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Medjugorje
Message: April 25, 2013 Dear children! Pray, pray, keep praying until your heart opens
in faith as a flower opens to the warm rays of the sun. This is a time of grace
which God gives you through my presence but you are far from my heart.
Therefore, I call you to personal conversion and to family prayer. May Sacred
Scripture always be an incentive for you. I bless
you all with my motherly blessing. Thank you for having responded to my call. |
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Published
by the Marian Center of San Antonio / A Catholic Evangelization Ministry For Catholics, May is traditionally “Mary’s month,” which makes it
sadly bittersweet that Our Lady says in this month’s message: “This
is a time of grace which God gives you through my presence but you are far
from my heart.” Has Our Lady’s presence in Medjugorje—a tremendous,
unprecedented grace—grown old and unappreciated,
taken for granted after 32 years of daily apparitions? If we who have
followed the messages are “far
from her heart,” how “far” must those
millions be whom her words have never touched? It is our job to share the
messages of Our Lady, but if our own hearts have grown cold and distant from
hers, how much more are the rest of the world’s? What is the responsibility of those of us who have been given
this incredible “time of grace” by God “through [Mary’s] presence”? How bloody are our hands when
unspeakable acts of violence, ignorance, terror and hate occur on the world
stage? Do we realize our own complicity in the great social sins of our
age? In our private day-to-day and
moment-to-moment lives, are we living the teaching of Our Lady’s School of
Prayer at Medjugorje? Are we living her message of
personal conversion to a higher level of consciousness, to life in the
Spirit—the conscious awareness of Divine Presence in all that we think, say,
and do? To live in such a way is to be close to Our Lady’s heart,
which is the heart of the Body of Christ. Not to be making a conscious daily effort to live the message is to
be “far from her heart.” It means that we are not
sowing the seeds of the higher Christ-consciousness which alone will change the violent, bloody, unloving course
of world history and human evolution. As always, Our Lady patiently and lovingly repeats what needs to be
done: “Pray, pray, keep praying until your
heart opens in faith as a flower opens to the warm rays of the sun.” At this time of year Our Lady always mentions flowers
blossoming in sunshine, for nature in Spring provides the perfect
metaphor for the heart-opening to which she calls us. For conversion to
happen, our hearts—like flowers—must open to the divine flow of higher energy from above that—like the sun—is always
present. It is never the case
that God is absent, though we might “feel” or “perceive” absence through our
limited senses and the unconverted, mechanical, “sleepwalking” consciousness
of our ordinary waking state. But, just like the sun, God is always here,
as close as our next breath and heartbeat. Our Lady’s cherished goal for us
is that our hearts open to the Divine Presence flowing and filling our life at each moment.
The past 32 years of her apparitions at Medjugorje
have been in the service of this opening, this awakening, this becoming
present to Presence that is conversion—a power that can change the world. Of what
does this conversion-power consist? “And the victory that
conquers the world is this faith of ours.” (1
Jn 5:4) This world-conquering faith is born in the heart, not the head. Our Lady does not say we are far from her “head,” her
way of “thinking,” or her “words”—but that we are “far from her heart.” We can talk for hours about the ideas of prayer, faith, and conversion; accurately recite Our Lady’s
primary messages at Medjugorje; quote chapter and
verse of sacred scripture from memory; and wax eloquent on the bible or
theology. None of this denotes conversion of heart! A large part of our problem in the
human condition is gaining access to our “heart.” Our Lady’s call is
rightfully a call to “heart-opening.” Significantly, she does not focus upon our “head” or intellect,
but upon our heart. Ironically, theoretical knowledge in our head
can become one of the greatest obstacles to what Mary calls “conversion
of heart” or “personal” conversion. There can be no “personal” conversion
until there is a “person,” and no complete “person” until the heart is as engaged and open to the Divine inflow of energy and Presence as the “head” is. The
“heart” includes a finer, more subtle, deep and profound “feeling-sense” than the mind’s intellect or intelligence is capable of. Without
this “heart-level” participation, our spiritual “conversion” is incomplete
and maybe only superficial. This is why—in spite of so many “religious”
folks—the world has not changed from its barbaric darkness to a place of
light! “This people honors me with their lips, though their hearts
are far from me,” says the Lord. (Isaiah 29:13) Our Lady concludes her message with specific instructions for
“personal conversion and family prayer,” saying, “May Sacred Scripture always be an
incentive for you.” To share our efforts with
others always builds strength, so we begin with our own family,
and the words of Sacred Scripture are a reliable motivator and
initiator of deepening insight and inner being. So here is a good place to
start our heart-opening project: open the Bible and take a short passage to read/pray in the manner of Lectio
Divina (“sacred
reading”). This ancient practice will lead us deeper, beneath the
surface level of “words” with all their automatic associations based on our
culture, heredity and life experiences, putting us in touch with the “mind of Christ” and His Sacred Heart. Beyond mere “words,” it leads us to an
intimate personal encounter with THE Word, Jesus Christ, who will touch our heart—not in a fuzzy, sentimental, or
purely emotional way, but at the core foundation of our inner
being and True Self as “imago
Dei” (image of God), mirroring our
identity in Him. The four movements of Lectio Divina are: 1) Read (for basic meaning); 2) Reflect (meditate on a particular word, phrase or sentence that “hooks” your
attention); 3) Respond (with your sincere inner feelings toward God, stirred up by the
reading); 4) Rest (letting everything go, into Silence; allowing God to be
present, active and working within you only as God wishes). May
Musings: Month of Our Lady & the Holy Spirit + Words of Pope Francis May is Mary’s Month.
Let’s spend some extra moments this month contemplating and honoring Our
Lady, as well as praying her holy rosary: “Remain in the school of Mary.
Take inspiration from her teachings, seek to welcome
and to preserve in your hearts the enlightenment that she, by divine
mandate, sends you from on high.” -- Pope Benedict XVI “The true greatness of
the holy name of Mary is its instrumentality in our salvation. ‘Just
as the salvation of the world began with the Hail Mary,’ explains
St. Louis de Montfort, ‘so the salvation of each individual is bound up with
it.’ We recognize our need for salvation in the everyday experiences of our
powerlessness and helplessness….God chooses to give us that answer through a
Virgin whom we can call by name….When we say the name of Mary in faith,
we receive the unsurpassable gift of being loved by God….The holy name of
Mary rescues us from the abyss of namelessness.” --
Fr. Peter J. Cameron, OP “The work of Christ is
to redeem humans by making them part of himself. That work in Mary manifests
itself as a maternal work of bringing forth all humans in Christ, and Christ in
all humans. That is her function as the principal member of the Body of
Christ. Christ is both Head and the whole Body; may we not say that Mary
is the Heart and in some way the whole Body also? All that comes to each
member from Christ comes through her. Mary then is the Mother of the whole
Christ. We can share in her work by bringing forth Christ in our own souls by
humble and loving obedience to the will of God. We can ensure our complete
union with Christ by true devotion to Mary…by a complete consecration to
her that she may form us in Christ, and Christ in us.
She is the Gate of Heaven, by whom we enter into Christ. She is the Mother
of the whole Christ.”
– Fr.
Eugene Boylan, O.Cist.R. “Mary’s mediation
implies that we rest in her as the place God has given to us to enable us
to contemplate and to go right to the end in love….It means resting
in her heart, a heart transformed by the fullness of charity; it
means resting in her wounded heart. If we do not rest in Mary’s heart, we
experience her mediation only as advocate, only on the moral level. We are
not experiencing the specific mystery of Mary’s mediation, which is that of
the cross, where, being one with Jesus, she communicates grace to John as
an instrument of the Holy Spirit for him….Having received the Holy Spirit
through Mary, we must rest in her. Thus the Holy Spirit can ask us to have in
our contemplation an attitude of littleness, of trust and of love towards
Mary…accepting to find rest in her alone…the one who carries us and is the
maternal
source of divine life for us.
– Fr.
Marie-Dominique Philippe, OP “Let your soul be
filled day and night with this loving presence of the Lord, and you will
live. Strong in the joy of this divinity within you and the power of
his love, you will never falter. By faithfully treasuring all these things
in your heart like Mary, you will gradually be invaded, built up and unified
by God.” – from The Jerusalem Community Rule of Life “The Virgin Mary, in
her docile humility, became the handmaid of divine Love: she accepted the
Father’s will and conceived the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. In her
the Almighty built a temple worthy of him and made her the model and image of
the Church, mystery and house of communion for all human beings. May
Mary, Mirror of the Blessed Trinity, help us to grow in faith in the
Trinitarian mystery.” -- Pope Benedict
XVI “Faith is Someone
within us who is stronger than our disappointments. The Blessed Mother
carried this Presence inside her, within her womb. In her, faith was
incarnate. It was the life of that Child whom she protected and by whom she
felt protected. Faith is something to take care of, which at the same time
takes care of us! Let’s exercise our faith in the small moments of suffering.
If things in your life don’t go well, or you don’t yet understand them fully,
ponder them in your heart. Mary ‘treasured all these things in her heart.’
She, too, did not always understand everything immediately, but she
persevered through the moments of uncertainty and suffering with trust that
heaven would open and God would win.”
-- Mother Elvira, Comunita Cenacolo America “In her brief
historical life, of which we know so little, the history of the whole world
is concentrated, particularly the lives of all the common people of the
world, who often do not know themselves that they are Christbearers,
living the life of the Mother of God. She began at once, as she stood up
before the angel and uttered her fiat,
to live all our lives, and Christ in her was subject to the hazards of life
in the world, as He is in us….The sorrows of the whole world, not only the
dramatic ones but the daily ones, began to unfold gradually in her life, and
the intelligent heart can read into them not only the broad outline of all
the world’s tragedies but also the smallest details of human existence…. He was utterly
dependent upon her: she was His food and warmth and rest. His shelter from
the world, His shade in the sun. She was the Shrine of the Sacrament, the
four walls and the roof of His home….Each work of her hands prepared His
hands a little more for the nails; each breath that she drew counted one more
to His last. In giving life to Him she was giving Him death….In fact, unless
Mary would give Him death, He could not die. Unless she would give Him the
capacity for suffering, He could not suffer. He could only feel cold
and hunger and thirst if she gave Him her vulnerability to cold and hunger
and thirst. He could not know the indifference of friends or treachery or the
bitterness of being betrayed unless she gave Him a human mind and a human
heart. That is what it meant to Mary to give human nature to God….Quite
literally, her life was in Christ. Therefore there could never be anything He
suffered which she did not. He would suffer and she with Him.” -- Caryll Houselander May 19:
Pentecost—Feast of the Holy Spirit,
Birthday of the Church We have been waiting for this day.
Nine days, 50 days, 50 years, 500 years we have been
waiting for this day. It is the day we are always waiting for, but never
prepared for. It is the day of the great outpouring….It is Pentecost.
It is the day of the great gathering in. It is the day of the great
sending out. We have been waiting for this Spirit….We are waiting for
One who has already come. We are waiting for a water
that has already been poured, fresh into a cup. We are waiting for a cool
breeze in a desert of our own making. We are waiting for a fire that has been
burning incessantly within. We are waiting, we say, and yet we have padlocked
the door—out of fear. What are we
afraid of? Why do we lock out what we most want? Why do we make
impossible the very things we long for? Why do we hold ourselves ‘bound’ and
thereby bind the Spirit of God?.... We are afraid of the Spirit’s
intoxication. We are afraid of the responsibility that goes with believing in
love. Resignation is easy; belief in goodness and newness is excruciatingly
difficult—and even impossible without the Spirit’s unearned gift. We are
afraid of this part of God that we cannot control or explain or merit. We are
afraid of this part of God which is seductive and feminine and cannot be
legislated, measured, or mandated. We do not like this part of God which is
dove, water, and invisible wind. We are threatened by this part of God “which
blows where it will” and which our theologies cannot predict or inhibit.
We, like the disciples in the upper room, sit behind locked doors of fear,
and still say that we are waiting and preparing for God’s Holy Spirit.
Fortunately, God has grown used to our small and cowardly ways, and knows
that we settle for easy certitudes instead of Gospel freedom. And God is
determined to break through. Eventually, God overcomes the obstacles that we
dare to offer; God will surround us with enough peace so that we can face the
wounds in our own hands and side, along with the painful wounds of our whole
world. – Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM “‘My Church’ was not
intended by our Lord to be static or remain in perpetual childhood; but to be
a
living organism which develops and changes in externals by the
interaction of its bequeathed divine life and history—the particular
circumstances of the world into which it is set. There is no resemblance
between the ‘mustard seed’ and the full-grown tree.” – J.R.R. Tolkien “Deep within us all there is an
amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place…to which we may
continuously return. Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn
lives, warming us…calling us home. Yielding to these persuasions, utterly and
completely, to the Light within, is the beginning of true life.” -- Thomas R. Kelly, Quaker mystic “We were born to make manifest the
glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s within
everyone. And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other
people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our
presence automatically liberates others.” -- Nelson Mandela “The relation between God and man is
one of immanence. God is the transcendent mystery immanent in us.
All religions believe that someone who claims to have seen the transcendent
God is not telling the truth….It is in immanence that transcendence is
discovered. We ‘remain’ in something that, being within us, is greater
than we are, transcends us. Mysticism speaks of this constantly.” -- Fr. Raimon Pannikar Getting
to Know Pope Francis . . . in his own words: On God’s Surprises
and Newness: “God always surprises
us. The women disciples who went to Jesus’ tomb and found it empty were
confused and afraid….Doesn’t the same thing also happen to us when something
completely new occurs in our everyday life? Newness often makes us
fearful, including the newness which God brings us, the newness which God asks of us.”
(First
Easter Vigil Mass) On Sin and Mercy: “When Jesus gave the
adulterous woman new life, he did not say, ‘Sin no more and I will not
condemn you.’ He said, ‘I do not condemn you. Now go and sin no more.’ We
first experience God’s love, and then our life changes forever. Mercy
is the Lord’s most powerful message….With the resurrection of Jesus, love
has triumphed, mercy has been victorious. Let us become agents of this mercy,
channels through which God can water the earth, protect all creation and make
justice and peace flourish.” (First Sunday
sermon) On Non-believers: “When I meet with
people who are atheists, I share human issues with them, but I don’t bring up
the problem of God right away, except in cases when they bring it up with me.
Because I am a believer, I know these [human] riches are a gift from God. I
also know that the other person, the atheist, does not know that. I do not
embark on the relationship to proselytize to an atheist; I respect him and I
show him how I am. I am not reluctant in any way. I would not tell him that
his life is condemned because I am convinced that I have no right to pass
judgment on the honesty of that person. Even less so if he shows me human
virtues that make people better and are done in goodwill. Every
person is an image of God, be he a believer or not. With that reason
alone, he has a number of virtues, qualities, riches.
And in the case that he has morally low qualities, as I have as well, we can share them with each other to help us
overcome them together.” On Priests: “The priestly role is
threefold: to be a teacher, a leader of the people of God, and president of
the liturgical assembly where prayer and worship take place. The priest, in
his role as teacher, teaches, proposes the truth revealed and accompanies
you. A teacher who assumes the role of making decisions for the disciple
is not a good priest. He is a good dictator, an annihilator of the religious
personalities of others. Such a priest weakens and holds back people in the
search for God.” On Women and the
Resurrection: “The New Testament gives
women a primary, fundamental role as witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection. Jewish
law of the period did not consider women as reliable, credible witnesses.
This tells us that God does not choose according to human
criteria. The first witnesses of the birth of Jesus are the
shepherds, simple and humble people, and the first witnesses of the
Resurrection are women. The male apostles find it harder to believe in the
risen Christ. By contrast, the women are driven by love and they know to
accept this proclamation of the Resurrection with faith. They believe and
immediately transmit it; they do not keep it for themselves. Women have had
and still have a special role in opening doors to the Lord, in following him
and communicating his face, because the eyes of faith always need the simple
and profound look of love….Let us also have the courage to go out to bring
this joy and light to all the places of our lives. The resurrection of Christ
is our greatest certainty, it is our most precious
treasure. How can we not share this treasure, this beautiful certainty with
others?...Hope in the Resurrection enables
Christians to live everyday realities with more confidence, to face them with
courage and commitment.” On Fundamentalism: “Fundamentalism is not
what God wants. [Fundamentalists] do not have tools to recognize or
understand the mercy of God.” On Abortion: “The moral problem of
abortion is pre-religious in nature because the genetic code of the person
happens in the moment of conception. A human being is already there. I
separate the topic of abortion from any religious concept. It is a scientific
problem. To not let the development continue of a being who already has all the genetic code of a human being is
not ethical. The right to life is the first of human rights.” On Freedom of
Conscience and Defining Marriage: “Religion has the
right to its say over certain topics in private and public life. What the
religious minister does not have a right to do is force the private life of
anyone. If God, in his creation, ran the risk of making us free, who am I
to butt in? We condemn the spiritual harassment that happens when a minister
imposes directives, behaviors, requirements in such a way that deprive the
other of freedom….[Marriage] is an ancient
institution that was forged according to nature and anthropology…an ancient
value that deserves to be defended. That is why we warn against its
devaluation and, before modifying jurisprudence, there must be ample
reflection on what all comes into play.” (from On
Heaven and Earth, book of interviews co-authored with Rabbi Abraham Skorka) + +
+ + +
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+ + Mother’s Day Poem by
Michele Maxwell Late
have I loved you, my Madonna. Long were the years
before I
registered your presence; so very hidden were you in the
silent creases of my life’s blue fabric slowly unfolding. Then all
at once, in the
evening twilight of my own dear
mother’s dying light, you came
to me in power and drama, “between
the hills,” in a far country, not yet free, in a
rustic village, among a simple people, climbing
barefoot on the red rocks of Podbrdo and Krizevec, the Hill of Apparitions and Mountain of the Cross. And on
that summer day, O Seat of Wisdom, you toppled my intellect, blew my
scholarly debate into the weightless air like the puff of a child’s breath upon a dandelion. In one week you left me reeling, smitten,
bewildered and spinning back to earth from the
maelstrom, landing hard, facing a new direction: life re-orientated, or as you say, “conversion.” You had
been with me all along, O Gospa, but I didn’t see you hidden in the recesses of my home. Then,
having once encountered you undeniably— in flame
and flower scent and spinning sun, in the
inner blanket of warmth like whiskey pouring through my veins, your
inner locution that queried me on the red dirt paths through
the vineyards chanting Ave’s, my leaden
chain transmuting into your golden cord, and the
furious rage I saw stirred up within your ancient
enemy, the satanic ego— suddenly
I was thrust back into my homely world, wondering
where and who you are
to be to me now, away from the mountains and miracles of Medjugorje.
Twenty-five years have passed since that week in your arms, O Queen of
Peace, and still I have no answer. You elude
my mental efforts, sidestep
analysis, defy exegesis, wink at Mariology, all the
thousand ways I try to think my way to you, back to
the pristine experience of you taking me
by the hand and leading me across the busy
boulevard of my beliefs, safely
through the deafening traffic of my arrogance and showing me Mystery—sacred mysteries—to be embraced. Why can’t I
nail you down, O Star of the Sea— Miriam of
Nazareth, Galilean woman? Having
rejected you out of hand as Our Lady of Codependency, the passive Mother
of a Dysfunctional Patriarchal Household,
intercepting the wrath of a cranky father-god (too
close for comfort to my family of origin), I dug deeper: Are you a
goddess enchained, along with the radical feminists?
Undercover prophet of female independence? Liberator
of the marginalized and colonized? Jungian
archetype of life, tenderness, and humility? Feminine enfleshing of the Third Person of the Trinity— embodied Sophia-Shekinah-Spirit? Medieval
cult figure baptizing Great Mother mystery cults? Cosmic
symbol of the primordial Silent Void? Type of
the Church? First and foremost disciple?
Impervious you are, to my examen, like
those plaster statues on painted pedestals that have
so little moved me, so little touched the Massah and Meribah in the
desert of my heart, while
others shed copious tears at your ceramic feet, declaring their love, contrition and devotion that leave
me cold. For me
there are only your words and the gelatinous gray matter you have
to work with: patiently, tirelessly, month by month, you try to pry open my
heart with the blunt, clumsy crowbar of my brain applied to your message for the world. Blessed
Mother, Our Lady of Hope, you have been there for me every
time I’ve needed you, called upon you— and stranger yet—the many times when I haven’t. But the
glittering wit, charismatic charm and colorful
personality for which I yearn you
spurn, denying me, leaving me holding a bag full of nothing . . . . nothing but tired
clichés, saccharine sweetness, and cloying piety that I wish were sincerely mine. Yet with
you I know there are no accidents. All is
significant and nothing escapes awareness of your children’s doings. So. You
are deliberately a no-self
to me,
consciously empty, intentionally void, starving
my cravings for emotional intoxicants, denying
my demands for cerebral candy, offering only Love, the pure LoveLoveLove at the
silent empty center of the
Womb of Creation that you are, the humble,
all-nourishing Abyss of Open Space
perpetually giving consent for change—Fiat—at the core of the ever-expanding universe. O infinitely generative Queen of the
Cosmos, you are
teaching me your radically free, non-possessive and
open-hearted selfless love, birthing
my Christ life with every moment’s grace passing
through your hands, O Mary,
my Mother.
(2011)
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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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12 |
Ascension of the Lord (celebrated) Mother’s Day |
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13 |
Our Lady of Fatima |
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19 |
Pentecost Sunday |
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25 |
PEACE
MASS: 12 pm, St. Mary’s Church, 202 N. St. Mary’s; Rosary at 11:30 am |
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26 |
Holy Trinity Sunday Rosary-making: 2–5:30 pm, St. Mary’s Church, 202 N. St.
Mary’s |
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27 |
Memorial Day |
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31 |
Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary |
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Prayer for Our Shepherds Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior and High Priest, through the
loving hands of your holy Mother Mary, please guide and protect all priests, bishops,
cardinals and Pope Francis, your Vicar on earth. Help them to live out the
dignity of their priestly vocation with all its challenges, difficulties,
temptations, and personal sacrifices, always united to You with eyes fixed on
the cross of self-emptying love
which alone can sustain them. Help them to repair, rebuild and renew Your Church with courage and humility,
united to your Sacred Heart of all-inclusive love, with a penitential soul
and docility to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit for any changes ordained
by Your Divine Will. Give them strength and joy to labor in Your vineyard for
the salvation of souls. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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