Day: March 27, 2022

Again this month, Marija Pavlovic Lunetti and Fr. Livio had a conversation about the March 25, 2022 message! Marija calls Fr. Livio soon after the message is released, and they have a conversation about it on Radio Maria. Our shipmate, Marina, soon after, transcribes the radio conversation and translates it into English for us. Here is the English transcript of the conversation between Marija and Fr. Livio, which took place on Friday, March 25, 2022: Conversation between Fr. Livio and Marija Pavlovic Lunetti – March 25, 2022 Father Livio:  Dear friends, we now have live Marjia from Medjugorje who is about to give us the March 25, 2022 message of the Queen of peace, today for the Annunciation Hi Marija! Marjia: Hello Father Livio! A greeting to all the listeners of Radio Maria. Today, like every 25th of the month, Our Lady gave us the following message: Marjia: reads the message in Italian and Croatian as usual: “Dear children! I am listening to your cry and prayers for peace. For years, Satan has been fighting for war. That is why God sent me among you to guide you on the way of holiness, because humanity is at a crossroad. I am calling you to return to God and to God’s Commandments that it may be good for you on earth, and that you may come out of this crisis into which you have entered because you are not listening to God who loves you and desires to save you and lead you to a new life. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Father Livio: Marija this message has many important passages but when I read it, I had a joy inside me because it seemed to me a message that gives hope! And I liked the fact that when Our Lady gave the message there was everything; this universal prayer; then the consecration in St. Peter’s and in Fatima. Our Lady told you: “I hear your cry and prayers for peace;” that is, Our Lady listens to us and this for me is a reason for great joy and hope. M. Exactly! This afternoon before the apparition and the Rosary we prepared ourselves and united with the Christian people. In the church, the friars exhibited an image of Our Lady of Fatima next to the statue of the Queen of Peace and we joined in the reading of the consecration of the Holy Father. Then after the apparition, during the solemn Holy Mass, Cardinal Aldo Cavalli, who is now our responsible bishop here in Medjugorje, read the consecration and it was a great joy for me to have linked the message of Our Lady to the long prayer that the Holy Father made. Our Lady was serious and determined, she did not have a happy expression but in my heart I felt that she is calling us: in the last message she asked us to pray with her. Today she listens to our cry and prayers for peace. For me, this absurd war where brothers like Cain and Abel kill each other like this, even there among the Christians themselves; all this makes my heart sad. And then the war is never good, it is always bad. Our Lady said that Satan has been fighting for the war for years. He also fights within us and becomes like that evil brother who does not want to embrace the commandments and God’s invitation. I hope that more people who listen to and live the commandments will become the extended hands of Our Lady. We also see how the humble servant of God says she has received permission to be among us. We see this also in today’s message. F.L. Marija, it seems to me that it is the first time that Our Lady has said: “I listen to your cry”! In recent weeks, especially in Ukraine, they have shouted to her to come for help. It is precisely an expression of the psalms that says that this time the children have truly turned to the Mother. M. Refugee communities are active in Medjugorje and there are young mothers with small children. Their husbands remained to protect their homeland and imagine their cry before our Lady. They have left and abandoned everything, they hope in their hearts to return home soon, they want peace, they don’t want to stay here and they can’t wait to hug their loved ones again. Some elderly people came but many grandparents did not want to leave their homes and remained there right on the front; they are abandoned and those who have come feel guilty for having left them alone. They had to come because they don’t want their children to be traumatized by the war. We know that war is not good, as we experienced it a few years ago when we lived it on our shoulders. Our Lady told us to pray more for the war to end soon. F.L. Marija there is something new with respect to all these years and that is that nuclear weapons are threatened precisely by those who are responsible. The Pope spoke of it in his consecration. Our Lady said it in her messages that Satan wants to destroy our lives and the planet on which we live, so it seems to me that in this expression Our Lady means that humanity is at the very crossroads of life and death. M. We are at the point of no return, as they say, if we do not embrace prayer. We have experienced the power of prayer all these years. I think that we must increase our cry to Our Lady more so that this war may end! She has been telling us for years that Satan fights for war. We know that for years there have been manufacturers of weapons of war who, under the guise of humanitarian aid, have been sending them. I remember once I went to Lebanon and while we were driving, they showed me a valley whose name I do not remember where in Sacred Scripture it was indicated as the Valley where milk and honey flow; today is the valley of death. During the war between Lebanon and Israel they never signed a peace accord and when Israel wanted to come to a truce they spread a flood of armaments, of cluster bombs that are manufactured in Italy; and still today after thirty years they produce devastation. Children, believing they are catching a butterfly instead run after these baits and then become victims of the explosions that mutilate them leaving them without their legs, arms, and fingers. F.L. Marija, do you think there is a danger of a nuclear world war? This danger is real or is it just the devil’s way of frightening? M. Eh. I don’t want to go into the secrets but… did you see me upset Father Livio? F.L. No M. No. We believe as Our Lady says: “I listen to your cry and your prayers.” And as She herself has told us a thousand times: “God has allowed me to be among you to help you.” I am convinced that this is exactly how it has been in these forty years of her presence. Humanity is at a crossroads and as Our Lady said in various messages, Satan is free from his shackles in this new millennium. We know that evil also exists through our selfishness and our arrogance. Often, we too do evil things because we do not have that sensitivity and that love of God that is within us, but we live with the humanity of a rebellious man without following the commandments.Precisely for this reason she is here, with her sweetness and constancy, for forty years among us, to tell us that God is with us, and we must not be afraid. F.L. Yes also because in one of her messages from a few months ago Our Lady said that Satan wants to fill our hearts with fear for the future, but the future belongs to God! So, one of Satan’s tactics is to terrify us when instead we should know that the presence of Our Lady and our response to her call allows us to live well on earth. M. This is why Our Lady tells us: “I invite you to return to God and his commandments so it would be good on earth” because we are here on earth but our destination is Heaven. We have the example of Lazarus who was a friend of Jesus. When his sisters Martha and Mary entered the tomb. they said: “He is stinking!” He was already decomposing! But Jesus went in and resurrected him. Then Lazarus died again, he lived for a few more years, but then he died. And so, we also must think that our life here on earth is beautiful.  Let us allow ourselves to be guided by God, by his commandments. Let us live holiness. Let us try to transmit our faith which is a duty throughout our life, through our example and our love. Just as Our Lady is the reflection of God. We fall in love with her because God is Love, and for this reason I believe that we too must become the reflection of God and that Love that Our Lady is sharing with us. We know that our goal is Heaven but at the same time let us remember that our commitment and work must not be materialism and consumerism, “I, Me, Mine” Our Lady says let’s put God in the place of “I”, and we will find this harmony and when we reach peace, at that point our hearts will be filled with joy. People arrive in Medjugorje with these big cars, showing their wealth, but there is no joy inside them. On the other hand, when God is found, and also Our Lady we also find Heaven and at that point nobody takes it away from us. F.L. Marija, according to you, we must listen to those words: “Return to God and to the commandments.” Our Lady says this is addressed to everyone but especially to us Christians and to us Catholics. Do you see this return to God in these forty years? Yes there has been some response, but will it be enough to get us out of this crisis? M. I am sure, Father Livio, because as Our Lady said through Mirjana: “pray and fast” – the seventh secret has been lessened and is no longer considered a punishment. It has changed! And now, if God finds our hearts open, even though we are few, he will use us. We are called to be light, to be leaven, to be witnesses and we cry it out. In fact, I noticed that after the coronavirus many pilgrims began to come to Medjugorje and tonight during the Holy Mass all the pews were occupied by many Croatians who came precisely for this Act of Consecration wanted by the Holy Father. Somehow Our Lady’s big family is reacting like spring with sparkle and freshness because united we become stronger; including not only Catholics but also non-Catholics and Orthodox Ukrainians who came here for Christmas to pray for peace. Nobody wanted this war but there is always the intervention of the devil who does not sleep either day or night. He is always awake and always planning wars. So, we must be the ones that pray. Today is the 25th and like every 25th of the month, here in Medjugorje, the parish remains open all night for prayer. If you go to the Church around three or four in the morning and you see the people kneeling, you are moved because you say: “Thank God humanity is not lost “. I am moved by seeing people who have changed their lives by starting to walk the right path again. Now a very dear friend has arrived, a young priest who had a stroke a while ago. When it happened, my friends called me and wanted to let him hear my voice and reassure him of my prayers. Unfortunately, it was not possible because the stroke caused him to go into a coma and he was unable to hear or understand. The doctors said that if he remained alive, he would remain helpless and paralyzed. Today, completely healed, he went to Apparition Hill! I tell you this, that if we believe and if we pray, and we have reminded Our Lady of our need every day by asking incessantly as the “persistent widow” of the Gospel, God will hear us. We must always knock on the heart of Jesus. F.L. Yes, we have to pray Marija, day and night. I watched the Consecration in St. Peter’s Basilica, represented by the entire universal Church and by all the bishops on television. I don’t remember in my life having seen the church so busy, united with the Holy Father! He made me cry while looking at the statue of Our Lady! I have never seen the church as if it suddenly understood that we are at the crossroads, that if the church does not move, the world is not saved. This is why I am optimistic, precisely because of seeing the church like this. Our Lady said: “I listen to your cry and your prayers…” for which I really think like you and that is, that we can come out of this crisis with a little good will. M. Here, in Italy there is still this fear, I have seen many priests who are a little closed in on themselves and do not yet have the courage to testify.This is the time to start over with the Holy Father whose consecration is not only addressed to Russia and Ukraine but to the whole world. I remember that in the first years of the apparitions there was an image given by priests to families for their consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary with the annual renewal as well as for their own day of baptism. We must return to these things especially for young families. We who are elderly, through modernism and egoism have not wanted to have many children and often when we only have one child we spoil it. So, we must return to God also through these gestures of testimony, consecration, prayer and fasting (as we from Medjugorje know)! Lent has brought us to its peak with this beautiful feast. We made an altar decorated with flowers, candles and asked the Holy Spirit for help us to be stronger and that the elders of the families must testify their faith by shouting without fear that God is merciful and good. Shout it out because the world needs witnesses. F.L. Marija, however, since Our Lady has already twice in a row mentioned the commandments. If we made a list of the commandments, there would be few that observe them globally, in short, even the first; there is widespread atheism! Then let’s talk about the fifth commandment; abortion, euthanasia, the sixth with the destruction of the family! But I don’t think society suddenly changes. For us Christians we should make a beautiful Lenten commitment plan, a beautiful general confession, a return to God, and also a return to the third commandment: “Remember to sanctify the Holy Day” at Sunday Mass! In short, if there was something like this, such a movement would already be the beginning of a new life. M. Exactly, but I deeply believe as you say Father Livio, that if we listen to God’s commandments, live them, and put them into practice, we are already on the right path. But at the same time Our Lady in this time of Lent has called us to conversion as an invitation to change our life, an invitation to penance. I clearly remember that, at first, I found it difficult to pray. Today I must say that in my heart there is continuous prayer and when I pass by a church, a niche, I go to the chapel to arrange the flowers for Jesus, I say a prayer to a saint, to another, I say the prayer to St. Joseph whom we have just celebrated and to whom we pray every day. In the kitchen I have a beautiful image of Saint Joseph that I often invoke by touching him and speaking to him as the guardian of the divine family and I say to him: “You know the needs of our families and have raised the Divine Child, you had to hide and to escape into exile with them.” At the same time our life becomes an intertwining not only between God and us through prayer, but with a thousand small but big gestures which are our “Yes” to Him, putting Him in the first place. We pray many prayers to Our Lady, with the recitation of the Ave Maria, with short rosaries, novenas that we offer for peace, as well as through the commandments that make us say “No” to sin. F.L. Yes, one gets the impression that people have gotten used to living without God, without prayer and to dying without God. It has become like a disease, a way of being.I don’t know how this change happened in a few decades. M. But Father Livio I see that people are not well anyway and I have spoken several times and seen that the psychiatric wards are full because if you do not have God, and you think that you do not have a soul, you are not well. Many people after their conversion returned to communion with Him. Only in God is our peace, only in God we will find joy. F.L. And we can say that only in God can things be good on earth, as Our Lady is already saying it for the second time. M. Yes, because we think we are fine on earth as long as we are well but, for example, this coronavirus; how long did it take to get us confused? How much fear did it make in us? Aren’t we aware that eventually we will die? But all we thought about was protecting ourselves well, not to catch the coronavirus. Because we knew that it was not easy. But on the other hand, we are so attached to earthly things and I repeat what Our Lady told us: “Yearn for Heaven and Heavenly things”! To put it into practice we must feel the presence of the God of Love and here in Medjugorje Our Lady has made us discover it and given us Her love for God as Mother, as Queen, as our Guide, as our Teacher, especially in this journey where little by little we fell in love and today we can say: “We love God above all things” and we put Him first in our life. We have seen that our life is fleeting. This awareness provokes in my heart a need to testify, an urgency to share, to transmit my faith with others, especially with those who are far away. F.L. Marija, this beautiful final sentence… I want to ask you what it means to you when Our Lady tells us that she is here and that God loves us and that He wishes to save you and guide us to a new life; does He mean a new life in Heaven or here on earth? M. I understood it as a new, non-corrupt, non-abortion society, a non-careerist society (that we are building continuously day and night with weapons of destruction as you said, even the atomic weapons that we want to try, see and experience) in which we try to respect life, nature, because God has given us this land, it is a gift and we are called to live this gift with gratitude and responsibility because in this land we are passing through and it will remain for our children, grandchildren and for the future generations. We do not want to pollute and undo it but we want our children to remember those beautiful plants as I do when I see cherry blossoms and the buzz of bees around them which makes me exclaim: “Lord how beautiful You are”, and turn to the tree and say: “how many beautiful small  and sweet and red fruits you will give us  in a few months, “and we will even be able to taste them with the scent of tulips or jasmine that I have in the garden. When I look at that pink and blue color of the jasmines that I collected to bring to Saint Joseph, I was a bit sad because I didn’t want to take them away from their dirt but then the desire to take them to the Saint convinced me to sacrifice the flowers out of a good cause. As a lover of nature, I remember that Our Lady invited us to go to nature and give praise to God and I realized that with these small gestures you fall in love with nature and everything that God created. I would like to pass all this on to my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, who knows if the Lord will allow me. Besides this beautiful land that God made, He also gave us Sundays to rest and to give Him praise and glory. F.L. Of course, Marija, you remember the pomegranates your father used to pick up on Podbrdo Mount. M. Yes, and the Podbrdo is full of them thanks be to God F.L. As Our Lady said: “With God you are fine, without God you are not well, it is a falsehood, a deception of the devil.” M. Yes, with God it is good on earth. But I prefer Heaven, as how that song goes: “Heaven, I prefer Heaven” I say it too, I have nostalgia and curiosity because how many generations have already gone to Heaven and are waiting for us and we will see Our Lady day and night; not just for five minutes Father Livio. F.L. However you have seen Heaven. M. We have seen it! But I want to go and live there in Heaven! F.L. Here, it is different. (laugh from Marija). Okay, you have opened bright horizons of hope for us, and we are profoundly grateful to Our Lady and very welcome to the Holy Father also because he accepted Our Lady’s invitation to this wonderful consecration. M. And thank God that through Our Lady, He told us that He loves us, He wants to save us and wants to guide us towards a new life, and we are open to a new life not only by having a few more children each family but also by leading a more just life of peace, harmony, respect. Here we pray for these intentions. F.L. Thanks Marija so now let us conclude with the prayer. M. With all my heart (and they recite the Magnificat together) F.L. Our help is in the name of the Lord M. Who made Heaven and Earth. And Father Livio gives the blessing.Amen F.L. May Jesus and Mary be praised M. May Jesus and Mary always be praised F.L. Queen of Peace M. Pray for us and for the whole world F.L. Thanks Marija we also wish you Happy Easter if we don’t hear from you sooner. M. A kiss for all of you and a happy Easter to all radio listeners of Radio Maria and in these days we offer our prayers, our sacrifices, our little acts of love to God for peace and may the Risen Lord also come in these lands where there is a need for peace and with His strength give peace to the whole world not only in Ukraine and Russia but as She said in the last message where there are injustices, wars and there is no respect for the human beings, where many times Catholics are trampled on, killed and do not have the word and the freedom to express their faith. Here we pray in this time of Lent that the Lord will give us the strength to offer illnesses especially for the elderly who feel useless, Our Lady has always told us that they are the pillars of our families and our homes with their prayers that in this moment are important and offering their old age that enables them to do more. I am encouraging all of you at this moment and do not be disheartened but with joy in your heart live these years thanking God for what the Lord has given you with the hope of eternal life and a happy Easter to all. F.L. Marija, do me a favor since here online there is also our dear father Alexey, the director of Radio Maria Ukraine who is listening to us. Can you address a word of encouragement to all those who are in Kyiv but also to those who have fled to Poland, there are thousands of people, and they also are listening to Radio Maria? I would like you to speak directly to them Marija which could be of great consolation to them. M. I know that they are in contact because also in the next few days through the prayer groups we will be messaging. (To our brothers and sisters suffering in the war) We are with you, you are not alone, we pray together with you and peace will win; do not forget that Our Lady here in Medjugorje is called Queen of Peace and She is with us and we will reach Her with the power of prayer and we will overcome the devil and we will overcome evil. Courage then, we are with you! I know that because of the devastation you no longer have your homes. We also have experienced it and I remember when we brought humanitarian aid my husband and I we had to stop before the bombings to bring the most important medicines; I know that evil wants war, but Our Lady and the good Lord will give us peace and we pray for it. I send you a big kiss to everyone and let’s be united in prayer. F.L. Thanks, Marija and also a big kiss from all the great Radio Maria family and to Radio Maria Ukraine. Under the mantle of Our Lady, we will be safe. M. Now with the act of consecration you will see that peace will come soon. F.L. Is it a prophecy this Marija? M. I hope so as a visionary, Father Livio (laughter). Greetings and courage let’s keep on praying and we are doing much of it. F.L. Thanks Marija we love you