who is the light of the world, as Jesus described Himself before the people who were listening to Him: I am the light of the world; anyone who follows me will not be walking in the dark; he will have the light of life (John 8:12).

When Our Lady made her promise at Fatima: Ultimately my Immaculate Heart will triumph, she did not mean only her triumph over Satan, but above all the arrival of the Kingdom of God, the reign of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in all hearts, and that is why Our Lady is so anxious to prepare all her children through her mission at Medjugorje to come closer and closer to the Heart of Jesus to share eternal life with Him. She is preparing us not only for our own eternal happiness, but for us to become her instruments, her apostles, to help others to believe in Jesus, until the whole world will experience salvation as our Lady has indicated in her very first message on 16th June 1981: I wish to be with you to convert and reconcile the whole world.

The conversion and reconciliation of all people of the world is the ultimate objective of Our Lady’s mission, but for that it is necessary that first we, all her children, be converted and reconciled with God and with each other. In Our Lady's teaching conversion is an ongoing change and transformation of our hearts, daily conversion as she told us on 25th February 1993, so that 'your life may be a joyful witnessing for Jesus'.

Our Lady is teaching, guiding and praying for us all these years that we all may experience sincere conversion. Our Lady's call to conversion is the most important of all her messages, as she told us on 25th February 1996:

• Dear Children, Today, I invite you to conversion. This is the most important message that I have given you here. Little children, I wish that each of you become a carrier of my messages. I invite you, little children, to live the messages that I have given you over these years. This is a time of grace, especially now when the church also is inviting you to prayer and conversion. I also, little children, invite you to live my messages that I have given you during the time since I appeared here. Thank you for having responded to my call.

Our Lady wants us to give ourselves and our entire past to the Lord, through which we become joyful witnesses to Jesus and to Our Lady, as she told us at the beginning of her monthly messages on 25th February 1987:

• Dear Children, Behold, also today I want to call you to start living a new life as of today. Dear children, I want you to comprehend that God has chosen each one of you, in order to use you in a great plan for the salvation of mankind. You are not able to comprehend how great your role is in God's design. Therefore, dear children, pray so that in prayer you may be able to comprehend what God's plan is in your regard. I am with you in order that you may be able to bring it about in all its fullness. Thank you for having responded to my call.

Our Lady renews her call to live this holy season of renunciation more prayerfully, with repentance and self-denial, as she has done so many times during the past twenty-eight years. Her basic call to us all these years was to become holy, to live a life of prayer, love and self-denial, so that we may become effective instruments in her hands, helping her Immaculate Heart to triumph in this sinful world, as she promised in Fatima. Our Lady's very first message, on 26th June 1081, expressed her great plan of her mission through Medjugorje: I wish to be with you to convert and reconcile the whole world. Her mission began by leading us, all her children, to holiness of life, a life of renunciation. I am quoting only one of her many messages about renunciation:

• Dear Children, I desire to thank you from my heart for your Lenten renunciations. I desire to inspire you to continue to live fasting with an open heart. By fasting and renunciation, little children, you will be stronger in faith. In God you will find true peace through daily prayer. I am with you and I am not tired. I desire to take you all with me to Heaven, therefore, decide daily for holiness. Thank you .... (25th March 2007)

The other frequent call of Our Lady is the call to conversion, Our lady uses various expressions in her messages to describe conversion: change of heart, change of life, daily conversion, transformation, renewal. In her message on 25th February 1996 she said that her most important message given at Medjugorje was the call to conversion:

• Dear Children, today, I invite you to conversion. This is the most important message that I have given you here. Little children, I wish that each of you become a carrier of my messages. I invite you, little children, to live the messages that I have given you over these years. This is a time of grace, especially now when the church also is inviting you to prayer and conversion. I also, little children, invite you to live my messages that I have given you during the time since I appeared here. Thank you for having responded to my call.

Our Lady also calls us to repentance, confession of our sins, because this is the first step to open our hearts to conversion, to God's graces to change and transform our lives. This was the first call also of Our Lord Jesus when He began His mission in Galilee. The time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel. (Mark 1:15) the Greek word metanoiete for 'repent' actually means 'change your mind or heart'. True conversion implies that we are turning away not only from sin (repentance), but also form ways of the world, and we turn to God's ways, accepting the heavenly values of life, believing the gospel. This is how St Paul understood 'conversion'. Do not model your behaviour on the contemporary world, but let the renewing of our minds transform you, so that you may discern for yourselves what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and mature. (Romans 12:2)

In conclusion, in the light of Our Lady's messages, I wish to stress a special aspect of the Marina age in which we live. Our Lady is indeed the Mother, Teacher and Model of the Church, as taught by the Second Vatican council. She is the Queen of Prophets, sent by God to lead all His children, her children, to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

For nearly twenty-eight years Our Lady has been calling us to prayer, especially to prayer of the heart, personal prayer, a prayerful state of mind and heart through which we discover the meaning of our life and how God loves us immensely. I am quoting only one of Our Lady's many messages on prayer:

• Dear Children, today I invite you to respond to my call to prayer. I desire, dear children, that during this time you find a corner for personal prayer. I desire to lead you towards prayer with the heart. Only in this way will you comprehend that your life is empty without prayer. You will discover the meaning of your life when you discover God in prayer. That is why, little children, open the door of your heart and you will comprehend that prayer is joy without which you cannot live. Thank you for having responded to my call. (25th July 1997)

Our Lady wishes that prayer be for us like seed that we put in her heart so that she can give it over to Jesus to produce the fruits of holiness, so obtaining for us salvation, eternal happiness with God. When we consider that our short, earthly life cannot be compared with eternal happiness, Our Lady asks us to fall in love with eternal life and to be prepared to make sacrifices to obtain it. Among worldly things which can help us to draw closer to God, in a message Our Lady mentions nature, the beautiful creation of God which may inspire us to open our hearts to the love of God the Creator.

• Dear Children, today I invite you all to awaken your hearts to love. Go into nature and look how nature is awakening and it will be a help for you to open your hearts to the love of God the Creator. I desire you to awaken love in your families so that where there is unrest and hatred, love will reign and when there is love in your hearts there is also prayer. And, dear children, do not forget that I am with you and I am helping you with my prayer that God may give you the strength to love. I bless and love you with my Motherly love. Thank you for having responded to my call. (25th April 1993)

Our Lady mentioned that in spite of the long time she has been with us, many of us are still on the wrong path. Only by our living her messages can she help us towards holiness of life and eternity. We must turn to the Holy Spirit whose temple we are (1 Cor 6:19) to make us more willing to accept Our Lady's messages and to live by them, as she said on 25th 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, comprehend that this is a time of grace for each of you; and with me, little children, you are secure. I desire to lead you all on the way of holiness. Live my messages and put into life every word that I am giving you. May they be precious to you because they come from heaven. Thank you for having responded to my call.

I am hoping and praying that the Church will investigate the Medjugorje phenomena as soon as possible and will not only approve Our Lady's apparitions at Medjugorje, but will encourage all the faithful to live by the messages of Our Lady, the Queen of Prophets, the messages of the Gospel.