Mary TV Daily Reflection 5/25/2011

the Holy Family

May 25, 2011 Dear Family of Mary! "Dear children, I beseech you to start changing your life in the family.  Let the family be a harmonious flower which I desire to give to Jesus.  Dear children, let every family be active in prayer for I wish that good fruit in the family be visible one day.  Only in this way will I give all, like petals, as a gift to Jesus in fulfillment of God's plan." (May 1, 1986) Listening to Jelena Vasilj-Valente at the Notre Dame Conference on Medjugorje 2011, I could see the good fruit becoming visible!  Jelena's family responded to our Lady's call in Medjugorje from the very first day of the apparitions.  They prayed together every day.  They lived the messages.  And today we see Jelena, a beautiful young wife and mother who understands the faith both intellectually and practically, and who communicates the peace and love of God from her heart very convincingly.  She carries the Kingdom of God in her entire being!  What a beautiful fruit of Medjugorje!   During the Question and Answer session at the conference, Jelena was asked about family prayer, and I find her answer very interesting! Question:  I wanted to ask you Jelena about family prayer, because we here in America struggle with family prayer.  Life is so busy and it is hard for families to set the time aside.  What have you learned from Our Lady about family prayer, or from your own extensive family experience? Jelena:  Well everything, you know, in Medjugorje has come through the family.  The visionaries, the young people, would go back to their families and would say, well this is what Our Lady wants us to do, and then we would do this with our families.  So we were praying together and we were living the messages in the family.  Even the communities that came out of Medjugorje [came out of the family prayer].  You know that entire convents have come out of Medjugorje.  And for instance Cardinal Schoenborn says that half his vocations have something to do with Medjugorje. And I remember Sister Elvira (Cenacolo Foundress) coming to our house in the morning and praying with our family, and some other people who have founded other communities would come in the morning and pray with us.  So the families were really schools of prayer.  This is where everything started, the parishioners and the families.  Everything started from there. And this is why I think it is not strange that the visionaries got married themselves.  I think Our Lady really wants a renewal of the family. If we don't discover the importance of family, then we can't really understand the love of God because the family is the image of the love of God. Healthy, good vocations, holy vocations come from good families.  I think Our Lady has a special plan for the family.  We prayed in our family for years and we still do.  My father would wake us up every morning at 6:00 before we all went to school. I must admit that I was the hardest one to wake up!  But he would always tell me, "I feel responsible.  This is my duty."  I know that nowadays with young people it is hard to talk that way because sometimes they are so far from us and far from prayer.  But my father really did have that authority and we followed him and we are very grateful.  Our Lady did say that a father in a family is like St. Joseph, almost like a priest!  So the father needs to animate the prayer, lead the prayers.  So I have to say that family prayer for us was really our protection.  I mean, we were just like any other family with tensions and problems, but what family prayer does to our family is just amazing. And it is simple prayer. You know you would expect there is some special exercise that people would have to do to get rid of their tensions and difficulties and I remember many times trying to find an agreement.  But when you pray with people the Holy Spirit does something very powerful. You can test it the other way.  Try praying with the people you don't get along with.  You can't. So if you want to really get along and live that fullness of love, you must lean on the love of God which comes into a family through prayer. (Jelena Vasilj-Valente.  Notre Dame, May 14, 2011)  "When you pray with people the Holy Spirit does something very powerful!"  Absolutely!  This is the point!  If we want our families to be filled with peace and love, if we want our children to be holy and successful, if we want our homes to be places of healing and blessing, we must invite the Holy Spirit to dwell in our families.  He brings all that is necessary to make us whole.  He helps our families to be harmonious flowers for God!  He is the one who germinates the flower of our family so that good fruit develops!  He injects us with the pollen of God's love, so that our families can mature in love and joy.  Only through prayer can the Holy Spirit visit us and bring his germinating power!   The families in Medjugorje were schools of prayer, schools of the messages.  Incredible.  I never realized this before, but it is obvious.  Our Lady chose the parish, and the families are the individual cells of the parish.  In each cell, she conducted her school of love, through prayer.  And it is this same plan that she has for all the other parishes of the world.  Each parish is made up of families, and each family is to be a school of love and prayer.  This is the way God grows his people!  Family prayer is not a luxury, it is essential for all life.  We can't afford not to pray.   In Jesus and Mary! Cathy Nolan ©Mary TV 2011   PS.  We are in the process of posting all of the talks from the National Conference on Medjugorje at Notre Dame, May 13-15, 2011 on our website, www.marytv.tv  !  You can find them on the home page, by scrolling down to the window that says, "Notre Dame Medjugorje Conference." The talks are wonderful!  Thanks to Queen of Peace Ministries for allowing us to stream these talks.  And thanks to Michael Nolan for digitizing and putting them up!   www.marytv.tv

Posted via email from deaconjohn's posterous