“Dear children, Also today I thank the Almighty that I am with you and that I can lead you towards the God of love and peace. The ideologies which destroy you and your spiritual life are transitory. I am calling you, little children: return to God, because with God you have a future and eternal life. Thank you for having responded to my call.” (With Ecclesiastical approval)

Dear children, Also today I thank the Almighty that I am with you and that I can lead you towards the God of love and peace. 

Today marks the 44th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady in Medjugorje. Forty-four years is by no means a short period of time. We cannot help but offer our deep gratitude to the Blessed Mother, who has come to us unfailingly throughout these many years. But why has she continued to come to us for such a long time? In the message given today, Our Lady clearly reveals the reason: she comes to be with us and to lead us to the God of love and peace. For the past 44 years, without missing a single day, she has been coming to us through Medjugorje for this very purpose.

Then why does Our Lady desire to be with us and lead us to the God of love and peace? Above all, it is because she loves us. She is our loving Mother, and we are her beloved children. That is why she always remains by our side. Moreover, in her eyes, we are still little children—children in need of even greater protection and care. And so, out of love, she stays with us.

Our Lady desires that her beloved children walk not the path of destruction, but the path of salvation. She remains with us to help us walk this path. By staying with us, she personally teaches us how to pray, to believe, to repent, to love and forgive, to fast, and to live in holiness. In doing so, she ultimately leads us to the God of love and peace.

Our Lady has said that she gives thanks to the Almighty God for being with us and for being able to lead us to the God of love and peace. Through these words, she makes it unmistakably clear once again that it is none other than Almighty God who is the origin and author of the Medjugorje apparitions.

Therefore, just as Our Lady gives thanks, we too cannot help but offer our deepest gratitude to Almighty God the Father, who has allowed her to be with us and to lead us to the God of love and peace.

Let us offer with all our hearts our thanks, praise, and glory to God the Father, who over the past 44 years has sent Our Lady to us as His prophet, our Mother, and our spiritual teacher. Though we do not know how long these apparitions will continue, let us give thanks to the God who, in His mercy, will continue to send her to us.

The ideologies which destroy you and your spiritual life are transitory. I am calling you, little children: return to God, because with God you have a future and eternal life. Thank you for having responded to my call.

Over the past 44 years, Our Lady has never once used the word ideology explicitly in any of her many messages. Then what, exactly, is an ideology? Generally speaking, an ideology refers to a framework of thought that undergirds a society or system. It is a systematic and collective belief structure that interprets humanity, society, history, and the world, while also proposing a direction for them. The term is often associated with political objectives or systems of control. Capitalism, communism, socialism, fascism, and nationalism are all representative examples of ideologies.

While Our Lady has never explicitly named any particular ideology, she once said: “The ideologies which destroy you and your spiritual life are transitory.” Then what are the ideologies that destroy us and our spiritual lives? Any mindset or attitude that leads us to treat money, wealth, material goods, power, or force as false gods in place of the true God can ultimately be seen as an ideology that brings destruction to both our lives and our spirits.

We live in a world shaped by various ideologies, and it is impossible to be completely free from their influence. Yet Our Lady makes it clear that all these ideologies are fleeting and will eventually pass away. That is why she earnestly urges us not to give our hearts, minds, and souls over to them—but to return to the one true God who alone can give us a future and eternal life.

At this point, a story related to Saint John Paul II comes to mind. As we know, the Pope was from Poland. Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, then Archbishop of Kraków, was elected Pope while his homeland was still under communist rule.

Soon after his election, Pope John Paul II made an official visit to Poland—an event that was seen as a great threat by the communist regime. The Holy Father stood firmly against the communist ideology that sought to drive God out of human life and suppress religious freedom. He committed himself tirelessly to opposing such a system.

Roughly a decade later, in 1989, the Berlin Wall—a symbol of the Cold War—fell, leading to the reunification of East and West Germany. That same year, communist regimes in countries like Czechoslovakia and Hungary also collapsed. Poland joined this historic wave of change. The fall of communism and the birth of democratic governments brought great joy to both Pope John Paul II and the people of Poland.

However, even in the midst of this joy, the Holy Father was weighed down by a new concern. Though everything seemed to be resolved, he worried that Poland, now democratic and integrated into a capitalist system, might fall into moral decay—its people becoming seduced by wealth and materialism, growing spiritually complacent and putting God aside.

This was a prophetic insight born of the Pope’s deep spiritual vision. Sadly, much of what he feared has proven true with the passage of time.

Everything in this world ultimately passes away and fades. Money and wealth, power and influence, fame and worldly glory, and every ideology—they are all fleeting, impermanent, and destined to vanish. Only God and His Kingdom remain unchanging and eternal. It is only when we are united with God that we find true hope for the future and receive the gift of eternal life.

This is why Our Lady has remained with us for so long—why she continues to come to us and lead us to the God of love and peace. It is also why she ceaselessly pleads with us to return to God.