Reflection on the Message of March 25, 2006

I AM LEADING YOU ALONG THE PATH OF HOLINESS

"Courage, little children! I decided to lead you on the way of holiness. Renounce sin and set out on the way of salvation, the way which my Son has chosen. Through each of your tribulations and sufferings God will find the way of joy for you. Therefore, little children, pray. We are close to you with our love. Thank you for having responded to my call." Message of March 25, 2006

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This month the Blessed Virgin Mary begins her motherly message with the following words: "Courage, little children!" Mother wants to encourage, awaken and inspire her children along the path of holiness. Or, as she said in one of her messages: "You, dear children, are not able by yourselves, therefore I am here to help you.“ Mary is full of grace wishing the best to her children, and that is holiness.

In Church everybody is called to holiness. As our dearly departed Pope John Paul II used to emphasize: "Without any hesitation do I say that the perspective into which the whole of pastoral planning is to be placed is under the heading of holiness. It would be a contradiction to settle for a life of mediocrity, marked by a minimalist ethic and shallow religiosity." Blessed Mother Teresa used to say: " Holiness is not the luxury of the few, it is a simple duty for each one of us." The ideal of Christian holiness is not an extraordinary life lived exclusively by a few "great men" of holiness. Desiring to become holy means desiring to become more and more similar to the person we love. Man is turning into the ideal standing before him. We have the most beautiful, the holiest and the purest Mother - the Virgin Mary.

She is blessed because she believed. Her greatest glory lies in the fact that she has retained nothing of her own, nothing of her ego that might glorify her for her own sake. Neither did she place any barrier to the glory of God, nor did she oppose God's love and will. She was devoid of any stain of selfishness that may have tarnished God's light in her heart. Completely devoid of any sin, Mary was pure as the glass of a very clean window having no other task than to let the sunlight in.

It is her apparitions and her being close to here with which she tries to cast God's light on every heart, to encourage and lead every heart along the path of holiness.

If one is to go to another place, one must leave the place where one is. This is why she tells us to renounce every sin and everything that binds us. To have the courage to say No to a sin and Yes to God.

For our sake was Jesus tried, then suffered, was tortured and murdered. For our sake did he choose the path of salvation. He did all that for our sake, but he did not do it instead of us. He will not and he does not want to make the decision about our eternity for us. He is sending us his and our Mother so that we can decide in favour of life, and not of death.

God has a solution even in cases of most severe pain and suffering. With God nothing is tragic. The Virgin Mary is a witness to that encouraging us not to renounce prayer as a means of protecting us from losing our way on the path of salvation.

Thank you, Mary, for the safety you instil in our insecure hearts. Thank you for bringing Jesus to us and leading us towards Jesus.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje 26.3.2006