Mary TV Daily Reflection 3/6/2013

   Keeping vigil with Our Lady

(c)Mary TV 2012 

 

J.M.J.      

March 6, 2013

 

Dear Family of Mary!

 

"Dear children! Anew, in a motherly way, I am calling you not to be of a hard heart. Do not shut your eyes to the warnings which the Heavenly Father sends to you out of love. Do you love Him above all else? Do you repent for having often forgotten that the Heavenly Father, out of His great love, sent his Son to redeem us by the Cross? Do you repent for not yet having accepted the message? My children, do not resist the love of my Son. Do not resist hope and peace. Along with your prayer and fasting, by His cross, my Son will cast away the darkness that wants to surround you and come to rule over you. He will give you the strength for a new life. Living it according to my Son, you will be a blessing and a hope to all those sinners who wander in the darkness of sin. My children, keep vigil. I, as a mother, am keeping vigil with you. I am especially praying and watching over those whom my Son called to be light-bearers and carriers of hope for you - for your shepherds. Thank you." (03/02/13)

 

As we said yesterday, Our Lady's motherhood is outside of our experience. She loves with a motherly love that we have not known on this earth. Yet, it seems that in Medjugorje, through her constant presence she is revealing that motherhood as never before. She is giving us an experience of her love through her presence and her messages.

 

I must say that as I listen to the testimonies that Mary TV has collected from pilgrims in Medjugorje, I am beginning to get a glimmer of the power of Our Lady's motherly love. We have over 55 testimony shows in the archives of "Fruit of Medjugorje". (see  http://www.marytv.tv/fruit-of-medjugorje-episode-archive ) Each testimony is different, each encounter with Our Lady is unique, each healing and conversion is tailor made for the individual, filled with the grace that person needed. Incredible! The delicate, personal touch of the Mother of God is so well designed for the needs of each person! This is the sign of the Mother's love! She knows us so perfectly well that she can find the perfect way to help each of us.

 

We can rely on this Motherly Love. It will not fail us. She will not leave us alone. She will not ignore our calls for help. We are assured of her constant vigilance! And that is what I find so consoling at this time. Here is why...

 

Our Lady ended this message by calling our attention one more time to her role as Mother. "My children, keep vigil. I, as a mother, am keeping vigil with you." Mother Mary tells us that she is keeping vigil, as a mother. What is this vigil? "I am especially praying and watching over those whom my Son called to be light-bearers and carriers of hope for you - for your shepherds."  The vigil is focused on the shepherds of the Church, our Cardinals gathered in Rome who hold the future of the Church in their hands in the election of a new Pope. I believe that Our Lady is calling us to keep vigil with her, night and day, to pray for the Cardinals who will be in conclave. We must pray for them, intercede, run interference for them at this most critical hour.

 

And that is why I found it very interesting that Our Lady said she was keeping vigil "as a mother". There is something about Mary's motherly role that is essential at this moment. She is Mother of the Church. Yes. And she is the Mother who cannot leave the bedside of her sick child. She is the Mother who will not sleep until her child is safe. She is the Mother who would go to the ends of the earth to find a lost child. She is the Mother who never gives up hope, who never judges but always forgives, who hopes all things, endures all things, believes all things because she is so full of love. She is the Mother who was present all the way to Calvary with her Son. The one who would never hate, never reject, never despise anyone, even those who tortured and killed her Son. This is the Mother who will keep vigil for our Cardinals, for our shepherds, as they open themselves to the movement of the Holy Spirit in the days ahead.

 

And this Mother has asked us to keep vigil with her and like her. We have been asked to imitate her, to be faith-filled, hope-filled, love-filled intercessors, watching and praying with her for the Church. We are not to judge but forgive, not to fear but hope, not to reject but love those we pray for. We are to be like her, opening our hearts to God's will and never giving up!

 

If we have experienced this Motherly love of Our Lady, we will understand a little of what it means to keep vigil with her. The Church needs our prayer now, the powerful prayer of the Mother and her little ones united as one in love!

 

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!

Cathy Nolan

©Mary TV 2013