MARY, OUR MOTHER

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© Children of Medjugorje 2007 Permission is given to spread the text of these reports under two conditions: 1) No words are changed and 2) "Children of Medjugorje" is cited along with our website: www.childrenofmedjugorje.com. President: Arnold Ochs Vice President: Sister Emmanuel Advisory Board: Cardinal Bernardino Echeverria, O.F.M.+ Archbishop D. Peter Chung Bishop Nicholas D'Antonio, O.F.M. Bishop Michael D. Pfeifer, O.M.I. Bishop Donald Montrose Bishop William Ellis Fr. Daniel Ange Ralph Martin January 15, 2008 1 - On January 2nd Mirjana Soldo received her monthly apparition at the Cenacle. After the apparition, she gave us the following message: “Dear children! With all the strength of my heart, I love you and give myself to you. As a mother fights for her children, I pray for you and fight for you. I ask you not to be afraid to open yourselves, so as to be able to love with the heart and give yourselves to others. The more you do this with the heart, the more you will receive and the better you will understand my Son and His gift to you. May everyone recognize you through the love of my Son and through mine. Thank you.” Our Lady then asked us to pray and fast for our shepherds. Mirjana was peaceful during the whole apparition and made no extra remark. 2 – Vicka’s Return? Around the 1st of January, large crowds of pilgrims once again gathered on the main street in Bijakovici. Vicka, after an absence of nine months for health reasons, returned to the stairs of her blue house to give witness! This year however, we will have to wait until March for her to resume her normal rhythm of speaking three days per week. By then the treatment of her shoulder should be finished. In these last nine months, Vicka has suffered more than usual, but she knows how to remain happy in all situations, even those that are apparently negative. Recently I had the opportunity to meet her and discuss the latest events with her, as well as her suffering. I was wondering why God would allow nine months to go by without Vicka speaking. How many thousands of people would have been able to be touched by her beautiful testimony and have returned to God? Why did God allow the long silence of this excellent witness? What advantage was there in keeping heraway, trapping her inside her house, neither able to move, nor able to meet the crowds from all over the world who called for her? Of course it has to do with the incredible fruit of suffering, when it is offered to Jesus. There is no better example than Vicka. She does it with such ease. When I asked her about how she manages to stay positive she had many good points to share! She said: “You see, if God allowed that absence, He knows why, therefore I’m happy. He knows how much I love to bear witness to the pilgrims, He knows that the pilgrims need to hear the messages; then if He still chooses for me to make a sacrifice and bear this suffering instead, I don’t doubt, this plan is the best one for us all. That’s why I’m happy. I know that everything He does is a blessing. I am in His hands in order to serve Him. He can do as He wishes and, whatever He does, it’s His choice and I always thank Him. He sees so differently from us! We judge too easily on the outside. We have our own thoughts about things and we want God to act according to our wishes. But no! You see, we should always be happy with what God does, even if we have wanted something different. This brings heart-felt peace. I’m happy to be with my family, with the pilgrims or my friends, but I’m also happy when I’m sick. The important thing is to say YES to His ways and to have total confidence in Him. When you have confidence, you have peace! But this doesn’t happen overnight. We learn it day by day and we have to work in our hearts. We have to pray! God always wants to give us that peace, but we have to pray and to open our heart in prayer.” 3 - The war rages on I asked Vicka how was Baby Jesus when she saw Him in the arms of His mother on Christmas day. Was He asleep? “No!” She said. “He was completely awake. His eyes completely open!” Then I asked, “And His Mother, I suppose that she was radiant with joy?” To my question, Vicka lowered her head for a second and responded, “Yes, she was joyful; it was Christmas! But, she’s a mother, so even if her heart aches with pain, she hides it in order to show happiness to her children. But for me, since I’ve been seeing her for a while, it shows.” (I asked this question because of Mirjana’s surprising reaction to the apparition of Our Lady on December 2nd.) I continued to ask Vicka, “I understand that the Mother of God suffers enormously, seeing the large number of families breaking apart today.” “Sister Emmanuel,” Vicka responded. “Today there are not only families that are breaking apart! It is EVERYTHING that is breaking!” On my way home from Vicka’s house, I thought about writing an “Open Letter to the Blessed Mother” and to share here some parts of it so that we are all encouraged to pray: Dearest Mother, You have said it yourself, while looking at our hearts; your heart is filled with pain. Know that our hearts are also aching when we think or your immense sorrow, after all that you have done for us in Medjugorje! I do not know, and no one knows, what Mirjana saw last month that caused her to cry for so long after the apparition. But I implore you, don’t abandon us! Don’t leave us alone, battling with this world without peace and undermined from inside. Do not cease your marvelous apparitions that happen every day when the sun goes down, because so many children await and cherish your arrival! Don’t withdraw your hand too quickly from us! Look around, there are too many young people who wander, are blas_(c) and without goals! There are too many couples who split, too many children who are force fed with emptiness and are thirsty for love, too many people who are victims of solitude and fatal blows. You can’t leave us in the heart of this battle, dear Mother, even if we have responded so poorly to your call and have let all this suffering cover us, even though we had your messages to teach us how to live! Your Son spoke to us of the fig tree that the owner wanted to cut down because it didn’t bear fruit. But the gardener interceded. “I will dig around it and give it some manure.” Dear Mother, please give us another chance, multiply your graces! We’re so hard-hearted and rebellious! You can’t let hatred lead the world and poison so many innocent children as early as primary school. Look into your maternal heart: can you really let your children rush into the road of death that is on display on every screen! How could you leave us at this very moment when in the West, the rates of perversion, depression and suicide increase everyday? You know the situation all too well! But you listen to sincere prayers and, for even one single child who cries out, you employ all the power of your intercession before the Father of Mercy. Mother dear, we beg you, do increase your interventions on our behalf and ask our Father to allow you to remain in Medjugorje for a long, but a very long time! Call among us pillars of prayer and of holiness, and chase the evildoers away! For the first time in your messages, you said that you fight for us as a mother fights for her children. You wouldn’t have to fight if there wasn’t a war raging! So, please listen to the clamor that comes from the front line and to the uproar that the enemy is making! See the anguish of those who have not yet taken up the right weapons, and please continue to visit the earth without tiring! Mother dear, come to our aid! 3. A Saint for 2008 There is a nice tradition in some convents and monasteries, that of picking a Saint at the beginning of the year. In fact, St. Faustina speaks of this practice in her community in Divine Mercy in My Soul Diary (#360). We too have asked for a Saint to accompany our family of Children of Medjugorje for 2008, and we have received St. Mary of Magdala! The apostle of the Apostles! She will help us to evangelize! So let us call on her everyday of the year so she that she will obtain for us the grace to love Jesus as she did, repent from our sins and remain in the intimacy of His Mother. You can also receive a particular Saint (See PS). This Saint will be your companion for the whole year, your friend, and your confidant. He will give you protection, will help you in your daily life and will guide you to find your own personal path to sanctity. He will grant you his virtues and will talk to your heart according to the level of intimacy you wish to have with him. Read his life, even his writings maybe! 4. Don't miss out on Lourdes! I have always seen a beautiful relationship between Lourdes and Medjugorje. As she accomplishes the impossible in Medjugorje, Mary does the same in Lourdes! To commemorate the 150th anniversary of Our Lady’s Apparitions to Bernadette, the Holy Father has offered very special incentives! From February 2, 2008 (Presentation of Our Lord) to February 11, 2008 (Our Lady of Lourdes), when you pray in front of an image or a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes you receive a special indulgence. For those who are able make the trip to France, blessed are you! Many graces are in store there throughout the whole Jubilee year as there is a special plenary indulgence granted, according to the usual rules of the Church, to those who visit Lourdes (See PPS). If you do go, don’t miss the pools, Mary is waiting for you with deep graces of healing, liberation, peace and light, so you can love, forgive and go forward in sanctity. Dearest Gospa, how could we give back to you all the good you have done for us? Sr. Emmanuel + __________________________ PS - We recommend that you copy our list of Saints from our website: www.childrenofmedjugorje.com. Please print it, cut out the names of Saints and put them in a basket. While you gather with your family or friends, invoke the Holy Spirit and let each one pick up a paper from the basket. He will then discover which saint has chosen him for 2008! In effect, it is the Saints who choose us rather than us who choose the saints! Along with the name of a Saint, you'll receive a word and a particular task (an intention of prayer). Please, make this tradition known; your friends also need Heavenly help and the example of the Saints! PPS - The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds the faithful that the conditions to obtain the grace of a plenary indulgence includes: the sacrament of Confession, Eucharistic Holy Communion, a prayer for the Pope and being free from any attachment to sin, (# 1471 and following). PPPS - The co-founder of my community has written an excellent book called The Priesthood Of The Heart: Woman's Unique Vocation by Jo Croissant. She says, “the hour is coming, in fact has come, when the vocation of woman is being achieved in all its fullness…as Vatican II affirmed.” Here Jo speaks to women simply, warmly, humbly. She dwells on what she has shared with numerous others: that women bring the specificity and beauty of their identity to the home, the Church and society. Croissant urges women to realize their call as daughter of God, spouse of Christ, mother of men and of all humanity. If this book is for all women no matter their life situation, it can as well help more than one man understand the mystery of woman. The book is available through Barnes & Noble as well as Borders Books. Format: Paperback; Publish Date: October 2007; ISBN-10: 0818912510; ISBN-13: 9780818912511; List Price: $13.95 In order to receive this monthly report from Sr. Emmanuel in English, please sign up here. In French: wmmedjugorje@childrenofmedjugorje.com In Spanish: gisele_riverti@mensajerosdelareinadelapaz.org In Italian: info@vocepiu.it In Croatian: rsilic@yahoo.com In Portuguese (new!): medjugorjeport@yahoo.com The website http://www.childrenofmedjugorje.com offers these reports in other languages.

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