How to pray with the heart? Answer by Father Slavko Barbaric

Maria knows that this too is something we must learn and wants to help us do it. These two things that Mary dictated to us - giving space to prayer and personal prayer - are the conditions for prayer of the heart. Nobody can pray with the heart if it has not been decided for prayer and only then does the prayer of the heart really begin.

How many times in Medjugorje do we hear asked what it means and how do we pray with the heart? How should one pray that it is truly a prayer with the heart?

Everyone can immediately begin to pray with the heart, because praying with the heart means praying with love. However, praying with love does not mean knowing how to pray well and having memorized most of the prayers. Instead, it means beginning to pray when Mary asks us and in the way we have done since the beginning of her apparitions.

So if someone says, "I don't know how to pray, but if you ask me to do it, I will begin as I know how to do", then at that moment the prayer with the heart began. If, on the other hand, we thought of starting to pray only when we really know how to pray with the heart, then we will never pray.

Prayer is a language and think about what would happen if we decided to speak a language only when we learned it well. In that way, we would never be able to speak that particular language, since anyone who begins to speak a foreign language starts by saying the simplest things, practicing, repeating several times and making mistakes and in the end really learning that language . We must be courageous and start whatever way we can do it and then, with daily prayer, then we will also learn to pray with the heart.

This is the condition of all the rest, of which Maria speaks to us in the rest of the message. Maria says ...

Only in this way will you understand that your life is empty without prayer

Often when we have emptiness in our hearts we don't notice it and we look for things that fill our void. And it is often from here that the journey of people begins. When the heart is empty, many begin to resort to what is bad. It is the emptiness of the soul that leads us to drugs or alcohol. It is the emptiness of the soul that generates violent behavior, negative feelings and bad habits. If, on the other hand, the heart receives the testimony of another's conversion, then he realizes that it was the emptiness of the soul that pushed him towards sin. For this reason, it is important that we decide for prayer and that in it we discover the fullness of life and this fullness gives us the strength to get rid of sin, bad habits and to start a life that is worth living. Then Maria points out ...

You will discover the meaning of your life when you have discovered God in prayer

God is the source of Life, Love, Peace and Joy. God is light and is our way. If we are close to God, our life will have a purpose and this regardless of how we feel at that moment, whether we are healthy or sick, rich or poor, because the purpose of life continues to survive and dominates every situation we encounter in life. Of course, this purpose can only be found in God and thanks to this purpose that we find in Him everything will acquire value. Even if we come across or commit a sin and even if it is a serious sin, grace is also great. If you move away from God, however, you live in darkness, and in darkness everything loses color, everything is the same as the other, turned off, everything becomes unrecognizable and thus no way is found. This is why it is essential that we stand beside God. Then, in the end, Mary begs us by saying ...

Therefore, little children, open the door of your heart and you will understand that prayer is the joy without which you cannot live

We spontaneously ask ourselves: how can we open our heart to God and what makes us close it. It is good that we realize that everything that happens to us, good as bad, is able to close us or open up to God. When things are going well, we really risk going away from God and from others, that is close our hearts to God and to others.

The same thing can happen when we suffer, because then we close and blame God or others for our sufferings and we rebel against God or others, whether it is for hatred, pain or depression. All this can make us run the danger of losing the meaning of life. But in general, when things are going well, we easily forget God and when they go wrong we start looking for him again.

How many people began to pray only when a pain knocked on the door of their heart? So we should ask ourselves why we wait for a pain to break the door of our heart to decide to open it to God? But this is precisely the time to tell us and believe that in the end everything turns to good. And this is why it is not right to think that it is by the will of God that we suffer. Because if we then say it to another, what will he think of our God? What image will God make of himself if he thinks that He wants our suffering?

When we suffer, when things go wrong, then, we should not say that it is the will of God, but rather that it is the will of God that we, through our suffering, can grow in his love, in his peace and in his faith. To understand it better, let's think of a child who is suffering and who tells his friends that his parents want his suffering.

What will those parents' friends think? Of course, nothing good. And therefore it is good that we too, in the silence of our hearts, think back on our behavior and look for what has closed the doors of our hearts to God, or what has instead helped us to open them The joy of which Mary speaks is an evangelical joy, the joy of which Jesus also speaks in the Gospels.

It is a joy that does not exclude pain, problems, difficulties, persecutions, because it is a joy that transcends them all and leads to the revelation of eternal life together with God, in love and eternal joy. Someone once said: "Prayer does not change the world, but changes the person, who then in turn changes the world". Dear friends, I invite you now in the name of Mary, here in Medjugorje, to decide for prayer, to decide to draw close to God and to seek in Him the purpose of your life. Our meeting with God will change our life and then we will be able to gradually improve the relationship in our family, in the Church and throughout the world. With this appeal I invite you again to pray ...

Dear children, also today I invite you all to prayer. You know, dear children, that God grants special graces in prayer; therefore seek and pray, so that you may understand all that I offer you here. I invite you, dear children, to pray with the heart; you know that without prayer you cannot understand everything that God plans through each of you: therefore pray. I wish that through each one the plan of God will be realized, that all that God has given you in the heart may grow. (Message, April 25, 1987)

God, our Father, we thank you for being our Father, for calling us to you and for wanting to be with us. We thank you because with prayer we can meet you. Free us from all that suffocates our heart and our desire to be with you. Free us from pride and selfishness, from superficiality and awaken our deep desire to meet you. Forgive us if we often turn away from you and blame you for our suffering and loneliness. We thank you because you wish that we pray, in your name, for our families, for the Church and for the whole world. We implore you, grant us the grace to open ourselves to the invitation to prayer. Bless those who pray, so that they can meet you in prayer and through you find a purpose in life. It also gives all those who pray the joy that comes from prayer. We also pray for those who have closed their hearts to you, who have turned away from you because they are now well, but we also pray for those who have closed their hearts to you because they are in suffering. Open our heart to your love so that in this world, through your son Jesus Christ, we can be witnesses of your love. Amen.

P. Slavko Barbaric