Prayer and Fasting
(c)Mary TV 2013
(c)Mary TV 2013
J.M.J.
September 6, 2013
Dear Family of Mary!
"Dear children, I love you all. All of you, all of my children, all of you are in my heart. All of you have my motherly love and I desire to lead all of you to come to know God's joy. This is why I am calling you. I need humble apostles who, with an open heart, will accept the Word of God and help others to comprehend the meaning of their life alongside God's word. To be able to do this, my children, through prayer and fasting you must learn to listen with the heart and to learn to keep submitting yourselves. You must learn to keep rejecting everything that distances you from God's word and to yearn only for that which draws you closer to it. Do not be afraid. I am here. You are not alone. I am imploring the Holy Spirit to renew and strengthen you. I am imploring the Holy Spirit that, as you help others, you too may be healed. I am imploring Him that, through Him, you may be God's children and my apostles. For the sake of Jesus, for the sake of my Son, love those whom He has called and long for the blessing only from the hands which He has consecrated. Do not permit evil to come to reign. Anew I repeat - only alongside your shepherds will my heart triumph. Do not permit evil to separate you from your shepherds. Thank you." (Message to Mirjana, (09/02/13)
"To be able to do
this, my children, through prayer and fasting you must learn to listen
with the heart and to learn to keep submitting yourselves."
Prayer and fasting are the
two basic tools Our Lady uses to form us into her apostles. She has
asked us to pray in almost every message. Prayer is like breathing, it
provides us with the oxygen of heaven. We will soon suffocate under the
weight of the world without prayer, our faith will fade, our hope will
extinguish and our love will grow cold. And Our Lady also asks for
fasting, many times. Fasting is like the wood for the fire. When we
fast, we offer up our bodily needs and comforts as fuel for the fire of
love that will ignite when the Holy Spirit takes the oxygen of prayer
and the wood of fasting and creates fire from heaven.
This heavenly fire lights up the world.
On September 1, 2013, our
Holy Father asked the whole Church to take up these two tools in a
special way on Saturday, September 7 (the eve of the Birth of the
Blessed Virgin Mary. Queen of Peace). He is asking for prayer and
fasting for peace, especially in Syria and the Middle East. He said:
All men and
women of good will are bound by the task of pursuing peace. I make a
forceful and urgent call to the entire Catholic Church, and also to
every Christian of other confessions, as well as to followers of every
religion and to those brothers and sisters who do not believe: peace is a
good which overcomes every barrier, because it belongs all of humanity!
I repeat forcefully: it is neither a culture of confrontation nor a culture of conflict which builds harmony within and between peoples, but rather a culture of encounter and a culture of dialogue; this is the only way to peace.
May the plea for peace rise up and touch the heart of everyone so that they may lay down their weapons and let themselves be led by the desire for peace.
To this end, brothers and sisters, I have decided to proclaim for the whole Church on 7 September next, the vigil of the birth of Mary, Queen of Peace, a day of fasting and prayer for peace in Syria, the Middle East, and throughout the world, and I also invite each person, including our fellow Christians, followers of other religions and all men of good will, to participate, in whatever way they can, in this initiative.
On 7 September, in Saint Peter's Square, here, from 19:00 until 24:00, we will gather in prayer and in a spirit of penance, invoking God's great gift of peace upon the beloved nation of Syria and upon each situation of conflict and violence around the world. Humanity needs to see these gestures of peace and to hear words of hope and peace! I ask all the local churches, in addition to fasting, that they gather to pray for this intention.
Let us ask Mary to help us to respond to violence, to conflict and to war, with the power of dialogue, reconciliation and love. She is our mother: may she help us to find peace; all of us are her children! Help us, Mary, to overcome this most difficult moment and to dedicate ourselves each day to building in every situation an authentic culture of encounter and peace. Mary, Queen of Peace, pray for us!
(Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/
of the Vatican Radio website )
We want to ignite the Fire
of Love over the whole world!! It is prayer and fasting that will draw
down the Holy Spirit, the Fire of God's love, to set hearts ablaze with
the peace and love of heaven. May it be so!
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2013
"Medjugorje is the spiritual center of the world!"
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