(C)Mateo Ivankovic 2017
J.M.J.
May 9, 2017
Dear Family of Mary!
Dear children, I am calling you to pray, not to ask for but to offer sacrifice – sacrificing yourselves. I am calling you to reveal the truth and merciful love. I am praying to my Son for you, for your faith which is all the more diminishing in your hearts. I am imploring Him to help you with the divine spirit, as I also desire to help you with my motherly spirit. My children, you must be better. Only those who are pure, humble and filled with love sustain the world – they are saving themselves and the world. My children, my Son is the heart of the world. He should be loved and prayed to, and not always betrayed anew. Therefore, you, apostles of my love, spread the faith in the hearts of people by your example, your prayer and merciful love. I am beside you, I will help you. Pray for your shepherds to have all the more light, so as to be able to illuminate all those who live in darkness. Thank you. (May 2, 2017)
Our Lady asks us to offer sacrifice. She has asked this in Medjugorje from the early days. She said in 1985:
July 4, 1985 “Dear children! I thank you for every sacrifice you have offered. And now I urge you to offer every sacrifice with love. I wish you, the helpless ones, to begin helping with confidence and the Lord will keep on giving to you in confidence. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
It is very easy to overlook her call to sacrificial love. We live in a world that knows nothing of this love. Our Lady in Fatima also asked for sacrifice. I found this very good summary of her call to penance and sacrifice on the webpage rosoary-center.org.
PENANCE
In the Gospels the word penance means a conversion of one’s life, a turning away from sin, and a turning back to God. As Our Lady insisted at Fatima: “Men must amend their lives, and ask pardon for their sins. . . . They must no longer offend Our Lord, Who is already so much offended.” The Fatima message is a call for men to give up sinful practices which grieve God and draw down His chastisements on the world, and to make reparation for them. Commenting on Our Lady’s request for penance, Sr. Lucia wrote: “The part of the last apparition which has remained most deeply imprinted on my heart is the prayer of our heavenly Mother begging us not to offend any more Almighty God, Who is already so much offended.”
Jacinta, too, shortly before her death remarked: “If men only knew what eternity is, how they would make all possible efforts to amend their lives . . . mortification and sacrifice give great pleasure to Our Divine Lord.”
In August of 1917 Our Lady told the children, “pray much and make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to hell because there is no one to make sacrifices for them.” As to the kinds of sacrifices Our Lady was asking, she revealed to Sr. Lucia on one occasion: “The good Lord is allowing Himself to be appeased . . . but He Himself complains most bitterly and sorrowfully about the small number of souls in His grace who are willing to renounce whatever the observance of His laws requires of them.”
“Many persons,” Sr. Lucia explained, “feeling that the word penance implies great austerities, and not feeling that they have the strength for great sacrifices, become discouraged and continue a life of lukewarmness and sin.” Then she said Our Lord explained to her: “The sacrifice required of every person is the fulfillment of his duties in life and the observance of My law. This is the penance that I now seek and require.”
In this materialistic culture in which we live, almost heroic virtue is required to be faithful to the duties of the Christian life. Yet, over and above those sacrifices “required of every person,” the children of Fatima practiced many little acts of mortification and renunciation on their own initiative. It is hoped that many devotees of Our Lady will not be content with the minimum required and will not pass up opportunities of voluntary mortification, placing in the hands of Our Lady the fruits of the little trials, frustrations and irritations of each day accepted with patience and resignation.
It was in this same spirit that the Angel spoke to the children in 1916: “Offer up everything in your power as a sacrifice to the Lord in reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication for the conversion of sinners . . . More than all else, accept and bear with resignation the sufferings that God may send you.” http://www.rosary-center.org/fatimams.htm
It is interesting that Lucia was told by the Lord: “The sacrifice required of every person is the fulfillment of his duties in life and the observance of My law. This is the penance that I now seek and require.” It is often just living a truly Christian life that will be the cause of many sacrifices! Our Lady in Medjugorje continued this call to sacrifice, even in small things:
July 4, 1985 “Dear children! I thank you for every sacrifice you have offered. And now I urge you to offer every sacrifice with love. I wish you, the helpless ones, to begin helping with confidence and the Lord will keep on giving to you in confidence. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
March 13, 1986 “Dear children! Today I call you to live Lent by means of your little sacrifices. Thank you for every sacrifice you have brought me. Dear children, live that way continuously, and with your love help me to present the sacrifice. God will reward you for that. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
Little sacrifices, little acts of love for Jesus and Mary, that is enough! We have now idea what graces will be gained by such little acts of selflessness.
February 25, 1988 “Dear children! Today again I am calling you to prayer to complete surrender to God. You know that I love you and am coming here out of love so I could show you the path to peace and salvation for your souls. I want you to obey me and not permit satan to seduce you. Dear children, satan is very strong and, therefore, I ask you to dedicate your prayers to me so that those who are under his influence can be saved. Give witness by your life. Sacrifice your lives for the salvation of the world. I am with you, and I am grateful to you, but in heaven you shall receive the Father’s reward which He has promised to you. Therefore, dear children, do not be afraid. If you pray, satan cannot injure you even a little bit because you are God’s children and He is watching over you. Pray and let the rosary always be in your hand as a sign to satan that you belong to me. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
Actually, to sacrifice our lives for the salvation of the world ultimately means to just love God with our whole heart, our whole mind, our whole soul and our whole strength! Like Lucia, Jacinta and Francesco, we can respond to Our Lady’s call to love God and pray for souls.
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
