SPEAKER_00: Well, we've arrived in Medjugory for the second part of our pilgrimage.
SPEAKER_00: And today the Church celebrates the birthday of our Blessed Virgin Mary.
SPEAKER_00: How fitting to be here in Medjugory.
SPEAKER_00: The Church celebrates only three birthdays in the entire liturgical year the birth of Jesus Christ, the birth of Saint John the Baptist, the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
SPEAKER_00: Why Mary, you may ask?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because when Mary was born, the world did not know it, but something had changed.
SPEAKER_00: There were no trumpets, no crowds, no royal announcement.
SPEAKER_00: Somewhere in a small home to an ordinary family, a little girl was born.
SPEAKER_00: The world saw only a child.
SPEAKER_00: God saw the woman who would give her flesh to his son.
SPEAKER_00: The world did not notice her birth, but heaven knew that salvation was drawing near.
SPEAKER_00: That is often how God begins his greatest works quietly, hidden from view, in places the world considers insignificant, out of the way.
SPEAKER_00: Nazareth was such a place.
SPEAKER_00: Bethlehem was such a place.
SPEAKER_00: El Govre in Cuba was such a place, and Medjugori was such a place.
SPEAKER_00: God has a habit of choosing places that do not appear on the world's map of importance.
SPEAKER_00: He chooses fishermen, shepherds, children, poor families, forgotten villages.
SPEAKER_00: Then he does something there that causes the world to pay notice, to pay attention.
SPEAKER_00: We've come to Mejigory because something extraordinary is happening here.
SPEAKER_00: People are going to confession.
SPEAKER_00: Families are being reconciled.
SPEAKER_00: Priest and religious vocations are being born.
SPEAKER_00: Hearden hearts are returning to prayer.
SPEAKER_00: People who had forgotten Jesus Christ are discovering him all over again.
SPEAKER_00: Real conversions.
SPEAKER_00: And these are not rumors, these are facts.
SPEAKER_00: These are fruits that we can see.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus told us by their fruits you will know them.
SPEAKER_00: But we have to understand something essential about Mary.
SPEAKER_00: She never gathers people around herself so that they will remain with her.
SPEAKER_00: No, Mary always takes us to Jesus, her son.
SPEAKER_00: Her entire entire life says what she said at Cana.
SPEAKER_00: Do whatever he tells you.
SPEAKER_00: The grace of Mejigory is not meant to remain here.
SPEAKER_00: Mary desires that we carry it home with us into a deeper life of prayer, a more honest encounter with Christ in confession, a greater willingness to forgive and a renewal love for the Eucharist.
SPEAKER_00: The way we live when we return home will reveal what this pilgrimage has done with us.
SPEAKER_00: Mary has brought us here for one reason, to lead us more deeply to her son.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing else is by chance.
SPEAKER_00: For those of us who are Cuban, this feast carries a profound meaning.
SPEAKER_00: Today we honor our Lady of Charity, Nuestra Signora de la Caridad del Core, the mother and patroness of Cuba.
SPEAKER_00: Her image was found upon the waters by three humble men.
SPEAKER_00: Once again, Mary appeared not in a palace, but among the poor.
SPEAKER_00: She came into the suffering history of a people and remained with them through slavery, through war, through exile, through communism, separation, and through loss.
SPEAKER_00: Generations of Cubans have stood before her and prayed for freedom.
SPEAKER_00: Mothers have brought their children to her.
SPEAKER_00: Exiles have brought their tears.
SPEAKER_00: Families divided by geography and politics have whispered before her the name of Cuba.
SPEAKER_00: Today here in Mejigori we carry Cuba to marry.
SPEAKER_00: We pray for a free Cuba, but more than politically free.
SPEAKER_00: We pray for a Cuba free from fear, from hatred, from vengeance, from despair.
SPEAKER_00: We pray for the healing of its people.
SPEAKER_00: We pray for families separated across the waters.
SPEAKER_00: We pray for those who stayed and those who left.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in a special way for the Cuban people who are right now suffering and suffering greatly.
SPEAKER_00: And we pray for this country too, for Bosnia, Herzegovina, the land that also knows war, division, communism, bloodshed, and all the long work of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: Here it is here that the Blessed Virgin Mary is honored as the Queen of Peace.
SPEAKER_00: In Cuba, she's honored as the mother of charity.
SPEAKER_00: But peace and charity belong together.
SPEAKER_00: They go hand in hand.
SPEAKER_00: There can be there can be no lasting peace without charity, and there can be no genuine charity that refuses the work of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps that's what and why God has brought us here on this day.
SPEAKER_00: We came carrying our prayers for Cuba, our families, our parish, our country, and the private burdens within our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Mary receives them all, but she will not allow us simply to place those burdened at her feet and walk away unchanged.
SPEAKER_00: She asks us to place ourselves there too.
SPEAKER_00: So today on her birthday, perhaps the greatest gift that we can give Mary is not another promise, but a surrender.
SPEAKER_00: Mother, lead me to your son, show me what must change in me.
SPEAKER_00: Teach me to pray, teach me to forgive, teach me to trust, make my heart a place where Christ can be born again.
SPEAKER_00: The birth of Mary reminds us that God's greatest works often begin very quietly, hidden.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps something is beginning here today, perhaps the conversion of a family, perhaps the healing of an old wound, perhaps the return of someone to confession, perhaps a new vocation, or even the renewal of our faith.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps even the beginning of the Cuba for which generations have prayed for.
SPEAKER_00: The world may not see it yet, we may not completely understand it yet, but neither did the world understand what has begun on this day when Mary was born.
SPEAKER_00: God begins quietly, he begins in forgotten places, and when one heart truly says yes, heaven has somewhere to begin.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Mary, Mother of God, our Lady of Charity, Queen of Peace, take us by the hand and lead us to your Son.
SPEAKER_00: Teach us to trust as you trusted, to love as you loved, and to say with you from the depths of our hearts that it be done according to your word.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.