I PRAY BEFORE GOD TO GIVE YOU THE GIFT OF FAITH

            “Dear children! Also today I call you to pray, pray, pray until prayer becomes life for you. Little children, at this time, in a special way, I pray before God to give you the gift of faith. Only in faith will you discover the joy of the gift of life that God has given you. Your heart will be joyful thinking of eternity. I am with you and love you with a tender love. Thank you for having responded to my call.”

Message of November 25, 2005

During 24 years and 5 months of apparitions in the parish Medjugorje, the love of Gospa remained unchanged, as much as her maternal messages, messages with which she wants to attract us - as with cords of love - towards the heart of Jesus, so that we can live and not barely subsist. Today also, she says: pray, pray, pray. Today also, she calls to what is most difficult for contemporary man, and it is prayer. There is no other way to arrive to God; there is no more comfortable or easier way, than the way of prayer. She is not only calling to prayer, but she is praying in front of God for us, she is asking God to grant us the gift of faith. In faith, Mary pronounced the words of her abandonment to God: "Be it done to me according to your word" and " Behold the handmaid of the Lord". These short words contain the whole life of Mary. In these words, she said everything, and she has completely given herself to God.

Faith is a gracious gift of God, gift that we can and must ask from God. God gives us what we ask. Mary is praying with all those who pray. As a Mother, she is praying for us all, she is asking from God the invaluable gift of faith. She knows well that, without faith, we live in darkness and ignorance. Without faith, life is impossible. When we live without faith and trust, we are under the influence of fear, and we feel threatened and insecure. Fear kills life much more than work. The reason for which worries kill more people than work is in the fact that people worry more than they work. Against fear, only faith is successful. Faith means to rely on God who remains invisible for us, God whom we nevertheless experience as our fundamental support. Faith is a support that we cannot see. Faith is the sure ground on which you can stand; faith is the light that you light in the darkness of your heart. Faith means to open the door to confidence, to open the windows to love, to accept smile, joy, light and health.

Faith is like a jump in a parachute from the plane. If you jump from the plane, you see only the ground, and yourself inevitably precipitating towards the ground, on which you will be pulverized. It is a jump into nothingness, into destruction, into death. But, after this dreadful experience, another incredible experience comes: if you draw the grip of the parachute, above you a cord opens, which holds you attached to a tissue. You left the safety of the plane, you were precipitated towards death which awaits you down there, on the firm ground, and what stopped you, it is the solidity of a piece of tissue - the parachute. This small piece of silk preserved you from death; it gave you the force to leave the safety of the plane. This is faith. When you start to entrust yourself to somebody, you have the impression to jump into emptiness. The fear seizes you, and you have the impression that you are going towards nothingness. But it is enough to light in oneself the certainty that all will go well, and fear is cut.

We do not put our faith in a tissue, nor in a cord, but in a Mother who walked the same ways that we walk, who lived the same anguishes, apprehensions and sufferings, which we live. This is why she is our certainty, and she is promising never to deceive us, she could never deceive us.

In faith and trust in God open up for us spaces of light, of truth, of certainty that God is showing us. In faith and trust, we realize that all in life was given to us, and that nothing belongs to us: neither life, nor people, nor this earth. We are created for eternity. Mary wishes that now, today, we start to live this eternity. She wishes that we decide for eternity now, so that it may not be too late tomorrow.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic

Medjugorje 26.11.2005