May 23, 2022 Reflection – Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid…
Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid… May 23, 2022 Dear Family of Mary! The Gospel for Holy Mass on Sunday, May 22, 2022 was from John 14:23-29. I want to quote one verse: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid…” (Jn 14:27) Jesus was very careful to explain to the Apostles that His peace is not the kind of peace that the world offers. They should not look for worldly peace. Only Jesus can give us peace. But don’t we still fall into the trap of looking for worldly answers to our anxieties? Hoping for peace from that source? Here is a beautiful, inspired, and absolutely true description of where to find true peace, written by Caryll Houselander many years ago. Everything Caryll said so many years ago applies to us today! Please read this short excerpt slowly and prayerfully. She is speaking to us right now. Our Mother is speaking to us through her. This is how we will bring in the Triumph! “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid” Too many anxious Christians today think that their efforts to preach and teach and enter into outward activities can do more to save the world than the surrender of their souls to God, to become Christ-bearers. They believe that they can do more than our Lady did, and they have not time to stop to consider the absurdity of this. They fear that if the world goes on hurling itself into disaster, as it seems to be doing now, Christ’s kingdom may be defeated. This is not so; Christ has given his word that he will be with and in his little flock until the end of the world. However dark our days seem to be for Christianity, they are not so dark as the night following the crucifixion must have seemed to the apostles. For that night Christ had already prepared them. He told them to wait: to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit. He told them that he was going away, that they would no longer see him and know the consolation of his presence with them, but that it was better for them that he should go, and that the condition for the coming of the Holy Spirit, through whom he would live on in them, was his going (Jn 16:7-8). Christ himself prepared for his Resurrection by resting in the tomb, just as he had prepared for his birth by resting in his Mother’s womb. He did not call the legions of angels he could have called to fight back the forces of evil that had crucified him; he simply lay in the tomb at rest and, at the appointed moment in time, rose from death to renew the life of the whole world. The apostles, like the modern apostles, were afraid, and with good cause…. They, with the Mother of Christ, alone stood for Christ’s kingdom, and the murderous hatred of Christ’s enemies pointed straight at them. But Christ told them simply to wait in the city until the Holy Spirit came to them; not to run away, not to make plans of their own, not to be troubled, with either their own recent failure and sin or concerning the danger that fenced them all around, but only to wait, with his Mother among them, for the coming of the Comforter who would make them strong, heal their wounds, wash the stains from their souls, and be their joy. Christ does not change, the preparation for the coming of the Spirit is the same today as two thousand years ago, whether it be for the rebirth of Christ in one soul that is in the hard winter, or for the return of Christ from the grave, whose blood is shed again by the martyrs. The preparation is the same: the still, quiet mind, acceptance, and remaining close to the Mother of God, resting in her rest while the life of the world grew within her towards the flowering of everlasting joy. Caryll Houselander († 1954) was a British artist, poet, and spiritual author. / From The Risen Christ. Sheed & Ward Publishers, 1958. Our job is to remain close to the Mother of God, resting in her rest while the life of the world grows within her – Jesus, Our Life! This is how we will be safe and save others! Our Lady only wants one thing, to be with us and help us to wait for her Son. She said, early on in the apparitions: Saturday, February 25, 1984 “Know that I love all of you. Know that you are all mine. To no one do I desire to give more than to you. Come to me all of you. Stay with me. I want to be your Mother. Come, I desire all of you.” If we stay close to Mary, she will teach us to wait for her Son, to pray as she prays, and to believe as she believes. In this will be our hope and our victory. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid! In Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Cathy Nolan Mary TV Let’s pray the Litany to the Holy Name of Mary!