What Does Our Lady Ask of Us?
The Virgin Mary in Medjugorje calls us to a profound conversion through her messages, which represent an authentic “School of Love”.
The messages of Our Lady of Medjugorje, short and simple, are continual invitations to prayer, fasting, reading the Bible, frequent confession and the Eucharist. What Fr. Jozo called the 5 stones constitute only the door of initiation of maternal pedagogy for our life as Christians in accordance with the magisterium of the Church.
Our Lady’s messages are addressed to all humanity and can have two different readings:
One for the church and Christians in order to enhance the process of conversion itself. Another for non-believers, whom Mary refers to as “those who do not know the love of God” to bring about the joy of the encounter with Jesus.
She who has presented herself to the world as Queen of Peace, says to all of us: “If you knew how much I love you, you would cry for joy.”
To whom are Our Lady's messages addressed?
The message of Medjugorje can be read in two different ways, which would eventually be united into one:
The first aspect is inward-looking, that is, towards the Catholics themselves.
In this case, it would be a powerful call to conversion for baptized Christians who have neglected certain basic practices in their lives: daily reading of the Bible, daily prayer with family or in community, frequent confession, bodily fasting, and giving central importance to the Eucharist, the living and authentic presence of God’s Son among humanity.
The call of Medjugorje prompts Catholics to reflect upon reading the messages and witnessing the crowded Parish of Santiago Apóstol in comparison to many other empty parishes, closed seminaries, and convents, especially in Europe. This village parish located within a Muslim country is always packed, and with a daily program of prayer and Eucharistic adoration, it becomes the most active parish on the planet.
The Virgin Mary seems to intend for pilgrims to bring back to their communities and home parishes the importance of what they have seen and learned in Medjugorje: the primacy of prayer and Eucharistic adoration, reading the Word, confession, and fasting.
All of this could be explained as a call to obtain peace, not understood as a tangible social entity, but as the inner peace of each person, the origin of all peace that is transmitted from heart to heart and can only be obtained through God, through channels of communication with Him: prayer, the Word, and sacraments within the Catholic Church, where these means and gifts were entrusted by Christ and His Apostles.
Non-Catholics
Regarding non-Catholics, the call of Medjugorje aims to capture attention and allow for at least a minute of reflection on how things are going in the world and in each person’s personal life. It gives an opportunity to God, that God of Love who became present in the person of Jesus Christ, to be real today in our days and in our lives, to fulfill a human heart that longs to be complete even in this life, amidst pains and crosses.
Between these two aspects, there exists a bridge, a great responsibility of the first group towards the second, as the Virgin Mary asks for prayer and fasting in Medjugorje “for those who still do not know the love of my Son.”
