Mary TV Daily Reflection 2/9/2011

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February 9, 2011

Dear Family of Mary!

"Dear children, you are gathering around me, you are seeking your way, you are seeking, you are seeking the truth but are forgetting what is the most important, you are forgetting to pray properly. Your lips pronounce countless words, but your spirit does not feel anything. Wandering in darkness, you even imagine God himself according to yourselves, and not such as he really is in his love. Dear children, proper prayer comes from the depth of your heart, from your suffering, from your joy, from your seeking the forgiveness of sins. This is the way to come to know the right God, and by that also yourselves, because you are created according to him. Prayer will bring you to the fulfillment of my desire, of my mission here with you, to the unity of God's family. Thank you."  (February 2, 2011)

Our Lady's words reminded me of this well-known passage from the first letter of John:

"See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.  The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.  Beloved we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." (1John 3:1-2)

Here's why.  First of all, in her message, Our Lady calls us children.  She sees us as children, and addresses us that way in every message.  In his first letter, St. John addresses his readers many times as "my little children" or "children".  If the tradition is correct, St. John lived with Our Lady in Ephesus for some time.  Jesus had given them to each other as family during His Passion.  So they must have spoken much about what it means to be Christian.  No wonder they both call us children! 

But we are God's children because Jesus has adopted us into the family.  God the Father has taken us on as His children, because of Jesus.  This fact is behind St. John's words in his first letter.  "See what love the Father has given us."  Yes, just see it!  The Father has given us a new life in His family of love, through Jesus' sacrifice.  We have a Father who loves us. 

But many of us don't understand the love of the Father for us.  As Our Lady says, "Wandering in darkness, you even imagine God himself according to yourselves, and not such as he really is in his love."  Our God is a loving Father.  This is the perfect way to imagine God as He is in His love!  He is the One who has given us life, and He now provides for us in every way, at each moment of the day, as a loving father would for his children.  To understand God we must see Him as Father.   

And then what does this mean for us as children?  Well, like St. John says, "Beloved we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."  We have to wait to see what we become, just as children have to wait to see what they will grow up to be.  We don't know what we will be like, but we will find out when God appears and we see Him "as he is".   We have to be careful not to jump to conclusions.  We will be wrong for sure, especially if we use ourselves as the plumb line.  But when we see Him, we will understand everything, even ourselves.  We will finally make sense!  After all, "we are created according to Him."  We are His children, and that is really enough to know for now!  It gives us all we need to draw very close to Him in prayer and talk to Him about all our troubles, sufferings, joys, and fears...all that is true at the deepest level! 

So here we are again!  To relate to God as our loving Father, we have to practice proper prayer.  We have to invite our Father into our deepest heart, there to confide to Him all our woes and all our happiness.  Like a good Father, He will take care of everything.

In Jesus and Mary!
Cathy Nolan
 

www.marytv.tv 

 

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