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

25^th May 2020

“Dear children, Today I am looking at you and calling: return to God because He is love and out of love has sent me to you to lead you on the way of conversion. Leave sin and evil, decide for holiness and joy will begin to reign; and you will be my extended hands in this lost world. I desire that you be prayer and hope to those who have not come to know the God of love. Thank you for having responded to my call.”

Dear Brothers and Sisters of Medjugorje North East and beyond, As we approach the 40th Anniversary of Our Lady’s coming in Medjugorje, we give thanks and praise to God for this great grace, this divine intervention in our lives.

In the very early days of the apparitions Our Lady said, “ Dear Children, I have come amongst you, so that a new spirit of God may settle in your souls.” (June 28th 1981) .

These past forty years have been a meeting point between heaven and earth for all who have visited Medjugorje, and who have been Blessed with the gift of a renewed Faith, through the encounter of Him who is Our Way, Our Truth and life, Jesus Christ the Saviour of the human race.

So Our Lady begins this month’s message:

“ Today I am looking at you and calling.” What a wonderful thought, that Our Lady from heaven is not just looking at us but is calling us too. We need to take this to heart, that Mary is really looking at us, her gaze is upon us. In all the busyness of life, in all the trials we can experience, Our Lady is looking at us, because she cares and is interested in our situation.

In one of our prayers, we ask Our Lady, ‘Turn then most gracious advocate thine eyes of mercy towards us.” She does so, she tells us, aware of us because she loves us, and is concerned for us. Her look is one of tenderness, of Motherly love and concern, a look that is from heaven. When St. Luke painted the original image of ‘Our Lady of perpetual help‘ he put much emphasis on the ‘eyes’ of Our Lady’, to illustrate her watchful care for all believers. So remember that Our Lady is looking at you.

St. John Paul Il, would often tell the story of his childhood encounter with Our Lady, in his parish Church. One day, not long after the death of his own Mother, he was attracted in a powerful way to an image of Our Lady in the side chapel of the Church, as he approached the image he said the ‘look’ of Mary captivated him, and heard the words, ‘totally yours.’ From then onwards he knew he had a heavenly Mother watching over him. Mary doesn’t just ‘look’ at us today, she also ‘calls.’ ‘Looking’ and ‘calling’ is what Our Lady is doing for us in her role as our Heavenly Mother, because from the outset of the apparitions, Mary has told us she wants our Salvation. May we truly listen in the silence of our hearts and hear what Our Lady is calling us to.

“ Return to God because He is love and out of love has sent me to you to lead you on the way of conversion.’ In this message Our Lady makes reference to ‘He is love’, ‘out of love’ ‘the God of love’ three times. She wishes to underscore the true nature of God, and the encounter we have with God in our life of Faith. We should note these three phrases, because sometimes we can have a distorted image of God. Mary is catechising us in our very knowledge and understanding of the Most High. Note, ‘He is love’, ‘Out of Love’, and ‘The God of Love’. A person who enters prayer with an expectation of meeting a loving God, is predisposed to receive and mediate graces from God. We have to realise and take to heart that the world and the Church are in great need of Gods Mercy, and that our imperfections and failures don’t limit His love. God loves us despite our weakness! My weakness doesn’t prevent Him approaching me. We only need to ‘Return to God’ and surrender our lives to Him who is love. Praying the Rosary is a prayer of great spiritual surrender into the hands of Our Loving Father.

Praying the Rosary we meet with Jesus and his Mother, the Queen of Peace. The more we become aware of whom we meet during the Rosary, the more we enter into the mystery of the God who is love, for us and with us! Each of us are the creation of God, so we have a spiritual dimension to our very existence. As the children of God, Mary reminds us that we can enter a communion with the Father our Creator, and our Saviour the Redeemer. Since we have received the Holy Spirit in Baptism and Confirmation, our souls are in constant longing to be united with this creator who is ‘The God of Love’, ‘Like the deer that yearns for living streams.’ ( Ps: 41)

“ Leave sin and evil. Decide for holiness and Joy will begin to reign.” From the start of the apparitions Our Lady has told us that our personal conversion begins with our own decision. We cannot ever serve two masters, so Mary says the beginning of all renewal starts with our personal choice. We think of Our Lord’s parable of the Prodigal Son, “He came to his senses, I will leave this place and return to the House of my Father.” (Luke: 15:16)

So too each of us must leave the place of sin and evil, (whatever this may be, our conscience tells us) and return to the place of truth and holiness. Then real joy of the soul and spirit will reign. This is why Our Lady always has recommended monthly confession, because sin and evil can be so strong in our lives today.

“ And you will be my extended hands in this lost world.” We go as other Mary’s, we live our daily lives as other Mary’s. She will work through us, her spirit will be effective in our lives, because we share the same Holy Spirit. Her hands will be our hands, hands raised in Prayer and Blessing to the Father, hands that console, greet, gentle hands that support and strengthen. Hands that point heavenwards in ‘this lost world.’

“I desire that you be prayer and hope to those who have not come to know the God of love.”

Our Lady concludes this message as she began by turning us towards the ‘God of Love.’ These words go to the very heart of the mission of the Church, to the mission of every Christian person. To show the Love of God in our very lives. Mary tells us that the way to do this is through ‘prayer and hope.’ The fruit of prayer is ‘hope’, and all who pray become bearers of God’s saving love, because they are friends of God. Prayer is contact with God and contact with God means ‘hope’ for others. We do not need to make any judgements on others or their situation, Our Lady simply asks us to be prayer, living prayer, and we become channels of ‘hope’ to those who have not yet encountered ‘The God of Love.’ May it be so!

God Bless,

Fr. Martin