11/1/12

Marija: Being on Earth is Living Purgatory



Marija with Ivan in Medjugorje in June, 2012



Marija: Being on Earth is Living Purgatory
By Jakob Marschner on September 26, 2012
 
Paradise exists; the Medjugorje visionaries say they all saw it in the 1980s, but a conscious decision for God while on earth is needed to get there.
 
These were the main themes when visionary Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti delivered the Virgin Mary’s monthly message on Radio Maria on September 25: “Dear children! When in nature you look at the richness of the colors which the Most High gives to you, open your heart and pray with gratitude for all the good that you have and say: ‘I am here created for eternity’ – and yearn for heavenly things because God loves you with immeasurable love. This is why He also gave me to you to tell you: ‘Only in God is your peace and hope, dear children’. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
 
Radio Maria director, Fr. Livio Fanzaga, opened his talk with the seer. “I don’t know if you have noticed that in Our Lady’s messages of this year, we are reminded of Eternity, Heaven. Do you suppose it is because we don’t think enough about that?”
Marija replied,“True. I think She wants to ‘stick to that subject’ because the world is too attached to earthly things, and She is back to a theme of the early years: ‘Me instead of Thee.’ She repeats, ‘Place God before everything,’ and it can seem like telling a story at times, because we might not be living our faith with an open heart and sincerity.”
“Daily life can seem to be removed from – or another world when compared to – living your faith, but Our Lady wants us to combine the two, by saying ‘Dear children, you cannot go on in this way.’ Many times She has repeated to us that without God you have neither a future nor eternal life. She repeats it, and we repeat it. Today the focus is on worldly values.”
 
[Fr. Livio] - The visionaries have seen Paradise, some even in their body. Do you feel nostalgic towards it?
“Yes, and in a big way. The five minutes with Her make us want to have God in our hearts to carry us the entire day; at that point we have Paradise in our hearts. Our Lady would like us to do everything in God; we might still think of ‘apparition time’ or ‘Mass time’ or ‘time to eat’ or ‘sleep time.’”
 
[Fr. Livio] - Marija, I am thinking about this: You have seen Paradise, but when you have been with Her five minutes, you have been in Paradise again. Our Lady is Paradise that comes down to Earth. After you have seen Our Lady, how do you feel about returning here?
“Like I am in Purgatory, Father Livio – nothing less because, as you say, we feel nostalgic towards Paradise. We hope to attain Paradise even here and now, but we are distant; even we need conversion.”
 
[Fr. Livio] - We don’t see Her, but when She comes through a visionary, we are reminded that our goal is Paradise, and She brings a bit of it down, but I have noticed many times that Our Lady has had us find the presence of God by looking at nature. In particular She recalls this by the colors of flowers or those of nature. She invites us to read nature in a mystical way, like St Francis.
“Yes, probably because in nature our heart is closer to God. We are marveled by the colors and such. Even this evening, She said, ‘Say: I was created for eternity’ and ‘yearn for the heavenly things.’ Think about God, think about the love of God that there is for us.”
At this point Fr. Livio Fanzaga looked ahead into October, the month dedicated to the prayer of the Rosary, and as such, a month especially devoted to a most integral part of the Medjugorje message:
 
[Fr. Livio] - I would like to ask one last question. We are about to start the month of October, the month of the Rosary. Our Lady has asked for it, daily, and all the mysteries.
“True, She has asked for the Rosary as Her preferred prayer, and She calls for it daily – not only the Rosary, but that our life becomes a prayer. Through it, we open our hearts to Her, and She said, through it, She can intercede to God for us, because our heart opens.”
“Some object to the Rosary as repetitious, but Our Lady replies that if you love someone you say one-thousand times ‘I love you.’ Through the Rosary, we give our litany in our own small way.”
 
[Fr. Livio] - Our Lady has insisted on the Rosary within the family.
“She says if a family prays, it is holy – if it does not, it is far from God. She asks us to make prayer the central point of our daily life. A family that is in God goes forward. If not, we have no future perspectives.”
 
[Fr. Livio] - You have four boys. Is it hard for you to have the Rosary said in your family?
“When they were smaller it was simpler. I have to thank God that even today they gladly pray. I hope it always grows. I also hope so through my example and my life.”
http://www.spiritofmedjugorje.org/

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