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Medjugorje
Message: January 25, 2015 Dear children! Also today I call you: live your vocation in
prayer. Now, as never before, Satan wants to suffocate man and his soul by
his contagious wind of hatred and unrest. In many hearts there is no joy
because there is no God or prayer. Hatred and war are growing from day to
day. I am calling you, little children, begin anew,
with enthusiasm, the walk of holiness and love; since I have come among you
because of this. Together let us be love and forgiveness for all those who
know and want to love only with a human love and not with that immeasurable
love of God to which God calls you. Little children, may hope in a better
tomorrow always be in your heart. Thank you for having responded to my call. |
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Published
by the Marian Center of San Antonio / A Catholic Evangelization Ministry February 2015 In this month of Valentines and the start of Lent, Our Lady speaks to
us of love—not just “a human love,” but rather “that immeasurable love of God to
which God calls you.” As Our Lady points out, the
world is in dire straits and terrible shape, with “hatred and war growing from day to
day,” so it is past time for those of us who have heard her call these 33 years to “begin
anew, with enthusiasm, the walk of holiness and love.” After all, she says, “I have come among you because of this.” We who have opened ourselves to her “School of Prayer” at Medjugorje should be on the “front lines” of
Christians who walk in “holiness
and love.” Otherwise, why has she come?
Or what good has our following the Queen of Peace done in our lives? Not much! And so, as St. Francis de Sales said, we must “start all over again every day.” First let us contemplate the harsh reality with which Our Lady
confronts us: “Now,
as never before, Satan wants to suffocate man and his soul by his contagious
wind of hatred and unrest. In many hearts there is no joy because there is no
God or prayer. Hatred and war are growing from day to day.” Depicting our current situation as a suffocating plague of deadly illness spreading by a “contagious wind of hatred and unrest,” Our Lady paints a grim picture of our plight today. We get a tiny glimpse into Our Lady’s metaphor by simply recalling the seasonal flu
epidemic with its highly contagious respiratory ailments that make breathing
difficult—except here she speaks not only of the body suffering
infection, but of man’s “soul” under siege by Satan. Notice that this satanic attack is not occurring “somewhere out there” (Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, New York, Ferguson, etc.), but everywhere, within the hearts of human beings where “there is no joy because there is no God or prayer.” Here we must see the link
between “God” and “prayer.” The only reason God is “missing” from a heart is
because the opening door of prayer is missing. Prayer is our opening to God’s presence and action, the Divine Indwelling that will surely come—“I stand
at the door and knock”—as soon as the Divine visitation is accepted through the receptivity of an open heart whose door is opened by PRAYER. The Presence of God/Love fills and animates all creation at every
moment. But in the case of human
beings—made in the image of God
with free
will and divine dignity—a deliberate opening and consent of the will must occur before our courteous God will take up residence
within us, along with all the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit. This “welcoming” happens through prayer. Prayer itself takes many forms; unfortunately, some of us who claim
to “pray” actually “go
through motions” or word-rituals without
our hearts opening even
a crack in genuine
receptivity to God’s presence and action.
We can easily delude ourselves and others about our practice of “prayer.” For
example, in these days of deep fear and anxiety about the “radicalized
Islamist” groups such as Boko Haram, ISIS, and
Al-Qaeda, Christians are called to practice the “radical
Gospel” of Jesus who said: “Love your enemies and pray for those
who persecute you.” He defined “murder” not as
the outward act of killing alone, but any word or action of disrespect
toward another person. (Mt 5) As we practice Our Lady’s “prayer of the heart” in intercession for our troubled world (whether at Mass or in
private), we must pray for the hearts of terrorists
to be transformed and turned toward peace—and for our own hearts to be
cleansed from all root-malice and disrespect—rather than interceding only for “our side” of the conflict
(“Christians,” “Americans,” etc.). Sadly, we seldom hear “prayer for enemies” in our liturgical gatherings, which reveals an “UN-radicalized” gospel prayer life! Our Lady says that without prayer and its opening of heart, we are in danger of “losing our joy” and coming under the
totalitarian tyranny of the satanic ego dominating our entire being—body, mind and spirit. The ego’s function of promoting a consciousness of separation and
division begins to run wild and
multiply like the rampant, raging cells of a cancer within us, until our
entire perspective is poisoned with a malignant outlook on others that
Our Lady calls “hatred
and unrest.” This is a “contagious wind” that “metastasizes” to all parts of our being and personality,
infecting our entire worldview with a sour, cynical, polarized, adversarial
attitude. This inner state leads to all forms of outward violence and war. Why does Our Lady say that this satanic soul-suffocating is happening “now, as never before”? Surely there have been other dark chapters in human history as bad
as our own, or worse? But the unique aspect of today’s crisis of “hatred and unrest” is the speed and completeness with which this contagion spreads in our technologically
globalized world of internet, social media, and 24/7 cable news that is
presented un-objectively from opposing partial and biased viewpoints. This massive electronic daily propagandizing of the planet whips people into a frenzy of “hatred and unrest” on a much larger scale than ever before in human history.
Thus our advanced technology is spreading the contagion of satanic/egoic
“malignancy” in an unprecedented way today; we can no longer live in isolated
pockets of peace and oblivion as did peoples of former epochs, with bloody
horrors “confined” to small areas of the world, for through technology our
planet is a closely-knit, interconnected global “village” now. What does Our Lady offer as a solution to our tragic predicament?
First of all she says: “Live your vocation in prayer.” This was her call from the beginning at Medjugorje:
“Pray, pray,
pray!”—whether our vocation is to
the single, married, religious, or clerical life; whether we are students,
professionals, artists, manual laborers, stay-at-home parents, or retirees. Whatever our state and vocation in life, we must “live our vocation in prayer.” Silent contemplative prayer (in the “inner
room”) is not reserved for cloistered monks
and nuns or for priests and brothers; it is the call of each and every person who wishes to
follow Jesus Christ! In order to “live our vocation in prayer,” we will no doubt need to spend less time with electronic
devices and manipulative media! Then Our Lady says: “Begin anew, with enthusiasm, the walk of holiness and love….Together
let us be love and forgiveness for all those who know and want to love
only with a human love and not with that immeasurable love of God to which
God calls you.” If we’ve been on this faith
journey a long time, we are perhaps weary and dry in our spirituality and
prayer practice. To “begin
anew with enthusiasm” seems a lot to ask. The word
“enthusiasm” comes from the Greek word “en-theos,” meaning “possessed
by a god.” Instead of satanic possession, Our Lady wants us to be possessed by the One
Trinitarian God who is Love. Ironically, the hallmark of “God-possession” is the ability to love in a totally non-possessive
way. In this “walk of love,” Mary calls us to “BE love and forgiveness for all those who know and want” only “a
human love.” Here Our Lady is
acknowledging that love is natural to all human beings and that all people “know” and “want” love. But what we “know” with our heads and “want” with our emotions is a love that is partial at best, for our intellectual and emotional centers are clouded and colored by ego. Forgiveness, a necessity in any relationship, is not part of the ego’s algebra
in its relational “score-keeping.” Often, egoic/satanic
“possession” turns “love” into “hatred and unrest.” Such unforgiving “loves” can become nightmares of depression,
violence, homicide and suicide, whether in an individual life or on the
larger scale of nations, cultures, races, and religions at war over their own
egoic/exclusivist interests. While egoic/human love always excludes the “other,” divine love is ever-inclusive of ALL and of the WHOLE. Our Lady calls us beyond what we humanly “know” and “want,” to instead “BE” love—the integral, holistic love that encompasses ALL,
wherein we no longer “love
only with a human love” but “with that immeasurable love of God to which God calls us.” Followers of Christ know that this means a totally non-possessive, selfless,
sacrificial love as demonstrated by God on the cross. This is the love Jesus asked of Peter, but when Peter’s “human love” (possessive, selfish, controlling) rebuked the Lord for mentioning
his coming passion and death, Jesus called him “Satan,” for Peter was thinking—and loving—“not
as God does, but as human beings do.” (Mt 16:23) He was acting out of the satanic tyranny of the ego rather
than from sacrificial, non-possessive, “immeasurable” divine
love. Without prayer, we can all
fall prey to this “satanic” false love of Peter that—through growing intimacy with Christ—is ultimately transformed. Finally, Our Lady concludes her message by saying: “May
hope in a better tomorrow always be in your heart.” No matter how bleak the landscape of our culture or how dark and
deadly the world stage becomes, we are never to despair! We are never
to give up on the promise of God’s
abiding love, mercy, compassion, and presence with us. We are never to lose hope! Rather, we continually “begin anew, with
enthusiasm, the walk of holiness and love,” both praying and working for a better world. February
Musings . . . Enlarging Our Vision of “Love” and the Quality of Our Love . .
. . . . Thoughts for Lenten “Dying to Self” .
. . St. John says that God has never
been seen. In other words, God can never be an object outside ourselves. We need to go to that level of our
being—the heart, the spirit—where there is nothing outside us, where
we understand that we are in relationship, in communion, in the
dance of being with everything that is, in
God. Each of us is called to this and is capable of it. That is why in
our meditation we surrender all ideas or images of God as some “thing”
outside ourselves. God has never been seen but dwells in us as we love
one another. That is the whole structure of Christian life. God
cannot be seen but expands in us if we love one another. And then,
St. John says, love is brought to
perfection. Love is a school. We learn to love by loving, and
meditation is the principal lesson by which we learn. In light of the
experience of meditation we are able to see the great balancing power of love
that creates us, that accompanies us, that heals and teaches us. It is not
a love we need to gain but a love that is constantly with us. Our eyes
are opened in meditation to see how much this power of love is present in the midst
of all our imbalance, our waywardness, our
distractedness. Even in the distractedness we are able to feel more
and more deeply the presence of
peace. As it teaches us to love ourselves, love others, and love God,
meditation also teaches us that all relationships are really aspects of
one relationship. – Fr. Laurence Freeman + + +
+ + +
+ + +
+ + +
+ Everything that came from Jesus’
lips worked like a magnifying glass to focus human awareness on the two
most important facts about life: God’s overwhelming love of humanity, and
the need for people to accept that love and let it flow through them
in the way water passes without obstruction through a sea anemone. If the
infinity of God’s love pierces to the core of a being, only one response is
possible—unobstructed gratitude
for the wonders of God’s grace. – Huston
Smith + +
+ + +
+ + +
+ +
+ + +
+ To look at the Crucifix and then to
look at our own hearts; to test by the cross the quality of our love—if
we do that honestly and unflinchingly, we don’t need any other
self-examination. The lash, the crown of thorns, the mockery, the
stripping, the nails—life has
equivalents of all these for us, and God asks a love for himself and his
children which can accept and survive all that in the particular way in which
it is offered to us. It is no use to talk in a large, vague way about
the love of God; here is its point of insertion in the world. – Evelyn Underhill + +
+ + +
+ + +
+ + +
+ + + Community is not limited to human
beings but includes all life and the entire cosmos. The whole universe
is structured and organized in such a way that all members depend on one
another; they are all, in fact, dynamic processes constituted by their relations
to one another. It is exactly the
Trinity that the universe images, which it incarnates, embodies, shows
forth, reveals, glorifies. The universe puts into flesh, into matter, the
Trinitarian Life—with its differentiation by relation, its self-sharing, its mutual indwelling—by which the nature of God is
expressed. If the Godhead is correctly called Love, then both the internal
dynamism of the Trinity and the external dynamism of the Incarnation are
vindications of it. In metaphysics “choice of starting point is
all-important. The thing is to begin with St. John: God is Love.” That
means that God has to be personal and communitarian (Trinity). It also means
that God is going to be externally creative and self-expressive (Incarnation).
There is an expansiveness, a
generosity, in the very nature of Being that reveals itself as the
Trinity and the Trinity’s incarnation, the
cosmos. –
Beatrice Bruteau + + +
+ + +
+ + +
+ + +
+ + It
happens all the time in heaven, And some day It
will begin to happen Again
on earth – That
men and women who are married, And
men and men who are Lovers, And
women and women Who give each other Light, Often
will get down on their knees And
while so tenderly Holding their lover’s hand, With
tears in their eyes, Will
sincerely speak, saying, “My dear, How
can I be more loving to you: How
can I be more Kind?” -- Hafiz
(14th c. Sufi poet) + + +
+ + +
+ +
+ + +
+ + + Following Jesus to the Cross in Lent
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Mark Your
Calendar!
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February 2 |
Presentation of the Lord |
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3 |
St. Blaise
(Blessing of throats) |
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7 |
Portraits
of World Mysticism: Quaker Mysticism
with Dr. Michael Birkel; 9 am-12 pm; OST Whitley
Theological Center, 285 Oblate Dr., $40, call (210) 341-1366 x 212 |
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9 |
Free lecture: Assumption
Seminary Centennial Lecture Series: Footwashing—Reflections
on the 4th Gospel and the Exemplary Leadership of Pope Francis for
Ministers of the Gospel with Sr. Barbara Reid, OP of Catholic Theological
Union in Chicago; 7 pm, Whitley Theological Center, Oblate School of Theology,
285 Oblate; for seat, call (210) 341-1366 x 212 |
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10,
17, 24 |
Class: The Gospel of John (3 Tuesdays) by Dr. Ruben Dupertuis
of Trinity University; 7-9 pm; SoL Center, 300
Bushnell Ave.; $35; (210) 732-9927 |
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11 |
Our Lady of Lourdes |
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13 |
Annual Archdiocesan
Anniversary Mass with Renewal of Marriage Vows; Archbishop Gusatavo Garcia-Siller,
celebrant; 7 pm; Holy Spirit Catholic Church; 8134 Blanco; call (210)
734-1650 to register |
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14 |
St. Valentine’s Day
Bro. Cletus Art Show & Sale: An
Afternoon of Brotherly Love—Fundraiser for Abode (Contemplative Care Home for the Dying); 2-5 pm; wine &
cheese reception; Br. Cletus Studio, 2507-B NW 36th St.; (210)
967-9891 |
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18 |
ASH WEDNESDAY (Abstinence & Fast; beginning of Lent) |
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22 |
First Sunday of Lent Rosary-making:
2-5:30 pm, St. Mary’s Church, 202 N. St. Mary’s (free parking &
materials) |
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22-24 |
Lenten Mission: The Story of Faith—A Drama Mission with TV Actor Frank Runyeon; 7 pm; Sun: Afraid!
The Gospel of Mark, Mon: Sermon on
the Mount, Tue: Hollywood vs. Faith;
St. Mark the Evangelist Church, 1602 Thousand Oaks, main sanctuary; all
welcome, no charge (210) 494-1606 |
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22-26 |
Retreat with Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI: Living
with Less Fear in Our Lives—Trusting in a Wise, Prodigal, & Fully
Empathic God; reception, teachings, meals, prayer, Mass, optional tours;
$590 + lodging fee (if needed); call (210) 341-1366 x 212 |
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28 |
PEACE
MASS: 12 pm, St. Mary’s Church, 202 N. St. Mary’s; Rosary at 11:30 am |
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To reject the contemplative
dimension of any religion is to reject the religion itself,
however loyal one may be to its externals and rituals. This is because the contemplative dimension
is the heart and soul of every religion. It initiates the movement into higher states of consciousness.
The great wisdom teachings of the Vedas, Upanishads, Buddhist Sutras, Old and
New Testaments, and the Koran bear witness to this truth. Right now there are
about two billion Christians on the planet. If a significant portion of them
were to embrace the contemplative dimension of the gospel, the emerging
global society would experience a powerful surge toward enduring peace.
If this contemplative dimension of the Christian religion is not presented,
the Gospel is not being adequately preached. – Fr.
Thomas Keating, OCSO |
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Copyright, Marian Center of San Antonio. All
rights reserved. No part of this newsletter may be reproduced without
permission. |