WITH PRAYER AND RENUNCIATION TOWARDS HOLINESS

"Dear children! In this time of grace, I call you anew to prayer and renunciation. May your day be interwoven with little ardent prayers for all those who have not come to know God´s love. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
~ Message of February 25, 2008


Throughout almost 27 years of Our Lady's apparitions, we have been the witnesses of her care for us, just as a true mother cares for her children. She finds each and everyone of us important. No one is excluded from her plan. She wants to bring all of us to her son Jesus Christ.
In her tonight's message, Our Lady draws our attention to the dedication so characteristic of the time of Lent we are living right now. During Lent God gives us another chance to become better people, to start to change. We should be concrete as prayer is the encounter of a true and concrete man with the true and concrete God. We are asked to become better as people in all areas of our lives. Our Lady provides us with the means that will help us in our fight – by prayer and renunciation.
Jesus is our first teacher of prayer. When asked by his disciples to teach them how to pray, he taught them to pray Our Father. It is a prayer that must not turn into a mere pronunciation or repetition of words. It must be a true address to the Father for his kingdom to come. In the Father we have everything. The only thing we have to do is to listen attentively to what He says to us in prayer. Everything else will be just added to that. We should be persistent in our prayer, and open to God's spirit which will provide us with strength when things happen in a different manner than we expect them to.
Together with Jesus, Our Lady is our first female teacher of prayer. Some wonder why Our Lady often mentions prayer and calls us to it. Those wondering about that are people who do not pray, those who want to turn everything, even prayer, into sensation. These are the people not yet embraced by the spirit of the Gospel. They still feed on mundane spirituality. Our Lady calls us to prayer as she too has prayed and is aware of the importance of prayer more than we are. She prayed in all the crucial moments of her life: before the embodiment of her son Jesus Christ, when Christ's conception was announced, on the day of Pentecost when Church was born, the Body of Christ. At God's offer from heaven she replies with her whole being and full of grace: «I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said.» (Luke 1,38). That is why she stands before us as the example of deep faith and prayer.
Another important means of growth in our spiritual life is renunciation. Not for the sake of renunciation itself, but in order for us to create room in us where God can be at work. Every renunciation is a sign of spiritual growth. One should renounce first the thing other than God that one puts first in his life. This thing may be people, fame, power, money, human considerations, we ourselves or something else. God must be put first. Only then everything we have renounced is given its true sense.
Every day in this time of grace we are called to grow through our prayers by which we intercede for those who have not yet come to know God's love. We are called to pray for the forsaken, lonely, unhappy, aborted, for the souls in Purgatory, for all those who are in need for prayer. May our Blessed Virgin Mary, the Queen of Peace, help us and bless our noble-minded effort.

Fr. Danko Perutina

Pray and Fast

“Dear children! With the time of Lent, you are approaching a time of grace. Your heart is like ploughed soil and it is ready to receive the fruit which will grow into what is good. You, little dhildren, are free to choose good or evil. Therefore, I call you to pray and fast. Plant joy and the fruit of joy will grow in your hearts for your good, and others will see it and receive it through your life. Renounce sin and choose eternal life. I am with you and intercede for you before my Son. Thank you for having responded to my call.”

Message of January 25, 2008


In her last message, Our Lady entices us to prepare our hearts in the incoming time of lent, which is a time of mercy. She invites us to fast, pray, and make acts of penance, which were always the main features of the lent. In the Old Testament, the penance was reduced mostly to external signs. Today it is mostly so, because during the Lent the faithful renounce food, drinks, sweets and cigarettes, and much less swearing, gossiping and other sins. Christian fast and prayer are the foundation of the collectiveness, because the whole Church is invited to fast, penance and prayer, especially in the time of Christmastide and Lent. Renouncing the material things is only one way of penance for the personal sins. It is the proof that we are ready to renounce something and share with the people living in poverty and squalor.
In our preparation, we must not stop at the external signs. The prophets of the Old Testament saw it clearly and warned the people that the only true change is the change which happens in the heart of men. If we change the heart, we change the whole man. Only such change can lead us to the friendship with God and people. Only in such way, our heart will receive the fruit which will grow into goodness. God created us as free beings and everyday we make decisions. We can choose between the good and the evil. The Queen of Peace invites us to renounce the sin and to choose eternal life. This is the only right choice. Every time we choose the good side, we chose the side of God’s sons and daughters and our life is filled with joy. We live a full life. Life is sin is only survival and suffering, while the life in God brings joy and peace. Here on Earth we can already taste the true joy if we live according to God’s commands, and we will experience the full joy in eternity, when God will wipe the tears from every face. Then, “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev 21, 4). Jesus is our first role model, example, and teacher of spiritual life. Before his first public appearance, Jesus retired into the desert for 40 days, where he fasted, prayed and prepared for his first public appearance. Moses has spent the same number of days on Sinai, and also Eliah on Horeb. In the quiet and solitude, a man can better hear God, because he is not burdened by any disturbances. To go into the desert, to retire, even for longer period of time if needed, should not be justification for escaping people, obligations or job. It should be a privileged time in which we will be renewed in the vicinity of God, so we can live among the people and witness the Joyful news to them. Jesus is the lord of our life and our hearts. He can do what we cannot, for what we do not have the strength.
Mary, “Mother of Church” and our mother, advocates us before her Son. Her advocating and mediating role she started during her life on Earth – at the wedding in Galilee Cana – and she continues with this role today, celebrated in the heaven. By coming here to Medjugorje, Our Lady wants to help us to unite more forcefully with our Savior and Redeemer. If we answer the call of the Queen of Peace and if we prepare with the fast and prayer for the meeting with Jesus, we will be able to participate in the celebration of Easter with clear heart and joyful soul.

Fra Danko Perutina
Međugorje January 26th 2008

Reflection from Fr. Danko ~ JESUS CHRIST IS THE KING OF OUR HEARTS

“Dear children! With great joy I bring you the King of Peace for Him to bless you with His blessing. Adore Him and give time to the Creator for whom your heart yearns. Do not forget that you are passers-by on this earth and that things can give you small joys, while through my Son, eternal life is given to you. That is why I am with you, to lead you towards what your heart yearns for. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
~ Message of December 25, 2007


On this day, on Christmas, Our Lady tells us in her message how joyfully she brings us the King of Peace, who will give us his blessing. Christmas is surely one of the most beautiful days of the year, even for the people who perceive it in their own, different way. It is the most beautiful day in the history of mankind, because the King of Peace was born. .
The life agenda of Jesus, and our life agenda, is summarized in the angel song which was sung at His birth: "Glory be to God in the highest Heavens, And on earth peace among men who please Him!" (Lk 2, 14). Every time we speak to God in our prayers, God comes to us and fills our heart with peace. We can spread peace around us only if we are filled with the God's peace. Human heart becomes reckless if it is infested with the sin, or if it turns away from God. The sin corrupts the man, who is made on God’s image, and he/she spreads dissatisfaction. For the man, the only way to convert, change and return to the original state of the son is the sacrament of confession, which many took these days, making their peace with God. Every time when Jesus comes to us, into our heart, He makes it beautiful, because this is why He came to earth.
Our Lady invites us to give more time to the Creator for whom our hearts yearn. To give more time to the Creator means to pray more. If we expand our daily prayers only a little bit, our friendship with Jesus grows, He enters our life, blesses our day and everything we do, enlightens our mind and warms our heart.
On this earth, we are only passing by, we are only pilgrims. They who came before will leave earlier. Small things of this world can sometimes prevent us from reaching greater good. In Jesus, the doors of eternal life are opened for us. Through all these years of appearances, Our Lady teaches us in her school of love how to reach the eternal life and how to pray.
Our Lady also reveals us the true meaning of Christmas We can understand it better by watching Her, who was from the beginning present in the mystery of Christ’s salvation, full of virtues like faith, hope, love, humility, silence and joy. Humility is the key which helps us to open our hearts to God, so He can enter and transform it. Only by complete dedication to God can we find a way from the heart filled with the false pride or vanity to the heart filled with true humility and love.

~ Fra Danko Perutina