Medjugorje Message: October 25, 2023
Dear children! Winds of evil, hatred and peacelessness are blowing through the earth to destroy lives. That is why the Most High sent me to you, to lead you towards the way of peace and unity with God and people. You, little children, are my extended hands: pray, fast and offer sacrifices for peace—the treasure for which every heart yearns. Thank you for having responded to my call.
River of Light
November 2023
Our Lady’s message this month is grim and sober, clearly responding to the “signs of the time” in which we live. She begins by saying: “Winds of evil, hatred and peacelessness are blowing through the earth to destroy lives.” We see this most obviously in Ukraine and the escalating new war in the Middle East, after the October 7th terrorist attack of Hamas upon innocent Israeli citizens, with so many killed and taken hostage. In that small, beleaguered strip of “Holy Land” where three great world religions were born: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity—all three the “children of Abraham” who worship the one monotheistic God—PEACE has been elusive for thousands of years, with brutal, bloody conflict and barbaric violence running rampant since Old Testament times.
And here we are, in the 21st century after Christ. As Walter Cronkite once observed, it is amazing that in our “progress,” we humans continue to devise more and more ways to kill each other, while making no strides at all toward learning how to build PEACE. Jesus, weeping over Jerusalem 2100 years ago, said, “If this day you only knew what makes for peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.” (Lk 19:41) Today we watch in horror as innumerable innocent Jews, Muslims and Christians—all having faith in the One God of Abraham—are savagely slaughtered by their siblings in faith. In Medjugorje, some 40 years ago Our Lady clearly stated that “for the Most High God there are no such divisions as Muslim, Jew, and Christian. Those divisions are manmade, not from God. From Heaven’s perspective, all human beings are equally and simply children of God, and children of Mary.” In that early teaching, Our Lady was hoping that we were mature enough in our spirituality and in the development of our consciousness to understand her words, and to finally embrace the contemplative dimension of the Gospel—which is harmonious with the contemplative dimension of the Koran and the Torah! Sadly, it seems we were not ready then, nor are we ready now for this advanced level of wisdom upon which the very fate of ongoing life on our planet Earth now depends.
For we see the “winds of evil, hatred and peacelessness blowing through the earth to destroy lives” in so many ways, in addition to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. We see them in:
+ the ongoing daily assault upon our natural environment, with “climate change deniers” clinging to the mammon of fossil fuel profits while rejecting scientific evidence for a necessary change in human behavior to mitigate rising temperatures and species destruction;
+ the continual proliferation of gun violence, with wealthy legislators clinging to the mammon of weapons’ profits while thousands of innocent victims keep dying from deranged mass shooters using easily accessible military-grade weapons;
+ the demented circus that our partisan politics has become, with corrupt elected officials clinging to the mammon of power by supporting and defending all manner of high-level criminal behavior while placing “party” above “country” in a demonic divisiveness that threatens the very foundation of democracy and the ideal of “e pluribus unum” —“out of the many, one.”
+ the tragic, community-killing cultural degradation of modern technology that has created addictive devices and cyberspace platforms to hypnotically enthrall the entire populace with an endless 24/7 “screen barrage” of distraction and division on social media and YouTube channels that eventually disable our mental power of discernment so that disinformation and toxic lies are ingested and believed by millions as “truth.” As “AI” (artificial intelligence) is added to the mix, our human faculty for discriminating truth from falsehood might potentially die out altogether.
These are just a few of the hurricane-level “winds of evil, hatred and peacelessness blowing through the earth to destroy lives.” There are many others which we each experience in the small daily dramas of Satanic ego in our personal relationships and in the private thoughts and feelings that become obsessive, compulsive, and afflictive in the middle of the night, robbing us of sleep and PEACE in our hearts.
Our Lady continues: “That is why the Most High sent me to you, to lead you towards the way of peace and unity with God and people.” Besides “evil, hatred and peacelessness,” there is another “wind” that blows—the one that blew through the Upper Room at Pentecost, and that Christ had breathed upon his apostles after his resurrection. The HOLY SPIRIT is the “wind” that filled ALL PRESENT with an equally understandable “Word of the Lord” despite their diversity of race, language, nation, culture, and religion. For they were “Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, citizens of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs.” (Acts 2:9-11)
The “WAY,” as Christianity came to be called, was, as Our Lady says today, “the WAY of PEACE and UNITY with God and people.” It is a “WAY” without edges, borders, or boundaries. It is a “WAY” that is all-inclusive, in which everything and everyone belongs. It excludes no one, but is, as Pope Francis constantly affirms, for “Tutti, tutti, tutti!” (“Everyone, everyone, everyone!” ) Jesus commanded this when he said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Mt 5:44) The love of Christ and Christianity is a non-binary, non-dual “WAY of peace and unity with God and people.”
How does Our Lady fulfill her mission for the “Most High” who sent her to “lead” us on this Way? In Medjugorje, Our Lady has continuously called us to “Pray, pray, pray!” —for this is the primary path by which we can each experience the “wind” of the Holy Spirit in our own hearts, enabling us to LOVE WITHOUT BORDERS, in the all-inclusive “Way” of Christ. In PRAYER, we will experience in our hearts the same “unity with God and people” that the Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Indigenous, and every other human being feels when reaching the point of “PRAYER of the HEART,” which is the contemplative or mystical-union dimension of every spiritual path on earth. Our prayer is always to be given minds and hearts OPEN for the “wind” of the HOLY SPIRIT to blow through with inspiration that we will receive and obey!
Our Lady concludes her message: “You, little children, are my extended hands: pray, fast and offer sacrifices for peace—the treasure for which every heart yearns.” In a similar way, St. Teresa once said, “Christ has no hands on earth but yours.” As followers of the “WAY,” we are in a sense “proxies” for Our Lord and Our Lady: meant to represent their Presence of love, compassion, and mercy wherever we go. In a special way, as Mary’s “extended hands,” we are to replicate her earthly teaching and example in three specific ways: by PRAYING, FASTING, and SACRIFICING for peace. Throughout her whole life, Our Lady undoubtedly prayed, fasted, and sacrificed; and in every earthly apparition since her Assumption into heaven, she has asked us to do these same three things.
As “Queen of Peace” in Medjugorje (her “last apparitions on earth” ), she has especially focused on the intention of “PEACE” for our troubled world, which is “the treasure for which every heart yearns.” Indeed, peace on earth seems to be the “treasure buried in the field” and the “pearl of great price” for which we must “sell” or sacrifice everything else: all of our many idols, false-self agendas, and worldly programs for egoic “happiness” that will never work. Jesus says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Mt 6:21) Even though the current “winds of evil, hatred and peacelessness destroying lives” are driven by our lustful, idolatrous attention upon earthly treasures whose only payoff is money (“mammon” ), Our Lady correctly states that PEACE is the true “treasure for which every heart yearns.” We all eventually learn that without peace of mind and heart, the mammon in our bank rolls means nothing.
With prayer, fasting, and sacrifices, perhaps those who profit from environmental destruction, the sale of weapons, unethical modern technologies, and extremist, divisive political ideologies will be “blown” by the Holy Spirit’s “wind” toward Conversion of Heart. Then the vision of Isaiah might finally manifest on earth: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not raise the sword against nation, nor shall they train for war again.” (Is 2:4) For the cause of PEACE in our troubled world, let us commit ourselves to “strong prayer” (as Our Lady requested last month)—whatever that means for each of us: daily Mass, Eucharistic adoration, Rosary, Chaplet of Mercy, Charismatic praise, Contemplative Silence, etc. Let us commit ourselves to “fasting” in whatever ways possible: the “Medjugorje fast” of bread and water on Wednesdays and Fridays; in other dietary ways, or in “fasting” from gossip, criticism, and other negative habits. Let us commit ourselves to “offer sacrifices” in whatever ways we can: less “screen time” on devices, less consumeristic buying of unnecessary items, less attention to vanity or trendy fashions in our appearance, etc. There are MANY different and creative ways for us to answer Our Lady’s threefold request this month.
And because of the Sacred Quantum Reality of our universe where all things are deeply interwoven, interconnected, and interrelated, we can be sure that each small prayer, fast, and sacrifice we offer can have a “butterfly wing-tsunami effect” on the condition of our world, bringing to places of “evil, hatred and peacelessness” life-giving PEACE.
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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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Our house is on fire. I am here to say, our house is on fire….
We are now at a time in history where everyone with any insight on the climate crisis that threatens our civilization—and the entire biosphere—must speak out in clear language, no matter how uncomfortable and unprofitable that may be. We must change our current societies.
—Greta Thunberg
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November: Month of All Saints and All Souls
In praying for the dead, the Church above all contemplates the mystery of the Resurrection of Christ, who obtains salvation and eternal life for us through his Cross….Contemplation of the lives of those who have followed Christ encourages us to lead a good, upright Christian life so that we can prepare ourselves each day for eternal life.
—St. John Paul II
The many souls who have preceded us marked with the sign of faith are our brothers and sisters, members of the one big family of God that embraces all time and space. Some names are well-known to all. They are the great saints, witnesses to the power of grace and the faith that conquers all. But they are only the tip of the iceberg. Most of them are unknown…just as we, too, will be one day—but not to God. God knows them. This feast is a celebration of hope….The cry of hope and encouragement from the finish line reaches us who are still on the journey.
—Pope Benedict XVI
Every saint has his or her particular “style,” no one of them resembles another. Each saint has his or her own way of holiness. Yet a common way exists that everyone, without exception, must undertake. I must accomplish the tasks of the present moment, Lord, and respond to your grace at every instant, placing total confidence in you and leaving you free to accomplish in me your plan and not mine.
The saints lived on earth as much as I do. The saints were swept along by the same current of time. Their days were 24 hours long and not one minute more! Their lives were no longer in years; many were very short. But the years they lived were incomparably intense and concentrated because they recognized that time had the value of eternity. God works through the saints who collaborate with God. How much we must esteem a single moment of the Lord’s work!
We build holiness in the present moment not by turning to the past or anticipating the future. That is why the saints treasured the present moment: without neglecting a single instant, they made each moment a response of their whole being to God’s love. The saints lived in the present as in an immense ocean of peace because they already lived in that unending PRESENT of eternity.
—Venerable Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan
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The Church’s Response to WAR
Terrorism and war do not bring any solution, but only death and suffering for many innocent people. War is a failure. Every war is a failure.
—Pope Francis
In addition to the so-called “just war” theory, many urge Pope Francis to work toward a “just peace” ethic in the church, so that comprehensive nonviolence becomes the central point of reference for the Church on armed conflict. Nonviolence orients a way of being and offers a vision of the person that favors fellowship in difference.
The just war tradition was articulated within an era and logic of empire. Empires conquer and occupy territories, and exploit other people’s resources. They cultivate an obedient citizenry, which plays out through colonialism. Through violence, empires control their subjects. Over time, victims often abandon their past and embrace that worldview produced by the empire. Or they replicate the empire’s logic of domination in their response to the oppression.
All wars have behind them memories of perceived injustice that were not resolved adequately. A comprehensive nonviolence/ “just peace” ethic must take into consideration the different factors that lead to war. Lasting peace requires a rigorous engagement with the root causes and deep-seated issues that have produced destructive conflicts.
“Just war” reasoning has been used predominantly to legitimate and endorse war rather than prevent or limit it. Yet we know that war always leads to continuing cycles of violence and generational trauma.
It is important that Russians and Ukrainians, Israelis and Palestinians embrace all of their complex historical memories in open, honest dialogue and encounters that are altruistically-oriented toward the common good of all.
—Dr. SimonMary Aihiokhai & Dr. Eli McCarthy
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Understanding the Pope’s “SYNOD on SYNODALITY”
In the Western Church, we have let synodal practice and culture die. They are a set of “muscles” in the ecclesial body that were allowed to atrophy. Then Francis indicated his intention to invite the whole Catholic world to sit down and begin this conversation, and to take the baptized seriously also as part of the synodal process. He’s taken a wager that we will learn to do this by doing. What’s weakest in Catholic practice has been the participation of the baptized. This synod process is not “untraditional”—this was a feature of life in the early church. And Vatican II invited us to rediscover the importance of our baptismal vocation.
—Christopher White, Vatican correspondent
It’s a huge experiment. But it’s a remarkable one. And there’s a tremendous tradition of spiritual wisdom behind what we’re going to embark upon.
—Joshua McElwee
The historical evidence is clear that Christian leaders have been using synods as consultative bodies since the early centuries of Christianity. Synods were the decision-making bodies for geographical regions of the Church, already before the fourth century. Pope Francis wants to revive that traditional aspect of Christianity in his emphasis on synodality, reflecting a church where the hierarchy consults the lay faithful in open and honest dialogue to collectively discern the church’s journey forward through time.
—Robin Young, Catholic University of America (Church historian)
I was an early “synod skeptic,” but the more I got into the synodal process, I realized that this is really profound, that this is going back to the roots of our Church, going back also to the Second Vatican Council and our core teachings.
—Helen Osman, Vatican Dicastery for Communication
Pope Francis has chosen the topic of synodality for this synod. So, what does synodality mean? What does it mean to become a more synodal church? The word “synod” literally means to be together on a path. Jesus said, “Peace. Do not be afraid. Receive the Holy Spirit.” Knowing that synodality is a community of faith seeking to know the Father’s will by prayerfully reflecting on the Word of God, listening to the Holy Spirit, that we might more perfectly embody Christ as Church, all guided by sacred Scripture and tradition, what is there to fear? This is the church at prayer!
Synodality involves all the baptized, recognizing their unique gifts and the sense of faith that is present in each of the baptized. Thus, the synodal process began two years ago seeking the input of all the baptized. Synodality involves the communion of the entire people of God, who are co-responsible for the life and mission of the Church.
The real protagonist of the synod is the Holy Spirit. We long to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to the Church today. The goal of the synod is not to produce a document, rather the goal “will be to continue to animate the synodal process in the ordinary life of the Church, identifying which pathways the Spirit invites us to walk along more decisively as the People of God.”
—Archbishop Paul Etienne
We are invited to be a church that does not “impose burdens,” but instead repeats to everyone: “Come, you who are weary and oppressed, come, you who have lost your way or feel far off, come, you who have closed the doors to hope: the Church is here for you!”
The synod serves to remind us of this: our Mother the Church is always in need of purification, of being “repaired,” for we are a people made up of forgiven sinners, always in need of returning to the source that is Jesus and putting ourselves back on the paths of the Spirit to reach everyone with his Gospel. St. Francis of Assisi did not criticize or lash out at anyone, but took up only the weapons of the Gospel: humility and unity, prayer and charity. Let us do the same!
—Pope Francis on October 4th opening of the Synod
(Feast of St. Francis of Assisi)
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Things change.
Early on it was believed that the message of Jesus was reserved to Jews. Then Gentiles were allowed only if they observed Jewish laws about circumcision and diet. Then the early leaders determined those rules did not apply.
Women were imagined as malformed males, even though God found fit to have them be the first to discover and declare the Easter miracle.
The church later applied the adjective “perfidious” to Jews and prayed for their conversion. Then a council deemed that was wrong, and popes began visiting synagogues and describing Jews as brothers in Abraham.
The Church and the culture change.
There was no salvation outside the church, until there was…and a pope invited other denominations and faiths to join him in prayer in Assisi, which continued for decades.
LGBTQ people were described as “intrinsically disordered,” a term that has gone out of use. Now a pope says, when asked about homosexuality, “Who am I to judge?”
Slavery was once justified. Earning interest on loans was once forbidden.
The church once insisted that the earth was the center of the universe.
The Church and the world do not stand still. Nor do they stand in isolation from one another.
Change is threatening. It unravels the certainties that bring comfort. It calls into question aspects of culture that some see as immutable. It brings differences into sharp relief. It is unsettling.
Certainty does not require immutability. The certainty is assured in the kerygma, the ancient statement of faith.
Resurrection. That’s where the immutable certainty lies. And what of all those pesky issues causing anxiety and division?
Perhaps Pope Francis believes the Church has reached a level of maturity where the questions can flow without retribution, where the messiness of the complex human family can be reflected in our conversations. Where the awkward mouthful of syllables—synod on synodality—will come to model a new manner of life within the church.
—Stephanie Yeagle
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Wisdom from Pope Francis
With the passage of time, I have realized that our responses have not been adequate, while the world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point. The impact of climate change will increasingly prejudice the lives and families of many persons. We will feel its affects in healthcare, employment, access to resources, housing, forced migration, etc. I feel obliged to make these clarifications, which may appear obvious, because of certain dismissive and scarcely reasonable opinions that I encounter, even within the Catholic Church.
In recent years, some have chosen to deride these facts. They bring up allegedly solid scientific data, like the fact that the planet has always had, and will have, periods of cooling and warming. They forget to mention another relevant fact: that what we are presently experiencing is an unusual acceleration of warming, at such a speed that it will take only one generation—not centuries or millennia—in order to verify it.
If we consider that emissions per individual in the United States are about two times greater than those of individuals living in China, and seven times greater than the average of the poorest countries, we can state that a broad change in the irresponsible lifestyle connected with the Western model would have a significant long-term impact.
The world that surrounds us is not an object of exploitation, unbridled use and unlimited ambition. Nor can we claim that nature is a mere “setting” in which we develop our lives and projects. For we are part of nature, in constant interaction with it. God has united us to all his creatures. Technology can isolate us from the world that surrounds us and deceive us by making us forget that the entire world is a “contact zone.” Human life is incomprehensible and unsustainable without other creatures.
This is no longer a secondary or ideological question, but a drama that harms us all. Inaction on climate for Catholics is a tragic and striking example of structural sin.
—from latest apostolic exhortation, “Laudato Deum”
(Oct 4, 2023, Feast of St. Francis of Assisi)
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
