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Medjugorje Blue Book

Abandon Yourselves Totally to Me

Date: November 7, 2006 , Last update March 1, 2008
Author: Dr. Fra Slavko Barbarić, OFM , Fra Tomislav Vlašić, OFM
Category: Early Medjugorje Reflections Books , Books , Priests of Medjugorje
Content of the article
  1. The main message is this : the presence of Our Lady
  2. The family must pray together and read the Bible
  3. To fast means to open up to the Lord
  4. When you are humble, when you pray fervently and when you love, satan cannot even draw close
  5. This is the time of decision
  6. I am with you and I am your Mother
  7. 'Today is the Feast of the Mother of goodness, love and mercy', and She gave us her blessing.
  8. 'Pray so that all the trials which come from satan might result in the glory of God'
  9. We must enter into our prayer before we begin to pray
  10. 'But why do you pray ? To be with God, to feel God inside yourselves'
  11. 'I am beautiful because I love. If you want to be beautiful, love'
  12. 'Be reconciled with Our Lord'
  13. "In our daily lives, we must find the Word of God which saves us in a real way"
  14. I say to you: love
  15. Pray with your Hearts
  16. "In our daily lives, we must find the Word of God which saves us in a real way"
  17. "I knock, but there are so many hearts that still do not open to Me"
  18. You must die in order to be resurrected
  19. 'I invite you to the light you must bring to all those who are in darkness' Lent messages
  20. Our Lady has taught us to take three steps forward in group prayer.
  21. Many stop at Easter and do not live the Resurrection
  22. The first thing to understand is the Will of God, even in suffering
  23. The apparitions are a stage in the spiritual life of the Church
  24. "Pray that hearts gripped by sin may open. I wish for this. God wishes it through me."
  25. When we say "pray" to the people, many do not know what it means
  26. Pray to the Holy Spirit for enlightenment
  27. "You ask me to stay with you always, not to leave you, but now I ask you not to leave me"
  28. In every prayer, we must express our inner life
  29. "I invite you to a more active prayer, and to participate in the Holy Mass. I would like every Mass to become an experience of God for you."
  30. The last daily meeting between Ivanka and Our Lady (7th May 1985)
  31. There is a fundamental error: to ask for things instead of seeking God.

This book is the second of the four volumes of sermons and discourses given by Fr. Slavko Barbaric and Fr. Tomislav Vlasic during 1984 - 1987 in Medjugorje, and contains discourses given from January to June 1985.

30 Chapters of this book are now completed

The main message is this : the presence of Our Lady

I am sure you have already heard and read much in newspapers and books about Medjugorje. The thing I must tell you always is what is happening to the visionaires. Every evening they have visions. Our Lady is giving an account of her life in Nazareth to Vicka, and Vicka writes it down every evening after the vision. But she (Vicka) cannot tell us anything yet. One day it will all be published and will be of great interest.

To Ivanka, Our Lady talks of the problems of the world and of the Church, and when she gives her permission, this will also be published. It is still a secret for us. A few days ago, when asked by an Italian television group "What can you tell the people ?", Ivanka replied : "Do as Our Lady says, be converted; there is not much time."

We do not know what Ivanka has seen, what she knows, but when we speak of the problems of the world and of the Church, there is a real need for conversion as we all know.

Ivan, Marija and Jacov see Our Lady every evening and speak to her, they pray and commend the sick to her. Our Lady gives the messages through them and more especially through Marija.

Every Thursday, since the beginning of Lent last year, there has been a message for us, for the Parish and for all the pilgrims.

Recently we repeated some medical tests on the visionaries with some doctors who came with Father Laurentin. First they tested the brain and the heart (arterial pressure). Last week they tested the children's eyes and hearing. What can be said about these experiments ? Scientifically, it cannot be demonstrated that the visionaries see Our Lady, but these tests help us to see and also to understand what is happening to the visionaries bodies, brains, eyes and hearing. All these tests show that something extraordinary is happening.

We can see that interest in this phenomenon is growing day by day. The doctors from Louvain (Belgium) for instance said, after watching a recording of the event (they were all agnostic): "You cannot say there is nothing there." When an agnostic speaks like this, it really means something.

These phenomena are very simple. There is nothing strange about them. The visionaries start praying and at a certain moment, as if they had been struck, they kneel down and we can hear nothing more. We can only see their lips move and their eyes stare. After a few minutes, they are saying the Our Father - they say that Our Lady starts it - and in the end they say "Ode": She is gone, She is leaving.

During the vision, they do not react to the strongest light. Once a member of the Commission who was in the Chapel pricked Vicka, but she did not react. The Parish Priest also tried seizing Jacov by his hair, but he did not react either. There were many similar instances. They do not realise how long the visions last; they are out of time and space.

After the encephalogram, the doctors could state that it was not a case of epilepsy, or of hallucination or even a dream. So they are in a state of wakefulness, but on the other hand do not react as they would normally if they are awake. The test on the eyes shows a simultaneous reaction, they all begin staring at something we cannot see, at the same instant.

The doctors gave Ivan and Ivanka a headset to generate and measure the intensity of sound. At first, before the apparition, the doctors kept it very low. During the apparition, they made it ninety, the highest decibel level, but Ivan did not hear anything. He told me: "At first, there seemed to be a tractor, an engine inside my head," but during the apparition - when the measured noise was at its highest - he didn't hear anything.

The doctor told me that a normal head could not stand such a noise level. They also wanted to make a throat test too, to see why their voices couldn't be heard while they were speaking to Our Lady, but they have not yet done it.

Another thing I must tell you is this: Vicka had an operation about a month ago for appendicitis and something else, but nothing special. She is well now and come to Church every evening.

The main message is this : THE PRESENCE OF OUR LADY.

For nearly four years, Our Lady has been appearing every evening. She appears to the visionaries where they happen to be. The apparitions are not affected by place or even time: where they are, Our Lady appears.

Vicka told me that during the operation, Our Lady appeared to her for twelve minutes in the operating theatre. An hour after the operation Vicka was still under the influence of the anaesthetic. A young man who had gone with her to Zagreb was in the hospital room and was present during the vision, and he told me: "If I had had a video recorder and if I could have recorded this apparition, we would have had the final answer for all those who wonder if it is possible or not, for all those who are in doubt."

Under the anaesthetic, Vicka could not speak, her eyes were closed. Suddenly she awoke and began reacting as she usually did during the apparitions, praying to Our Lady as usual, but after the apparition, she was again under the anaesthetic. This message of Our Lady's presence is not only for Vicka, but for all of us. Our Lady shows herself as a mother and voices the truth of the Second Vatican Council's declaration that she is the "Mother of the Church". And the Mother belongs to the Church, belongs to the children. We have heard many times in the messages that Our Lady is our Mother; that wants us all in peace, to be reconciled, to pray, to seek Jesus.

In a message through Jelena, she said: "If you knew how much I love you, you would weep for joy." Another message through Jelena was this: "If there is someone before you asking for something, you give it to him: I stand before so many hearts that do not open to me. Pray that the world may accept my love." We can also say this : Our Lady comes to every family, to the Church, to the world and wants to lead us to Jesus. But she does not compel anybody, she invites us. To all those who have heard and follow her, Our Lady says :"Pray that the world may accept my love." So she has put the future of the world partly into the hands of those of us who have started praying. She says : "Pray that the world may accept my love."

It is very important. Accepting Our Lady as our Mother also means consecrating oneself. All of us consecrated ourselves to the Sacred Heart of Mary on 25th March when the Pope asked for the consecration of the whole world. Consecrating oneself means just this : accepting Our Lady as the Mother, accepting her in the family, accepting her in every sphere of life.

How does she behave with the visionaries ? She behaves as she does with every one of us. What Our Lady can do depends on us. For example, she said to the visionaries: "I would like you to go into a convent. You must make up your own minds. I will help you in your decisions."

You can see how free she leaves them. I am sure I can say it is like that with us all. Our Lady invites us to peace, to love and reconciliation, but she cannot give us love or reconciliation if we do not look for them. She said once in a message: "You are a chosen people, but you are not yet aware of what Our Lord gives you and I can only say this to you: Pray, pray, pray to be able to understand in prayer the immense love I have for you and Our Lord's love."

It is a very important message.

The first thing this message says is :"you are a chosen people." We are chosen, but we do not understand what it means to be chosen and loved by Our Lord and Our Lady, we will never understand ...

Above all, these apparitions are a sign for us that we are a chosen people; and who can understand this love which has been showing itself in this way for more than forty two months ?

Another thing: Our Lady said: "Pray; without prayer you cannot understand love." Prayer is living with Someone and through life with Him learning how to love Him and accept His love. One last thing is this : Our Lady said: "I have only this to say to you : Pray, pray, pray." This means that Our Lady is acting like a mother who has prepared a big meal with special food and invites us. But we come to the house complaining: 'We have no peace, we are frightened, we are thirsty, we are hungry ...' and Our Lady says :"Look I have prepared everything, but it is up to you. I can do no more than say :Come, eat your fill, drink."

In these messages and these events, we can see both Our Lord's great love for us and the hardness of our hearts. So many times Our Lady has said : "But you still do not follow me, you still do not understand." You can understand this as a form of teaching: Our Lady brings us up; and yet on the same day at the same time, a mother can reproach her child and also offer him some chocolate saying 'Come, let's eat it together.'

We also hear that Our Lady always thanks us in the messages. At the end of the message there is always the same sentence. Marija says that Our Lady always ends up by saying "Thank you for responding to my call."

So Our Lady acts just like a mother who wants to teach her children about peace and love and these two things are the hardest to learn.

The messages before Christmas can be reduced to a single phrase: "You do not yet know how to love. I am your Mother and I have come to teach you to love." And who can say: 'I have loved, I have finished learning about love ?' Who can say : 'I love everybody?' Who can say: 'I loved yesterday, today I needn't do it ?' Love is another word for conversion, another word for peace. You can learn about love and understand it, Our Lady says, only when you start praying, when you start fasting.

Yesterday - it was Thursday - Our Lady said : "At this time, the Lord has granted you many graces. I invite you to make this a thanksgiving week for all of you. Give thanks."

In response to this message, we give thanks during the adoration of the Eucharist, and we will do so again this evening (because every Friday, we adore the Cross). At Christmas time, we are going to worship before the crib. But again we want to give thanks. Our Lady asked us to do so for the whole week and on 2nd January she said, through Ivan, that several plans, several projects have been accomplished.

So she asks for thanksgiving. I asked Ivan what had been accomplished, but he did not answer. Ivan had a vision on the mountain this week and said: 'I have been seeing Our Lady for more than three years, but I have never seen her as glad and happy as tonight." Our Lady told us through him to give thanks. She told us this because some plans have been accomplished.

On Thursday before Christmas, she said : "From now on every day until Christmas I wish every family to bring a flower as a sign of abandonment to the Lord."

She told us to do soemthing concrete for Jesus: "Bring flowers as a sign of your trust, of your love." The flowers were put by the crib. Our Lady said: "When Jesus comes, may He see your trust and stay." In fact this was what we did : we spoke to all the families about this and said : 'Bring a flower on Christmas Eve. We will ask Our Lady to bless all the flowers you take home afterwards.' Through Jelena, Our Lady explained the spiritual meaning of the flowers. She said : "You must be flowers that never fade."

I know that a lot of people have resolved to go on with the monthly confession, to come to the adoration on Thursdays, to pray and meditate.

All this is happening to teach us. Our Lady wants to teach us. We do not know when the apparitions will stop, but the school of love can never end, and the school of peace can never end. So by your coming here you become responsible for peace in your hearts, in your families and also all over the world. You must never forget, not even during the liturgy during Mass when you cannot understand our language, that you, by coming here, by your prayers, are going with Our Lady every day on her most extraordinary earthly journey - a journey one could never have imagined.

Our Lady asks for the Creed, seven Our Father's, Hail Mary's and Glory Be's, the entire Rosary, prayer, monthly confession and two days of fasting.

There is no substitute for fasting and prayer. You must begin as you can and go on. Personal visions have always been granted throughout the history of the Church when something important has been forgotten. The visions come to remind us of it. For example, we have given up prayer and fasting, saying that we no longer have time, we cannot fast. We have said we can give a little money to others, but not fast. But Jesus fasted, the Mother of God, the Virgin, fasted, all the prophets, the saints and especially St. Francis of Assisi fasted.

So Our Lady give us new value to prayer and fasting because she wants us to live the Gospel.

(Fr. Slavko Barbaric - 4th January 1985)

 

Source: Friends of Medjugorje Association

 


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