Day: October 10, 2016

     (c)Mateo Ivankovic 2016 JMJ October 10, 2016 Dear Family of Mary! This week I would like to spend some time with the words of Saint John Paul II and of Our Lady of Medjugorje. I want to meditate on parts of the Papal Letter, Rosarium Viginis Mariae, “On the Holy Rosary”. St. John Paul understood the Rosary. He prayed it every day, and it became the chain of love that bound him to Our Lady throughout his priesthood all the way to the Papacy. The Rosary carried him through the most difficult of times, the 20th century. Not only was he carried, but through him the Truth was able to triumph in so many ways. So his teaching on the power of the Rosary will help us to pray the Rosary well, to enter into the grace of the Rosary for our time, with Our Lady. Saint John Paul II wrote: Mary, model of contemplation 10. The contemplation of Christ has an incomparable model in Mary. In a unique way the face of the Son belongs to Mary. It was in her womb that Christ was formed, receiving from her a human resemblance which points to an even greater spiritual closeness. No one has ever devoted himself to the contemplation of the face of Christ as faithfully as Mary. The eyes of her heart already turned to him at the Annunciation, when she conceived him by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the months that followed she began to sense his presence and to picture his features. When at last she gave birth to him in Bethlehem, her eyes were able to gaze tenderly on the face of her Son, as she “wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger” (Lk2:7). Thereafter Mary’s gaze, ever filled with adoration and wonder, would never leave him. At times it would be a questioning look, as in the episode of the finding in the Temple: “Son, why have you treated us so?” (Lk 2:48); it would always be a penetrating gaze, one capable of deeply understanding Jesus, even to the point of perceiving his hidden feelings and anticipating his decisions, as at Cana (cf. Jn 2:5). At other times it would be a look of sorrow, especially beneath the Cross, where her vision would still be that of a mother giving birth, for Mary not only shared the passion and death of her Son, she also received the new son given to her in the beloved disciple (cf. Jn 19:26-27). On the morning of Easter hers would be a gaze radiant with the joy of the Resurrection, and finally, on the day of Pentecost, a gaze afire with the outpouring of the Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14). https://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/2002/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_20021016_rosarium-virginis-mariae.html Through the mysteries of the Rosary, Our Lady teaches us how to gaze upon Christ. We can look at Him through her eyes and her perspective. This is a most privileged way of gazing on Christ. She was the closest person on earth to Jesus. She knew Him the best. And she has invited us to see Him through her in Medjugorje. September 2, 2016 “Dear children, according to the will of my Son and my motherly love, I am coming to you, my children, but especially to those who have not yet come to know the love of my Son. I am coming to you who think of me and who invoke me. To you, I am giving my motherly love and I am carrying the blessing of my Son. Do you have pure and open hearts, and do you see the gifts, the signs of my presence and love? My children, in your earthly life, be led by my example. My life was pain, silence and immeasurable faith and trust in the Heavenly Father. Nothing is by chance: neither pain, nor joy, nor suffering, nor love. All of these are graces which my Son grants to you and which lead you to eternal life. Of you, my Son asks for love and prayer in Him. As a mother I will teach you: to love and to pray in Him means to pray in the silence of your soul and not only reciting with your lips; it is even the least beautiful gesture done in the name of my Son – it is patience, mercy, the acceptance of pain and sacrifice done for the sake of another. My children, my Son is looking at you. Pray that you also may see His face and that it may be revealed to you. My children, I am revealing to you the only and real truth. Pray that you may comprehend it and be able to spread love and hope; that you may be able to be apostles of my love. In a special way, my motherly heart loves the shepherds. Pray for their blessed hands. Thank you.” In Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Cathy Nolan ©Mary TV 2016