Daily Reflections
by Cathy

Confession!

  

(c)Mateo Ivankovic 2017

J.M.J.

May 24, 2017

Dear Family of Mary!

July 2, 2011 “Dear children; today I call you to a difficult and painful step for your unity with my Son. I call you to complete admission and confession of sins, to purification. An impure heart cannot be in my Son and with my Son. An impure heart cannot give the fruit of love and unity. An impure heart cannot do correct and just things; it is not an example of the beauty of God’s love to those who surround it and to those who have not come to know that love. You, my children, are gathering around me full of enthusiasm, desires and expectations, and I implore the Good Father to, through the Holy Spirit, put my Son faith, into your purified hearts. My children, obey me, set out with me.”

Yesterday Fr. Glen Sudona gave a wonderful homily on Confession. I realize not all of you can go to the archives to listen, so I transcribed it! Thanks to Fr. Glen for such a beautiful exhortation!

Fr. Glen Sudano, CFR. Homily for English Mass in Medjugorje, May 23, 2017

One word that is very important today is the word, “confession.” And you know that Medjugorje is really noted for healing. And while Lourdes is known for the healing of the body, here it is noted for the healing of the soul. And quite frankly if you had to choose a healing, choose the healing of your soul! Because we all have to give up the body some time. But the soul lives forever. And so it is all important that we make a good confession.

Outside in the confessional area you will see a statue of a priest, a Capuchin Franciscan. His name is St. Leopold of Mandic. Do notice that the statue is a life-sized statue. Fr. Leopold was 4foot 5 inches tall. A little man, but as the saying goes, great things come in small packages. And like St. John of the Cross and Mother Teresa and a number of saints, what they lacked in height they had in holiness.

And so for ourselves we want to grow in many areas in our life, so when we are young we want to grow up; then when you grow old, you grow out; and then you grow grey; then you grow deaf – I said, THEN YOU GROW DEAF! And we want to grow financially, and all these things are good things, and understandable things. But there is a growth in holiness. And that is often neglected. We want to grow in many areas, but not to grow holy.

So it’s not a matter of the height, but of the depth of a person. This is why confession is all important, because Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” And the branches, He says, need to be pruned. Those of you who have a garden or know anything about gardening, know that you have to take away the weeds and the dead things in order to produce greater fruit or flowers. Same thing with the soul. We have to sever things from us that are sapping the life from the soul.

There are some people who are daily communicants, which is wonderful. But they don’t go to confession. And this is why you can go to communion every day, and you know what is happening to your soul? Nothing! If you are in a state of mortal sin, something is happening and it is not good. However, if you put seed in sand, do you know what happens to the seed? Nothing. So it is important that we make a good confession.

We have this idea that the Church is sort of like a spiritual organization, and Jesus is alive, and that is sort of a spiritual thing. NO…Jesus rose from the dead. He told Thomas, “Touch me and see that I am not a ghost.” Too many people, including Catholics, want the Church to be a ghost. They want it to be this ephemeral thing that doesn’t really communicate, doesn’t really say anything, or if it says anything you can’t really trust it, so I will live my life…NO! Jesus has a body! A resurrected body, and this is the Mystical Body of Christ, and that is why we have to be united to the vine, physically. Not just simply spiritually.

Some people say, well I don’t like going to church on Sunday. The priest is boring, and the choir is awful, so on Sunday I go to the beach, and I run along the beach, and I listen to my iPod, and I am inspired. I know the Bible better now, and I am just a better person. Fine, you want to do that, do that on Monday! Christ requires us, He wants us united to His Body. When you go to receive Holy Communion, the priest doesn’t say “Spirit of Christ”, “Wisdom of Christ”, “Knowledge of Christ…” He says “The Body of Christ!”

When you go to confession you encounter the Body of Christ, through the priest. It’s the Body of Christ. Saying your sins to the wall next to your bed may make you feel good for a little bit, but in the long run nothing ever happens. So this is why we have to go to confession and we have to unite ourselves to the Body of Christ. We have to go out. It is not just simply spiritual, but it is something physical and spiritual.

We celebrate and profess the Incarnation. “Carnes” in Latin means “flesh”. Incarnation is God took on flesh in Christ. The Incarnation continues after the Risen Christ ascends into Heaven. It continues in a new body, the Church. Now it is true that sometimes the Body of the Church on a local level we may not like, but you know what, when Jesus appeared in the upper room, He appeared with wounds. The Church is wounded. But you know what? It still is the Mystical Body of Christ. This is why, as a Catholic Christian, we go to Confession.

The little sins, whatever, you say your act of contrition. As a matter of fact, at the beginning of Mass we have a little time for absolution for the venial sins. Alms giving. The reception of Holy Communion brings forgiveness of sins. But you know what, if you throw a leaf on a pond, it remains on the water. If you throw a stone on a pond, it sinks to the bottom. Heavy things sink to the bottom. So this is why it is important for us to understand the difference between that which just floats on the surface that can be skimmed off and that which goes down deep.

Go before the statue of St. Leopold of Mandic. And if you go to Padua, don’t only visit St. Anthony, visit this man. His arm is preserved, because of the many times in which he gave Absolution. Go to St. Leopold and say, “St. Leopold, I know what is on the surface, you reveal to me what is in the center of my soul.” And then go to Confession.   Anger, unforgiveness, ingratitude. God keeps all of us alive. And do you think he gets a thank you? Did you thank God for your eye this morning? Did you thank Him for your hearing? Did you thank Him that you are not in pain? How many thank Him, and yet He does all these things, and we are so ungrateful. Is that a leaf or is that a stone? To me it is a stone, because I like to be thanked. I like to be recognized. And I’m not God. God deserves it, I may not.

So brothers and sisters, do yourself a favor, do your spouse a favor, do your children a favor, do your parents a favor, do your neighbor a favor, make a very, very good confession. And when you finish, you will not only feel better, you will be better. May Christ be praised.

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!

Cathy Nolan

©Mary TV 2017

Mission Statement

Mary TV is a lay apostolate founded to put at the Gospa’s service (Our Lady’s service) modern communication technologies to bring her presence in Medjugorje – and her school in Medjugorje – to the world.

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“Medjugorje is the spiritual center of the world!”

Pope St. John Paul II – February 24, 1990

“Dear children, my real, living presence among you should make you happy because this is the great love of my Son. He is sending me among you so that, with a motherly love, I may grant you safety!”

Our Lady of Medjugorje – July 2, 2016

“Rejoice, little children, because God is merciful and loves you all with His immeasurable love and leads you to the way of salvation through my coming here!”

Our Lady of Medjugorje – June 25, 2018

“My Son promised me that evil will never win, because you, the souls of the just, are here!”

Our Lady of Medjugorje – November 2, 2014

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Our Lady Speaks

Vicka's Note MaryTV

Vicka, one of the visionaries in Medjugorje, wrote the note (above) after Our Lady spoke with her during an apparition in Medjugorje in April, 1999, about Mary TV’s  plan to build a television facility in Medjugorje.

Vicka wrote to Denis: “Our Lady says that the plan is good – but you need to wait a little.  Now you can get prepared little by little, until Our Lady tells when the right moment is.  You don’t need to hurry, make haste, but to be patient.”

When Our Lady said this to Vicka, the technical genius in Medjugorje that she had her eyes upon, who would begin Mary TV’s live streaming from Medjugorje, was seven years old.

Totus Tuus (Totally Yours)

Immaculate Conception, Mary my Mother, Live in me, Act in me, Speak in me and through me, Think your thoughts in my mind, Love through my heart, Give me your dispositions and feelings, Teach, lead me and guide me to Jesus, Correct, enlighten and expand my thoughts and behavior, Possess my soul, Take over my entire personality and life, replace it with Yourself, Incline me to constant adoration, Pray in me and through me, Let me live in you and keep me in this union always.

Our Lady gave this prayer 25 years before She started appearing in Medjugorje. This prayer is being answered through Our Lady’s presence in Medjugorje and through Her messages. Mother Immaculata writes: “This is Mary’s hour and She is about to crush Satan’s head. Her very being is like incandescent heat in the center of the Trinity and the manifestation of Her power is growing daily. The Immaculate Conception prayer (which is what Our Lady called the prayer she gave me for union with Her) has been used by exorcists who have told me that the devil reacts violently to it and is subdued by it. We are praying daily for the success of Mary TV!“

Our Lady Gives A Sign…

Mary_with_Sun

MARY TV was LIVE STREAMING Ivan’s May 24, 2013 apparition on Mt. Podbrdo (Apparition Hill) in Medjugorje. My wife, Cathy, was praying in front of her computer in the US, connected through the Internet, welcoming Our Lady along with everyone gathered on the mountain. She couldn’t see anything on her computer screen because it was late at night and Ivan had said, “No lights.” She found herself asking Our Lady for a sign – a little light – as a sign that MARY TV was on the right track and really serving her. Just after the apparition, when she went to give an account on Mary TV’s Facebook page, the page opened with this picture that she had never seen before, captioned: “MARY APPEARS OVER BUILDING IN MEDJUGORJE, PHOTO TAKEN BY PILGRIM.” Our Lady is standing directly over MARY TV’s studios, her feet right where we have two POV cameras STREAMING 24/7 LIVE TO THE WORLD Apparition Hill & Cross Mountain!

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Our Lady spoke to Vicka during an apparition in Medjugorje in April, 1999, about the importance of Mary TV’s mission. At that time she told Vicka that she herself (Our Lady) would begin Mary TV! She did! But she didn’t do it alone. The generosity of her children made Mary TV a reality for her. Your generosity is needed now for it to continue!