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The Incarnation!

 


My Son knows you!!!
(c)Mary TV/Anthony Zubac

  
March 21, 2019

Dear Family of Mary!

“My children, my Son knows you. He lived the life of man, and at the same time of God: a wondrous life-human flesh, divine Spirit…” (March 18, 2019)

On Monday we celebrate the Solemnity of the Annunciation. This feast is a pivot point for the Catholic Faith because we recognize and worship the Son of God who became man. It is the moment of the Incarnation. Our Lady encounters the Angel Gabriel and says “yes” to the request of God to become the Mother of His Son. All of history is turned on its end. Our salvation finds its source in Mary’s “yes”. The Second Person of the Trinity assumes a Human soul and body!

It took centuries for the Church to hammer out the particulars of this ultimately mysterious event. Many errors had to be addressed in order to get it right! Our Lady says it so simply in her message. She too is approaching this great mystery with us. We all can bow down together before it. Our Savior is God and Man.

I want to share a few quotes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church which address the Incarnation. It may be helpful for us to pray over the wisdom of the Church, and maybe even examine our own ideas about the Incarnation, to be sure we have it right!   

Part One – Section Two, Chapter Two, Article 3, Paragraph 1
 
II. THE INCARNATION

461 Taking up St. John’s expression, “The Word became flesh”,82 the Church calls “Incarnation” the fact that the Son of God assumed a human nature in order to accomplish our salvation in it. In a hymn cited by St. Paul, the Church sings the mystery of the Incarnation:

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.83

462 The Letter to the Hebrews refers to the same mystery:
Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, Lo, I have come to do your will, O God.”84 
 

463 Belief in the true Incarnation of the Son of God is the distinctive sign of Christian faith: “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.”85 Such is the joyous conviction of the Church from her beginning whenever she sings “the mystery of our religion”: “He was manifested in the flesh.”86
 

III. TRUE GOD AND TRUE MAN

464 The unique and altogether singular event of the Incarnation of the Son of God does not mean that Jesus Christ is part God and part man, nor does it imply that he is the result of a confused mixture of the divine and the human. He became truly man while remaining truly God. Jesus Christ is true God and true man.

During the first centuries, the Church had to defend and clarify this truth of faith against the heresies that falsified it.


465 The first heresies denied not so much Christ’s divinity as his true humanity (Gnostic Docetism). From apostolic times the Christian faith has insisted on the true incarnation of God’s Son “come in the flesh”.87 But already in the third century, the Church in a council at Antioch had to affirm against Paul of Samosata that Jesus Christ is Son of God by nature and not by adoption. The first ecumenical council of Nicaea in 325 confessed in its Creed that the Son of God is “begotten, not made, of the same substance (homoousios) as the Father”, and condemned Arius, who had affirmed that the Son of God “came to be from things that were not” and that he was “from another substance” than that of the Father.88  


466 The Nestorian heresy regarded Christ as a human person joined to the divine person of God’s Son. Opposing this heresy, St. Cyril of Alexandria and the third ecumenical council, at Ephesus in 431, confessed “that the Word, uniting to himself in his person the flesh animated by a rational soul, became man.”89 Christ’s humanity has no other subject than the divine person of the Son of God, who assumed it and made it his own, from his conception. For this reason the Council of Ephesus proclaimed in 431 that Mary truly became the Mother of God by the human conception of the Son of God in her womb: “Mother of God, not that the nature of the Word or his divinity received the beginning of its existence from the holy Virgin, but that, since the holy body, animated by a rational soul, which the Word of God united to himself according to the hypostasis, was born from her, the Word is said to be born according to the flesh.”90


467 The Monophysites affirmed that the human nature had ceased to exist as such in Christ when the divine person of God’s Son assumed it. Faced with this heresy, the fourth ecumenical council, at Chalcedon in 451, confessed:

 
Following the holy Fathers, we unanimously teach and confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: the same perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, the same truly God and truly man, composed of rational soul and body; consubstantial with the Father as to his divinity and consubstantial with us as to his humanity; “like us in all things but sin”. He was begotten from the Father before all ages as to his divinity and in these last days, for us and for our salvation, was born as to his humanity of the virgin Mary, the Mother of God.91


We confess that one and the same Christ, Lord, and only-begotten Son, is to be acknowledged in two natures without confusion, change, division or separation. The distinction between the natures was never abolished by their union, but rather the character proper to each of the two natures was preserved as they came together in one person (prosopon) and one hypostasis.92


468 After the Council of Chalcedon, some made of Christ’s human nature a kind of personal subject. Against them, the fifth ecumenical council, at Constantinople in 553, confessed that “there is but one hypostasis [or person], which is our Lord Jesus Christ, one of the Trinity.”93 Thus everything in Christ’s human nature is to be attributed to his divine person as its proper subject, not only his miracles but also his sufferings and even his death: “He who was crucified in the flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ, is true God, Lord of glory, and one of the Holy Trinity.”94


469 The Church thus confesses that Jesus is inseparably true God and true man. He is truly the Son of God who, without ceasing to be God and Lord, became a man and our brother:

“What he was, he remained and what he was not, he assumed”, sings the Roman Liturgy.95 And the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom proclaims and sings: “O only-begotten Son and Word of God, immortal being, you who deigned for our salvation to become incarnate of the holy Mother of God and ever-virgin Mary, you who without change became man and were crucified, O Christ our God, you who by your death have crushed death, you who are one of the Holy Trinity, glorified with the Father and the Holy Spirit, save us!”96

82 Jn 1:14. 
83 Phil 2:5-8; cf. LH, Saturday, Canticle at Evening Prayer. 
84 Heb 10:5-7, citing Ps 40:6-8 ([7-9] LXX). 
85 1 Jn 4:2.
87 Cf. 1 Jn 4:2-3; 2 Jn 7. 
88 Council of Nicaea I (325): DS 130, 126. 
89 Council of Ephesus (431): DS 250. 
90 Council of Ephesus: DS 251. 
91 Council of Chalcedon (451): DS 301; cf. Heb 4:15. 
92 Council of Chalcedon: DS 302. 
93 Council of Constantinople II (553): DS 424. 
94 Council of Constantinople II (553): DS 432; cf. DS 424; Council of Ephesus, DS 255. 
95 LH, 1 January, Antiphon for Morning Prayer; cf. St. Leo the Great, Sermo in nat. Dom. 1, 2; PL 54, 191-192. 
95 Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Troparion “O monogenes.”


To prepare for the great Solemnity of the Annunciation, let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us to grow in our understanding of the great mystery of love that is the Incarnation!
More tomorrow!

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2019
 

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The Queen of Peace

 
Mirjana Soldo encounters Our Lady (March 18, 2019)

(c)Mary TV/Kristian Zubac

  
March 20, 2019

Dear Family of Mary!

“My children! As a mother, as the Queen of Peace, I am calling you to accept my Son so that He can grant you peace of soul-that He can grant you that which is just, which is good for you…” (March 18, 2019)

Our Lady is our Mother. Jesus presented Her to each of us through the Apostle John, as our Mother. “Behold your Mother,” He said to John. “Behold your son,” He said to Mary. It was a solemn act as Jesus was dying on the Cross. Jesus died in our place, to take on our sins as His own, and to atone for them. He poured out His life for us, making us part of Him. He embraced us as His very self and presented us to the Father from the Cross. But not only to the Father, He presented us to His Mother as well. He presented us to Her as Her children. And so, we are.

And so, Our Lady speaks to us as a mother, with the intensity of love that only a mother can have for her child. She speaks to us personally and intimately. She looks into our eyes and gazes deeply into our souls, and she speaks to us.

But what does she speak? What does She impart to us in that loving motherly gaze?

She reminds us that She is the Queen of Peace.

This is the title she used during the first year (1981) of her apparitions in Medjugorje oh so many years ago.    
Thursday, August 6, 1981—“I am the Queen of Peace.”

Our Mother is a Queen!! And not just any queen but the Queen of Peace!! But what does a queen of peace do? What does it mean to be the Queen of Peace? What indeed is peace? We poor creatures who live on this earth in the midst of so much turmoil, confusion, doubt, fear, confrontation, and suspicion, do not really know peace. We do not experience it naturally.

What is peace? How can we define it, experience it, know it?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church links peace to fundamental respect for all life. To bear hatred for another, to kill, to harm or violate the personal rights of our neighbors is to act against peace. This is surely the basis of peace in our human societies.

But what does peace look like within us. Where is peace in me?

I think Our Lady answers this question for us when she says:   
“I am calling you to accept my Son so that He can grant you peace of soul-that He can grant you that which is just, which is good for you…”

We will only have peace when we accept Jesus as our Lord, our Savior, our Brother, our King, and our Friend. We will have peace when we accept Jesus into the very depths of our hearts, to live in us. This is peace of soul. This is peace with God, whom we have offended but who loves us and forgives us through Jesus.

Then Jesus will grant to us justice, which entails the very things the Catechism defines as peace. And He will grant to us the good. To know the good is to live out all that makes for peace. Jesus will make peace in us through justice and good, if we let Him. He will heal all our wounds and teach us how to be just, forgiving and loving.

When we have Jesus, the King of Peace, in our hearts we have peace. We become like our Mother, the Queen of Peace. And we help to build peace with all our brothers and sisters.

I know this sounds impossible. But I don’t think it is meant to be. If we accept Jesus into our hearts, all things will be possible.

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2019
 

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The March 18, 2019 Message

 
Mirjana Soldo encounters Our Lady (March 18, 2019)

(c)Mary TV/Kristian Zubac

  
March 18, 2019

Dear Family of Mary!

Here is the March 18, 2019 Message
The annual message given through Mirjana Soldo:  

My children! As a mother, as the Queen of Peace, I am calling you to accept my Son so that He can grant you peace of soul-that He can grant you that which is just, which is good for you.

My children, my Son knows you. He lived the life of man, and at the same time of God: a wondrous life-human flesh, divine Spirit. Therefore, my children, while my Son is looking at you with His eyes of God, He penetrates into your hearts. His tender, warm eyes are looking for Himself in your heart. My children, can He find Himself [there]?

Accept Him, and then the moments of pain and suffering will become moments of tenderness. Accept Him, and you will have peace in [your] soul-you will spread it to all those around you-and this is what you now need the most.

Heed me, my children. Pray for the shepherds, for those whose hands my Son has blessed. Thank you.    

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
Mary TV 2019 

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About Mirjana’s Yearly Apparition

 
Mirjana Soldo encounters Our Lady (March 2, 2019)
(c)Mary TV/Anthony Zubac
 

 

March 15, 2019

 

Dear Family of Mary!

Next Monday, March 18, 2019 – Our Lady will appear to Mirjana Soldo for her yearly apparition. Starting on June 24, 1981, Our Lady appeared to Mirjana for 18 months, every day. It was heaven for Mirjana. I want to share Mirjana’s own words about the cessation of her daily apparitions, and how it came to be that Our Lady would appear to her every year on the 18th of March. Her account of this transition in her relationship with Our Lady is from “My Heart will Triumph”:

For the First 18 months, Our Lady came every day. When she spoke to me, it was as if the whole universe was speaking to me. I drew strength and love from those moments – strength to persevere in my daily struggle, and love to forgive the people who persecuted me. When you see Our Lady, it is impossible to hate anyone because you become aware that she loves even the person who mistreats you. That person is her child as much as you are, and her love for all of her children is indescribably. I have never seen that kind of love on Earth…
 
On December 23, 1982, Our Lady appeared to me as usual, and, like always it was a beautiful experience that filled my soul with joy. But towards the end, she looked at me with tenderness and said, “On Christmas Day, I will appear to you for the last time.
 
The apparition ended, and I was left stunned. I had clearly heard what she said, but I could not believe it. How could I live without apparitions? It seemed impossible and I prayed intensely for it not to be true.
 
The next day, on Christmas Eve, she again tried to prepare me, but I still could not comprehend it. I spent most of the night begging God to give me more time with her.
 
While my parents and brother celebrated Christmas day with singing, prayers and food, I was far too consumed with worry to join in. There I was, surrounded by my loving family, about to spend part of Christmas with the same woman who gave birth to Jesus two thousand years before, and I could not even smile.
 
My anticipation soared as the time of the apparition approached. My mother, father and brother, wearing their finest Christmas attire, kneeled beside me. We prayed the rosary in preparation for her coming. When Our Lady finally appeared, she smiled gently and greeted me in her usual motherly way. I was captivated; her dress radiated the same spectacular golden color it had the previous Christmas, and in that moment – with all of her grace and beauty shining down on me – it was impossible to be sad anymore.
 
My parents told me later that my final daily apparition lasted for an extraordinary 45 minutes. Our Lady and I talked about many things. We summarized our entire 18 months together – everything we had said to each other and everything she had revealed to me. She entrusted me with the tenth and final secret, and she explained that I will need to choose a priest for a special role. Ten days before the date of the event foretold in the first secret, I am to tell him what will happen and when. He and I are then supposed to pray and fast for seven days, and, three days before the event, the priest will reveal it to the world. All ten secrets will be revealed in this way.
 
Our Lady also gave me a precious gift. She told me that she would appear to me once a year, on March 18, for the rest of my life. March 18 is my birthday, but Our Lady did not choose that date for that reason. For her, my birthday is not different from anyone else’s. Only when the things contained in the secrets start to happen will the world understand why she chose the 18th of March. The significance of the date will be clear. She also said that I would experience some additional apparitions. [The 2nd of the month apparitions]
 
She then held out something like a rolled-up scroll, explaining that all the secrets were written on it, and that I should show it to the priest I choose when the time comes to reveal them. I took it from her hand without looking at it.
 
“Now you will have to turn to God in faith like any other person,” she said. “Mirjana, I have chosen you; I have confided in you everything that is essential. I have also shown you many terrible things. You must now bear it all with courage. Think of me and think of the tears I must shed for that. You must remain brave. You have quickly grasped the messages. You must also understand now that I have to go away. Be courageous.”
 
She promised to always be near me and to help me in my most difficult situations, but the pain I felt in my soul was nearly unbearable. Our Lady was aware of my torment and she asked me to pray. I recited the prayer that I often prayed when I was alone with her, the Salve Regina…She smiled in the most motherly way and then she was gone. (Mirjana Soldo. “My Heart Will Triumph”. P. 135-37)

 

Mirjana suffered greatly from the loss of Our Lady’s daily apparitions. But she was brave and has continued to follow Our Lady all these years. Her book is wonderful, and I recommend it to all of you as a way to glimpse the life of a visionary. (You can order the book here:  www.MyHeartWillTriumph.com  )

On March 18, Mirjana will again see Our Lady for their yearly visit. Let’s pray for Mirjana that she will have courage! And let’s anticipate the message Our Lady will give us through Mirjana. We do so need Our Lady’s guidance in these days.

 

I will send out the message as quickly as I can, and Mary TV will post the apparition on our webpage as well.

Here is Our Lady’s messages for March 18, 2018.

March 18, 2018
“Dear children! My earthly life was simple. I loved, and I rejoiced in small things. I loved life – the gift from God – even though pain and sufferings pierced my heart. My children, I had the strength of faith and boundless trust in God’s love. All those who have the strength of faith are stronger. Faith makes you live according to what is good and then the light of God’s love always comes at the desired moment. That is the strength which sustains in pain and suffering. My children, pray for the strength of faith, trust in the Heavenly Father, and do not be afraid. Know that not a single creature who belongs to God will be lost but will live forever. Every pain has its end and then life in freedom begins there where all of my children come – where everything is returned. My children, your battle is difficult. It will be even more difficult, but you follow my example.  Pray for the strength of faith; trust in the love of the Heavenly Father. I am with you. I am manifesting myself to you. I am encouraging you. With immeasurable motherly love I am caressing your souls. Thank you.”

Thank you, dearest Mother! We love you!

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
© Mary TV 2019

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IT is thanks to my Son that you live…

 
It is thanks to my Son that you live…

(c)Mary TV/Mateo Ivankovic
 
March 14, 2019

Dear Family of Mary!

“My children, I am calling you to comprehend that it is, thanks to my Son, that you live – through His love and sacrifice…” (March 2, 2019)

St. Faustina – on how to give thanks to Jesus for my life, the life given to me because Jesus loves me and sacrificed His life for me.  (Take time with each stanza, as there are particular reasons why each one of us can thank Jesus for these gifts, reasons unique to our lives alone!) :  

1285 +You have surrounded my life with Your tender and loving care, more than I can comprehend, for I will understand Your goodness in its entirety only when the veil is lifted. I desire that my whole life be but one act of thanksgiving to You, O God.
 
1286 + Thank You, O God, for all the graces
Which unceasingly You lavish upon me,
Graces which enlighten me with the brilliance of the sun,
For by them You show me the sure way.

Thank You, O Lord, for creating me,
For calling me into being from nothingness,
For imprinting Your divinity on my soul,
The work of sheer merciful love.

Thank You, O God, for Holy Baptism
Which engrafted me into Your family,
A gift great beyond all thought or expression
Which transforms my soul.

Thank You, O Lord, for Holy Confession,
For that inexhaustible spring of great mercy,
For that inconceivable fountain of graces
In which sin-tainted souls become purified.

Thank You, O Jesus, for Holy Communion
In which You give us Yourself.
I feel Your Heart beating within my breast
As You cause Your divine life to unfold within me.

Thank You, O Holy Spirit, for the Sacrament of Confirmation,
Which dubs me Your knight
And gives strength to my soul at each moment,
Protecting me from evil.

Thank You, O God, for the grace of a vocation (we all have a call)
For being called to serve you alone,
Leading me to make You my sole love,
An unequal honor for my soul.

Thank You, O Lord, for perpetual vows, (we all have promises at least)
For that union of pure love,
For having deigned to unite Your pure heart with mine
And uniting my heart to Yours in the purest of bonds.

Thank You, O Lord, for the Sacrament of Anointing
Which, in my final moments, will give me strength;
My help in battle, my guide to salvation,
Fortifying my soul till we rejoice forever.

Thank You, O God, for all the inspirations
That Your goodness lavishes upon me,
For the interior lights given my soul,
Which the heart senses, but words cannot express.

Thank You, O Holy Trinity, for the vastness of the graces
Which You have lavished on me unceasingly through life.
My gratitude will intensify as the eternal dawn rises,
When, for the first time, I sing to Your glory. (Diary 1285 – 1286)

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
(c)Mary TV 2019 
 
PS. Great News! The Matching Grant Drive that we are currently offering for Mary TV’s Studio equipment is going very well!!
We are at about $14,000 dollars,
or about 16% of the way to achieving the matching grant!!
 
Keep up your prayers and donations!!! Thank you!

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Our Lady and the Eucharist!

 
The Blessed Mother has led me to understand  
that the center of my life is the Eucharist! (Vicka)

(c)Mary TV/Mateo Ivankovic
 
March 13, 2019

Dear Family of Mary!

“Dear children, I call you ‘apostles of my love’. I am showing you my Son who is the true peace and the true love. As a mother, through the mercy of God, I desire to lead you to Him…” (March 2, 2019)

Our Lady desires to lead us to Jesus. This is her main task in Medjugorje. Everything in her program from Medjugorje is designed to draw us into a deep relationship with Jesus. Fr. Slavko understood this deeply. I would like to share with you a reflection he wrote on “Our Lady and the Eucharist” which I find amazing! It is from his book, “Be Similar to My Heart.”

Our Lady and the Eucharist

A quote from Vicka:

“The Blessed Mother has led me to understand that the center of my life is the Eucharist, which is Jesus, who is God. In the Mass, we are receiving Jesus, who is alive. In the Sacrament we are really receiving Jesus, His Body and Blood. We must be prepared to receive Christ alive.” – Vicka.

…When the Priest comes to us and says: “This is the Body of Christ,’, it is similar to when the angel came to Our Lady at the Annunciation. When we say, “Amen” it is our saying, “Your will be done.” Our body then becomes a true dwelling place for Jesus. The fact that God dwells in us can then make us ‘full of God.’ God wants us to become similar to Jesus. Christ is in the center. That is how Our Lady’s life was – with Christ always at its center. He was the foundation of her Life, and thus we can say She was the first one to taste the fruits of redemption. Our Lady needed this grace just as we do. So, in this way, we can also be similar to Her. She could not redeem Herself, yet She was redeemed by Jesus in advance.

This is why Mary wants to lead us to Jesus and Her desire as well as unique task is to help us meet Him. She is helping us to discover God. Our Lady is our model who is calling, helping and teaching us. When we are close to Her, she brings us close to God. She is continually interceding for us to Jesus. Everything She asks of us is focused on and beyond the Eucharist. Fasting is because of the Eucharist. The Scripture, the Word of God, is because of the Eucharist. Confession is because of the Eucharist. Even the Rosary is in preparation for meeting Jesus in the Eucharist. Our Lady asks that our life be Holy Mass. When we forgive, it comes out of the Eucharist. When we do not forgive, we stop the Eucharist from happening within us. When we give witness of God to others, it is in the same path as Holy Mass. Our Lady’s wish is that our life become Mass, and this means that Jesus is the center of our life…

Sometimes people’s mentality concerning Holy Mass is, “I was at Mass, I have done my part, my task, and the Lord now has to be quiet. Now I am free to leave the church.” O, this is absolutely something else! We must slow down and prepare ourselves for Mass. Our Lady asks for preparation with two rosaries, and this request is very important to Her. When one comes into the church, the atmosphere of prayer and of hearing the Rosary being recited, opens up one’s heart. At times, it is difficult to stay in church for three hours for it can seem like three years. However, it is so very important that we all be there in person. Our life must become a prayer….

Let us reflect, asking for the grace to come before the presence of our Lord Jesus. Let us, through His mother, Mary, express our love, our praise and our adoration for Him with these short prayers:

Mother Mary, I feel how unworthy I am to adore Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Thank you for being with me! You were worthy of adoring and loving Him more than anybody else in the world, because you are His ever-loving and faithful Mother. So, Mary, to you I give my heart that you may adore Jesus in me and with me. To you I devote my family, my friends, my community, my people and my Church.

O, my Mother, I love you immensely and offer myself to You. Through your goodness, love and grace, save me! I want to be yours. I love you endlessly and I want you to protect me. I ask you, Mother of Goodness, from my whole heart, to give me your goodness that I may be able to love everybody as you loved Jesus Christ! And I also ask for the grace from you that I maybe gracious to you. I present myself completely to you and want you to be with me every step for you are full of grace. Amen

(Fr. Slavko Barbaric. “Be Similar to My Heart” p. 99)

Our Lady truly is helping us to discover God!! We are the most blessed of people, to have the Mother of Jesus with us every day in Medjugorje!

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2019

PS. The Matching Grant Drive that we are currently offering for Mary TV’s Studio equipment is going very well. We are at about $8,000 dollars, or about 10% of the way to achieving the matching grant!! Keep up your prayers and donations!!! Thank you!

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Forgive us our trespasses…

 
I imploring you, my children, to forgive and to love all the people whom you meet?
(c)Mary TV/Mateo Ivankovic
 
March 12, 2019

Dear Family of Mary!

Dear children, I call you ‘apostles of my love’. I am showing you my Son who is the true peace and the true love. As a mother, through the mercy of God, I desire to lead you to Him. My children, this is why I am calling you to reflect on yourselves, starting out from my Son, that you look to Him with the heart and that you may see with the heart where you are and where your life is going. My children, I am calling you to comprehend that it is, thanks to my Son, that you live – through His love and sacrifice. You are asking of my Son to be merciful to you and I am calling you to mercy. You are asking of Him to be good to you and to forgive you, and for how long am I imploring you, my children, to forgive and to love all the people whom you meet? When you comprehend my words with the heart, you will comprehend and come to know the true love and you will be able to be apostles of that love, my apostles, my dear children. Thank you.

Amazingly, the Gospel reading for today also speaks exactly to Our Lady’s message on March 2, 2019. Her message brings into focus one of the most important teachings of Jesus, that of forgiving as Our Heavenly Father forgives us. Forgiveness is one of the most difficult acts we do each day, because when we forgive, we are saying to ourselves that we want to be like Jesus, who forgave us from the Cross. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” So hard to understand and even harder to do. But not impossible, if we do it in, with and through Jesus.

Today’s Gospel: Matthew 6: 7-15

“And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this:

Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
And forgive us our debts,
As we also have forgiven our debtors;
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.

For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you;
but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

“You are asking of Him to be good to you and to forgive you, and for how long am I imploring you, my children, to forgive and to love all the people whom you meet?” Our Lady repeats Jesus’ teaching to us.

Our Lady wants us to be self-aware. She says, “My children, this is why I am calling you to reflect on yourselves, starting out from my Son, that you look to Him with the heart and that you may see with the heart where you are and where your life is going.” Our Lady wants us to see our lives as compared to Jesus’ life which will then lead us to see them in terms of eternity. She wants us to see where we are going, based on how we are living today. This is what Jesus does in the Gospels. He wants us to see the eternal consequences of our choices and our actions. The Our Father is a prayer that points us to Heaven and then gives us tools to aim at Heaven, to find the way there. Forgiveness is one of the keys to finding this way. It brings us so close to Jesus when we forgive.

I recommend the homily given by Fr. Brian Baker at the English Mass in Medjugorje on March 11, 2019.

You can find it at this link: https://marytv.tv/english-mass-in-medjugorje /

Please choose the 03/11/19 English Mass in the playlist to the right on the window. Fr. Baker speaks very well of the importance of forgiveness in all our relationships, through our union with Jesus on the Cross.

Our Lady is with us to help us to change the trajectory of our lives, aiming them directly at Heaven!!

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2019

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That you may see with the heart where you are and where your life is going.

 
“…that you may see with the heart where you are and where your life is going.”
 

(c)Mary TV/Mateo Ivankovic
 
March 11, 2019

Dear Family of Mary!

“Dear children, I call you ‘apostles of my love’. I am showing you my Son who is the true peace and the true love. As a mother, through the mercy of God, I desire to lead you to Him. My children, this is why I am calling you to reflect on yourselves, starting out from my Son, that you look to Him with the heart and that you may see with the heart where you are and where your life is going. My children, I am calling you to comprehend that it is, thanks to my Son, that you live – through His love and sacrifice. You are asking of my Son to be merciful to you and I am calling you to mercy. You are asking of Him to be good to you and to forgive you, and for how long am I imploring you, my children, to forgive and to love all the people whom you meet? When you comprehend my words with the heart, you will comprehend and come to know the true love and you will be able to be apostles of that love, my apostles, my dear children. Thank you.” (March 2, 2019)

Today’s Gospel (Matthew 25: 31-46) is another of the Scriptures that Our Lady’s message echoes:

“When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left.

Then the King will say to those at his right hand, `Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’

Then the righteous will answer him, `Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?’ And the King will answer them, `Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’

Then he will say to those at his left hand, `Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’

Then they also will answer, `Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?’ Then he will answer them, `Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.’ And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Mt 25:31-46)

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2019

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Dear Children, you forget that you are all important! (Part Two)


“Dear children, you forget that you are all important.  
The elderly are especially important in the family” 

(c)Mary TV/Mateo Ivankovic
 
March 8, 2019
(St. John of God)

Dear Family of Mary!

Fr. Slavko continues his teaching on this message:

“Dear children, today I invite you to pray. Dear children, you forget that you are all important. The elderly are especially important in the family. Urge them to pray. Let young people be an example to others by their lives and let them give witness to Jesus. Dear children, I beseech you, begin to change through prayer and you will know then what you need to do. Thank you for having responded to my call.” (April 24, 1986)


Fr. Slavko Barbaric – April 26 1986 – Part Two

In this message we have an example, “The elderly are especially important in the family.” Guided by this message, I often ask myself and I ask you too, when did you last tell some elderly person in the corner in our home, or in the family: you are very important? Perhaps because we have never said this they have lost every desire in life, and all joy in it. Many of them have lived in the belief that someone is of value if they work, and after retiring they lose the meaning of living, they lose joy, and they feel of no importance.

Look at how Our Lady is educating us, how she wants to open our eyes to each other’s needs. From my words, perhaps from the words of a young person, depend the parent’s joy: and from the words of a parent depend the children’s lives. So, you see how important we are to each other, the life of another person can really depend on me, on you. If we discover these values life will change and perhaps we will have a new chance to discover and realize the nonsense of our fights, our hate, our envy, of our being closed and looking just for something for ourselves.

Our Lady said for the elderly people, “Urge them to pray.” These words must be understood in connection with the last words of this message. “Begin to change through prayer and you will know then what you need to do.” Through this message, prayer is once again a way to discover that I am important, that you are, that each one of us is. Through prayer, we can discover what we must do.

In her last but one message, she said, “Dear children, I want to guide you completely.” Why say, I don’t know what to do? I am frightened. If Our Lady tells us seriously, “I want to guide you completely,” then we must give Her our hand. I am sure that by coming here this is what you want to do.

And now a few words for the young people. Our Lady is asking a lot from you. She said, “Let young people be an example to others by their lives and let them give witness to Jesus.”

If you ask me how to give witness, I say, “Try.” How can you be an example for Jesus? By testifying. Jesus has invited us to live a life full of joy, of love for everyone, a life full of peace and a heart ready to bring peace. Jesus has invited us all to forgive when we are offended and not to be revenged; He has invited us to develop the gifts we have been given by God, and this is particularly valid for young people.

You have many possibilities of developing them. In the life of a young person, all laziness, all letting one’s self go is really a sin against the Holy Spirit. Our Lady has suggested two day’s fasting and prayer; why? Not in order to annihilate us. If a trainer wants to get the young people in his team ready, he doesn’t train them to reduce them to nothing, but to prepare them in order to have a good team for the new season. In the same way, Our Lady is asking certain things in order to prepare you young people to be able to face up to life, not to make you tired. We elderly can also be young on one condition, to be young in our spirit and soul. Someone who wants to renew his life doesn’t lose hope and even if difficulties come remains youthful.

What does Our Lady want of us? She wants to help us to open our hearts to peace, be ready to live the fullness of life; then it doesn’t matter how old we are.

We must be ready to open ourselves in prayer; as I open myself when I am with a friend, so I open myself to God. If I don’t spend time with someone, I will never open myself up; and it is the same with prayer.

Now I beseech you all to begin to change yourselves by prayer. I have already told you that Our Lady is asking for active prayer; this means that she is inviting us to be changed. If we accept the Word of God with our heart, then it will speak to us. The condition required to accept it with a new heart is prayer. If you read the messages you will realize that this is repeated in other words in every message.

But there is another important means available to us and that is fasting. It is a specialty of Our Lady. All our cookery recipes have become very complicated, but Our Lady has remained just as two thousand years ago; She has not changed the recipes of her kitchen which she is suggesting to us in our modern world where we have everything available. She says: the ideal is bread and water. But the stress is on bread.

When we come to Italy we find your specialties and, when you come to Medjugorje, you find this specialty. Why: Our Lady is not asking us for fasting because she is happy if we are hungry. This is not so. This is the chance to live on bread and it is an aspect, perhaps the first which we should discover, the Eucharistic aspect of this fasting. By living on bread for two days a week we will discover how important bread is and by discovering our daily bread we will more easily be brought to realize our Eucharistic bread. This will come to us step by step, slowly.

Fasting has its own value; it serves as a means, it serves us for our faith, for our prayer, for love and for reconciliation.

In the Beatitudes Jesus said that those who are poor of heart before God are blessed. He did not say blessed are those who do not have anything, but those who are poor of heart. We can interpret this as meaning blessed are all those who feel a need for God. This is what being poor means, that is, open.

Today, the editors of Spot (a local magazine) asked Vicka how Our Lady guides her, how she could describe Our Lady: friend, mother, unapproachable being from above? Vicka described her in the loveliest way, “Mary is Mother.”

Afterwards they asked her, “What do you lie most about this Mother?” She said, “Her exceptional goodness and tenderness. She is a Mother who loves everyone and wants us all to be saved, the whole of humanity.”

I tell you this because we must understand that everything Our Lady offers us, she offers to us as a mother who has understood and taken seriously the words of Jesus, “Here is your son.” She has kept these words in her heart. They are words which have moved Our Lady.

If someone says, “She is asking a lot, it is not possible,” we must accept. Our Lady loves us, and this is why she is inviting us, and I am sure that by coming here you will have understood and accepted her voice and will wish to continue.

I am inviting you. Our conversion will never be finished. So, be patient with yourselves. Conversion means growing in love, in peace, and in the spirit of prayer and penance.

Who of us is able to say that they have already grown enough, cannot love any more and cannot grow any further in faith? (Fr. Slavko Barbaric – 26th April 1986 – Part Two)

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2019

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Dear Children, you forget that you are all important!


(c)Mary TV/Mateo Ivankovic
 
March 7, 2019
(Sts. Perpetua and Felicity)

Dear Family of Mary!

I have found another homily by Fr. Slavko Barbaric, from the Yellow Book of Homilies – published in 1987. Fr. Slavko teaches about Our Lady’s call to prayer and fasting in a way that will help us as we begin our Lenten season of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. I will present one half today and the second half tomorrow.

Thank you, dearest Mother for giving us Fr. Slavko Barbaric as our great friend and priest:

“Dear children, you forget that you are all important.”

I will read you last Thursday’s message and try to explain it in the context of all the other messages:

“Dear children, today I invite you to pray. Dear children, you forget that you are all important. The elderly are especially important in the family. Urge them to pray. Let young people be an example to others by their lives and let them give witness to Jesus. Dear children, I beseech you, begin to change through prayer and you will know then what you need to do. Thank you for having responded to my call.”

The apparitions show us in a practical way how to go towards peace and how to achieve peace. I think that all of us can find the answer to “Why am I here?” from this fact. Perhaps because I believe that this place, over the last five years, has become a place of prayer, of fasting, of re-awakening of faith, where peace is found, where it is possible to live reconciliation with God and other people.

In her first five messages, Our Lady said, “Pray.” Since 1st March 1984, she has been giving us a message every Thursday. When we read these messages, it can be seen that no message is without this strong invitation to “Pray”.

Naturally we must ask ourselves why there is this invitation to pray. If you read the messages you will understand the reason. Our Lady repeats many times, “Pray and you will have all you desire”, “Pray and you will have peace, a deeper joy, you will overcome your tiredness, you will have love, strength for reconciliation”, and much else.

Many people have discovered something very important here: that they can pray and that they have time for prayer.

Many of us caught up in the hectic routine of our modern world lose the time to pray and many people excuse themselves, “I haven’t enough time”. It would be more honest to say, “I don’t see the need for prayer.” We can’t see the value of prayer anymore. Thinking of all of us who wish to peace, wish to love and be loved, it is true what Our Lady is telling us, “Pray and you will have all of this.” And what do we do? We leave prayer, we haven’t got the time for it, we believe that we can resolve everything with our money, by our devices, and I don’t know what else. This is a great mistake, also in the lives of us Christians.

But when we discover the value of prayer, then we find the time for prayer and we start again to organize our life with God.

This is our conversion. This is the significance of the words in the messages where Our Lady says, “Abandon yourselves, let yourselves be guided by me.”

In her last but one message, she said, “You are too preoccupied with material goods, and in these goods, you lose everything that God wishes to give you.”

In other words, in the first place in your lives there is not God, love of God, or peace; material goods take the first place.

Naturally, if we do not meet each other through our hearts, but with our money, our muscle, our heads, then conflicts and wars must follow. I would like to explain to you that Our Lady has never spoken against our belongings, against our money or against our work, never. But she has spoken many times about changing our relationship with all our possessions and finding a new order of values in our lives. This is what the apparitions are for, to produce this new order of values in our life.

God is not inviting us, through Our Lady, to lose something, but to change our values in the light of our faith. This is why Our Lady is always telling us, “Pray.” Without prayer, this change is not possible. But not all prayer helps us to change our lives and to bring harmony to them. You know that Jesus told us not to pray as the pagans do, only with our lips, but to pray from the heart; seeking first of all the will of God and the Kingdom of Heaven and then all else will be given to us. Here Our Lady is inviting us to heartfelt prayer and asks that it be active prayer, that the words be active. She said, “I invite you once again to pray.”

What does heartfelt prayer mean? It means feeling the words of God in our heart and allowing ourselves to be moved by these words. Do God’s words move me or not? What does it mean to me when God says, “I give you my love”, “I give you My Body”, “Here is My Word for you”, and from the Cross, “Here is your Mother. Here is your son”, “Be reconciled to your neighbor”, “Love your neighbor, love your God above all else, love yourself, do not destroy yourself.”

If these words leave us indifferent and if we continue to find excuses it means that prayer is not active, it cannot move us, and we are closed. Or in other words, what does the Cross mean for you in your family? When you look at it does it invite you to love and to reconciliation? Does it help you not to blaspheme and not to use swear words? Does it help you to love your neighbor? Does it help you to accept Our Lady? To pray or not?

If we continue to behave selfishly in front of the Cross, if we affirm that we cannot forgive when someone has offended us, then it means that the Cross is silent and is no longer speaking to us. Our Lady, by inviting us to pray, wants us to be touched by God’s Word once again, and not to be afraid in the face of these things. Like a Mother, Our Lady invites us, “Do this and you will receive all that you need.” In one of her message, she said, “I know that you want to live all that I tell you, but you are not able to do so because you haven’t yet started praying.”

In this message too, we have an example of whether the word moves us or not; Our Lady said, “Dear children, you forget that all of you are important.” These words said by Our Lady are serious. She is telling each one of us personally, “You are important.”

Sometimes we talk about inferiority complexes in psychology; how many people, especially amongst the young, have lost the meaning of life, of sacrifice, of love and many other aspects and do not want to live life, and so the way is opened for drugs, alcohol, crime and all that is negative. Our Lady says to each one of us, “You are important.” I believe that these words must heal our soul and our heart of every fear and worry. We are important for Our Lady and important for each other.

If we accept this and begin to live it, who will dare to hate someone anymore, or with hate destroy someone? What parent will dare to fight or get divorced if they become important to each other, and if their children become important to them? Look how important what Our Lady is telling us is. In the Kingdom of Heaven no one can be idle because no human being refuses love.

So, if I make up my mind to love I will always have much to do. Do not complain that you do not have any work to do. You have work. Many people are waiting for your help, a word from you, and your presence. (Fr. Slavko Barbaric – 26th April 1986 – Part 1)

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2019

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