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August 30, 2011
"Dear children! Today I call you to pray and fast for my intentions, because Satan wants to destroy my plan. Here I began with this parish and invited the entire world. Many have responded, but there is an enormous number of those who do not want to hear or accept my call. Therefore, you who have said 'yes', be strong and resolute. Thank you for having responded to my call." (August 25, 2011)
"Many have responded, but there is an enormous number of those who do not want to hear or accept my call."
Yes, there are a few millions of us who are trying to live the messages. But there are about 1.18 billion Catholics in the world. We who are responding to Our Lady's call are a very small number in comparison, a very small number indeed - maybe less than 3 percent?
But God has never relied on numbers when he deploys a plan. Consider Gideon and the Midianites. In Judges 6 and 7, Gideon is called by God to defeat the Midianites who are despoiling God's people, year after year. Gideon calls the men of Israel to come and fight with him. Gideon gathers about 32,000 men to fight. It says in Judges 7:
Then Jerubba'al (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod; and the camp of Mid'ian was north of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. The LORD said to Gideon, "The people with you are too many for me to give the Mid'ianites into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, `My own hand has delivered me.' Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, `Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home.'" And Gideon tested them; twenty-two thousand returned, and ten thousand remained.
And the LORD said to Gideon, "The people are still too many; take them down to the water and I will test them for you there; and he of whom I say to you, `This man shall go with you,' shall go with you; and any of whom I say to you, `This man shall not go with you,' shall not go." So he brought the people down to the water; and the LORD said to Gideon, "Every one that laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set by himself; likewise every one that kneels down to drink." And the number of those that lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water. And the LORD said to Gideon, "With the three hundred men that lapped I will deliver you, and give the Mid'ianites into your hand; and let all the others go every man to his home." So he took the jars of the people from their hands, and their trumpets; and he sent all the rest of Israel every man to his tent, but retained the three hundred men; and the camp of Mid'ian was below him in the valley. That same night the LORD said to him, "Arise, go down against the camp; for I have given it into your hand....
And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and put trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars, with torches inside the jars. And he said to them, "Look at me, and do likewise; when I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and shout, `For the LORD and for Gideon.'" So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch; and they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. And the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars, holding in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow; and they cried, "A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!" They stood every man in his place round about the camp, and all the army ran; they cried out and fled. When they blew the three hundred trumpets, the LORD set every man's sword against his fellow and against all the army; and the army fled as far as Beth-shit'tah toward Zer'erah, as far as the border of A'bel-meho'lah, by Tabbath. And the men of Israel were called out from Naph'tali and from Asher and from all Manas'seh, and they pursued after Mid'ian. (Judges 7: 1-9, 16-24)
As you can see, God whittled down the Israelite army from 32,000 to 300 before He sent them into battle. That is less than 1 percent of the initial army, and yet it was all God needed. The battle was the Lord's. It only took valiant hearts that were obedient and abandoned to the Lord. They trusted in the Lord enough to go and meet Midian with clay pots and horns and torches! That must have seemed crazy! But it worked!
We may be a small, even insignificant number, those of us who are responding to
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We have only to pray and fast for her intentions, and watch as the Lord wins the battle for souls.
"Therefore, you who have said 'yes', be strong and resolute."
In Jesus and Mary!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2011
www.marytv.tv
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