Mary TV Daily Reflection 6/10/2014

Forgiveness is love 

(c) Mary TV 2014

J.M.J

June 10, 2014

Dear Family of Mary!

"Dear children... I ask of you to unite with me in my Son and to be my apostles. For you to be able to do so, I am calling you, anew, to love. There is no love without prayer - there is no prayer without forgiveness; because love is prayer - forgiveness is love. My children, God created you to love and you love so as to forgive. Every prayer that comes out of love unites you with my Son and the Holy Spirit..." June 2, 2014

Last night Mary TV aired the testimony of Deacon John Taaffe from Ireland. I have been waiting for this testimony to be shared, as it is incredible!! And it is a great example of what Our Lady is talking about in her June 2, 2014 message...forgiveness is love!

Please go to www.marytv.tv and watch the newest "Fruit of Medjugorje" Episode 118. It should be posted on the webpage by tomorrow.

I want to transcribe a short part of that testimony for you all here. It is a story Deacon John tells during his homily in St. James Church, English Mass, June 2, 2014. It makes me cry...

Our Lady is guiding every one of us to her Son. And every day she is just guiding us so easily and gently back to her Son. She is encouraging us, the Holy Spirit, God who is alive in each of us, she is encouraging us to be open to Him. Here is a little story I will tell you. You know there are lots of stories when you bring groups here for many years, there are lots of stories and miracles that you see. And the most important miracles are the miracles of the heart. People's hearts, when they come here, may be very hardened. But as the week goes on they soften, and they come to know God more, they find peace, they find love, they find joy in their hearts.

I remember...I have worked for many years as an addiction counselor, and now I am working with the bishop's conference in Ireland, setting up projects around drugs and alcohol in parishes. But once I was working as a counselor with the health board, and I was working with this girl. This girl was one of the unfortunate people who has gone through a lot of hurt and pain through the Church.

When I met her first she couldn't look me in the eye, and the pain she was going through....I went home and went before the Blessed Sacrament that night, and I remember the Lord telling me in my heart, "Stick with this girl. Pray for her and keep praying for her." I worked with her and worked with her. She went through a serious hard time and because of that she was cutting herself every day. She was overdosing every week. She was jumping into rivers, being dragged out of rivers...And my heart said, "Lord I am really finding it hard to trust because this girl is really, really struggling.

I asked her then, "Would you like to come to Medjugorje?" She said, "I can't come to Medjugorje because I can't be around a priest. I can't be near priests." That is where she was at that time. Eventually this girl said, "Listen John, I'll go over, but I will go over because of the sun, I can sit out on the balcony and the scars that I have maybe they will heal up."

The first day we arrived, I said, "Come on, let's go up apparition hill. We'll go very early in the morning. And she said, "Ok." And we went up Apparition hill with the group, and as we went up I looked over at this girl, on her knees taking sharp stones out of elderly people's feet. And my heart broke. And I went up the hill, and I was just praying and praying, saying, "Our Lady, please touch this girl."

I came back down, and I had a little bit of resentment, because our priests are so special. Our priests are really so special. And like everything, there is always one bad apple, like in every part of life. And I went to confession when I came down that night, and I sat with this priest, and I told him how I was feeling about this girl. And the priest said to me, "Come on, take my hands." So I took his hands, and he said, "Watch the miracle!" And I said, "Father you don't understand..." And he said, "Trust, trust. Watch the Lord and our Blessed Mother work in this situation."

I walked away, and sat at the wall by the hedge. There was a tap on my shoulder five minutes later, and this girl said, "John, I was sitting in the apartment, and I felt it in my heart that I have to come down and go to confession." She said, "Will you come with me? I can't come by myself, will you come with me?" I said, "I can't come with you but I'll be in the queue with you. I was just with that beautiful, beautiful priest over there. If you want to go to him, I will stand in the queue with you." She said, "Ok."

She shook. I have never seen drops [of sweat] coming from anyone's hands so much. She got in the queue and we stayed and prayed. As we got to the top of the line the priest turned and winked at me. She went over and sat down and I was there saying "Please, please, please, please Lord..." Ten minutes passed, a half hour passed, three quarters of an hour passed, an hour passed, and hour and a half passed, wow!! And after an hour and a half, the two of them stood up and hugged each other, and I just started to cry.

That girl came back to me and said, "John I want to receive Jesus at Mass in the morning. I haven't received Jesus in a long time. I want to receive Jesus." The next morning she came and received Jesus. She was so full of life again. We went up to the Blue Cross [a day or two later] and talked about leaving things at the Cross, leaving things at the foot of the Cross.  And she said, "I forgive him." She didn't find it easy to forget, but she found the words which were the start of her freedom, "I forgive him." That girl now comes to Medjugorje every year with me.

I thank God, because these are the miracles that happen here in Medjugorje. Yes the Son is waiting for us, the Son is waiting for us in the confessional, where our blessed priests are available for any of us to come and reconcile with God. Use the opportunity this week to reconcile with God because there is no doubt about it. On my first trip I looked at the confessionals and said, "These are the interrogation boxes!" No, it is far from it. These are the boxes that are full of love. It doesn't matter if we don't remember the prayers. The priests will bring us through that. The important thing is to reconcile with God. Reconcile with yourself. Reconcile with our brothers and sisters. Use the opportunity to draw closer to God especially this week as we move closer to Pentecost. The Spirit is stirring so much within each one of us. I know that through my time here, the love and peace and joy that I have received in my life, my vocation which I received here, all of these things... my family has come back to their faith through Medjugorje...it's amazing. If we change, then we can change our families, we can change our town, we can change our country. Amen.  (Deacon John Taaffe) 

"There is no love without prayer - there is no prayer without forgiveness; because love is prayer - forgiveness is love."

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!

Cathy Nolan

©Mary TV 2014