(c)Mary TV
November 6, 2019
Dear Family of Mary!
“Little children, I am with you, and I love you and I bless you and I wish for every one of you to be in my embrace...” (August 25, 1995)
Fr. Jacobson has captured the most wonderful image in this homily from Tuesday, November 5. He shares with us exactly what it is about Medjugorje that we love so much, and need so very much:
Homily for English Mass in Medjugorje for November 5, 2019
Fr. Joseph Jacobson
I want to spend a few moments today on our Psalm for today (Psalm 131). Because it is a gem, it really is! I knew a very prominent man who died, and I was told this was his favorite Psalm. And you would never have guessed this about him, that this would be his favorite Psalm, given how successful he was. A name some of you would recognize if I told you. This was his favorite Psalm.
It is so short I am going to read it and comment on it just briefly.
Psalm 131
“Oh Lord, my heart is not lifted up.
My eyes are not raised too high.
I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me…
We might say with tongue in cheek when we come to Medjugorje – “I do not look for signs.” I don’t look for signs. I don’t expect a sign to be given to me. I’m just here close to the Heart of Jesus through Mary. I’m not here to expect great and marvelous and earthshaking stuff to happen to me.
“But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother.
My soul is like a weaned child in its mother’s lap…
Now let’s think about that one for a bit. A weaned child. What has that child been doing up until that point? Suckling on the mother’s breast, right? And that bond is incredibly strong. It lasts for a lifetime. Suckling on the mother’s breast. But now the mother has said the child can’t do that any longer. I’m expecting and your little brother or sister will need to nurse. So, you can’t do it anymore. I’m weaning you. Here is a bottle, or a little solid food…But… you can sit on my lap! You can sit on my lap!
That type of weaning is in contrast to my neighbor to the south – I live in a farming community in Central Alberta (Canada). When my neighbor to the south weans his calves in the fall, he’s got to do it because he is going to breed his cows so there will be more calves in the spring. And so those calves who have spent their entire life literally cheek to joule so to speak with their mother, are suddenly taken to a pasture far away where they can’t have any access to their mothers. And let me tell you if you live within a mile of that place you can’t sleep for two or three nights. The calves bawl and bawl and bawl, and the mothers bawl back. Bu eventually they get used to it and the alienation is complete and they go on with life. They begin to think well it isn’t the same of mother’s milk, but grass is ok.
But that’s not the way it is with Mary. She does want to wean us from that infant state, but she does not send us away. She weans us on her lap. And we, her children, are children who have developed to a certain point. We have a certain element of independence that we didn’t have before. But not independence to the point where we don’t need our mother.
That’s what is so beautiful about this Psalm. It tells us that even when we have reached the point when we have become humanly independent to a degree, our mother never rejects us. She’s got us on her lap. She’s holding us close to her breast, even if we can’t suck it anymore. She is there for us in every possible way. So, then I can end up as the psalmist does:
“Oh Israel, hope in the Lord, from this time on and forever more.” (Psalm 131)
It gives us such hope for the future that our Blessed Mother leaves us on her lap and holds us there, and holds us there as weaned children.
And now I will close with this point: You know Jesus tells us, Scripture tells us “Only a wicked and perverse generation seeks a sign.” But He also told us that a faithful generation will receive a sign. Many signs. So, the difference is between seeking a sign for its own sake or doing what God wants you to do and God confirming it with a good sign. He says, “Yah, you’re on the right track, you are doing the right thing.”
The whole history of the Church is filled with that. People who don’t seek signs, but seek the Lord receive signs all the time. You have too, haven’t you. Signs that keep us on the right track and keep us on the right way.
A number of our pilgrims yesterday had an extraordinary experience of the miracle of the sun. They were not looking for it. The are going to go home now even better equipped than they are now to be faithful witnesses to the Gospel, to draw people into the love of Mary so that they can come closer to Jesus, and to radiate in their own parishes wherever they have come from, something that brings life to people because of that beautiful gift that God gave them yesterday. It reinforces so much!
So God grant us all the grace today, we pray, to celebrate that we are weaned children on the lap of our Mother. (Fr. Joseph Jacobson, Nov 5, 2019 Medjugorje English Mass)
Well, I have to confess that Psalm 131 is my favorite Psalm as well. And Fr. Joseph couldn’t have explained it better!! Let’s all take great hope from the fact that we can remain on our Mother’s lap, no matter how old we become. She will always be there for us, always. And don’t we need her in these days!!
Dear Family of Mary!
“Little children, I am with you, and I love you and I bless you and I wish for every one of you to be in my embrace...” (August 25, 1995)
Fr. Jacobson has captured the most wonderful image in this homily from Tuesday, November 5. He shares with us exactly what it is about Medjugorje that we love so much, and need so very much:
Homily for English Mass in Medjugorje for November 5, 2019
Fr. Joseph Jacobson
I want to spend a few moments today on our Psalm for today (Psalm 131). Because it is a gem, it really is! I knew a very prominent man who died, and I was told this was his favorite Psalm. And you would never have guessed this about him, that this would be his favorite Psalm, given how successful he was. A name some of you would recognize if I told you. This was his favorite Psalm.
It is so short I am going to read it and comment on it just briefly.
Psalm 131
“Oh Lord, my heart is not lifted up.
My eyes are not raised too high.
I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me…
We might say with tongue in cheek when we come to Medjugorje – “I do not look for signs.” I don’t look for signs. I don’t expect a sign to be given to me. I’m just here close to the Heart of Jesus through Mary. I’m not here to expect great and marvelous and earthshaking stuff to happen to me.
“But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother.
My soul is like a weaned child in its mother’s lap…
Now let’s think about that one for a bit. A weaned child. What has that child been doing up until that point? Suckling on the mother’s breast, right? And that bond is incredibly strong. It lasts for a lifetime. Suckling on the mother’s breast. But now the mother has said the child can’t do that any longer. I’m expecting and your little brother or sister will need to nurse. So, you can’t do it anymore. I’m weaning you. Here is a bottle, or a little solid food…But… you can sit on my lap! You can sit on my lap!
That type of weaning is in contrast to my neighbor to the south – I live in a farming community in Central Alberta (Canada). When my neighbor to the south weans his calves in the fall, he’s got to do it because he is going to breed his cows so there will be more calves in the spring. And so those calves who have spent their entire life literally cheek to joule so to speak with their mother, are suddenly taken to a pasture far away where they can’t have any access to their mothers. And let me tell you if you live within a mile of that place you can’t sleep for two or three nights. The calves bawl and bawl and bawl, and the mothers bawl back. Bu eventually they get used to it and the alienation is complete and they go on with life. They begin to think well it isn’t the same of mother’s milk, but grass is ok.
But that’s not the way it is with Mary. She does want to wean us from that infant state, but she does not send us away. She weans us on her lap. And we, her children, are children who have developed to a certain point. We have a certain element of independence that we didn’t have before. But not independence to the point where we don’t need our mother.
That’s what is so beautiful about this Psalm. It tells us that even when we have reached the point when we have become humanly independent to a degree, our mother never rejects us. She’s got us on her lap. She’s holding us close to her breast, even if we can’t suck it anymore. She is there for us in every possible way. So, then I can end up as the psalmist does:
“Oh Israel, hope in the Lord, from this time on and forever more.” (Psalm 131)
It gives us such hope for the future that our Blessed Mother leaves us on her lap and holds us there, and holds us there as weaned children.
And now I will close with this point: You know Jesus tells us, Scripture tells us “Only a wicked and perverse generation seeks a sign.” But He also told us that a faithful generation will receive a sign. Many signs. So, the difference is between seeking a sign for its own sake or doing what God wants you to do and God confirming it with a good sign. He says, “Yah, you’re on the right track, you are doing the right thing.”
The whole history of the Church is filled with that. People who don’t seek signs, but seek the Lord receive signs all the time. You have too, haven’t you. Signs that keep us on the right track and keep us on the right way.
A number of our pilgrims yesterday had an extraordinary experience of the miracle of the sun. They were not looking for it. The are going to go home now even better equipped than they are now to be faithful witnesses to the Gospel, to draw people into the love of Mary so that they can come closer to Jesus, and to radiate in their own parishes wherever they have come from, something that brings life to people because of that beautiful gift that God gave them yesterday. It reinforces so much!
So God grant us all the grace today, we pray, to celebrate that we are weaned children on the lap of our Mother. (Fr. Joseph Jacobson, Nov 5, 2019 Medjugorje English Mass)
Well, I have to confess that Psalm 131 is my favorite Psalm as well. And Fr. Joseph couldn’t have explained it better!! Let’s all take great hope from the fact that we can remain on our Mother’s lap, no matter how old we become. She will always be there for us, always. And don’t we need her in these days!!
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
(c) Mary TV 2019
Cathy Nolan
(c) Mary TV 2019
