Reflection on the Message of July 25, 2004

I DESIRE, LITTLE CHILDREN, TO DRAW YOU ALL CLOSER TO MY SON JESUS

"Dear children! I call you anew: be open to my messages. I desire, little children, to draw you all closer to my Son Jesus; therefore, you pray and fast. Especially I call you to pray for my intentions, so that I can present you to my Son Jesus; for Him to transform and open your hearts to love. When you will have love in the heart, peace will rule in you. Thank you for having responded to my call." Message of July 25, 2004

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Behind the simple words of this message, there is Mary, our Mother, who loves her children. The heart of Mary feels our suffering and suffers when we suffer. She has compassion with us and she regrets when we are locked up and when we do not make any case of what she wants to say to us. Mary suffers with her children as a mother suffers with hers. The purer the heart is, and the more the love is great, the greater is sorrow because of evil, sin and all that destroys life.

Mary, our Mother, invites us to prepare the space in which Jesus will be able to come. Without our preparation, without our opening, Jesus remains powerless in his action. In the Gospels, we see that Jesus knew failures, that he could not help those who did not want to listen to him, to believe in him and to draw et the treasure of his life. Only the simple ones and the humble ones discover the force of the simplicity of Mary and of God. The words of the message of Our Lady are so simple. Seen from outside, they are ordinary, human words, just as Jesus, our God was wrapped in simplicity, smallness and humanity. We see Jesus each day on our altars, in Holy Masses, wrapped in ordinary simplicity of the bread, and it can happen that we do not recognize him and do not even meet him! It can happen to us to receive Holy Communion, the consecrated host, without meeting the living risen Christ, who - in the simplicity of the bread - gave to us the force of his resurrection and of his love. All that we need: love, peace, meaning of life, joy, Jesus gave to us in Holy Mass.

In a certain manner, the presence of Mary, our Mother, is hidden in simple, ordinary, human words in which - through faith and abandonment - we discover the force which attracts us and which leads us to Jesus and the encounter with him. Just like Jesus, who became man in a simple way and who thus approached us, Mary speaks to us in a comprehensible and simple way. Let us recognize with faith and the heart that, behind this simplicity, is to be fund the Holy One and the Pure One, for whom our hearts are longing. We are children of Mary, and each child needs a Mother, cannot live without her.

The desire of Mary is to bring us closer Jesus. She wishes that the desire to know and to meet Jesus might be born in our heart also. Without this desire, she cannot help us. It is necessary that our heart come into movement in order to encounter and to know Jesus. Mary knows her Son better than anyone else, but she knows also the way to reach him. We are in sure hands if we go to her to receive council and assistance.

To pray for Mary’s intentions means to pray that her maternal desires are carried out, and not our own desires. She knows what is for our good; she knows it better than us, because she loves us more than we are able to love ourselves. Her desire is to present us, to offer us to Jesus. As she presented Jesus in the Temple to the Heavenly Father, she wants to present us to her Son Jesus. He is the source of love and of peace. We need him, so that peace reigns in our families and in our human relations - not the peace of this world, but the peace that comes from his Heart pierced on the cross.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje, July 26, 2004