Medjugorje Message: September 25, 2022
Dear children! Pray that the Holy Spirit may enlighten you that you be joyful seekers of God and witnesses of love without bounds. I am with you, little children, and, anew, I am calling all of you: take courage and bear witness to the good works that God is doing in and through you. Be joyful in God. Do good to your neighbor so that it will be good for you on earth and pray for peace, which is threatened because Satan wants war and peacelessness. Thank you for having responded to my call.
River of Light
October 2022
This month Our Lady begins her message by invoking the Holy Spirit: “Pray that the Holy Spirit may enlighten you that you be joyful seekers of God and witnesses of love without bounds.” This calls to mind the words of St. Paul: “When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit….Ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you…. I keep asking that…the glorious Father may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead.” (Eph 1:13-20)
In both Our Lady’s words and St. Paul’s, we see that the journey of faith is an ongoing process “to know him better” throughout our life, a pilgrimage guided and fueled by the Holy Spirit with which we were sealed in the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation. It is the Holy Spirit who “enlightens” us to “be joyful seekers of God and witnesses of love without bounds.” First of all, when we are enlightened by the Holy Spirit, we are JOYFUL—not glum or gloomy, cynical or pessimistic, critical or condemning—for “JOY is the infallible sign of the presence of God” (T. de Chardin), and one of the first Fruits of the Holy Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5. The Spirit also makes us humble “seekers of God” rather than narrow-minded, self-righteous “know-it-all’s.” We will have an open mind and open heart toward the things of God, no matter where they are found—reveling joyfully in the Divine Presence that our seeking “finds” everywhere when we are blessed with the broad awareness of enlightened “eyes to see and ears to hear.”
With the light of the Holy Spirit, Our Lady says we can be “witnesses of love without bounds.” First, we will have the evolving consciousness, sensitivity, and depth to witness and understand GOD as “Love without bounds”—realizing that eternal, unconditional, all-inclusive LOVE is *who God is.* Secondly, we will give witness or “proof” of this unbounded Love of God by demonstrating AGAPE (unconditional love) through our treatment of others in all that we say and do—thus providing with our own lives a clear manifestation of God the Holy Spirit as “Love Without Bounds.” How desperately our world needs to see and hear this witness! So many—even among those called “religious”—have no comprehension of God as “Love Without Bounds.” Rather, many see God as only a supersized projection of our own human attitudes of righteous anger, disciplinary reward and punishment, favoritism and vengeance, etc.—a small and petty manmade God, far from the Great Reality of “love without bounds.”
Our Lady continues: “Anew, I am calling all of you: take courage and bear witness to the good works that God is doing in and through you. Be joyful in God.” Again, Our Lady calls us to “bear witness” and she acknowledges that it takes “courage” to let our light shine openly—to “come out of the closet” of any fearful cloak of darkness we have kept wrapped around the gifts God has given us. Rather, we are to “bear witness to the good works that God is doing in and through you.” Jesus says in the Gospel: “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead they put it on a lamp stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. Just so, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Mt 5:14-16) We must bravely allow “the good works that God is doing in and through us” to become visible. Not in an arrogant, boastful, or self-aggrandizing way—but always in a humble, simple, genuine sharing that gives GOD the glory for any talent or accomplishment we exhibit.
If God is doing a good work “IN ME,” for example, such as a work of recovery from alcohol/drug/food addiction or from bitter resentment/unforgiveness, I must “take courage” and let the world SEE my sobriety/abstinence/inner healing and hear that GOD is doing for me what I could never do for myself. Likewise, if God is doing a good work “THROUGH ME,” such as a challenging work of sacrificial service for someone in need, or the artistic creation of visual, musical, or literary beauty, I must “take courage” and let these works be known and experienced by others while giving a clear “witness” that GOD is doing through me what I could never do all by myself. The animating power of the Holy Spirit is doing these works “in” and “through” me. Thus, despite our human weaknesses and failings, we can always be “JOYFUL IN GOD,” as Our Lady asks.
Finally, Our Lady concludes by saying: “Do good to your neighbor so that it will be good for you on earth and pray for peace, which is threatened because Satan wants war and peacelessness.” This final teaching relates to our being witnesses of “Love without bounds” —the very definition of GOD in 1 John 4: “GOD IS LOVE.” Jesus taught that the greatest commandment is twofold—Love of God and Love of Neighbor (Mt 22: 37-40), with everything in Scripture and our spiritual journey depending upon these “two Loves.” When Our Lady says, “Do good to your neighbor so that it will be good for you on earth,” she is restating the reciprocal kind of human love Jesus taught, saying, “Love your neighbor AS yourself.” This teaching points to the profound, intrinsic interconnectedness of all life.
As human beings, our wellness and woe are completely interwoven with all other people’s at a deep metaphysical level that is not immediately visible. But as the Holy Spirit “enlightens” us, our eyes of faith and spiritual vision bring this reality into focus. We realize more and more clearly that “the good of our neighbor” will be good for US, and vice versa: it’s the Golden Rule! And we also realize that our “neighbor” is not limited to close associates or to those of the same racial, ethnic, national, political, social, economic, religious, gender or sexuality profile as ourselves. Rather—as Jesus taught in the Gospel when asked “Who is my neighbor?” —our neighbor is ANY HUMAN BEING IN NEED. Full stop. No other qualifications. “Love without bounds.”
Because we have this high heavenly calling from Christ to a “love without bounds,” Our Lady must end her message by warning us of the “fly in the ointment” of our human condition: “Pray for peace, which is threatened because Satan wants war and peacelessness.” Our Satanic ego militates against the “kumbaya” energy of “Love without bounds.” Our Satanic ego militates against “giving God the glory” for good works, which we prefer to ascribe only to the (False) self—our own native “brilliance” or “philanthropy.”
Our Satanic ego militates against “doing good for our neighbor” unless said neighbor is on “our team” —part of our mythic membership group (political party, socio-economic level, etc). Our Satanic ego revolves around the emotional energy centers of safety/security, affection/esteem, power/control, and sensory pleasure with a raging, greedy, jealous competitiveness for what it fears are finite, limited, and scarce supplies of each. Hence the inevitable ego drive toward “war and peacelessness” throughout human history and no less in our own troubled world today, where we see “False Self-will run riot” in every direction.
Our Satanic ego is not “joyful in God” but antithetical to the very existence of God—even in those of us who identify as religious believers but frequently fall into a fearful negativity that betrays hidden atheism or lack of faith. Such is our sad situation, with the threads of Satanic ego sown through the fabric of our human nature as “original sin.”
Indeed we must pray for peace, starting with our own heart where all war and peacelessness begin, by asking God-who-is-Love-Without-Bounds: “Lead us not into temptation [from our own False Self/Satanic ego], but deliver us from evil [of our own False Self/Satanic ego].” As we pray for peace in this deeply personal, radical way which Our Lady calls “Prayer of the Heart,” an eradicating of the ROOTS of war and peacelessness in our world may begin at last. What joy!
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Empty yourself. Sit quietly, content with the grace of God.
—St. Romuald
The purpose of silence is to break through the crust of the false self.
—Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO
If God is the center of your life, no words are necessary. Your mere presence will touch hearts.
—St. Vincent de Paul
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WE CANNOT SOLVE OUR PROBLEMS WITH THE SAME THINKING THAT WE USED WHEN WE CREATED THEM.
—Albert Einstein
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Until we have met the monsters in ourselves, we keep trying to slay them in the outer world. And we find that we cannot. For all darkness in the world stems from darkness in the heart. And it is there that we must do our work.
—Marianne Williamson
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Sit in your cell as in paradise. Put the whole world behind you and forget it. Watch your thoughts like a good fisherman watching for fish.
—St. Romuald
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Learning silence and solitude, learning to love solitude and rest in silence is the beginning of freedom and independence. “When you close your doors and make darkness within, remember never to say that you are alone, for you are not alone; no, God is within and your genius is within.”
—Epictetus
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In the classic spiritual text, The Sacrament of the Present Moment, Jean-Pierre de Caussade teaches that THE PRESENT MOMENT IS SACRED because it is THE SCHOOL OF DIVINE WISDOM. In non-reactive and open-hearted presence to our experience, AS IT IS HAPPENING, we encounter the DIVINE REALITY.
Too often, however, we are either lost in thought or overwhelmed by difficult emotions. MINDFULNESS helps us break our over-identification with thoughts and work skillfully with overpowering emotions.
—Cynthia Bourgeault
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I felt in need of a great pilgrimage.
So I sat still for three days.
—Kabir
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What is the relation of contemplation to action? Simply this. He who attempts to act and do things for others or for the world without deepening his own self-understanding, freedom, integrity, and capacity to LOVE, will not have anything to give others.
—Thomas Merton, OCSO
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Everything in life that we really ACCEPT undergoes a change. So suffering becomes love. That is the mystery.
—Katherine Mansfield
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You come to see that suffering is required; and you no more want to avoid it than you want to avoid putting your next foot on the ground when you are walking. In the spiritual path, joy and suffering follow one another like the two feet and you come to a point of not minding which “foot” is on the ground. You realize on the contrary that it is extremely uncomfortable hopping all the time on the joy foot.
—John G. Bennett
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OCTOBER SAINTS
October 1st: St. Therese of Lisieux “Love comprises all vocations, love is everything. My vocation is Love!….Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.”
October 4th: St. Francis of Assisi “Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.”
October 15th: St. Teresa of Avila “Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you. All things are passing. God never changes. Patience attains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing. God alone suffices.”
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Your mind can deceive you and put all kinds of barriers between you and your nature; but your body does not lie. Your body tells you, if you attend to it, how your life is and whether you are living from your soul or from the labyrinths of your negativity. The human body is the most complex, refined, and harmonious totality. Your body is, in essence, a crowd of different members who work in harmony to make your belonging in the world possible. The soul is not simply within the body, hidden somewhere within its recesses. The truth is rather the converse. Your body is in the soul, and the soul suffuses you completely.
—John O’Donohue
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Why do you go to God, crouching with fear like a slave? Because your conscience bothers you? Be yourself your own judge: give yourself the sentence of acquittal! If you want your debts to be forgiven by God, forgive them yourself and God will ratify it.
—St. Gregory of Nysa
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October: Month of the Rosary
Sadly, the Atlantic magazine recently reported, “extremist gun culture is trying to co-opt the rosary.” Some radical-traditionalist Catholics have given the rosary a militaristic meaning as a weapon associated with the dangerously violent rise of Christian nationalism in the United States: “On this extremist fringe, rosary beads have been woven into a conspiratorial politics and absolutist gun culture. These armed radical traditionalists have taken up a spiritual notion that the rosary can be a weapon in the fight against evil and turned it into something dangerously literal,” with social media and merchandizing websites connecting rosaries to violence (e.g. saints carrying automatic weapons).
Connecting a beloved ancient prayer practice with the glamorization of violence is troubling and problematic. Bishop Robert Barron said, “I guess there are some weirdos on the extreme Right who associate the rosary with their rifles.” That some are misusing the rosary and other Catholic devotions to support Christian nationalism is alarming. However, the viral reactions to the Atlantic article clearly showed that the Rosary is still a beloved prayer practice for millions of Catholics on all parts of the political spectrum, from Left to Right, and it will not be ceded to the radical-traditionalist conservative fringe.
The Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary is indeed a powerful weapon of war: an instrument of inner transformation whose purpose is to reveal, rout out, and eradicate the evil enemy of Satanic ego that lies within the heart and mind of each person who prays it.
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Wisdom from Pope Francis
I invite everyone to rediscover, especially during the month of October, the beauty of the prayer of the rosary, which has nourished the faith of the Christian people through the centuries. I invite you to pray the rosary, and to carry it in your hands or in your pockets. The recitation of the rosary is the most beautiful prayer we can offer to the Virgin Mary; it is a contemplation on the stages of the life of Jesus the Savior with his Mother Mary and is a weapon that protects us from evils and temptations. Our Lady has urged the prayer of the rosary in her apparitions, especially in the face of the threats looming over the world.
Prayer is letting ourselves be carried by God, especially in moments of suffering. When we feel useless or lonely, if we have done something wrong, or if we feel threatened and frightened, when we return before God with prayer, serenity and peace will return as if by miracle. The real proof of prayer is love of one’s neighbor. Believers act in the world after having first kept silent and prayed; otherwise, their action is impulsive, devoid of discernment, rushing without a destination. When believers behave in this way, they do so many injustices because they do not go to pray to the Lord first—to discern what they must do.
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
