Reflection on the Message of July 25, 2005

FILL YOUR DAY WITH SHORT AND ARDENT PRAYERS

"Dear children! Also today, I call you to fill your day with short and ardent prayers. When you pray, your heart is open and God loves you with a special love and gives you special graces. Therefore, make good use of this time of grace and devote it to God more than ever up to now. Do novenas of fasting and renunciation so that Satan be far from you and grace be around you. I am near you and intercede before God for each of you. Thank you for having responded to my call." Message of July 25, 2005

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The Virgin Mary tells us: “Fill your day with short and ardent prayers”. She wants to tell us to wrap the whole day with prayers, so that God can come, and that the evil and the wicked one cannot have access to our life. There is too much evil and wickedness, too much sinister and dark news, which fill our hearts with worries and fear. There are too many news about tragedies, terrorism, assassinations, which surround us, and about which we hear each day. There are so many malicious words, which hurt trust and love in us and in our neighbour. There is too much superficiality in our conversations, and we go away empty and burdened. Mary shows us the way, she is putting into our hands the means, so that God may find a place where to come.

Whatever we look at, listen to or read, is shaping our interior life, our heart, and then our words. Our words and our conversations reveal the contents of our heart. If our heart is anguished, in darkness and filled with negativism, then our words will be similar. Such a heart will see only what is bad and negative in others. “Blessed are the pure of heart, they shall see God”, tells us Jesus. A pure heart is unable to make dirty, to wound or to burden others. A pure heart will try to wipe and wash the dirtiness of others. Who is nervous and unhappy will make all around him nervous and unhappy.

You have undoubtedly already experienced that some people radiate a certain restlessness, nervousness and darkness. There are others who radiate peace, security and trust. They are connected to God, because He is the source of peace, of security, of love and of trust. Mary wishes that all of us, her children, belong to God, that we are people who radiate peace and love. Only a heart that is praying becomes an open heart. Only to an open heart, God can grant his grace, his force and his almightiness.

It is not enough to read and to hear the Gospel and the words of Our Lady’s message. They have to be carried out, put into practice. Many have heard the Gospel and Our Lady’s message, but it is possible to distinguish those among them who have put into practice what they have heard. Only those who have tried to put into practice at least something of what they have heard, deserve heaven. There are people who pray unceasingly without ever doing anything. There are some who pray, but criticize everything and everyone. They measure all according to their theoretical prayers, which are sterile, if they are not put into practice in our life. The prayers have a meaning only if they change our life, our heart, and if we try to put them into practice. God is doing nothing without us - He is doing everything with us. He is waiting for our works in order to collaborate with us, to help us. This is why: to pray and to do nothing, means to prevent the realization of what we are praying for.

The worst of all things, it is to wait a long time before putting one’s decisions into practice. It is necessary to do immediately, and not to delay, to leave for later. More we delay our prayer, our work, an obligation, more we create a feeling of emptiness and helplessness. Then we begin to pity ourselves and we fall into depression. It is necessary to start with one small millimetre, and then you will be greater than all those who criticize. Faith without works is useless; such a faith is dead.

The words of Our Lady’s message will be a dead letter if you do not try at least a little bit to put them into practice in your life. When we begin, we will discover the infinitude and the almightiness of God in our life. May God, through our decisions and our prayers, protect us from Satan and wrap us with his grace.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje 26.7.2005