Fr. Martin’s reflection on - Our Lady’s Message

25^th January 2025

“Dear children! In this year of grace, I am calling you to conversion. Put God, dear children, in the center of your living and the fruits will be love towards neighbor and joy of witnessing; and the holiness of your life will become a true witness of faith. .

Thank you for having responded to my call.”

(With Ecclesiastical approval)

Dear Brother’s and Sister’s of Medjugorje North East and beyond, We have begun a Holy Year of Jubilee in the Church. It is a special grace for all the faithful, symbolised with the opening of the ‘Holy Doors’ in our Cathedrals. In his letter for the Holy Year of Jubilee, Pope Francis speaks of a ‘Special Grace’ for all who enter into this time with heartfelt devotion.

So Our Lady begins this month’s message, “In this year of Grace, I am calling you to Conversion.” Always in her messages Our Lady has used the phrase, “In this time of Grace .” But this month, she specifically says, “In this Year of Grace.” Mary, always points us to the liturgical cycles of the Church, it’s seasons and Feasts. So too, with the Holy Year of Jubilee, with its theme of “Hope” Our Lady begins by reminding us of the Grace of this coming year. To mark this year as a time of Grace, of God’s favour, we should ask ourselves what more we can do to make it special, and so to open our hearts to the Grace of this time ? I think this is why Mary, begins this month’s message with its reference to the year of Grace. Some ideas may include, The First Friday devotion throughout the coming month’s, The Five First Saturdays, reading one of the Gospels, maybe St. Luke, whatever we may do in this year, it should be something to help us advance in the life of Faith, to work on our own Conversion.

Our Lady then tells us about her call. “I am calling you to Conversion. Put God, Dear Children, in the centre of your lives, and the fruits will be love towards neighbour and the joy of witnessing.” The Holy Year of Jubilee, has as its aim, our Conversion. Every person, every believer is invited to daily Conversion. The invite is for us all.

It is easy to speak about Conversion, but we must decide for it today, by having time for God – as Mary did. We cannot say we have converted when we find ourselves too busy to pray, so Our Lady ask us to find time for God, by placing him in the centre of our lives. Conversion itself means finding God – turning one’s face, one’s heart , and one’s entire life toward’s him. Trusting and surrendering to him as Mary did at the Annunciation. Conversion means leaving the negative, conquering sin and growing in goodness. Prayer is at the heart of all our conversion, prayer like the sun and the rain , provides the conditions for all growth. So let each of us ask ourselves the fundamental question : Is God at the centre of my life? Have I truly decided for him? Does he have the first place in my heart? Our Lady reminds us that once we have decided for God, then everything else follows in its proper order. We will have the fruits of love towards neighbour and the Joy of witnessing. Joy and love are the fruits of prayer, they flow from our contact with God in prayer. Therefore it is truly important that we open ourselves to God and do not isolate ourselves in lives that have other forces at the centre. “Put God at the centre of your lives.” When we decide for God at the centre, we not only change ourselves, but when we grow through , Peace, Love, Hope and Faith, - it is also for the whole world. Mary speaks about our love for neighbour and the joy of witnessing.

It is good to reflect that Our Lady remembers the whole world, and our neighbour too. She knows that this world hungers for love and truth - the love of God. Our Lady sees all the problems, the destruction in families, the destruction and ending of human life, the wars and the innocent suffering. She does not ask us to judge, she asks us to offer the world God, and his love as she did. The situation today, and the breakdown of peace in people’s hearts is not because they chose evil, it is because they are hungry, hungry for the love of Jesus and his truth. Our Lady does not ask us to turn away from the world but to turn towards it, with the love of neighbour and the joy of witnessing.

May we all have this Grace during the Jubilee Holy Year.

God Bless, Fr. Martin