Mary TV February 8, 2012 reflection

(c)Mary TV 2012 February 8, 2012 St. Jerome Emiliani, St. Josephine Bakhita   Dear Family of Mary!   "Dear children!  Today also I am calling you to personal conversion.  You be the ones who will be converted, and in your lives be witnesses.  Love, forgive and bring the joy of the Risen One to this world where my Son died, and where people do not feel the need to seek Him and discover Him in their lives. You be adorers of my Son and may your hope be hope to those whose hearts do not have Jesus.  Dear children, thank you again today for having responded to my call." (January 31, 2012, to Ivan in Kalamazoo)   This is the third installment of Ivan Dragicevic's talk at Kalamazoo on January 31, 2012:   But finally morning did arrive. And my parents had already heard in the village that I had been there the day before. And they were waiting outside my bedroom door. You know in those times of communism there was great fear. What will happen? The first thing my parents said, "Be careful what you say, don't play with those kinds of things. You will go to jail if you speak like that." It wouldn't have been unusual at that time, to be taken off to jail without any due process. I told my parents what I saw.   And on that second day, a lot of people began to gather from all over the place. They were with us all day and protected us as much as possible from the police and from the authorities. And somewhere around three o'clock that afternoon, those people who had spent that day with us said to us, "Let us go with you to that place where you saw Our Lady last night. Maybe Our Lady left something, some kind of a sign to convince is that she was here."   And so spontaneously, together with the people we slowly climbed the hill. And before we got to that place, maybe about 20 meters away, Our Lady was already waiting for us. She was holding Baby Jesus in her arms. She was floating on a cloud. She had a crown of stars. She was smiling and she was motioning with her hand for us to come closer.   Never in my life will I ever forget that day. I think I am going to live 5 years less after that day. In that moment I could no longer go either forwards or backwards. My legs buckled underneath me. But in one moment, not with my strength, I ran over those bushes and shrubs, it was like we were floating. We didn't feel any kind of pain. We went closer to her. We came close to her. In her left hand she was holding Jesus. She took her right hand, and she was placing it on our heads, and she began to speak her first words. "Dear children, I am with you. I am your Mother. Do not be afraid of anything. I will protect you. I will help you. I will guide you." But it was difficult to calm down and come to our senses.   One of the girls from among us, who was most relaxed, asked her, "Who are you and what is your name?" And she responded, "I am the Queen of Peace. And I have come, my dear children because God has sent me. My dear children, peace, peace, and only peace. There must be peace, my dear children. Peace must reign between God and man and between people. My dear children, this world and this humanity is finding itself in a great danger. There is a threat that it will destroy itself." Those were the first words - that was the first message that Our Lady gave through us to the world. On that second day we recognized in her our Mother, and to this day there are still three of us who see Our Lady.   My dear friends, I do not want you to look at me as a saint or as someone who is perfect, because I am not. I am trying to be better and more holy, that is my desire and that desire is deeply imprinted upon my heart. Just because I have seen Our Lady doesn't mean I have converted overnight. I know that my conversion is a process just like it is for all of us. And it is a program for my live. It is a program for which I need to make a decision every day and in which I need to be persistent and in which I need to make a daily decision to change. I need to leave sin behind on a daily basis. And I need to open myself to the Holy Spirit and open myself to grace. I must accept the words of Christ and the words of the Gospel and in that way grow in holiness.   There is a question that has been in my mind for thirty years. And that question is "Mother why me? Mother, were there not better ones than I? Mother will I be able to accomplish all those things that you ask of me in the way that you want them accomplished? Mother are you satisfied with me?" Not a day goes by that that question is not repeated in my mind.   I remember well at an encounter with Our Lady that I was alone with her. I spent a lot of time asking myself if I should ask this. I asked her, "Mother why me? Why did you choose me?" And she smiled and she said, "You know dear children I don't always look for the best ones." And do you think I ever asked her that question after that? I never asked that question again.   And so thirty years ago Our Lady chose me to be her instrument, to be the instrument in her hands and in the hands of the Lord. She enrolled me in her school, in her school of peace, of love and of prayer. I wish to be a good student in this school. And I wish to accomplish the homework assignment I receive from Our Lady as well as possible. Truly through these thirty years, I always ask myself, "Mother, why don't you appear to everyone? Because then Mother everyone would believe you." And then I wouldn't need to be here with you today!     But we cannot enter into all those divine plans that the Father has for all of us all at once. We must be open to those divine plans. We must know how to recognize them and accept them. Even though we don't see, we must be happy that our Mother is with us. In the Gospel it says, "Blessed are those who do not see, and yet believe." Believe me it is not easy and it is not simple to be with Our Lady every day and to speak with her every day, and then after each of those encounters with her to come back to this earth and live on this earth. Because when Our Lady comes every day, she brings us a piece of heaven. If you were to see Our Lady for just one second, I don't know whether your life on this earth would be interesting after that one second. Every day after every encounter with her I always need several hours to come back to this earth and to the realities of this world. (Ivan Dragicevic, in Kalamazoo Michigan, 01/31/12, transcribed from the recording by Mary TV)   The reality of thirty years of apparitions is hard to take in. Can we imagine the incredible joy that the visionaries must experience at each apparition, and the extreme emotions they must endure at experiencing heaven each day only to be thrust back into our world of shadows and trials? Can we understand the commitment it takes to be available to Our Lady every day, no matter what, ready to greet her, listen to her with the heart and communicate her presence to this hungry world? It is a miracle that the visionaries have survived this regimen this long. Certainly they are surviving on grace! Wonder of wonders, that heaven and earth should meet in such a way.   Thank you, dear Mother, for coming to guide us, comfort us and protect us in these days. Thank you for choosing such little ones to be your visionaries! Thank you!   In Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Cathy Nolan   ©Mary TV 2012

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