Mary TV Daily Reflection 1/31/2013

    

       
(c)Josip Zubac, 2013
Our Lady beckons

          

J.M.J.      

January 31, 2013

 

Dear Family of Mary!

 

"Dear children! Also today I call you to prayer. May your prayer be as strong as a living stone, until with your lives you become witnesses. Witness the beauty of your faith. I am with you and intercede before my Son for each of you. Thank you for having responded to my call." (January 25, 2013)

 

How do our lives become witnesses? One day at a time, little by little, as we live Our Lady's messages, our lives begin to shine with the light of God. This is the way. But there is usually a beginning. A conversion. A meeting with God that takes place. Especially in Medjugorje this is true. Today and tomorrow I want to share a remarkable witness. This witness is a great example of what Our Lady wants of us:

 

The testimony of Roland Patsleiner. (as transcribed from "Fruit of Medjugorje, Episode 52)

 

Hello, my name is Roland (Patzleiner). I come from the very north of Italy, a small town. And I live here in Medjugorje now for about 10 years. I am doing the music ministry especially for the Italian pilgrims and also playing at Adoration, and helping at some services at the parish. I am very glad, also, to give this testimony, for what Our Lady, Queen of Peace, has done in my life.

 

When I was a teenager, I fell into drugs and alcohol. I tried to do my life as best I was able to do. I was filling my heart with all these things which were at the end, emptying my heart. One special thing....when I was a child my mother taught me to play the guitar. Since I was little I played guitar. But I wanted to just play heavy metal, hard rock, Satanic music, and I fell into drugs (as I said already) and I wasn't aware at that time how strong on a spiritual level these things are. I was used to living life, as I knew it. As a young boy I thought that you live life to have fun, to have all the things you like, without sacrifice, just having fun. On a spiritual level I was dying always more. I was building up myself, but with a big lack of the sense of life. I was very attracted by music and this kind of life which you know is not good, but you like it. I had a stronger desire to do these bad things than to do what was good to do.

 

And I remember that my mother was always praying a lot for me. And that testifies to the message of Medjugorje that invites us all to pray and to have faith, and to practice the faith, especially Rosary and Mass and Confession and all that Our Lady is reminding us to do because it has the same spiritual strength as the evil one has. I wasn't aware of it but the life I was living had very bad consequences in my life....not just losing my life on this earth, but also losing my eternal life. And so I say, that my mother (it was providential) at that time in the life of our family, met a Medjugorje prayer group in our home town, and she started to pray. The first thing she experienced in this group was the help of people who listened to her problem, and you know they helped her to carry this at the moment when she couldn't do anything concrete for me.

 

So she came to Medjugorje in a pilgrimage many years ago, and I say that she felt in her heart that Our Lady told her, "You have to bring Roland to Medjugorje." I remember the time when she came back from that pilgrimage, and she said to me....You can imagine I had long hair, I was very closed and angry, I had a bad relationship with my parents. They were the people who wanted to void my happiness, telling me what I had to do and what I couldn't do. So they were out for me. And she came back from Medjugorje and said, "Roland you have to go to Medjugorje. Our Lady is appearing there, it helps you." You can imagine my "interest" in Medjugorje...inside I had a strong a feeling, and I heard a kind of voice that said, "No, I will never go there..."

 

And so started a time when I kept on destroying myself with music and drugs and this evil environment. And my mother, in her suffering, kept on praying, with her group. And sometimes she would come to me and say, "Go to Medjugorje, Our Lady is appearing there." And I always got really upset and angry with her and I always said, "NO."

 

My mother got upset as time passed, and didn't know anymore what to do, because she saw that day by day, I was losing more and more my life. I wasn't able to do something good in my life. So she went to the leader of the prayer group (who was also the organizer of the pilgrimages) and she said, "You know when I went to Medjugorje that time, I felt in my heart that Our Lady had said that I had to bring him." I was already famous as a very desperate case. A lot of people were praying for me. And my mother said, "The more that I tell him to go to Medjugorje, the more angry he gets. He is getting worse, day by day. I don't know what to do anymore."

 

This lady answered my mother and said, "You know I have to go to Medjugorje in a few days. Go tell him it's for free. Maybe he will come." And so again, after many times, she came to me saying, "You have to go to Medjugorje. Our Lady is appearing." I got really angry, saying, "Let me alone, let me alone. I don't want to hear anything about it." And she said, "No you have to go because this organizer is offering this pilgrimage for free." When I heard it was for free I said to myself, this time I can't say no. It was a trip for free! So I said, "Ok, I will go there. And when I come back I don't want to hear anything more about it."

 

And so I went to Medjugorje in 1986 for the first time. Medjugorje was different than today, but you know! But I remember I arrived in the bus full of pilgrims and you know I was wearing these clothes, and I didn't want to talk to anyone. I just came here, and they put me in a small house where the group was divided into a few houses. I didn't move from there, I just waited until the bus went back home. And I remember that the only interesting thing here in Medjugorje at that time was the tobacco plants. So the only interesting thing for me was trying the different tobaccos. And then when I finished the pilgrimage finally, I was really happy about that, and I went back home and continued, worse than before.

 

Why do I remember this thing...because I thank God that my mother and this group didn't say anything like "Prayer and sacrifice doesn't help. See we did a lot when he went to Medjugorje, we were so excited and hopeful that when he went to Medjugorje he would change. He would go back and leave the bad company and what he was doing." But it was not like that at that time. So I really thank God that they kept on praying....(More tomorrow)

 

Roland thanks God that his mother and her prayer group did not stop praying for him, even when his first trip to Medjugorje seemed to be a failure. They continued to believe. They did not reject him. They prayed. This is important for all of us who are praying for "lost causes". No cause is lost in God's eyes. And by our patience and perseverance, we can ensure the salvation of those we love.

 

More tomorrow!

 

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!

Cathy Nolan

© Mary TV 2013

 

PS. Don't forget there will be another "Fruit of Medjugorje" .