Day: February 21, 2020

  Confession! (c)Mary TV February 21, 2020St. Peter Damian, Bishop, Doctor of the Church Dear Family of Mary! Friday, August 6, 1982 (Feast of the Transfiguration) A response to questions which were asked concerning Confession:“One must invite people to go to Confession each month, especially the first Saturday. Here I have not spoken about it yet. I have invited people to frequent Confession. I will give you yet some concrete messages for our time. Be patient because the time has not yet come. Do what I have told you. They are numerous who do not observe it. Monthly Confession will be a remedy for the Church in the West. One must convey this message to the West.” Fr. Leon speaks about the 5 Stones of Our Lady – the Fifth Stone – Confession: The last stone is Holy Confession. Our Lady says: “Got to Confession at least once a month. Make a sincere and humble confession of all our sins. If the West went to Confession at least once a month, whole regions of the West would be converted.” Now, to confess your sins, I have a little formula that will help you. All you have to do is remember these three words and you will know how to confess. The sentence is: CONFESS YOUR SINS. And by emphasizing each word you will see. 1. Confess. It has to be a confession. If you come and say “Father, maybe I did this, maybe I did that.” The priest may be thinking: “Maybe I absolve you, maybe I don’t.”   2. Confess YOUR sins. They must be yours. “Father, my husband makes me so mad. He’s such an idiot. I think he does it deliberately. Still he is not as bad as my daughter-in-law. Oh, I don’t like her. I don’t like the way she is raising my grandkids. Still she’s a saint compared to my pastor. He’s doing all these old-fashioned things; I don’t like it.” OK. You only confess other people’s sins, I am happy to absolve them, but you can go to hell…Remember, confess YOUR OWN sins. Life is too short. 3. Confess your SINS. Do not confess emotions, feelings, sentiments. Confess sins. “Father, my brother is an addict, and I didn’t give him any money. Now I feel so bad.” Father says, “You did the right thing.” “I know but I feel so bad.” “Well you did the right thing.” “I know, but I still feel so bad.” “Well you need therapy.” Do not confess feelings. Resist the temptation to tell stories. (I’m saying this on behalf of all the priests.) “Father, last Tuesday, no I tell a lie, it was Bingo night, I remember. The doorbell rang and I went to look through the peep hole, and it was my friend, Betty. And I was so frightened I went out my back door, and put on my brown shoes, not my black ones, then I leapt over the hedge into the alleyway. And in the meanwhile, Betty ran around back, and she caught me, and she said, ‘Oh Mildred, you are wearing your brown shoes, not your black shoes.’” You know while you do all this, the poor priest is there thinking, why are you telling me this, was it a fashion faux pas? Just confess your sins. You don’t have to tell the whole story. And one last thing. I want you to remember that confession is not just the forgiveness of sins, it is God giving us His grace, to change us. It is really like a spiritual ATM Machine. What if an ATM was just throwing out all this money? And you can take as much as you can carry. If you knew this how often would you go? How many would go every day? A few honest people. Everyone would go every day!! If you would do this for rotten treasure, how much more would you go for treasure in heaven, where thieves cannot break in and steal, and moths cannot destroy. So, remember that in Confession God gives us the grace to change our lives. Don’t be afraid of Confession. The priests do not care about your sins. We don’t remember you. We don’t look at you and think, “Oh your dirty past, I know what you have been up to.” No, we do not. I’ll tell you the truth, when someone confesses their sins, I think how holy they are. When someone comes in and tells me how holy they are, it makes me sad. Then you are closed to grace. And people do that. They tell you “I’m amazing!!” Don’t do that. Just confess your sins humbly. If you find it hard to confess it is probably because you are not going often enough. If I go skiing every 7 years, am I going to be a world class skier? No! If you don’t confess your sins regularly, you are not going to be good at confessing. But don’t be afraid of it. And do not worry about what the priest thinks. We do not care. And besides all of you go to the next parish to confess, right? I know. I was a pastor once. These are the Five Stones: Pray with the Heart. Pray the Rosary from the Heart. Holy Mass. Prepare for it and make a thanksgiving. Receive Christ in a state of grace. Holy Bible. Read it every day. Fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. Pray for the grace to be able to fast. And in case you are wondering, she means 24 hours – all of Wednesday, all of Friday. Bread. People ask me can I have raisins on it, or oatmeal. Bread (which is not cake) and water (which is not vodka or gin). Confession. At least once a month, or if you need to go more often, then more often. Humbly confess all your sins. These are the Five Stones. The are Our Lady’s simple way of converting us. And actually, if you look in the Catechism, in the section on conversion, you will see the Five Stones listed there. But she said this before the Catechism was written. Our Lady has a very simple way to lead us to Jesus. Don’t think of it as boring or difficult. Do it! Do it while you have the time. Because we don’t know how much time is left to us. I’m not talking about the apocalypse; I just mean that you might be crossing a road and be knocked down and die. It could be the end of the world for us personally any day, today. It could be my last day. But live in such a way that you are ready to go. Whenever that moment might be. Then you might find that you are living without worrying about anything anymore. God bless you. God love you. (https://marytv.tv/fruit-of-medjugorje/    Fruit show 355) Thank you, Fr. Leon! Such practical advice to us as we review the Five Stones. Confession is a hallmark of Our Lady’s program in Medjugorje. It is as if the Heavenly ATM is pouring out forgiveness non-stop all around the Church! Here are some messages in which Our Lady calls us to Confession. This Stone is a hidden treasure for us all. Confession is Fantastic!!! March 24, 1985 (Sunday) “Today I wish to call you all to confession, even if you have confessed a few days ago. I wish that you all experience my feast day within yourselves. But you cannot experience it unless you abandon yourselves completely to God. Therefore, I am inviting you all to reconciliation with God!” January 25, 1995 “Dear children! I invite you to open the door of your heart to Jesus as the flower opens itself to the sun. Jesus desires to fill your hearts with peace and joy. You cannot, little children, realize peace if you are not at peace with Jesus. Therefore, I invite you to confession so Jesus may be your truth and peace. So, little children, pray to have the strength to realize what I am telling you. I am with your and I love you. Thank you for having responded to my call.” November 25, 1998 “Dear children! Today I call you to prepare yourselves for the coming of Jesus. In a special way, prepare your hearts. May holy Confession be the first act of conversion for you and then, dear children, decide for holiness. May your conversion and decision for holiness begin today and not tomorrow. Little children, I call you all to the way of salvation and I desire to show you the way to Heaven. That is why, little children, be mine and decide with me for holiness. Little children, accept prayer with seriousness and pray, pray, pray. Thank you for having responded to my call.” November 25, 2002 “Dear children! I call you also today to conversion. Open your heart to God, little children, through Holy Confession and prepare your soul so that little Jesus can be born anew in your heart. Permit Him to transform you and lead you on the way of peace and joy. Little children, decide for prayer. Especially now, in this time of grace, may your heart yearn for prayer. I am close to you and intercede before God for all of you. Thank you for having responded to my call.” February 25, 2007 “Dear children! Open your heart to God’s mercy in this Lenten time. The heavenly Father desires to deliver each of you from the slavery of sin. Therefore, little children, make good use of this time and through meeting with God in confession, leave sin and decide for holiness. Do this out of love for Jesus, who redeemed you all with his blood, that you may be happy and in peace. Do not forget, little children: your freedom is your weakness, therefore follow my messages with seriousness. Thank you for having responded to my call.” November 25, 2012 “Dear children! In this time of grace, I call all of you to renew prayer. Open yourselves to Holy Confession so that each of you may accept my call with the whole heart. I am with you and I protect you from the ruin of sin, but you must open yourselves to the way of conversion and holiness, that your heart may burn out of love for God. Give Him time and He will give Himself to you and thus, in the will of God you will discover the love and the joy of living. Thank you for having responded to my call.”   March 25, 2014 “Dear children! I am calling you anew: begin the battle against sin as in the first days, go to confession and decide for holiness. The love of God will begin to flow through you into the world, peace will begin to rule in your hearts and God’s blessing will fill you. I am with you and intercede for all of you before my Son Jesus. Thank you for having responded to my call.” July 2, 2007 “Dear children! In the great love of God, I come to you today to lead you on the way of humility and meekness. The first station on that way, my children, is confession. Reject your arrogance and kneel down before my Son. Comprehend, my children, that you have nothing and you can do nothing. The only thing that you have and that you possess is sin… Be cleansed and accept meekness and humility. My Son could have won with strength, but He chose meekness, humility and love. Follow my Son and give me your hands so that, together, we may climb the mountain* and win. Thank you.” 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.” I know this list is long, but I couldn’t leave one of them out!! We can pray over these messages this weekend. Thank you for joining in this review of the Five Stones!! May Our Lady bless you abundantly! In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!Cathy Nolan© Mary TV 2020   PS. (I know I keep sharing this information, but I want to be sure everyone sees this beautiful opportunity!!)   Mike Nolan is leading a pilgrimage to Medjugorje from April 13 to 22, 2020!  Denis and I will be joining the group!  There is still room for more pilgrims. Join us!!   Here is Mike’s contact information and website: Mike Nolan: [email protected] 574-335-9952 https://www.pilgrim-medj.com/pilgrimages.html