MEDJUGORJE:
THE MESSAGES AND GRACES

by Dudley Plunkett

Prayer of the heart

The Gospel and the lives of the saints teach us that we can only advance in the spiritual life through prayer and the offering of the sacrifice of our self-will. Through her messages in Medjugorje Mary shows us in many ways how we can advance in prayer and how the voluntary acceptance of penances, such as fasting and the renunciation of worldly pleasures, can make us more open to God. An appeal for prayer forms part of nearly every one of the messages, as Mary gradually reveals to us how prayer transforms our lives. She proposes a spiritual rule of life, to include many forms of prayer that had been largely abandoned following the Second Vatican Council but which are now flourishing again. Mary’s role is to intercede and to guide, and this is the explanation of her messages, and not only of her messages but of the way that the Medjugorje pilgrimage has developed: the liturgy of the mass, the rosary, the climbing of the hills and the way of the cross, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, the Divine Mercy chaplet, and the atmosphere of prayer that almost every pilgrim encounters when in visiting the shrine.

All the following recommendations were made in the earliest messages, or in the first few months of the weekly messages to the parish in 1984. Mary calls us to live the Mass, to practise monthly confession, and to value family prayer. She asked the people of Medjugorje to pray for three hours each day (4 July 1983), to meditate on the life of Jesus, especially with the rosary and the way of the cross, whose important symbol in Medjugorje is Krizevac, the Cross Mountain.

Mary is constantly aware of her Son, of his love, his suffering, and his desire to save each one of us. She wants to cooperate in this work by reminding us all the time of something we can only get to know in prayer. It is not intellectual knowledge, but contemplative knowledge infused through grace, and the direct result of Jesus’ saving work: ‘in the silence of the heart, remain with Jesus, so that He may change and transform you with His love.’ (25/7/98). And the resulting, whole-hearted, prayer becomes prayer of the heart. For Mary, prayer must be of the heart, that is, sincere, trusting, and direct, and involving sorrow for our wrongdoing, gratitude to God for our lives and for his promise of salvation, love for him as our Creator, and openness to him about our concerns and our need to be revived by the Holy Spirit:

Mary urges us to read and pray the scriptures. The bible is for everyone. Families are to read the bible together. People are to pray with the bible. This might surprise some Catholics, but warm the hearts of evangelicals, but this is also good Vatican II teaching: ‘easy access to the sacred Scripture should be provided for all the Christian faithful.’ (Dei Verbum, para 22) Mary prompts us to the weekly reading of the passage in Matthew (6:24-34) about divine providence on which we should rely and the priorities that we should adopt (‘Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.’) This emphasis on scripture was in many ways new, because, apart from the daily Mass readings, Catholic tradition had not insisted on this, at least for the laity. On 19 April 1984, Mary gave a message to Jelena, a young girl in Medjugorje who is not one of the visionaries, but who hears her voice internally:

Later messages indicated how essential this link to the divine Word was to Our Lady’s teaching. In fact the main themes of her messages are scriptural. They highlight key Gospel teachings necessary to the spiritual life. And they add the essential notion of the prayerful reading of scripture whereby God speaks to us in the uniqueness of our person and circumstances.

Coupled with this appeal for prayer is a request for the renewal of the disciplines of fasting and sacrifice to bring peace and to prepare for the coming of Jesus. Fasting is given special prominence when allied to prayer and, on 14 August 1984, having asked for fasting on Fridays in earlier messages, Our Lady requested a fast on bread and water twice a week, on Wednesdays and Fridays:

Spiritual warfare

The theme of spiritual warfare is an essential element of Our Lady’s teaching. She guides us and is for us the link to the Holy Spirit who prepares us to resist and defeat the evil one. Spiritual warfare exists because Satan is conducting an active campaign against souls. There are more than fifty references to him in the messages. These are about spiritual warfare, and the language is quite graphic. Satan is the tempter, and we are warned to prepare for temptation, to pray not to give way to temptation, to evil, or to the ‘seductions’ of Satan. He is ‘very strong’, he ‘wants war’, he ‘lurks’ like an enemy, he ‘attacks’, attempts to inflict ‘defeats’ and to ‘destroy’, he uses material things to tempt, and he is to be overcome by ‘God’s armour’, by the ‘weapon’ of the rosary.

It is for this reason that Our Lady warns us to beware, to pray, and to seek her protection:

She uses Paul’s words, reminding us to put on God’s ‘armour’. Her insistence upon these spiritual dangers must mean that we are neglecting them. During the year before the Bosnian war began (June 1991), the monthly messages spoke continually of Satan’s efforts to destroy peace, and of the need for prayerful resistance to him.

The opposite, and much more important theme is that of the power of the Holy Spirit. There are many messages about the Holy Spirit and his vital role in our spiritual lives and for our protection from Satan:

Finally, we all need the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, Our Lady tells us, not just as individuals but as Church. He gives his indispensable assistance to the whole people of God in their spiritual journey:

The next instalment will consider the significance of the messages and graces that are associated with Medjugorje

[previous installment][next installment]