Fr. Martin’s reflection on - Our Lady’s Message

25^th June 2017

“Dear children, Today I desire to thank you for your perseverance and call you to open yourselves to profound prayer. Prayer, little children, is the heart of faith and is hope in eternal life. Therefore, pray with the heart until your heart sings with thanksgiving to God the Creator who gave you life. I am with you, little children, and carry to you my motherly blessing of peace. Thank you for having responded to my call.”

Dear Brothers and sisters of Medjugorje North East and beyond,

Praise be Jesus and Mary. 

For thirty-six years now the Queen of Peace has come to us with the Gospel message of conversion.  we have had the great opportunity of responding to the call of Our Lady, and of entering her school of prayer and peace.  Mary thanks us for our perseverance, during this time, and in so doing acknowledges the co-operation with her in helping to bring about the father's plans. 

How many times has Our Lady said, " Without you, I am unable to do this."  Let us thank the Lord that we heard Mary's call, and received the grace of the Holy spirit to persevere.  Let us be truly grateful for the grace of perseverance, because so many did not give up.  The opening words of this month's message should make us very happy, because there are so many hearts and souls who understood what was happening in Medjugorje and remained loyal.  So many who did not permit themselves to become confused, but who kept focused and persevering in living the messages of Our Lady. Mary thanks us that we did not give up, that we persevered and continue in the path of Prayer, Faith, Fasting, and Love.

Next Our Lady invites us to "Open yourselves to profound prayer."

What is profound Prayer? 

It is a gift that is offered to all. It is when we decide to pray out of love, so the loving decision to pray should be the beginning of praying with the heart.  It is recognising that Prayer should not depend on feelings or desires. 

With the firm decision to pray from Love then we enter the grace of prayer with the heart.  All prayer is an encounter with God, and an encounter cannot happen without time.  When we are close to God in our heart then prayer deepens and grows to a profound level.  

If unbelief and atheism are spreading today, then people of profound prayer are necessary. Those who give time out of love in the Holy Mass, Rosary and Holy Scriptures, to enter into profound prayer, and to be led into the gift of contemplating the Lord.

"Pray with the heart, until your heart sings with thanksgiving to God the Creator who gave you life."

it is interesting how often the theme of thanksgiving is repeated in the messages over the years.  in every message Our Lady says, " Thank you for having responded to my call.”  it happens easily that we only ask for things in our prayers and maybe in constant asking we can go so far that we are actually trying to adapt Gods will to ours rather than our will to his. 

Thanking is very important. Thanking and praising and adoring, and thanking in general is closely related to peace.  When we thank we see what we have, we see others in a new light, when we live in a spirit of gratitude then we also see what others have done for us.  Mary desires that we recognise that life is a gift, a grace, and a grateful person is able to see what God is doing. 

To believe more in God the Creator means to love life and to accept that every life is a gift and all he created for us in his love. Mary wants a song of thanksgiving in the hearts of every one of her children, a song like her Magnificat, so that we can all glorify and Magnify the Lord at this time.

Only when we recognise and accept God the Father, Creator of Heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible can we truly love and live in his peace. 

At this time in our nation we are seeing much death and destruction, but Mary calls us to be the witnesses for life, love and holiness, everything that is good and true and holy.

So let us trust God the Father Almighty Creator of Heaven and earth, and let us praise Him with a new song in our hearts, for the wonders he has done. 

God Bless, Fr. Martin