Dear Children of Medjugorje,
Praised be Jesus and Mary!
1)
What a striking contrast between the waves of
suffering and dirt broadcast by the media in these troubled days,
and the "Rejoice with me" of the Gospa’s message on April 25
!! ( PS below) Our Lady can see everything in the full light of God in Heaven,
and she knows why she says, "Rejoice
!". We
should not fail to grasp this joy, which can spare us so many useless crosses. Evil shatters against a heart
filled with joy, the joy of one who puts his trust in God and raises up his
head. Joy is not a mood
depending on circumstances, but a fruit of the Spirit, and we all long for
that joy which comes from God and that no one can take away from us. Today Our Lady offers that joy to us,
let us immerse in it!
As for
the Gospa, she does her work perfectly: in our hardships, she helps us with
all the fervor of her maternal love.
But we have to do our part, that of opening ourselves to God and
letting him change our hearts; as
for everything else, God himself
"sees and provides."
We needed to hear this! About
Mary's help, an Irish priest shared an awesome testimony yesterday:
One of
his fellow priests was in such an inextricable situation that there was no way
out from a human perspective. He
was literally crushed under terrible burdens and could only cry for help. He actually did so while on a
pilgrimage to Medjugorje in the early 90’s, where he had come incognito. One day while walking along the
small road of Bijakovici (the hamlet where the visionaries were born, at the
foot of Apparition Hill), he heard a female voice calling him by name. This much surprised him since no
one knew him in the village. He
turned to where the voice came from and saw a young woman approaching him,
smiling. She said without
any hesitation, "Father, the Gospa gave me a message for you, here it is!" Totally dumbfounded, the priest
read the message and could not believe his eyes : in a few concise words, the
Mother of God showed him the way to get out of this rut and gave him the
providential solution which would solve his problems. She solved in a supernatural way what
had been impossible to solve otherwise.
The priest is still filled with wonder at the intervention of his
heavenly Mother, at a time in his life when everything seemed lost.
The
Gospa does keep her promises! Why
would we leave her jobless when she longs to help us so badly? How many times has she repeated
to the visionaries and the prayer groups what she taught for years in
Medjugorje :
"When you have hardships and when you need me, come to me!"
"When you wake up in the morning, immediately after you open your eyes,
before you lift your head from the pillow, call upon me, and I'll come!"
"I am your Mother, I have come to help you!"
2) Marija's
long stay in Medjugorje, due to some improvements done on her house, has
allowed pilgrims to listen to her and sometimes to attend a private apparition. She is expecting her forth child
and she likes to tell them, smiling, "I have four children and one kidney!". One day, as she was relating a
famous episode in the history of Medjugorje, Draga, a woman from the village,
raised her hand and said, "Marija, I was there that night, I remember it
well!". Then Marija
had her tell the story, and she found out about some details that she had
herself forgotten. I relate this
story here for I'm sure it will inspire us to open and change our hearts.
It took place in Summer, July 1981.
The Milice (police) had forbidden the villagers to go up the hill. Our Lady had asked the
visionaries to gather in a field, that of Jure at the foot of the hill, at 10
pm. That night, some 50 people
gathered around the visionaries for the Rosary, followed by the apparition. But something unusual had been
announced by Our Lady: the people present would be able to touch her! The visionaries had to take them
one by one by the arm and lead them toward Our Lady, for the visionaries were
the only ones who could see her. The
villagers felt a great joy to be able to touch their Gospa, but soon after
they did, the visionaries realized that stains were showing up on our Lady's
dress. They cried and asked
her why this was happening? They
could actually see that some people left stains when they touched Our Lady,
not because their hands were dirty, but for another reason. The Gospa answered them,
"It's the sins of those who touch me, sins they have not confessed.
"
The visionaries could clearly see who left what stain and for what sins! They were very angry and Marija
even told herself, " I am going to remember this!". Nonetheless, after the
apparition, the visionaries completely forgot the sins they had seen, as if
the Lord thus wanted to give them a sign of the secret of confession. It was on that night that Our Lady
invited everyone to go to confession at least once a month, for "there
is no one on earth", she told them, "who does not need a
monthly confession". The
next day, they all went to their pastor (Father Jozo) to "purify their
hearts" through the sacrament of confession and change what they needed
to change in their lives. Draga
can remember that, when she touched Our Lady, she received in her whole being
a kind of powerful and intimate shock, which she cannot express in words. She also remembers that, during the
apparition, groups of Croatian pilgrims visiting Medjugorje at the time and
unaware of the on-going event, were walking along that field and, through a
bad habit, were interspersing their conversations with curses. Grieved and shocked by the
contrast between the immense purity of the Blessed Mother and these
conversations, she understood better the horror of sin.
I think that Draga's most important memory was that it was not all sins that
stained Our Lady's dress, but only those that people had not confessed and of
which they had not repented yet.
For God, sins confessed do not exist anymore! What a teaching for us! In a later message the Gospa
would say, "Give God all the evil that has accumulated into your
hearts in the past!"
Do we want the help of God? Do
we want that "He sees and provides"? Our Lady is calling us today again to
conversion of heart and renunciation of sin, that darkens not only her dress
but the whole world too. Forgiveness
of sins in the sacrament of confession is a work of God greater than the
creation of heaven and earth!
3) On May 18, the Holy Father will
celebrate his 82nd birthday. In
union with so many Christians, let us offer him a spiritual bouquet that
expresses our support and love for him and will make him most happy: a novena
of prayers. If possible it
could be prayed in the family (a Rosary, the Litanies of Our Lady or of Sacred
Heart of Jesus, a novena to the Divine Mercy, or any prayer we may choose),
for his intentions, especially the one dearest to his heart these days: peace
in the Middle East. (See one
suggestion in the PPS below)
PS. Our Lady's April 25, 2002 message:
"Dear children! Rejoice with me in this time of spring when all nature
is awakening and your hearts long for change.
Open yourselves, little children, and pray. Do not forget that I am with you and I
desire to take you all to my Son that He may give you the gift of sincere love
towards God and everything that is from Him.
Open yourselves to prayer and seek a conversion of your hearts from
God; everything else He sees and provides.
Thank you for having responded to my call."
PPS. The following prayer was dictated by
Our Lady to Jelena Vasilj on April 19, 1983:
Oh my Mother!
Mother of goodness, love and mercy!
I love you immensely, and I offer myself to you.
Through your goodness, your love,
And your mercy, save me!
I desire to be yours.
I love you immensely
And I desire that you protect me.
In my heart, oh Mother of goodness,
Give me your goodness,
So that I go to Heaven.
I ask you for your immense love
That you may give me the grace
That I will be able to love each person
Just like you loved Jesus Christ.
I ask you for the grace
That I be able to be merciful to you.*
I offer myself completely to you
And I wish that you will be with me at each step,
Because you are full of grace.
I wish never to forget your grace,
And if I should lose it,
I pray that you will restore it to me again.
Amen.
*
The phrase "I ask you for the grace that I be able to be merciful to
you," means : "Give me the grace to love your will which is
different than mine."