In the eyes of Our Lady, we can sense the pain and compassion of a mother for us who are lost. The visionaries testify that in this time of great turmoil in the world, she still appears in silence and prayer. She suffers more than we do, seeing the horrors of war. Any mother who would have a son sentenced to death would confirm that she suffers more than her son.

Heaven does not leave us without a way out. Our Lady comes as a mother of hope. In the message of February 2, 2016, she told us, “I am looking at you with love, with a motherly love. I know you; I know your pain and sorrows, because I also suffered in silence. My faith gave me love and hope. I repeat, the Resurrection of my Son and my Assumption into Heaven is hope and love for you. Therefore, my children, pray to come to know the truth; to have firm faith which will lead your heart and which will transform your pain and sufferings into love and hope.“ Also today she calls us, “Return to God, return to prayer—and the Holy Spirit will fill you with His love.”

We are called to resemble our Mother. In prayer and silence, the Holy Spirit comes. “My children, in the silence of the heart, remain with Jesus, so that He may change and transform you with His love; who are far from prayer, convert and, in the silence of your heart, seek salvation for your soul and nurture it with prayer; fold your hands in prayer and look at the Cross in silence; open yourselves to God and surrender to him all your difficulties and crosses so, God may turn everything into joy. Little children, you cannot open yourselves to God if you do not pray. Therefore, from today, decide to consecrate a time in the day only for an encounter with God in silence; In silence may the Holy Spirit speak to you and permit Him to convert and change you I am looking at you and I see you lost; and you do not have prayer or joy in your heart. Return to prayer, little children, and put God in the first place and not man. Do not lose the hope which I am carrying to you. May this time, little children, every day, be a greater seeking of God in the silence of your heart.“

Silence is God’s presence within us and we need to free it from the noise of the world. In silence we can find out both why we have become lost and how to find ourselves again. Silence leads us to listen to God’s voice and word. Our Lady calls us to pray daily in silence with the Word of God.

In the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15, Jesus speaks in three parables about the loss and the joyous finding. The sheep got lost because it might have seen better food behind the fence. The woman lost the drachma perhaps because she was untidy, and the son was lost because he himself chose to be so.

The school of Our Lady is the joyous finding of the one who has been lost. As we live her messages, we will find ourselves at home with the Father again.

The Holy Spirit will fill you with love that brings joy to the heart. “Hope will grow in you, also for a better future, and you will become joyful witnesses of God’s mercy in you and around you.“

This is Our Lady’s experience. The Holy Spirit filled her and gave her the strength to overcome obstacles such as the flight to Egypt and the life of a refugee, enduring suffering as she watched Jesus’ pain and death…

Filled with the Holy Spirit, she rushed to Elizabeth and brought her joy. Elizabeth and little John recognized this.

Whenever and wherever we invite Our Lady and the Holy Spirit, hope for a better future, joy, works of mercy, a return to God is born. And this is Medjugorje. For almost 41 years we have witnessed the joyous finding of faith, hope, joy and meaning of life that has been lost.

No one can teach us better than Our Lady to open our hearts to the hope of a better future in the work of the Holy Spirit. Let us surrender ourselves to Our Lady, with her we will not be lost.

Let us pray:

We thank you, Our Lady, for your gaze with which you carefully watch over our lives. Help us to return to God in silence and prayer whenever we are lost. With you we cry, „Come, Holy Spirit.“ Comfort the weeping, strengthen the despairing. Renew hearts and the face of the earth where the flames of war and hatred are burning.

Come, Holy Spirit, and make us like your beloved bride, faithful, responsible, ardent witnesses of God’s mercy. Amen.