St. Therese of the Child Jesus
Dear Family of Mary!"Dear children! Today I am with you and bless you all with my motherly blessing of peace, and I urge you to live your life of faith even more, because you are still weak and are not humble. I urge you, little children, to speak less and to work more on your personal conversion so that your witness may be fruitful. And may your life be unceasing prayer. Thank you for having responded to my call." (September 25, 2010)
On September 23, 2010, the Medjugorje prayer group of Vienna hosted an evening of prayer and witness with visionaries Ivan and Marija, at St. Stephen's Cathedral. It was an evening to remember. By God's grace, Mary TV was able to stream the event, live. About 26,000 computers were connected to the live stream that day! Our Lady appeared to Ivan and Marija and all of us were able to participate in that encounter! It was full of grace. Cardinal Schoenborn was able to come for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at the end of the evening. He spoke some words to the visionaries and to us all about Medjugorje and Our Lady. I am including the transcript of his comments in this email. His pastoral care is so evident in his words. We also have his comments posted on YouTube and on our website. Text: Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn speaks before Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, September 23, 2010:Praised Be Jesus and Mary! Praised be Jesus Christ! Dear Marija, dear Ivan, thank you first of all that you came. Thank you that you came again! [applause] Thank you for your service across so many years. For your work, for your service of being messengers of the Gospa [Our Lady]. You bring us children of this world, children of humanity, her love and her presence and may God pay you back 100 fold for what you're doing tirelessly. I wish before we go into Adoration to tell you three things that are very deep in my heart. [I'll speak] very briefly:First, if I think back to the beginning of the prayer community here in Vienna, the beginning of the 80's, In the very beginning - in the Dominican Church -I am Dominican - I remember how we were surprised that every Thursday the church was full. We were not used to that. And that people were praying for hours. There was confession, there was Rosary. But you see, this is nearly 30 years ago, and the astonishing thing is, I can see tonight, you have never stopped praying! That is not normal. And that shows what Our Lady always says at the end of her messages, "Thank you for having responded to my call." I can only repeat, thank you for having heard her until today, and thank you for continuing to listen to her. The second is of our beloved icon, Máriapócs. It is from eastern Hungary and I was there for the Jubilee of the pilgrimage place. The original is here, the copy in Maria Posc. It's an icon through which the Mother of God has shown her closeness through the miracle of tears. In 1697 there was the big miracle of tears because the icon cried for many days. Why did she cry? She cried about the suffering of the people. But I believe mainly because she suffers with us, she is compassionate, because she is really the mother of all of us. Her tears have guided many, many people back to faith, deeper into faith and if you look everyday there are thousands of candles burning in front of her picture here in the Dome, St. Stephen's [Cathedral]. I want to indicate something to you which is a specific to this icon - because this icon is an indicator of the path. It is Mary indicating Jesus with her hand. She shows us the way. She shows us Jesus who said "I am the way, the truth and the life." She shows us Jesus. "Do what he tells you to do." That's what she tells at Cana, "Do what he tells you to do." But this icon has something very special. Normally in the icons of the Church of the East, the baby, the child Jesus, blesses with his hands. And Mary indicates (points to) Jesus and Jesus blesses. But this is very rare, here there is something else. He indicates (points to) his mother, she indicates (points to) him. He indicates her and in this icon Jesus does what he does later on the Cross. He says, "Behold your mother!" Here there is your mother. See your mother. I believe that this is something very special that we rarely see in icons - the love of Jesus for his mother, he shows her to us. And the third is something funny, something amusing. I have heard so many witnesses about Medjugorje in these nearly 30 years. One thing I have to tell you because it's kind of funny - and I believe that I'm allowed to do that. I took a train after my visit to Medjugorje. And I felt that this was a little wink from Our Lady. I sat on the train and I wanted to be pious and pray the breviary. A very voluminous lady sat down next to me. She was really, really fat. And I had to really push myself to the side because she left very little space. And I was slightly annoyed, I must admit. I was not virtuous. And then she began to talk to me. I didn't like it at all. She asked me, "Father, are you a parish priest?" I sort of reacted in an annoyed way. She was a Roma lady from Burgland and I acted a bit annoyed and I said, "I want to read." And she asked again, "Hey, Father, where are you a parish priest?" And again annoyed I answered, "I am the bishop of Vienna." And she answered, "Oh yes, I'm sorry. I didn't want to disturb you." And that made me become a bit more friendly. And then out of the blue she began to say, " My husband was in Medjugorje recently." I didn't say anything about Medjugorje, she said it. "My husband was in Medjugorje recently. And he climbed up a hill where there is a big cross at the top And he climbed back down. And since he came back he is so kind and friendly like he was never before in his life with me!" [applause] And she said she wants to go to Medjugorje also now. Perhaps she will also be so friendly! The Lord is in our midst truly! Truly, truly - like in the times in Galilee, in Jerusalem, so real, the Risen Lord! We want to greet him now. And in great gratitude, in great trust, we want to adore him. [His Eminence then presided, leading the congregation in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.] The link for Cardinal Schoeborn's Sept.23 talk on Youtube:
Our Lady points to Jesus and Jesus points to Our Lady. This is the beautiful circle of love we are being called into; a circle that will keep us safe and at peace forever.In Jesus and Mary!
Cathy Nolan
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