Day: September 20, 2023

We need to pray…   September 21, 2023 Dear Family of Mary! Fr. Shamon tells us that we need to pray! Our Lady does too: January 25, 2019 “Dear children! Today, as a mother, I am calling you to conversion. This time is for you, little children, a time of silence and prayer. Therefore, in the warmth of your heart, may a grain of hope and faith grow and you, little children, will from day to day feel the need to pray more. Your life will become orderly and responsible. You will comprehend, little children, that you are passing here on earth and you will feel the need to be closer to God, and with love you will witness the experience of your encounter with God, which you will share with others. I am with you and am praying for you but I cannot without your ‘yes’. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Our Lady’s message is full of hope! But her hope hinges on our decision to pray! We need to pray, and to pray more and more! It is a need!!! Fr. Shamon wrote: Chapter 3: You need to pray! Because we do not see the value of prayer, we say we have no time for prayer. First, We need to pray, because our salvation depends on it!! St. Alphonsus Ligouri said; “If I had only one sermon to preach, I’d preach it on prayer.” “For,” he said, “if you pray, you will be saved; if you do not pray you will be lost.” Someone put it this way in rhyme: If you pray well, you’ll live well. If you live well, you’ll die well. If you die well, you won’t go to hell. And if you don’t go to hell, then all is well. The plight of the world today and and the victories of Satan in the world can be attributed to the single fact that we are relying too much on our own resources – ourselves, our sciences, our technologies- and not at all on prayer. Yet St. Paul warned us, “Our battle is not against human forces but against the principalities and powers and the evil spirits in regions above. You must put on the armor of God…at every opportunity pray…” (Eph. 6:12-13, 18) In reality, prayer is searching for God. When we do not pray, as our Lady asked, we are fighting without the armor of God. We are defenseless and vulnerable, sitting ducks for Satan. And he, with his angelic powers, is making fools out of us. Believe it or not, he even has Satan worshippers in this supposedly so enlightened nation of ours. Prayer-less, one becomes Godless. Godless, one can turn to demons. This is actually happening here in America [Here Fr. Shamon quotes Mike Warnke who lists thousands of satanic cults and practices in America, which we all know.]…Hence the urgency of Our Lady’s call to prayer. “Prayer has no sword nor saber, no mighty bayonet. Threats not to crush its neighbor ‘neath it’s heel; and yet, when all else fails, prayer prevails.” It is significant that Mike Warnke, a former Satanist high priest, was able to break his ties to Satan, only through prayer – His own prayers and especially those of his devout wife, Sue. Mike advised: “Fight fire with fire. Go directly to the greatest source of supernatural power of all. Pray. Pray for all of us…and also pray for specific people involved in the occult… Pray-Pray-Pray – Jesus is the only effective answer to those who want deliverance from the occult…Don the full gospel armor, pray, and ask others to pray that He will guide you. He will! Secondly, we pray to meet God. Why did the Wise Men follow a star? Was it not to find God? Why does Our Lady appear at Medjugorje? To lead us to Christ! That is why prayer requires time. We pray to meet God, but we must pray long and often in order to become friends with God. Aristotle said: “To become friends, you must eat a bushel of salt together.” At every meal, you eat at most only a pinch of salt. To eat a bushel would require countless meals together. What Aristotle meant, the, was that forming a friendship demands countless encounters together. Likewise, intimacy with God demands continuous prayer. Thirdly, we pray to be changed. St. Thomas wrote; “You pray not to make your needs known to God; but to make known to yourself your need for God. “You pray not to change God’s mind, but to change your mind to Him. “You pray not to move God to do your will, but to be moved to do God’s will” (II-II, q. 83, A. 2) If prayer is not changing you, then you are not praying well. Our Lady asked: “Why are you praying? to be with God, to experience God within. After five minutes for prayer something ought to happen within you, if you do it properly.” Lastly, we pray to open up the hearts of sinners. In our prayers, we should pray for the opening of hearts gripped by sin. On April 18, 1985, Our Lady said: “Dear children,…pray so that the hearts which are under the burden of sin may open up. I so desire it.” Our Lady requested such prayer from Mirjana, perhaps because at the University of Sarajevo she no doubt was having firsthand experience of atheism. Our Lady begged for prayers for unbelievers and atheists, because, as she said to Mirjana, “They are my children too and I suffer much because of them.” She suffers especially for them, for she knows the hell to which their atheism can lead them. Thus Our Lady went on: “If they only knew what would happen to them, if they are not converted. Mirjana, pray for them!” (3/18/85) Our Lady is asking us to have both Jesus’ and her scope of vision in prayer: to pray for everybody, especially sinners. She made the same request at Fatima when she asked us to pray after each decade of the rosary: “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins. Save us from the fires of hell. Draw all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Your mercy” – namely, poor sinners. (From “Our Lady teaches about Prayer at Medjugorje”, by Rev. Albert J.M. Shamon) We need to pray! Our entire destiny depends upon it! Prayer is the first and most important message Our Lady has given to us. And yet it is the easiest thing to forget. We need to pray!!! In Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Cathy Nolan (c) Mary TV 2023