"My children, the Father comes to be know through the cross."
(c)Mary TV 2013
December 5, 2013
Dear Family of Mary!
"Dear children, with a motherly love and a motherly patience I am looking at your ceaseless wandering and how lost you are. That is why I am with you. I desire to help you to first find and come to know yourself, so that, then, you would be able to recognize and to admit everything that does not permit you to get to know the love of the Heavenly Father, honestly and wholeheartedly. My children, the Father comes to be known through the cross. Therefore, do not reject the cross. Strive to comprehend and accept it with my help. When you will be able to accept the cross you will also understand the love of the Heavenly Father; you will walk with my Son and with me; you will differ from those who have not come to know the love of the Heavenly Father, those who listen to Him but do not understand Him, those who do not walk with Him - who have not come to know Him. I desire for you to come to know the truth of my Son and to be my apostles; that, as children of God, you may rise above the human way of thinking and always, and in everything, seek God's way of thinking, anew. My children, pray and fast that you may be able to recognize all of this which I am seeking of you. Pray for your shepherds and long to come to know the love of your Heavenly Father, in union with them. Thank you." (December 2, 2013)
There is a logic to Our
Lady's words that we must explore. She tells us quite plainly that we
need to know ourselves. We need to "recognize and admit
everything that does not permit [us] to get to know the love of the
Heavenly Father, honestly and wholeheartedly." But what are
those things that keep us from getting to know the love of the Heavenly
Father? She tells us quite plainly. She says, "My children, the Father comes to be known through the cross." So those things that do not permit us to know the love of the Father are those things that make us run from the cross.
If we look at our lives, at
our behavior, at our habits and choices, we can see those things that
make us run from the cross. We can see them everywhere! They are right
there in front of us, very close. Examples abound...How about when we
drive. When we get cut off by a thoughtless driver, do we accept the
cross? Do we slow down, silently bless the offender, accept that we will
have a delay in our plans, and embrace the inconvenience with peace? If
we do, we have accepted our cross. If we flare up, say a few choice
words at the offender, and then cut off the next car as we try to get
ahead, then we have run for the cross. We have lost an opportunity to
get closer to the Heavenly Father and His love. The Father would have us
love the people we are driving near, and spread peace. He could then
fill us with His peace and serenity as we drive, and draw us close to
His loving heart. We alone can choose to accept that little cross or
reject it. It isn't much in the scheme of things, but it is a moment of
choice.
Mother Elvira of the
Cenacolo Community has a wonderful way of teaching how to embrace the
cross in our lives, those little moments in which we are offered the
cross and we must decide whether to accept it or not:
We [the Community Cenacolo] have a saying
that's applicable to the moment of suffering and provocation. It
consists of four main words: 'Be silent! Swallow, suffer, and then
smile.' When someone is corrected and justifies himself, the other young
men tell him, 'You missed the boat!' They're talking about the boat of
maturity, of self-control, of the capacity to be silent and not answer
back and to suffer with dignity and in silence.
I teach these things to our young men and
women, because . . . they must be prepared. Their boss at work will not
admit that he is wrong; their husbands or wives will not want to be at
fault; their children will argue and talk back, yet still someone will
have to 'lose' so that peace can reign. Yes, peace is more important
than anything, and to know how to 'lose' is our security.
It is the mysterious school of the cross,
of a God who did not explain it but embraced it, experiencing it in the
flesh of His crucified Son. Jesus invites us to gaze upon Him, to ask
Him for faith and love, so that our heart will not lose hope because,
through the darkness of Good Friday,
our eyes see the splendid light of Easter morning. The Risen Jesus is
our true hope, for in Him pain and death have been defeated." --Mother
Elvira Petrozzi
Silence, swallow, suffer, smile!
This is the way to embrace our crosses. If we react by defending
ourselves, rejecting the impact of the offense, refusing the suffering,
and expressing our anger, then we have run from the cross, and we have
broken with peace and love. We have lost our opportunity to carry our
cross like Jesus. And we have turned our back on the Father.
"The Father comes to be known through the cross." Our crosses are signposts to the love of the Father. They can lead us into Paradise.
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2013
"Medjugorje is the spiritual center of the world!"
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