Our Lady rejoices and thanks God for allowing her to love and lead us. She confesses her motherly love to us anew and draws each one of us into it. “My children, be the love of my love,” she tells us in one of her messages. We are called to rejoice, to thank God, to love and lead others as she does.

We all have experienced that words spoken with love are gladly heard and received. In these turbulent, troubled times, we so desperately need to hear the comforting voice of love.

Our Lady wants to still the world through us. In concrete and clear ways, she shows us how to behave in the current time of struggle for peace in our own hearts, in our families and in the world.

She gives us invincible means:

• to return to prayer in the family,
• to place the Sacred Scriptures in a visible place and to read it daily,
• to love God above all things and we will be well on earth.

This has been the strategy of Our Lady ever since she was left alone with frightened children after Jesus’ death. In the Scripture, we read that she gathered with them in prayer together. In Medjugorje she repeats to us that the first prayer group is to be our family. In the world, the solid and secure ground under our feet is built in the family through prayer and listening to the Sacred Scriptures.

This message is the answer for all families that are in crisis, under attack. We often encounter difficulties such as: no one in the family wants to pray with me. Or we see that the family is overwhelmed by addictions, in grave sins, as if there is not even a speck of light in it, or divorce is imminent, or there are frequent quarrels in the family.

Our Lady thinks of everything. When we don’t have anyone in the family to pray with us, she invites us to form a prayer group with friends who may have the same problem. Let us begin to pray together with them for a common intention – to renew prayer together in our families.

In one family there was a great unrest because two brothers did not like each other, in fact, they literally hated each other. They didn’t like one another, they were fighting all the time, the tension was growing. The whole family tried to reconcile them, but with no result. Then they all decided to fast for their hearts to be opened to God’s love. The children decided to give up the use of the phone during the holidays for this intention. I believe that this prayer and fasting will be answered. We are to fight for peace in our hearts, our families in the world through prayer and fasting, as Our Lady teaches us.

Recently Our Lady invited us to pray for those who are addicted to various means of mass media, that their hearts may be opened to the grace of prayer. There are many obstacles that prevent the family from coming together in prayer. We must reckon with it, and not be discouraged.

Prayer in the family is to come first and not to allow “work and daily duties to quench the spirit of prayer”, said Our Lady in one of her messages.

Prayer in the family is to be in the morning and in the evening. In the morning we decide for God to accompany and guide us according to his holy will, in the evening we give thanks for all that we have experienced with him. In the morning we are to read the daily Gospel readings and decide to live it. God’s Word, displayed in a visible place, accompanies us when we leave home and welcomes us when we return home. Our Lady tells us, “Little children, place the Sacred Scripture in a visible place in your family, and read and live it. Teach your children, because if you are not an example to them, children depart into godlessness. Reflect and pray and then God will be born in your heart and your heart will be joyous. Thank you for having for responded to my call”.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments “ (John 14:15), Jesus said. Our Lady repeats the same to us, “Love God above all that it may be good for you on earth”.

Let us pray: Heavenly Father, we thank you for allowing Our Lady to be with us. Thank you for your voice of love which still echoes over this earth through her. Help us to listen and to return to prayer in our families, to the reading of the Holy Scriptures, so that we may be protected from every attack. United in prayer with all those who love and bring others to prayer, we ask for peace in our hearts, families and in the world. Amen.