Day: August 6, 2020

August 7, 2020   Dear Family of Mary! “Dear children! In this peaceless time in which the devil is harvesting souls to draw them to himself, I am calling you to persevering prayer, so that in prayer you discover the God of love and hope. Little children, take the Cross in your hands. May it be your encouragement for love to always win, in a special way now when the Cross and faith are rejected. You be a reflection and an example with your lives that faith and hope are still alive and a new world of peace is possible. I am with you and intercede for you before my Son, Jesus. Thank you for having responded to my call.” (July 25, 2020) In this difficult time for our world, we can wonder about suffering. Why does it happen. Where is God? How can we endure it? I think Cardinal Pulic’s homily helped us to recognize that suffering is part of life, part of successfully living a good life.  Jesus showed us the way through His Passion and Death. And His was the greatest victory of all time! Our Lady has often mentioned the Cross in her messages. She encourages us to have a living relationship with the Cross. She wants us to embrace our crosses out of love for Jesus. She knows that these crosses are the way to holiness and eternal life. And she was not afraid of her crosses. She trusted the Father and always said ‘yes’. I have made a collection of messages that we might meditate on this weekend, as we pray. We want to be successes in life! That means we have to fight our way through our crosses to the victory of love. We want to be like Jesus. “Dear children! Without prayer there is no peace. Therefore I say to you, dear children, pray at the foot of the Cross for peace. (09/06/84) “Dear children! I wish to tell you that the Cross should be central these days. Pray especially before the Cross from which great graces are coming. Now in your homes make a special consecration to the Cross. Promise that you will neither offend Jesus nor abuse the Cross. Thank you for having responded to my call.” (09/12/85) “Dear children! The second message of these Lenten days is that you renew prayer before the Cross. Dear children, I am giving you special graces and Jesus is giving you special gifts from the Cross. Take them and live! Reflect on Jesus’ Passion and in your life be united with Jesus! Thank you for having responded to my call.” (02/20/86) “Dear children! For these days while you are joyfully celebrating the Cross, I desire that your cross also would be a joy for you. Especially, dear children, pray that you may be able to accept sickness and suffering with love the way Jesus accepted them. Only that way shall I be able with joy to give out to you the graces and healings which Jesus is permitting me. Thank you for having responded to my call.” (09/11/86) “Dear children! Today I invite you to offer your crosses and suffering for my intentions. Little children, I am your mother and I wish to help you by seeking for you the grace from God. Little children, offer your sufferings as a gift to God so they become a most beautiful flower of joy. That is why, little children, pray that you may understand that suffering can become joy and the cross the way of joy. Thank you for having for responded to my call.” (09/25/96) “Dear children! Today, in a special way, I invite you to take the cross in the hands and to meditate on the wounds of Jesus. Ask of Jesus to heal your wounds, which you, dear children, during your life sustained because of your sins or the sins of your parents. Only in this way, dear children, you will understand that the world is in need of healing of faith in God the Creator. By Jesus’ passion and death on the cross, you will understand that only through prayer you, too, can become true apostles of faith; when, in simplicity and prayer, you live faith which is a gift. Thank you for having responded to my call.” (03/25/97) “Dear children! Also today I call you to prayer. In this time of grace, may the cross be a sign-post of love and unity for you through which true peace comes. That is why, little children, pray especially at this time that little Jesus, the Creator of peace, may be born in your hearts. Only through prayer will you become my apostles of peace in this world without peace. That is why, pray until prayer becomes a joy for you. Thank you for having responded to my call.” (11/25/99) “Dear children! In this time of grace I call you to take the cross of my beloved Son Jesus in your hands and to meditate on His passion and death. May your suffering be united in His suffering and love will win, because He who is love gave Himself out of love to save each of you. Pray, pray, pray until love and peace begin to reign in your hearts. Thank you for having responded to my call.” (03/25/2013) “Dear children! Also today the Most High permits me to be with you and to lead you on the way of conversion. Many hearts have shut themselves to grace and have become deaf to my call. You, little children, pray and fight against temptation and all the evil plans which the devil offers you through modernism. Be strong in prayer and with the cross in your hands pray that evil may not use you and may not conquer in you. I am with you and pray for you. Thank you for having responded to my call.” (03/25/2015) “Dear children! In this time of grace, I am calling all of you to conversion. Little children, you love little and pray even less. You are lost and do not know what your goal is. Take the cross, look at Jesus and follow Him. He gives Himself to you to the death on the cross, because He loves you. Little children, I am calling you: return to prayer with the heart so as to find hope and the meaning of your existence, in prayer. I am with you and am praying for you. Thank you for having responded to my call.” (02/25/2016) “Dear children! I am calling you to be with me in prayer in this time of grace when darkness is fighting against the light. Pray, little children, confess and begin a new life in grace. Decide for God and He will lead you towards holiness; and the cross will be a sign of victory and hope for you. Be proud that you are baptized and grateful in your heart that you are a part of God’s plan. Thank you for having responded to my call.” (03/25/2018) Don’t be daunted by how many messages I have listed! Just take your time with Our Lady’s words, and let them sink in. You can go at it slowly. The Holy Spirit will speak through Our Lady’s words, and make us strong in faith and ready to say yes to God!! Have a blessed weekend! In Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Cathy Nolan ©Mary TV 2020

Cardinal Vinko Pulic at the 31 st  Youth Festival (c)Mary TV August 6, 2020 Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord Dear Family of Mary! I want to share with you the homily given by Cardinal Pulic during the closing Mass for the Youth Festival! He spoke to the hearts of all the people present. He spoke with love and also conviction about how to live a full life in Christ. It was a fitting send off for the festival! 31st Youth Festival in Medjugorje Homily by Cardinal Vinko Puljic Wednesday, August 5, 2020 Alleluia!!! At the beginning of this homily, sorry that interpreters will have to follow what I say, because I didn’t give them paper in their hands.  So, if they’re not able to catch up with me, please do not take it wrong against them! At the beginning of this homily, imagine if I was to make an interview with you, a virtual interview.  Let’s say that I asked you, “What brought you to the Youth Festival this year?”  I believe that some of you might perhaps answer, “Yes, others told me.  They witnessed to me about the previous years of the Youth Festival, saying that one can meet God.  One can experience the nearness of God.  That is why I’m here.”  I believe that many of you want that. Perhaps some of you might say, “I’m empty.  My soul is empty.  I came to fill up my batteries so I would be able to carry on with all of the challenges of my life.” Some of you might say this, “I am so stuffed with everything that I have lost myself.  I came to find myself.”  As St. Augustine would say, “I sought for you, you were a meaning outside of myself.” I believe that in the beginning that someone might say, “I am struggling, but my boat is not moving because it is tied. It’s not moving forward.  I came to untie my boat with a sincere Confession so I will be able to continue with my life.  That is why I need to untie myself, and I need to receive absolution of my sins.”  Some of you would perhaps recognize that. Some of you might say: “I am alone.  In my home, they raised me just to think about myself, in selfishness.  And this makes me unhappy. I cannot live just out of that; to be running after my own needs.  I want to find the joy of life in giving.  That is why I came here.” And I believe that many of you might even say, “I’m restless.  I do not have peace.  I came here to seek peace for my soul.  To pray to Our Lady whom we call the Queen of Peace, so she would give me peace in my soul.  That I would be able to radiate peace in my environment.” Some of you perhaps might say, “I came to recognize other people as my companions.”  Because, we, as we follow the media and politics, can see that it is only about opposition.  It is not about how to journey together.  That is why I believe that many of you would be seeking for this – that in your fellow man you would recognize your own companions. Also, some of you might respond, “I came to get to know my life.  How precious my life is?  How much am I prepared to sacrifice myself?  Because there is no love without a readiness for sacrifice.  And the most important lesson in my life, what I need to learn, is to love.  Because God created me out of love.  God created me for love.  But, very often I get upset because I am so unhappy.” The best way to see this unhappiness is by walking around the town, whether it is your own country, or some other country.  Europe is like that.  Everyone is very grumpy.  For instance,  two hours ago, we had a sudden thunderstorm… there are people who are so disagreeable that you just wait for the thunder to erupt from them.  People look unhappy.  Because man cannot be happy, nor can he radiate happiness without God.  God is love and out of love He created us. Some of you would say, and I already heard this here, “I am really struggling with the divisions in our faith.  You get one story being said here.  Then there is another story being said there. And third is something else altogether.  I just came here so Our Lady would lead me to Jesus.”  Everything that you have been seeking for now, we will all find that with Jesus.  Mary will be the one who will lead us there. The message of this year’s Youth Festival is “Come and You Will See.”  It means, “I came…not to see with my eyes.  But I came to see with my heart.  I came to see with my faith.”  Who?  The Risen One!  Only He can give the answer to us, to our life questions.  All of the searching.  All of the technology.  All of the knowledge.  All of the discoveries. These cannot give what Jesus gives us.   “I give you my Peace.  Believe in me and the One who sent me!” That is why it is so important to learn from Mary.  Do we listen to the Word of God?  How do we hear the Word of God?  Do we accept it?  How do we live it?  And you have heard from the Gospel, when Mary and the disciples were looking for Jesus, and they told him, “Your Mother and your brothers are looking for you.”  And He looked around and said, “Who is my mother?  Who are my brothers and my sisters?  Those who listen to the Word of God and fulfill it!”  God Is in us.  God is giving Himself to us.  But I need to be opened to receive, just like Mary.  Receive the Word of God.  To accept it in my life.  That this Word may become a light.  A guideline for me.  My stronghold! That is why, dear youth, you have inherited much that has been quite deformed in your own upbringing, in your own education.  The first deviation is that they lied to you, saying that you need to live without suffering.  “I do not want my children to suffer, as I suffered.”  Many parents say that.  It’s a lie!  No one has succeeded in life who hasn’t struggled or suffered.  If we want to accomplish something in our lives, then we need to be bold and courageous and prepared for sacrifice! I can see that you all have symbols; you have flags of your own countries, of your own people.  It is quite understandable.  Yes!  This shows where we come from, who we are.  But there is a symbol that can be applied to all of the nations, in all of the areas of this earth.  And this symbol is:  The Crucified Christ!  The Crucified Christ, who, from the Cross, wishes to embrace every person.  This Cross is our identity!  This is where we learn! When they took St. Bonaventure and when they asked him, where did he get such knowledge?  He brought them at the foot of the Cross, and he told them, “This book I read every single day.  I still haven’t finished reading it, this book!” We all know well how to carry the Cross as a symbol that we are Christians.  Especially during the time of the Turkish Empire, when the Turks were ruling.  And it seems to me that they can rule again.  That is when our mothers, our women, our girls  would carry crosses on their skin, like tattoos.  Because it was a way of showing who they were.  And this cross would be the sign of recognition: “We are Christians!” Or, I remember a witness.  There was an event after the Second World War.  Prisoners were on a forced  journey and were told that they needed to leave everything behind.  Then, someone carried Our Lady’s Medal and the other, a Cross.  And there was this a man with a gun.  He said, “Remove them.”  And they responded, “You can kill us, but you will not be able to remove these.  This is the sign of our life!” Why do I say this?  We need to find our stronghold!  The struggle for our life, that I may not be divided.  This is what is killing us.  So that I know from conviction how to live.  If you are disturbed by modernism, materialism, and the desire for prosperity; then you need to know that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, the Life.  With your heart choose that life with your spirit, to embrace the Risen One and not to be afraid.  The life of Christ alone is able to bring the future!  Cowards are not able to build a future, only people who are prepared for sacrifice.  And this is what you will learn in the School of Cross. That is why, dear youth, if you want to build your future, if you want to build your future, allow Mary to bring you to Jesus.  That you may hear the One who can direct you, Come and you will see!  Come along with Jesus.  See Jesus not with the earthly eyes, but with the eyes of faith.  Come and we will see!  You will go back home, and the others will see that you met God!  You found Jesus.  That Mary Our Mother is taking you to Him.  May the others wish to experience that just like you did! That is why I’m rejoicing!  That tonight, with you, right here, I am able to pray.  Praise God! I’m able to ask for Our Lady’s intercession; so that I may, as your shepherd encourage you so that you won’t be afraid of life.  Do not believe everything that has been passed onto you from the media, either TV or politics.  They need to do that that way.  You need to use your own brains. Your head is only yours.  And you know that in pharmacies when you buy some medication, there is an instruction, “Shake before use.”  Also, use your head!  Shake your head when you need to make decisions.  Do not be cowards, that will not make decisions.  The ones who know how to love; they are not afraid to make decisions.  Usually those who are in fear live in such a way that they won’t lose anything.  But those who believe in God, those who love God, they can never lose! This Youth Festival that has been held here for 31 years; may it encourage that faith in you, that you may change the world because you have decided for the Risen Christ.  May Our Lady, may Our Mother protect you on that journey.  Amen! In Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Cathy Nolan ©Mary TV 2020 PS. I am sorry I was not able to send out a reflection for August 5. Family duties won the day, and I was just not able to write to you all. I am sorry. It was Our Lady’s birthday, of all days to miss!!! But I hope that she, as The Mother, will understand! Happy Birthday, dearest Mother. You are our hope and our joy!