Medjugorje Message: January 25, 2024
Dear children! May this time be a time of prayer.
River of Light
February 2024
“MAY THIS TIME BE A TIME OF PRAYER.” Our Lady’s extremely brief message this month—again, without her customary closing of “Thank you for having responded to my call” —brings to mind the adage: “Actions speak louder than words.” Perhaps her words are so few in hopes that “THIS TIME,” we will actually “respond” to them and DO what they say: “Dear children! May this time be a time of prayer.” (You heard the Lady: PRAY! Don’t just talk about it!)
Mary, Queen of Peace in Medjugorje has given messages to the world for 42 years and the one central theme of every apparition has been PRAYER. Many times she has said simply, “Pray! Pray! Pray!” She has tirelessly called us to “Pray with the HEART.” Last month she said, “Seek Jesus in the SILENCE of your HEART….The world needs Jesus, therefore seek Him through PRAYER, because He gives Himself daily to each of you.”
For the past two months, Our Lady’s message to the world has omitted her 40-year tradition of the closing salutation “Thank you for having responded to my call.” Sadly, she has also referred to “the world which does not have hope” (Nov 2023), and “winds of evil, hatred and peacelessness blowing through the earth to destroy lives.” (Oct 2023) Is Our Lady “giving up” on our cooperating with her plan for world peace? Regrettably, we must admit that, by and large, we have NOT responded to this tireless call of Our Lady to PRAYER—specifically to “Prayer of the Heart” and “prayer for PEACE.”
Fr. Thomas Keating was a Trappist abbot whose “Centering Prayer” practice brought about a popular renewal of the ancient Christian contemplative tradition—one designed for all people (not just monastic/religious orders). He stated that “In Medjugorje Mary is calling us to the contemplative dimension of the Gospel.” This dimension rests upon the teaching and practice of Jesus himself, who said, “When you pray, go into your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” (Mt 6:6) Our Lord prayed in this way, often secluding himself to spend all night alone in mountain and desert silence, praying “in secret.”
To be honest, can we say that we follow our Lord’s example or answer Our Lady’s call to prayer? Do we give God even 20 minutes a day in silent Prayer of the Heart, opening ourselves to His presence and action in our deepest core, consenting to His “Divine Therapy” to dismantle all the inner bonds of selfishness, anger, grief, unforgiveness, confusion, and the slavish dependency upon our own ego-driven desires and False Self agendas? This silent prayer of open-hearted RECEPTIVITY to God’s work would accomplish healing and transformation in our life that we can never do for ourselves. Yet how RARELY is our prayer this deep, silent, “inner room” prayer “in secret” to which Jesus and Mary invite us—the place where an intimate encounter with Ultimate Reality awaits us.
Instead, we often give a shallow, superficial “thoughts and prayers!” lip-service that comes from the “automatic pilot” of our thinking minds only—full of WORDS but disconnected from the HEART, from sincere FEELING, and from the SENSATION of the body. This disjointed and scattered “head” prayer lacks the transformative power that comes only from TOTAL SURRENDER to God “in the silence of your heart,” as Our Lady says. St. John of the Cross taught that contemplative prayer is “totally receptive” —meaning it is premised on an awareness of our complete powerlessness: “I CAN’T, God CAN, I will LET God do it!”
This attitude of prayer flies in the face of our False Self “can-do” belief in self-sufficiency and effecting change by our own efforts. We mistakenly think “prayer” is our forcefully asking God to magically “change” outer circumstances of life, when in fact PRAYER works in a totally different way: by changing the one who prays—from the inside-out—into a humble, surrendered servant of God’s will, like Mary. This is called CONVERSION, a daily process.
Because of our human condition (“original sin”), we each have deeply engrained patterns of self-centeredness and self-will, along with “emotional programs for happiness” based on our instinctual needs of early childhood that got frustrated or ignored: Safety/ Security, Affection/ Esteem, Power/ Control, and Pleasure. Driven always by our ego’s demanding, insatiable thirst for power, prestige, and pleasure, is it any wonder that we see so little “PEACE” in the world resulting from our “Praying for Peace“? Why is our “prayer” so ineffective in changing things?
Because the way we pray is too often the way we live—completely at the mercy of our False Self programs, without any true OPENING of our HEART to the Divine Presence that indwells our inmost being—not allowing GOD to do for us (in the silent surrender of our consent) what we can never do for ourselves! Filled with the distractions of our constant engagement in this high-tech, money-driven, work-obsessed, politically polarized culture, we often “pray for peace” as childishly as one might ask a giant “Santa Claus in the sky” to “wave a magic wand” over our troubled planet Earth, thus bestowing “PEACE” upon us from a great distance.
But as St. Thomas Aquinas taught, “Peace is the tranquility of ORDER.” While we see the persistent DISORDER throughout our world—a planet on fire with global warming, endless wars, brutality and violence, ideological polarization, unrelenting class and racial divisions, broken family relationships, and the loss of teaching basic moral values of civility and human respect—we must realize that this is only a MIRROR REFLECTION of the DISORDER within each one of us as individuals. We live in a quantum universe where each individual part is a “holon” or “microcosm” of the WHOLE. “We are many parts but all one Body,” as St. Paul wrote.
And so, when Our Lady came to Medjugorje in 1981, saying “Peace, peace, peace, only peace!” —asking us to PRAY FOR PEACE in order to fulfill her mission on earth—she was asking us to “open our hearts” to the kind of PRAYER that brings “the tranquility of ORDER” into our own individual being. From the DISORDER of our False Self agenda for “power, prestige, and pleasure,” Our Lady calls us to the ORDER of a life empty of self and yielded to God. A life in which PRAYER becomes the centerpiece of each day’s “Letting Go and Letting God” through the practice of SILENT STILLNESS (20 minutes, twice a day).
In this silence, we “let our thoughts go,” gently, one by one, and patiently return to our intention of CONSENT and SURRENDER, so that the “Divine Therapist” —our Indwelling Christ Presence—can do the work of “setting in ORDER” our inmost being, healing the psychological wounds of a lifetime (both conscious and unconscious), and bringing us into the pure joy of CONFORMITY to the Divine Will. This vital prayer of “resting in the Lord” results in PEACE, “the tranquility of order.”
We will not initially perceive anything happening or changing, but God is doing His work within us—steadily “repaying” us “in secret,” if only we cooperate by going to our “inner room” and “closing the door” to the outside noise of our own thoughts, one by one. Each time we do this, we are exhibiting the self-emptying stance of Jesus and Mary: “Thy Will, not mine, be done.” With each breath we can more deeply “abandon ourselves to Divine Providence.”
As our own individual souls are brought to order and peace each day through PRAYER of the HEART, we will be equipped and empowered by Divine Grace to carry this inner peace outside—to the hurting, troubled, peaceless world in which we live. This is how “Peace on Earth” can be realized according to Our Lady’s God-given mission; but as she has often said, her plan requires and demands OUR participation. “MAY THIS TIME BE A TIME OF PRAYER.” You heard the Lady!
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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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Centering Prayer
- Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to consent to God’s presence and action within.
- Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly and silently introduce the sacred word.
- When engaged with thoughts, return ever-so-gently to the sacred word.
- At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes.
—www.contemplativeoutreach.org
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Centering Prayer was developed as a response to the Vatican II invitation to revive the ancient contemplative teachings of early Christianity and present them in updated formats. The method of Centering Prayer is drawn from the ancient practices of the Christian contemplative heritage, especially the traditional monastic practice of Lectio Divina and the practices described in the 14th century classic The Cloud of Unknowing, and in the writings of Christian mystics such as John Cassian, Francis de Sales, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Therese of Lisieux, and Thomas Merton. Most importantly, Centering Prayer is based on the wisdom teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6:6.
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Our basic core of goodness is our true Self. Its center of gravity is God.
The acceptance of our basic goodness is a quantum leap in the spiritual journey.
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Where does Centering Prayer come from? Its source is the Trinity dwelling within us. It is rooted in God’s life within us. We participate as human beings in God’s life just by being alive, but much more through grace. This stream of divine love that is constantly renewed in the Trinity is infused into us through grace. We know this by our desire for God. That desire, however it may be battered by the forces of daily life, manifests itself in the effort that we make to develop a life of prayer, and a life of action penetrated by prayer.
—Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO, from Intimacy with God
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This Presence is so immense, yet so humble; awe-inspiring yet so gentle; limitless, yet so intimate, tender and personal. Everything in my life is transparent in this Presence. It knows all my weaknesses, brokenness, sinfulness—and still loves me infinitely. This Presence is healing, strengthening, refreshing. It is nonjudgmental, self-giving, seeking no reward, boundless in compassion. It is like coming home to a place I should never have left, to an awareness that was somehow always there, but which I did not recognize.
—Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO, from Open Mind, Open Heart
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The way of pure faith is to persevere in contemplative practice without worrying about where we are on the journey, and without comparing ourselves with others or judging others’ gifts as better than ours. We can be spared all this nonsense if we surrender ourselves to the divine action, whatever the psychological content of our prayer may be. In pure faith, the results are often hidden even from those who are growing the most. The divine light of faith is totally available in the degree that we consent and surrender ourselves to its presence and action within.
—Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO, from Invitation to Love
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We consent to God’s presence, letting God decide what he wants to do. God seems to want to find out what it is like to live human life in us, and each of us is the only person who can ever give him that joy. Hence our dignity is incomparable. We are invited to give God the chance to experience God in our humanity, in our addictions, in our sins. Jesus chose to be part of everyone’s life experience—whatever that is—and to raise everyone up to divine union.
—Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO, from Fruits and Gifts of the Spirit
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The contemplative journey is the most responsible of all responses to God because so much depends on it—the future of humanity, the healing of the wounds of humanity, our own deepest healing. It’s not just a method of meditation or a practice to find personal peace. It’s basically a total acceptance of the human condition in all its ramifications, including its desperate woundedness.
Humans are fully capable of deification, where the light, life, and love of God are pouring through them, channeling a source of healing, compassion, and reconciliation wherever they go and whatever they do. They are rooted in the divine compassion and mercy, and are manifesting the pure light of the image and likeness of God within them. This is the assimilation of the mind and heart of Christ in everyday life.
—Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO, from Heartfulness: Transformation in Christ
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The basic disposition in the spiritual journey is the capacity to accept all reality: God, ourselves, other people, and all creation as they are.
To hope for something better in the future is not the theological virtue of hope. Theological hope is based on God alone, who is infinitely merciful and infinitely powerful right now. It is this unbounded confidence in God: Let whatever is happening happen and go on happening. Welcome whatever it is. Let go into the present moment by surrendering to its content. The divine energies are rushing past us at every nanosecond of time. Why not reach out and catch them by continuing acts of self-surrender and trust in God?
—Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO, from Reflections on the Unknowable
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Jesus taught that to be his disciple you need to deny your inmost self. That is more crucial than the other things he invites us to separate ourselves from. Any identity at all, apart from God, is not it. So to have no identity or an identity that you don’t know and are willing that it be anything that God wants it to be—this is what the transformative process is doing.
Humanity as a whole needs a breakthrough into the contemplative dimension of life. This is the LIFE at the heart of the world. There the human family is already one. If one goes to one’s own heart, one will find oneself in the heart of everyone else, and all in the heart of the Ultimate Mystery.
—Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO, from Contemplative Outreach News
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A creative vision releases an enormous amount of energy and can transform society beyond our wildest dreams. The power of the stars is nothing compared to the energy of a person whose will has been freed from the false-self system and who is thus enabled to co-create the cosmos together with God.
—Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO, from The Mystery of Christ
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Wisdom from Pope Francis
Every human person has a “contemplative dimension” which is like salt that gives flavor to our day. To contemplate is not primarily a way of doing, but a way of being. The contemplative aspect of our nature requires us to enter into faith and love. Being contemplatives does not depend on the eyes, but on the heart. And here prayer enters in as an act of faith and love, as the “breath” of our relationship with God. Prayer purifies our heart and sharpens our gaze, allowing it to grasp reality from another point of view.
St. John Vianney, the Cure’ of Ars, taught, “Contemplation is a gaze of faith, fixed on Jesus.” Everything comes from this: from a heart that feels that it is looked on with love. Then reality is contemplated with different eyes. Loving contemplation of Christ requires few words and can be put simply, as the saint said, “I look at Him and He looks at me!” A gaze is enough. It is enough to be convinced that our life is surrounded by an immense and faithful love that nothing can ever separate us from. Jesus was the master of this gaze, always finding time and space to be in loving communion with God the Father.
But do not fall into the ancient temptation of a dualistic understanding of prayer, thinking that contemplation is opposed to action. In reality, in Jesus Christ and the Gospel, there is no opposition between contemplation and action. The only great call in the Gospel is to follow Jesus along the path of love. This is the pinnacle and center of everything. Charity and contemplation are synonymous; they say the same thing.
According to the teaching of St. John of the Cross, a small act of pure love is more useful to the Church than all the other works combined. What is born of prayer and not from the presumption of our ego, what is purified by humility, even if it is a hidden and silent act of love, is the greatest miracle that a Christian can perform.
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
