I think I have already mentioned these messages, but, here, I shall repeat them once again, for there's never enough repetition of Our Lady's messages. Our Lady's main messages are prayer, conversion, fasting, penance and peace. When Our Lady tells us to pray, she is not asking us to pray only with words. She wants us to open our hearts day after day so that prayer might be a real joy for us. Our Lady explained this by a wonderful example. She says: "You all have a flowerpot in your families. If you put two or three drops of water into the pot every day, you will see the flower growing, developing, and there is a beautiful rose in the end." The same happens with our heart. If we put two or three words of prayer into our heart every day, it will grow and develop like that flower does. But if we fail to give water to the flower for two days or so, we shall see it disappearing as if it had never been there. Our Lady says that we, too, many times, when prayer time comes, say: I do not feel like praying today, I am tired, I will do it tomorrow, and so tomorrow comes and the day after tomorrow... That way every day we get ourselves farther away from prayer and everything that comes from that bad side starts to enter into our heart. For Our Lady says: "As a flower cannot live without water, so we cannot live without God's grace. For the prayer of the heart can never be learnt; the prayer of the heart can only be lived, by making one step forward day after day."
When Our Lady recommends fasting, she is not asking the sick to fast on bread and water, but to give up something they like best; while the persons who are healthy but say they cannot fast because they get a headache or dizziness, lack strong will. Our Lady says, if we fast out of love for Jesus and herself then there will be no problems, for all that we lack is strong will. When Our Lady says "peace", she herself came here and said: "I am the Queen of Peace and have come to bring peace." But she has not come only to bring peace to the world; she came first of all to bring peace into our hearts, into our families. And only when we have that peace, can we pray for peace in the world. For if we pray for peace in the world, but have no personal peace in our heart, such prayer is not worth much.
Furthermore, Our Lady calls us to complete conversion. Our Lady says that when we are in problems, difficulties, in troubles, we always think that she and Jesus are far from us but that is not true. Our Lady and Jesus are always by our side. We should open our hearts in order to understand how much Our Lady loves us.
Likewise, Our Lady points out in a special way to put Holy Mass in the first place and that it is the most important and the most sacred moment for it is the living Jesus who comes at that moment and we receive Him into our hearts. Through all that time we prepare ourselves in a special way so that we could receive Jesus with love and in the most worthy manner possible.
Our Lady then recommends that we go to confession once a month, and also, she says, as the need may arise, as an individual may feel. We must not take confession as something routine: just go and get rid of sins and then continue living as before, but we must change and become new persons asking advice from the priest how to make a step forward.
Certainly, she does. She says there are enough fruits but again it depends on us, on how much we are ready to pick Our Lady's messages. For Our Lady does nothing by force. It is all our will, for God gave us all freedom.
Our Lady has not come to force one to believe, to tell him or her: "You shall believe, you must believe!" He who wants to believe, believes; he who does not, is free to do so.
I cannot comment on the message that Our Lady gives every 25th in the month, because she does not tell it to me but to Marija. When Our Lady tells a message to me, I am able to explain it to you, but when I hear it from Marija, I hear it like all others.
Our Lady is most happy when we accept her message.
That depends most of all on the person. We should try to pray for the grace from Jesus and Our Lady to help us, naturally along with our good will, to open our hearts. If we"manage" to open them, there will be no problems accepting Our Lady's message.
Our Lady once said that people are afraid of changing their life, because at that moment they might be feeling well and think, if they accept the message, who knows what lies in store for them. I say they have nothing to be afraid of, for they have not been at ease so far anyway.
If we are not ready to open our heart and surrender ourselves to God's love, then we shall be in fear all our life and shall never be free.
Our Lady says she would be especially happy if the prayer of the rosary were renewed in our families. Parents ought to pray with the children and the children with the parents, so that Satan may not be able to do us any harm. Lately Our Lady has been especially pointing out how strong Satan is. Satan wants to hamper us in everything: in our peace, in our families. That is why Our Lady wants us to pray the rosary, and that is the mightiest weapon against Satan. Only in this way, through prayer, sharing, conversation, and Bible reading, can a family of today hold out.
It is usually up to the parents to start praying in the families, but nowadays, unfortunately, it is the children who seem to be starting first, not the parents. But for Our Lady it is not important who it will be, it is important to start. If there is somebody in the family who opposes it, one should not force him, one should leave it to his will. We are here to help him with our way of life and example, so that our prayer might find its way to his heart and that he may come to know the joy of it.
So we have to be patient, for we cannot achieve anything by shouting and cursing. All we can do is to bring it home to him by our example that he, too, ought to change.
Yes. But the main problem is not that these unhappy boys and girls have no opportunity for treatment. The main problem is that such young people, although addicted, will not admit to themselves or to others that they are needy of help. You see, here in Medjugorje we have one such community where the young are being cured from drug addiction, and I know these boys are not ashamed of openly talking about their life. They lead prayers, go around schools and give lectures on addiction. But today's parents are ashamed to admit they have an addict in the family, they will not admit it to themselves and will not talk about it with the children. Today the parents are afraid of coming closer to their child.
It is not all right for the parents to say to their children, "Here, take this or that much money, go wherever you want and do whatever you please!" and I think it is exactly here that the root of this ruin lies. And today, in these times, just in these areas of Medjugorje, Bijakovici and Citluk and other places, people have the chance of making money, but it is exactly with money that most evils come. For if people themselves are not able to distinguish between good and evil, and are not asking for a special blessing, they will end up in sin.
Our Lady says herself that the young are in a very difficult situation at the moment and says she is worried herself. We can only help them with our prayer and love.
The young need guidance today. I know for sure that priests can do very much in this respect, and if they can't, nobody else can. This is the moment when something should be done indeed. I often get disappointed when talking to young people: they rarely look into your eyes. Their eyes are void of joy. I try to make them smile a bit, but there is no response, they look completely uninterested, as if they lacked will for life.