Fr. Martin’s
reflection on - Our Lady’s Message
25th
January 2020
“ Dear children, Today I am calling you to pray even more,
until you feel the holiness of forgiveness in your heart. There must be
holiness in the families, little children, because there is no future for the
world without love and holiness – because in holiness and joy, you give
yourselves to God the Creator who loves you with immeasurable love. This is why He sends me to you. Thank you for having
responded to my call. ”
Dear Brothers and Sisters of Medjugorje North East and beyond,
Our Lady invites us to “Holiness” and uses that word four times
in this months message. The call to holiness was at the heart of the
Second Vatican Council. In chapter five
of the Constitution on the Church, entitled, ‘The Call to Holiness’ the
Council Fathers set forth the truth that the renewal of the Church, depends on
the call to holiness in the life of every Baptised person.
“The forms and tasks are many but holiness is one-that sanctity which
is cultivated by all who act under God’s Spirit, and obeying the Father’s
voice, and adoring God the Father in Spirit and Truth, follow Christ, poor,
humble, and Cross Bearing, that they may be partakers of His glory.”
(s:41)
Our Lord himself, Divine Teacher preached holiness of life to all his
disciples without distinction.
“You therefore must be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt:
5:48)
So, in this months
message Our Lady as Mother and Teacher reminds us all in our many and different
states that we are called to the fullness of Christian Life and to the
perfection of the Holy Spirit. Four
times Our Lady use the word, ‘Holiness’ in this message, as if to
underscore the point that this is the intention of her coming. Our Lady calls us to holiness and has
repeated so many times in the past that we should, decide for Holiness.
What is holiness? The Hebrew
word, ‘Kodesh’ - ‘a holy thing’ appears more
than one thousand times in the Bible. It
means to separate, between what is sacred and profane.
“Be consecrated to me, for I the Lord am Holy, and I shall set you apart
from all these peoples for you to be mine.” (Lev: 20:26)
Being holy depends not on living up to external ideals rules or customs
or practices of piety, (Piety is good for it is a fruit of the Holy Spirit) but
rather on the interior life, the life of the Spirit.
Since the first apparitions at Medjugorje, Our Lady has never called us
to a devotion. She has called us:
·
to a strong Faith, (16 times)
·
to pray to the Holy Spirit, (17 times)
·
to be strong against satan,
(14 times).
These are all themes of the universal call to Salvation at the Heart of
the Gospel message of Conversion. So now
in this months message we
see a strong emphasis on the call to Holiness (4 times).
A holy person is one who has Christ at the centre, when we are desiring
him and his living Word in our daily lives, when we recognise our need for him
in humility.
“In your heart have a desire for heaven, and the desire for holiness
will be born.” (August,
25th, 2006)
We should pray often for the gift of desire for heaven, to the Holy
Spirit. For it is in prayer that the
gift of holiness is born.
“Today I am calling you to pray even more.”
Our Lady reminds us of that persevering prayer that leads to Love, for
without Love we cannot grow in holiness.
It is in the encounter of prayer that we meet him who is eternal divine
Love, in whom all Love has its source.
Because God is Love and his Love is immeasurable.
The Scriptures tell us that we are called to be Saints by vocation.
We gradually become those Saints when we grow in Faith and Love. The
grace of transforming union is for everyone who desires. Our Lady tells us that ‘there is no future
for the world without Love and Holiness’.
So, let us listen to the voice from heaven and free ourselves from the
disordered inclinations that can choke our Love, Faith and Prayer.
Medjugorje is the invitation to liberation of the soul, an interior call
to a new spiritual maturity in the School of Mary. The fourfold call to holiness in this month’s
message is our mission ‘to be salt to the earth and light to the world.’
(Mark: 9: 50: 4:21)
Let us pray:
“Breathe in me O Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be Holy.
Act in me O Holy Spirit, that my work too may be Holy.
Draw my heart O Holy Spirit that I Love but what is Holy.
Strengthen me O Holy Spirit, to defend all that is Holy.
Guard me then O Holy Spirit that I always be Holy.”
God Bless,
Fr. Martin