 (c)Mateo Ivankovic 2018
May 4, 2018
First Friday
Dear Family of Mary!
Our Lady's message for May 2nd is all about love, only about love, completely centered on love! She wants us to be centered on love too!! And to be centered on love is to be centered on Jesus! He is Love!
Dear children,
All that my Son, who is the light of love, has done and does, He has done out of love. Also you, my children, when you live in love and love your neighbors, you are doing the will of my Son. Apostles of my love, make yourselves little; open your pure hearts to my Son so that He can work through you. With the help of faith, be filled with love.
But, my children, do not forget that the Eucharist is the heart of faith. This is my Son who feeds you with His Body and strengthens you with His Blood. This is a miracle of love: my Son who always comes anew, alive, to bring life back to souls.
My children, by living in love you are doing the will of my Son and He lives in you. My children, my motherly desire is for you to always love Him more, because He is calling you with His love. He is giving you love so that you may spread it to all those around you. As a mother, through His love, I am with you to speak the words of love and hope to you-to speak to you the eternal words that are victorious over time and death-so as to call you to be my apostles of love. Thank you. (May 2, 2018)
Jesus is the light of love! Jesus' will is always love. The Eucharistic Jesus is only and always love. Jesus is the miracle of love. We cannot say it too often. Jesus is love. And it is this love that we encounter in a powerful way in Medjugorje. Many pilgrims have shared over the years that they have encountered Jesus as never before while in Medjugorje. They tell of feeling the love of Jesus in a way that changes them. They feel His love, feel it in their entire being. It is a moment when they are held by Him in His powerful embrace.
It is hitting me that this experience of Jesus' love is essential. If we do not first experience Jesus' love, we cannot understand the life He calls us to live. We must first be loved by Jesus, if we are to turn and love others. And that experience is a gift that God gives to us especially now through Our Lady.
Regina Collins (who shares her testimony on Fruit of Medjugorje #182) experienced the love of God in Medjugorje in an extraordinary way. She received Jesus in Holy Communion and then she was flooded with love - a love she said was coming from God the Father. Jesus and the Father are one. Together they filled Regina with the deepest certainty of their love for her. She described it this way:
And we were brought to our group Mass, and I was thinking, "Oh, one Mass today, and one Mass tomorrow, and then I am home and dry." But this was what God was preparing me for. The group was brought into St. James Church, and we had our group Mass there. During the course of the Mass, people were coming in and out and approaching the Statue of Our Lady, so when it came to the time of Consecration, or just before that, our priest asked us, in Irish, to get out of our seats, and to walk up onto the steps of the altar. I had to go, because I couldn't remain there on my own in the seat. And as I walked up to the altar, and as I went to place my foot on the ground of that altar, I suddenly had a feeling of standing on holy ground. It made me gasp, to breath it in and exhale it out.
Then we were told to join hands for the Our Father, which I did, and the tears started to come again, except this time I wasn't afraid. This time I didn't try to fight them. When we finished praying the Our Father, I looked to my left and to my right, and for the first time in my life I felt love in my heart for the people around me. We greeted each other and made peace with each other and embraced each other and by then the tears were really flowing. And I don't really remember what happened after that. All I remember is receiving Holy Communion, and this is the truly difficult part to explain.
When I received Holy Communion everything disappeared. The church disappeared, the ground beneath my feet disappeared. I was no longer aware of being in a physical building or in a physical place. All I could see was white light. The whitest, brightest most beautiful light you could possibly imagine. It was under my feet, it was completely surrounding me, it was above me. The only way I can explain it is if you dived into a pool, and you're in a pool of water - I was in this never ending dazzling light. And at the same time I felt a powerful energy flow down into my body up through my right side and I felt a powerful energy flowing up from my body and flowing out through my left side. And at the same time I felt so tiny and so insignificant. Somehow I knew that all the pride in my heart was being taken out and I was being filled with love. This love that God has is completely, totally indescribable. There are no words in any language that can describe the love of God the Father. There can be no painting. There can be no music. No song. It is completely indescribable. It is overwhelming. It's a joy that cannot be described.... And I felt so tiny, so insignificant. It was like being cradled in the arms of a father. The only way I can explain it is if you remember if you were a little child and you got lost in a shop and you're very brave. But when your father or your mother finds you and then scoops you up, picks you up, then the tears come and you feel the love of the parent.
I don't know how long this went on for, except that I felt a tap on my shoulder. And I found myself looking up, and it was my sister. And she says, 'Regina, what are you doing on the floor?' And then I looked, and I realized that somehow I had dropped to the floor and had my forehead pressed to the floor, on the altar of the church. And she had to lift me up. And Mass had finished and everybody had left. And that's when the tears really, really started to flow. She left me in the church and I was there for quite some time and it was waves and waves and waves of tears. But this time it was joyful. It wasn't upset tears. I just can't describe it. (Regina Collins. Fruit of Medjugorje #182)
I share this with you all because I believe that Our Lady wants us all to be filled with the love of Jesus. Only in that way will we be able to be apostles of her love, to save this world. Jesus has loved us first. So He will fill us with His love, if we ask, if we desire it. He will come and hug us and hug us and hug us, until we have absorbed His love. This is what He wants for us, and it is essential. Love begets love. Jesus' love will beget love in us and we will turn and love others.
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2018
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