Pray With The Heart

By Fr. Slavko Barbaric

This is one of Father Slavko's first books and one book that everyone should own. There are many books written about prayer but here is a book, which in itself, is a prayer. Whoever reads this book will be spiritually enriched. Morning and evening prayers, Rosary, Peace Rosary, Jesus Rosary, prayers for fasting, before confession, for healing and places to pray in Medugorje.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Medjugorje Web
• Release date: Aug 13, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452434193

Fr. Slavko Barbaric

Fr. Slavko Barbaric resided in Medjugorje from 1982-2000. He suddenly passed away on November 24, 2000. We will miss him greatly and were moved and inspired by his insightful talks and written commentaries throughout the years. We can all be comforted by Our Lady's monthly message a day after his death, which said: "I rejoice with you and I desire to tell you that your brother Slavko has been born into Heaven and intercedes for you."Fr. Slavko wrote many books about the messages of Medjugorje, and was very involved with the millions of pilgrims that visited from all over the world. He led Adoration, Veneration, fasting retreats, heard confessions, and countless other activities based on Our Lady's messages in Medjugorje. He founded Mothers Village; An orphange on the north edge of Medjugorje. He also worked with Cenacolo; A community in Medjugorje that does amazing work with men and women struggling with addictions. Fr. Slavko was a man of deep faith and insight that truly led the life of a saint.

Book preview

PRAY WITH THE HEART

by

Fr. Slavko Barbarić, O.F.M.

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PUBLISHED BY:

The Medjugorje Web - medjugorje.org at Smashwords

Pray with the Heart

Copyright © Informativni Centar Medjugorje 2007

This Book and other by Fr. Slavko are also available in Print at: http://www.medjugorje.org/ccart

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

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In accordance with the decree of Pope Urban VIII and Act II of the Vatican Council, the writer states that he does not question church authority, to which he submits completely. The words apparitions, miracles, messages and others used in this book have the value of human testimony.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Practical Instructions

Preface

The Places Of Prayer In Medjugorje

Morning Prayer

Evening Prayer

Prayer To The Holy Spirit

Prayer Of Consecration To Our Lady

Praying The Rosary

The Joyful Mysteries

The Sorrowful Mysteries

The Glorious Mysteries

The Rosary Of Peace

The Jesus Rosary

Prayer Before Confession

Prayer On Fast Days

Adoration Of Christ In The Most Blessed Sacrament

Preparation, Realization And Consequences Of The First Eucharistic Encounter

Adoration Of The Holy Cross

The Way Of The Cross

Prayer On The Site Of Apparitions

Prayer Before Mass

Thanksgiving After Holy Mass

Prayers For Healing

When You Return Home

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INTRODUCTION

Unusual as it may sound, it is at the same time true, our time is a praying time. The people of our time, who are always in a hurry, stop to pray after all. They do so because they feel a primeval need to talk to God, to tell Him what they are unable to tell another person, not even the closest of friends. For people know that God is the closest and most intimate friend a person can have, after all.

Therefore, dear readers, if you want to be close to and more intimate with our greatest friend, Jesus Christ, then stop and reflect on this book. It will teach you, in a simple way, how to love God and your neighbor, without which love, prayer cannot be fruitful.

This book does not threaten. It does not speak about God's punishment, but about God's love. It calls to us and upon us to be the proud and devout children of God. It calls us, the small, to become great by following Jesus' Gospel. It calls us, who are weary and burdened, to find rest and peace through the power of Jesus' Gospel. It calls us sinners to become holy through Jesus' Gospel.

We have read many books about prayer. But finally, here is a book which is itself a prayer. This book does not deal with how it should be prayed, but it is prayed as every Christian believer should pray - from heart to heart, from soul to soul, and from the painful cry of a miserable man to the merciful response of the God-man.

Rivers and streams of grace flow between us. Year after year. Day after day. Shall we bypass these rivers and streams? Shall we allow these living waters, the waters of mercy, to flow away into the immense abyss of hopelessness? Of course, we are not going to allow something like that. And it is exactly this wonderful spiritual book of the spiritual scientist, Fr. Slavko Barbarić, O.F.M., Ph.D., which, in a wonderful and simple way, speaks of all the beauties of Christian spirituality.

Whoever has read this book, will truly enrich himself spiritually. Whoever accepts this book as a prayer manual, will discover the best prayer book. And he who accepts it merely as a literary form, will not be disappointed either.

Jakov Bubalo

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PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS

Morning and Evening Prayers

Beginners can select every day one of the seven points of the prayer pattern which ends with one Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be and the Creed.

Those who feel a greater need of meeting God in prayer will select one of the seven suggested patterns and recite seven Our Fathers, Hail Marys, and Glory Bes, and the Creed.

The most advanced will find time to go through all seven points every day or at least once a week.

Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament

Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament has been practiced in Medjugorje since 1982, first on the first Thursday in the month and then, since March 1, 1984, on every Thursday, after the evening Mass. Groups and individuals can make use of this pattern in their churches whenever they want to. But for every-day visits to Jesus, one point of meditation can suffice.

Adoration of the Cross

This devotion has been customary in the Medjugorje church since 1984, on Fridays after evening Mass. Elsewhere it can be made according to need, especially during Lent. Its parts, as independent wholes, can also be used individually in every-day life. They are especially recommended to the sick and their attendants.

The Way of the Cross

While you are in Medjugorje, you will best experience the Way of the Cross by climbing Mount Krizevac. Likewise you can make this devotion in any church or chapel, or in your room on Fridays and whenever you want to experience Jesus' Easter message about the meaning of His suffering.

Prayers for Healing

Prayers for healing are regularly said in Medjugorje after the evening Mass. They can be used by all who want to pray for healing, depending on their needs.

Praying the Rosary

Since August 1984, the whole Rosary has been recited daily in Medjugorje: two parts before Mass, and the third part after Mass. If you cannot pray the whole Rosary every day, then, according to the common practice in the Church, pray the Joyful Mysteries on Mondays and Thursdays, the Sorrowful Mysteries on Tuesdays and Fridays, and the Glorious Mysteries on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

The Rosary of Peace and the Jesus Rosary can be prayed according to one's own disposition.

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PREFACE

When you come to Medjugorje, you will hear that we are called to prayer. We are called not only to prayer in the morning or evening, to individual or common prayer, but to prayer with the heart as well.

Every prayer can be finished in haste so that we say all our prayers to the end, without having met Jesus and Mary. If we continue on like this, there is a danger of our having only wasted our time and never coming to like prayer. Therefore, it is important to find time for prayer.

In this booklet you will find that Our Lady invites you to prayer in front of the cross, and to prayer in front of the Most Blessed Sacrament. She also invites you to confess properly, to prepare yourself properly for Holy Mass and to give thanks after it. You will find messages urging you to devote yourself to God through the Virgin Mary. To devote oneself to God means to decide every day for love, for forgiving, for charity, and against evil and sin, against Satan and all his deeds, as well as against all collaboration with him.

These are the principal thoughts that will lead us through this prayer booklet.

I would certainly like this book to be only an incentive. The prayers which follow are the result of an experience. This prayer manual will serve its purpose if it helps you to formulate your own personal prayer which will include the same elements.

With the messages which Our Lady gives, formerly on Thursdays and now on the 25th of every month, she has offered us her life of prayer and shows us how to grow spiritually.

Everything is directed to the person of Jesus Christ. Our Lady is aware that all her qualities result only from her personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And everything she has advised us has only one aim, to bring us to Jesus.

And to come to Jesus means to touch the source of life which gives the water that never runs dry. For Jesus is the model of a man who is at the same time God as well.

These prayers have been woven from a praying experience and have matured with the messages. May they help you, too, dear pilgrim, to come a step closer to Jesus. He will bring you closer to peace, to love, to reconciliation and togetherness of all people as brothers and sisters, to the growing together of God's people into a large family. And exactly such a family gathers in Medjugorje from all the four winds, where Christ is its head, the Holy Spirit its strength, Mary its mother, and heaven its homes.

Only in this way shall we be able to experience how good it is to be together like brothers and sisters, gathered around the same Mother, who leads on and does not stop leading until we all come to our Father's home.

Dear pilgrim, may your coming to Medjugorje be a step closer to all this and finally a preparation for a safe passage to our eternal homeland!

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THE PLACES OF PRAYER IN MEDJUGORJE

The apparitions started on Podbrdo, known today as the Hill of Apparitions. Through the force of circumstances they were transferred to houses, then to the parish church, to the rectory, to the choir loft in the church, and finally to wherever the visionaries are. From time to time the apparitions occurred on Mount Krizevac as well.

When the restrictions on movement about the parish at the time of Our Lady's apparitions were lifted, the bud of Medjugorje started to develop into a beautiful flower. Now, the overall experience of Medjugorje for most pilgrims includes not only the evening service in the parish church, but also the penitential ascent of the Hill of Apparitions above Bijakovići, and of Mt. Krizevac above Medjugorje. These three places of prayer certainly form part of the outward spiritual program as well.

Therefore, when you come to Medjugorje, alone or in a group, go into the church and pray. That is the beginning. Pay homage to Jesus. Open your heart to Him completely. If you can, go to confession. Start your pilgrim day here. Take part in the Mass of your language group. Give thanks after Mass. This is the first step you can take in Medjugorje, to pray in the church and to meet Jesus like the shepherds in Bethlehem did.

From church, if you can, start for Krizevac. It is best to set out on foot from the church. No matter whether you go alone or in a group, start praying immediately. It is like the road from Bethlehem to Calvary. When you start climbing up the mountain itself, the Stations of the Cross wait for you. Stop at each and think. In this booklet you will find enough help for it. Take your time, do not hurry. Unite yourself with Jesus. When you reach the top, pray under the Cross, be the weather nice or bad. Take courage. Pray your fullest under the Cross. Cry your heart out because of your sins. Open your heart before the Cross and you will know what it means. In this booklet you will also find a prayer of adoration before the Cross. Pray. Never mind the time. Whoever perseveres under the Cross, can go further, receive new assignments and have new experiences.

The view from the Cross opens wide in all directions. Especially it opens towards the Hill of Apparitions, towards Podbrdo. Go to this place, too, and pray. It is not as steep as Krizevac, as Calvary, but it is a hill nevertheless. We have become used to learning about meetings on hills from Jesus' life. Before His Ascension to heaven, He called His disciples together on a hill and then sent them to Jerusalem to pray and from there, to the whole world. Open your heart again on the Hill of Apparitions. Here you will sense, in a

Reviews for Pray With The Heart

[Miguel Zambrano · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

a charismatically type prayer book for Catholics, especially those who have visited the shrine at Medjugorje. Easier for those of us who are hard hearted to pray than the wordy highfalutin type prayer books.