(c)Mateo Ivankovic 2017
J.M.J.
"By your witness and example, you can draw closer the hearts that are far from God and His grace."
April 28, 2017
Dear Family of Mary!
"Dear children! Love, pray and witness my presence to all those who are far away. By your witness and example, you can draw closer the hearts that are far from God and His grace. I am with you and intercede for each of you so that, with love and resoluteness, you may witness and encourage all those who are far from my Immaculate Heart. Thank you for having responded to my call." (April 25, 2017)
"By your witness and example, you can draw closer the hearts that are far from God and His grace."
Our Lady is calling us in this message and in all of her messages
to truly strive to be her apostles, her devoted ones who are in a very
special way set aside as her own. She is asking us to draw her other
children into her heart, where she can mother them!
St. Louis de Montfort composed a list of characteristics that he
felt describe those who live a true devotion to Mary. I think these
characteristics are familiar to us all, because in Medjugorje Our Lady
has been leading us into this kind of relationship with her.
See for yourself if these are not the example we are to give. Here are his five marks of a soul truly devoted to Mary:
Marks of authentic devotion to our Lady
After having explained and condemned
false devotions to the Blessed Virgin we shall now briefly describe what
true devotion is. It is interior, trustful, holy, constant and
disinterested.
First, true devotion to our Lady is
interior, that is, it comes from within the mind and the heart and
follows from the esteem in which we hold her, the high regard we have
for her greatness, and the love we bear her.
Second, it is trustful, that is to say,
it fills us with confidence in the Blessed Virgin, the confidence that a
child has for its loving Mother. It prompts us to go to her in every
need of body and soul with great simplicity, trust and affection. We
implore our Mother's help always, everywhere, and for everything. We
pray to her to be enlightened in our doubts, to be put back on the right
path when we go astray, to be protected when we are tempted, to be
strengthened when we are weakening, to be lifted up when we fall into
sin, to be encouraged when we are losing heart, to be rid of our
scruples, to be consoled in the trials, crosses and disappointments of
life. Finally, in all our afflictions of body and soul, we naturally
turn to Mary for help, with never a fear of importuning her or
displeasing our Lord.
Third, true devotion to our Lady is holy,
that is, it leads us to avoid sin and to imitate the virtues of Mary.
Her ten principal virtues are: deep humility, lively faith, blind
obedience, unceasing prayer, constant self-denial, surpassing purity,
ardent love, heroic patience, angelic kindness, and heavenly wisdom.
Fourth, true devotion to our Lady is
constant. It strengthens us in our desire to do good and prevents us
from giving up our devotional practices too easily. It gives us the
courage to oppose the fashions and maxims of the world, the vexations
and unruly inclinations of the flesh and the temptations of the devil.
Thus a person truly devoted to our Blessed Lady is not changeable,
fretful, scrupulous or timid. We do not say however that such a person
never sins or that his sensible feelings of devotion never change. When
he has fallen, he stretches out his hand to his Blessed Mother and rises
again. If he loses all taste and feeling for devotion, he is not at all
upset because a good and faithful servant of Mary is guided in his life
by faith in Jesus and Mary, and not by feelings.
Fifth, true devotion to Mary is disinterested. It inspires us to
seek God alone in his Blessed Mother and not ourselves. The true subject
of Mary does not serve his illustrious Queen for selfish gain. He does
not serve her for temporal or eternal well- being but simply and solely
because she has the right to be served and God alone in her. He loves
her not so much because she is good to him or because he expects
something from her, but simply because she is lovable. That is why he
loves and serves her just as faithfully in weariness and dryness of soul
as in sweet and sensible fervour. He loves her as much on Calvary as at
Cana. How pleasing and precious in the sight of God and his holy Mother
must these servants of Mary be, who serve her without any self-seeking.
How rare they are nowadays! It is to increase their number that I have
taken up my pen to write down what I have been teaching with success
both publicly and in private in my missions for many years. (True
Devotion to Mary, n. 105-110)
Thank you to all of you who are striving to live a true
devotion to Mary. In these latter days, you are on the front line in
the battle to save souls!!
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2017
"Medjugorje is the spiritual center of the world."
Saint John Paul II
Be connected!
www.marytv.tv
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