(c)Mary TV 2012
"Give thanks to God's love that I can love and lead each of you
through my Immaculate Heart also today toward conversion."
August 29, 2012
The Passion of St. John the Baptist
"Dear children! Also today, with hope in the heart, I am praying for you and am thanking the Most High for every one of you who lives my messages with the heart. Give thanks to God's love that I can love and lead each of you through my Immaculate Heart also toward conversion. Open your hearts and decide for holiness, and hope will give birth to joy in your hearts. Thank you for having responded to my call." (August 25, 2012)
Conversion! Our Lady uses this word a great deal. She longs for us to be converted. We know that conversion is a turning towards God, a reorienting of our lives towards Him. And we know that conversion is a daily process. But what does conversion look like in our lives?
Fr. Slavko said some wise things about conversion in his fasting retreats, recorded in the book, Be Similar to My Heart. I quote him from his talk on Prayer and Fasting:
There are two conversions that should happen to us: IN OUR PRAYER and TO OUR PRAYER. The first conversion is to start to pray. Many people do not pray at all. The second conversion takes place in the prayer itself. We make 'free' our desires. Our prayers must be free of wanting to gain something from God, but rather to just 'be' with God. Some people's prayers consist only of their wants, needs and desires. They come to tell their story to God but do not wait for an answer. Once they finish the list of wants, they immediately leave. We must be very cautious when we are praying and fasting, so as not to 'blow the horns' in front of us. We may end up 'boasting' to God about our prayers and be blind to giving Him our love. Sometimes we know we should go to Confession, but at the same time, we are not aware of the fact that we must change first. Conversion is not just saying many words, but is then seen really by actions.
An example of true conversion in our prayer is when we are looking for God because he loves us rather than looking because we want our needs met. (Fr. Slavko Barbaric. Be Similar to My Heart. p. 35)
Now we can see why Our Lady's Immaculate Heart is so necessary for our conversion. Her Heart is totally converted! Her Heart is free of all personal agendas. Her Heart is perfectly at home in God's presence, and she can just "be" with the Lord in total peace and acceptance. And so if we place ourselves in her hands, her Heart will teach us how to pray. We will learn to set aside our interests and concerns and begin to comprehend the great blessings that God has in store for us, and we are filled with hope by this. This is the hope that leads to joy! It is the hope born out of the great future God has planned for us. And we can only glimpse that future when we have let go of our own preconceived notions about it. What God has planned is so much better than what we could design!
So, our conversion must first show up in our prayer, a prayer of the heart that is open to God and surrendered to Him in trust and love. May Our Lady lead us with Her Heart!
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2012
Benedict XVI explains Martyrdom of John the Baptist
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