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Medjugorje Red Book

Pray with Your Heart

Date: November 7, 2006
Author: Dr. Fra Slavko Barbarić, OFM , Fra Tomislav Vlašić, OFM
Category: Early Medjugorje Reflections Books , Books , Priests of Medjugorje

This book is the third 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 July to December 1985.

Not all chapters of this book are yet included

"The kind of faith Our Lady wants us to learn about is abandonment to the Lord"

We have just heard Dr. Frigerio of the medical team in Milan saying that where technology, science, medicine, psychology and psychiatry stop, faith must carry on. It is true as Dr. Frigerio affirmed and previously Dr. Joyeux, ‘We have found our limits, and can honestly say that it is not a question of illness or of a pathology. The visionaries are healthy in body and soul.’ These positive encouragements do exist and now, for someone who believes, what is there left to do ? Either one throws everything away and says he is not interested or one takes a dive into faith. And this is the very point from which everything happens. When the visionaries talk about this phenomenon , they speak very simply, ‘We start to pray, a glow appears, we kneel down, we begin to speak, we receive the messages, we touch Our Lady, we hear Her, we see Her, She show us Paradise, Hell, Purgatory ....’ What they tell us is very simple indeed.

These encounters fill a person with joy and peace. When we start explaining with our own means, we come across words whose meaning we do not understand there are many gadgets, many specialists pointing to a clue, others to some other clue. But thousands of clues do not make up proof. Now look, you either throw away everything or you accept what the visionaries say. And we are under a moral obligation to believe a person who speaks the truth , until we find it to be false. Therefore, I can say at this point, ‘I have a duty and I believe in what the visionaries say’. I know that the simplicity of their affirmations is something given to us for the benefit of our faith.

The Lord does not want, through these phenomena, to show doctors that they still do not know so many things. No, He does not; what He wants to tell us is Look, you are looking at tangible signs and therefore you can believe, have trust in Me and let yourselves be guided. Through these simple facts, inexplicable to us, Our Lady wants that we, who live in a rational world, be once again able to open ourselves to the reality of the hereafter.

When I first spoke to Fr. Gobbi, he asked me what Our Lady is asking of the priests. I told him that there is no special message. Only once did She say that priests have to be faithful and preserve people’s faith. This is the point which follows on from Fatima.

My deepest experience is the following we are all very superficial in our faith. The kind of faith Our Lady wants us to learn about is abandonment to the Lord, letting ourselves be guided by Our Lady who is still coming every evening.

So, at this stage, She has asked first of all for the Creed. ‘Giving with our hearts’, abandoning ourselves. One can give one’s heart to somebody one loves, to somebody one trusts. She is asking, amongst other things, for our weekly meditation of the passage of the Gospel, Matthew VI, 2434, where it says that one cannot serve two masters. Hence a decision.

And then She says, why worry, why grieve ? The Father knows all. Seek first the kingdom of Heaven . This is also the message of faith. Fasting is also very useful for our faith one can more easily hear the voice of the Lord and can also understand more easily one’s neighbour. It is a kind of faith which means in my life, as in yours abandonment.

By the same token, any distress, any distressing situation, any fear, every conflict is a sign of our hearts not yet knowing Our Father nor Our Mother. It is not enough for a little boy who is crying to know that a father and mother exist he only quietens down, he only finds peace when he is in his father’s or mother’s arms.

The same goes for faith; one can only allow oneself to be led if one starts to pray, if one starts to fast. You will find excuses every day for not having time, until you have discovered the value of prayer. When you have finally discovered it, you will have a lot of time for prayer.

Any situation will be a new one, also for prayer. And I am telling you that we have become real champions in finding excuses when it comes to prayer and fasting, but Our Lady does not want to accept these excuses any longer.

(Fr. Slavko Barbaric 8th September 1985)

 

Source: Friends of Medjugorje Association

 


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