Fr. Martin’s
reflection on - Our Lady’s Message
25th
August 2025
“Dear
children! my little children,
my beloved ones; you are chosen because you have responded, you have put into
practice my instructions and love God above all else. Therefore, little
children, pray with all your heart that my words may be realized. Fast,
sacrifice yourselves, love out of love for God Who created you, and be, little
children, my extended hands to this world that has not come to know the God of
love. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
(With Ecclesiastical
approval)
Dear Brother’s and Sister’s of Medjugorje
North East and beyond,
In all her messages, Our Lady often calls us her, “little Children.” In
this expression we see her caring, motherly, and feminine tenderness. However,
this expression is also used in Sacred Scripture. Jesus himself calls his Disciples, little
children during his farewell discourse before his passion. “Little children , I
shall be with you only a little while longer. “( John
21: 33). He calls them little children when he appears to them after his
Resurrection, “ Have you caught anything
little children” ( John 21: 5) In his letters St. John the apostle writes, “
Children, you are from God and have overcome them, because he who is in you is
greater than he who is in the world.” (1
John. 4. 4)
When Our Lady calls us her little children she does
so in the same way Scripture uses this phrase. It is neither passive, immature
or demeaning. A maturity is required
from us in the life of Faith, in our families, in our professional work, and in
that Faith we are invited to ‘ littleness
before God.’ As children of God we come before him, who is able to give us strength to
act, to live, and so strengthen others. God is someone who wants to carry us,
warm us, cradle us. “As a child has
rest in it’s mothers arms,
even so my soul.” (psalm 13.)
Our Lady then says, “My beloved ones, you are chosen because you have
responded, you have put into practise my instructions and love God above all
else.”
With millions of pilgrims over these past forty four years we have had the
experience that it is better to live with God, to know how to encounter him in
prayer, the Holy Mass, in Holy confession and in fasting. We have discovered how good it is to choose God
and his Kingdom. We have heard Our Lady’s call and we
responded. Our Lady is telling us here
in a clear way what her desire has been during this time. To call as many of her children as possible
to God’s plan. To receive the new life
from the God of peace, and for each of us to become the witnesses to others of Gods love and goodness.
To put God first in our lives is the most beautiful thing, to be part of
Gods plan. The most beautiful part of
the Medjugorje phenomenon is the realisation that so many discovered God’s plan
within themselves and then decided for God with great enthusiasm. This we can only trace back to Our Lady’s
Motherly love.
So Our Lady continues, “Therefore
little children, Pray with all your heart, that my words might be realised.” Our Lady asks us to pray with the heart, that
is with faith and love. To speak to God as we would a dear one. To be sincere in our prayer, always
remembering that Our Lady is inviting us to be part of her plans. Plans of peace and goodness for our lives.
All the words our Lady has spoken over the years have a realisation in the plan
of God. That is our Salvation and the peace of humanity.
“Fast, Sacrifice yourselves, love out of
love for God who created you, and be little children, my extended hands to this
world that has not come to know the God of love.”
By Fasting and Renunciation we become stronger in faith. Fasting overcomes fear and bad habits.
Renunciation frees our inner selves from things we do not really need. Begin small; do small little fasts, and offer
small little sacrifices. God see’s all
our efforts. Mary is calling us not only to Fast and offer sacrifices, but to
renounce all our false attachments and dependencies that impede our life of Faith.
Our Lady mentions God the Creator. To believe more in God the
Creator means to love more, to accept every life as a gift, and all he created
us for us in his love. To believe in God the Creator means to believe, to
accept life, to love life, and to protect it. It sometimes seems that death and
destruction have taken over our world, that causes many people to distrust in
God the creator. But our Lady calls us
to trust that God the Creator is stronger than all of this and that in his Son,
he has conquered sin and death.
Let us extend our hands towards Our Lady and open our hearts to her
Immaculate Motherly heart, that we might humbly and obediently follow her
example, and like her be a reflection of Gods love to
others.
God Bless,
Fr. Martin
.