SOME ESSENTIAL POINTS.

I have only told you something about how Our Lady is guiding the prayer group and the contants of the messages. It would be possible to write a whole book on how she is guiding Jelena and Marijana but, unfortunately, we have not been able to do this yet. However, I will give you a few essential points so that you can follow them.

First of all, I want to tell you that Our Lady is guiding the prayer group on an interior level. It is useless for people wanting to organise prayer groups to come to us for guidelines because Our Lady does not speak of guidelines here, but guides in an interior way. We can offer the group leaders our experiences along the pilgrimage with Our Lady, but I say at once to those who wish to organise prayer groups : consecrate yourselves totally to Our Lady and I guarantee that she will be in your midst and will guide you in an interior way. Two weeks ago, a woman from Milan asked Our Lady through Jelena, "Dear Mother, as you see we have come from Milan to visit you, when are you coming to Milan to visit us ?" Our Lady replied : "When you open your hearts to me." This is the answer to all those who are seeking Our Lady and wish to follow this road. Our Lady is truly present wherever there is true opening of heart and guides every group and person. This is why it is useless to ask for guidelines because, as I have seen with this prayer group, Our Lady has a definite purpose.

FALSE PROPHECIES AND TRUE PROPHECIES.

I have to explain several things to you so that you are able to walk truly on the path of spiritual life. Some people come here and, immediately, when they hear that these apparitions will be the last ones of Our Lady on earth and hear about the secrets, they become frightened and start saying that soon there will be a catastrophe, soon there will be a war, soon troubles will come. As to this Our Lady said :"Those who say that on such a date, in such a year, there will be a catastrophe are all false prophets. I have always said : be converted, be converted, be converted. Your future depends on your conversion." It is from this that we are able to see the difference between true and false prophecies. That is, false prophecies are always fatalistic, whilst Biblical prophecies are always conditional - "If Nineveh had converted, it would not have been destroyed." As you see, it depends on us and, for this reason, Our Lady always stresses the messages of peace, prayer and fasting.

PEACE IS A POSITIVE, INNER ATTITUDE.

Through Jelena, Our Lady said : "Love is peace, peace is love." When we speak of peace here you must understand it as a deeper spiritual reality, an attitude, a profound gift from which all others originate. Jelena explains this attitude of peace saying, "Our Lady does not like speaking of sin but, when she has to do so, she seems to be weeping because from the very beginning of her life she has always lived a pure life without sin." This is why Our Lady says : "Do not think of wars, punishment, evil, because if you do so you are on the road towards them. Your task is to accept the Divine peace, to live it and to spread it." From this we can see what is meant by peace : it is a totally positive attitude. Now you can understand that the passage of the Gospel of St. Matthew VI, 24-34, when Our Lady calls for total abandonment at every level, because in this way you can arrive at the true peace she desires. When Our Lady says : "Be converted." you must take a step forward. The majority of people who come here for the first time remain on a superficial level, on an earthly level, asking for healing, solving of marital problems, for their children, for the solution to various problems, but always on an earthly level. Divine peace cannot be found on this level because on this level everything collapses and if we only live on this level we are still in the condition of bearing our fears in our heart. This is why there are fears for the future and fanatical Christians who frighten others saying that Our Lady is menacing and so on. To solve this problem we must look realistically at our lives and at the true Christian life.

FEAR DOES NOT EXIST FOR THE CHRISTIAN.

I know for sure that soon I will undergo a catastrophe : in a few month's time, in a few years, in hospital, at home, on the road or by an atom bomb, the effect is the same for me : I will die. This is my catastrophe. The only catastrophe of my earthly life. I believe that you, too, are certain of undergoing this catastrophe. If we shut our eyes and pretend death does not exist for us, we are deceiving ourselves and we will try to protect ourselves, to save ourselves from this catastrophe. Instead, we Christians will not undergo a catastrophe because, for us, life consists primarily in eternal life. This life is only a transition. I say this in a very special way after the experiences I have had here because, in a certain sense, through the visionaries, we have been able to touch Heaven, Paradise, because they have all seen Paradise. Three of them have had the experience of being taken up to Heaven. If we truly accept eternal life, a catastrophe does not exist for us any longer. This life is only a transition. We must truly accept this essentially Christian fact and then all fear will vanish, there will be no more fear of the future and we will be capable of accepting Divine peace, of living it and spreading it as Our Lady tells us. Otherwise, we cannot be true messengers when we speak of peace and the apparitions of Medjugorje. We will talk of punishment, troubles, secrets and we will spread fear. Our Lady has repeated several times : "Your task is to receive Divine peace, to live it and to spread it."

IT IS NECESSARY TO OPEN YOUR HEARTS IN ORDER TO OBTAIN GRACES

I must explain something else to those who come here to ask for the grace of healing and so on. Our Lady always replied to everyone : "The most important thing is to believe, to have faith, to pray every day for the same intention, to fast on Fridays on bread and water. For the gravely sick, pray more and fast more." When Our Lady says that the priority is to have faith, this does not only mean to believe that God exists. The faith of which Our Lady speaks here is an opening of one's whole self to God, in a total abandonment to Him. We can be helped to understand this if we read the episode in the Gospel of St. John, chapter 4 - where Jesus meets the Samaritan woman. They started to talk about water and Jesus entered into her heart and found evil there because she had been married six times, she was an adultress. An opening of heart had come about. Jesus wants to walk with us, so all of you, if you have a special intention you must set out on the path of faith. Perhaps you will not obtain it in five days, maybe five months will be necessary. Some intentions will be granted already today, but it is necessary to set out. With regard to advice that you often ask for here, I would say this : start out in faith with your priests and group leaders. Later, along the way, Jesus will draw near and will make it clear to us, deep down, what we have to do.

DO NOT COMPLICATE LIFE. LET YOURSELVES BE GUIDED BY GOD

I believe that the most important messages for our spiritual life have been given in the last months. The essential one given by Our Lady is this : "If you want to be very happy, live a simple, humble life, pray a great deal, do not delve into your problems, but let yourselves be guided by God." I have meditated for many days on this message and I see it as fundamental, because our problems are the result of a really complicated life, which we have complicated with various philosophies and so on. Our Lady, on the contrary, leads us to a sincere and simple life. Several times during this period she has repeated to me, through the visionary : "Do not complicate matters. Yes, you can walk on a deeper spiritual way but you will have difficulties. Take the simple way, do not delve into your problems but let yourselves be guided by Jesus Christ." I understand this now and realise that those people who want to go deeply into their problems, aggravate matters and block Jesus and His work for us. On the other hand, putting ourselves in the hands of God with simplicity means leaving room for Him Who is Master of our life and of all the mysteries.

I see a great sin in the world in this : we have taken over many areas of our lives that should only belong to Jesus Christ

THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER.

About the method of prayer, Our Lady said this : "The fundamental point about prayer is to have a great desire for God and for the salvation of souls. Let yourselves be carried along by these desires, of thanking God, really longing for God, and for the salvation of man. If you possess these desires then you will pray and find time for prayer." Our Lady always says that the basis of prayer, like a fruit from which everything comes, is to reach an inner peace, a total abandonment to God. It is from this peace that Divine Gifts derive. But if you are agitated then you cannot understand the Will of God. Several times she has said : "Every agitation comes from Satan."

HOW TO REACH DEPTH IN PRAYER.

Lastly, I want to tell you to set out on the pilgrimage of the messages. During this time, I have understood that the entire spiritual life consists in deep prayer. To enter spiritual life in depth means to enter prayer in depth. Depth of prayer is reached by praying, fasting and loving. I have seen that Our Lady has stressed these three elements during this period. You must pray not only with your lips but with your heart. Fast, love your enemies, love those who are suffering, love your neighbours, love everyone. It is by these means that it is possible to reach depth in prayer and reach a spiritual life. I repeat once more : set out on the path of the messages and of prayer. Never say that you have not time to pray. If you say this, it is as if you say you have no time for God, God is of no use to me, God cannot help me, I can live without God. All this means having no time for God. From my own experience I tell you to try to pray morning and evening. Those who wish to go ahead in their spiritual life must pray not less than half an hour each morning and evening. At least half an hour each morning and evening so that we can feel one with God. You will then see how the spiritual life within you reawakens and continually increases.

On Good Friday, Our Lady, through Jelena, said : "I will give you a spiritual secret so that you can be protected from sin and always be united with God." She said this : "Create an active conscience for yourselves. Pray in the morning and read a passage from the Gospel. Impress it on your mind and in your heart and carry it within you through the day. In moments of crisis, meditate on it again and pray to God to strengthen that Word within you." I now understand that this is fundamental for faith. Several times, Our Lady has told us "If your faith is strong Satan cannot harm you." Let us not forget, that to be strong in faith means to have this really active conscience, means growing, being full of the Word of God in an active sense : so it is that a person lives his faith.

Well, I do not want to tire you as our talk has already lasted for an hour. I only wanted to say that this evening at 6.15pm we begin the Rosary and at 7.00 pm Mass. Before Mass, the visionaries will recite seven Our Father's, Hail Mary's, Glory Be's and the Creed and invoke the Holy Spirit. After Mass there will be prayers for the sick. During the apparitions only priests, people in charge and special cases will be allowed in the chapel. By special cases we mean the sick, like that boy in the wheelchair. Let them be present as they feel a special need to be there. Do not be disappointed because Our Lady said : "It is better for people to remain in church in prayer than to be there out of curiosity." In any case, nobody can see anything that the visionaries see. Many people have seen the film of what happens during the apparitions and everyone will certainly see it in the future. If there is any extra room we will allow the group leaders to enter and, if possible, a few people from each group. Please accept our advice, otherwise, if the chapel is full, the visionaries will not be able to enter and they will go elsewhere and the apparition will take place there. After Mass there will be prayers for the sick and the blessing of religious objects. This evening the preparation for the prayers for the sick will be a little longer and fuller. Yesterday, the ceremonies were long and there was no time for preparation but this evening there is. I want to remind you that the Mass offered here each evening at 7.00pm Greenwich time or 6.00pm solar time is offered for peace in the world and for you pilgrims. We wish to be with you and pray for you each evening. Many groups in the world now pray with us for peace at the same hour and, in this way, we feel stronger and more united.

Now some words of consolation for you. You ask for graces and Our Lady says: "You can receive as many as you wish, it depends on you : pray, pray, pray."

I leave you with these words. Seek an answer for yourselves in the light of these words, because only a word which comes from your heart, like a light, is the true answer to each of us. I leave you in prayer.

(Fr. Tomoslav Vlasic - 22nd April 1984, Easter Sunday)