- Wed Mar 11, 2009 3:04 am
#123205
On October 22, 2007, my wife and I made a pilgrimage to Medjugorje. While there, we went to the parish of Siroki Brijeg to listen to a most beautiful and inspiring sermon by Fr. Jozo Zovko. His sermons are deeply meditative and poetic. The following is a transcription of the sermon as translated by Nancy Latta.
Fr. Jozo opens with prayer ...
Come and fill me with peace. You are my strength. Anoint me with grace and strength that I may respond to the call of the Mother; that I may answer to her call and may place my life into God’s hands. That as her, I may be able to say O come most Holy Spirit change me, bless me, change my heart. You know that my heart is of stone. You know that I don’t know how to pray. You know how I don’t know how to love. You know my weaknesses. That is why I need Your grace. I need Your love. I need Your goodness. I need Your blessing, Your support and Your protection. Come O most Holy Spirit.
O Mother. You know that I have brought my pain to you, my suffering, my wounds, my prayers, my life, my marriage, my vocation, my failure. But I feel so well with you. I know that you wanted me to be here and I thank you. You wanted me here and I responded to your call. Here I am before you. I am yours. I want to be completely healed. I want to feel as joyful as Elizabeth did, the Mother of my God has come to me. O Mother of my God, I thank you that I was able to come to you and that you have come to me. That today I may honor you, that I may listen to you, that I may build your words and your messages into my life and into my heart. That thus I may begin a new life, a fruitful life, a Christian life.
Lord I implore You to forgive me for all my frustrations, for my false life, for my unchristian life, for my life without sacraments, without prayer, for my life without God, for my life without God’s word. I have come to change my life, to begin a new holy life of a saint, a fruitful life. Forgive me for my wanderings, for my desert, my heart of stone that I have created of stone, my heart that I’ve created of thorns that is my work. But Your work is God’s grace, forgiveness, mercy. O have mercy on me a sinner Lord that I may be merciful. I know that I am not worthy to be called Your son. Forgive me Lord. I am a pilgrim who repents. I am a pilgrim who confesses. Have mercy on me O Lord. Convert me, change me, sanctify me.
Our Father,
Who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name;
Thy kingdom come;
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
O Mother and Queen of Peace, pray for us.
Mother of the church, pray for us.
Mother and Queen of our family, pray for us.
Mother and help of Christians, pray for us.
Consolation of all the sorrowful, pray for us.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Dear pilgrims. Welcome. With all my heart, I greet each one of you and I want to thank you for everything. I want to thank you for your coming.
For 26 years and now 4 months, it will be the day after tomorrow exactly 26 years and 4 months since Our Lady has been appearing. You are here in a time in which it is important to know why Our Lady is appearing and what Our Lady wants. What does Our Lady expect from you? What does Our Lady ask of you? Why is she appearing? How is it that there are those within the Church who have not recognized her? That there are Christians who do not know their Mother? How did it happen to Israel that they did not recognize the Messiah? He speaks by His works, by fruit. He speaks by His teaching, by miracles. And yet in the hearts of men, jealousy and envy grew.
Imagine His Mother coming with a need to find a corner in an open house so that her child may not be born on the street. She knocked on the doors and everyone said “There is no room.” There are those who say the same to that same Mother, when they hear what she is asking for. There are those who come with photo cameras, with video cameras, to take pictures to show others that they have been to Medjugorje. And that’s the end of their journey. We have a story. We have a memento, a memory. But what is Medjugorje? Was everything over when in Bethlehem everyone said that there is no room? No. That was the beginning of the tragedy. That was the beginning of the denial of the prophecy. And it’s not yet over. And it will not be over until the end of the world. Because He came to His own and they received Him not.
There are those who deny the Blessed Virgin. There are those who continually humiliate her. But she, as though nothing is happening, continues to be full of forgiveness, compassion before blindness, arrogance, superficiality or audacity. Before atheism or practical atheism. She continues to say “My Dear Children!” Because if she did not feel in such a way, she would deny what is above her and above us. And that is the cross. That is God’s love. He died that we may all be beloved children. That we may all be respected brothers and sisters. And there is no one that I am not in debt to love them. And yet you do not love. And there is no word of God that you can say that you don’t understand it so that you do not have to live it, and yet you do not live it. And there is no commandment of God that you can despise and say “Ah, no, the times are different now.” Your each divorce, your each abortion, your each career without God, your each day without God, your every pseudo-freedom is a denial of God. It’s a denial of God who is love. Why is Our Lady appearing? That she may come before people like you. It is very important that you listen that you may recognize the Mother because millions have recognized her. So from where is the audacity of a person to refuse to recognize the signs? To express their own will according to their own inclination, sin and evil desires? To legalize the evil that flows from within their hearts. Dear brothers and sisters. This is a time of grace, you must not jest. This is a time of salvation, you must not jest. That is why that Our Lady is appearing that you may not return blind. You have no right to be blind. Because her presence is the remedy. her message is the light. You have no reason to remain in the dark. You cannot say “I don’t know” because her message is the knowing. It is the answer to all your questions. And therefore standing before the Mother, you must ask the question “Who am I? Am I a tourist with a video camera? Am I sitting here with a leg crossed over another in the church? Is this reflecting my ordinary relationship within my church? Am I permitted to behave like that in the church?” What is your coming into church after all?
I ask you to look at the pictures to the right. Look at those pictures. Dear Franciscan brother, do you see your brothers there? They are martyrs. The communists killed those men. Why? Only because they were Franciscan. Behind this Franciscan’s back there is a tomb. There are 30 photographs there. Thirty names. Why were they martyred? Because the communists came and said “Remove your habit.” And they said “We cannot. I am my habit.” A soldier threw the crucifix at their feet. Look at that crucifix on the red banner please. The soldier threw the crucifix at the feet of the Franciscans and said “Now you can choose. You can choose death or life.” One by one they responded saying, as they picked up the crucifix, as they embraced Jesus, “You are my God and my all.” Not even thirty meters from this front door, they were burned. Gasoline was poured over them and they were set on fire. Do you know what that means? Today, you stand at their tomb, you as a priest, you as a faithful. Six of them were only twenty years old. Thirty Franciscans from this monastery were killed. With song, they went to their death. Why? That you may be able to respond to the last message of Our Lady (September 25, 2007). Do not sin against your soul. You have no right to indifference. You must have a heart set ablaze. What does that mean?
Please reflect on what the last message of Our Lady means when she says that your heart blaze with ardent love for Jesus’ cross, His passion and death. Meditate upon His passion. Meditate on it and pray that you may never forget how you are redeemed by His precious blood, by His death. And St. Paul tells us we are not redeemed by gold or silver. It is not politics or human documents that have saved you, but the blood of the Lamb, the cross that remains the sign of your hope of your victory – the sign of your salvation. You must not return from this church as if you have heard nothing, as if you were nowhere. You must respond to the question what does Jesus mean to you? Who is Jesus in fact to you today? What can you sacrifice for Him today? If today, you cannot go to jail for Him, if you cannot be spat upon for Him, can you really tell Him “Jesus, I love you?” If you’re not prepared to give your life for Jesus, if you cannot show by your Sunday who He is, that He is your God and your all because you go to Mass. If you cannot pray every day, if you cannot read the sacred scripture every day, if you cannot fast every Wednesday and Friday, if you really cannot retain your marriage by fasting and prayer, then you do not love. You do not love. I am telling you what your name is. That you are a man who does not love. You are a betrayer – called to love and betrayed love. That is why saints exist, that we may gaze upon them, that we may pray at their tombs, that our love may come to blaze, that the responsibility may awaken within us. And that is why it is sad to read your newspapers. It is sad to read the declarations without any responsibility of offending the Mother. Knowing nothing about her miracles and graces, they ridicule her. And yet Jesus speaks saying “Look at the fruit. If the fruit is good, the tree is good. If the fruit is bad, the tree is bad.” How wondrous are the fruit, how many conversions – how many conversions. How many priestly vocations. How many healings in soul and in body from incurable illnesses. Unbelievable!
We have even more powerful conversions than are recorded by St. Paul. Can you, just for a moment, reflect on that statue that is on the Hill of Apparitions? A University professor from Korea was converted, was baptized. A Buddhist family became Catholic. The son of a Buddhist father was cured from incurable illness. The entire family has become immersed in the Gospel. Once in Buddhism, now Catholics. At least one member in the family comes at least monthly to give thanks. They asked for permission to erect that statue that they ordered in Italy to be erected on the Hill of Apparitions. Why? Because, as the mother of the healed son explained, this statue is there so that everyone may know that the Hill of Apparitions is not empty. The Mother waits for each one of us on the hill. On the hill the Mother is found. Dear brothers and sisters, you have come to the Hill of Apparitions to find the Mother. We know that on the Hill of Apparitions, the Mother waits. On the Hill of Apparitions, the Mother is found and your soul can meet her, your heart can speak to her, your love can answer to the greatest love. That is why you have come – Behold, Your Mother!
Through the 26 years and nearly 4 months, six children have given everything and have remained faithful. If we could only collect and gather the articles that proclaim them as sick by various sects and various individuals, by people with false intentions, unjust, it would be a mountain of false articles. But how did the children respond? Like the Blessed Virgin, in silence, suffering. And Medjugorje continued on, and the filth was left behind. And Medjugorje reveals itself to be all the more beautiful, all the more necessary. Never have there been so many people who came from Europe as in this year. Some of the professors who have celebrated 40th anniversary of the priesthood said that they have never heard as many confessions as they did this year in Medjugorje. In one year, there have been as many confessions as in the previous ten combined. Six, eight and even ten hours a day in confessions. All of that is a sign to the one who believes. The Church is seeking God. The prodigal son returns back to the Father falling into His arms, “Father, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Forgive me – please – forgive me.” And the Father, full of goodness and mercy, forgives His sons. And finally, we all learned that in Medjugorje, Our Lady did not place herself in the center, but the confessional, the embrace with the Father, reconciliation with the Father is in the center along with the feast, the altar, the Eucharist.
Let us try to look at the signs. What does Our Lady want from me? If my heart is of stone, if my heart is of thorns, if my heart is like a road, then what kind of a chance to I have? What will God be able to do with me then, with my heart, with my stone? What kind of fruit will be born? None. Instead, what does God need? He needs the change of my heart. Dear brother and sister, will you accept this pilgrimage as the change of your heart, to cultivate your own heart? I implore you to do so for it is He from the cross who says, “Behold, Your Mother!” Crucified Jesus says, “Behold, Your Mother!” That you may receive her with the heart, we pray:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done.
On earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day, our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
O Lord. I need the Mother. That is why I implore You to bless the Mother for me. Bless my heart with the gift of love, that I may learn to look at the Mother with love as Elizabeth did. I need the Mother. O Lord God, bless the Mother for me. And bless my heart with the gift of love, with the gift of sincere love, that I may accept the Mother with the heart. Bless my heart and bless the Mother for me. Grant me enthusiastic love, that whenever I look at the Mother I may feel as Elizabeth that the Mother of my God comes to me. O Lord, bless this image, and bless me in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Now look at the Mother with your heart ...
This is your Mother ...
Look at the Mother with your heart ...
Behold, Your Mother!
Dear Children. I am your Mother, and I love you all! If you knew how much I loved you, you would cry with joy.
Behold, the Holy Mother, full of grace, the Mother of your God. That you may believe this, grace is necessary. Dear Peter, it is my Father who has revealed this to you. That you may recognize in her the Mother of your God, the Father must reveal it to you. That you may come to Medjugorje and say “I believe”, grace is necessary. To believe means to live Medjugorje. The Mother of my God. The Mother, full of grace. You may kiss your Mother. And now, lean her on your heart. Close your eyes and look at her with the eyes of your heart. That like the balm, she may heal you.
The Mother heals you ...
Completely consecrate yourself – surrender to the Mother ...
Totus Tuus ...
I and my family, I am all thine ...
Completely Yours ...
O Dear Mother. You know that I love you. Heal my heart, my soul, my marriage, my life. I completely surrender to you. I desire to hear your word and to build it into my life.
And now, on the other side of the image, are the first words of the Mother to us: Dear children. I invite you for your individual conversion.
That is the word of each prophet of Jesus and of the Church. The call to conversion, the call to the change of life, it is a call of a return to the Father, of the prodigal son. It is the call to fruitfulness, to be fruitful, to be holy. It is so important. It is so necessary. Our Lady wants you to bear fruit and that your fruit remain. Our Lady desires that you may be fruitful, your marriage, your life. The Father is glorified when you bear much fruit, I desire for you to bear much fruit. Therefore, I don’t want to be of stone, I want to convert, I want to cultivate my heart. I want to be holy. What does it mean to convert? It means to change our life. What does it mean to convert? To abandon empty life and to know how to respond to the will of the Father saying “Father, Your will be done.” And that is not easy. Saint Augustine said, “Lord , You created me without me, but You will not save me without me. “ This means that God has respect, great respect, for our freedom. We remain free as He has created us and thus in our freedom we can be saints. We can choose to be saints, not just sinful. Those who are cursed, but also saints. That is why we must learn from her to say “Here I am. I desire to be Your handmaiden. I desire to live for You and with You. Here I am.” How great Saint Francis is, and all the saints, when he proclaimed, “You are my God, and my all.”
“Francis, my Church is falling apart” Jesus said.
“What do you want me to do Lord?”
“Help me to rebuild the Church”
For 26 years and nearly 4 months, the Blessed Mother finds the rebuilders of the Church. The Bearer of God seeks those who will renew the Church. She has called you. And that is why she says that without you, God’s plan cannot be realized. God has a plan, that none may be lost is God’s plan. Foremost and greatest, God became crucified love that we may recognize this. That is why now, you will receive a rosary, that none may be lost, that you may start to pray it. That your prayer may be your strength, may be your call to the change of your life, the rebuilding of your life, and the rebuilding of your Church. Your prayer, great gift, great blessing, great grace. Your prayer:
Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Lord, bless the rosary in my hand, and bless my heart with the gift of prayer, that I may learn to pray, that I may respond to prayer. Bless the rosary and my heart, that as I contemplate on the life of Jesus I may come to love Jesus, that I may follow Jesus. Therefore bless the rosary and bless me in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
You are with the rosary in hand. A great prophecy. How can you overcome your Goliath today? How is it possible to stop so much evil that has fallen on the family? How is it possible for this Capuchin here to overcome his Goliath? Yes, Goliath. Through the mass media, that through all the programs that are offered; attacks, at every level; attacks, destroying the dignity of man and faith. God gave the gift to this Capuchin and all us religious with three vows - every religious - three vows. The three nails in the body of Christ that crucified Him. In following Jesus, a person can conquer with Jesus, in Jesus, for Jesus. A religious is a person who, like Jesus, builds his sacrifice, his prayers, all of himself in Jesus. And thus consecrating his life to Jesus, he gives all that none may lost.
We are in the Sunday of the missions. What have you done for missions? How many people have become a Catholic because you’re a Catholic? But do you know that today in the world there are more than 5 billion people who do not know Christ? There have never been more of those who do not know Christ than today in this time of technology when the word spreads faster than ever before. What have we to bring to each other and give to each other? Jesus said, “My name. My salvation. My love.” If the cigarettes and drugs and cars and all the articles that are sold throughout the world that is not worthy. If you are using the media to sell this, then you have done too little. Your career is nothing. Your work is in vain. There is nothing more valuable and holy that you may do before you die is that you may bring at least one soul to God. If there are a billion of us Catholics, then each one of us is responsible to bring at least five souls to God, five pagans to be baptized. Who will take the responsibility for the five that you are responsible for if Jesus said to you to go and make the entire world my disciples?
Try to reflect for a moment on this serious, serious reflection. This is a debt that you have. You have to pay it. We did not accept the crucifix as a decoration. Our assignment is that the cross may be planted in every heart. I implore you at this tomb of the martyrs to answer this question, “What have you done for your Jesus up to now? What have you done for your Jesus and your faith up to now? For your Church? For the Blessed Mother? For your family? How many families have you saved from catastrophe of divorce, hopelessness? How many people have you freed from their tragic thoughts of violence, of jesting with life and killing unborn life? How many lives have you saved? How superficial we really are. How we are lacking days like this when we measure up our faith from the faith of the martyrs, to measure up our faith according to those who gave their lives for Him.
In chapter 15 of St. Luke’s gospel, there are three parables, three sad destinies of the shepherd who lost the sheep, the woman who lost the drachma, and the father who lost the son. The good father cried, the good shepherd risked everything to find the sheep. He was persecuted by love. The woman did everything to find the lost drachma and all three who lost, found. And all three were happy because they found what they lost. I ask you, to know that it’s important to find what we have lost, we must seek what we have lost. To come to Medjugorje means to find what we have lost. How are we to find it? Here we have five numbers – five first messages. If we place these messages into our heart, into our life, into our marriage, into our day, then we work together with Our Lady. We are missionaries. We then clothe the naked. We feed the hungry. We visit the prisoners. We do God’s works. What is Our Lady asking for?
First: Dear Children. Pray the rosary every day. I call you to prayer. Pray every day. Pray together. Pray with the heart.
Remember these three words: to pray every day, to pray together, to pray with the heart. You do have a heart. You are created in the image of God. God is love and you must also be love. Therefore, purify your heart. Inflame love in your heart, because God is burning love. Flaming, burning love. The halos of saints shine from the burning love, God’s love. The saints halo’s receive their light from God’s love. The saints faces become angelic because it is God’s love that creates them that way. God’s love does that. How is it that Thomas Celano, a disciple of St. Francis, had the courage to write the most beautiful thoughts, “St. Francis was the living image of the crucified Christ, the living image of Christ.”
Yesterday in this church, it was something fantastic that took place. Dozens and dozens of young men, women, husbands, wives, professors, intellectuals became 3rd order Franciscans. And last Sunday, 300 youth took their Franciscan vows. As Franciscan youth, here they gave their vows to live the Gospel – to live it in the way that St. Francis lived it. Do you know what an army that is? Do you know what a strength of the Church that is? How beautiful it was yesterday. How beautiful here in this alter. Here upon the sacrificial table. Here in this sanctuary. Here at this tomb of the martyrs. Tertullian was right. He, the defender of faith was right. From the beginning he said, “The blood of martyrs is the seed of new Christians.” Yes. This church has sprouted and it grows from year to year in faith, in holiness, in vocation. Thank you Lord for that grace.
To pray the rosary with the heart is a great assignment. Without the heart, there is nothing. I would be pagan. Do not be a pagan I implore you. Be a Christian who prays with the heart.
The second message: Dear Children. Place the Holy Mass in the first place of each of your Sundays. Love the Mass. Live the Mass. Adore my Son. Love my Son in the Eucharist.
How much is the cost and the price of the Mass to you? Do you measure it in Dollars or Euros? What human error. Dear friends, do not make a mistake. Do not confuse God’s sacrifice of Golgotha and God’s incarnation. God Immanuel who decided to continually be with us through the priest, through the Eucharist, freeing us, sanctifying us, blessing us, changing us. That I no longer live but Christ lives in me. Do not permit anything to separate you from Jesus and His altar. There is no more certain place in the world than the altar. I always reflect on St. Agnes. An arrogant father entered into the monastery where her older sister St. Clair was. Agnes ran away from her house. The young woman hung onto the alter. He tried to drag her away, but he couldn’t. He said she became as heavy as lead. He didn’t know what to do. So with a sword, he cut the mantle of Our Lady. This is what happened here when I was a child as well. This is the church where I was baptized and this is where I was with my first communion, my confirmation. Here I have been the one to receive my vocation because of the martyrs. As a child I used to kneel down here just a little bit in front where the Capuchin is. And here at the side alter, there was a most beautiful stature of Our Mother – most beautiful, the Immaculate. She had her hands extended like this toward us. And one of the communist soldiers out of his rage cut off her hands, and cut off her knee because she was stepping towards us to embrace us. He cut off her leg. I remember my entire childhood was wounded because of the Mother who had no hand, who had no knee, who could not run to us, who could not protect us it seemed to me. And I always wiped away tears asking, “Who did this?” And I came to know. I grew up here. For three months, everything burned around the monastery, the convent. And then when I grew up and I went to the school that again was ruled by the communists. I knocked as a young man on the door of this monastery. And I said to a dear Franciscan, “I would like to be a Franciscan.” He said, “I’m leaving here. Another Franciscan is coming. Tell him.” And I was afraid, “What if he does not receive me?” I was in great anguish. He said, “No, no, no. I’m no longer here. You’ll have to ask the other Franciscan that will come.” And another beloved Franciscan came who rebuilt our church from the outside. Hundred upon hundred of stones were wounded by grenades, bombs. Everything was wounded, just as when the leprosy eats human flesh, so our church was wounded. And stone by stone, he started to rebuild the church. And 103 of us that year said, “I want to be a Franciscan.” Unfortunately, he was only able to receive 12 of us in the province. The communists would not permit any more. It is then that you in the United States received my friends as priest. You in England, Ireland, Africa. You throughout Europe have received my friends. Throughout the world, 103 of us. Several days ago I embraced my friend. He has the same name as I do – Jozo. As children we grew up. He came from Chicago where he serves. Yes he serves in Chicago now and we came to meet here. He accompanies the pilgrims. And I said to them, “This beautiful man and priest spent the entire seminary with me and he became a Franciscan in America.” We are overjoyed that these martyrs even gave the fruit throughout the world for the United States and everywhere else. That these martyrs gave the fruit to Canada, to Russia, Asia, Australia, throughout the world. How powerful are the martyrs. What did they live from? From the Eucharist, from prayer. They lived from prayer and the Eucharist.
Your rosary is in your hand. More than an identification card of who you are. Your rosary speaks who you are. Your bible speaks, “I am a Christian who hears God.” When I open His word, my God teaches me. And that is why when I read the word I always kiss the word saying, “Jesus, You know that I love You. Your word will remain in my heart. Your word will remain in the depth of my heart.” How great is our God. How great is your God.
The third message: Dear Children. Find the bible in your homes.
Find the bible. And what does that mean? It means that you have lost it, that you have abandoned it. Our Lady says read the bible every day. There are specifically two messages in which Our Lady insists that we do and live every day. And that is to read the sacred scripture every day. And to pray the rosary every day. Our Lady asks for us to hold the bible in a special place. That special place is the family altar, a small table in your living room. Upon it place the crucifix, the Teacher of love. There is no greater love than this. It is at this crucifix that your arrogance, selfishness, your desire for divorce, abortion, selfishness, egoism, possession of anything but Him will be broken. Because everything else is less than what He is. By the cross, place the Mother. There was a poet, a Franciscan, who lived with me, a wise man, persecuted for Jesus. In jail, there were two others that were persecuted for Jesus, friends of these martyrs. That is why I know everything about them. For years, we lived together. This friend was very smart. With great assertion, he would speak to the children who saw Our Lady, “What are her eyes like? What is her face like? Look very well about the color is like. Remember what her smile is like. Remember her face, remember the lines of her face, all of the clothing that she is wearing. And he would record this and write this. And a book was published, A Thousand Encounters with Our Lady.
And when we decided what the Mother could be represented as, we took this image. You can’t see how beautiful she is, but when you bring her home, you will see. When you place her upon your family altar, you will feel. We have ordered her to be packaged in such a way that the hand will not break. Nor, she will not arrive in your country as an invalid. You can take her in a plane or in the boat and her hand won’t break off. Behold, Your Mother the Queen of Peace! That is why upon your family altar, place her by the cross, the crucifix. Upon your family altar also place your family Bible. Take the Bible in your hand every day.
Our holy father Francis use to say , “Whenever I pronounce the name Jesus, whenever I breath the Word of God, my mouth fills with honey. “ That man of honey, the man who sensed honey at the Word of God, why was that? Because he was fed by the living Word of God. And St. Ambrose preached well when he said, “Drink the drink of the Word of God that it may course through your veins as the anti-venom of that what the world offers.”
Upon your altar place the family Rosary. And what will you leave as an inheritance to your children? You think you need to leave the money? They will spend it. The house will go old. Sometimes riches become a curse. If you were to lose your children and your riches, there are no riches so great that they cannot be spent. So what is certain, if you leave the crucified Jesus to your children, if you leave the Mother to your children, they are the riches. If you leave to your children the Word of God, if you leave them your Rosary, as a parent. What does it mean to have a parent’s Rosary? My mother was a third-order Franciscan. She had a cincture like I do. She was the one who wove my first cincture. She was so beautiful. That cincture was such a sign to us as to Whom she belonged to, and to whom she did not belong to. Whose was she? Who did she bind herself to? Through her family, only for Jesus, only for Jesus, firm connection for Jesus for His Gospel to live according to the Gospel.
The Rosary is that strength that you need, that grace that you need, the love that you need to recognize. Your family altar is the grace, a capital, a treasure, a buried treasure that you must leave to your children. Your family altar will become like Mount Tabor, a meeting place with God.
The fourth: Dear Children. Fast. I need your fasting. Fast with enthusiasm.
When will I learn to fast with my thoughts, with my eyes, with my lips? When will I learn to fast with my feelings? What do you think about how much garbage enters in through my eyes and your eyes? How much evil touches our thoughts, staining our heart and soul? When will I learn to fast in the way I dress, in what I eat, not to be a slave of alcohol and drugs, not to be a slave to video games, television and passion, not to be a slave of things? I do not want to live for things. I want to live for the Lord, not for things that have a price. Do you understand? St. Francis said, “All things are like mud. Only my God is everything.” Fasting is not for the sadness of man. It is not a punishment for man. No. To the contrary, it is my freedom.
The fifth message is a call to monthly confession. A priest is a miracle, without ability of being defined. He is the Alter Christus – the other Christ, the other Christ, God among us. Why do you dare judge a priest? How dare you spit upon your priest? Why do you make up lies against your priest? Why do you believe the enemies of the faith who speak against the priest, the bishops and the pope? Why do you not pray for your priests? Why do you not pray for spiritual vocations? Why do you not pray that you may have holy confessors, holy parish priests? Try to think. Why are you a pilgrim? Are you here as a tourist? Are you here only to take a few pictures with a camera in your hand? Or are you here to begin your life anew, that you may respond to the call of the Mother? Yes. This is the only reason you are here. Because Our Lady says, “My Dear Children, I have chosen you. I need you. You are important to me.” Why? For the renewal of the world. Now, close your eyes and invoke God’s blessing.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
O Lord, thank You. Thank You for Your love. Thank You for Your peace. Thank You for Your blessing. Today, bless me with Your wounds Lord. By Your cross, O crucified Lord. With Your love, O Beloved Jesus, bless me with Your goodness , O beautiful Jesus, bless me. Do not deny Your grace to me. I am a pilgrim. Grant that my new life may begin today, that I may respond to the call. Bless my faith, my prayer, and fill me with peace.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
O Mother, here are your children. Extend your mantle. Protect all. Heal all. Bless all. O by the power of the cross of Jesus Christ, may you be blessed. May your soul, your heart, your life, your marriage, be blessed, filled with peace and salvation. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
O Mother and Queen of Peace, pray for us.
I would like to thank you. May I say thank you to you with all my heart? I feel the need to do that because you are my hope, you are my gift. You are my gift. Why? Because now, I feel that I have repaid my debt to you. I had to proclaim to you and I feel well. I feel wonderful for having done so. Tonight, I will be able to say to Our Lady, “Blessed Mother, I wanted to tell them everything, everything, and I am convinced that they have believed. “ And then I say to her, “You know Blessed Mother, that every day we pray the Rosary for all the pilgrims.” Here in this church we pray every day for all the pilgrims. That is why that I’m saying to you that as of today we will pray for you, that you may respond to the call and to the messages, because Our Lady’s messages are not information. They have nothing to do with information, with knowledge. No. It is the seed that falls into the heart and soul. Because in the heart of stone they can do nothing. In the soul of thorns, they can do nothing. I need humility and love to say to the Mother, with a repentant heart, “Here I am.” We have tried so much. Every day I celebrate the Eucharist for all the benefactors, all the pilgrims, and you are truly our benefactors.
Now is the sixteenth year after war that I have 5,500 children that have lost one or both parents in the war. I have over 800 children who come from economically deprived families, the children who would never be able to go to school if they didn’t have help. If you were not helping them, if you were not providing what was basic for their life, they could not go on. Where does the help come from? Exclusively, from you. And that is why I am here with a great thanks in the name of all of the poor, all the orphans, all the special needs children. I want to say thank you to you. Thank you for loving. Because of you love, thousands are able to live.
We do not want to send you home empty-handed. Several years ago, we decided to write a book, a book very dear to me. A friend of mine from the States, Joe Mixan, made photographs of the scenes from the war. I have chosen the different photographs and underneath each photograph there is Our Lady’s message, and on the left is my meditation. For example, if today on Monday, you open this book on your family altar, it remains open the whole day, This picture teaching - symbolic – that is alive, that speaks, and beneath it is Our Lady’s word, and the meditation pertaining to that word. The next day, tomorrow, as the new day begins, you turn the page. A new picture, a new message, a new meditation. The next day, a new picture, a new message, a new meditation. And so on for three months. Why three months? Because I’ve become convinced that in three months we become completely renewed. Even to this book, the assignment is to create a new heart, a new relationship, a new attitude towards God. This is not some kind of merchandise for sale. They are like medicine, they are like our medicine chest, and that is why I had them published, that they may be a medicine for you of how to pray better, how to adore Jesus better, how to believe better, how to do penance better. That is the riches, and it is why it is my desire that you return home joyful, not only carrying the memory of Medjugorje but also a handbook of how to live Medjugorje.
This gentleman who is also a photographer is one of the editors of this magazine that is printed in Ireland. On the cover page you see the Pope, and in the small picture we see Father Slavko with Cardinal Ratzinger, today our Pope, on an interview about Medjugorje, what our Pope says about Medjugorje as Cardinal Ratzinger. He issued a most beautiful document then that stands to this very day. What does that document say? "Medjugorje is a place of prayer. Medjugorje is a place of sacraments, where people seek the sacraments." And he asks the priests to be at the disposition of a place of reconciliation with God, asking to respond all the better. The right to determine the supernaturalness was taken away from the Bishops but the observation continues about the fruit of Medjugorje that speak about Medjugorje. And our wise Pope Benedict XVI at that time freed the Bishops before the pressure of the communists and today before the pressure of atheism of us faithful. Do not be afraid. Our Pope loves Medjugorje. The Pope loves you as a pilgrim, as a priest. As a priest when you confess, pray the rosary and live the messages, and proclaim the messages.
I will now pray for the priests that then we the priests may bless you all because you need our blessing. We need the blessing of a priest because that blessing is healing, it is help, it is the healing of our prayer, of our marriage, of our life. I ask all the other priests to please come up to receive the blessing that they may in turn then come and bless. The religious are also welcome to come.
On October 22, 2007, my wife and I made a pilgrimage to Medjugorje. While there, we went to the parish of Siroki Brijeg to listen to a most beautiful and inspiring sermon by Fr. Jozo Zovko. His sermons are deeply meditative and poetic. The following is a transcription of the sermon as translated by Nancy Latta.
Fr. Jozo opens with prayer ...
Come and fill me with peace. You are my strength. Anoint me with grace and strength that I may respond to the call of the Mother; that I may answer to her call and may place my life into God’s hands. That as her, I may be able to say O come most Holy Spirit change me, bless me, change my heart. You know that my heart is of stone. You know that I don’t know how to pray. You know how I don’t know how to love. You know my weaknesses. That is why I need Your grace. I need Your love. I need Your goodness. I need Your blessing, Your support and Your protection. Come O most Holy Spirit.
O Mother. You know that I have brought my pain to you, my suffering, my wounds, my prayers, my life, my marriage, my vocation, my failure. But I feel so well with you. I know that you wanted me to be here and I thank you. You wanted me here and I responded to your call. Here I am before you. I am yours. I want to be completely healed. I want to feel as joyful as Elizabeth did, the Mother of my God has come to me. O Mother of my God, I thank you that I was able to come to you and that you have come to me. That today I may honor you, that I may listen to you, that I may build your words and your messages into my life and into my heart. That thus I may begin a new life, a fruitful life, a Christian life.
Lord I implore You to forgive me for all my frustrations, for my false life, for my unchristian life, for my life without sacraments, without prayer, for my life without God, for my life without God’s word. I have come to change my life, to begin a new holy life of a saint, a fruitful life. Forgive me for my wanderings, for my desert, my heart of stone that I have created of stone, my heart that I’ve created of thorns that is my work. But Your work is God’s grace, forgiveness, mercy. O have mercy on me a sinner Lord that I may be merciful. I know that I am not worthy to be called Your son. Forgive me Lord. I am a pilgrim who repents. I am a pilgrim who confesses. Have mercy on me O Lord. Convert me, change me, sanctify me.
Our Father,
Who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name;
Thy kingdom come;
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
O Mother and Queen of Peace, pray for us.
Mother of the church, pray for us.
Mother and Queen of our family, pray for us.
Mother and help of Christians, pray for us.
Consolation of all the sorrowful, pray for us.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Dear pilgrims. Welcome. With all my heart, I greet each one of you and I want to thank you for everything. I want to thank you for your coming.
For 26 years and now 4 months, it will be the day after tomorrow exactly 26 years and 4 months since Our Lady has been appearing. You are here in a time in which it is important to know why Our Lady is appearing and what Our Lady wants. What does Our Lady expect from you? What does Our Lady ask of you? Why is she appearing? How is it that there are those within the Church who have not recognized her? That there are Christians who do not know their Mother? How did it happen to Israel that they did not recognize the Messiah? He speaks by His works, by fruit. He speaks by His teaching, by miracles. And yet in the hearts of men, jealousy and envy grew.
Imagine His Mother coming with a need to find a corner in an open house so that her child may not be born on the street. She knocked on the doors and everyone said “There is no room.” There are those who say the same to that same Mother, when they hear what she is asking for. There are those who come with photo cameras, with video cameras, to take pictures to show others that they have been to Medjugorje. And that’s the end of their journey. We have a story. We have a memento, a memory. But what is Medjugorje? Was everything over when in Bethlehem everyone said that there is no room? No. That was the beginning of the tragedy. That was the beginning of the denial of the prophecy. And it’s not yet over. And it will not be over until the end of the world. Because He came to His own and they received Him not.
There are those who deny the Blessed Virgin. There are those who continually humiliate her. But she, as though nothing is happening, continues to be full of forgiveness, compassion before blindness, arrogance, superficiality or audacity. Before atheism or practical atheism. She continues to say “My Dear Children!” Because if she did not feel in such a way, she would deny what is above her and above us. And that is the cross. That is God’s love. He died that we may all be beloved children. That we may all be respected brothers and sisters. And there is no one that I am not in debt to love them. And yet you do not love. And there is no word of God that you can say that you don’t understand it so that you do not have to live it, and yet you do not live it. And there is no commandment of God that you can despise and say “Ah, no, the times are different now.” Your each divorce, your each abortion, your each career without God, your each day without God, your every pseudo-freedom is a denial of God. It’s a denial of God who is love. Why is Our Lady appearing? That she may come before people like you. It is very important that you listen that you may recognize the Mother because millions have recognized her. So from where is the audacity of a person to refuse to recognize the signs? To express their own will according to their own inclination, sin and evil desires? To legalize the evil that flows from within their hearts. Dear brothers and sisters. This is a time of grace, you must not jest. This is a time of salvation, you must not jest. That is why that Our Lady is appearing that you may not return blind. You have no right to be blind. Because her presence is the remedy. her message is the light. You have no reason to remain in the dark. You cannot say “I don’t know” because her message is the knowing. It is the answer to all your questions. And therefore standing before the Mother, you must ask the question “Who am I? Am I a tourist with a video camera? Am I sitting here with a leg crossed over another in the church? Is this reflecting my ordinary relationship within my church? Am I permitted to behave like that in the church?” What is your coming into church after all?
I ask you to look at the pictures to the right. Look at those pictures. Dear Franciscan brother, do you see your brothers there? They are martyrs. The communists killed those men. Why? Only because they were Franciscan. Behind this Franciscan’s back there is a tomb. There are 30 photographs there. Thirty names. Why were they martyred? Because the communists came and said “Remove your habit.” And they said “We cannot. I am my habit.” A soldier threw the crucifix at their feet. Look at that crucifix on the red banner please. The soldier threw the crucifix at the feet of the Franciscans and said “Now you can choose. You can choose death or life.” One by one they responded saying, as they picked up the crucifix, as they embraced Jesus, “You are my God and my all.” Not even thirty meters from this front door, they were burned. Gasoline was poured over them and they were set on fire. Do you know what that means? Today, you stand at their tomb, you as a priest, you as a faithful. Six of them were only twenty years old. Thirty Franciscans from this monastery were killed. With song, they went to their death. Why? That you may be able to respond to the last message of Our Lady (September 25, 2007). Do not sin against your soul. You have no right to indifference. You must have a heart set ablaze. What does that mean?
Please reflect on what the last message of Our Lady means when she says that your heart blaze with ardent love for Jesus’ cross, His passion and death. Meditate upon His passion. Meditate on it and pray that you may never forget how you are redeemed by His precious blood, by His death. And St. Paul tells us we are not redeemed by gold or silver. It is not politics or human documents that have saved you, but the blood of the Lamb, the cross that remains the sign of your hope of your victory – the sign of your salvation. You must not return from this church as if you have heard nothing, as if you were nowhere. You must respond to the question what does Jesus mean to you? Who is Jesus in fact to you today? What can you sacrifice for Him today? If today, you cannot go to jail for Him, if you cannot be spat upon for Him, can you really tell Him “Jesus, I love you?” If you’re not prepared to give your life for Jesus, if you cannot show by your Sunday who He is, that He is your God and your all because you go to Mass. If you cannot pray every day, if you cannot read the sacred scripture every day, if you cannot fast every Wednesday and Friday, if you really cannot retain your marriage by fasting and prayer, then you do not love. You do not love. I am telling you what your name is. That you are a man who does not love. You are a betrayer – called to love and betrayed love. That is why saints exist, that we may gaze upon them, that we may pray at their tombs, that our love may come to blaze, that the responsibility may awaken within us. And that is why it is sad to read your newspapers. It is sad to read the declarations without any responsibility of offending the Mother. Knowing nothing about her miracles and graces, they ridicule her. And yet Jesus speaks saying “Look at the fruit. If the fruit is good, the tree is good. If the fruit is bad, the tree is bad.” How wondrous are the fruit, how many conversions – how many conversions. How many priestly vocations. How many healings in soul and in body from incurable illnesses. Unbelievable!
We have even more powerful conversions than are recorded by St. Paul. Can you, just for a moment, reflect on that statue that is on the Hill of Apparitions? A University professor from Korea was converted, was baptized. A Buddhist family became Catholic. The son of a Buddhist father was cured from incurable illness. The entire family has become immersed in the Gospel. Once in Buddhism, now Catholics. At least one member in the family comes at least monthly to give thanks. They asked for permission to erect that statue that they ordered in Italy to be erected on the Hill of Apparitions. Why? Because, as the mother of the healed son explained, this statue is there so that everyone may know that the Hill of Apparitions is not empty. The Mother waits for each one of us on the hill. On the hill the Mother is found. Dear brothers and sisters, you have come to the Hill of Apparitions to find the Mother. We know that on the Hill of Apparitions, the Mother waits. On the Hill of Apparitions, the Mother is found and your soul can meet her, your heart can speak to her, your love can answer to the greatest love. That is why you have come – Behold, Your Mother!
Through the 26 years and nearly 4 months, six children have given everything and have remained faithful. If we could only collect and gather the articles that proclaim them as sick by various sects and various individuals, by people with false intentions, unjust, it would be a mountain of false articles. But how did the children respond? Like the Blessed Virgin, in silence, suffering. And Medjugorje continued on, and the filth was left behind. And Medjugorje reveals itself to be all the more beautiful, all the more necessary. Never have there been so many people who came from Europe as in this year. Some of the professors who have celebrated 40th anniversary of the priesthood said that they have never heard as many confessions as they did this year in Medjugorje. In one year, there have been as many confessions as in the previous ten combined. Six, eight and even ten hours a day in confessions. All of that is a sign to the one who believes. The Church is seeking God. The prodigal son returns back to the Father falling into His arms, “Father, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Forgive me – please – forgive me.” And the Father, full of goodness and mercy, forgives His sons. And finally, we all learned that in Medjugorje, Our Lady did not place herself in the center, but the confessional, the embrace with the Father, reconciliation with the Father is in the center along with the feast, the altar, the Eucharist.
Let us try to look at the signs. What does Our Lady want from me? If my heart is of stone, if my heart is of thorns, if my heart is like a road, then what kind of a chance to I have? What will God be able to do with me then, with my heart, with my stone? What kind of fruit will be born? None. Instead, what does God need? He needs the change of my heart. Dear brother and sister, will you accept this pilgrimage as the change of your heart, to cultivate your own heart? I implore you to do so for it is He from the cross who says, “Behold, Your Mother!” Crucified Jesus says, “Behold, Your Mother!” That you may receive her with the heart, we pray:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done.
On earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day, our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
O Lord. I need the Mother. That is why I implore You to bless the Mother for me. Bless my heart with the gift of love, that I may learn to look at the Mother with love as Elizabeth did. I need the Mother. O Lord God, bless the Mother for me. And bless my heart with the gift of love, with the gift of sincere love, that I may accept the Mother with the heart. Bless my heart and bless the Mother for me. Grant me enthusiastic love, that whenever I look at the Mother I may feel as Elizabeth that the Mother of my God comes to me. O Lord, bless this image, and bless me in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Now look at the Mother with your heart ...
This is your Mother ...
Look at the Mother with your heart ...
Behold, Your Mother!
Dear Children. I am your Mother, and I love you all! If you knew how much I loved you, you would cry with joy.
Behold, the Holy Mother, full of grace, the Mother of your God. That you may believe this, grace is necessary. Dear Peter, it is my Father who has revealed this to you. That you may recognize in her the Mother of your God, the Father must reveal it to you. That you may come to Medjugorje and say “I believe”, grace is necessary. To believe means to live Medjugorje. The Mother of my God. The Mother, full of grace. You may kiss your Mother. And now, lean her on your heart. Close your eyes and look at her with the eyes of your heart. That like the balm, she may heal you.
The Mother heals you ...
Completely consecrate yourself – surrender to the Mother ...
Totus Tuus ...
I and my family, I am all thine ...
Completely Yours ...
O Dear Mother. You know that I love you. Heal my heart, my soul, my marriage, my life. I completely surrender to you. I desire to hear your word and to build it into my life.
And now, on the other side of the image, are the first words of the Mother to us: Dear children. I invite you for your individual conversion.
That is the word of each prophet of Jesus and of the Church. The call to conversion, the call to the change of life, it is a call of a return to the Father, of the prodigal son. It is the call to fruitfulness, to be fruitful, to be holy. It is so important. It is so necessary. Our Lady wants you to bear fruit and that your fruit remain. Our Lady desires that you may be fruitful, your marriage, your life. The Father is glorified when you bear much fruit, I desire for you to bear much fruit. Therefore, I don’t want to be of stone, I want to convert, I want to cultivate my heart. I want to be holy. What does it mean to convert? It means to change our life. What does it mean to convert? To abandon empty life and to know how to respond to the will of the Father saying “Father, Your will be done.” And that is not easy. Saint Augustine said, “Lord , You created me without me, but You will not save me without me. “ This means that God has respect, great respect, for our freedom. We remain free as He has created us and thus in our freedom we can be saints. We can choose to be saints, not just sinful. Those who are cursed, but also saints. That is why we must learn from her to say “Here I am. I desire to be Your handmaiden. I desire to live for You and with You. Here I am.” How great Saint Francis is, and all the saints, when he proclaimed, “You are my God, and my all.”
“Francis, my Church is falling apart” Jesus said.
“What do you want me to do Lord?”
“Help me to rebuild the Church”
For 26 years and nearly 4 months, the Blessed Mother finds the rebuilders of the Church. The Bearer of God seeks those who will renew the Church. She has called you. And that is why she says that without you, God’s plan cannot be realized. God has a plan, that none may be lost is God’s plan. Foremost and greatest, God became crucified love that we may recognize this. That is why now, you will receive a rosary, that none may be lost, that you may start to pray it. That your prayer may be your strength, may be your call to the change of your life, the rebuilding of your life, and the rebuilding of your Church. Your prayer, great gift, great blessing, great grace. Your prayer:
Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Lord, bless the rosary in my hand, and bless my heart with the gift of prayer, that I may learn to pray, that I may respond to prayer. Bless the rosary and my heart, that as I contemplate on the life of Jesus I may come to love Jesus, that I may follow Jesus. Therefore bless the rosary and bless me in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
You are with the rosary in hand. A great prophecy. How can you overcome your Goliath today? How is it possible to stop so much evil that has fallen on the family? How is it possible for this Capuchin here to overcome his Goliath? Yes, Goliath. Through the mass media, that through all the programs that are offered; attacks, at every level; attacks, destroying the dignity of man and faith. God gave the gift to this Capuchin and all us religious with three vows - every religious - three vows. The three nails in the body of Christ that crucified Him. In following Jesus, a person can conquer with Jesus, in Jesus, for Jesus. A religious is a person who, like Jesus, builds his sacrifice, his prayers, all of himself in Jesus. And thus consecrating his life to Jesus, he gives all that none may lost.
We are in the Sunday of the missions. What have you done for missions? How many people have become a Catholic because you’re a Catholic? But do you know that today in the world there are more than 5 billion people who do not know Christ? There have never been more of those who do not know Christ than today in this time of technology when the word spreads faster than ever before. What have we to bring to each other and give to each other? Jesus said, “My name. My salvation. My love.” If the cigarettes and drugs and cars and all the articles that are sold throughout the world that is not worthy. If you are using the media to sell this, then you have done too little. Your career is nothing. Your work is in vain. There is nothing more valuable and holy that you may do before you die is that you may bring at least one soul to God. If there are a billion of us Catholics, then each one of us is responsible to bring at least five souls to God, five pagans to be baptized. Who will take the responsibility for the five that you are responsible for if Jesus said to you to go and make the entire world my disciples?
Try to reflect for a moment on this serious, serious reflection. This is a debt that you have. You have to pay it. We did not accept the crucifix as a decoration. Our assignment is that the cross may be planted in every heart. I implore you at this tomb of the martyrs to answer this question, “What have you done for your Jesus up to now? What have you done for your Jesus and your faith up to now? For your Church? For the Blessed Mother? For your family? How many families have you saved from catastrophe of divorce, hopelessness? How many people have you freed from their tragic thoughts of violence, of jesting with life and killing unborn life? How many lives have you saved? How superficial we really are. How we are lacking days like this when we measure up our faith from the faith of the martyrs, to measure up our faith according to those who gave their lives for Him.
In chapter 15 of St. Luke’s gospel, there are three parables, three sad destinies of the shepherd who lost the sheep, the woman who lost the drachma, and the father who lost the son. The good father cried, the good shepherd risked everything to find the sheep. He was persecuted by love. The woman did everything to find the lost drachma and all three who lost, found. And all three were happy because they found what they lost. I ask you, to know that it’s important to find what we have lost, we must seek what we have lost. To come to Medjugorje means to find what we have lost. How are we to find it? Here we have five numbers – five first messages. If we place these messages into our heart, into our life, into our marriage, into our day, then we work together with Our Lady. We are missionaries. We then clothe the naked. We feed the hungry. We visit the prisoners. We do God’s works. What is Our Lady asking for?
First: Dear Children. Pray the rosary every day. I call you to prayer. Pray every day. Pray together. Pray with the heart.
Remember these three words: to pray every day, to pray together, to pray with the heart. You do have a heart. You are created in the image of God. God is love and you must also be love. Therefore, purify your heart. Inflame love in your heart, because God is burning love. Flaming, burning love. The halos of saints shine from the burning love, God’s love. The saints halo’s receive their light from God’s love. The saints faces become angelic because it is God’s love that creates them that way. God’s love does that. How is it that Thomas Celano, a disciple of St. Francis, had the courage to write the most beautiful thoughts, “St. Francis was the living image of the crucified Christ, the living image of Christ.”
Yesterday in this church, it was something fantastic that took place. Dozens and dozens of young men, women, husbands, wives, professors, intellectuals became 3rd order Franciscans. And last Sunday, 300 youth took their Franciscan vows. As Franciscan youth, here they gave their vows to live the Gospel – to live it in the way that St. Francis lived it. Do you know what an army that is? Do you know what a strength of the Church that is? How beautiful it was yesterday. How beautiful here in this alter. Here upon the sacrificial table. Here in this sanctuary. Here at this tomb of the martyrs. Tertullian was right. He, the defender of faith was right. From the beginning he said, “The blood of martyrs is the seed of new Christians.” Yes. This church has sprouted and it grows from year to year in faith, in holiness, in vocation. Thank you Lord for that grace.
To pray the rosary with the heart is a great assignment. Without the heart, there is nothing. I would be pagan. Do not be a pagan I implore you. Be a Christian who prays with the heart.
The second message: Dear Children. Place the Holy Mass in the first place of each of your Sundays. Love the Mass. Live the Mass. Adore my Son. Love my Son in the Eucharist.
How much is the cost and the price of the Mass to you? Do you measure it in Dollars or Euros? What human error. Dear friends, do not make a mistake. Do not confuse God’s sacrifice of Golgotha and God’s incarnation. God Immanuel who decided to continually be with us through the priest, through the Eucharist, freeing us, sanctifying us, blessing us, changing us. That I no longer live but Christ lives in me. Do not permit anything to separate you from Jesus and His altar. There is no more certain place in the world than the altar. I always reflect on St. Agnes. An arrogant father entered into the monastery where her older sister St. Clair was. Agnes ran away from her house. The young woman hung onto the alter. He tried to drag her away, but he couldn’t. He said she became as heavy as lead. He didn’t know what to do. So with a sword, he cut the mantle of Our Lady. This is what happened here when I was a child as well. This is the church where I was baptized and this is where I was with my first communion, my confirmation. Here I have been the one to receive my vocation because of the martyrs. As a child I used to kneel down here just a little bit in front where the Capuchin is. And here at the side alter, there was a most beautiful stature of Our Mother – most beautiful, the Immaculate. She had her hands extended like this toward us. And one of the communist soldiers out of his rage cut off her hands, and cut off her knee because she was stepping towards us to embrace us. He cut off her leg. I remember my entire childhood was wounded because of the Mother who had no hand, who had no knee, who could not run to us, who could not protect us it seemed to me. And I always wiped away tears asking, “Who did this?” And I came to know. I grew up here. For three months, everything burned around the monastery, the convent. And then when I grew up and I went to the school that again was ruled by the communists. I knocked as a young man on the door of this monastery. And I said to a dear Franciscan, “I would like to be a Franciscan.” He said, “I’m leaving here. Another Franciscan is coming. Tell him.” And I was afraid, “What if he does not receive me?” I was in great anguish. He said, “No, no, no. I’m no longer here. You’ll have to ask the other Franciscan that will come.” And another beloved Franciscan came who rebuilt our church from the outside. Hundred upon hundred of stones were wounded by grenades, bombs. Everything was wounded, just as when the leprosy eats human flesh, so our church was wounded. And stone by stone, he started to rebuild the church. And 103 of us that year said, “I want to be a Franciscan.” Unfortunately, he was only able to receive 12 of us in the province. The communists would not permit any more. It is then that you in the United States received my friends as priest. You in England, Ireland, Africa. You throughout Europe have received my friends. Throughout the world, 103 of us. Several days ago I embraced my friend. He has the same name as I do – Jozo. As children we grew up. He came from Chicago where he serves. Yes he serves in Chicago now and we came to meet here. He accompanies the pilgrims. And I said to them, “This beautiful man and priest spent the entire seminary with me and he became a Franciscan in America.” We are overjoyed that these martyrs even gave the fruit throughout the world for the United States and everywhere else. That these martyrs gave the fruit to Canada, to Russia, Asia, Australia, throughout the world. How powerful are the martyrs. What did they live from? From the Eucharist, from prayer. They lived from prayer and the Eucharist.
Your rosary is in your hand. More than an identification card of who you are. Your rosary speaks who you are. Your bible speaks, “I am a Christian who hears God.” When I open His word, my God teaches me. And that is why when I read the word I always kiss the word saying, “Jesus, You know that I love You. Your word will remain in my heart. Your word will remain in the depth of my heart.” How great is our God. How great is your God.
The third message: Dear Children. Find the bible in your homes.
Find the bible. And what does that mean? It means that you have lost it, that you have abandoned it. Our Lady says read the bible every day. There are specifically two messages in which Our Lady insists that we do and live every day. And that is to read the sacred scripture every day. And to pray the rosary every day. Our Lady asks for us to hold the bible in a special place. That special place is the family altar, a small table in your living room. Upon it place the crucifix, the Teacher of love. There is no greater love than this. It is at this crucifix that your arrogance, selfishness, your desire for divorce, abortion, selfishness, egoism, possession of anything but Him will be broken. Because everything else is less than what He is. By the cross, place the Mother. There was a poet, a Franciscan, who lived with me, a wise man, persecuted for Jesus. In jail, there were two others that were persecuted for Jesus, friends of these martyrs. That is why I know everything about them. For years, we lived together. This friend was very smart. With great assertion, he would speak to the children who saw Our Lady, “What are her eyes like? What is her face like? Look very well about the color is like. Remember what her smile is like. Remember her face, remember the lines of her face, all of the clothing that she is wearing. And he would record this and write this. And a book was published, A Thousand Encounters with Our Lady.
And when we decided what the Mother could be represented as, we took this image. You can’t see how beautiful she is, but when you bring her home, you will see. When you place her upon your family altar, you will feel. We have ordered her to be packaged in such a way that the hand will not break. Nor, she will not arrive in your country as an invalid. You can take her in a plane or in the boat and her hand won’t break off. Behold, Your Mother the Queen of Peace! That is why upon your family altar, place her by the cross, the crucifix. Upon your family altar also place your family Bible. Take the Bible in your hand every day.
Our holy father Francis use to say , “Whenever I pronounce the name Jesus, whenever I breath the Word of God, my mouth fills with honey. “ That man of honey, the man who sensed honey at the Word of God, why was that? Because he was fed by the living Word of God. And St. Ambrose preached well when he said, “Drink the drink of the Word of God that it may course through your veins as the anti-venom of that what the world offers.”
Upon your altar place the family Rosary. And what will you leave as an inheritance to your children? You think you need to leave the money? They will spend it. The house will go old. Sometimes riches become a curse. If you were to lose your children and your riches, there are no riches so great that they cannot be spent. So what is certain, if you leave the crucified Jesus to your children, if you leave the Mother to your children, they are the riches. If you leave to your children the Word of God, if you leave them your Rosary, as a parent. What does it mean to have a parent’s Rosary? My mother was a third-order Franciscan. She had a cincture like I do. She was the one who wove my first cincture. She was so beautiful. That cincture was such a sign to us as to Whom she belonged to, and to whom she did not belong to. Whose was she? Who did she bind herself to? Through her family, only for Jesus, only for Jesus, firm connection for Jesus for His Gospel to live according to the Gospel.
The Rosary is that strength that you need, that grace that you need, the love that you need to recognize. Your family altar is the grace, a capital, a treasure, a buried treasure that you must leave to your children. Your family altar will become like Mount Tabor, a meeting place with God.
The fourth: Dear Children. Fast. I need your fasting. Fast with enthusiasm.
When will I learn to fast with my thoughts, with my eyes, with my lips? When will I learn to fast with my feelings? What do you think about how much garbage enters in through my eyes and your eyes? How much evil touches our thoughts, staining our heart and soul? When will I learn to fast in the way I dress, in what I eat, not to be a slave of alcohol and drugs, not to be a slave to video games, television and passion, not to be a slave of things? I do not want to live for things. I want to live for the Lord, not for things that have a price. Do you understand? St. Francis said, “All things are like mud. Only my God is everything.” Fasting is not for the sadness of man. It is not a punishment for man. No. To the contrary, it is my freedom.
The fifth message is a call to monthly confession. A priest is a miracle, without ability of being defined. He is the Alter Christus – the other Christ, the other Christ, God among us. Why do you dare judge a priest? How dare you spit upon your priest? Why do you make up lies against your priest? Why do you believe the enemies of the faith who speak against the priest, the bishops and the pope? Why do you not pray for your priests? Why do you not pray for spiritual vocations? Why do you not pray that you may have holy confessors, holy parish priests? Try to think. Why are you a pilgrim? Are you here as a tourist? Are you here only to take a few pictures with a camera in your hand? Or are you here to begin your life anew, that you may respond to the call of the Mother? Yes. This is the only reason you are here. Because Our Lady says, “My Dear Children, I have chosen you. I need you. You are important to me.” Why? For the renewal of the world. Now, close your eyes and invoke God’s blessing.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
O Lord, thank You. Thank You for Your love. Thank You for Your peace. Thank You for Your blessing. Today, bless me with Your wounds Lord. By Your cross, O crucified Lord. With Your love, O Beloved Jesus, bless me with Your goodness , O beautiful Jesus, bless me. Do not deny Your grace to me. I am a pilgrim. Grant that my new life may begin today, that I may respond to the call. Bless my faith, my prayer, and fill me with peace.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
O Mother, here are your children. Extend your mantle. Protect all. Heal all. Bless all. O by the power of the cross of Jesus Christ, may you be blessed. May your soul, your heart, your life, your marriage, be blessed, filled with peace and salvation. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
O Mother and Queen of Peace, pray for us.
I would like to thank you. May I say thank you to you with all my heart? I feel the need to do that because you are my hope, you are my gift. You are my gift. Why? Because now, I feel that I have repaid my debt to you. I had to proclaim to you and I feel well. I feel wonderful for having done so. Tonight, I will be able to say to Our Lady, “Blessed Mother, I wanted to tell them everything, everything, and I am convinced that they have believed. “ And then I say to her, “You know Blessed Mother, that every day we pray the Rosary for all the pilgrims.” Here in this church we pray every day for all the pilgrims. That is why that I’m saying to you that as of today we will pray for you, that you may respond to the call and to the messages, because Our Lady’s messages are not information. They have nothing to do with information, with knowledge. No. It is the seed that falls into the heart and soul. Because in the heart of stone they can do nothing. In the soul of thorns, they can do nothing. I need humility and love to say to the Mother, with a repentant heart, “Here I am.” We have tried so much. Every day I celebrate the Eucharist for all the benefactors, all the pilgrims, and you are truly our benefactors.
Now is the sixteenth year after war that I have 5,500 children that have lost one or both parents in the war. I have over 800 children who come from economically deprived families, the children who would never be able to go to school if they didn’t have help. If you were not helping them, if you were not providing what was basic for their life, they could not go on. Where does the help come from? Exclusively, from you. And that is why I am here with a great thanks in the name of all of the poor, all the orphans, all the special needs children. I want to say thank you to you. Thank you for loving. Because of you love, thousands are able to live.
We do not want to send you home empty-handed. Several years ago, we decided to write a book, a book very dear to me. A friend of mine from the States, Joe Mixan, made photographs of the scenes from the war. I have chosen the different photographs and underneath each photograph there is Our Lady’s message, and on the left is my meditation. For example, if today on Monday, you open this book on your family altar, it remains open the whole day, This picture teaching - symbolic – that is alive, that speaks, and beneath it is Our Lady’s word, and the meditation pertaining to that word. The next day, tomorrow, as the new day begins, you turn the page. A new picture, a new message, a new meditation. The next day, a new picture, a new message, a new meditation. And so on for three months. Why three months? Because I’ve become convinced that in three months we become completely renewed. Even to this book, the assignment is to create a new heart, a new relationship, a new attitude towards God. This is not some kind of merchandise for sale. They are like medicine, they are like our medicine chest, and that is why I had them published, that they may be a medicine for you of how to pray better, how to adore Jesus better, how to believe better, how to do penance better. That is the riches, and it is why it is my desire that you return home joyful, not only carrying the memory of Medjugorje but also a handbook of how to live Medjugorje.
This gentleman who is also a photographer is one of the editors of this magazine that is printed in Ireland. On the cover page you see the Pope, and in the small picture we see Father Slavko with Cardinal Ratzinger, today our Pope, on an interview about Medjugorje, what our Pope says about Medjugorje as Cardinal Ratzinger. He issued a most beautiful document then that stands to this very day. What does that document say? "Medjugorje is a place of prayer. Medjugorje is a place of sacraments, where people seek the sacraments." And he asks the priests to be at the disposition of a place of reconciliation with God, asking to respond all the better. The right to determine the supernaturalness was taken away from the Bishops but the observation continues about the fruit of Medjugorje that speak about Medjugorje. And our wise Pope Benedict XVI at that time freed the Bishops before the pressure of the communists and today before the pressure of atheism of us faithful. Do not be afraid. Our Pope loves Medjugorje. The Pope loves you as a pilgrim, as a priest. As a priest when you confess, pray the rosary and live the messages, and proclaim the messages.
I will now pray for the priests that then we the priests may bless you all because you need our blessing. We need the blessing of a priest because that blessing is healing, it is help, it is the healing of our prayer, of our marriage, of our life. I ask all the other priests to please come up to receive the blessing that they may in turn then come and bless. The religious are also welcome to come.
Last edited by TimHaley on Fri Mar 13, 2009 3:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
