Often we’ll pray when outside work is being done. Here we are laying electrical and water lines. Prayer often is exciting for our children and an adventure, and often requires a change of clothes after we pray.

“Prayer is the most frequent message of Our Lady in Medjugorje. It is rare not to have the word “pray” in a message…Over and over again Our Lady asks us to pray. Prayer is the first step in our spiritual life and everything else depends upon that. Prayer has to become a way of life.”¹

“God has to be in the very fabric of man’s daily action for him to experience the joy of life.”² The way to keep God in your daily action is through constant prayer, which should include structured prayer – prayer times throughout your day to stop and focus on God – as well as spontaneous prayers offered up continuously during the day.

“Our schedule is difficult to keep up with. The mission is a full time job. The duties connected to sustain the Community are full-time. Our prayer is full-time. It is like working three shifts. But when there is conflict between the three, prayer time is never compromised. We know we only have to be successful at one thing, and that is prayer.”³

The first message Our Lady gave in the valley where Caritas is now located was from the Bedroom of the Apparitions on November 20, 1988.  She said:

“May your life be prayer. May your work be offered as a prayer…”

Our Lady also says to “…Pray without ceasing!...” June 19, 1986. In this way we can have an “encounter with God” throughout the day in all that we do.

A niche in the Tabernacle of Our Lady’s Messages where we gather on most days before the statue of Jesus. It is during the Divine Mercy chaplet that we pray for all our Field Angels, also our Mission House in Medjugorje supporters, the core group who funds mej.com, and all those special intentions and urgent requests phoned in from our benefactors to the mission. We pray especially for the return of those benefactors’ family members who have left the church.

Typical scene of our youth playing while the adults are praying. Our witness of prayer as they grow up is important. If a child is adversely affected by being in a ghetto or bad environment, we see our children playing around us while we pray as a healthy, unrestrictive environment for them to adopt Our Lady’s way. Of course there’s times they must pray with us, and it is natural for them to choose prayer over play as they get older, having been raised around our witness. So we often say, “we pray, and they play,” and we both get the grace of prayer. “Pray, pray, pray…”

In Community, the children play, and their actions are naturally incorporated into prayer. Our prayer times are a time of joy for them that they look forward to from the time they are little ones. Going up the mountain for prayer group is a joy for the youth, because it’s sociable being together and walking to prayer spots. It’s a tangible way to experience prayer. From the beginning, Our Lady has repeatedly called the people up the mountain in Medjugorje for prayer, especially the youth. On Friday nights Our Lady would call the youth up on the mountains to sing and pray for their Friday night entertainment and for them to experience the resulting joy. All the while, other youth around the world spend their Friday nights going out for their entertainment, experiencing sin, resulting in sadness and no joy. Climbing the mountain becomes sacrifice along with prayer that helps one enter into the joy of prayer and results in one being closer to heaven. For the youth especially, climbing the mountain becomes something that is often fun, not just sacrifice, in addition to the recitation of the prayers.

All aspects of our lives in Community are covered in prayer. When we have a need, when we give thanks, when we rejoice, when we suffer, no matter what we do we turn to prayer. Hence, we know that the only thing we must be successful at is prayer. Everything else will fall into place.  Our Lady said on April 17, 1986:

"Pray.  Fast.  Let God act!"

1. Words From Heaven^TM, A Friend of Medjugorje
2. As Go God’s People, So Goes The World, A Friend of Medjugorje
3. Ibid.

From cutting the trees to sawing the lumber, everything we build is formally consecrated to Our Lady, not just with one prayer time, but throughout each step, often praying many times at each step until the project is brought to completion.  Our Lady said:

September 2, 2006

"...Do not deceive yourselves that you can do anything without Him (God), not even to take a single step..."

Prayer before our work day begins. By this time of the morning, 5:00-6:00 a.m. prayer has already taken place, and our second prayer time, 7:00 a.m., begins with “morning prayer” over our work for the day.