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

25^th August 2017

“Dear children, Today I am calling you to be people of prayer. Pray until prayer becomes a joy for you and a meeting with the Most High. He will transform your hearts and you will become people of love and peace. Do not forget, little children, that Satan is strong and wants to draw you away from prayer. You, do not forget that prayer is the secret key of meeting with God. That is why I am with you to lead you. Do not give up on prayer. Thank you for having responded to my call. ”

"Prayer is the life of the new heart.  It ought to animate us at every moment. Prayer is a remembrance of God often awakened by the memory of the heart." (CCC: 2697)

Dear Brothers and Sisters of Medjugorje North East and beyond, Let us take time to read slowly and carefully Our Lady's words, and allow them to penetrate our very soul. The times in which we are living show seriously the extent of the forgetfulness of God, and Mary comes to help us with her presence.

Let us turn to the Holy Scriptures to help us in our reflection.  In St. Matthew's Gospel 13:1-26, we hear the Parable of the sower.  The seed which fell by the wayside and on stony places could not germinate.  Only those which fell on cultivated land bore fruit. 

Mary, queen of Peace, is coming to us and she wishes to help with the cultivation of our hearts so that "prayer becomes a meeting with the Most High."

"Today I am calling you to be a people of Prayer” 

The Church is the Pilgrim People of God, travelling together towards the eternal House of our Heavenly Father. We need one another on this road, we need the prayerful support of each other too, to encourage and sustain our journey. 

Mary begins this month's message by reminding us that she has been gathering together for thirty-six years now a people of Prayer. Forming a great river of Faith, a chain of Prayer because she is Mother of the Church. This is why she says we are a people of Prayer. Prayer gives us the gift of unity and peace. With her, under her protective mantle we are together.

Our Lady encourages us to persevere "until prayer becomes a joy for you and a meeting with the Most High"

Some people complain that their Prayer seems like a burden, a duty or an obligation. But Mary wants us to know Prayer as a Joy-filled moment, a happy encounter with her Son.  So, for Prayer to be Joy, an encounter means to pray with Love. Prayer is not a problem of time but of love. When we pray with love, with feeling, with quality and value then our prayer takes on an intensity that leads to encounter.  For prayer to become Joy, means to pray in the Holy Spirit, to invoke the Spirit of Christ who is the author of all Prayer.  For Prayer to become Joy means allowing Jesus to have the first place in our hearts.  What does this mean?  that we are prepared to confront anything within us that is godless. To recognise that we need to be purified from our wrong actions and thoughts, from false gods, like materialism, and from false expectations. May we have the humility to do this and the insight to recognise what may be preventing our growth in the Life of Prayer. 

Mary says that Prayer " Is a meeting with the Most High" and the effect of this meeting is Transformation. Like Jesus who was transfigured on the holy mountain, and Moses on Mount Sinai may we always recall that the Grace of Prayer is change, that makes us more loving and peaceful.

"Do not forget little children, that satan is strong and wants to draw you away from Prayer."

The Catechism reminds us that "Prayer is both a gift of Grace and a determined response on our behalf. It always presupposes effort. The great figures of Prayer of the Old Covenant before Christ, as well as the Mother of God, the Saints, and he himself, all teach us this, Prayer is a Battle. Against whom? against ourselves and against the wiles of the tempter, who does all he can to take man away from Prayer, away from God, for Prayer is union with God. " (2725) 

The virtues of humility, trust and perseverance are the means to victory in the Battle for Prayer.

Mary is the woman who with all her descendants won the victory over satan.  Her enemy is our enemy. With her, in these times we will triumph over him, whose head she has already crushed. Mary wishes to protect us, but she cannot do this without our co-operation. 

Let us renounce evil every day and together with Mary give our total obedience to the Lord. "For with God everything is possible." ( Luke 1:37)  Let us renounce evil every day and together with Mary decide for the Most High.  May everyday be started and lived in this way so that we will be witnesses of God's love and of Mary's presence, people of love and peace.  May we always remember that "Prayer is the secret key of meeting with God. That is why I am with you to lead you."

Concerning the devil, we know from the Bible that he accuses human beings before the Lord. Mary now has an entirely different task. she speaks and pleads our cause. She knows that we are weak, that we are sinners, that we have drifted far away from the Lord, and could continue to do so. she prays for us, so that we will stay with her and search for God at her side.

Mary cause of our Joy pray for us.

Fr. Martin Morris