|
Official Commentary on the
monthly message of
November 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 read below 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! Also today I call you to pray, pray, pray. Little children, when you pray you are close to God and He gives you the desire for eternity. This is a time when you can speak more about God and do more for God. Therefore, little children, do not resist but permit Him to lead you, to change you and to enter into your life. Do not forget that you are travellers on the way toward eternity. Therefore, little children, permit God to lead you as a shepherd leads his flock. Thank you for having responded to my call." Monthly message
to the world, November 25, 2006
TIP
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 wants us to have, and that we will
always be open to His call. Amen.
top Official
message commentary:- WHEN YOU PRAY YOU ARE CLOSE TO GOD.
In her recent message, just like in many of her previous messages, the Blessed Virgin Mary repeats and calls us three times in a row to: "pray, pray, pray". She utters these words wanting to remind us and to emphasize the importance of prayer for our spiritual life. It is not about some pious exercise or an imposed law. It is not a call to follow a forgotten custom. Prayer is not some spiritual training. Prayer is life. Just as our body needs air, food and other conditions in order to live, our soul needs prayer. We become well aware when we neglect our body. When we become undisciplined with our diet, our body easily falls ill. The same happens when we neglect prayer. Then spiritual viruses and bacteria find an easy way to our soul and man easily becomes a slave to all sorts of sins. He becomes prey of evil, hatred, wickedness, bad habits, curses, harsh words, selfishness, laziness and other evils.
Being a Mother, Mary wants to tell us that there is no other way and no other means towards God but through prayer. "Little children, when you pray you are close to God" - she speaks to us. In prayer we hear the echo of eternity in our souls. Or as the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us: " As "the seed of eternity that we bear in ourselves is irreducible to the merely material, man's soul can have its origins only in God " (CCC 33).
Only in prayer to which Our Lady calls us so tirelessly can we experience and feel that deep desire hidden in our hearts. Only in prayer can we experience the truthfulness of St. Paul's words: "But our homeland is in heaven. And we eagerly await Our Saviour from there - the Lord Jesus Christ" (Phil 3,20).
Eternity does not begin when we die. We are immersed in eternity. It has already begun. We are to commit ourselves to it and struggle for it every single day. To be devoted to the Holy Spirit is to find eternity in time. The experience we have about the reality before a prayer is an experience of a limited nature of this reality to begin with. We experience how everything passes and goes into its own direction. However, after a prayer we see that everything is becoming different, new and never-ending. We then become fulfilled with eternity and discover an eternal dimension in everything. Or as St. John of the Cross wrote: "Lord God, anything can change as long as you permit us to have our dwelling place in You. Once we find our dwelling place in God through prayer, we no longer live in changes. At the end of our lives events continue to take place. We, however, are no longer involved in them. We find ourselves in a deeper place, in God, who is the very stability.
Once we have accepted God and taken His side that is against sins, evil, darkness and hatred, we already are in eternity. It is here that we need to struggle and create God's Kingdom. It is here that we need to be allowed and to allow God to guide us, change us and enter into our lives just as Mother Mary invites us to do.
With sincere and humble hearts we pray to Mary, the Mother of Jesus and our Mother, who has become great because she has let God perform His works in her and through her. Let Her teach us how to believe and how to surrender completely to God and to our fellow creatures in order to truly experience in us the eternity that we have been created for.
Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic ~ Medjugorje, 26th
November, 2006 ~ Official
English Translation
top
Download
printable page in .rtf format - click and open or right click and 'save as'
Use the
link at the foot of this page to e-mail the page URL
top
Apparition to Mirjana on
December 2, 2006 - "Dear children, "In this joyful time of expectation of my Son, I desire that all the days of your earthly life may be a joyful expectation of my Son. I am calling you to holiness. I call you to be my apostles of holiness so that, through you, the Good News may illuminate all those whom you will meet. Fast and pray, and I will be with you. Thank you!"
More
Mirjana Apparitions
Fr Jozo's
November Reflection:
My dear brothers and sisters, my dear Prayer Partners;
It is a full 25 years and six months since the first apparition of the Queen of Peace in Medjugorje. Without a doubt this is one of the greatest events of this Millennium. Our small Croatian nation, faithful and surrendered to God, along with our small Croatian homeland, soaked in the blood of the martyrs, inspired the Blessed Virgin to stop on our soil and to pronounce her beloved name in our mother tongue: "I am your Mother, the Queen of Peace."
This grace has passed throughout the earth in a quarter Century through six young visionaries as the greatest pastoral and missionary undertaking in history. Dissolving all walls of ideological and political making and human deviation, the Queen of Peace, through her pilgrims, continues the most beloved visitation to a country that has lost its charm and beauty because of so much evil, conflict and war. By transforming the hearts and the lives of pilgrims and of those who honor her, Our Lady marvelously changes the face of the earth. Today we see the millions from all nations and countries, and from all languages and cultures offering their hearts and sacrificing their time, their lives and even their last penny to witness their faith and to find peace to begin to build a better world.
Through her pilgrims, the Queen of Peace gathers all people into a single family, into the Church that prays, sings, gives thanks and magnifies God. From the very beginning, the community of those who believed in Jesus was called the Catholic Church. It is that Catholicity in particular that is not evidenced or recognized today anywhere so much as beneath the mantle of the Queen of Peace. This is Medjugorje. Among millions of pilgrims and supporters of Medjugorje, you have been chosen in a special way. In the same way as there are many hills on the face of the earth, there is only one Hill of Apparitions - Podbrdo. This is the chosen hill. In the same way as there are many crosses erected on many hills and crossroads, there is only one Cross Mountain – Krizevac. It is chosen. Just as in the
world there are thousands upon thousands of parishes, there is one specially chosen – it is Medjugorje. Because it is chosen, it has become the center of the movement in the world.
This is what has also happened with us. There is a multitude of pilgrims in Medjugorje who have brought their lives, crosses and their promises to the Mother. After their promises, they return home to their families joyful. However, you are especially called and chosen to live the messages. Not only to listen to them, but to pour them into life. In this way, through your life, grace is to be poured into all hearts. Be aware that we are chosen and that our assignment is to do everything He tells us. The apparitions, the messages and
the call of the Queen of Peace are not repeated. Each message is a new grace and a new seed sown in the hearts of those who are called and chosen to bring the wondrous fruit of conversion and of new life.
Our prayer family is different from all other communities that are called and organized in other ways. Our Prayer Partnership `The Visitation' was created through the inspiration of the Blessed Virgin and according to her desire.
To learn to receive our neighbor as a gift, and to pray for him and with him is the first step on `the way.' Then, united with thousands of others, we are called to live the messages with prayer and sacrifice, and with humble perseverance. Medjugorje is to hear and accept the messages with the heart, to live them in humility and in this way to bear fruit. Our Lady accompanies our Apostolate with signs, great conversions and miraculous healings of the soul and body. You can also read about these signs and fruits in our most recent issue of `Called to Love.'
The most recent message also calls us to live our Apostolate. Through persevering prayer, we are to remove all obstacles to the Lord. We are to make straight the path as the prophet and precursor to Jesus tells us. We are to speak more and do more for Jesus. My dears, we have done so little for Him. Let us begin today, in this holy time, to prepare the way for Him to every family and to every heart. There are so many who wait to meet, to see and to hear a witness of faith, love and peace. This is who we are and try to be. Let us do our utmost so that all those who have strayed may return and all the lost may be found.
Christmas is a joyful meeting with Jesus and the Mother. Let us make our Christmas, our lives and the lives of our brothers joyful. Let us turn to the Mother and to the Lord who stand and knock. Whoever opens the door He will enter in and dine with him. May this great feast of Christmas become a joyful feast with Him and the Mother.
Praying for each of you and bringing you daily before the Lord and the Queen of Peace, with all my heart I wish you a Merry and Blessed Christmas and New Year 2007.
Yours sincerely Fr. Jozo Zovko o.f.m
top
close
window
updated 5th
January,
2007 - Praised be Jesus and Mary - His Peace to all! - ê¿ê
|