January 18, 2012
Dear Family of Mary!
"Dear children! Today I wish to call you to pray, pray, pray! In prayer you shall perceive the greatest joy and the way out of every situation that has no exit. Thank you for starting up prayer. Each individual is dear to my heart. And I thank all who have urged prayer in their families. Thank you for having responded to my call." (March 28, 1985)
There is nothing worse than feeling that you have no way out of a situation. "No Exit", a play by Jean Paul Sartre, describes hell as a room with no way out, and relationships that also have no exit, no resolution, no love. It is a fearful thing to be trapped by one's own sins, unable to change or choose the good and to be surrounded by those who only want to use you for their own desires, devoid of love. Sartre's hell is a place and a way of life that has no exit.
But Our Lady offers us a way out of every situation that has no exit! She comes with the joyful news that there is a way out of our enclosed and selfish hearts, a way out of hell. That way is through prayer.
Lately Our Lady has been reminding me of her offer. There are sins in my life that recur. And each time they raise their ugly heads, I get so frightened. Not again, not this again. A recurring sin can make me feel hopeless, angry, cornered, un-free. A sin that seems to have a hold on me can feel like a room with no exit, Sartre's hell.
But I have been learning that through prayer I can find the door to that room, and I can actually get out of that place of sin, I can find the exit! It is through prayer of the heart in which I make contact with Jesus, and Jesus leads me into a new way of acting and thinking, a new way of being. It really happens!
One exit I found recently, through prayer, was forgiveness. I had to ask forgiveness. It was a small event, a small problem, but it felt so big because it was a recurring problem, and I felt some despair about it. Would it ever change? But when I prayed with all my heart, the Lord gave me the words to say, in asking forgiveness. And that was all it took. The door to my little hell swung wide open, and I was free. Asking forgiveness can be one way out of a situation that has no exit. Only Jesus could have helped me do that! My, how small the problem looked from outside that little room. Miniscule! Thank you, Lord, for giving me the way out!
Truly, prayer brings us freedom. In prayer, we connect with God. We hear His loving call to us in a concrete way, in our daily, concrete circumstances, and we can choose to follow Him into the freedom of love and truth. He knocks on the invisible door of our room with no exit, and if we say yes, He can open that door and help us walk into the light. It is the light of His love and truth, His way of living and giving that makes life a heaven on earth!
Our Lady is grateful to us for starting up prayer. She knows that if we truly live our life in prayer, we will become free of all our sinful ways because we will find the way out of those exit-less ways of relating and thinking that cause so much pain. We will find instead the new ways of the Spirit, the ways that lead to love.
We are each individuals who are dear to Mother Mary's heart. Wow! She offers us heaven, through prayer. She waits for us to join her in the life of love.
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2012
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