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Medjugorje
Message: April 25, 2014 Dear children! Open your hearts to the grace which God is
giving you through me, as a flower that opens to the warm rays of the sun. Be
prayer and love for all those who are far from God and His love. I am with
you and I intercede for all of you before my Son Jesus, and I love you with
immeasurable love. Thank you for having responded to my call. |
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Published
by the Marian Center of San Antonio / A Catholic Evangelization Ministry Like a perennial plant that returns every spring, Our Lady’s message
urging us to “open
our hearts” like “a flower that opens to the warm rays
of the sun” has returned to us this May.
Each year she extends this invitation, with her spring message paralleling
the blossoming of flowers and greening of earth after the long winter. What
can I find in this recurring message that is relevant to my own life? This Easter one of my potted lily plants failed to bloom, while the
others blossomed gloriously with their sweet, heavenly scent perfuming the air.
Why? The one lily that failed to bloom was kept on the porch, near the door,
meant to be a welcoming, aromatic plant to greet any visitors. How
disappointing that it didn’t serve this purpose! I wondered why, but it
didn’t take long to see that—even with the best of intentions—it had not
thrived like the others because it had been deprived of the “warm rays of the sun.” Cloudy days and an abundance of shade in the yard and porch had
kept this poor lily “in the dark.” Moving it out into the sunlight, it now
has a chance to “resurrect” and renew its purpose of spreading sweet-scented
beauty to its surroundings. Similarly, each one of us—sometimes despite our best intentions to be
faithful followers of Christ or “good Catholics”—fail to thrive, blossom, bloom,
and spread the welcoming, inviting fragrance of Divine Love to all we meet.
Why? Very often our sour or gloomy disposition, our critical and judgmental
attitudes, our impatient and unkind reactions that repel rather than evangelize others are rooted in the darkness of a
closed heart that is not opening to the warm
rays of the Son through prayer. Without this opening of heart to God, we wither,
shrivel, and dry up spiritually, which in turn leaves us emotionally,
physically, and relationally hobbled and drained of anything to “give” to
another. As Teresa of Avila said, “We cannot give what we do not have.” Yet how very many Christians try to do just that! In spring we bask in the beautiful superabundance of wildflowers
filling meadows along country roads, blooming effortlessly according to Great
Nature in the bright sunlight that draws them into full blossom. Their
wondrous colors can remind us of all the gratuitous wonders of
our own life—our involuntary functions of
breathing, heart beating, blood circulating, organs working and senses
perceiving, all without our conscious direction—flowing through the grace of
our Creator’s minute-by-minute maintenance of our being. Unlike the
wildflowers, potted plants are at the mercy of human judgment in
placing them where they can thrive and grow. Just so, in addition to the
graces of involuntary “wildflower” functions that we do not control, there
are many other Divine graces flowing toward us at every moment of our life, but like the potted
plant that depends upon human consciousness and decision, when it
comes to these graces, we receive only what we are open to receiving. If we place ourselves—our hearts, minds, and bodies—in areas of darkness
or overly-shaded comfort, we deprive ourselves of these abundant graces
being offered along with each breath. If, however, we “open our hearts to the grace God
is giving us” (through Our Lady and a
million other ways), then we become, like the Easter lily, a thriving,
blossoming, aromatic, attractive force in our environment, drawing all we
meet toward the “sun” of Divine Love. How can we accomplish this? After 33 years of Our Lady calling us to “Pray,
pray, pray” at Medjugorje,
we have hopefully learned that PRAYER is the means to this vital heart-opening—and most especially contemplative prayer nurtured in a daily
practice of silent sitting. Today Mary goes a step further, saying to us:
“BE
prayer and love for all those who are far from God and His love.” We sometimes hear of the
difference between “DOING” and “BEING,” or of finding ourselves “human doings” rather than “human beings.” When Our Lady says we must “BE” prayer and love for those who currently experience neither, she is
calling us to something much deeper, more integral, and more profound than “DOING” particular prayers or acts of charity. She is calling us to BE, in the totality of our presence—in all of our sensing, thinking, feeling, and moving—a living
incarnation of Divine Love and Relationship that other people can experience
simply by being in our presence. No specific words or acts are needed; as St. Francis taught: “Preach the Gospel at all times; use
words if necessary.” The cumulative energy of our
faithful daily practice of silent prayer in which we open to God’s Presence and action within us—the Divine Indwelling—builds up our “BEING” to the level of a “Whole-Being-Presence” that others can experience as Divine: the “love of God.” Thus through our own practice of being “present
to Presence,” the world may see that Christ is truly risen, alleluia,
alleluia! The
“MARY” Month of MAY & Easter Alleluias Death is vanished; the grave, deserted; time now exists only
to flow into eternity: Is this not an event that resounds to the very ends of
the earth, shaking all foundations and robbing humanity of all possibility of
yielding to the ancient despair? Just as I know that the living Mary died
with Christ, I am sure that she rose with him from the dead….And we, whose
faith assures us that God did not create us only to die, know that in the
hour of our need Mary will be standing by to teach us how to be reborn. –
Paul Claudel + +
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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 wonderful thing about Our Lady is that in her trust everything is included; she
accepted her son as God’s Son, she accepted His death without doubting God’s
love, her words were His words: “Be it done unto me according to thy word.”
(“Not my will but thy will be done.”)
She never changed or took back anything, she
never made conditions with love. But certainly at first there was nothing to suggest that being
the Mother of God would involve her in anything more heroic than the joys and
sorrows of her domestic life. 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. – Caryll Houselander + +
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Mother’s Day Bouquet: The Marian Symbolism of FLOWERS Tulips: 16
varieties represent the manifold graces with which Mary was blessed. Snowballs: The thousand skills of a mother,
carried out with humility & discretion. Periwinkles: Symbol of paschal mystery embraced
in a life devoted to loved ones. Roses: Different forms of Mary’s
love—white/virginal; pink/conjugal; red/maternal. Yellow Nasturtium: Sorrowful love of Mary in widows
& mothers who’ve lost a child. Orange Blossom: Newlywed woman’s attributes—purity,
chastity, fertility. Red carnation: Symbol
of marriage & faithfulness. Dog Rose: Five petals represent the five
wounds of Christ. Purple Anemone: Rebirth and reconciliation. Blue Morning-Glory: Symbol of vanity of human life but
promise of resurrection. Blue Iris: In the shape of a sword, it
represents the seven sorrows of Mary. Cornflower: The source of “Marian” blue, its
destiny is inseparable from wheat as Mary’s destiny is inseparable from
Christ’s. White Garlic: Fortitude and courage, Mary’s defeat
of the ancient serpent. Daffodil: Symbol of simple beauty that elicits
no narcissism or lust; spousal love. Red Day-Lily: Sacrifice accepted through love, as a
promise of eternal life. White Lily: Symbol of consecrated virginity,
appearing in hand of Archangel Gabriel. --
Pierre-Marie Dumont + +
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Marian
Milestones—in Our Lady’s Life, and Ours Immaculate Conception: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” (Jer 1:5). By grace and mystery we come to share
in the way we are known by God. By faith, we (like Mary) possess
something that is more than human, that enters into the region of divine
things. Presentation in the Temple: Our childhood
encounter with the creaturely goodness of our parents must blossom
(like Mary’s) into sublime devotion to the absolute divine goodness of
God. Annunciation: Like Mary, we must be
transformed from open Maiden to expectant Mother by giving our own fiat—freely
and from our heart—that will draw the future into the present through our
union with a Presence. Visitation: United in faith, like Mary, we have a living encounter with
a Person who transforms our innermost self. Assumption: Like Mary’s, our self-surrender of faith will bring about a
radical change involving our whole self—feelings,
heart, intelligence, will, emotions, human relationships, and even bodiliness. + +
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Surrender & Contemplative Life Surrender does not simply mean that I quit grieving what I do
not have. It means that I surrender to new meanings and new circumstances, that I begin to think differently and to
live somewhere that is totally elsewhere. Surrender is the crossover point of
life. It distinguished who I was from who I have become. – Sr.
Joan Chittister, OSB I think most of the spiritual life is really a matter of
relaxing—letting go, ceasing to cling, ceasing to insist on our own way,
ceasing to tense ourselves up for this or against that. –
Beatrice Butreau The core of my being, the most treasured part of my existence,
is a contemplative life—a life lived in awareness of the divine. The
challenge of maintaining this awareness is to sit openhanded to receive
all that comes. It is not possible to hold on to one thought, memory, or
idea and continue the contemplative journey. It requires a willingness to
live this moment as keenly as possible, always aware of the many
dimensions of now. Staying openhanded, treasuring but not grasping, is
critical to the contemplative stance. – Sr. Simone Campbell, A Nun on the Bus + +
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/ Ascension : Changing of Forms Matter and spirit are forever bound together. Divine and
mortal forever interpenetrate and manifest one another. The Formless One
forever takes on form as “Adam”—and in Jesus “the new Adam”—and then takes us
back to the Formless One once again as each
form painfully surrenders the small self that it has been for a while.
“I am returning to take you with me, so that where I am you also may be,”
says Jesus. (Jn 14:3) The changing of forms
is called resurrection, and
the return is called ascension,
although to us it just looks like death.
– Fr.
Richard Rohr, OFM + +
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dying life. The presence of the Resurrection in our lives means the presence
of the Cross, for we do not rise with Christ unless we also die with him. It
is by the Cross that we enter the dynamism of resurrection and renewal, the
dynamism of LOVE. –
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+ How many Christians really understand what
St. Paul is talking about when he tells us that we have “died to the law” in order to rise with Christ? How many
Christians dare to believe that he who is risen with
Christ enjoys the liberty of the sons and daughters of God and is not bound
by the restrictions and taboos of human prejudice? To be risen
with Christ means not only that one has a choice and that one may live by a
higher law—the law of grace and love—but
that one must do so. The first obligation of the Christian is to
maintain his freedom from all superstitions, all blind taboos and religious
formalities: indeed from all empty forms of legalism. –
Thomas Merton + +
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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 Portraits of World
Mysticism Class: Mystics in the World with
Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI; 9 am-12 pm; Oblate School
of Theology Whitley Theological Center, 285 Oblate; $40; call (210) 341-1366
x 212 |
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5-6 |
Class: Paul’s Letters to the Corinthians with Prof. Tim Milinovich (UIW); 9:30-11:45 am; SoL
Center, 300 Bushnell; $25; call 210-732-9927 |
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10 |
St. Damien de Veuster of Hawaii |
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11 |
Mother’s Day |
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13 |
Our Lady of Fatima |
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25 |
Rosary-making: 2:00-5:30 pm, St. Mary’s Church, 202 N. St. Mary’s; free
parking & materials |
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26 |
Memorial Day |
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31 |
The Visitation of the
Blessed Virgin Mary PEACE
MASS: 12 pm, St. Mary’s Church, 202 N. St. Mary’s; Rosary at 11:30 am
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Wisdom is the depth of soul that enables us to understand what must remain in our lives when everything else goes. Only that which nurtures the truly spiritual in us, the search for the presence of God in every small dimension of life, is real wisdom. – Sr. Joan Chittister,
OSB |
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Copyright, Marian Center of San Antonio. All
rights reserved. No part of this newsletter may be reproduced without
permission. |