J.M.J.
January 3, 2018
The Holy Name of Jesus!
Dear Family of Mary!
“Dear children! Today I am bringing to you my Son Jesus for Him to give you His peace and blessing. I am calling all of you, little children, to live and witness the graces and the gifts which you have received. Do not be afraid! Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you the strength to be joyful witnesses and people of peace and hope. Thank you for having responded to my call.” (December 25, 2017)
Our Lady spoke to us of our mission to witness peace and hope to others. To witness all we have received. It reminded me of the beautiful witness that Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti gave in Vienna on October 24, 2017. I have received a transcript of that witness, and so I thought we could each read it and ponder what Marija shared. It is a good way to begin a New Year!
Transcript of Marija Pavlovic Lunetti’s October 24, 2017 testimony, given during a “Prayer for Peace” in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna.
Prior to Marija’s talk, the choir played a hymn emphasizing peace and repeatedly sang “Shalom.” So when Marija began, her first word was: Shalom! And then she began:
I wanted to ask somebody else to translate my speech, but I picked someone who got his vocation in Medjugorje. [a priest tranlated for Marija] As we have heard “Shalom”, we wanted to dance to the music, but rather than dance, let us talk about peace.
It is a great joy to be here with you because today, in this year, we are celebrating the 10th meeting here in the Cathedral and we are praying for peace. As Our Lady has appeared from the beginning and has introduced Herself from the beginning as the Queen of Peace, so also she has invited us to work for peace.
On the third day of the apparitions, Our Lady appeared with a cross behind Her and She said, ‘Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace must reign between God and men, among all men, and peace in the world.‘ That was the first message that Our Lady gave. Today we can feel in our hearts how important peace is. That is the biggest treasure that mankind can have…the peace within our hearts. That is why Our Lady has said, ‘God has allowed me to be among you: To invite you, to love you, and to instruct you on the path to peace. ‘
Our Lady started to guide the parish of (Saint James) of Medjugorje through the messages that she was giving every Thursday to the parish. Then Our Lady started to guide prayer groups. Our Lady has said that families can be prayer groups. Our Lady said to read the Holy Scripture every day, to pray the rosary every day. Without saying it to us, we (visionaries) knew that the rosary is the dearest prayer to Our Lady. Our Lady said that the rosary is the strongest weapon against satan.
Today we met with Cardinal Ernesto who will give his testimony as well. It is a great joy to be here with you, but also because of him. Because Cardinal has said that the Rosary has saved his life in his most difficult times. Also we can say that those are the precious moments (the difficult moments are precious ones). At the beginning of the apparitions, we were small, we were living under Communism and the Mother of God was telling us, ‘Pray. Pray. Pray‘ and we have done what She asked of us and we survived.
In the most difficult times, we have lived the joy of Our Lady and our faith was stronger every day. There are still difficulties today. We have problems, illnesses, but when we have prayer, when we have God, everything else takes second place. As Our Lady said, ‘Our goal is heaven- the eternal life.’ If you think about heaven, everything else is not important. When we think about Our Lady, angels, and all the Saints; we can already feel the joy within our hearts. Our heart is moving towards heaven. The Mother of God said to us, ‘Without God, there is no future and no eternal life.’
Through the messages that Our Lady is giving out to us, she is inviting us to get closer to God and to prayer, and then we will have peace. The peace will reign within your hearts. Our Lady is saying that “In these difficult times, God has allowed me to be with you.” Our Lady IS with us. When we have God and Our Lady with us, then who can be against us? Just thinking about that, there is already joy in our hearts.
What is Our Lady inviting us to? In the first days of the apparitions when we climbed the apparition hill, Our Lady said to us, ‘Go to the fields close to your homes, pray, and I will come. ‘ And She came. She appeared to us. We have prayed the Rosary. Our Lady was very joyful because we have made the intention of our rosary Our Lady’s Intentions. Our Lady was so joyful that She invited us to touch Her.
Really what She wants is to take all of us with Her into heaven. But then I asked Our Lady, “How is it possible that we can touch you? Okay, we can see you, but what about those that cannot see you?” Then Our Lady said to us, ‘Take their hands and lead their hands to touch me.’ And we did it. Everybody felt the presence of Our Lady. Some felt cold. Some fragrance, electricity and different ways that people experienced, but all those people thought mainly that Our Lady is there with us. And then as we, who could see Our Lady, we noticed that as people touched the dress of Our Lady, we could see that Our Lady’s dress was becoming dirty.
Then we started to cry and I asked Our Lady, ‘Why is your dress getting dirtier every time somebody touches you?’ Then Our Lady said, ‘That is because of the sins.’ Our Lady said to us to go to a church, to a priest for confession. We all went because none of us wanted to leave stains on Our Lady’s dress. Today Medjugorje is the biggest confessional in the world!
Four days ago, I met a priest, a Spanish priest who is 65 years old. He was ready to hear confessions in the Spanish language. He said, ‘I have a lot of experience hearing confession because I’m 65 years old.’ Then he said to me with tears in his eyes, ‘My heart is so moved by the confessions that I have heard (in Medjugorje) — those deep confessions. All the pilgrims have decided to convert and to get closer to God. Then I bless the pilgrim and believe that, for this person, a new life will start.’
The same is true for us here today: us, we that are here celebrating the peace. From today on, we can become even bigger instruments of Our Lady. As instruments to achieve peace through our testimonies, through our prayer, through our examples, we can convert many people that we meet. The same as the Apostles did. They were known as Christians because of their love and because they shared.
Today, this year, we are celebrating the 100 years of Our Lady’s apparitions in Fatima. That is another celebration! Only once did Our Lady speak about another apparition other than Medjugorje and what Our Lady said is that whatever She has started in Fatima, she will finish in Medjugorje. What did Our Lady say in Fatima? Our Lady said, ‘Pray for all those who do not pray. Pray for all those that are not adoring God.‘ In Medjugorje give witness for all those that are not able to give witness.
Our Lady is inviting us to spend as much time as we can before the Blessed Sacrament. To be there, in front of the Blessed Sacrament is a blessing for our lives. Because when someone loves, they speak about love. When you love God, you speak about God. When you love someone, you tell others about them and so on… If you are really in love with God, then you will become His witnesses. This is what the Saints did. They bore witness, gave witness and testimony.
Two days ago (October 22nd) we celebrated the feast day of Saint John Paul II. The way St. John Paul II spoke of Our Lady showed how much love that he had for Our Lady. So many times Pope John Paul II sent us visionaries rosary beads that we used.
And then Benedict was holy Father, Pope Benedict was for us all good and theological. He taught us sin is sin and wholeness is wholeness. He taught us to take the true path as Our Lady has said, ‘Live the Commandments of God. Love your neighbor, don’t take what doesn’t belong to you, and so on.‘
As we can see, there are not so many people that convert. But then I say, ‘No, it’s not true because it is easier to hear a tree that falls than a tree that grows.’ The tree that grows with its branches so high gives witness to others. We should witness with our lives. Our Lady said, ‘It doesn’t matter who you are or what skin color you have, you are invited to give witness of your faith.’
He (Cardinal Ernesto Simoni) comes from Albania and he told us about Muslims. He said to the Muslims, ‘You pray in your way and I will pray for you. I am blessing you and I will pray for you.’ Then they came back and said that they had received grace. Work for the unity, for peace because peace is the biggest treasure for mankind and we know that satan all the time is trying to start a war here or there. But the most beautiful thing is when a man kneels down with a Rosary in his hands because the Rosary beads are a stronger weapon than a nuclear bomb. We know that, and we believe that, and that is why we pray!
As Our Lady said, ‘God has allowed me to be among you,’ and we would like to thank Our Lady for Her presence in Medjugorje. She is still with us. We would like to say thank you to Our Lady for being with us, and to thank Her for not leaving us. She has allowed us to be close to Her and that She allowed us to fall in love with Her and that She brought us to Her Son because She has the most love for Her Son. She always speaks about Her Son. She brings us Jesus. She is carrying Him and that is what we will do as well (they were going to have the Eucharist at Mass after the recitation of the Rosary). When we all love the Son; at that point the world changes and then peace will reign.
And I believe, that now, with this year, begins, as Our Lady said, the Triumph of her Immaculate Heart. Our Lady said to us that She will not leave us alone. She is giving us the messages. During the apparition, Our Lady prays. Our Lady prayed in Her mother language — in Her own Aramaic language and I didn’t understand anything. And as we couldn’t understand, she said, ‘Do not forget that I am your Mother and that I love you.’ We shouldn’t forget that She is the Mother and that She loves us. And let us pray that those who are away from God and lost in sin that She will bring us all to Her Son. And let it be so. Amen.
Finally, I have found this priest (the translator for Marija to translate into German) that received his vocation in Medjugorje and I would like to thank this priest for translating me. I hope that the message of Our Lady will be even stronger because it was translated by a priest!
May Marija’s words give us hope and a renewed desire to live the messages that Our Lady has given us! Our Lady is very close to us and we want to be her children!
