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April 15 2014
Dear children of Medjugorje,
Praised be Jesus and Mary! Happy Easter!
1. On April 2, 2014 Mirjana received her monthly apparition at the Blue Cross on a lovely sunny spring day! After the apparition she gave the following message:
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| English: St. James Church in Međugorje. Polski: Kościół św. Jakuba w Međugorje (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
"Dear
children, with a motherly love I desire to help you for your life of
prayer and penance to be a sincere attempt of drawing closer to my Son
and His divine light - that you may know how to separate yourselves from
sin. Every prayer, every Mass and every fasting is an attempt of
drawing closer to my Son, a reminder of His glory and a refuge from sin -
it is a way to a renewed union of the good Father and His children.
Therefore, my dear children, with hearts open and full of love, cry out
the name of the Heavenly Father that He may illuminate you with the Holy
Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit you will become a spring of God's love.
All those who do not know my Son, all those thirsting for the love and
peace of my Son, will drink from this spring. Thank you. Pray for your
shepherds. I pray for them and I desire that they may always feel the
blessing of my motherly hands and the support of my motherly heart. "
2. Struck by the Holy Spirit! Battistina
is definitely an Italian woman of our time. She is a 47-year old
internet-based accountant. When her partner invited her to go to
Medjugorje, she was not very interested. Then, one morning, on her car
radio, she heard the song, often played by Radio Maria that had
irritated her so much for years when she was looking for a program.
Unexpectedly that song moved her deeply; her tears flowed continuously,
without any apparent reason. She understood that the Blessed Mother was
calling her. But I will let her tell her own story ...
"Since
a pilgrimage to Medjugorje in July 2012, everything has changed in my
life, nothing is like before! My conversion happened during the
adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. There were thousands of us outside
around the Rotunda. Suddenly I found myself on my knees and I had the
feeling that I was holding my living heart in my hands. I saw my entire
life scroll down before my eyes. I clearly saw the good and the bad, and
everything that seemed good at the time was becoming bad. I started to
feel a great pain about my divorce.
How could I have broken a promise made in front of God? These words echoed in my mind, 'let no one split apart what God has joined together'.
I then understood that my serenity was only in my mind because my heart
was ice-cold. I had always felt I was on the side of the "righteous"
and that I was a victim. Suddenly I saw how hard my heart was, I saw the
suffering of my 4 children, what my father and my in-laws had endured,
and I especially saw that I was not at all a victim. Actually I had
never forgiven anyone. When my oldest daughter, 9 year-old and in 4th
grade, had insisted on doing her first Holy Communion, I had told her it
made no sense; and my last child had not even been baptized! I saw all
the New Age books that I had bought over the past 20 years. How could I
have spent all that time reading and taking courses on self-development,
things that only ended up pushing me away from God and my family?
The
pain was getting stronger and stronger and little by little I found
myself with my face to the ground. I told myself, 'Lord, let me die
here, because I am not worthy of even lifting my head from the ground'.
At that moment I felt something like a huge hug filled with love, and a
joy that is not of this world. And I told myself, 'During 18 years I
thought I had given my children everything, but actually I had not given
them anything because I had not given them this. So if I stay here to
pray for them for the rest of my life, would that not be better than
anything that I could do if I went back home? If I, as a mother, the
soul of the household, had cultivated prayer instead of cultivating
useless things, my children would still have a united family today!'
I
understood that when you make the decision to shrug off the cross of
marriage, you are actually putting it on your children's shoulders.
Then
I felt that I had to keep the promise of faithfulness in marriage, so I
decided to make a vow of chastity. I offered this to God so that a
thousand families would not separate. My life partner felt the same way.
He also told me that we should consecrate ourselves completely. Some
priests told me that the vow of chastity was not necessary, others that
it was just something we had made up, but I was quite certain and
determined because it seemed so little in comparison with the infinite
mercy that I had received.
My
children thought I had become crazy because I was going to church and
hung up a crucifix in the living-room. My eldest daughter was very
irritated by my enthusiasm, and she told me, 'So what about all the
things you've been telling us for the past 18 years?' 'I am sorry,' I
told her. 'I was mistaken!'
In
November I went back to Medjugorje with my 4 children so that they too
would have an understanding and wisdom. I was very hopeful that they
would meet the Lord. I was watching them from a distance, and waiting I
thought, 'But if I, their mother, with the little love I am capable of,
am so happy to see my children pray, how much happier must our Heavenly
Mother be? And how unhappy will she be for her children who get lost!
During
the pilgrimage all of my children's hearts were touched. We started
studying the Catechism together. Nine months later, the youngest, 10
years old, was baptized, and all my children received Holy Communion
during the same celebration. This was the most beautiful day of my life!
It was as if I could see them all being reborn at the same time. My
partner and I stayed together for a year, living like brother and
sister. But every day I was asking God to be able to understand what His
will was, whether we should stay close to support one another, or be
separated completely. I kept that doubt in my heart for a long time but
little by little the Lord led our paths to grow apart because of work.
After
my conversion, I contacted my ex-husband again. For nine years every
telephone call had ended with yelling on both sides; so for a year we
did not talk to each other, and he would communicate with me through the
children. When I recognized my mistakes,I looked at his faults as the
consequences of my own, and then my resentment disappeared. I was the
one who should ask for forgiveness! Little by little I started to feel
the deep bond of marriage, sealed by God, and to feel once again a
spouse. Yet I did not understand it. I asked a priest if it was all
right to feel that I was a spouse, even though my husband was bonded to
another person and had a son. The priest answered that the sacrament of
marriage was indissoluble before God.
Now
the love that I thought had been cancelled or even had never existed, I
found it once again intact in the depths of my heart. I keep it in its
purity and I pray every day for the conversion of my ex-husband and for
all the families. I thank Jesus and Mary for the infinite grace that my
family receives every day and I continue onward on this path of
conversion."
3. What Battistina experienced,
in concentrated form and in consecutive steps, is what frequently
happens for Medjugorje pilgrims: invited by Our Lady without knowing
why, Battistina came; and by a special grace, she saw her whole life in
the light of the Holy Spirit. She understood with her heart the mercy
of God for her, she regretted her sins (that she did not see before),
and she cried over them, renounced them, and confessed them. She could
see herself being thoroughly transformed and she took action, making
changes in her life according to what pleases God, with the help of a
good priest, faithful to the Magisterium of the Church. What a powerful
example! Many people just stop at the graces they received, but it is a
good thing to take concrete action once you get back home! This
testimony will help us enter fully, together with Jesus, into this time
of mercy that is offered to us now as never before!
4. The Novena to Divine Mercy is an awesome present from God. It begins on Good Friday and ends on the Sunday after Easter which Pope John Paul II declared Mercy Sunday.
May this powerful prayer - and the promises attached to it - bring to
each one of us a real renewal of love for Christ! May it help us abandon
sin and decide for holiness! You can find the Divine Mercy Novena and
Chaplet here: http://childrenofmedjugorje.org/blog/
Dearest Gospa, we
are celebrating with joy your divine motherhood of us, because Jesus is
telling us again today, "Behold your Mother"! Like John, we are taking
you into our home in order to live each minute of our lives with you!
Your maternal Heart delights us! In these days of great blessings,
please tell us the secrets you have about the Heart of your Son!
Sister Emmanuel +
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