As a Mother…
(c)Mary TV/ Anthony Zubac 2018 April 10, 2019 Dear Family of Mary! Before I get started, I want to apologize to all of you shipmates!!! Our family had a baptism in Baltimore, Maryland, last weekend. Denis and I traveled there with about 35 other family members! I intended to continue writing reflections, but it just didn’t work out (I only had an iPad and couldn’t figure out the app for Constant Contact!!). And I had no way to alert you all. Soooo, I failed you!!! Please forgive me!!! Back to Our Lady’s April 2nd message: “Dear children, as a mother who knows her children, I know that you are crying out for my Son. I know that you are crying out for truth, for peace, for that which is pure and not deceptive. That is why I, as a mother, through the love of God, am addressing you and calling you that, by prayer and a pure and open heart within yourselves, you may come to know my Son – His love, His merciful heart…” Our Lady hears the cries of our hearts. She knows our suffering. She can see how much pain we endure, trying to navigate in this difficult time in history. She may even understand our hearts better than we do ourselves. She has a very special perspective. She lives in Heaven with Jesus, completely surrounded by light, love, truth, peace, purity and joy! Imagine what she sees when she comes to us here on earth! She sees the lies, the deceptions, the manipulations, the violence, the faithlessness, the lack of respect for human life, etc. She sees it all. How it must break her heart! How much she must long to extract us all from this world of woes. And so, she speaks to us, addresses us in her messages, with words of hope and wisdom: “I am calling you that by prayer and a pure and open heart within yourselves, you may come to know my Son – His love, His merciful heart.” Simply put, the only way out of here is Jesus. He is the only one that can bring us safely home to the Father. Our job is to turn to Him and seek Him with honest and pure hearts, putting aside all our excuses and stalling. There is no time left. This is the time to seek Jesus. St. Augustine of Hippo spent a lot of years of his life mired in sin, just as we have. He remained in his worldly life for a long time! His mother, much like Our Lady, prayed for him ceaselessly and encouraged him to repent and come to Jesus. He finally converted. And what a conversion! He became a Doctor of the Church. But he wrote a much-quoted prayer to Jesus about his conversion that seems to reflect what Our Lady is saying to us. Let’s pray it over a few times and let Augustine’s words move our hearts as well: Late have I loved you, O Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace. (From St. Augustine’s Confessions) May Jesus call, shout, break through our deafness, dispel our blindness and breath on us with His Holy Spirit, awakening all our senses to His love. Only Jesus is our truth, our hope, our all. In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!Cathy Nolan©Mary TV 2019