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

25th July 2026

 

 

Our Lady of Medjugorje

“Dear children, While darkness and peacelessness rule in many hearts, you, little children, be prayer and my extended hands of love. Little children, place the Sacred Scripture in a visible place in your family and read it, so that it may be an encouragement for you to conversion and a new life; because Satan is strong and seduces hearts. Your hearts, through my maternal Heart, I desire to commend to the Heart of my Son Jesus, so that He, the Risen One, may reign in you and joy may begin to reign in you and around you. Thank you for having responded to my call.”   

 

(With Ecclesiastical approval)

 

 

 

 

Dear Brother’s and Sister’s of Medjugorje North East and beyond, in many of her messages in Medjugorje Our Lady, Queen of Peace often refers to the importance of the ‘Heart.’ 

Or ‘Praying with the heart.’  This spiritual theme runs through much of the spirituality in Medjugorje.  In using this phrase Our Lady is referring to the inner person, the deepest part within us, the soul and the conscience, our inner sanctuary, where we decide for the good, or against.  In this month’s message Our Lady uses the word ‘Heart/s five times, and this is very important as we reflect on Our Lady’s message.  In every Mass we are invited to ‘Lift up your hearts,’ and St, Theresa once said, ‘If God hasn’t got your heart then he has nothing.”  In this message Our Lady mentions your heart, her maternal heart, and the heart of her Son Jesus.  The heart is the place of life and love, and with these words Our Lady is inviting us to recognise the inter- personal relationship we enjoy in our lives of Faith with her and her Son Jesus.   What is essential in our human relations is the inner attitude and not the outward appearance.  We are all capable of duplicity, and our hearts can be divided, so Our Lady calls us to sincerity in our relationship with God, this is why the Scriptures place much emphasis on humility, and the invitation to become as ‘little children ‘- a phrase Our Lady mentions twice in this message.  This is what protects us from Satan, who Mary tells us is ‘Strong.’   He is the ‘seducer of hearts.’  So we have to come before God with a ‘Humble and Contrite heart.’ And ask him to create within us ‘a pure heart’. ( Psalm: 51).    This is why Our Lady recommends monthly Confession, for the purification of our hearts.  This message continues to tell us to abandon our hearts to Our Lady so that she can commend them to her Son, so that he may reign in us.  This means to come close to Our Lady, through the prayer of the Rosary, prayed from the heart.  To make an act of Consecration to her Immaculate Heart , then God will be born anew in our hearts and Jesus , ‘The Risen one’ will reign in our hearts.  This is what we ask God for each time we say the ‘Our Father’ ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’   This is the promise given by Jesus,  “Your Hearts will be full of Joy, and that Joy no one shall take from you.”  (John : 16 : 22.)   In the face of darkness and peacelessness which Our Lady says is ruling in many hearts,  Mary calls us to be people of Prayer and her extended hands of love.  To put love, peace and Joy where they are absent.  Let us all recommit ourselves to the voice of the Queen of Peace, who calls us to on going conversion of the heart.

A visible sign of our individual conversion of heart is recommended by Our Lady.  “Little children, place the Sacred Scriptures in a visible place in your family and read it, so that it may be an encouragement for you to conversion and new life, because Satan is strong and seduces hearts. “

From the first apparition of Our Lady in Medjugorje, Mary has emphasised the importance of Sacred Scripture.  The living word of God.   Let us do as our Lady says.  Let us make the word of God the first thing we do in the morning, and the last thing we do before going to bed.  Determine a time, and take the Sacred Scriptures, maybe for fifteen – twenty minutes, and prayerfully read it.  Invoke the Holy Spirit, read slowly, not to seek information, but to listen to God speaking to you.  “Your word is a lamp for my feet, and a light for my path.” (Psalm. 19.} If you have a daily missal, it is made very easy for you, as the Church offers us a daily Gospel for each day of the year.   As Scripture says, “From his heart shall flow streams of living water. “( John: 7: 37-38).

 

Living water that flows from the heart of Our Lady, and all her children who listen to her.

 

God Bless,

Fr. Martin.