 Ivanka witnesses to what she has seen and heard and touched! (c)Mary Matasso 2011
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September 28, 2011 St. Wenceslaus; St. Lawrence Ruiz and his companions
Dear Family of Mary!
"Dear children! I call you, that this time be for all of you, a time of witnessing. You, who live in the love of God and have experienced His gifts, witness them with your words and life that they may be for the joy and encouragement to others in faith. I am with you and incessantly intercede before God for all of you that your faith may always be alive and joyful, and in the love of God. Thank you for having responded to my call." (September 25, 2011)
Our Lady is announcing a time of witnessing, and she wouldn't say this if the Lord hadn't told her to say it. The Father has inspired Our Lady to announce this good news. There must be many graces available right now, graces that bring conversion and the building up of faith. When the Lord inspires something he always supplies the graces to make it  Image via Wikipedia work. So now must be a time when witnessing will bear much fruit. This makes me excited! It is so wonderful when people wake up to the love of God, when they see things in a new way and discover God as never before!
Of course, our witnessing must be genuine. It must come from our deep experience of God. As Our Lady says, "You, who live in the love of God and have experienced his gifts, witness them...." We can't expect any fruit to come from fabricated, baseless words. Witnessing by definition is the sharing of what we have seen and heard, felt and tasted, and smelled and touched. Witnessing is relaying what we have experienced. Have we experienced the love of God? Have we received gifts from Him? Are we filled with gratitude for the freedom and forgiveness we have received through Jesus? Has our life changed radically for the better because of our encounter with Jesus, or with Our Lady? These are the things we must share. This is true witnessing.
St. John said this very thing in his First Letter:
"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life - the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us - that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have  Image via Wikipedia fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing this that our joy may be complete." (The First Letter of John 1:1-4)
Do you see how experiential this witness is! St. John didn't just think up the good news of Jesus, he laid his head on Jesus' breast. He heard Jesus' heart beat! He listened to Jesus talk, laugh, teach, cry, and pray. He saw Jesus heal the sick, deliver the afflicted, raise the dead, give sight to the blind. He followed Jesus on the road to Calvary and smelled his blood flowing down the cross, heard his groans and pleas to the Father, and witnessed his last breath. And he also saw, heard, touched, and embraced the risen Lord on the third day! John experienced it all. And so his witness was exceedingly fruitful.
Our witness will also be fruitful because we have been saved by Jesus in Baptism, we have seen, tasted and touched Him in the Blessed Sacrament, listened to His words in the Scriptures, and experienced His healing touch in Confession and the Sacrament of the Sick. We have heard His voice in our hearts in prayer, and we have been saved by His intervention over and over again from sin and sorrow. He has healed us many times from sickness and from sin. We know Him. We can share about Him with others from what we know. It will bear fruit!
You might like to see a beautiful witness video that Mary TV has just posted on our home page in the very first video box ( www.marytv.tv ). It is entitled, Mark Lenaghan, IRA Terrorist. Mark shares the incredible healing he received in Medjugorje, a healing from hatred and vengeance to love and reconciliation. This is indeed an experiential witness!
God bless you all,
Cathy Nolan
PS. Denis and I will have a chance to witness in October at a conference in the Chicago area. We will speak about Mary TV and Our Lady of Medjugorje at the Totally Yours Conference on October 22 and 23, 2011 at the Holiday Inn in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. Please pray for us and join us there if you can! Information at www.medj1.com . Phone: 630-279-8424. |
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