Mary TV Daily Reflection 11/14/2014 - Our Lady says,"Dear children, if you knew how much I love you, you would cry for joy."

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic (c)Mary TV 2014 J.M.J November 14, 2014 Dear Family of Mary! "Dear children, I am with you with the blessing of my Son, with you who love me and who strive to follow me..." (November 2, 2014) Here is the second half of the transcript of a talk given in the John Paul II Hall in Medjugorje by Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic on October 30, 2014:  Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic, October 30, 2014: A year already after the apparitions started the visionaries asked Our Lady how long she would be with them. One year seemed long. She answered, "Are you already bored of me?" Maybe we can get bored, but she cannot. Maybe we are not able to appreciate this gift, this grace of the apparitions. This is like when we are healthy, we take it for granted, that is has to be that way. But when you get sick you start appreciating health. Then it is so valuable, so precious. And what I usually say to pilgrims when they are about to leave Medjugorje is do not leave Our Lady behind with you here in Medjugorje, take her back home, although she will take you on the narrow pathway. It is not enough just to pray when you are in Medjugorje. It is necessary to make a decision, to take one step by your coming to Medjugorje. At least a small one. A small little decision that we will make our relationship with God more profound. Maybe a decision that we will find time to pray during the day. Maybe a decision that we will visit someone who is sick. Maybe that we will forgive someone. Maybe that we will pray for the gift of forgiveness. Maybe we will pray that we will be more responsible, more disciplined in our obligations and our duties. We can make thousands of decisions. But when we are with God, there is not time to rest. It is impossible to become holy in one day. We can climb the hill, taking small steps so that it doesn't happen to us as it happened to one of the boys. A boy who just started school, who had been in school for just one day, and he returned home, his parents were interested to hear how the day in school went, because it was his first day at school. And the boy said to them, "It was wonderful at school. The teacher is great. She taught us how to sing a song. We also learned some letters. We had a wonderful time." But he said, "There is actually one problem." The parents asked, "What is the problem, what is going on?" And the boy said, "The teacher said we have to come back to school tomorrow!" It is the same with our relationship with God, we need it tomorrow, and we need it every day. The hardest thing in the spiritual life is perseverance, discipline. It is easy to get enthusiastic while we are on a pilgrimage. It is easy to pray when everyone is praying. It is easy to be a Christian in the church. But we need to be enthusiastic about life and accept life when we return home, and we return to the reality of everyday life which is not always pleasant and easy. Sometimes it is difficult.   Many say that here in Medjugorje, we feel at home. We feel so at home. And people feel at home where they are loved, accepted and forgiven and where they are embraced in their own existence, the most profound one. As it says in Sacred Scripture, God created us in love, and we did not invent love. Love is placed in our heart as a desire and we cannot trick our own heart with material things, with expensive things, our heart simply yearns for God, for the one who created the heart and is the only one who can completely fill it. That is why Our Lady says,"Dear children, if you knew how much I love you, you would cry for joy." If you don't start crying now, you can cry tomorrow. If it is out of joy! One young man shared with me how he came to Medjugorje. And he was praying the Rosary up on Apparition Hill, and when he was going down, he entered a shop, and there for the first time he saw a postcard with Our Lady's image. And for the first time he read the words, Our Lady's words, "If you knew how much I love you, you would cry for joy." And then the young man said to me that those words were not empty. It was like a living person was saying to me those words. I experienced them so alive, as if they were addressed to me only, said to me only, and I experienced the kind of love that I have never experienced before. That was grace. Grace to hear, to experience. He did not need to see Our Lady with his eyes. And here we can see each other with our eyes. But the meeting with another person happens inside at another level, at a spiritual level, when you can trust someone and open our soul, when you are accepted by that other person. That is why Our Lady does not say come to Medjugorje in order to see me. We can meet her even without physical eyes. There are spiritual eyes as well. We as people with bodies have the need for clothes, food, drink, but we live far more out of invisible things than visible things. Can you imagine life without honesty, love, trust? We cannot see honesty or love with our eyes but we definitely can experience it. It is the same with hatred. All those spiritual realities can be experienced, felt. And God is the fullness of love. And only the one who carried God in her heart, who knows God well, can guide us to God Himself. God gives us all graces through Our Lady's hands. I would say that Our Lady is teaching us and saying to us, "Do whatever He tells you." I would say that Jesus is saying to us, "Do whatever my Mother is saying to you here in Medjugorje." And that is why Medjugorje today is not a threat to the Church. But a gift to the Church. And the Church recognizes that gift. And that is why the official Church did not say "no" to Medjugorje. But the Church is open to this gift of grace. In the last message Our Lady said, "This is the time of grace. Pray for the intercession of all the saints who are in the light." We are not there yet. We are on the journey, we are not in the Promised Land yet. We know how the Israelites left Egypt, but they did not straight away enter the Promised Land. Between the slavery of Egypt and the Promised Land, there is a desert. Many when they convert, when they spiritually wake up, it seems that they are leaving the slavery of Egypt. But after their conversion temptations come. Temptations to go back to Egypt because it is not easy to live in the desert. There was a lot to eat in Egypt, rice, cabbage, meat, lamb. But there was nothing in the desert. So there was a temptation to go back, to return to where they were. And we can experience that temptation. When a hardship comes, death of your loved ones, injustice, when you see catastrophes and hardships happening, you can ask yourself if there is a God. Is God merciful if He allows all this to happen? We think about Jesus' passion, the Father's pain, Who out of love gave His Son, the pain of the Father. Our God felt pain, our God is not a cold, heavenly being, but our God became a man and He had a human heart and He spoke the human language, worked with human hands. Our God is so close because He took our destiny. And Our Lady also did not live in the clouds. She lived on the earth, and that is why she speaks words that can be understood, words that we can all receive in our heart, carry in our heart and live. And that is why from my heart I wish that all this can happen to you. That you may bring Our Lady back home in your heart. Like the disciple John who, when Jesus entrusted the Mother to him, and him to the Mother, when Jesus from the Cross said, "Behold your Mother." That here in Medjugorje we may recognize her as our own mother who prays for us, who intercedes for us, and she can help us as much as our heart is open to it. Therefore I also thank you for your patience. I wish you a blessed pilgrimage, a blessed stay here in Medjugorje, and a true encounter with Our Lady. Glory be to the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever without end. Queen of Peace, pray for us! God in peace. Thank you, Father Ljubo!  Such practical wisdom!!  Real and down to earth, just like Our Lady!! In Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Cathy Nolan ©Mary TV 2014 PS. Don't forget that on Saturday, November 15, Mary TV will air an Evening of Prayer for Peace from St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, 10:00 am EST to 4:00 pm EST (4:00 pm to 9:00 pm Vienna time). Due to the live streaming, the Daily Rosary will be moved to 9:00 am EST (only for Saturday) ! Don't miss it!

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