date: 06.04.2022.
"Let us thank the Lord who gathers us together in this blessed place, as children of God, as children of the Queen of Peace. Ten days ago, the Pope dedicated humanity, Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of the Queen of Peace. And here is the biggest invitation at the beginning of this celebration. This is the invitation that Our Lady sends us in her first messages here in Medjugorje - peace, peace, peace. Peace between God and people, peace between people.
Therefore, I thank the Lord for being able to celebrate Holy Mass here for the first time. Thank you for the invitation of Msgr. Aldi Cavalli, guardian of this holy place. I thank him and greet him. I also greet my colleague who came with me on a pilgrimage, Msgr. Luigi Bonazzi, Apostolic Nuncio to Albania. Let us therefore thank Our Lady, with a grateful heart, convinced that the Queen of Peace will answer our prayers. And we instruct Her Immaculate Heart to present to Jesus our pains, our sorrows, and our resistance to love and all our sins", said Msgr. Arjan Doda, Archbishop Metropolitan of the Archdiocese of Tirana-Durres in Albania tonight (April 5, 2022) introducing the Holy Mass.
Holy Mass was in the Medjugorje church of St. James was concelebrated by Archbishops Bonazzi and Cavalli and ten other priests.
In his homily, he referred to today's reading from the Book of Numbers (Num. 21: 4-9) in which the Lord sent angry serpents to his people but stressed that "the Lord does not forsake his people." He also spoke about Moses, who led the chosen people for 40 years.
"In the same way, the Queen of Peace, who appeared 40 years ago, speaks to God for the people. And she speaks to the people of God, so that the angry serpents of our time may see the sign, but that sign leads to one higher sign, a sign that does not pass. God says to Moses, “Make a seraph and put it on a pole: whoever is bitten will live if he looks at it." God provided a cure for the people, who were poisoned. God will provide a cure for a nation that is poisoned at all times. God will leave us even one tangible sign of this medicine against poison, which was the serpent”, alluding to the Cross of Christ, said Archbishop Add in his homily, calling us to entrust to Jesus all the bites of those angry snakes that live in our minds, in our memory, in our heart, in our soul…
“And from this place of grace we return able to maintain the view that Mary brings us back to Jesus here. Let us return to our homes with this task: here I have learned to see the sign. I saw Jesus through Mary’s eyes because my eyes were unclean. My mind was wounded. My heart was heavy, but with Mary I jumped towards God”, concluded Msgr. Arjan Doda, Archbishop Metropolitan of the Archdiocese of Tirana-Durres.
