(c)Mary TV 2013
J.M.J.
October 23, 2013
St. John of Capistrano
Dear Family of Mary!
"Dear children! Also today I call you to prayer. May your relationship with prayer be a daily one. Prayer works miracles in you and through you, therefore, little children, may prayer be a joy for you. Then your relationship with life will be deeper and more open and you will comprehend that life is a gift for each of you. Thank you for having responded to my call." September 25th, 2013
In two days we will
receive another message from Our Lady of Medjugorje. It is time to
review the message given last month for us. What a beautiful message it
is! Our Lady tells us that when our relationship with prayer is a daily
one, we will find that our relationship with life will be "deeper and
more open". Truly we will understand that our lives are gifts.
It's time to listen to
Fr. Jacques Philippe again! Here is an excerpt from his book, "Time for
God". His words are very helpful for those of us struggling with daily
prayer:
6. Humility and poverty of heart.
Recall
St. Teresa of Avila's words, "The whole edifice of prayer is founded
upon humility." Scripture says that "God opposes the proud, but gives
grace to the humble" (1 Pet. 5:5).
Humility, then, is one of the basic attitudes of the heart without which perseverance in mental prayer is impossible.
Humility
lies in peaceful acceptance of one's own radical poverty, which leads
people to place all their trust in God. Humble people, for whom God is
everything, are happy to accept the fact that they are nothing. They
don't carry on about their wretchedness: they consider it a stroke of
luck, since it gives God the chance to show how merciful he is.
Without
humility we cannot persevere in mental prayer. In fact, doing mental
prayer necessarily means experiencing our poverty, being stripped of
everything, feeling naked. In other kinds of prayer and spiritual
activities there is always something to support us: a certain knowledge
of how to do these things correctly, the sense of doing something
useful, and so on. Even in community prayer, we can rely on the others.
But in solitude and silence before God, we find ourselves unsupported,
alone with the reality of our self and our poverty. Of course, it is
very difficult for us to accept the fact that we are so poor; that is
why people naturally tend to avoid silence. And in mental prayer the
experience of poverty can't be avoided. True, we may often experience
the sweetness and tenderness of God; but just as often we shall find our
own wretchedness: our inability to pray, our distractions, the wounds
of our memory and imagination, the recollection of our faults and
failures, worries for the future, etc. This is why people have no
difficulty discovering a thousand excuses for avoiding that state of
inaction before God, that lays bare their radical nothingness;
ultimately, they refuse to be poor and weak.
Yet it is
precisely that trusting, joyful acceptance of weakness that is the
source of all spiritual riches: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven" (Mt 5:3).
Humble
people persevere in the life of prayer without presumption and without
relying on themselves. They don't consider anything as their due, don't
consider themselves able to do anything by their own strength, aren't
surprised to find that they have difficulties, weaknesses, and constant
falls, but put up with all these peacefully, without making much of
them, because they place all their hope in God and are certain that they
will obtain from God's mercy all that they are powerless to do or merit
for themselves.
Humble
people are never discouraged because they trust not in themselves but in
God. Ultimately, that is what really matters. "It is discouragement
that causes souls to be lost," says Father Libermann. True humility and
trust always go hand in hand.
For
example, we must never let ourselves become discouraged over our
lukewarmness or the realization of how little we love God. Beginners in
the spiritual life, on reading the lives of saints or their writing, may
sometimes feel downhearted in the face of the burning expressions of
love for God they find there, so far beyond anything they themselves
feel. They tell themselves they will never attain these heights. This is
a very common temptation. Let us persevere in good will and trust: God
himself will give us the love with which we can love him. Strong,
burning love for God does not come naturally. It is infused in our
hearts by the Holy Spirit, who will be given to us if we ask for him
with persistence of the widow in the Gospel. It is not always those who
feel the most fervent at the start who go furthest in the spiritual life
- far from it, in fact!
(Fr. Jacques Philippe. "Time for God." Scepter Publishers. p. 20-23)
Through prayer we actually
are given a new relationship with ourselves! We begin to understand
ourselves for what we really are, poor and totally dependent upon God.
And this relationship with ourselves will be the basis of a life of
complete joy and miraculous grace! Prayer works miracles. It works the
miracle of remaking us into saints who are totally in love with God!
Thank you, dear Mother, for coming to lead us into prayer!
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2013
PS. Fr. Jacques Philippe's books are available at
www.scepterpublishers.org
"Medjugorje is the spiritual center of the world!"
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