The messages given by the Virgin Mary in Medjugorje can be
summarized into the following five key themes:

• 1Prayer

  Above all, the Virgin Mary emphasizes the importance of prayer, repeatedly saying, "Pray, pray, pray!" Just as humans need daily food to sustain physical life, we must pray to maintain the life of our souls. Without prayer, the soul loses its vitality and cannot receive God's life. Without prayer, we cannot know God, love Him, or understand His will for our lives and the world. Prayer leads to repentance and strengthens faith, which is why the Virgin Mary constantly urges us to pray.

  She encourages us to place prayer at the center of our lives, to pray daily with our hearts until prayer becomes our life and joy. She asks us to pray for at least three hours a day, including various forms of prayer such as the Mass, the Rosary, Bible reading, Eucharistic Adoration, the Holy Hour, the Stations of the Cross, and spontaneous prayers. Those who pray become holy, walk the path of peace by loving and reconciling with God and their neighbors.

• 2Faith

  The second theme of the Virgin Mary's messages is faith. She emphasizes that priests, religious, and all believers must have strong faith. In a time of widespread atheism, what is most urgently needed by Christians and humanity is the belief that God is alive and that only He can provide true salvation and peace. The Virgin Mary invites us to remember the holy martyrs who gave their lives in witness to their faith in the living God and to hold firmly to our faith in God alone. She also encourages us to have strong faith to serve the Creator God, free from attachment to material things, creatures, and all evil.

  Faith brings about miracles and makes us rely solely on God. Faith is strengthened through prayer, and those with greater faith pray more fervently. This fulfills the words of St. Augustine: "He who prays believes, and he who believes prays."

• 3Conversion

  Conversion is also one of the core themes of the Virgin Mary's messages. The ultimate goal of the messages given through Medjugorje is to lead all humanity to God's salvation and peace. The Virgin Mary, as the Queen of Peace, has come to this earth as a prophetess of Jesus, the King of Peace and the Savior. Her mission is to help us place Jesus, who is true God and true man, at the center of our lives.

  To receive God's salvation and peace and to place Jesus first in our lives, we need conversion. The first step of conversion is to confess our sins and seek forgiveness. Therefore, the Virgin Mary invites us to go to Confession every month as evidence of our conversion. This helps us open wide the door of our hearts to Jesus, which has been closed by sin. Without a fundamental change of heart, there can be no change in life, and we cannot accept Jesus. Thus, the Virgin Mary urges us to conversion. The conversion she speaks of is a daily and moment-by-moment conversion, as Satan constantly tempts us to sin and fall into evil.

• 4Fasting

  The Virgin Mary emphasizes the importance of fasting in her messages. As we know from the Old and New Testaments, fasting is an outward expression of repentance for sins and leads us into a deeper faith. Fasting is an act of entrusting our entire lives to God and practicing charity toward others. Fasting frees us from greed for material things and from all forms of addiction and bondage, especially from sin. Fasting also strengthens our faith by making us rely entirely on God.

  Fasting is not just about giving up food; it also means giving up something we enjoy, which helps us die to our selfish selves and transform into selfless people. Through fasting, we choose and rely solely on God and learn to give ourselves for the sake of others. The Virgin Mary says that prayer and fasting can change the laws of nature, stop wars, and that those who pray and fast will not fear the future or evil.

• 5Peace

  As the Queen of Peace, the Virgin Mary appeared on the third day of her apparitions in Medjugorje, on June 26, 1981, at Podbrdo, where she first appeared to the six children. After appearing, she came down the mountain and appeared again to Marija, saying, "Peace, peace, only peace!" At that moment, Marija saw a cross behind the Virgin Mary. With tears in her eyes, the Virgin Mary said, "There must be peace between God and man, and between people." This indicates that the peace spoken of by the Virgin Mary is the peace achieved by Jesus Christ through His bloodshed on the cross, which brought peace between God and humanity, and between people (cf. Eph 2:13-14).

  True peace comes only from God. The world cannot give the peace that Jesus Christ has achieved. The way of peace shown by Jesus Christ is the only true path to peace, and only those who make peace will be called children of God and experience true happiness (cf. Mt 5:9). The path to peace is not through force or the accumulation of wealth, but through complete obedience to God's will and total reliance on Him. To attain the peace that God gives, we need prayer, faith, conversion, and fasting. These four elements emphasized by the Virgin Mary are essential prerequisites for walking the path of peace.