About the Author
Fr Slavko Barbarić, OFM, was born near Medjugorje in 1946. He was ordained a priest in 1971. He studied philosophy and pastoral theology in Sarajevo and Schwaz (Austria) and obtained his master’s degree in 1973 in Graz, Austria. He gained his doctorate in religious education in 1982 in Freiburg, Germany.
Fr Slavko began working with the pilgrims in Medjugorje in January 1982. He conducted numerous retreats and tirelessly spoke about the events of Medjugorje all over the world. He wrote many articles for various publications and is the author of many books on the spirituality of Medjugorje. His books have been translated into more than 20 languages.
Fr Slavko died on November 24, 2000, at 3.30 PM, on Mount Križevac (Cross Mountain) in Medjugorje, after having prayed the Stations of the Cross with the parishioners.
About This Book
Love is not a gift for the “good” but a fundamental condition of life for all.
God is Love. This love moved God Himself to become man and to die on the Cross for men. With this all-embracing and eternal love, the man of God loves God above everything and his neighbour as himself.
Father Slavko begins each chapter with a message given by Our Lady and received through the visionary Marija Pavlović. In the very core of each message, we find the pure evangelical love, to which Our Lady constantly and tirelessly calls us. After each message, Father Slavko gives a short meditation based upon and reinforced by the indispensable and everlasting evangelical teaching. At the very end of each chapter, we find a corresponding passage from the Scripture, as foundation and warranty of what was said before. In this way, the whole text appears as a dense and firm tissue, woven with Our Lady’s words, Father Slavko’s meditations and encouragements, and the Word of God. It is like a weave that contains all that makes the life of a Christian inseparable from the life of the Lord.
The Author Speaks
Dear Reader,
Take this booklet and read it. It was written with love and it speaks about the love of the Mother, who speaks and who loves. While speaking with love, she creates, in the hearts of those who love her, a disposition to listen to her. Read and listen to what she is saying.
The first words, which you will find at the beginning of each chapter, are her messages. She speaks with love and about love. After her words – and she always begins with the motherly words “Dear children!” – meditate together with me on her messages, and then read a thought that was chosen from the inexhaustible richness of the Divine Word, which is offered to all of us as spiritual food, as heavenly bread for our life, our healing and our salvation.
Our Lady’s words, which are tender, encouraging, bold, and sometimes admonishing, are an expression of her love for each one of us. She wants us to be completely hers, which means people of faith, hope and love. She wants to help us to pull ourselves out of the earthly mud and rise towards the heights of life-giving love and eternal beauty. Our faces are disfigured, our hearts are wounded, our families are broken, our air is polluted and our friendships shaken. We go through hard times. At each step, we meet some deadly threats. Love has become cold. Our Mother promises us that, through love, we shall all become beautiful. Disfigurement will disappear and there will be no more death.
But this can happen only through love!
Take the decision now to be a diligent student of this school. Raise your eyes, and the divine beauty will fill you with enthusiasm; you will travel more easily through this valley of death towards the dawn of life!
Publisher: ICMM
Author: Fr Slavko Barbarić
Language: English
Original language: Croatian
Translation / Review: Lidija Paris / Fr Leon Pereira O.P.
Edited in 2018
Size: 195 x 120
156 pages
