(c) Mary TV 2020
St. John I, Pope and Martyr
(100th Birthday of St. John Paul II)
Dear Family of Mary!
Jesus said to his disciples: “When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceed from the Father, he will testify to me…” (Jn 15:26)
As we near the end of the Easter Season, we celebrate two major Feasts, the Ascension of the Lord and Pentecost. In these two Feasts, we see the providence of God. Jesus goes to His Father to prepare a place for us, and He sends the Holy Spirit to give us everything we need to testify to Jesus, bringing many souls to Him.
It is important to remember that at both events, the Ascension and Pentecost, Our Lady was present, as a stabilizing influence for the Apostles and Disciples. Her faith would sustain them when they saw Jesus ascend into Heaven, keeping them focused on Jesus’s promises and not on His absence. And since she had experienced the Power of the Holy Spirit many years before, when Jesus was conceived in her by that power when she said “yes” to the Angel’s request, Mary understood what it would mean to say “yes” to the Spirit. It would change their lives completely. She knew what was ahead for the Apostles. And so, she was their best teacher, their best intercessor and guide in preparing for the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
She is with us today, to help us through that same process. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit anew. We need a fresh infilling. And so, Our Lady can help us prepare for Pentecost. She can teach us how to open our hearts to the coming of the Holy Spirit.
I hope we can take even one message a day over the next two weeks, and let Our Lady teach us how to receive the Holy Spirit. We will not regret it!
May 25, 1993 “Dear children! Today I invite you to open yourselves to God by means of prayer so the Holy Spirit may begin to work miracles in you and through you. I am with you and I intercede before God for each one of you because, dear children, each one of you is important in my plan of salvation. I invite you to be carriers of good and peace. God can give you peace only if you convert and pray. Therefore, my dear little children, pray, pray, pray and do that which the Holy Spirit inspires you. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
Our hearts open and close. They open when we have faith, trust, and hope in God. They open when we desire God, and desire to hear from God. But they also close. They close when we are discouraged. They close when we get distracted by worldly desires. They close when we lose hope, or when we have been hurt by others. They close in self-defense. Closed hearts are no help to God. They are a big “no” to God.
What about our own hearts? Are they open or closed? Are we looking for God, desiring Him, trusting Him? Or are we turned in on ourselves, licking our wounds, feeling sad, distrusting His goodness.
How can we open our hearts if they are closed? Do we need confession, or more prayer? Maybe we need to journal and talk to Jesus honestly while writing it down. Often if we write down how we feel, we can read it and discover what is really going on in us. It does help to hear ourselves speak, on paper.
Today, our job is to discover what shape our hearts are in. Open or closed?
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful
R. And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
