Medjugorje Message May 28th, 2019

Medjugorje 

Medjugorje: The day Our Lady hinted at Christ’s return to earth in special message to Mirjana: “When my Son comes to the earth, anew” …Therefore, pray by doing, pray by giving, pray with love

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On August 2, 2017, Our Lady revealed a message to the world for unbelievers not heard before of this kind.
“According to the Will of the Heavenly Father, as the mother of Him who loves you, I am here with you to help you to come to know Him and to follow Him.
My Son has left you His foot-prints to make it easier for you to follow Him. Do not be afraid. Do not be uncertain, I am with you. Do not permit yourselves to be discouraged because much prayer and sacrifice are necessary for those who do not pray, do not love and do not know my Son.

You help, by seeing your brothers in them. Apostles of my love, hearken to my voice within you, feel my motherly love.

Therefore pray, pray by doing, pray by giving, pray with love, pray in work and thoughts, in the name of my Son. All the more love that you give, so much more of it you will also receive. Love which emanates from love illuminates the world. Redemption is love, and love has no end.

When my Son comes to the earth anew, He will look for love in your hearts. My children, many are the acts of love which He has done for you. I am teaching you to see them, to comprehend them and to thank Him by loving Him and always anew forgiving your neighbors.

Because to love my Son means to forgive. My Son is not loved if the neighbor cannot be forgiven if there is not an effort to comprehend the neighbor, if he is judged. My children, of what use is your prayer if you do not love and forgive? Thank you.”

Prayer is a Battle

The Catechism tells us that “prayer is a battle,” and, “The ‘spiritual battle’ of the Christian’s new life is inseparable from the battle of prayer” (no. 2725). We do not expect battles to be easy or consoling. We expect them to be dangerous and difficult. Of course, prayer is sometimes consoling, and it leads to abiding peace and joy. But before we experience that peace and joy, we have to fight against ourselves, the pull of the world, and the Devil. We cannot triumph before we take up the sword.
The Catechism goes on to say, “In the battle of prayer, we must face in ourselves and around us erroneous notions of prayer. Some people view prayer as a simple psychological activity, others as an effort of concentration to reach a mental void.  Still others reduce prayer to ritual words and postures” (2726). The first skirmish is understanding that prayer is, at heart, a conversation with God.
The same paragraph says, “Many Christians unconsciously regard prayer as an occupation that is incompatible with all the other things they have to do: they ‘don’t have the time’.” We might suppose, then, that our next battle is carving out time for prayer. I believe something else must come first, however. 
Once when talking to an acquaintance who was a college professor, I asked him what he had been reading lately. He replied, “I don’t have time to read.” No doubt he was busy. But my thought then and now was, You really mean that reading is not one of your priorities. I have always loved reading. No matter how busy I have been, from working three jobs to caring for an infant, I have always made time to read. 
We can apply this to prayer. If your first reaction to the thought of starting a prayer routine is, “I don’t have the time,” aren’t you saying that you think other things more important? Don’t get me wrong. I understand that you are busy. I am busy too. But can you be too busy for God? If you wanted to spend time regularly with your spouse but were always told, “Sorry, I’m just too busy,” that would not be a good sign for your marriage. In a healthy marriage, spouses make spending time together a priority. So it is in a healthy relationship with God.
Rarely is anyone too busy to eat. We attempt to get adequate sleep no matter how full our schedule is. We make time for whatever is most important to us. Our next battle, then, is to embrace the importance of prayer, to make it a priority. If it is one of our top priorities, we will somehow find the time to pray regularly.
We know we cannot live a healthy life without enough food and sleep. We must embrace the truth that without daily prayer we cannot have a healthy spiritual life. We must embrace the truth that spiritual health is even more important than physical health. When we do so, we will no more skip praying than we will skip eating or sleeping. 
Prayer is a battle. It requires fighting the mindset of the world that other tasks are more important. Until we conquer this mindset, we will never be faithful in prayer.

Divine Office - Liturgy of the Hours

The importance of the recitation of the Divine Office can not be measured as we embark on the contemplative life. If one is not able to pray it morning and evening start with one prayer at a convenient time in your day. The prayers have a way of calling you to peace, where you can meet  Jesus in loving union. He waits for you and He is a 24 Hrs a day 7 days a week kinda guy. He will not disappoint you.  On particularly difficult days you are consoled by the fact that the whole religious and consecrated church is praying with you.   I always find that there will be a few lines of scripture or the words of a Saint that will speak to my heart .
 God bless you all,
 Margaret of Souls for Jesus

The Divine Office (Liturgy of the Hours) Presence of God– O Jesus, vouchsafe to associate my poor prayer with the great Prayer of the Church.

MEDITATION  The liturgy accompanies Holy Mass with the recitation of the Divine Office [Liturgy of the Hours] which, as Mediator Dei teaches “is the prayer of the Mystical Body of Christ, addressed to God in the name of all Christians and for their benefit, by priests, other ministers of the Church, and religious, who are assigned this task.” The great dignity of the Divine Office lies in the fact that it is not a private prayer, but the official public prayer of the Mystical Body of Christ, whose members do not pray alone, but with Christ their Head. “When the Word of God assumed human nature, He intoned in His earthly exile the hymn which is sung in heaven through all eternity. He joined to Himself the whole human community and united it with Himself in the chanting of this hymn of praise” (Mediator Dei).

In the Divine Office, “Jesus prays with us as our Priest; prays in us as our Head…. Let us recognize then,” says St. Augustine, “our voice in His and His voice in us.” What a wonderful gift! Jesus, the Son of God, associates our poor, miserable prayers with His great precious Prayer.  Divine OfficeAlthough the Divine Office [Liturgy of the Hours] is of obligation only for priests and religious who are charged with it by the Church, it can be said that it is the prayer of the whole Christian people, in the sense that it is addressed to God “in their name and for their benefit.” It is therefore highly praiseworthy for the laity to try to participate in it in some way; for example, the recitation of Vespers [Evening Prayer] on feast days, as well as of Prime [previously Early Morning Prayer] and Compline [Night Prayer].

 Furthermore, they can offer to God at every hour of the day and night the great Prayer of the Church, for their own special intentions and individual needs. In this way they can make up for the deficiencies and the brevity of their own personal prayers. Even in the midst of daily occupations, each one can unite himself from time to time by pious aspirations with the “perpetual praise” which the Church sends up to God in the name of all Christians.

 COLLOQUY  “O Lord, Your ears are not turned toward our lips, but toward our heart; they are not open to the speech, but to the life of him who praises You.  “I sing with my voice to awaken piety within me; I sing with my heart to please You…. Let not my voice be alone in praising You, but may my works also praise You. Grant that I may not cease to live a good life, so that I may praise You without interruption.

If my tongue must be silent sometimes, let my life speak to You; Your ears will not be attracted by my voice, but may You attend to my heart.  “I shall not confine my praise to my voice, but I wish my praise to come from my whole being! Let my voice sing, let my life sing, let all my works sing. And if I must sigh, suffer, and be tempted here on earth, I hope that it will all pass away and the day will come when my praises will not fail. My voice may fail, but not my heart.  “It is better for me to use my strength in praising You, than to take breath to praise myself. It is impossible to faint in praising You. To give You praise is like taking food. The more I praise You, the stronger I become, because You are always giving me Your sweetness, You, the object of my praise.

“Help me, then, to praise You, by my voice as well as by my mind and by my good works, so that, as You exhort me in the Scriptures, I may sing to You a new canticle. To the old man, the old canticle; to the new man, the new canticle. If I love the things of the world, my song is old; I must love the things of eternity. Your love is ever new and eternal, ever new because it never grows old. Sin is what has made me grow old; rejuvenate me by Your grace” (St. Augustine).

Even Greater Pain

Pope: Commission on female deacons disagrees on ordination

By: NICOLE WINFIELD | Associated Press




Pope Francis talks to reporters on his flight back to Rome, Tuesday, May 7, 2019. Francis made the first-ever papal visit to North Macedonia on Tuesday and sought to encourage its efforts to integrate into European institutions after its name change resolved a decades-long dispute with Greece. (Maurizio Brambatti/Pool Photo via AP)

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE – Pope Francis said Tuesday that an international commission of scholars has failed to reach a definitive conclusion about whether women were ordained as deacons in the early Christian church in the same way men were.

Francis told reporters returning home from the Balkans that the commission found evidence that female deacons performed functions that included immersion baptisms for women. But he said there was no agreement on whether these women underwent the same sacramental ordination as male deacons.

"It's fundamental that there is no certainty that there was an ordination with the same formula, with the same goal, as the male ordination," Francis said.

The result will likely be a blow to proponents of ordaining female deacons today, as well as the umbrella association of religious sisters which had asked Francis to create a commission to study the issue in 2016.

Francis said nothing Tuesday about how or whether the commission results might influence any decision going forward. He said members of the commission were continuing to study the issue on their own.

Francis is due to meet Friday with the International Union of Superiors General, which had asked Francis to look into the question as a way to give women greater decision-making roles in the church.

Deacons today are ordained ministers, not priests, though they can perform many of the same functions as priests. They preside at weddings, baptisms and funerals, and they can preach. They cannot celebrate Mass.

Currently, married men can serve as deacons. Women cannot.

Advocates for expanding the ministry to include women say doing so would provide women with a greater role in the ministry and governance of the church, while also helping address the effects of the Catholic priest shortage in parts of the world by allowing women to perform some priestly functions.

Opponents say ordaining women to the diaconate would signal the start of a slippery slope toward ordaining women to the priesthood. The Catholic Church reserves the priesthood for men, saying Christ chose only men as his 12 apostles. Francis has repeatedly reaffirmed that teaching.

Former drug czar speaks out against marijuana legalization in NH

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CONCORD, N.H. —


A former U.S. drug czar is warning Granite Staters against legalizing marijuana.

John Walters was drug czar for seven years under President George W. Bush. The former top anti-drug official said Tuesday that New Hampshire shouldn't join other states in legalizing marijuana.

"I've looked into the eyes of thousands of people who've become victims of substance abuse, and it almost always begins with cannabis, and the cannabis today is a more dangerous and more dependency-producing substance," he said.

Walters claimed that a more relaxed approach to marijuana policy since the end of the Bush administration has only led to more addiction.

"When you do the right thing, you make these problems smaller," he said. "When you let it go -- unfortunately, after we left, there was a failure to maintain pressure. There was misinformation given that this wasn't really a serious threat. There was an unwillingness to enforce the law."

New Hampshire supporters of legalization said the former drug czar is making an outdated argument.

"Former drug czar Walters is here saying the same thing he's been saying for decades, but he's defending policies that have failed the people of our country and failed New Hampshire," said Matt Simon of the Marijuana Policy Project.

Pro-cannabis groups began the legislative session with great optimism. A legalization bill passed the House, but two floor votes showed diminishing support, and opponents in the Senate don't want to rely on the governor's threatened veto.

"There's no good that comes out of this," said state Sen. Bob Giuda, R-Warren.

While cannabis legalization is part of the New Hampshire Democratic Party platform, it's possible that Senate Democrats could take a more cautious and conservative approach, but longtime legalization advocates aren't worried yet.

"I think change is not easy, but over the past 80 years, we've found a policy that's just been a failure," said Rep. Renny Cushing, D-Hampton.

The Meaning of Contemplation Part 28

Note: David Torkington’s Mini-series on prayer continues; to read part 27 click here and to begin with part one, click here.

When I was a small boy, I used to yearn for my favorite radio program that would take me into many different and exciting new worlds. I loved to identify with the children transported into one of these worlds when their mysterious mentor would sit them down before the picture he chose for their latest adventure. He would tell them to be still, to be calm and then to begin staring at the picture without moving, without even blinking, concentrating on the scene before them. Then as they did so the picture began to come alive, becoming three-dimensional as it expanded and drew ever nearer. He would then say, “Listen to the sound of the wind blowing through the trees, the water in the streams, the birds singing, the dogs barking and the people speaking. Quick, hide behind that bush and listen to what they are saying.” It was then that the adventure would begin.

The Meaning of Contemplation

This program enabled me to understand much later the meaning of Christian contemplation. The word contemplation itself means to gaze, to stare, to concentrate on something or someone. What is central to the word is the Latin noun templum meaning a sacred place. For Christians then, contemplation means being in a sacred place, more precisely in a temple, or rather in the new temple which is Christ. The prefix ‘con’ means that we are contemplating, not just in him, but with him and through him.

Then the closer we come to the One on whom we are contemplating, and as purification sharpens our spiritual vision, we begin to glimpse albeit in a very distant way, something of the glory of God that God promised us as our final destiny. We are not just onlookers or bystanders, but because we have been united with Christ we become participators with him in the glory that he experienced from eternity, from where his Father decided to create us to join him.

Into the Glory of God

Because he was not afflicted from within by the demons that harass us, Christ was able to contemplate his Father’s glory at all times throughout his life on earth. That is why at the Last Supper he described himself as a man of joy, and why he wanted his followers to become men and women of joy too. This did not mean that his life would be continually full of sweetness and light, for the demons that were never in him were in others all around him, and demons never take lightly to hearing the truth.

The glory of God is the outward expression of the infinite love that St. John insists pertains to the very essence of who God is. To gaze on his glory means to participate in that glory by receiving his love. But in God, love and truth are one, so that the one who receives his love will always receive his truth simultaneously, that must be both lived and proclaimed no matter what the consequences. This is not only true of Christ the first mystic, but of all who would follow him. 

The Food of the gods – Ambrosia and Nectar

The love they come to experience as they contemplate the glory of God in, and with Christ, always fills the recipients with the truth too, endowing them with insights they never had before, enabling them to see the truth that they must needs express. In their innocence, they think their listeners will be only too anxious to welcome the truth, but telling the truth is a very serious and dangerous business. Would-be prophets, beware! The simple truth is not a dainty dish to set before the most dangerous animal on earth, particularly if he or she has political or religious pretensions. By choice they prefer ambrosia to eat and nectar to drink; they have little stomach for humble pie. Be warned, for if you serve it regularly enough and in large enough portions it can make them cross, very cross, and when they are very cross, they can crucify.

This was not only true for Christ but, it would also be true for those who would follow him.  Jesus prepared the Apostles at the Last Supper, for what was about to happen to him would also happen to them and to those who would follow him in what came to be called ‘The Age of the Martyrs’. It would not always mean they would have to suffer  ‘red martyrdom’ but it would always mean embracing ‘white martyrdom’, for as Jesus made it quite clear unless a person was prepared to take up their daily cross then they could not be his disciples.

Into the Transforming Union

When purification is complete mystics enter immediately into the mystical marriage with Christ, often called The Transforming Union. It is then that for the first time they are able to experience the continual contemplation of God that Jesus experienced at every moment of his life on earth. They are able to do this because the demons that once ruled them from within rule them no longer and so like Christ they become continually aware of the presence of God.

This does not mean that their lives now become free from the suffering that warfare with the powers of evil always entails, any more than it did for Christ with whom they are united like never before. Evil might not oppose them from within in the same way as it did in the past, but they will most certainly continue to encounter it in those around them for whom the light of truth terrifies them in their darkness. They can be as terrifying to a modern Christian as they were for Christ who they crucified. It is not only total outsiders to the faith who will condemn those who proclaim the truth but insiders too who have lost their way.

Men and Women of joy

Yet despite this, Christian mystics become men and women of joy as Jesus promised, for they begin to experience a profound truth that is hidden from those who merely travel in the foothills of the mystic way.  It is their joy to suffer, as it is a joy for any lover to suffer for the one they love. This joy is as infectious today as it was in the past when it inspired the ancient Roman world with the otherworldly power of love they could not resist and brought them in their thousands to knock on the door of the  Church that readily admitted them to begin their journey along the mystic way.

The most dramatic manifestation of this Christ-like joy could be seen as, like Christ, they gave their lives for the truth in red martyrdom. It might be in the smile on the face of the old and saintly man like Polycarp as he was being slowly burnt at the stake, the joy of the deacon Carpus, as he was being nailed to his Cross, the ecstasy  of Blandinia, as she was scorched in an oven, or the silent  serenity of Felicity and Perpetua as, after being flogged half to death, they were thrown to the wild beasts in the arena. But perhaps the most revealing martyrdom of all was that of the first martyr Stephen as he was being stoned to death, not least because the account of his death was inspired by the Holy Spirit in the Acts of the Apostles. Like all the others he was supported, sustained and strengthened from within by the Christ who lived in him. At the moment of his death, he saw the destiny which all the others would attain. “Stephen filled with the Holy Spirit gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God” (Acts 7:55).

To Contemplate and to share the fruits of Contemplation

When St Dominic founded his order of friars he wanted to base their lives on the lives of the first apostles. In order to explain the very essence of what this meant, his illustrious spiritual son,  St Thomas Aquinas,  said that the work of the Dominican Order was, “To contemplate and to share the fruits of Contemplation with others”. What he said sums up the vocation of the Dominican order,  but it also sums up the vocation of the whole Church. The fruits of contemplation were most certainly the lifeblood of the early Church.

Contemplation is for All -it is Our God-given Destiny

A more modern Dominican, perhaps the greatest spiritual theologian ever, Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange OP insisted that this vocation is for all, not just for monks in their monasteries or nuns in their nunneries, who did not, in fact, exist when Christians first received their vocation from God. In fact, it was almost over three hundred years before St Antony, the father founder of monasticism inspired the monasteries that would become spiritual oases everywhere in the deserts around him. It was clearly for all as it is today for ‘ordinary’  mums and dads and their whole families, for all are called to contemplation and to share the fruits of their contemplation with others. In Christ’s mystical body no one is ordinary for all are called to the most extraordinary destiny imaginable.  This calling to contemplation is not a sort of optional extra. It pertains to the very essence of the mystical spirituality given to us by Christ, and it is our great and grave responsibility to follow it. May God give us his grace his power, and his Holy Spirit to enable us to do it.

May 2, 2019 Medjugorje Message

May 2, 2019

“Dear children, with a motherly love I am calling you to respond to the great love of my Son, with pure and open hearts, with complete trust. I know the greatness of His love. I carried Him within me, the Host in the heart, the light and the love of the world. My children, also my addressing you is a sign of the love and tenderness of the Heavenly Father—a big smile filled with the love of my Son, a call to eternal life. Out of love, the Blood of my Son was shed for you. That Precious Blood is for your salvation, for eternal life. The Heavenly Father created man for eternal happiness. It is not possible—for you who know the love of my Son and who follow Him—to die. Life triumphed; my Son is alive. Therefore, my children, apostles of my love, may prayer show you the way and the means of spreading the love of my Son—prayer in the most exalted form. My children, also when you strive to live the words of my Son, you are praying. When you love the people whom you meet, you are spreading the love of my Son. It is love that opens the doors of Paradise. My children, from the beginning, I prayed for the Church. Therefore, I am also calling you, apostles of my love, to pray for the Church and her servants—for those whom my Son called. Thank you.”