Fr. Martin’s reflection on - Our Lady’s Message

25^th April 2022

“Dear children! I am looking at you and I see that you are lost. That is why I am calling all of you: return to God, return to prayer - and the Holy Spirit will fill you with His love which gives joy to the heart. Hope will grow in you, also for a better future, and you will become joyful witnesses of God's mercy in you and around you.

Thank you for having responded to my call”

Dear Brother’s and Sisters of Medjugorje North East and beyond,

In the beautiful prayer ‘Hail Holy Queen’ we ask Our Lady, “Turn then most gracious advocate thine eyes of mercy towards us.”

So In this month’s message Our Lady begins, “I am looking at you and I see that you are lost.” Our Lady does indeed turn her eyes of mercy towards us, when she tells us, ‘I am looking at you.’

From heaven Mary see’s us, it is from heaven that Our Lady looks at us. It is a profound thought that Our Lady is ‘looking‘ at us, as she looked at her Son in the manger, and on the Cross, and in the glory of the Resurrection, Mary is ‘looking at us’, her eyes of mercy rest upon us, she is watching over us.

Mary has not abandoned us, she is not distant, she is close, and her loving motherly eyes are ‘looking ‘ at us.

When St. Luke painted the image of ‘Our Lady of perpetual help’, he gave her deep, penetrating loving eyes.

Eyes that are ever watching in loving silence for us.

It is for each one of us to really take to heart, Mary’s ever attentive look, she is our heavenly mother, and she is ‘looking’ at us.

‘And I see that you are lost.’

In St. Luke’s parable of the Prodigal Son, the Lost Sheep and the lost coin (Luke: 17) the parables of mercy, we encounter the true face of our Saviour. The face of Christ is mercy, the one who comes to save that which is lost.

From the outset of the apparitions of Our Lady at Medjugorje, Our Blessed Lady has told us she has come from God, sent from Heaven, with the Gospel message of Conversion and repentance.

Our Lady looks at us and see’s that we are lost, and shows us the way to life.

Last month Mary told us “Humanity is at a crossroad.”

And so she is the great sign of the one who shows us the way ahead. It seems today that humanity is indeed lost, lost in war, lost in despair, lost in meaningless, lost without any moral compass. But Our Lady notices our situation and shows us the solution.

“That is why I am calling all of you, return to God, return to prayer.” Our Lady says, ‘All of you.’

We are all influenced to some extent, by the environment around us. When Mary says, ‘All of you’ we should place ourselves in this category, and personally ask in our own hearts where I may need to return to God and prayer.

The very first question at the beginning of the Bible in the book of Genesis asks the question, ‘Where are you.’ ( 3. 9.)

God walks in the cool of the evening and calls out to the man and woman who are hiding, this searching question. In a humble examination of conscience, we too bring ourselves to God, and ask ourselves where we are in relation to him and prayer.

· Where do we need to return ?

· Where do I currently feel lost ?

“And the Holy Spirit will fill you with his love which gives Joy to the heart.” The Holy Spirit is the Lord, the giver of life, the one who brings love and Joy.

This is the reward of those who place themselves in the right disposition towards God and prayer.

“Seek first the Kingdom of God, then all else will be given you too.”

(Matt. 6 : 33) ‘Veni Creator Spiritus!’

“Hope will grow in you, for a better future, and you will become joyful witnesses of God’s mercy in you and around you.”

Without ‘Hope’ the Christian life is meaningless.

We pray in every Mass, ‘As we await the Blessed hope.’ It is a great mistake to believe that nothing can change for the better.

The Gospel calls us to daily living hope for one another.

Every day is gift, and the gift of ‘Hope’ is what should drive us forward for a better future.

Our Lady wants to protect the world from despair, so she asks us to be filled with the Hope of her Son.

This hope comes from the Mercy of God, which Our Lady says is ‘in you’ and ‘around you’, and makes us ‘ Joyful witnesses.’

Dear Brother’s and Sister’s in this month’s message Our Lady speaks about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, she mentions, Love, Joy, and Hope. It is a short message, but to the point. The closer we are to God in prayer, the more we become witnesses of God’s mercy in us and around us. Let us not be afraid, Our Lady is looking at us.

God Bless, Fr. Martin