Mirjana had a rather special meeting on the 4th June. We wanted to know more about that meeting and about the special meetings she had had, but the girl told us only this , "The great events contained in the secrets are near to mankind. Be converted, do not be afraid of death, because death is only a transition towards a better life." We noticed that the girl was very sad during these special apparitions, in fact several times she wept when she saw these secrets as if in a film. She explained to us that the warnings to mankind are very serious and at times hard, "therefore, I began to cry", but she then added, "in spite of these difficulties and this severity of the warnings, I always felt strong with Our Lady because a powerful force comes from her face, a life-giving force. I very much miss these special apparitions."

Our Lady continues to appear. I do not want to explain to you whether these apparitions are a fact or not. You have books and in particular the medical dossier where you can reach a scientific certainty that the ecstasies are a fact. It is another matter for those who believe because matters of faith cannot be shown by scientific conclusions. I would now like to pause and say something on the level of faith, as to how to accept these events, these apparitions of Our Lady.

In these last five years, every message of Our Lady bore the message of prayer, an invitation to conversion and an invitation to seek God. To seek God means to practise prayer. Sacramental life is prayer, fasting is prayer.

In last Saturday's message to the prayer group, Our Lady said : "Dear children, this is the last moment for you to begin in earnest to be converted, time is passing by, but many of you are still the same. You are only able to be converted through prayer."

She then added : "I do not wish that you will be the ones who in the last moment cry out, 'Jesus save us' : I want you to be full of peace, joy and that you may go ahead as if to a wedding." You see this last message to the prayer group is something fundamental, it places us in front of the reality of the meeting with Christ. If we now want to understand this message of prayer we must welcome this meeting with Jesus Christ.

I have repeated many times Our Lady's message : "Many pray, but do not enter into prayer." You see, if we through prayer, whatever prayer we say, do not reach this peace, this joy, this inner certainty, it means that our prayer is not working properly. At this meeting I only wish to outline some of the concrete elements - what does it mean to pray ? We accept the part of the Virgin Mary ; She was ready for that meeting with the Angel, She was immaculate, free from sin, ready. We must take this step in order to enter into prayer. To be freed from sin means to practise penance, to go to confession, express (a) deep and substantial act of contrition.

I truly discover in a decisive way that this is my sin, it prevents me from being happy or recollected in prayer, one thing or another are these obstacles which prevent me from being with God. I must then free myself from these obstacles because it is sin which prevents me from entering into communion with God.

Once I have done this in a really decisive way, namely to eliminate these obstacles, only then can I be in touch with God and take the next step. But not even the next step, which I will show you, was enough for the Blessed Virgin Mary and cannot also be enough for us. Even listening to a message attentively is not sufficient to know that message. It was not enough for the Blessed Virgin Mary to see the Angel or receive the Word. She acted, She started praying, "How can this be ?" She took steps forward. When you come to Medjugorje and say, 'Yes, I believe in these apparitions', this is not enough, it cannot satisfy you, you must take steps forward.

'What is your will, O Lord, for me ? What must I do ? Enlighten me concerning my problems, give me light. I want to understand your will here and now, for my family, for my marriage, I want to understand all this.'

If we do not take these steps forward, if I do not succeed in truly understanding the presence of God, and if I do not understand what God is telling me, my prayer is useless. I meet the living God and must receive the answer which is for me. If my prayer lasts for hours and hours, days and days and I do not reach this inner certainty, this light, my prayer does not bear fruit, That is why Our Lady says, "Many pray but do not enter into prayer."

On this level many people are stopped and fail to progress; there are those who have problems and when they go to Medjugorje do not ask themselves what is God's will, but immediately ask, 'Give me healing, give me this or that grace.' There is no inner opening of the heart and as a consequence if we do not wish it, the will of God cannot be manifested. Every prayer of ours must take this step and consequently every prayer of ours will increase the light within us and God's will becomes ever more evident. If we do not do this in our prayers we remain with only empty words, words which do not reach God. These words according to the Scriptures are dangerous as they put us on the road to becoming as the Pharisees.

Now, even if we have taken this step to discover the will of God we have not brought our prayer to conclusion. Our prayer must continue, it must take the last step, 'Your will be done'. Whoever does not put this into practise does not finish his prayer. I have often met people who live in a well of evil. For them to go to monthly confession is to climb up to the edge of the well, to see a bit of sky and the next day they fall down again. Or people - it may be in prayer groups or various movements - who when they meet, they find an immense joy, they are really happy, but on returning home they are the same, completely empty.

Why are they empty ? Because they do not put prayer into practise. "May it be done according to Thy will" said the Blessed Virgin Mary. And She did just this. Why do not Christians bear effective witness to atheists ? Because for them neither prayer nor faith is a reality. Yesterday a preacher said, 'The danger for our faith is not because there are declared atheists, nor because there are people who have left their faith. The real danger of faith lies in those Christians who say 'I believe', but their faith does not change, nor their own lives nor the lives of others.' I believe and I am convinced that this change of life can only come from prayer which is lived and practised. I must discover in prayer the will of God, I must accept it and try in every way to put it into practise. Without this journey into faith, this path of prayer, we are unable to advance in our spiritual life. It is for this reason that in the last message to the prayer group Our Lady said: "Time passes but many remain the same." They remain the same because they utter words but do not live them, they do not live their prayer. If one does not take these steps in prayer then it amounts to the attitude of crying out, 'Lord, help me, but why do you not come to my aid ?' It is always a cry, 'Help me'. Our Lady, instead, in a message says, "Do not remain with paralysed hands and do not repeat 'Jesus, help me', but open your hands and accept all that God offers you." When we advance in our prayer we discover that everything is at our disposal, that we can take it, just as in our family we take our food and everything we need. So long as we do not follow this attitude of faith we are unable to feel that interior peace and we are always like those who cry out but never obtain anything.

People pray, but do not receive and ask themselves, 'Why does God not comply ?''Why is He so hard of heart ?' God is not hard, but I am hard. I talked to a boy for two consecutive evenings; the first evening I explained to him the way how to open up to God. The next day he returned and said, 'I have prayed, but God has not complied, He has not answered anything, He is hard.' So then I began to be severe and said, 'Do not offend my Lord. You are continuously offending Him. What has changed in your life during the last month ? The Lord is telling you to be converted, change your life, open your heart, leave behind your worries. What have you left behind ? What have you done ? ' I began to be severe and said, ' Do not offend my Lord. if you go to confession with this attitude it is offensive. It is offensive to the Lord.'

We all commit these offences against the Lord to a certain extent. He is hard, He does not answer. What could Christ have done more than He did ? He sacrificed Himself and remains at our disposal, even at this very momentwhen He has sent His Mother to give us warning, to show us the path to our salvation. What more can we expect ? So the problem is to move our hearts. If I say my prayers but do not listen, my prayer is not right. Therefore, the figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary in front of the Angel must always be in front of us as an image by which we must learn how to pray. We must purify ourselves of sin, we must ask for the light in order to enlighten our problems. The light, 'what must I do ?' and then, 'Lord, please act for me.' I must make an effort because as St. Augustine said, 'God created you without yourself but He will not save you without your help.' I must ask myself,'What must I do ?' 'What must I change within me ?' 'Lord, what is your will.' God is not a deaf or bad father. The Scriptures say, he who seeks will find.

Our heavenly Father is better than our fathers and listens to each one of us. If we do not succeed in understanding His presence, the problem lies in our hearts, we must reflect on what needs changing within us and how to change our hearts. And when we have understood this we must then put it into practise. In this way, by putting our prayer into practise we can then advance in our spiritual life.

What is prayer ? Prayer is a vital relationship with God. I put all my problems and He answers me; I put them all with my heart and He answers in my heart. If you start praying today or tomorrow, prayer in your hearts will will become stronger as a plant sprouts in Springtime and its branches develop; in the same way my prayer will develop as my life does with all its vital branches. One does not then ask, how can I pray ? In one's prayers one must express life with all its necessities.

A practical way in your life is to go forward through the Rosary, entering into the mysteries, trying to understand what a mystery of the Rosary is saying to you. When you understand what has happened and what Our Lord has said to you in this mystery, in your particular situation, then your Hail Mary will mean something new to you and each time will be further enriched. You will be neither tired nor distracted in the Rosary because you are seeking something concrete and will hear God's answer in every prayer.

When going to Medjugorje my wish is that you put yourselves on the path to prayer. To anyone who says it is difficult to believe in these apparitions, I say, start praying and you will understand.

(Fr. Tomoslav Vlasic - 4th August 1986)