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J.M.J August 23, 2012 Saint Rose of Lima Dear Family of Mary!
"Dear children! Today I wish to tell you to begin to work in your hearts as you are working in the fields. Work and change your hearts so that a new spirit from God can take its place in your hearts. Thank you for having responded to my call."(April 25, 1985) Mother Mary has more than once asked the villagers to work on their hearts with as much vigor as they would work in their fields or in their homes: "Dear children! Everything has its own time. Today I call you to start working on your own hearts. Now that all the work in the field is over, you are finding time for cleaning even the most neglected areas, but you leave your heart aside. Work more and clean with love every part of your heart. Thank you for having responded to my call." (October 17, 1985) Obviously, she wanted her children to realize that their interior life was as important as their physical life. But the inner life of the spirit is not so easy to stay in contact with. We tend to ignore our spirit, in favor of tangible concerns. But our inner life, the life of our spirit, our heart, is of utmost importance. It is in that sphere that we make decisions, form our consciences, learn to love, perceive the truth, and encounter God. Nothing could be more important. And so, Mother Mary asked the villagers, and now asks us, to make time for our hearts. She asks us to pray, pray, pray, so that God can become our first love. But cleaning our hearts, changing our hearts, is not so easy. Here is some good advice from Caryll Houselander on "working" on our hearts. She wrote this advice in a letter to a friend in 1949: As to your Lent, of course I am in no way entitled to give you advice; I can only tell you my own experience. A mass of good resolutions, I think, are apt to end up in disappointment and to make one depressed. Also direct fault-uprooting: it makes one concentrate too much on self, and that can be so depressing. The only resolution I have ever found works is: "Whenever I want to think of myself, I will think of God." Now, this does not mean, "I will make a long meditation on God," but just some short sharp answer, so to speak, to my thought of self, in God. For example: "I am lonely, misunderstood, etc." "The loneliness of Christ at His trail; the misunderstanding even of His closest friends." Or: "I have made a fool of myself." "Christ mocked - He felt it; He put the mocking first in foretelling His Passion - 'The Son of Man shall be mocked, etc.' - Made a fool of, before all whom He loved. Or: "I can't go on, un-helped." "Christ couldn't. He couldn't carry the cross without help; He was grateful for human sympathy - Mary Magdalene - His words on that occasion - other examples as they suggest themselves - just pictures that flash through the mind." This practice becomes a habit, and it is the habit which has saved me from despair! (Caryll Houselander. The Letters of Caryll Houselander, Her Spiritual Legacy. P. 174) I love Caryll's practical point of view. She is right. If we set about working on our hearts in the wrong way, it can make us self-conscious or self-absorbed and be detrimental to us. We might become scrupulous, or melancholy. It is much better to turn every self-discovery into a meditation or encounter with Christ! If we discover we are alone, or sad, or mocked, or betrayed, or whatever burden we find in our heart, we can immediately apply the example of Jesus to it, and the disorder within will melt away. We will chase the devil away with his insinuations, and be filled with the Light of Christ. Notice how each of the statements Caryll chose as examples began with "I". Our hearts are filled with "I". It is in our heart that our person resides, with all our imperfection, self-pity, fear, hope, joy and love. All jumbled together! But a clean heart is one in which our "I" finds joy only in God and is fulfilled by Him alone. Also in a clean heart, there are no agreements with the enemy. Those "I" statements could easily lead to an agreement with the devil in which we say: "I am lonely, therefore I will never trust anyone again...", or: "I have made a food of myself, therefore I will never try to help anyone again..." You see the process. Those agreements make us slaves to the devil and his negativity. They trap us in the very thing that has hurt us. They make us prisoners of our un-forgiveness and fear. A clean heart is one in which there are no agreements with negativity and non-love. A clean heart believes in love, in Jesus, in redemption, in forgiveness! If we find we have made agreements with the enemy in our hearts, now is the time to renounce those agreements and choose Jesus' way instead. Like Caryll advised, look to Jesus' example and ask Him to help us to be like Him "Work and change your hearts so that a new spirit from God can take its place in your hearts." May we invite the Lord into our hearts, at every moment, to help us work on them, and make them shine!! In Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Cathy Nolan ©Mary TV 2012 PS. From Denis: Episode #12 of "Fruit of Medjugorje" airing tonight, Thursday August 23, 8:00pm (EST) at www.Marytv.TV presents four absolutely amazing testimonies! You don't want your family or friends to miss this program! (Pre-show begins at 7:40 pm). Episode # 11 is still in our "Fruits of Medjugorje" archive (in the column at left -www.marytv.tv ): Hundreds of Ukrainian doctors are being given the grace of conversion and are learning to cherish life in Medjugorje! Share this great news far and wide! Amazing! |
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