Medjugorje: with the Rosary we will save our families

Father Lujbo: With the Rosary we will save our families
CATECHESIS OF FATHER LJUBO RIMINI 12 January 2007

I come from Medjugorje and I asked the Virgin Mary to come with me because I cannot do anything alone without her.

Is there anyone who has never been to Medjugorje? (raise hand) Okay. It is not important to be in Medjugorje It is important to live in the heart of Medjugorje, especially the Madonna.

As you know, Our Lady first appeared in Medjugorje on June 24, 1981 on the hill. As the visionaries testify, the Madonna appeared with the Child Jesus in her arms. Our Lady comes with Jesus and brings us to Jesus, guides us to Jesus, as she said many times in her messages. It has appeared to six visionaries and is still appearing to three visionaries and to three others it appears once a year, until it appears to only one. But Our Lady says: "I will appear and be with you as long as the Most High permits me." I have been a priest in Medjugorje for six years. The first time I came in 1982 as a pilgrim, I was still a kid. When I came I didn't immediately decide to let you in, but every year I came as a pilgrim, I prayed to Our Lady and I can say thanks to Our Lady I became a friar. There is no need to see the Madonna with the eyes, the Madonna can be seen, in quotation marks, even without seeing her with the eyes.

Once a pilgrim asked me: "Why does Our Lady appear only to the visionaries and does not appear to us too?" The visionaries once asked Our Lady: "Why don't you appear to everyone, why only to us?" Our Lady said: "Blessed are those who do not see and believe". I would also say blessed are those who see, because the visionaries have a free, free grace, to see the Madonna, but for this they are not at all privileged to us who do not see her with our eyes, because in prayer you can know the Madonna, the his immaculate heart, the depth, beauty and purity of his love. He said in his message: "Dear children, the purpose of my apparitions is that you be happy."

Our Lady tells us nothing new, Medjugorje is of no use because we, who read the messages of Our Lady, know better than others, but Medjugorje is first of all a gift from God because we live the Gospel better. This is why the Madonna comes.

When I explain a message, we don't find anything new in the messages. Our Lady adds nothing to the Gospel or to the teaching of the Church. First of all, Our Lady came to wake us up. As Jesus said in the Gospel: "When the Son of man returns to glory, will he find faith on earth?" We hope that someone, at least one person on earth, will believe in Jesus, when he returns to glory, when he returns I don't know.

But we pray for faith today. Personal faith disappears, which is why superstitions, fortune tellers, magicians and other forms of paganism and all the other things of new, modern paganism increase. This is why Our Lady comes to help us, but comes in simplicity, as God came in simplicity. We know how: Jesus was born in Bethlehem, to a woman, Mary, Joseph's wife, who came to Bethlehem, without noise, in simplicity. Only the simple recognize that this child, Jesus of Nazareth is the son of God, only the simple shepherds and the three Magi who seek the meaning of life. Today we have come here to approach the Madonna, because we cling to her heart and her love. Our Lady invites us in her messages: “first of all pray the Rosary, because the Rosary is a prayer for the simple, a community prayer, a repetitive prayer. Our Lady is not afraid to repeat many times: "Dear children, Satan is strong, with the Rosary you will win him".

He meant: by praying the Rosary you will overcome Satan, despite the fact that he seems strong. First of all, life is under threat. We all know the problems, the crosses. Here in this church, not only did you come to this meeting, but all the people, your family, all the people you carry in your heart also came with you. Here we are in the name of all of them, in the name of all those of our family who are far away, who it seems to us that they do not believe, that they do not have faith. But it is important not to criticize, not to condemn. We have come to present all of them to Jesus and the Madonna. Here we came first of all to allow Our Lady to change my heart, not the other's heart.

We are always led as men, as humans, to change the other. Let's try to say to ourselves: “God, with my strength, with my intelligence, I cannot change anyone. Only God, only Jesus with His grace, can change, can transform, not me. I can only allow. As Our Lady says so many times: "Dear children, allow! allow! " How many obstacles there are in us too, how many doubts, how many fears are inside me! It is said that God answers prayers immediately, but the only problem is that we don't believe this. This is why Jesus, to all those who approached him with faith, said. " your faith has saved you. " He wanted to say: “You allowed me to save you, that my grace heals you, that my love sets you free. You allowed me. "

Allow. God awaits my permission, our permission. This is why Our Lady says: "Dear children, I bow, I submit to your freedom." With how much respect Our Lady approaches each of us, Our Lady does not frighten us, she does not accuse us, she does not judge us, but she comes with great respect. I repeat that each of his messages is like a prayer, a prayer from the mother. It is not only that we pray to Our Lady, but I would say, in her humility, with her love, she prays your heart. Also pray to Our Lady tonight: “Dear son, dear daughter, open your heart, come closer to me, introduce to me all your loved ones, all your sick, all yours who are far away. Dear son, dear daughter, allow my love to enter your heart, your thoughts, your feelings, your poor heart, your spirit ".

The love of the Madonna, of the Virgin Mary, wants to descend on us, on all of us, on every heart. I would like to say two words about prayer.

Prayer is the strongest means that exists. I would say that prayer is not only spiritual training, prayer is not only a precept, a commandment for the Church. I would say that prayer is life. As our body cannot live without food, so our spirit, our faith, our relationship with God is broken, it does not exist, if it does not exist, if there is no prayer. As much as I believe in God, so much I pray. In prayer my faith and my love are manifested. Prayer is the strongest means, there is no other means. For this reason the Madonna for 90% of her messages always: “Dear children pray. I invite you to pray. Pray with the heart. Pray until prayer becomes life for you. Dear children, put Jesus first. "

If Our Lady knew of another means, she certainly wouldn't hide it from us, she wouldn't want to hide anything from her children. I would say prayer is a difficult job and Our Lady in her messages does not tell us what is easy, what we like, but tells us what is for our good, because we have the wounded nature of Adam. It is easier to watch television than to pray. How many times maybe we don't feel like praying, we don't feel willing to pray. How many times does Satan try to convince us that prayer is useless. Many times in prayer we feel empty and without feelings inside.

But all this is not important. In prayer we must not seek the feelings, those who are, but we must seek Jesus, His love. As you cannot see grace with your eyes you cannot see prayer, trust, you can see it thanks to another person who sees. You cannot see the love of the other, but you recognize it by visible gestures. All these realities are spiritual and spiritual reality we do not see it, but we feel it. We have the ability to see, to feel, I would say to touch these realities that we do not see with the eyes, but we feel them inside. And when we are in prayer we know our pain. Today the man I would say suffers and is in a situation of ignorance, ignorance of existential things, despite the fact that man has made so much progress in technique, civilization. In all other human things he is ignorant. He does not know, none of the most intelligent men can answer these questions that man perhaps does not ask himself, but God poses within him. Where did we come from on this earth? What do we have to do? Where do we go after death? Who decided that you should be born? What parents do you need to have when you are born? When are you born?

Nobody asked you all this, life was given to you. It is every man in his conscience feels responsible, not to another man, but feels responsible to his Creator, God, who is not only our creator, but is our father, Jesus revealed this to us.

Without Jesus we do not know who we are and where we are going. This is why Our Lady tells us: “Dear children, I come to you as a mother and I want to show you how much God, your father, loves you. Dear children, you are not aware of how much God loves you. Dear children, if you knew how much I love you, you would cry for joy ”. Once the visionaries asked Our Lady: "Why are you so beautiful?". This beauty is not a visible beauty with the eyes, it is a beauty that fills, that attracts you, that gives you peace. Our Lady said: "I am beautiful because I love". If you also love you will be beautiful, so you will not need cosmetics so much (I say this, not Our Lady). This beauty, which comes from a heart that loves, but a heart that hates can never be beautiful and attractive. A heart that loves, a heart that brings peace, is certainly always beautiful and attractive. Even our God is always beautiful, he is attractive. Someone asked the visionaries: “In these 25 years has Our Lady aged a little? "The visionaries said:" We have grown old, but Our Lady is always the same ", because it is about the spiritual reality, the spiritual level. We always try to understand, because we live in space and time and we can never understand this. Love, love never ages you, love is always attractive.

Today man is not hungry for food, but we are all hungry for God, for love. This hunger, if we try to satisfy it with things, with food, we become even more hungry. I as a priest, always wonder what is here in Medjugorje that attracts so many people, so many believers, so many pilgrims. What do they see? And there is no answer. When you come to Medjugorje, it is not such an attractive place, there is nothing to see humanly speaking: they are two mountains full of stones and two million souvenir-shops, but there is a presence, a reality that cannot be seen with the eyes, but feels with the heart. Many have confirmed this to me, but I too have experienced that there is a presence, a grace: here in Medjugorje it is easier to open the heart, it is easier to pray, it is easier to confess. God also reading the Bible, chooses concrete places, chooses concrete people through whom he announces, works.

And man, when he is faced with a work of God, always feels unworthy, afraid, he always opposes. If we also see Moses opposes and says: "I cannot speak" and Jeremiah says: "I am a child", even Jonah runs away because he feels inadequate to what God asks, because the works of God are great. God does great things through the apparitions of Our Lady, through all those who have said yes to Our Lady. Even in the simplicity of daily life God does great things. If we look at the Rosary, the Rosary is similar to our daily life, simple, monotonous is a repetitive prayer. So, if we look at our day, every day we do the same things, from when we get up, until we go to bed, so many things we do every day. So also in repetitive prayer. Today, so to speak, the Rosary can be a prayer that does not happen well, because today in life we ​​always look for something new, at any cost.

If we are watching television, advertising must always be something different, or new, creative.

Thus, we too in spirituality are looking for something new. Instead the strength of Christianity is not always something new, the strength of our faith is in transformation, in the power of God that transforms hearts. This is the strength of faith and Christianity. As our dear Heavenly Mother has always said, a family that prays together stays together. Instead, a family that does not pray together can stay together, but the community life of the family will be without peace, without God, without blessing, without graces. Today, so to speak, in the society in which we live, it is not modern to be a Christian, it is not modern to pray. Few families pray together. We can find a thousand excuses for not praying, television, commitments, jobs, and many things, so we try to calm our conscience.

But prayer is a difficult job. Prayer is something that our heart deeply yearns for, seeks, desires, because only in prayer can we taste the beauty of God who wants to prepare and give us. Many say that when praying the Rosary many thoughts come, many distractions. Fra Slavko said that those who do not pray do not have problems with distractions, only those who pray. Bad distraction is not only a problem of prayer, distraction is a problem in our life. If we search and look into our hearts more deeply, we see how many things, how many jobs we do absently, so.

When we look at each other, we are really ourselves, or distracted or asleep. Distraction is a problem of life. Because the prayer of the rosary helps us to see our spiritual state, where we have arrived. Our late Pope John Paul II wrote in his Letter "Rosarium Virginia Mariae" many beautiful things, which I am sure he also read the messages of Our Lady.

In his letter he encouraged us to pray this beautiful prayer, this strong prayer I, in my spiritual life, when I look at the past, at the beginning, when I woke up spiritually in Medju, I started praying the Rosary, I felt attracted from this prayer. Then I came to the stage of my spiritual life where I looked for different types of prayer, meditation prayer.

The prayer of the Rosary is an oral prayer, so to speak, it can also become a contemplative prayer, a deep prayer, a prayer that can reunite the family, because through the prayer of the Rosary, God gives us his peace, his blessing, his grace. . Only prayer can pacify, calm our hearts. Even our thoughts. We must not be afraid of distractions in prayer. We must come to God as we are, distracted, spiritually absent in our hearts and put on his cross, on the altar, in his hands, in his heart, all that we are, distractions, thoughts, feelings, emotions, faults and sins , all we are. We must be and come in truth and in its light. I am always amazed and amazed at the greatness of Our Lady's love, for her love as a mother. Above all in the message that Our Lady gave to the visionary Jakov in the annual Christmas message, Our Lady addressed above all to families and said: "Dear children, I want your families to become holy". We think that holiness is for others, not for us, but holiness is not against our human nature. Holiness is what our heart yearns for more deeply. Our Lady, appearing in Medjugorje did not come to steal our joy, to deprive us of joy, of life. Only with God can we enjoy life, have life. As he said he said: "No one can be happy in sin".

And we know that sin deceives us, that sin is something that promises us so much, that is attractive. Satan does not look ugly, black and horned, he usually looks beautiful and attractive and promises a lot, but in the end we feel deceived, we feel empty, wounded. We know well, I always say this example, which may seem trivial, but when you stole a chocolate shop, afterwards, when you eat it, the chocolate is no longer so sweet. Even the man when a husband who has cheated on his wife or a wife who has cheated on her husband cannot be happy, because sin does not allow one to enjoy life, to have life, to have peace. Sin, in the broadest sense, sin is satan, sin is a force that is stronger than man. Man cannot overcome sin with his own strength, for this we need God, we need the Savior .

We cannot save ourselves, our good works certainly do not save us, neither will my prayer, our prayer, save us. Only Jesus saves us in prayer, Jesus saves us in the confession we make, Jesus in the Holy Mass, Jesus in this meeting saves. Nothing else. That this meeting is an occasion, a gift, a means, a moment through which Jesus and Our Lady want to come to you, want to enter your heart so that you become a believer tonight, he who sees, says, truly believes in God. Jesus and Our Lady are not abstract people in the clouds. Our God is not something abstract, something that is far from our concrete life. Our God has become a concrete God, has become a person and has consecrated, with his birth, every moment of human life, from his conception to death. Our God has so to speak absorbed every moment, all human destiny, all that you live.

I always say, when I speak to pilgrims in Medjugorje: "Our Lady is here" The Madonna here in Medju meets, prays, experiences, not as a wooden statue or an abstract being, but as a mother, like a mother alive, a mother who has a heart. Many when they come to Medjugorje say: "Here in Medjugorje you feel peace, but when you go home, all this vanishes". This is the problem for each of us. It is easy to be a Christian when we are here in church, the problem is when we go home, if we are Christian then. The problem is to say: "We leave Jesus in church and go home without Jesus and without Our Lady, instead of carrying in their hearts the grace of them with us, of taking on the mentality, the feelings of Jesus, his reactions, of trying to know him better and allow him to transform me every day and more and more. Like I said, I will speak less and pray more. The moment of prayer has arrived.

What I wish to wish you is that after this meeting, after this prayer, Our Lady will come with you.

All right.

Source: http://medjugorje25anni.altervista.org/catechesi.doc