Reflection on the Message of April 25, 2002

SEEK FROM GOD THE CONVERSION OF YOUR HEARTS

"Dear children! Rejoice with me in this time of spring when all nature is awakening and your hearts long for change. Open yourselves, little children, and pray. Do not forget that I am with you and I desire to take you all to my Son that He may give you the gift of sincere love towards God and everything that is from Him. Open yourselves to prayer and seek a conversion of your hearts from God; everything else He sees and provides. Thank you for having responded to my call." April 25, 2002

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The Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace, walks with us on our way through life, accompanying us with her short motherly words every month. Throughout these almost 21 years, she unceasingly confirms to us the certitude that She is with us.

We approach the month that is consecrated to the Mother of Jesus Christ. The month of May is overflowing with the springtime awakening of life in the nature which is given to us. This is why Mary, our Mother, calls us to learn from this nature, to awaken our hearts together with the awakening of nature. She already told us that our souls were like flowers. Every sin takes away the beauty of our soul, steals its smile, brings dark and negative thoughts, burdens our life, poisons human relationships, destroys love and takes away joy from the heart. Each sin is a violence against the human soul and life. Nature also does not tolerate violence. If man tries to violently change natural laws incorporated by the Creator, nature takes revenge in the form of various unknown illnesses that are escalating from day to day.

It is in the nature of man to love, to live in peace. If man does not love, he cannot be happy. When he withdraws from God, he becomes a danger to himself and to others. He starts to wither and to die spiritually. When our body becomes physically ill, it tries to get well again with all its forces and powers, and we want to help it with various medications. God has put into our spirit a desire for happiness, for peace and for love. Nobody has invented love. We discover it as a need to survive. Man can seek love in various ways and on various paths, but only God, who created the heart of man, can fill it completely and heal it. Our Lady shows us the way: Pray. She promises us her presence, companionship, collaboration - today, at the present moment.

All big things are very simple, almost incredibly simple. Jesus was born in such a simple and incredible way, in an ordinary manger. He grew up in a simple manner, and in a very simple way he chose his disciples, who were in no way extraordinary men. Our Lady comes here in a simple way through simple visionaries and talks to us in human, comprehensible, simple words. Without noise or clamour. In this message, she wants us to learn from nature. Natural beauties exist that make one marvel and be filled with something magnificent, as if he was already in front of the Most High. However, in its essence, nature is very simple. There aren’t any big factories to produce the polychromy of flowers and of meadows, the beauty of mountains and of the sea. All this is the work of the Creator. Mary also is great, but not by works done by human power, but by the hand of the Creator. This is why she cries out: “The Lord has done great things for me, holy is His Name.” (Lk 1:49)

All that happens in the souls of numerous pilgrims who visit this holy place is the work of the Creator who does not forget his children. Our Lady’s apparitions are today a confirmation of this certitude.

The final words of this message from Our Lady are evangelical; they are the words of Jesus: “seek a conversion of your hearts from God; everything else He sees and provides”. Jesus said: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and all the rest shall be given to you” (Lk 12:31).

Mary, our Mother, thank you for these words of God, for your motherly words. Thank you for all those who believed in your words and opened their hearts for an encounter with God, the source of life, of love and of peace. Obtain for us the grace to discern what is precious from what is useless in our lives.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje April 26, 2002