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Commentary on the
Monthly Message of November, 2003
& a monthly reflection
Peace to all! Below
is the official English translation of this month's Commentary on Our Lady's
message to the world through the visionary Marija & the monthly reflection as provided by the Information
Centre in Medjugorje via The
Medjugorje Web™
"Dear
children! I call you that this time be for you an even greater incentive
to prayer. In this time, little children, pray that Jesus be born in all
hearts, especially in those who do not know Him. Be love, joy and peace
in this peaceless world. I am with you and intercede before God for each
of you. Thank you for having responded to my call." Monthly message of
November 25, 2003
Our
Lady has regularly said the messages are for each one of us individually so try
to read them as if your own name was there; "Dear .........." - it can
makes the messages so much more personal.
Commentary:-
BE LOVE, JOY AND PEACE
Once
again, the Virgin Mary invites us to prayer in this time of Advent that
is approaching. Advent and Lent are liturgical seasons in which the
Church, as a Mother, invites us to re-examine our life, to make concrete
decisions, promises, more decisive turnings on our way towards God.
Today, as during all these years, Mary wants that our days do not pass
in vain, that our time does not pass beside us, that we do not
circumvent God in this time that we live - God who calls us, who seeks
us, who stirs us up through Mary.
The greatest joy of a mother is her children. Can we imagine the joy
that we are for Mary - the Queen of Peace? She is "the cause of our
joy" and she invites us to become the cause of her joy. Her only
desire is that Jesus may be born in our hearts. She is most saddened
when we lose Jesus, when He is not with us, more precisely, when we are
not with Him. It is necessary to undertake everything to return to
Jesus, to find Jesus. Humanly speaking, Mary and Jesus suffer when we
move away from them, when we abandon them in any way and for any reason.
However, our Mother leads us to her Son; with her, it will be easiest
for us to find Him and to remain with Him. She has no other more
important task than this one, but she can attain it only with our
co-operation. This is why she stirs us up and she puts into our hearts
the means that the Church offers to her children during the centuries,
by leading them to God and by engendering them to a new life in God.
The goal of Our Lady's messages and of her apparitions is that all know
God, that everyone encounters God. She wants that - through us - God may
reach everyone. We are all linked to one another and we all are
responsible for one another. God can come into this world only through
human beings, from one to another. God wants to come into this world
through you and me. If He does not pass through us, how will he come?
The only full meaning of our life is to enable Him to come. If we do not
allow Him, then what is the meaning of our life? And what are we on this
earth without Him?
Also in this time of Advent, and in Christmas that is approaching, God
wants to come. He has time. He has the whole eternity. But we have only
today, the present moment. The eternity does not belong to us - it
belongs to God. God needs our naturalness, our simplicity. God needs our
nearness, and we need his nearness even more.
It is only through the nearness of God that we will be able, from day to
day, to become love, joy and peace in this world, as Our Lady tells us.
Because works of love are works of peace. And when love is shared, we
feel peace that gets hold of the one who gives love and of the one who
receives love. When peace is there, God is there, and thus, God touches
our hearts and shows his love for us by spreading peace and joy in our
hearts.
Blessed Mother Teresa was praying: "Lead me from death to life.
From lie to truth. Lead me from despair to hope. From fear to trust.
Lead me from hatred to love. From war to peace. May peace fill our
hearts, our world and our universe, peace, peace, peace."
We are not alone; Mary is with us, with her presence and the strength of
her maternal love, desiring that peace of her heart may enter each
heart. Let us allow her that.
Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic - Medjugorje November 26, 2003 (Official English translation.)
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Monthly
Reflection:- THE BAREFOOT PILGRIM
Medjugorje
is a place where one can hear unusual stories from the concrete life of
people, and sometimes of whole groups. It is a fertile ground to make
spout out the truth about our past, our present and our future. The
presence of Our Lady, her maternal openness and her patience inspire
confidence and the certainty that it is possible to leave one's hiding
place and face the truth. Thus, in the environment of Medjugorje, I met
a young barefoot man walking towards the church. I asked him: "Why
are you barefoot?" He answered me: "I climbed Cross Mountain
with the intention to be able to love and accept my wife again!"
This is what he told me while continuing his way towards the church.
The answer of this man tells clearly that he understands Jesus, that he
realises what Gospa is asking from us. He is not coming on pilgrimage,
he is not praying that the others may change and accept him, but he
wants to change himself. He has fully accepted the fundamental call of
Jesus to conversion. In her messages, Gospa speaks to us about it so
often! Her call to conversion is only a reminder of what Jesus told us,
and of what He expects from us. Gregory Mayers, a contemporary thinker,
wrote: "Humans will not leave the nightmare before they
awake". He wants to tell us that it is necessary to wake up, to
arouse, to perform a turning. It often happens to us to wait that
somebody else does something in our place. However, we know that Jesus
wants that we do something, that we adhered personally to Him. The
message of Jesus, like the message of Our Lady, is always addressed to
us personally.
We approach a time in which we are invited in a special way to awaken
our faith and to move ahead towards the manger of Bethlehem. Jesus calls
us to vigilance and prayer at all times. Only if our faith is awake we
can be able to change, to convert, to leave the "nightmare".
In this sense, the Church offers us the time of Advent, in which we can
tidy up our interior temple, so that Jesus can be the principal
inhabitant there. The Advent is a time of resolutions, of promises and
of new endeavours. Let our promises be a pact with God! Let us make the
decision to change, like the pilgrim from the beginning of our story,
let us try to accept each and every one. May the tenderness and the
smallness of new-born Jesus whom we wait take hold of our whole being,
conquer and fill our heart. Awake in faith, determined to leave
nightmare and despair, ready to remove our shoes and to make a step
towards the renouncement and conversion, let us await the new-born King
who is the only goal of all Our Lady's pilgrims...
Fr. Mario Knezovic (Official English
translation - Medjugorje Information Centre - Press Bulletin #192,
November 26, 2003.)
English translations of messages, commentaries
and reflections courtesy of The Information Centre
in Medjugorje via The Medjugorje Web™ and gratefully acknowledged. Sign up for The Medjugorje Web e-mail information service.
http://www.medjugorje.org
Message from
Steve Shawl - The Medjugorje Web. "All of you know that we do not
solicit our subscribers or recommend products or causes. But, we have been
involved for over one year with an incredible relief effort called
"Rebuild for Bosnia". The organization provides assistance to the
forgotten victims of the horrors of the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina. The effort
provides homes, medical attention, and help to the most severe and needy
cases. Please take a look at the following page on our site: http://www.medjugorje.org/rebuildforbosnia.htm
To help raise funds for this effort, we are selling excellent quality and
unique videos about Fr. Slavko, and Medjugorje. Please note that all videos
are in NTSC format only for the US & Canada. There is also a secure
donation page for those who would just like to contribute to the cause. This
initiative is a grass roots expression of living the Gospel and Our Lady's
messages in Medjugorje!!" God Bless! - Steve Shawl - http://www.medjugorje.org
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updated 3rd December, 2003 - Praised be Jesus and Mary - His Peace to all! - ê¿ê
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