Fr. Martin’s
reflection on - Our Lady’s Message
25th
August 2024
“Dear children! Today, my prayer
with you is for peace. Good and evil are fighting and want to prevail in the
world and in the hearts of people. You be people of hope and prayer and of
great trust in God the Creator to Whom everything is possible. Little children, may peace prevail in you and around you. I
am blessing you with my motherly blessing that you, little children, may be joy
for all those whom you meet.
Thank you for having responded to my call.”
Dear Brothers and Sisters of Medjugorje North Last and beyond,
Current events in the world show us a precarious state of events with
many countries at war and enmity with one another.
Peace is fragile and hangs in the balance, and so we see a lack of peace
in many hearts, which as Our Lady tells us in this month’s message results from
an absence of a relationship with “God the Creator” Who is the source of
all peace. From the beginning of creation God has invited men and
women as stewards of creation to enter into a
communion of Life and Love with him. But this invitation has
often been frustrated by sin and man’s desire for autonomy and independence
from his creator and the commandments.
So, our Lady reminds us that God is our creator and invites us into a
communion of Loving Trust with him.
Each time we profess our Faith in the Creed we Say -
“I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and
earth.”
Our Lady begins this month’s message, “Today my prayer with you is
for Peace.” From the beginning of the apparitions Our Lady has
come to us as ‘The Queen of Peace’ to show humanity the path to real and
lasting peace with God and our neighbour. This call to peace is
fundamental to humanity’s existence, and the future depends on it.
Our Lady has shown us from the very start of her coming that the
foundations of real peace are our individual conversion, penance and
prayer. Peace begins with these conditions. “My prayer
with you is for peace.”
Note the words, “My” and “You.” Mary is praying
with us and for us, we are together with her, in a two-way Mission. Our Lady
reminds us that the starting point for Peace is ‘Prayer.’
Then Our Lady continues, “Good and evil are fighting and want to
prevail in the world and in the hearts of people.”
We can feel and see that unfolding battle around us, and as Our Lady
tells us, even within our own hearts. It is a real spiritual and
physical battle that is being waged in the world and in people’s hearts, and it
is costing lives, and souls too.
With her call to prayer, Our Lady is asking us to be on her side, the
side of peace, and this battle begins in our own heart, a battle for the good
and for peace within each of us to prevail. This is what it means to
live the Beatitudes, to be channels of Blessedness in the world
today. That means for us to decide today for Peace, Goodness, and
Conversion. We ask this each time we pray the ‘Our Father’. - “Thy kingdom
Come.”
Our Lady then asks us “To be people of Hope and Prayer and of Great trust in God
the Creator.”
Hope, Prayer and Great Trust, are the hallmarks of Mary’s
children. We say in each Holy Mass before Holy Communion, “As we
await the Blessed Hope.” The gift of hope is what keeps the flame of
Faith alive and burning, without Hope the Christian life is
meaningless. We should pray often for increase in hope in each of
our lives. This means no negative thinking or despondency.
Our Lady then says, “In God the Creator to whom everything is
possible.”
There is an echo here of the words in St. Luke’s Gospel, (1:37.) at the
Annunciation, “For nothing is impossible for those who are with
God.”
Our Lady speaks similar words to us today to encourage us in a living
relationship with God who is ever creative and hears our deepest prayer to
him. Mary invites us to have ‘Great Trust’ in God, as she did at the moment of the Annunciation when she surrendered
everything into his hands. “Jesus I Trust in you ” is
a great prayer, may our Trust be truly great each and every day.’
Our Lady closes this month’s message by giving us her motherly blessing
and asks each of us to be “Joy for all those you meet.”
May it be so!
God Bless,
Fr. Martin