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Official Commentary on the
monthly message of
October 25th 2006 & a Reflection
by Fr. Jozo OFM
Below
is the official English translation of this month's commentary on Our Lady's
message to the world through the visionary Marija, provided by The Medjugorje Information Centre
~ Acknowledgements information and
links
COME,
Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart
of Mary, your well beloved spouse.
Most
Holy Spirit, open my heart, soften it, and fill it with light and love so that I
may understand clearly what I will read, and act on it for my own spiritual
benefit and for the delight of my Heavenly Mother, Your Beloved Spouse. May I
read each word under Your guidance so that, free of all worldly desires and
distractions, I may grow in wisdom and prudence enough to follow perfectly the
wishes of the Most Blessed Trinity. Amen
"Dear children! Today the Lord permitted me to tell you again that
you live in a time of grace. You are not conscious, little children, that
God is giving you a great opportunity to convert and to live in peace and
love. You are so blind and attached to earthly things and think of earthly
life. God sent me to lead you toward eternal life. I, little children, am
not tired, although I see that your hearts are heavy and tired for
everything that is a grace and a gift. Thank you for having responded to
my call." Monthly message
to the world, October 25, 2006
Our
Lady has regularly said the messages are for each one of us individually so try reading them as if your own name was
there; "Dear .........." - it can
make them so much more personal, challenging and effective.
O
Blessed Mother, help us hear your words to us. Teach us to listen ever
more carefully to the words of your Son. Pray that our hearts will be
transformed into the hearts he would have us have, and that we will
always be open to His call. Amen.
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message commentary:- I LEAD YOU TO ETERNAL LIFE.
The
Blessed Virgin Mary, given that she is a mother, knows well the heart
and soul of man. She also knows the spiritual illnesses into which we
can fall prey to: forgetfulness, hardness of heart, negligence,
blindness towards and ungratefulness to God for all that we have
received and are receiving from Him. That is why this message resounds
in our ears and hearts as a reminder, admonition, warning and mother's
reprimand. She has come to awaken us, encourage us and lead us to God
who we must choose to follow today and not after our death.
The Virgin Mary, who comes to us through the glory of our Heavenly
Father, knows better than we do the perils into which our souls may
fall. In times past in our parishes there were folk missions held and
the motto of these missions was: "Save your soul". It is only
important to save the soul. The soul is the basis and bearer of
everything that man is and by which he exists. To save your soul means
to be connected to God, cleansing your soul before God in honest
confession, fighting against all sins which could distance us from God
and one another.
While we are healthy here on earth, while things are going more or less
the way they should, we somehow easily forget about our soul and God. We
are hurried, rushing around and fighting to achieve more, have more and
to secure our life and existence here. We all know that we will one day
have to leave all of this but we still continue to fight frantically and
hold tightly to worldly things. These are only signs of how small our
faith is, that is, how little faith we have in God. And the consequences
of all this are visible indeed. We have increasingly less time for each
other, there is increasingly less trust between people, neighbours and
in families. There is increasingly more tension, nervousness, fear and
anguish in the heart. Our Lady as our mother wants to open our eyes to
another reality, God's reality which we carry in ourselves, but one
which is not buried under and suffocated with things and anguishing
worries for this life and world. In this worldly life much is needed. We
think that it is important to have everything in life. However when a
man dies, when he comes face to face with God, then the only important
thing is that we have saved our soul and that we fought to stay
connected to God.
God has been sending us the Mother of his Son Jesus, and our Heavenly
Mother among us for 25 years and four months now. Mary said to us:
"I will stay with you for as long as the Almighty allows; I will
encourage you for as long as the Almighty allows; There will come a time
when I will no longer be with you."
Our Lady's presence among us in this manner, through the apparitions is
a grace and gift. It is a grace and gift to the Church, to you and me if
we accept her as our Mother and we pour Her words into our life. Let a
mother's calls not be in vain in our lives and families. Let us take Her
seriously today so that tomorrow it will not be too late.
Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic ~ Medjugorje, 26th
October, 2006 ~ Official
English Translation
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Apparition to Mirjana on October 2, 2006 - Mirjana reported that Our Lady said the following:
""Dear
children, I am coming to you in this your time, to direct the call to
eternity to you. This is the call of love. I call you to love, because
only through love will you come to know the love of God. Many think that
they have faith in God and that they know his laws. They try to live
according to them, but they do not do what is the most important; they
do not love Him. My children, pray and fast. This is the way which will
help you to open yourselves and to love. Only through the love of God is
eternity gained. I am with you. I will lead you with the motherly love.
Thank you for having responded."
More
Mirjana Apparitions
Fr Jozo's
October Message Reflection:
Dear brothers and sisters, most respected followers of the messages of the Queen of Peace,
I desire to meditate with you on these words directed to us today. First of all, in these words of the Queen of Peace, I recognize a great warning to everyone. Our Lady is not coming of her own will or outside of God or His plan; instead she is coming with His permission. Again she accentuates that the time in which we live is a time of grace. This means that it is a gift to us. We have the grace of having lived for 25 years and 4 months with the Blessed Virgin and Mother in our family unity. It is a great grace that the Church has also become moved to prayer in all parts of the world. The Church is in prayer with the Mother of the Lord in Medjugorje and her presence is evidenced by innumerable and immeasurable fruit. The Queen of Peace tells us that this time of grace is a chance for our conversion and for a change of our life. It is a time in which we can recognize that grace of peace and love and transform it into our life. It is actually such a great grace that is given to us so as to be able to live in peace and love.
These are divine gifts intended for every person. However, anyone can lose them easily. This can happen especially today when there are even schools of advertising which teach manipulation of man through sports, images and words. Today we are witnesses of how easy it is to break man away from God and turn him away from the Christian way of the Gospel. Today's message warns us that this is a time of grace, a time in which we have an exceptional chance and opportunity of converting, of changing and of ennobling our life and the life of our family. In opposition to this gift and grace there are completely opposite and negative contents of television programs, daily and weekly papers and magazines that promote pleasure and blind hedonism.
They are being offered, accentuating the cult of the body and physical pleasure and promoting negative examples by exalting them and setting them out as ideals- such as a successful career or a life of riches.
We live in a time in which it is very difficult to evidence Christian principles in daily life. If we analyze the weekly television shows, films, and informative and educative transmissions in the media, we come to realize that the contents are generally against Christian and Gospel principles of community and family. It is violence and blind selfishness interwoven with immorality that are the content of television soap operas. They try to educate us to be the most ordinary consumers. We live as if there is no God adopting the morality of the market place- of buying and selling. Everything is for sale, even one's own body. In this way the darkest secularism and the lowest materialism have come to rule our spiritual reality. This is then transferred into our daily life. It is enough just to watch us at a wedding with shameless clothing and immoral behavior.
Before the truth of the destroyed families and individuals, the Queen of Peace says, "You are so blind and bound to earthly things and think only of this earthly life." It can be felt that the environment in which our generation lives is pagan, created by the spirit of consumerism and pleasure. In this sense, everything that I enjoy is permitted. This consumerist rule today motivates families and children. There are none so free as to be able to pass by a shop window and to thank the Lord with the wise man of the desert who said; "Lord I passed through my city and saw many beautiful things. Thank you for all of them. They are all useful to man. However, I especially want to thank you for giving me the grace that I can be without all of the things that I have seen in the shop windows." This inner freedom no longer exists in the hearts of parents or children. We have become blindly glued to new products, to new offers and the like.
A renowned English convert, Henry Neuman, spoke to a friend who told him that he was not able to radically decide for Jesus. The convert wrote the name 'God' on a piece of paper and asked, "Can you read what this says?" "Yes, it says 'God.'" He then covered the word 'God' with a silver coin and asked "What do you see now?"
Only the coin was visible, hindering his way of conversion-exposing that he was attached only to money and being imprisoned by it. His friend took this message as a burning ember that would not leave him at peace. He finally decided to leave his attachment to the material and accept Jesus.
We know how the blind man, Bartimeus, was healed in Jericho. He cried and prayed. He called Jesus; "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me." Jesus heard his prayer. He stopped before him and askd; "what do you want me to do for you?" The blind man asked for his eyes to be opened, that he may see. Once healed, he remained with Jesus. Today we encounter so many negative examples-those who are addicted, violent, and immoral. We encounter broken families, suicides and the like. How did they lose the light, the strength, the goal, and the grace? The Queen of Peace clearly states that it is by serving things, by being enslaved to pleasure and by putting everything before God and what is of God.
The white cane does not give or return the sight to the blind man but only draws attention of others to the fact that the man can not see. It is a sign that this man who does not see needs help to cross the road and in general. Among us live the addicts and the blind who do not see God and His grace. In their daily life they do not see the way of peace, love, inner freedom, holiness or goodness. The sick alcoholic with his blindness, the one who curses with his arrogance, and the addict all say; "Help me." Who are the blind today? The Mother tells us, it is we, who have not made a resolute step towards the eternal and immortal life.
Our hearts have become weighed down with accumulated sins evidenced in our little children who have no sensitivity or inspiration to do something beautiful or good for their neighbor. We are tired of daily reports of violence and murder of even the closest in the family. All of this is only a sign that we have become glued to earthly pleasure. We have become insensitive to grace and God's gifts. Our Lady however is not tired of teaching us and leading us to complete conversion. This is now a time of grace, a time of our renewal. Let us listen to our Mother.
This month we will pray for the following intentions:
1. For all those bound to any vice. For all those whose law is to possess and enjoy. For all those who desire to turn even Sunday into a day of material gain, seeking shops to be open even Sundays.
2. For all the youth who do not have an example in their parents that they may come to know that they can find peace and love in God. For the conversion of youth who have left Jesus, the Mass, prayer and the Church.
3. For all the priests and religious, for parents and educators that our hearts may not be blind. For the Lord to give us the gift of faith, love and peace so as to give a good example to the youth.
Dear brothers and sisters,
So many thoughts and words well in my heart to transmit this great message as a warning. We are not to take Medjugorje or its messages as a play on words but as a way which we must not substitute for any other, because there is no other way. Let us completely belong to Our Lady and be in her service. I pray for each of you and greet each of you warmly thanking you for every positive response.
Yours sincerely
Fr. Jozo Zovko o.f.m. 3-11-2006 Siroki Brijeg
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updated 7th
December,
2006 - Praised be Jesus and Mary - His Peace to all! - ê¿ê
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