Day: April 6, 2020

  Have mercy on me, O God!! April 6, 2020Monday of Holy Week Dear Family of Mary! “Dear children! I am with you all these years to lead you to the way of salvation.  Return to my Son; return to prayer and fasting. Little children permit for God to speak to your heart, because Satan is reigning and wants to destroy your lives and the earth on which you walk. Be courageous and decide for holiness.  You will see conversion in your hearts and families; prayer will be heard; God will hear your cries and give you peace. I am with you and am blessing you all with my motherly blessing. Thank you for having responded to my call.” (March 25, 2020) “Dear children! I am with you all these years to lead you to the way of salvation.  Return to my Son; return to prayer and fasting…”    Our Lady calls our attention to the fact that she has been with us “all these years”. She has been with us for a long time, 38 years and 9 months. Every day for all those years she has visited Ivan, Marija and Vicka. For many years she also came once a month to Mirjana. And she continues to come to Jakov and Ivanka, and now Mirjana, once a year. That is a long time, by earthly standards. And she has given us messages at varying intervals throughout that time. Her messages and her presence in Medjugorje have been a source of conversion and holiness for many millions of people. But still it seems, we are not finished. We might even have wandered away, gotten distracted, lost our initial enthusiasm, because her next words are:    “Return to my Son; return to prayer and fasting…”    It is time to wake up and return to our initial fervor. It is time to take our conversion seriously again. And no better time than Holy Week. This week we will be living the sorrowful Passion of Our Lord, Jesus. We will meditate on each moment of that week when Jesus offered His life for the sake of our souls. There is no better time to return to Jesus, to return to prayer and to return to fasting. Our Lady never shows impatience. She never stops trying to help us to repent and turn. But even she sounds just a little bit irked by our weakness of fervor. We want to be honest and respond to her words to us now. We can take a cue from King David who sinned several times, but always repented and returned to the Lord with faith. We can take as an example, Psalm 51, a penitential psalm. This is the prayer of King David after the terrible sin he committed, taking another man’s wife, Bathsheba, and arranging for the death of her husband, Uriah. David had been in a deep relationship with God for quite some time when he committed this sin. It was a terrible fall and happened when ‘David should have known better.’ But this is the amazing thing about Our Lord. He has so much mercy and forgiveness for us, even when we should have known better. So, this is how David prayed after he realized his great sin. We can notice that David never stops believing that God will hear his prayer. He has such faith in the mercy of God. And we should too!!        Psalm 51 (To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba) Have mercy on me, O God,according to thy steadfast love;according to thy abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions,and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned,and done that which is evil in thy sight,so that thou art justified in thy sentenceand blameless in thy judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward being;therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Fill me with joy and gladness;let the bones which thou hast broken rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins,and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God,and put a new and right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence,and take not thy holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation,and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors thy ways,and sinners will return to thee. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,thou God of my salvation,and my tongue will sing aloud of thy deliverance. O Lord, open thou my lips,and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For thou hast no delight in sacrifice;were I to give a burnt offering, thou wouldst not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Do good to Zion in thy good pleasure;rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,then wilt thou delight in right sacrifices,in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;then bulls will be offered on thy altar.  May we, like David, own up to our sins and failings, especially since we should know better! And let’s trust in the great mercy of Jesus, shown during this most sorrowful time of Holy Week. In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!Cathy Nolan© Mary TV 2020