Reflection on the Message of June 25, 2006

OUR LADY THANKS US

"Dear children! With great joy in my heart I thank you for all the prayers that, in these days, you offered for my intentions. Know, little children, that you will not regret it, neither you nor your children. God will reward you with great graces and you will merit eternal life. I am near you and thank all those who, through these years, have accepted my messages, have poured them into their life and decided for holiness and peace. Thank you for having responded to my call." Message of June 25, 2006

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It has been twenty-five years now since the apparitions of Our Lady began, and with it the closeness to and love of the Virgin Mary. It has been twenty-five years of grace and the open sky at this place. The cry of St. Elizabeth is spontaneously raised in our hearts: " But why am I so favoured that the mother of my Lord should come to me?"

In her previous messages Our Lady says: "God has permitted me to be with you for so long." "I will be with you as long as the Almighty permits me." " I have come to help you as you cannot on your own." A mother wants to help her children. She does not only call upon us for conversion. She calls upon us so that she herself, the Mother, may bring us closer to Jesus, the source of redemption.

To love the Virgin Mary, to believe in Her means to return at the foot of the cross of Her Son. It means to reach the source of grace and redemption. It means to experience and live the truth of the words of Jesus: "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me! Let him drink who believes in me." As Sacred Scripture says: "Streams of living water will flow from within him!" (John 7: 37-38). Here in Medjugorje streams of living water have flown from Jesus' heart and washed many a penitent heart in the Sacrament of the Holy Confession and Eucharist. For all the graces we are to thank the Lord, and Mary who is coming to us.

On the twenty-fifth anniversary of her apparitions, the Blessed Virgin Mary is coming to us with a great joy in her heart. She is coming from her glory and the fullness of life to which she wants to lead us as a mother. The Mother is thankful for all the prayers to all the people who have believed in Her and accepted her as their Mother and a mediator on the path of life.

"You will never regret it." – Mary speaks to us. She has never deceived anybody nor has anybody who has believed in her or has turned to her full of trust in time of need ever remained disillusioned. She has not come to deceive us nor to deprive us of the joys of life. Only with God can we truly experience the fullness and the joy of life. God has never remained beholden to anybody. He will reward us not only after our death, but today as well, here on Earth.

The Virgin Mary thanks to all the people that have accepted her messages. It means to all those who have listened to what she has been telling us. Unfortunately, we sometimes hear a word but fail to pour it into life. It is as if we have a seed but fail to sow it leaving it in our pocket. The same happens with the words of Jesus. We hear them, but we do not pour them into life. It is the reason why in many of her messages Mary tells us the following: "Live my messages; witness them with your life; put them into practice; pour them into life." If this does not happen, then we are similar to the man Jesus is talking about in the Gospel. "Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the stream rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." (Matthew 7: 26 – 27). The same is with the words of the Virgin Mary addressed to us here. And her messages are a gospel told in simple words from a motherly heart. Let us come closer to Mary with our faith and love, so that the house of our life is built on the rock.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medugorje 26/6/2006