Pilgrims pray during the Evening Program at St. James Church
Dear Family of Mary!
January 25, 2019 “Dear children! Today, as a mother, I am calling you to conversion. This time is for you, little children, a time of silence and prayer…”
Here is a teaching that Fr. Slavko Barbaric gave in 1986 about prayer. It is wonderful, and so practical, just like Fr. Slavko!
“Without prayer, dear children, you will be unable to experience either God, me or the graces I am giving you.”
If a visionary does not pray or fast he or she could become just like the telephone. Our Lady telephones to us what we should do through the visionaries, and that would be the end – everything would remain really dry within.
As a small consolation for you all, if you have not yet seen any of the visionaries but find the Rosary in your pocket and start praying, you will already be on the right path.
I will read to you last Thursday’s message: “Dear children, today I invite you all to prayer. Without prayer, dear children, you will be unable to experience either God, me or the graces I am giving you. I am therefore inviting you to begin and end your day always with prayer. Dear children, I wish to guide you as much as possible, day after day, to pray, but you are unable to grow spiritually as you do not wish to. I invite you, dear children, to make prayer your first priority.”
Let us be sincere; what was the response in your heart when you heard Our Lady’s words, “I therefore invite you to pray both at the beginning and the end of your day”, that is to say, starting and ending your day with prayer? If Our Lady had said, “Please wash your face or have breakfast every day, drink a little coffee in order not to go to work on an empty stomach.” I am sure you would have said, “Of course, one would die if one did not do so, or one would not be able to work.”
But if Our Lady says, “Pray”, what is your reply? “I cannot because I am always in a hurry in the morning, I have not time.”
Our Lord invites us through Our Lady to pray every morning and we say, “Sorry, I cannot’. What will be the consequences? A void in our soul and in our heart.
Before the fifth anniversary of the first apparition Our Lady invited us all to pray continuously. It is now for five years that she has been appearing and hoping that at least some of us may walk during the whole day, not just take a few steps forward.
She invites us to continuous prayer, not just to move our lips. Our Lady is thinking of something else.
I will explain. When Our Lady invites us to pray continuously, to pray with the heart, she invites us to be in touch with God. I dare say that in order to pray continuously it is not enough just to love God, but one must be in love with God. When one is in love with somebody, this person is ever present in one’s thoughts, in one’s heart and in one’s feeling, even when at work.
It is only in this way that we can explain continuous prayer. It is not enough just to love, one must be in love!
If someone says, how can I? I ask you and also myself, when was the last time we prayed for the grace of prayer with the heart, or for continuous prayer, or for the grace of being always able to accept the love of Our Lord and Our Lady?
This message is then very clear. Our Lady is asking us to give first place to prayer in our priorities. Without prayer we can experience neither God nor Our Lady. This is quite normal; if we are not in touch with Our Lord, if we do not pray, if we do not open our hearts to Our Lord, how can we hear Him?
Here is something very important and practical. Our Lady says, “I want to guide you day by day as much as possible to prayer, but you cannot spiritually grow, because you’re not willing to.” We can wish it, “yes, I would like to…” as the lazy student says, “I would like to complete my studies,” but when you tell him to study, he replies, “I cannot”. What a useless wish!
It is not enough to say I would like to pray with my heart. It is necessary to try.
Our Lady shows us here a maternal teaching which is practical. Read the messages. She never recommended a book from which to learn to pray, but how many times she told us to pray, to meditate on the Rosary, to go to confession, to be reconciled, and so on.
So Our Lady is like the mother who takes her child by the hand and tries a new step every day until it can walk. No mother has ever first given her child a book so that it can understand which muscles to use in order to walk; she takes him by the hand and begins in a practical way.
And so, Our Lad also does the same. So, let us kneel down and pray individually, in our families, in communities, in our prayer groups, and then all else will be given to us. If we then still dare to find excuses for being unable to pray, this means that Our Lady’s words are still incapable of moving us, but one day they will.
It is important to fast. Jesus, said, “Blessed are the poor in heart, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” This is true, but we are not poor in heart and in our practical neglect of God we say, “Lord, I do not need you.”
The words, ‘Poor in heart’ may be translated as, blessed are those who have a need for prayer, who need God. By fasting, little by little we overcome our neglect of God and we are able to experience to a greater extent our true selves and our need for God.
This then seems to me to be the summary of Our Lady’s school and of her teaching. In the light of the messages Our Lady shows us her behavior and tries to enter into our lives, our families, in the whole Church and in the whole world. The greatest grace when you come to Medjugorje is this – God gives us a stimulus for prayer. This is the experience of a great number of people; when one comes here one is able to pray, one continues to pray, and prayer can grow. Make up your minds to pray, meet together every week, meditate on the Rosary, read the Bible and let God speak to you in silence – this then is your prayer group. It is very easy.
Classic! This is Our Lady’s priest caring for her little ones!
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
©Mary TV 2019
