August 24, 2011
Saint Bartholomew
Dear Family of Mary!
"Dear Children! Today I invite you to pray for peace. At this time peace is being threatened in a special way, and I am seeking from you to renew fasting and prayer in your families. Dear children, I desire you to grasp the seriousness of the situation and that much of what will happen depends on your prayers and you are praying a little bit. Dear children, I am with you and I am inviting you to begin to pray and fast seriously as in the first days of my coming. Thank you for having responded to my call."
(July 25, 1991)
Mirjana brought up two topics that probably are the most difficult of the requests of the Gospa, family prayer and fasting. In this little witness, Mirjana was quite humorous. She handled these two issues with a great deal of wit. But all the same, we could tell how important both family prayer and fasting are to Our Lady. Mirjana could not be budged from the bottom line...they are both very important! As Our Lady said in the message quoted above, we are in a serious situation. In July of 1991 a war was looming in the Balkans, a war that was to claim thousands of lives. Our Lady wanted it stopped. Prayer and fasting were the means of stopping it. Though the war did happen, Our Lady said later that it was shortened because of the response of her children. We are in equally serious times today. Let's listen to Mirjana as she speaks about family prayer and fasting:
"Our Lady invites us to pray in our families. She says there is nothing that can unite the family like when they pray together. Parents have great responsibility before their children. Parents are the ones who are supposed to put the seeds of faith in their children. They can do it only if they pray together and attend Holy Mass together. We cannot talk to our children about the importance of Holy Mass if they don't see that Holy Mass is in the first place for us. We cannot talk to them about the importance of prayer if they don't see us praying. Our children can see much more than we even imagine. That is why they should see that for their parents God is in the first place and then everything else.
"Let me give you an example from my own family. When my older daughter, Maria, was only two years old, I did not talk to her about the apparitions because I thought, she is too young to understand that. But one day when she was playing in her room with a friend, I heard her friend say, 'You know my mom drives a car?' And Maria kept quiet for a while and then said, 'Big deal, my mom talks to Our Lady every day.' So without saying a word, she simply understood. She was able to see what was happening in the house.
"After that Our Lady asks for fasting. Our Lady's way of fasting is bread and water. But she does not ask fasting from those who are sick, those who are truly sick. They will realize through their own prayer what they can do instead of fasting on bread and water.
"Here in Medjugorje Our Lady has been teaching us a beautiful thing. For her there are no nations. She never said "Dear Americans, Dear Croats" Americans often have the question, 'What does Our Lady say about Americans?' Well, she said you are smart; you are the best....ha ha! [Everyone laughed!] But, no, Our Lady only says, 'Dear children'.
"It is very interesting to see how different nations respond to different messages, say for fasting. Whenever I speak about that message, I can never be serious because I remember all the questions referring to fasting. On the days when I speak to the Italians, I wish you could hear it. When I mention fasting there are a million questions. 'How long is Wednesday or Friday' (as if I am the one who can shorten it). 'Can I have a half plate of pasta?
' Thousands of questions like that. While you Americans have only one, a very typical American question, 'Can we at least have coffee in the morning?' Then I always say, 'Yes why not? Just be sure you drink it before Our Lady wakes up and sees you.' But we should not approach it in such a way. We should understand that Our Lady is a mother. She knows our capabilities. What is important is to wish to walk with her. That is when she will help you." (Mirjana Soldo, speaking in her home in Medjugorje during the week of the 30th Anniversary. Video by Dani)
Prayer and fasting should be like breathing and eating for us now. Our Lady has built them both into our lives. We pray because we cannot survive without God, we fast because we want to acknowledge that our entire life is from God and we can't take anything for granted. We want to be abandoned into the arms of our Lord, and prayer and fasting are two ways to do it.
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