Fr. Jozo's Reflections

     

                                                                                           Fr. Jozo’s Reflections on the Daily Reading of the Scriptures                                                                                                         by Louise Lotze

    While reading from the book, Meetings with Fra Jozo, by Sabrina Covic-Radojicic, it is no surprise to me as to why God placed Fr. Jozo as the pastor at St. James Church for the arrival of Our Lady as Queen of Peace.  Fr. Jozo so humbly and eloquently explains Our Lady's messages and Her requests in a clear and simple manner.  I am in awe as I read and “listen” to him, as he truly is inspired by the Holy Spirit.  He prays and contemplates over Her messages and one can truly sense that he feels Her in his heart, his life, his soul, his body, and his spirit (which he himself relates).  Anyone who has heard Fr. Jozo speak in his soft-spoken voice to pilgrims at Tihaljina or Siroki Brijeg knows this from experience.  There is an aura in his dignified posture, and he tends to give his speeches an intimate touch. I’d like to share what he has to say about Scripture reading because it gave me new meaning to Our Lady's request:

   “The word of God is always alive, creational, almighty. Even when it is closed in a book, it is like a prisoner in prison – isolated, disdained, abandoned. The task of God's word is to be with man, in man, in the tabernacle of the human heart, in the life of every man.  It creates man, educates man, blesses man and fills him with peace. It is communication of God and man. From the beginning, Our Lady has been asking us to read the Bible every day. If we analyze Her messages, then we find the expression every day in two messages:  for the recitation of the Rosary and the reading of the Bible.  The reader must be in the mood in which Samuel was, when Eli instructed him:  'Go lie down, and it shall be if He calls you, that you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.'  In our everyday life we have to find time, to give God a chance to speak to us:  'Speak, Lord, we want to hear Your voice, Your word in our families, in our hearts, in our souls, in our homes.' 

 The Word of God is alive.  It is an immeasurable gift, a great grace.  Anointed with the Holy Spirit, it continues working, living in us and bearing immensely great fruit. The Word of God irresistibly asks of us to be accepted and received, to be embodied, to be given a figure in our life, to make it recognizable, visible. The Bible is not like a human word – something acoustic, informative, but it is creative, gracious. It is life-giving. The Bible is not a book, it is a Person.  Therefore it is God.  It is God's speech and God's communication with man.  When we read the Scriptures before prayer, then a climate is created, a divine disposition in us, and an incentive from the Holy Spirit to thank, to honor, to bless God.  When we read Scriptures, then the Word of God falls into the depths of our hearts, our minds, where it germinates, grows and bears gracious fruit.

   “In his Letter on the Rosary, the Pope (John Paul II) gives six pieces of advice for good prayer. The first advice is to take the Bible before the recitation of the Rosary, open a text, read a passage, and stop in the silence of our heart.  Let the Holy Spirit speak to you and take you before the face of the Lord, just as a child finds itself before the figure of its father. When we hold the Bible in our hands, then we are like the old man Simeon who takes Jesus in his hands to present Him to the Lord. The Bible is a book where the living God is present. The Bible has a heart, it breathes, it lives.  After each reading, kiss the Bible. It is a kiss to Jesus who spoke to us, and in this way we want to say: 'Lord, Your Word remains in my heart, and I will reflect on it like the Blessed Virgin, I will live it.'”

Editor’s note:  Louise is from Ashtabula, OH.

Source:  http://www.spiritofmedjugorje.org/