Our Lady invites us to strong prayer and to a renewal of our family prayer as a stand against modernism. What is modernism? We see it around us in conversations, in the media, in schools, it creeps into the Church. Modernism teaches that Christianity is just one of a multitude of world religions. Modernism proclaims that modern science has proven that miracles do not exist. According to modernism, the Bible is a secular book like many others. It is an evasion of the Gospel.

Our Lady teaches us everything the other way around. In Medjugorje we witness that miracles do happen, that the Gospel is the only truth and if we live it, God is born in our hearts and in our families. Our Lady calls us to renew prayer in our families, because the family has become almost the only place where we learn to live that God exists.

Let us revise the 42 years’ teaching of the Queen of Peace on strong prayer. Strong prayer is prayer with the heart. It is a prayer that works miracles, as Our Lady tells us in one of her messages, “Dear children, prayer works miracles in human hearts and in the world.” It is the prayer of the rosary. We are invited to pray the joyful, the sorrowful, the solemn Rosary every single day.

Then there is fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays. Our Lady tells us that through prayer and fasting we can stop wars and natural disasters. The one who prays is not afraid of the future and the one who fasts is not afraid of evil. The noblest and greatest prayer is the Eucharist. It is the heart of God. When we receive the Eucharist, we no longer live, but the mighty God who comes in Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament lives in us and works miracles. When we adore him in the Blessed Sacrament, we receive extraordinary graces, we are changed. Our Lady invites us, “Stay in the silence of your heart with Jesus, so that he may transform and change you with his love. Once you form a true friendship with him, no storm will shake you”.

On July 25, 2020, she told us, “Little children, take the Cross in your hands. May it be your encouragement for love to always win, in a special way now when the Cross and faith are rejected. You be a reflection and an example with your lives that faith and hope are still alive and a new world of peace is possible.”

Another strong prayer is prayer with the Word of God. We decide on what are our thoughts about. Our Lady wants our first and last thoughts to belong to God. She calls us, “Put Sacred Scripture in a visible place in your family and read it. In this way, you will come to know prayer with the heart and your thoughts will be on God.”

Strong prayer is suffering lovingly offered, one with Jesus. Our Lady shares with us, “I hid my pain through love… Apostles of my love, you who suffer, know that your pain will become light and glory. My children, while you are enduring pain, while you are suffering, Heaven enters in you and you give a piece of Heaven and much hope to all those around you.”

Finally, strong prayer is also a prayer in community. We know ourselves that it makes a big difference when we pray alone and when there are more of us. Prayer is meant to become life – to God in worship and to our neighbors in service.

When we live her main messages, we will become Our Lady’s joy. She has also chosen us. We are called to respond with a day and night prayer that Heaven will not be silent and will bless abundantly the places where we live.

Let us pray: We thank you, Heavenly Father, for Our Lady, whom you are still sending to warn us of the dangers and pitfalls of modernism. Thank you for the invitation to pray powerfully and to renew prayer in our families. Our Lady, help us to dwell with you in prayers, both personally and in community. Guard our thoughts so that they are not infected by modernism. Help us to love our thoughts on God. Help us to live the Gospel. Amen.