" Divisions, hatred and suspicion among us must be over now. Divisions among us have caused the blood to flow in North as well as in the South. Never to take up the arms again and fight against your brother or sister. Thoughts of hatred must be cleansed from your hearts now and allow the Lord to fill your hearts with peace and forgivenss. May the peace that you share today in the Holy Eucharist flow into your families, work places, parishes and into your villages. Now it is time to put justice into practice, first in your life and then in the country." said Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith in a strongly worded appeal to all the pilgrims gathered for the Festive Eucharistic Celebration at Madhu on 15th August 2009 on the Solemn Feast of the Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary.

The feast of Madhu Shrine was celebrated with the participation of unprecedented number of pilgrims. His Grace Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith preaching during the Holy Eucharist said :

" It is a blessed moment and a day, that we have come to Madhu Shrine on ths Feast Day, after 30 years of long war is over, which destroyed lives of the people and the country. It is in this enviorment all people belonging to different nationalities have gathered here today. From the days we remember, we came to Madhu Shrine without being conscious of our nationality, language, religion or caste. Never asked from another about them. Every time we came here, we built tents for ourselves and lived in them during the short period of our stay in Madhu. A Tent is not a permanent shelter for us to stay, but a temporary place. These tents remind us that our whole life is temporary, not permanent. From every corner of Sri Lanka, lakhs of people have come today, wihtout having labels of any religion. There are Venerable Buddhist Theros come here today. " said Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith.

" We have been fighting nearly for 30 years. For about 60 years we were divided on nationalities, religions and languages. During these years of the gruesome war, blood flowed througout the country. Hatred and suspicion spread among us. Then we began to ask from one another, what is your religion, what is your nationality, what is your language, from which region are you ? By asking these types of questions, everyone was imprisoned in their own tents and then began the destruction of the country. If anyone had spoken that we belong to that particular region, we belong to this religion, we belong to this nationality, it is from that day, divisions began among us. War was started not due to a clash between the Sinhalese and Tamil communities, but mainly because we separated ourselves from one another and imprisoned ourselves in our own limited kingdoms "

" After Sri Lanka gained independance, we were looking to the future with lots of hopes, but certain groups began to claim for their own identity which forced for divisions among us. It is with this divisions war began in Sri Lanka. We should not be divided on nationality,religion or language. Desire of division and power in man shows how humanity is limited. Everyone has this desire for power. Even in a family, a father prefers to be the decision-maker or in some families, the mother wants to be decision-maker. Within every person, there is a craving, a great desire for power and build his or her own kingdom. This power-desire has brought a enormous destruction in Sri Lanka."

" We were born in this country and lived under her shadow for years as brothers and sisters, but why so much of blood flowed in the country ? Due to divisions and hatred among us, blood flowed in the North as well in the South. We fought against each other with labels on us 'Sinhalese' and 'Tamils'. This is not mainly due to war, but only when we found no meaning in humanity and in our religion and there was no place for righteousness and justice in our lives. Unjust enviornment, a period of loss of humanity was created in Sri Lanka. Religion became a tool of selfishness. During the past decade, it might be correct to say that religion in the world has become an external affair and a political tool for selfish motives. We cannot expect righteouness and justice from this kind of a society. "

" In Sri Lanka there is an increment of indiscipline and loss of moral values. A society of indiscipline is created what we have never seen or heard. This will create more difficulties to achieve peace among all and build a just society."

" There are lakhs of pilgrims gathered here today, we have received the fullest assistance from the government. we see the participation of different religious dignitaries.What a beautiful day it is. But there is another crowd who was not able to come today. It would have been so meaningful and beautiful if our own brothers and sisters in the IDP camps were here today. I appeal to all the relevant authorities, to expedite the proceedure of resettlement of these people in their own villages. We know that there are difficulties and challanges. But I appeal to find solutions to these difficulties and do the utmost to help these people to begin a new life. They are own brothers and sisters, they are our own citizens of this country."

" May the peace that you share today in the Holy Eucharist flow into your families, work places, parishes and villages. Now it is time to put justice into practice , first in your life and then in the country. From today onwards, speard the message of peace, solidarity and coexistence. Spread thoughts of unity and strengthen the ways of unity. Stop talking of divisions and spreading hatred. As Sri Lankans. we must dedicate ourselves sincerely to develop our country. Never to take up arms and no one should start an arms struggle again. The period of arms struggle is over. There could be tales of sufferings, solutons can be found for these sufferings only if you walk in the way that righteousness and justice directs you. Let us change and transform our hearts and minds to find better solutions to our problems. For this we need to pray to Our Lady of Madhu very specially today. "

His Lordship Bishop Thomas Sauvdranayagam, the Bishop of Jaffna, preaching in Tamil said, " We are very happy to see the Madhu Shrine premises which was a war zone and now it has become once again a religious zone. With the assistance of the government security forces, Shrine premise has been rescued from the clutches of war. We still lookforward for the day when the our brothers and sisters living in IDP camps will settle down in their home towns to begin a new and better life."

His Grace the Archbishop Most Rev. Dr. Malcolm Ranjith, the newly installed Archbishop of Colombo presided at the Festive Eucharistic Celebration of Our Lady of Madhu togther with Archbishop Emertius Oswald Gomis and His Lordship Thomas Sauvdranayagam, the Bishop of Jaffna. Since His Lordship Bishop Rayappu Joseph, Bishop of Mannar had been ill for several days could not participate in the Festive Mass.

Rev. Fathers of the Mannar Diocese together with the Administrator of the Madhu Shrine Rev. Fr. Desmond Fred Kulas, had made all the arrangements possible with the full support of the government to help the pilgrims to participate in all the Religious Services. Government had developed the roads, electricity supply, internal roads in the Shrine premises and improved all the facilities for the pilgrims to participate without any difficulties.

Over 600,000 of pilgrims and a large number of Rev. Fathers and Rev. Sisters participated in the Festive Mass.