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

Abandon yourselves to the Immaculate Heart

First of all, I would like to greet all my acquaintances, friends and brothers, because I feel we are all brothers and I want to assure you that I pray to Our Lady and her Immaculate Heart for all of you every day.

Now I want to ask you this: do you truly desire the triumph of the Immaculate Heart ? I want to say a few words about today's Feast of the Immaculate Conception. The Immaculate Conception is the most beautiful gift God gave to humanity before He sent His Son, Jesus Christ. Today God wants us to become immaculate and to start to live an immaculate life: this, too, is something beautiful. To really live an immaculate life is the sense of the celebration of this feast day and the consecration to the Immaculate Heart. Our Lady's triumph depends on us; we can slow it down or hasten it. If we, as the Church, begin to live immaculately, Our Lady will knock at our door and the door of the Church, so that we really do start to live this 'immaculate' attitude. This is the reason for the messages of conversion, prayer and fasting.

Remember how Our Lady was born: Saint Joachim and Saint Anne fasted and prayed a great deal and, finally, this great gift for humanity came into being. Now we must accept these messages and I want to remind you that, when we were baptised, we became immaculate but we became stained by sin again later. I want to tell you about an obstacle I have noted in the souls of pilgrims lately; that is that when there is opposition to our attitude of prayer, conversion and fasting, many pilgrims get upset, become perturbed and lost, or start to fight and shout. However, we must continue living in our immaculate way and this means living in this contrast. Wherever light increases darkness angers, wherever the countenance of God is manifested, darkness angers. But we should not try to lessen this contrast between light and darkness. The danger lies in accepting the weapons of darkness by starting to get angry we must not become angry, bitter or to judge and quarrel because this lessens the contrast. We must remain immaculate and continue to love and to pray. This guarantees our faithfulness to the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. If, at any moment, we lose this contrast and accept the weapons of the opposition, of the people who get angry and protest, then we are no longer the light. We must proceed towards the Immaculate Conception by living the beatitudes because the obstacles are put in front of us to be overcome, although not by human strength. Never, as at this moment, have I understood that it is not possible to illuminate the minds of people by human reasoning and logic, but only by the supernatural strength given to us by God. So I remind you to abandon yourselves to the Immaculate Heart and live in an immaculate way.

In her last message, Our Lady calls us to: "live community prayer." This is a very profound message because, if we can live community prayer, then we will be capable of everything. First of all, find time for this prayer in your families and then, on a deeper level, be united to the Holy Spirit at all times. I asked Our Lady, through one of the visionaries, how I should behave when I know that I am telling the truth but there is a negative judgement from the other part. Our Lady told me: "You must tell that person with your heart that you love him." Even if a person rejects me, does not accept me, I must accept that person and love him and from this we can see that the relationship with our neighbour is not only on an external level. If we want to hasten the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I believe that these factors are of great importance. If we want to increase the dynamics of conversion, then we must remain immaculate. In the face of all obstacles, we must remain in the light and not take up the weapons of darkness. We must remain united even with our enemies. We must do as the Gospel tells us: love our enemies, be united to them with love and tell each of them: 'I love you.' Even if they close our mouths and we are not able to say the words 'I love you' to others, we can do so with our heart. I wish that all of you may be able to put this into practice.

Here in Medjugorje, we pray continuously for you pilgrims so that we remain brothers, not separated but united more and more in the Immaculate Heart. I hope that today will bring you a true deepening of your spiritual life, not just in external prayer but also in silent life.

You Italians are numerous and I really ask you to make space in and around the church; a space of silence and silent prayer this evening. This is what Our Lady tells us to do because she has complained several times that people come here only to look, but I hope you have come to be with the Immaculate Heart. I wish the Mass this evening to be a true celebration of the Immaculate Heart so that Our Lady will begin to celebrate her triumph this evening. Start out towards Christmas as Our Lady tells us: "If you follow me, this Christmas will be unforgettable for you. I tell you: turn off your television sets, your radios and follow the programme set by God of meditation, prayer and reading the Gospel; foster the development of faith."

What began in the Immaculate Heart has grown and continued to grow all through Our Lady's life so let us set out, too, along this path.

(Fr. Tomislav Vlasic 8th December 1984)

 

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

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