Fr. Martin’s
reflection on - Our Lady’s Message
25th
June 2017
“Dear children, Today I desire to thank you for your perseverance and
call you to open yourselves to profound prayer. Prayer, little children, is the
heart of faith and is hope in eternal life. Therefore, pray with the heart
until your heart sings with thanksgiving to God the Creator who gave you life. I am with you, little children, and carry to you
my motherly blessing of peace. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
Dear Brothers and sisters
of Medjugorje North East and beyond,
Praise be Jesus and
Mary.
For thirty-six years now the
Queen of Peace has come to us with the Gospel message of conversion. we
have had the great opportunity of responding to the call of Our Lady, and of
entering her school of prayer and peace. Mary thanks us for our perseverance,
during this time, and in so doing acknowledges the co-operation with her in
helping to bring about the father's plans.
How many times has Our Lady
said, " Without you, I am unable to do this." Let
us thank the Lord that we heard Mary's call, and received the grace of the Holy
spirit to persevere. Let us be truly grateful for the grace of
perseverance, because so many did not give up. The opening words of
this month's message should make us very happy, because there are so many
hearts and souls who understood what was happening in Medjugorje and remained
loyal. So many who did not permit themselves to become confused, but who
kept focused and persevering in living the messages of Our Lady. Mary thanks us
that we did not give up, that we persevered and continue in the path of Prayer,
Faith, Fasting, and Love.
Next Our Lady invites us to
"Open yourselves to profound prayer."
What is profound Prayer?
It is a gift that is
offered to all. It is when we decide to pray out of love, so the loving
decision to pray should be the beginning of praying with the heart. It is
recognising that Prayer should not depend on feelings or desires.
With the firm decision to
pray from Love then we enter the grace of prayer with the heart. All
prayer is an encounter with God, and an encounter cannot happen without
time. When we are close to God in our heart then prayer deepens and grows
to a profound level.
If unbelief and atheism are
spreading today, then people of profound prayer are necessary. Those who
give time out of love in the Holy Mass, Rosary and Holy Scriptures, to enter into profound prayer, and to be led into
the gift of contemplating the Lord.
"Pray with the
heart, until your heart sings with thanksgiving to God the Creator who gave you life."
it is interesting how often
the theme of thanksgiving is repeated in the messages over the years. in
every message Our Lady says, " Thank you for having responded to
my call.” it happens easily that we only ask for things in our
prayers and maybe in constant asking we can go so far that we are actually trying to adapt Gods will to ours rather than our
will to his.
Thanking is very important.
Thanking and praising and adoring, and thanking in general is closely related
to peace. When we thank we see what we have, we see others in a new light,
when we live in a spirit of gratitude then we also see what others have done
for us. Mary desires that we recognise that life is a gift, a grace, and
a grateful person is able to see what God is
doing.
To believe more in God
the Creator means to love life and to accept that every life is a gift and
all he created for us in his love. Mary wants a song of thanksgiving in the
hearts of every one of her children, a song like her Magnificat, so that we can
all glorify and Magnify the Lord at this time.
Only when we recognise and
accept God the Father, Creator of Heaven and earth, of all things visible and
invisible can we truly love and live in his peace.
At this
time in
our nation we are seeing much death and destruction, but Mary calls us to be
the witnesses for life, love and holiness, everything that is good and true and
holy.
So let us trust God the
Father Almighty Creator of Heaven and earth, and let us praise Him with a new
song in our hearts, for the wonders he has done.
God Bless, Fr. Martin