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

25th August 2020

 

Our Lady of MedjugorjeDear children,    This is a time of grace. I am with you and anew am calling you, little children: return to God and to prayer until prayer will be a joy for you. Little children, you do not have a future or peace until your life begins with a personal conversion and a change to the good. Evil will cease and peace will begin to reign in your hearts and in the world. Therefore, little children, pray, pray, pray. I am with you and intercede before my Son Jesus for each of you. Thank you for having responded to my call.

 

 

 

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters of Medjugorje North East and beyond,

There is a great danger for those who follow the messages of Our Lady Queen and Mother of Peace; that we become used to them. 

That we run the risk of thinking we have heard it all before and we no longer recognise the great depth of wisdom and teaching contained in Our Lady’s words.  So when Mary speaks, “ I am with you and calling you ANEW.”  Then we need to take to heart her call for renewal.   To see with fresh eyes her words, to hear with new hearing her call.  Anew means a new approach, a new start.  Each of us can ask ourselves if we have this way when we receive the messages each month.  For in each message is a true gift of heavenly teaching.  And anew am calling you.”  Each message contains something new for each one of us, and this requires our diligent attention and openness of spirit.  May we take to heart Our Lady’s call for a renewed approach to her call, and so live her words anew!

“This is a time of Grace.”   A spiritual gift is being offered with Our Lady’s coming.  God in his love is always the dispenser of graces.  God is always ready to give Himself, but it requires our availability and openness to receive. 

The apparitions are ‘a time of Grace’, because Mary is with us and leads us in our following of her Son.  So it is ‘a time of Grace,’ because there is a special opportunity to become receptive to the call of the Mother of God.

In last month’s message, (25th July 2020)  Our Lady said, “ In a special way now when the Cross and Faith are rejected.”.  We as her Dear Children are asked to listen “Anew so as to hear the call to Salvation in a deeper way.

“Return to God and prayer.” 

We can only ask ourselves, how these words apply to our own situation. 

Where are we in our life of Faith? 

In our prayer life?

In our friendship with Christ? 

We all need to be progressing in the spiritual life, so we need to have Jesus as the centre, each day.  To have our lives focused on doing his will.  To return to him means to give him priority, to renounce anything that compromises our love for him.  To be listening to his voice. 

Our Lady wants us to understand that our lives are a gift from God, and to deepen our understanding of our purpose in this life.  So maybe like the young man in the Gospel we too can ask: “Good Master what must I do to inherit eternal life?  ( Luke 18:18 )

In asking this question we will recognise what we must do to return to him.

“Little children you do not have a future or peace until your life begins with a personal conversion and a change to the good.” 

From the outset of the apparitions Our Lady has taught us the importance of ‘personal conversion.’  From this flows our interior peace, and our contribution to make the world more peaceful.  Our very future is linked to our personal conversion.   It begins in the heart of each one of us.  When we decide for God and what needs to be changed.  To surrender our lives to him in Faith and Love.  We have to decide for holiness and prayer.  Our future of peace begins with this decision.  Note Our Lady’s emphasis on our future, and the link with our own personal conversion.  Our future is in our own hands so to say.  In our own heart.

When we Pray, Fast, Love and Forgive , Reconcile, then we open the future onto peace. 

“Evil will cease and peace will begin to reign in your hearts and in the world.”  Peace begins in the human heart.  Gods kingdom will reign within us.  A heart that is filled with Prayer and Trust is a peaceful one.  And this is the way to overcoming evil. 

Our Lady then gives us the threefold call to “Pray, Pray, Pray.”  All our answers are found in prayer.  Our Lady gives this threefold call periodically, and it underscores her request for persevering and trusting prayer. 

She does not tire of us, and the necessity of our prayers for her intentions.  Our Lady is the Mediatrix of all graces.  The fact that she is with us and intercedes for us is certainly encouraging. 

So let us ask ourselves how can we live her messages “ANEW” with -

 

New Enthusiasm,

New Joy,

A New Openness,

New Courage 

New Trust. 

 

Thank you Our Lady Queen and Mother of Peace, that you do not tire of us, but ever call us ANEW.

 

God Bless, Fr. Martin