Children of Medjugorje
President: Denis Nolan
Vice-President: Sister Emmanuel
Advisory Board:
Cardinal Jaime Sin
Cardinal Bernardino Echeverria, O.F.M.+
Archbishop Frane Franic
Archbishop D. Peter Chung
Bishop Nicholas D'Antonio, O.F.M.
Bishop Michael D. Pfeifer, O.M.I.
Bishop Donald Montrose
Bishop William Ellis
Fr. Daniel Ange
Ralph Martin
September 15, 2002
Dear Children of Medjugorje, Praised be Jesus and Mary!
1. After their honeymoon on an island in the Adriatic sea, Jelena and
Massimiliano spent a few days in Medjugorje before entering into their new
life in Rome as a married couple. They were radiant with joy! Jelena shared
at length about the unity she and Massimiliano are experiencing, living the
Sacrament of Marriage with God in the first place. It is wonderful to watch
the journey of a person who has taken to heart the beauty of Our Lady's school
in her daily life. We will continue with her reflections in forthcoming
reports.
2. Today, I'd like to place the message of Aug 25th in the light of the
Our Lady's Jewish background. (As a matter of fact, it was difficult to
translate this message in other languages, we couldn't find an accurate way
to have it flow as well as it did in Croatian): "Dear children! Also today
I am with you in prayer so that God gives you an even stronger faith. Little
children, your faith is small and you are not even aware how much, despite
this, you are not ready to seek the gift of faith from God. That is why
I am with you, little children, to help you comprehend my messages and put
them into life. Pray, pray, pray and only in faith and through prayer your
soul will find peace and the world will find joy to be with God.Thank you
for having responded to my call."
How significant to see Mary's insistence on Faith in this message and
how important it is for us to be true believers! No wonder she loves the
Creed and told the visionaries that it is her favorite prayer! Unfortunately,
many parishes in the West have replaced the Creed with wishy-washy little
songs which do not proclaim the Faith at all, slicing a hole in the faithful
heart. Fortunately the Gospa comes to heal us of this lethal wound. As
a good and pious Jewish lady she claims, ³The most important thing is to
believe firmly!² And, ³Priests should strengthen the Faith of the people!²
In a former Communist country, these words are worth their weight in gold!
When we say, "I believe that..." we often mean, "I suppose, but I could
be wrong." When we say, ³I believe the weather will be nice", we are reserving
a margin of error for ourselves. On the spiritual level, many people say,
³I believe in God, but I don¹t go to church.² Most of the time, when they
say, ³I believe in God,² they mean, ³I know that God exists, but I don¹t
go to church because the thought that God exists doesn¹t make any difference
to me in my daily life. I also believe that there are constellations of
stars in the sky, but so what? It¹s not going to change my life, is it?²
With a great sense of humor, Father Slavko compared this attitude to saying, ³I am a smoker, but I never smoke.²
Mary is strongly attached to the Creed and desires to transform us into
³believers". She actually knows the deep, real and biblical meaning of
the words ³I believe,² or ³ani maamin ² in Hebrew. In the Bible, the most
spiritual and divine words come from the most concrete, the most incarnate
realities of creation. This gives our Judeo-Christian religion a sense
of what incarnation means. No, ³Ani maamin ² doesn¹t mean ³I know that
it exists.² Rather it means, ³I adhere to it.² It implies a concrete
physical action: I stick to this, I cling to it, I form one body with it,
as a sticker adheres to my car window. (If I put the sticker 'I love Medjugorje!'
on my car, it follows me everywhere I go. Nobody can look at my car without
seeing the sticker! And don't you try unsticking it!)
When I say, ³I believe in Jesus³, it means that my whole being adheres
to him, that I ³stick² to his whole reality, I form one body with him.
I am wherever Jesus is, I follow him wherever he goes. I get hit if someone
throws a stone at him, I am embraced when someone embraces him, in a word
we are ONE. If I believe firmly (if the glue adheres), then nothing could
ever separate me from him. But if my faith is weak (if the glue is no good),
the least ordeal, the least blow will ruin the adhesion. I will be detached,
disconnected, and wander off by myself. Today, Our lady tells us "your faith
is small". It means we are using a cheap glue and therefore we don't adhere
strongly enough to God. "You are not even aware", she tells us. It means
that we still are so far from him that we don't realize divine love we are
missing in not believing in him. We still concentrate on our "miserable
interests" and cling to the wrong things.
Let's drop that erroneous interpretation of the word Faith as the Greco-Latin
culture has intellectualized it, and let's return to the genius of the incarnation
given by the Bible. Satan, too, knows that God exists! He has no doubt
about it whatsoever. Nevertheless, Satan does not believe in God. Satan
is not a believer. On the contrary, he is the perfect prototype of the unbeliever,
of the disconnected one. And, as an unbeliever, he doesn¹t adhere. He
is unstuck from God forever. (Christians should not say I believe in Satan,
but rather, I know that Satan exists; because adhering to Satan is totally
out of the question.)
Naturally, in this adhesion process, the glue is God's grace. And the
only way to get the glue we need is prayer! ³Pray in order to believe firmly,²
Mary tells us.
Now in the Creed, we also say that we believe in the main mysteries of
the life of Jesus, in the functions of the Holy Spirit, in the resurrection
of the dead, etc. When believers pray the Creed, the Gospa marvels at the
creative, transforming and life-giving power of this profession of faith.
Then, let us refer to what she heard, as a child, on the lap of her parents,
Joachim and Ann. They taught her that when a believer confesses a tenet
of the faith with his lips, this tenet is strengthened and becomes a living
part of him. It actualizes itself and becomes real.
So each time we confess with all our heart, "we believe in the resurrection",
the entire reality of the resurrection expands in our hearts, and we become
a little more risen in Christ. No, we are not reciting some old history
book! We are living the resurrection! When we say, "we believe in the
Holy Spirit", we allow the Spirit to pour out his gifts in full measure within
us.
One day, I asked Vicka, ³In your opinion, why does the Gospa love the Creed
so much?" She took a deep breath and her _expression altered. I saw that
she wanted to share a priceless treasure with me but couldn¹t find words
beautiful enough. Finally, she said, "Oh, in the Creed, if only you could
realize... The Father is alive! Jesus is alive! The Holy Spirit is alive!²
Vicka's mouth was full of the word, ³Alive!²
Thank you, Myriam of Nazareth! You are a clever rabbi! (see PPS)
Dearest Gospa, in our hearts, please teach us more about Jesus and his yearning to be one with us!
Sr. Emmanuel
PS. Beautiful photos of Jelena and Massimiliano's wedding can be found on our website: http://www.childrenofmedjugorje.com
PPS. Most of this is taken from Sr. Emmanuel book, "Medjugorje The 90¹s"
in chapter, ³Rabbi Myriam¹s Creed². This book is available in 20 languages.
For ordering information please see our website.
PPPS. In Ireland, a new answering machine is giving the monthly message of
the Gospa 24 hours a day! Call today at, 01- 868 4644.
Nota Bene: Sr. Emmanuel's speaking schedule this Fall :
- September 15 and 16 in W. France, Tel: (33) 2 40 02 76 18. See at: www.enfantsdemedjugorje.com
- September 28 and 29th in Ottawa, Canada St. Francois d'Assise, 20 Fairmont
Ave. [at Wellington] For information call: (613) 830-0593 or (613) 830-8896
- October 5th & 6th, Chicago, Illinois, Chicago Marian Conference.
For information call: (888) 627 - 8093, or the Chicago Marian Center: (773)
774 - 7700.
- October 7th: Notre Dame, Indiana -Sacred Heart Parish Center, 7:00 PM
(Univ. of Notre Dame in Indiana)...Sister will also speak to youth at 7:00
PM on Oct 9th on "How to know about Your Vocation!" For information regarding
either talk, call: (574) 631 - 7511
- October 11th - 14th: Venezuela Oct. 11th, Caracas; Oct. 12th, Valencia;
Oct. 13 Valencia in the AM, Caracas in the PM. See at, http://www.fcpeace.com
- October 14th, Miami, Florida 7:30 PM at the Manresa Retreat House. For
information call: (800)-238-5538 or (305)-666-5000. See at, http://www.fcpeace.com