In the annual message to Mirjana of Medjugorje, many may have been expecting fireworks, given the other messages from Our Lady around the world at this hour that essentially the “times of the trial” have arrived.[1]eg. here and here and here and here
However, the very heart of Medjugorje’s message has always been the necessity of developing the interior life, a deep personal relationship with Jesus so that one is transformed more and more into the “salt” and “light” of Christ. This is accomplished especially through frequent reception of the Eucharist, regular Confession, meditation on the Word of God, fasting, and steadfast “prayer of the heart.” The “Triumph of the Immaculate Heart“, which is central to Our Lady’s apparitions there, is precisely about the triumph of the Divine Will so that the words of the Our Father would be definitively fulfilled: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” The end game is not simply “saving one’s own skin” but that the plan of creation, set forth at the beginning of time, would be fulfilled — a plan that involves not only the salvation of fallen mankind, but its sanctification and hence the liberation of all creation.
…a creation in which God and man, man and woman, humanity and nature are in harmony, in dialogue, in communion. This plan, upset by sin, was taken up in a more wondrous way by Christ, Who is carrying it out mysteriously but effectively in the present reality, in the expectation of bringing it to fulfillment… —POPE JOHN PAUL II, General Audience, February 14, 2001
Our Lord himself planted the seed of how this was possible in the Gospel itself:
I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing… Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. (John 15:5, 9-11)
At this time of crisis, our world does not need more powerless, impotent words. What it needs, in fact awaits, is for the sons and daughters of God to shine with the interior light of God’s divine life. Only in this way will our words have the power to move souls and bring about the end of this world’s night.
Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses… This century thirsts for authenticity… The world which, paradoxically, despite innumerable signs of the denial of God, is nevertheless searching for Him in unexpected ways and painfully experiencing the need of Him — the world is calling for evangelizers to speak to it of a God whom the evangelists themselves should know and be familiar with as if they could see the invisible. The world calls for and expects from us simplicity of life, the spirit of prayer, charity towards all, especially towards the lowly and the poor, obedience and humility, detachment and self-sacrifice. Without this mark of holiness, our word will have difficulty in touching the heart of modern man. It risks being vain and sterile. —POPE PAUL VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, Evangelization in the Modern World, n. 41, 70; vatican.va
In individuals, Christ must destroy the night of mortal sin with the dawn of grace regained. In families, the night of indifference and coolness must give way to the sun of love. In factories, in cities, in nations, in lands of misunderstanding and hatred the night must grow bright as the day, nox sicut dies illuminabitur, and strife will cease and there will be peace. —POPE PIUX XII, Urbi et Orbi address, March 2nd, 1957; vatican.va
Our Lord to Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta on November 18, 1906:
As I was in my usual state, I saw only a shadow of blessed Jesus, and He told me only: “My daughter, if a food could be separated from its substance and someone ate it, it would be of no use, or rather, it would serve to bloat his stomach. Such are the works without interior spirit and without upright intention: being emptied of divine substance, they are of no use, and serve only to bloat the person; therefore he receives more harm than good. —Volume, 7
Related Reading
The Coming New and Divine Holiness
Millenarianism – What it is and is Not
Why the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta?
of the saints. It wasn’t until she became a “Daughter of Mary” that the nightmares finally ceased at the age of eleven. In the following year, Jesus began to speak interiorly to her especially after receiving Holy Communion. When she was thirteen, He appeared to her in a vision that she witnessed from the balcony of her home. There, in the street below, she saw a crowd and armed soldiers leading three prisoners; she recognized Jesus as one of them. When He arrived beneath her balcony, He raised his head and cried out: “Soul, help Me!” Deeply moved, Luisa offered herself from that day on as a victim soul in expiation for the sins of mankind.
immobile, rigid-like state that appeared almost as if she were dead. It was only when a priest made the sign of the Cross over her body that Luisa regained her faculties. This remarkable mystical state persisted until her death in 1947—followed by a funeral that was no little affair. During that period in her life, she suffered no physical illness (until she succumbed to pneumonia at the end) and she never experienced bedsores, despite being confined to her little bed for sixty-four years.
Alicja Lenczewska
Elizabeth Kindelmann
Through what became The Spiritual Diary, Jesus and Mary taught Elizabeth, and they continue to instruct the faithful in the divine art of suffering for the salvation of souls. Tasks are assigned for each day of the week, which involve prayer, fasting, and night vigils, with beautiful promises attached to them, laced with special graces for priests and the souls in purgatory. In their messages, Jesus and Mary say that The Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is the greatest grace given to mankind since the Incarnation. And in the not-so-distant future, her flame will engulf the entire world.
Father Stefano Gobbi
Why Gisella Cardia?
Thirdly, the messages have frequently been accompanied by visible phenomena, photographic evidence found in In Cammino con Maria, which cannot be the fruit of subjective imagination, notably the presence of the stigmata on Giselle’s body and and the appearance of crosses or religious texts in blood on Gisella’s arms. See the pictures taken from her apparition website 
Jennifer
Why Manuela Strack?
Why the Visionaries of Our Lady of Medjugorje?
Why Pedro Regis?
Why Simona and Angela?
Valeria Copponi