October 18, 2013
Dear children of Medjugorje, praised be Jesus and
Mary!
1 - On October 2, 2013, Mirjana received her monthly apparition at the Blue Cross,
surrounded by a big crowd. After the apparition, she gave us the following
message:
"Dear children! I love you with a motherly love and with a motherly
patience I wait for your love and unity. I pray that you may be a community of
God's children, of my children. I pray that as a community you may joyfully come
back to life in the faith and in the love of my Son. My children, I am gathering
you as my apostles and am teaching you how to bring others to come to know the
love of my Son; how to bring to them the Good News, which is my Son. Give me
your open, purified hearts and I will fill them with the love for my Son. His
love will give meaning to your life and I will walk with you. I will be with you
until the meeting with the Heavenly Father. My children, it is those who walk
towards the Heavenly Father with love and faith who will be saved. Do not be
afraid. I am with you. Put your trust in your shepherds as my Son trusted when
He chose them, and pray that they may have the strength and the love to lead
you. Thank you."
2. Saints are truly alive! Sister Briege McKenna just spent a few days in
Medjugorje, which was a great joy for us (See PS1). The last evening of
her stay, October 1st, was Little Flower's feast day. Sr. Briege told us a very
touching fact about her connection to Little Flower that can help us better
profit from the help of Heaven, especially now that All Saints Day is
near.
"One day", she said. "Jesus spoke to my heart and told
me, 'Go and talk to the priests and bishops'. My answer was, 'Come
on Lord, I am a first grade teacher'. A few months later I met a
Jesuit priest who told me, 'You know, Briege, the Lord put something in my
heart - to invite you to give a priest retreat.' I replied to him, 'you
didn't hear right. You know I teach first grade'. 'Don't worry,' he
said. 'These priests are like children, they are very open and
charismatic.' I had to lead that retreat for about 60 priests, without him,
because he had to be hospitalized the next day. Never in my life had I stood
before priests. They couldn't see but my knees were shaking. So I prayed St
Therese, and to make a long story short, the retreat was very blessed.
"Not long after that a bishop from California who had
heard about the retreat invited me to preach another one in San Diego. I felt a
little bit more secure, seeing that the Lord had worked well during the first
retreat. As soon as I arrived at the 2nd retreat, one priest of the retreat said
to me, 'There are only 50 parish priests on the retreat. They do not want to
be here, their bishop forced them to come. They are absolutely mad that there is
a nun coming, and they want to tear you apart.' Then, there was a fight in
me and I said: "Jesus, YOU got me here!"
"The next day, I learned that this Trappist brother had
to leave so he put me in charge of all the conferences! Then I recalled all the
horrible things these priests had said about me. On the morning of the retreat,
I got up very early and prayed for several hours. Then knowing that there was a
statue of St Therese in the campus grotto, I bought for her the biggest candle I
could find, and I went to pray to her: 'Listen, Saint Therese! For me,
leading this retreat is worse than going into the lions' den. Please help me,
please come with me, and you help me talk to these priests!"
"When I walked into the conference room, all these
priests had their arms folded, and you could see by body language that they were
not very happy to be there. Anyway I started to give my 1st talk. I
gave 3 talks that day and I knew I had them because you could see a
transformation.
After super I went back to the grotto with another
candle that I lit in front of St Therese and I said to her, 'I really want to
thank you for being with me today.'
"Later I met an Irish Monsignor who told me, 'I never
in my life listened to a nun. I was very resentful. You know, this morning, when
you were talking to us, you told us to close our eyes, but I did not close my
eyes. I had my head down for a moment and then I looked up to see what you were
doing.' Then he asked me, 'Do you have a devotion to St Therese?' I
asked 'why?' 'Because, you know, I don't see visions, but St Therese
was standing by your side before us. I realized at that moment that Therese was
here to help you.'"
Sr. Briege continued, "It taught me something about the
saints! I often tell this story to parents when they are choosing a name for
their child. I tell them, 'Ask that saint to give your child his own gifts,
so that your child can continue to glorify Jesus in the manner that this saint
glorified Him! When you have the name of a saint, that saint loves to accompany
you. He helps you to accomplish what you have to do in your life to be a saint.
When we invite the saints, they actually will come and accompany us in our work
and in our ministries!"
This testimony from Sister Briege, corroborates with the
urging invitation from the Gospa to read the lives of saints and pray with them.
On the spiritual side, most Catholics live below their means and miss huge
graces offered to them by the elected ones in Heaven. So before Halloween,
rather than collect pumpkins, let us devour the life of a saint and ask him to
come and help us, either our patron saint or another one of our choice. Of
course it is not about watching for a vision like the one the bishop had of St
Therese; but we can be assured of the effective response from the saint, because
in Heaven, angels and saints love us with the very love of God.
3. Medjugorje in Rome! We have good news! For the Marian days of October 12-13,
Pope Francis, honoring the program prepared by Pope Benedict XVI before his
departure, invited the representatives of the Marian shrines, officially
recognized by the Church (see PS2). At the same time, Father Marinko
Sakota, Medjugorje's parish priest, received an invitation from Rome to attend
these Marian Days with 30 parishioners who were there in the beginning days of
apparitions in Medjugorje. The small group left Medjugorje on October
10th, making a first stop at the Loretto shrine, near
Ancona.
It is noteworthy that among the Marian shrines
officially recognized, like Fatima, Lourdes, Banneux, Guadalupe, etc., the Pope
also wished for the presence of the representatives of Medjugorje! In fact,
Medjugorje was the only Marian shrine unrecognized (or "not yet recognized")
among all these shrines with a glorious past! Besides, according to Ivan
Ivankovic (in prison with Father Jozo in 1981 for having said that he had seen
the Cross dance on the Krizevac), the small group was surprised to have been
offered choice seats in St Peter's Square for both days. Indeed, our friends got
some of the best places, behind the bishops and cardinals, quite close to the
Pope.
Even if this is not equivalent to an official
recognition from the Church, this tacit initiative from the Pope may still be
considered a significant act regarding Medjugorje. The 'Medjugorje file' is
going along positively and we give thanks to God for it.
Let us pray that the results of the Commission created
by Pope Benedict for Medjugorje will be published without delay.
Dearest Gospa, you said in Fatima: "At the end, my Immaculate Heart
will triumph." Thank you! In this way, you announce a beautiful future for the
world. We beseech you, may you hasten to crush the serpent's head and help us
hasten the triumph of your Heart in living your messages and in consecrating our
lives to you!
Sister
Emmanuel +
(Translated from
French)
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