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
In this booklet you will find the help you need whenever you desire to be near Jesus who suffers for us, and near Mary, His Mother, who suffered with Him and continued to suffer after His death until the Resurrection.
For us, human travellers, who are surrounded by suffering and confronted by our personal suffering, the suffering of our families and of the whole world, it is good and salutary to be near Jesus and Mary, who showed us through their own suffering how each cross and each suffering can be transformed into resurrection.
Passages from Holy Scripture, Our Lady’s messages and short meditations are provided here to help you enter into the mystery of suffering and to gain the assurance that in your suffering you are not alone. Just as Our Lady did not abandon Jesus in His most difficult moments, she and her Son will not abandon you.
The Author Speaks
Before prayer, remember that to pray and to meditate on the Passion of Christ and the suffering of His Mother means
- to allow divine, suffering love to touch our suffering and transform it into love;
- to allow divine, suffering hope to transform our despair into new hope;
- to allow the union between Jesus and Mary in suffering to heal our disunion and division;
- to allow divine forgiveness to soften our hearts and enable them to forgive and to reconcile;
- to allow the cry of the God-Man on the Cross to touch the depth of our being and move it to love all that is good;
- to allow the bitterness, that Jesus experienced, to transform all our bitterness into the sweetness of doing the will of God;
- to allow divinely-supported suffering to enable us to meet sufferers in this world with love;
- to allow the death of the God-Man on the Cross to transform all our deaths into a new life of resurrection;
- to allow Mary’s fidelity in suffering to heal us from our infidelities;
- to allow Mary’s courage to heal us from our cowardice;
- to allow human wickedness, which was the response to divine goodness, to warn and remind us never to make space for evil;
- to be aware of human hatred and anger and never to allow our passions to slip out of our control.
Publisher: ICMM
Author: Fr Slavko Barbarić
Language: English
Original language: Croatian
Translation / Review: Lidija Paris / Fr Leon Pereira O.P.
Edited in 2019
Size: 195 x 120
84 pages with Photos
