Daily Reflections
by Cathy

Strive to understand…

 

(c) Mateo Ivankovic

November 9, 2018

The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

Dear Family of Mary!

“…That is why I call you, apostles of my love: you, strive to look to the very depth in human hearts and there you are certain to find the little hidden treasure. To look in this way is mercy from the Heavenly Father. To seek the good even where there is the greatest evil-to strive to comprehend each other and not to judge-that is what my Son is asking of you. And I, as a mother, am calling you to listen to Him….” (November 2, 2018)

To close out our week, I want to share a response to Our Lady’s message and Fr. Joseph Jacobson’s homily that I received from our shipmate, Reuben. He brings up a good point. What about the Pharisees and the Scribes? They don’t seem likely characters to want mercy from Jesus. And Jesus often has contentious encounters with them in the Gospels. Here are Reuben’s thoughts:

This homily is beautiful. (Fr. Jacobson’s homily)

I have recently been thinking about all the many conversations Jesus has with the Pharisees in which the Pharisees are trying to catch him out. It is easy to read some of these passages as though Jesus is entering into the same chess-game that they are in, but is just cleverer than them, and so manages to check-mate them every time (e.g. “render unto Caesar”).

It is easy to read the Person of Jesus as though he were like the rest of us, who so often – if not always, in some way – “use” truth to fulfill our own agendas. Christ is not like us in sin. He has no sinful inclination to “get the last word in” or prove himself right. He is the deepest truth in his very person, so cannot speak anything but the truth. And the true is always good and beautiful, because that which is real is really made to be good and beautiful out of love.

Jesus is the deep truth that all is made for love, so his words of truth are always loving. They are always inviting the Pharisees – and indeed all of us – to see that which is untrue/evil/ugly in ourselves, so as to repent of it and turn to him who can change us. Christ’s truth is a sword, for sure, but one which wishes only to cut away that which is dead and unworthy in his beloved brothers and sisters born for greatness.

This is that mercy our Lady is speaking about. It is a truth which is always looking for the seed of love in the other person. Christ, of course, finds it easy, and we, of course, don’t. In our case, we too often look for what isn’t loving and seek to speak about that first. We do need to speak about evil, of course, but we should start out by naming our own rather than someone else’s. This is why we need confession: because in naming our own lack of love, and lack of truth, and in gaining God’s love and truth from the very act of so doing, we learn to know that God’s greatest attribute truly is mercy, and we learn to look for ways of inviting people to it with the same tender, un-condemning touch as has been given to us.

We don’t look to wag our fingers at our fellow sinners, because we know that’s what they truly are: our “fellows” in the same need of forgiveness as we always are. In the Gospel of Mark, there is a reference to people being “amazed” simply by Christ’s presence. I hazard to imagine that is because his eyes of complete truthfulness are eyes of complete of love, and as such, they trouble and delight us all in great measure! We are delighted, because we all want to be forgiven, and we are troubled, because we so often forget how infinite is our need for forgiveness…….

Thank you, Reuben. Well said. We are delighted and troubled when we gaze into Jesus’ eyes, but the trouble leaves in a flash, when we see how very much we are loved. May we always gaze into those eyes of love, the eyes of Jesus, waiting to look into the depths of our hearts.

Here are three prayers to the Sacred Heart. They are perfect for this Friday!

O most holy Heart of Jesus, fountain of every blessing,
I adore you, I love you and will a lively sorrow for my sins.
I offer you this poor heart of mine.
Make me humble, patient, pure, and wholly obedient to your will.
Grant, good Jesus, that I may live in you and for you.
Protect me in the midst of danger; comfort me in my afflictions;
give me health of body, assistance in my temporal needs,
your blessings on all that I do, and the grace of a holy death.
Within your heart I place my every care.
In every need let me come to you with humble trust saying,
Heart of Jesus, help me.
Amen.
https://www.franciscanmedia.org/prayers-to-the-sacred-heart/

Most Sacred, most loving Heart of Jesus,
You are concealed in the Holy Eucharist,
And You beat for us still.
Now, as then, You say: “With desire I have desired.”
I worship You with all my best love and awe,
With fervent affection,
With my most subdued, most resolved will.
For a while You take up Your abode within me.
O make my heart beat with Your Heart!
Purify it of all that is earthly,
All that is proud and sensual,
All that is hard and cruel,
Of all perversity,
Of all disorder,
Of all deadness.
So fill it with You,
That neither the events of the day,
Nor the circumstances of the time,
May have the power to ruffle it;
But that in Your love and Your fear,
It may have peace. (Blessed John Henry Newman)
https://www.ourcatholicprayers.com/three-special-prayers-to-the-sacred-heart.html

Hail, Sacred Heart of Jesus, living and strengthening source of eternal life, infinite treasury of the divinity, burning furnace of divine love! You are my refuge and my sanctuary. My loving Savior, consume my heart in that burning fire with which Your own is inflamed. Pour into my soul those graces which flow from Your love. Let my heart be so united with Yours that our wills may be one, and my will in all things conformed with Yours. May Your Will be the guide and rule of my desires and of my actions. Amen. (St. Gertrude)
https://www.ourcatholicprayers.com/three-special-prayers-to-the-sacred-heart.html

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan

(c)Mary TV 2018

PS. This weekend we remember the end of World War I – 100 years ago. We remember the brave soldiers who lost their lives, and their families who bore the sorrow of their loss down the years. We beg Our Lady, Queen of Peace, to Triumph in this world of woes and bring us peace. Amen

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!