May 19, 2020 Reflection – Give time patiently for prayer!

May 19, 2020

Dear Family of Mary!

As Our Lady accompanied the Apostles in the upper room, as they awaited the Power from on high, she also accompanies us in these days. She is with us to teach us to pray and to receive the Holy Spirit. Here is one of her many messages about prayer. She is so simple and so right on:

July 25, 1994 “Dear children! Today I invite you to decide to give time patiently for prayer. Little children, you cannot say you are mine and that you have experienced conversion through my messages if you are not ready to give time to God every day. I am close to you and I bless you all. Little children, do not forget that if you do not pray you are not close to me, nor are you close to the Holy Spirit who leads you along the path to holiness. Thank you for having responded to my call.”

Our Lady tells us “I invite you to decide to give time patiently for prayer.” Truly she has built a prayer program in Medjugorje that demands a great deal of patience and decision. It takes patience and commitment to join the parish for three hours of prayer in the evenings, which include an hour of praying the Rosary, an hour for Holy Mass, and another hour of Rosaries or Adoration. This program alone teaches us how to decide to give time patiently for prayer.

Then there is the witness of the people who live in Medjugorje, the parishioners who have been present from the beginning of the apparitions. I find their witness to be a powerful gift. Somehow the fruit of patient and determined prayer just shines on their faces.

Mary TV recently received a sharing from Mario Mijatovic, the husband of Vicka, the visionary. Mario shares on “Tea with Rosie” episode 290, about what he has learned from Our Lady about prayer. You must experience Mario’s sharing, because the Holy Spirit just emanates from his whole being!! But I want to just quote a little of what he says, because he makes the case very well for giving time patiently for prayer. It is the will to pray and the patience to continue to pray that create an openness to the Holy Spirit.

Rosie:  Mario is the husband of Vicka and father of two children.  How are you and how is your family?

Mario:  Fine!  Thank you very much because you invited me.  In the beginning of this talk I tried to tell Rosie that I can’t speak English…but she told me so many times, “Mario, you speak such good English.”  Now you will see who is right!

Rosie:  During this time (corona virus lock-down) many, many people, past pilgrims, and pilgrims who would like to be here, are very unsettled because of the world situation.  So, you, personally, how are you coping with this time?

Mario:  In this time, I personally live like before – before this time.  Now (the time we are in) is a little different.  But my way is the same.  For me what is most important is in the morning, in the start of the day.  Personally, I try in the first thing when I open my eyes, when I open my mind in the morning: the first thing that is coming in the mind, in the heart, is very, very important!  Many times, the first thing that comes in the mind in the morning is the same thing that was in the mind when you went to sleep….   It is very good when a person starts his day, and finishes his day, in prayer, giving thanks to God, thanks to Jesus, because this helps him in the new day.   Medjugorje is a special gift because now here you have every time the possibility to go to the mountain…   In the morning, the best gift, when you wake up and you have the will, you have a good motive to stand up in the early morning and go to the mountain in prayer.

“A lot of priests here, including Fr. Slavko who is now with Mother Mary in Heaven, have given to us a beautiful example of how to start your day with the prayer on the mountain.   For this I know not everybody has the possibility to go to the mountain.  But it’s important at least in your room to find time the first thing to thank God for the new day, to invite the Holy Spirit into your body…without the Holy Spirit there is nothing….  and this is a problem many times, to forget to pray to the Holy Spirit….to be given the Spirit, because afterwards when you see your wife, your children, the Holy Spirit exists in you. Without the Holy Spirit there is nothing….

It is the same for the man involved in sports who is a champion.  You ask him, “When did you start?”  They answer, “I started when I was young.”  And you say, “Oh, really?! How many times in the week (do you practice)?”  “Oh, every day!!”  Every day they exercise.  “How many hours?”  “Five hours!!!!”   Five hours to be the champion.   It is the same for the spiritual life.  When I don’t pray, when I don’t have Mass, when I’m not reading the lives of the Saints, when these things are not coming inside of me – they stay out there….     Everything that you read, what you take in – the same with the Holy Mass, what you take, the Body of Christ, the Eucharist, the life of Jesus comes in here [pointing to his heart].  ….  Afterwards you come back to your home – when another person looks at you, coming home, they say- it’s like Jesus is coming into the house! This is true, because Jesus, Alive, is coming with you into your house! (Tea with Rosie, #290)

Mario’s words are very powerful. He is right. If we give ourselves to prayer, to Holy Mass, to the Eucharist, then the Holy Spirit can enter into us. From us it takes commitment and practice. Then God can infill us with His grace as He sees fit, and we can be His witnesses, His carriers, His friends.

In the message from July 25, 1994, Our Lady said, ” Little children, do not forget that if you do not pray you are not close to me, nor are you close to the Holy Spirit who leads you along the path to holiness.” Just as she has taught Mario, she teaches us that we have to just show up!! Climb the mountain, get on our knees at home, go to Mass, Pray the Rosary, read the Scriptures…and then the Holy Spirit will come to us and make His home in us, and people will say that when we come back to our homes, “It is like Jesus is coming into the house!”

We pray together to the Holy Spirit:

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful

and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love.

V. Send forth Thy Spirit and we shall be created.
R. And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.

Let us pray. O God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit didst instruct the hearts of thy faithful, grant by the same Spirit that we will be truly wise, and ever to rejoice in His consolation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.