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Medjugorje
Message: April 25, 2012 |
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Published
by the Marian Center of San Antonio / A Catholic Evangelization Ministry This short, simple message from Our
Lady captures the natural beauty of prayer by relating it to the blooming
process of nature that we see all around us this spring. Ever attuned to the
seasons of the earth, Our Lady’s words reflect the blossoming buds and
bursting seeds that are greening our world, creating a riot of color and fiesta of sweet scents in the air. She
says, “Also today I am calling you to prayer.” Mary’s messages from Medjugorje are above all a call to prayer, much
as the muezzins in the minarets of Islam issue the “adhan” five times daily—the
“call to prayer” that wafts through the air in a haunting melodious chant
beckoning the faithful to remembrance of God and to the precious Divine-human
relationship. A ram’s horn or shofar
is the traditional Jewish instrument for the call to prayer, and a bell is the Christian monastic signal
for sanctifying time throughout the day in the Liturgy of the Hours communal
prayer practice, or for calling the faithful to church for Mass. Our Lady’s
monthly message from Medjugorje is a clarion call to prayer for the whole
world, across all cultures and religious traditions. Our Lady defines the terms of her
“call to prayer” in this way: “May your
heart, little children, open towards God as a flower opens towards the warmth
of the sun.” This spring, we are basking in the beauty of flowers
everywhere, watching with awe and wonder as they open towards the sun.
Incredibly vulnerable and responsive
to the light that has “unearthed” them and drawn them forth from the
dark hiddenness of their underground beginnings, flowers are marvelous icons of the Easter mystery of
resurrection. Our Lady characterizes our heart as a flower and God
as the sun’s warmth inviting it to open. Prayer’s purpose is the opening
of our heart in vulnerability and responsiveness to God, breaking
open the hard shell of distrust, cynicism, and self-protectiveness that has
developed over our lifetime of false-self conditioning, so that the
penetrating rays of Divine Love and Light can heal our fears and resentments,
enabling a beautiful blossoming to occur. This human “heart-opening” function
of prayer is as universal and cross-cultural as flowers blooming in spring. Our Lady concludes: “I am with you
and I intercede for all of you.” The “all” is important, for the inclusiveness
of Our Blessed Mother’s love and care is like that of the heavenly
Father whom Jesus revealed: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love
your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and
pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly
Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain
to fall on the just and the unjust.” (Mt
5:43-48) Herein lies the Divine “perfection” which Jesus asks us to
imitate at the conclusion of this teaching: “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Our
“perfection” lies not in flawless observance of church laws nor in dogmatic
orthodoxy, but in perfectly inclusive LOVE for “all” that is inspired by
the gratuitous warmth of the sun shining freely on “the bad and the good”
alike. The path to such perfect love is PRAYER, where we learn to open
ourselves in mind and heart to the unmerited, unearned, unconditional,
gratuitous and extravagant love of God that warms us like the sun on the
opening flowers. Experiencing the sunlight of divine love, we are gradually
equipped to keep the Lord’s commandment: “Love
one another as I love you.”
(Jn 15:12)
The MARY Month of MAY . . . The Blessed Virgin, Mother of gentleness and mercy,
never allows herself to be surpassed in love and generosity. When she sees
someone giving himself entirely to her in order to honor and serve her, and
depriving himself of what he prizes most in order to adorn her, she gives herself completely in a wondrous manner to him. She engulfs him in the ocean of
her graces, adorns him with her merits, supports him with her power,
enlightens him with her light, and fills him with her love. She shares
her virtues with him—her humility, faith, purity, etc. She makes up for
his failings and becomes his representative with Jesus. Just as one who
is consecrated belongs entirely to Mary, so Mary belongs entirely to him. We can truthfully say of this perfect servant
and child of Mary what St. John in his Gospel says of himself, “He took her
for his own.” -- St. Louis de Montfort Mary is the woman who does not see herself, unless
it be in Christ and, through him, in humanity. By
giving birth to Jesus, who is the Son of God and the Son of Man, she gave birth to humanity. In the fiat
of the Annunciation is the adherence of every one of us. That is why no
being is as permeable to the love of Christ as is the Blessed Virgin….This
is the reason why the Most Blessed Virgin remains a way of light to Jesus for
us. It is impossible not to love the Blessed Virgin when we love Christ. The
Most Blessed Virgin is a kind of sacrament, the sacrament of God’s tender
love for us, for God is as much a mother as a father; and besides, she is especially the Mother of Christ in us. For Mary’s motherhood is not a motherhood in
time, it is a motherhood in eternity because she conceived in a total and
absolute gift of herself, because she adopted us all in this acceptance of
Jesus within her entire being. There is no end to her motherhood. She is
the one who is the Mother of Christ
in our lives; that is her
role throughout eternity. Hence, it is absolutely natural for us to expose
ourselves to the radiant influence of the Blessed Virgin in order to receive
from her this Christ she is eternally responsible for bringing to life in us.
It is impossible to turn ourselves to the Blessed Virgin without reaching
Christ through her, for, since she has nothing, she can only lead us to
him. To follow that road is to follow the very order of the Incarnation
since it is through Mary that Jesus entered the world. It is always through
Mary that Christ will enter into our souls….We can at every moment avail ourselves of the love of the Blessed Virgin and offer it
to our Lord. – Fr. Maurice Zundel “Le Point Vierge” – the
Virginal Marian Stillpoint in Us At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to
God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes our lives,
which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of
our own will. This little point of
nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us. It is so to speak His name written in us, as our
poverty, as our indigence, as our dependence, as our sonship.
It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see these
billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun
that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely.
– Thomas
Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander Love the Madonna and pray the rosary, for the rosary is the weapon against the evils
of the world today….The person who meditates and turns his mind to God, who
is the mirror of his soul, seeks to know his faults, tries to correct them, moderates his impulses,
and puts his conscience in order. – St. Padre Pio (Franciscan
saint who prayed 35 rosaries per day, and died with rosary in hand) Re-Christianization is not possible without Mary.
I am convinced that the rosary, if devoutly used, is of benefit not only to
the individual but society at large.
– Pope Leo
XIII The rosary belongs among the finest and most praiseworthy
traditions of Christian contemplation. –
Blessed John Paul II Mystery of the ASCENSION Yes, his physical form no longer
walks the planet. But if we take him at his word, that poses no disruption to
intimacy if we merely learn to recognize him at that other level, just as he
has modeled for his disciples during those first forty days of Eastertide.
Nor has that intimacy subsided in two thousand years—at least according to a
long lineage of Christian mystics, who in a single voice proclaim that our
whole universe is profoundly permeated with the presence of Christ.
He surrounds, fills, holds together from top to bottom this human sphere in
which we dwell. The entire cosmos has become his body, so to speak, and
the blood flowing through it is his love…. Without in any way denying or
overriding the conditions of this earth plane, he has interpenetrated them,
fully infused them with his own interior spaciousness, and invited us all
into this invisible but profoundly coherent energetic field so that we may
live as one body—the “Mystical Body of Christ”—manifesting the Kingdom
of Heaven here and now. Jesus in his ascended state is not farther
removed from human beings but more intimately connected with them. He
is the integral ground, the ambient wholeness within which our contingent
human lives are always rooted and from which we are always receiving the help
we need to keep moving ahead on the difficult walk we have to walk here. When
the eye of our own heart is open and aligned within this field of perception,
we recognize whom we’re walking with.
– Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault
This is the Christ who disappeared
in his Ascension beyond the clouds, not into some geographical location, but
into the heart of all creation.
In particular, he has penetrated the very depths of our being…and now we
can act under the direct influence of his Spirit. This transformation
appears in the guise of ordinary things—in the guise of our seemingly
insignificant daily routine. The Ascension is Christ’s return to the
heart of all creation where he dwells now in his glorified humanity. The
mystery of his Presence is hidden throughout creation and in every part of it….The
grace of the Ascension is the triumphant faith that believes that God’s
will is being done no matter what happens. It believes that creation is
already glorified, though in a hidden manner, as it awaits the full
revelation of the children of God. The grace of the Ascension enables us to
perceive the irresistible power of the Spirit transforming everything into
Christ despite any and all appearances to the contrary. …Thus, in Colossians, Paul does not
hesitate to cry out with his triumphant faith in the Ascension: “Christ
is all and in all”—meaning now, not just in the future.
-- Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO May
27: PENTECOST—Feast of the Holy Spirit The Glory of God is always
found in movements of love, in communication of life, not in static routine,
cramped piety, thoughtless repetition of official acts, conventional
observance, external religious acts that could easily become the letter that
kills, the continuing tyranny of the old, sinful self. The Spirit, by contrast, is
wind, fire, light, water, Glory: the unexpected, the transforming, the
self-communicating, the self-outpouring Power that shapes by
embracing and not letting go.
-- Erasmo
Leiva-Merikakis, OCSO A point on which to
reflect, dear brothers and sisters! This holy Eastern monk [Symeon the New Theologian] calls us to pay attention to our
spiritual life, to the hidden presence of God within us,
to the sincerity of the conscience and to purification, to conversion of
heart, so that the Holy Spirit may really become present in us and guide
us. Indeed, if rightly we are concerned to care for our physical, human
and intellectual development, it is even more important not to neglect our
inner growth. This consists in the knowledge of God, in true knowledge,
not only learned from books but from within and in communion with
God, to experience his help at every moment and in every
circumstance. – Pope Benedict XVI Jesus does not stay around
to complete his earthly work; rather, he promises the Spirit to his
disciples, for it is the disciples who will complete his work. “Whoever
believes in me,” he had said, “will perform even greater works, because I am
going to the Father.” (Jn 14:12) Imagine the utter
amazement and confusion of the disciples during the final days of Jesus’
earthly life. How were they to perform greater works than Jesus? But Jesus
indicates that evolution is possible because of the Spirit. Through the
power of the Spirit, Jesus’ disciples can do greater works than him, for the
Spirit does new things, and only in the Spirit can we move forward toward
wholeness of life in God. Thus, Jesus says to his disciples, “It is good
that I am leaving you.” (Jn 16:22) Otherwise, Panikkar writes, “we would make him king—that is, an
idol—or we would rigidify him into concepts, into intellectual containers.
We would turn his teaching into a system, imprison him within our own
categories and suffocate the Spirit.”
Jesus knew…that he had not come to remain but to remain in us
in the most perfect form…in our very being. This is the work of the Spirit
and the meaning of Christ: “I am with you always, until the end of time.” (Mt 28:20) Jesus leaves so that the dynamism of life
will not be reduced to an arid dualism. His departure does not signify the
departure of God from the world but the release of God into the world.
– Sr. Ilia Delio, OSF
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Mark
Your Calendar
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May 1 |
St. Joseph the Worker |
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3 |
St. Philip & St. James, Apostles |
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13 |
Mother’s Day |
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20 |
Ascension of the Lord |
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26 |
PEACE MASS: 12 noon,
St. Mary’s Church, 202 N. St. Mary’s ………11:30 am Peace Rosary |
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27 |
Pentecost Sunday Rosary
Making: 2:00 pm - 5:30 pm, St. Mary’s Church, 202 N. St. Mary’s, ……… free parking &
materials |
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31 |
Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary |
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“What wisdom can you find that is greater
than kindness?” -- Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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