 | Monday October 20, 2008
Priest Says, “At Cana, Mary pushed Jesus forward. At Medjugorje, Jesus has pushed Mary forward...” |
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Fr. Frank Perry from Australia
Saint James Church, Medjugorje
October 15, 2008
Allow me to tell you a little story about my journey. This happened about ten years ago when I was working as a hospital chaplain. We had just finished doing the rounds visiting the people taking Holy Communion and the Anointing of the Sick. We were then having a cup of coffee and as we finished, one of the ministers of the Eucharist said to me, we were wondering if you would want to come with us to visit what I thought she said was Margie. Little did I know she was saying, Medjugorje. And so I said, “Oh, I thought that we had already visited everyone. O.K., let’s go now.” There was a silence amongst them. They said, “We said, Medjugorje” and I said, “Who’s Medjugorje?” They said, :“Medjugorje is a place in Bosnia-Herzegovina where Our Lady is appearing.” And I said (sarcastically), “Ah, yes,” like most people do when they first hear about Medjugorje, I think. Anyway, the very following year, the year 2000, I came here for the first time with a group of pilgrims from Australia and it was a most wonderful experience.
Of course, when I first came I was quite skeptical. I saw the great crowds and I was certainly influenced by that. You have to be, I think. I noticed lots of small miracles happening around me, like Mass on the hour every hour, confessions by the hundreds every afternoon, people walking down the streets praying the rosary together. You don’t see that in Australia and probably not in your countries either. So I was a bit wide-eyed but still somewhat skeptical about the whole event. There was a man, one of our group, who had not been to Mass or Communion since his wedding day some thirty years before. He was in our group because his wife insisted that he come. He avoided me like poison the first day, thinking that I was going to try and convert him, but I needed converting myself. Anyway, the very second day that we were here, he must have gone to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, because I was here at the English-speaking Mass, and when my turn came to help distribute Holy Communion, I walked down the aisle and without even looking where I stopped, I took a Host from the ciborium and gave it to Paul who was standing there to receive Holy Communion for the first time in thirty years. That really struck me. When I saw him afterwards he said, “I feel drawn to Reconciliation. I was immediately converted. I realized that my life was going nowhere and that I needed to come back to the Lord through the graces given to me through the hands of Mary our Holy Mother.”
That was the beginning of my conversion, because that day I went to Reconciliation and it was a most beautiful experience for me. I began to realize, we can’t really approach Mary intimately while there is any sinfulness in us. Even the smallest amount of sinfulness is a kind of barrier between our love for Mary and Mary’s love for us. She can’t reach us because we have the door closed. We need to make use of the Sacrament of Reconciliation to open our hearts and minds so that the graces that Mary offers to us as the Mediatrix of all graces, can enter into our hearts. These are little obstacles which keep us from Mary and stop the graces that She would love to give to us from reaching our hearts and souls. So, my brothers, if you are not already feeling the joy of being here in Medjugorje, and you haven’t already received the Sacrament of Reconciliation, I urge you to make use of it.
We arrived here on Sunday night at almost midnight. On Monday I made use again of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, even though I had been to Reconciliation before I left home. But I felt that there’s a need for that in order for Mary to speak to me the words that She needs to speak to me. She knows the graces that I need in my life. It’s a wonderful feeling to be free from any impediments that hold back my relationship with Mary and Her Son Jesus. I urge you to make use of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and see what little miracle might happen in your life.
You know we read just now from the reading from the miracle of Cana. Can you imagine what those servants were thinking when Jesus said to them, because they all realized that the supply of wine was running low, “Fill up those containers.” It seems ridiculous, they would have thought, six hundred liters of water in the big jars that were there for purifying those who came, for washing their hands and feet. The servants must have thought, “Is this guy real? You know, we’re looking for wine and He’s saying fill up six hundred liters of water and then see if that will do.” You know they must have thought, this poor guy, where does He come from, but they did what He asked them to do. And what happened? There was a miracle, and we are all very familiar with the miracle. They must have been more amazed than anybody because they saw the water coming out of the tap, and they saw the wine coming out of the jars. We have little little miracles happen, and they will happen in your life and my life in the same way as they happened to those who were gathered there at Cana for that first miracle of Jesus.
You see Mary noticed that there was no wine, and She pushed Jesus forward and said go and do something about it. It’s very embarrassing for the young couple running out of wine on their wedding day. This time it seems that Jesus has said to his Mother, “God the Father is angry. God the Father is angry with the way that the world is going, moving further and further away from the place of God in their lives.” At Cana, Mary pushed Jesus forward. At Medjugorje, Jesus has pushed Mary forward and said to Her, “These are your children. What are you going to do about saving them and saving our world because God’s anger is growing day by day?”
We know that Mary, in a most beautiful way, has shared Her messages with us. When I first came, I thought there’s nothing new in the messages. Perhaps there is nothing new in the messages until we begin to live them. Then we feel the transformation and may feel a little miracle happening in our lives. We know that while simple messages, Jesus asked a very simple thing of the servants, “Fill up the jars of water.” So simple, and yet it was changed into wine, a miracle that every Christian person knows about some two thousand years later. Mary has given us a very simple instruction. She talks about five little stones, doesn’t She? David used one little stone to slay Goliath. Mary gives us five little stones, very simple recommendations, for us to take into our daily lives. Pray, pray the rosary every day. Is that so hard, ten minutes a day, when you think about how much TV you watch? Access to the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the most wonderful prayer of all Christian prayers, and the reception of Christ in the Eucharist. People have no closer union to Jesus Christ than when receiving Holy Communion. Is that a big thing to us? It’s a privilege and a joy, not an obligation. Read the Bible. Mary says read Jesus’ words in the Scriptures. Feed your heart, feed your soul, and feed your mind on His words. Listen carefully during the readings when you come to Mass if you don’t have time to read the Bible everyday yourself. She recommends fasting. Fasting on Wednesday and Fridays seems to be a big thing. I tried it when I went home, and I thought I’m probably going to faint. But you don’t. You get some kind of inner strength and it’s purifying. I think we eat too much anyway. Spiritually we need to fast as well. Fasting seems to do something for us, to deny ourselves something that we’ve become accustomed to. You won’t die if you fast one day a week. You might think you will but you won’t and it saves the grocery bills as well. Monthly confession. Mary says monthly confession. Purify your soul in the Sacrament of Reconciliation so that there is no hindrance, no obstacle to the working of God’s grace in your heart.
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Additional Recommended Reading | ||
 A New Ark? |  Entering A New Time Booklet |  This is Her Time CD (set 2) |
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