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Message of January 25, 2005 "Dear children! In this time of grace again I call you to prayer. Pray, little children, for unity of Christians, that all may be one heart. Unity will really be among you inasmuch as you will pray and forgive. Do not forget: love will conquer only if you pray, and your heart will open. Thank you for having responded to my call." 01/2005
Reflection on the Message
PRAY FOR UNITY OF CHRISTIANS
Today also, the compassionate heart of our Heavenly Mother is speaking to
us. We are her children, and she knows well that we are still on the way
towards our celestial fatherland. This is why she is coming to help us, so
that we choose the way, which she took, to arrive where she is now.
Mary calls us to prayer. Prayer is the precondition of realisation of all
that God can wish for us, of all that He wants to give us. There is not
another way towards God and the gifts of God except prayer. This is why
Saint Theresa of Avila said: “If somebody tells you that there is another
way towards God except prayer, do not believe in it.” Mary repeats
assiduously and unceasingly this first lesson of faith and walking towards
God. Through her messages and her apparitions, she is showing that she is
walking with us. She is our Mother and the Mother of the Church, and this
is why she invites us to pray for the unity of Christians, so that all may
be one heart. The Mother knows that this unity is possible and that we can
and must implore it from God. This unity is a gift of God, a gift which He
wants to grant to his children.
Today, on the feast of the conversion of Saint Paul, is ending the week of
prayer for the unity of Christians. Our obligation, our prayer and our
desire of unity of those who confess the faith in Christ should not
however stop.
January 19, 2005, at the general audience of Wednesday, our Pope said:
“Since the reconciliation of Christians exceeds human forces and
possibilities, the prayer expresses the hope which does not disappoint,
trust in God who makes all things new. Prayer must be accompanied by the
purification of the intelligence, of feelings and of memories. The unity
is a gift of God, and must be beseeched unceasingly in humility and in
truth.”
Only Jesus Christ, the only foundation of the Church, can unite us. Saint
Paul says this to us in his epistle to the Corinthians: “For other
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if
any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood,
hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall
declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try
every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath
built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.” (1 Co 3,11-14).
The Holy Spirit, which guides the Church, also inspires it to pray for the
unity of Christians in Christ, because it is in Him that we are one.
Our Mother tells us that unity is possible, and that it will take place
among us, insofar as we are ready to pray and to forgive. Mary also
invites us to open our hearts, because God can come and bring his gifts
only to an open heart. Prayer opens the human heart and makes it merciful
and filled with compassion for all men, for each creature. Even in the
midst of sufferings, prayer floods from such a heart, including for those
who do evil. The world of today needs such hearts, opened and
sympathizing, such prayers, which rise even in the midst of moaning.
Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
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