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October 18, 2013
Dear children of Medjugorje, praised be Jesus and Mary!
1 - On October 2, 2013, Mirjana received
her monthly apparition at the Blue Cross, surrounded by a big crowd.
After the apparition, she gave us the following message:
"Dear children! I
love you with a motherly love and with a motherly patience I wait for
your love and unity. I pray that you may be a community of God's
children, of my children. I pray that as a community you may joyfully
come back to life in the faith and in the love of my Son. My children, I
am gathering you as my apostles and am teaching you how to bring others
to come to know the love of my Son; how to bring to them the Good News,
which is my Son. Give me your open, purified hearts and I will fill
them with the love for my Son. His love will give meaning to your life
and I will walk with you. I will be with you until the meeting with the
Heavenly Father. My children, it is those who walk towards the Heavenly
Father with love and faith who will be saved. Do not be afraid. I am
with you. Put your trust in your shepherds as my Son trusted when He
chose them, and pray that they may have the strength and the love to
lead you. Thank you."
2. Saints are truly alive! Sister Briege McKenna just spent a few days in Medjugorje, which was a great joy for us (See PS1).
The last evening of her stay, October 1st, was Little Flower's feast
day. Sr. Briege told us a very touching fact about her connection to
Little Flower that can help us better profit from the help of Heaven,
especially now that All Saints Day is near.
"One day", she said. "Jesus spoke to my heart and told me, 'Go and talk to the priests and bishops'. My answer was, 'Come on Lord, I am a first grade teacher'. A few months later I met a Jesuit priest who told me, 'You know, Briege, the Lord put something in my heart - to invite you to give a priest retreat.' I replied to him, 'you didn't hear right. You know I teach first grade'. 'Don't worry,' he said. 'These priests are like children, they are very open and charismatic.'
I had to lead that retreat for about 60 priests, without him, because
he had to be hospitalized the next day. Never in my life had I stood
before priests. They couldn't see but my knees were shaking. So I prayed
St Therese, and to make a long story short, the retreat was very
blessed.
"Not
long after that a bishop from California who had heard about the
retreat invited me to preach another one in San Diego. I felt a little
bit more secure, seeing that the Lord had worked well during the first
retreat. As soon as I arrived at the 2nd retreat, one priest of the
retreat said to me, 'There are only 50 parish priests on the retreat.
They do not want to be here, their bishop forced them to come. They are
absolutely mad that there is a nun coming, and they want to tear you
apart.' Then, there was a fight in me and I said: "Jesus, YOU got me here!"
"The
next day, I learned that this Trappist brother had to leave so he put
me in charge of all the conferences! Then I recalled all the horrible
things these priests had said about me. On the morning of the retreat, I
got up very early and prayed for several hours. Then knowing that there
was a statue of St Therese in the campus grotto, I bought for her the
biggest candle I could find, and I went to pray to her: 'Listen,
Saint Therese! For me, leading this retreat is worse than going into
the lions' den. Please help me, please come with me, and you help me
talk to these priests!"
"When
I walked into the conference room, all these priests had their arms
folded, and you could see by body language that they were not very happy
to be there. Anyway I started to give my 1st talk. I gave 3 talks that day and I knew I had them because you could see a transformation.
After super I went back to the grotto with another candle that I lit in front of St Therese and I said to her, 'I really want to thank you for being with me today.'
"Later I met an Irish Monsignor who told me, 'I
never in my life listened to a nun. I was very resentful. You know,
this morning, when you were talking to us, you told us to close our
eyes, but I did not close my eyes. I had my head down for a moment and
then I looked up to see what you were doing.' Then he asked me, 'Do you have a devotion to St Therese?' I asked 'why?' 'Because,
you know, I don't see visions, but St Therese was standing by your side
before us. I realized at that moment that Therese was here to help
you.'"
Sr.
Briege continued, "It taught me something about the saints! I often
tell this story to parents when they are choosing a name for their
child. I tell them, 'Ask that saint to give your child his own gifts,
so that your child can continue to glorify Jesus in the manner that
this saint glorified Him! When you have the name of a saint, that saint
loves to accompany you. He helps you to accomplish what you have to do
in your life to be a saint. When we invite the saints, they actually
will come and accompany us in our work and in our ministries!"
This
testimony from Sister Briege, corroborates with the urging invitation
from the Gospa to read the lives of saints and pray with them. On the
spiritual side, most Catholics live below their means and miss huge
graces offered to them by the elected ones in Heaven. So before
Halloween, rather than collect pumpkins, let us devour the life of a
saint and ask him to come and help us, either our patron saint or
another one of our choice. Of course it is not about watching for a
vision like the one the bishop had of St Therese; but we can be assured
of the effective response from the saint, because in Heaven, angels and
saints love us with the very love of God.
3. Medjugorje in Rome! We
have good news! For the Marian days of October 12-13, Pope Francis,
honoring the program prepared by Pope Benedict XVI before his departure,
invited the representatives of the Marian shrines, officially
recognized by the Church (see PS2). At the same time, Father
Marinko Sakota, Medjugorje's parish priest, received an invitation from
Rome to attend these Marian Days with 30 parishioners who were there in
the beginning days of apparitions in Medjugorje. The small group left
Medjugorje on October 10th, making a first stop at the Loretto shrine, near Ancona.
It
is noteworthy that among the Marian shrines officially recognized, like
Fatima, Lourdes, Banneux, Guadalupe, etc., the Pope also wished for the
presence of the representatives of Medjugorje! In fact, Medjugorje was
the only Marian shrine unrecognized (or "not yet recognized") among all
these shrines with a glorious past! Besides, according to Ivan Ivankovic
(in prison with Father Jozo in 1981 for having said that he had seen
the Cross dance on the Krizevac), the small group was surprised to have
been offered choice seats in St Peter's Square for both days. Indeed,
our friends got some of the best places, behind the bishops and
cardinals, quite close to the Pope.
Even
if this is not equivalent to an official recognition from the Church,
this tacit initiative from the Pope may still be considered a
significant act regarding Medjugorje. The 'Medjugorje file' is going
along positively and we give thanks to God for it.
Let us pray that the results of the Commission created by Pope Benedict for Medjugorje will be published without delay.
Dearest Gospa,
you said in Fatima: "At the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph."
Thank you! In this way, you announce a beautiful future for the world.
We beseech you, may you hasten to crush the serpent's head and help us
hasten the triumph of your Heart in living your messages and in
consecrating our lives to you!
Sister Emmanuel +
(Translated from French)
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