Medjugorje Grey Book

Open Your Hearts to MARY Queen of Peace

Other languages: English, Italiano

This book is the first of the four volumes of sermons and discourses given by Fr. Slavko Barbaric and Fr. Tomislav Vlasic during 1984 - 1987 in Medjugorje, and contains talks given from Easter until December 1984.

All chapters of this book are now included

The complete rosary

During the past months and past Thursdays, too, the messages have always had the same meaning as the very first message. You know it: the first message is :"Peace"

Our Lady said: "I am the Queen of Peace, I have come to bring peace to the world".

To obtain peace, therefore, we must be converted, have faith and fast.

On 14th August, the Eve of the Assumprion, Our Lady appeared to Ivan in his home after prayers, in a special apparition, as he was not expecting to see Our Lady, and gave an important message: "I would like everybody to pray with me as much as they can at this time. To fast strictly on Wednesdays and Fridays and to recite the rosary every day, meditating on the joyful, sorrowful and glorious mysteries."

By this message we can see what Our Lady wants of us. At the beginning, Our Lady asked for seven Our father's and we knew that this request was only the start. A start in the sense that all of us can begin, without any excuses, the Creed and Seven Our Father's. But 'THE CREED' does not just mean reciting it, there is a deeper meaning: a daily dedication to Our Lord. You should know that the apparitions are never new revelations and it is not possible to expect anything new from the content of them but they must be understood as a new impulse in order to drive us on. When we talk of 'peace, conversion, faith, prayer, fasting, sacramental life and confession each month' this is only a fruit to make us put the old message which we have known for nearly two thousand years into practice, because the first words of Jesus were: 'Be converted, do penance, pray and believe the Gospel. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.'

The practical side of the apparitions is always this stimulus and the first stimulus is the Creed which amounts to our daily choice for Our Lord.

We say seven Our Father's every evening with the visionaries but this is only the ABC to help us learn to read; it is necessary to read in order to learn to read. This means that when we start to pray we must continue to do so and to increase our prayer. Prayer can be defined as a life with Our Lord.

Meditating on this message of 14th August when Our Lady asked for the "complete rosary", I realised what she wants from us: a permanent prayer. I will explain this to you. When Our Lady asks for the complete rosary every day, this does not mean finding half an hour each day, reciting the Hail Mary's as quickly as possible and then telling ourselves that we have finished the message. No. The sense of this prayer is another. To recite the entire rosary of all fifteen mysteries means being close to the mysteries of life of Jesus, to the mysteries of the Redemption and to the life of Mary. If you want to pray in the sense of this message, it is not a question of finding half an hour for prayer; another type of behaviour is needed. For example, if you have no time for prayer in the morning, meditate on a mystery, a joyful one, for example. Our Lady said: "I am ready to do Your Will. I understand what You want from me. I am ready and allow myself to be guided by You." This is the first joyful mystery.

If we want to deepen our prayer, we must keep the Word in our heart; so that a readiness to look for and to do the Will of Our Lord every day may grow in us. After we have allowed the word of God to enter our heart and, by grace, our heart becomes ready to look for and to do the Will of Our Lord, then we may pray ten Hail Mary's for ourselves, our family, the people we work with or study with.

So our first impulse each day must be :'I want to look for Your Will and put it into practice.'

If you want to continue to pray and to follow Our Lady's message, take another mystery, for example: how did Our Lady visit her cousin, Elizabeth ? What significance does this have for us ? Our Lady is attentive to others, she sees their needs and visits those who need her time and her love. She brings joy to Elizabeth.

This is a concrete stimulus for you : to pray every day that we, too, may be ready to do the same: to give time to those who need us, to see, to help and to bring joy. This is the way to meditate each mystery. When we do this for five or ten minutes each day, we are then ready and close to the mysteries and always have a new stimulus to live our life with Our Lord. This is the most important factor in the message.

If we want peace we must pray and so prayer is only a means of finding peace once more, of meeting Our Lord.

I am convinced Our Lady is not asking for so much prayer just to take up our time, but to lead us to Jesus, to Our Lord.

This is an indirect invitation to read the Scriptures because the rosary is a meditative, biblical prayer and it is not possible to meditate on the rosary well without knowing the Bible.

Every Thursday, Our Lady gives a message to the Parish and to everyone. This is the latest message : "Dear Children, I need your prayers. Some of you ask the reason for so many prayers. I will tell you. Dear Children, look at what is happening in the world and you will see a great deal on sin reigning there. Pray that My Son may overcome."

Our Lady explains this to us: "Do not ask the reason for so many prayers. There is a great deal of sin in the world."

She invites us to help fulfil the plans for the whole world she has started here with us.

Two messages given this summer, those of July and August, are very important: "The Devil wants to destroy my plan, but I urge you: pray. I will pray to my Son that He may win." Look, if somebody asks me : 'how can I find so much time for prayer, for the whole rosary or, for prayer to contemplate the mysteries ?' I reply : ' I have realised we do have the time but, as we often do not see the value of prayer, we say we have no time.'

Each person who smokes finds time for twenty, thirty or forty cigarettes a day. if we say: 'I cannot find time for prayer'; it would be better and more honest to say: ' I do not see the value of prayer'. This is an invitation from Our Mother, an invitation which must bring us peace. If we want peace, I believe we must find time for prayer.

In another recent message, Our Lady said: "Dear children, without prayer you cannot have peace, so pray much before Cross for peace." This message was in direct connection with the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross which we celebrated last Sunday which is, by tradition, the first Sunday following Nativity of Our Lady.

This invitation is valid for all of us: to pray for peace every day in front of the Cross.

(Fr. Slavko Barbaric 15th September 1984)

 

For God to live in your hearts, you must love.

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