Medjugorje Message: December 25, 2016
Dear children! With great joy, today I am carrying my Son Jesus to you, for Him to give you His peace. Open your hearts, little children, and be joyful that you can receive it. Heaven is with you and is fighting for peace in your hearts, in the families and in the world; and you, little children, help with your prayers for it to be so. I bless you with my Son Jesus and call you not to lose hope; and for your gaze and heart to always be directed towards Heaven and eternity. In this way, you will be open to God and to His plans. Thank you for having responded to my call.
Annual Message to Jacov Colo: December 25, 2016
Dear children! Today, on this day of grace, in a special way, I am calling you to pray for peace. Children, I came here as the Queen of Peace and how many times have I called you to pray for peace. But, children, your hearts are restless. Sin is preventing you from opening yourselves completely to grace and peace which God desires to give you. To live peace, my children, is to first have peace in your hearts and to be surrendered completely to God and to His will. Do not seek peace and joy in the things of this world, because this is all passing. Long for true mercy and peace which come only from God; and only in this way will your hearts be filled with true joy; and only in this way will you be able to become witnesses of peace in this peaceless world. I am your mother and intercede before my Son for each of you. Thank you for having responded to my call.
River of Light
January 2017
Our Lady’s monthly message to the world and her annual message to Jacov Colo, both given on Christmas Day, focus–unsurprisingly–on PEACE. First, in her December 25th message to the world, Our Lady, as always, comes in a celebratory way, “with great joy, carrying my Son Jesus to you, for Him to give you His peace.” She says, “Open your hearts, little children, and be joyful that you can receive it.” In these dark and uncertain times in which we live, many people arrived at Christmas in a state of fearful anxiety and depression verging on despair, feeling hopeless about the future of our country and our planet torn by division, moral degradation, escalating hostility, nature’s destruction and new threats to world peace. Our Lady reminds us that the peace we seek is not something that we alone can create or achieve in our fallen human condition–a condition that scripture calls “the world.” Any of us who have tried to find and sustain our own inner peace–much less family or world peace–have been humbled by the fact that we simply cannot do it on our own; we need help. Mary confirms that peace is indeed a GIFT of the Christ–a great blessing to be received when we can open to it by not being “overfilled” by personal agendas and programs for accomplishing it on our own.
Jesus said, “Peace I leave you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you.” (Jn 14:27) Our Lady is reminding us, in the midst of our unpeaceful state, to “be joyful that we can receive” this peace of Christ–that we do not have to manufacture it out of the impossibly flawed and weak mechanisms of our own human condition, but that it is a GIFT to us when our hands and hearts are open to receive. She goes on to say, “Heaven is with you and is fighting for peace in your hearts, in the families and in the world; and you, little children, help with your prayers for it to be so.” Here she redirects our fretful and fixated attention away from our own failed dreams, plans and efforts for a more peaceful, just and loving world, reminding us that Heaven is “fighting the good fight” on our behalf—aided by our prayers for peace–first in our innermost being, then in our families suffering strife and division, and finally in the world so wounded by polarized positions, greed, selfishness, vengeful retaliation and unforgiveness.
Our Blessed Mother knows very well our true circumstances and inner condition–the legitimate dangers and losses we face–and so she says, “I bless you with my Son Jesus and call you not to lose hope; and for your gaze and heart to always be directed towards Heaven and eternity. In this way, you will be open to God and to His plans.”Our Lady’s Christmas message thus resets our perspective, turning our eyes away from obsessive introspective brooding filled with worry and gloom, and upward, instead, to a “Big Picture” view “always directed towards Heaven and eternity.” Here is a perspective that lifts us from the mire of our own earthly blunders at peace-building to the infinite possibility of God’s plans for our peace, both here and hereafter.
In her annual Christmas message to the visionary Jacov, Our Lady takes a less celebratory tone and a more maternal, correcting/admonishing, instructive approach that challenges us to do better as her children and as “witnesses of peace” in the world. She begins by calling us, for the umpteenth time, to “pray for peace,” and by reviewing her history with us in Medjugorje: “Children, I came here as the Queen of Peace and how many times have I called you to pray for peace. But, children, your hearts are restless. Sin is preventing you from opening yourselves completely to grace and peace which God desires to give you.” So we’re a bit chastised right out of the gate! Our Lady’s words show that for her, to “pray for peace” means to “open ourselves completely to grace and peace which God desires to give“; it means opening our hearts in receptivity to the Divine Presence and peacemaking action within our soul–not the busy “doing” of religious deeds or formulaic verbal incantations in order to FORCE peace into existence by our own steam, as if magically producing a rabbit from a hat. This deeply erroneous, self-driven view of prayer that we have held is a recipe for “hearts that are restless,” whereas the silent, surrendered prayer of open-hearted receptivity that Our Lady requests at Medjugorje will actually empower and equip us to “live peace.”
What is the “sin” that Mary says is preventing us from opening ourselves completely to grace? It is our self-seeking tendency to look for happiness in all the wrong places, to constantly take our eyes off of our SOURCE, where all joy lies, and look instead to ourselves and the many paltry options our culture provides for filling our unending neediness. These are the “emotional programs for happiness” that will never work–chasing our culture’s symbols of safety and security, affection and esteem, power and control, and pleasure. A distracting, addictive, idolatrous, and futile search that equals “SIN” and restless hearts unable to pray–i.e. unable to OPEN to Divine Presence. (One example of the False Self programs in action is our tragically polarized U.S. political landscape, in which both conservatives and liberals have been seeking peace and happiness in the “worldly” safety/security agendas they *think* their party leaders will provide.)
Our Lady explains, “To live peace, my children, is to first have peace in your hearts and to be surrendered completely to God and His will. Do not seek peace and joy in the things of this world, because this is all passing. Long for true mercy and peace which come only from God; and only in this way will your hearts be filled with true joy; and only in this way will you be able to become witnesses of peace in this peaceless world.” To be surrendered completely to God and to His will is a grace-filled state that’s the fruit of silent, non-conceptual, meditative or contemplative prayer; it is not the usual result of prayer geared towards seeking the “things of this world” that are “all passing” (such as “my Presidential candidate, my economic interests, my pet ideologies, etc.”). We are to “long for true mercy and peace“ which come “only from God” and not the transient, illusory goods of this world that feed the energy centers of the False Self: bottomless cravings for pleasure, security, esteem, and control.
Going forward prayerfully in this New Year of 2017, let us daily cultivate a sincere LONGING for “true mercy and peace” that only God gives, along with a heart completely open to God’s presence and action within us. Totally surrendered to the Divine Will in all things, may our gaze be fixed upon the “true joy” of “Heaven and eternity” which alone enables us to “live peace” and “witness it in this peaceless world.”
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Christmas Season Reflections
No first-century Israelite would have missed the meaning of Gabriel’s message to Mary at the Annunciation: this child shall be the fulfillment of the promise made to King David. He will be the king of the world, the one who will bring unity and peace to the nations. The angel confirms this to the shepherds at the Nativity. He will be the “Savior ” (“healer” in Greek) who is also “Christ the Lord.” This child will be the point of ordering for the entire world; he’ll be the ruler and governor. This Lord (“Kyrios” or “Dominus“) is the one who should dominate us, rule over every aspect of us.
But with the angel’s next words everything is turned upside down: “And this shall be the sign to you: you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” The new David, Christ the Lord, the Dominus, the center and orderer of all things, the emperor of the universe . . . is a baby? And a baby wrapped up so it can’t move? And lying in the grubby place where the animals eat? Here is all of the poetry and drama of Christmas. Indeed, the divine power is made manifest in weakness, for the divine power is nothing other than LOVE, giving oneself away, being bound to the other, becoming food for those around you. — Bishop Robert Barron
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The full and participatory meaning of Christmas is that this one universal mystery of Divine Incarnation is also intended for us and continuing in us! It is not just about trusting the truth of the body of Jesus, but trusting its extension through the ongoing Body of Christ–which is even a bigger act of faith, hope, and charity and which alone has the power to change history, society, and all relationships. To only hold a mental belief in Jesus as the “Son of God” has little or no effect in the real world. It has largely remained something to argue about.
— Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM
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Somehow I realized that songs, music, good feelings, beautiful liturgies, nice presents, big dinners, and many sweet words do not make Christmas. Christmas is saying “yes” to something beyond all emotions and feelings. Christmas is saying “yes” to a hope based on God’s initiative, which has nothing to do with what I think or feel. Christmas is believing that the salvation of the world is God’s work and not mine. Things will never look just right or feel just right. If they did, someone would be lying. But it is into this broken world that a child is born who is called Prince of Peace, Savior. — Fr. Henri Nouwen
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My Heart, Your Manger
Like the stable in which you lay,
my heart is simple, frail as hay.
But if you would within me stay,
pray, make my heart your manger.
Make my world your Bethlehem,
centerpieced with heaven’s Son.
Make this night a shepherd’s sky,
quickened bright with holy dawn.
Rush the air with cherub’s wings;
brush this earth, let angels sing.
A glimpse of your face, a taste of
your grace–born within this very place!
–Max Lucado
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In the feasts that follow Christmas, all that is contained in the explosion of divine light of Christmas is gradually revealed, culminating in the feast of Epiphany which is the fullness and crowning feast of the Christmas-Epiphany Mystery. In the clear light of Epiphany, faith in the divinity of Jesus and in our incorporation in Him as members of His mystical body, is the LIGHT–our guiding star that empowers us to follow Him and to be transformed into Him. — Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO
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Wisdom from Pope Francis
Parents need to consider what they want their children to be exposed to, and this means being concerned about who is providing their entertainment, who is entering their rooms through television and electronic devices, and with whom they are spending their free time….What is most important is the ability to lovingly help them grow in freedom, maturity, overall discipline and real autonomy….The real question, then, is not where our children are physically, but rather where they are existentially, where they stand in terms of their convictions, goals, desires and dreams. Do we seek to understand “where” our children really are in their journey? Where is their soul?….
Physical or emotional absence creates greater hurt than any scolding which a child may receive for doing something wrong….A good ethical education includes showing a person that it is in his own interest to do what is right. Today, it is less and less effective to demand something that calls for effort and sacrifice, without clearly pointing to the benefits which it can bring….A person may be sociable and open to others, but if over a long period of time he has not been trained by his elders to say “Please,” “Thank you,” and “Sorry,” his good interior disposition will not easily come to the fore…. Without the conscious, free and valued repetition of certain patterns of good behavior, moral education does not take place….Human dignity demands that each of us act out of conscious and free choice, as moved and drawn in a personal way from within…..It is also essential to help children and adolescents realize that misbehavior has consequences…..Children who are lovingly corrected feel cared for; they perceive that they are individuals whose potential is recognized….A balance has to be found between two equally harmful extremes. One would be to try to make everything revolve around the child’s desires; such children will grow up with a sense of their rights but not their responsibilities. The other would be to deprive the child of an awareness of her dignity, personal identity and rights; such children end up overwhelmed by their duties and a need to carry out other people’s wishes.… By demanding too much, we gain nothing….
Postponing desires does not mean denying them but simply deferring their fulfillment….When we are taught to postpone some things until the right moment, we learn self-mastery and detachment from our impulses…..We break out of our fatal self-absorption and come to realize that we are living with others who are worthy of our concern….Every day the family has to come up with new ways of appreciating its members….In the family we can rethink our habits of consumption and join in caring for the environment as our common home…. Communications and entertainment media cannot replace the need for more personal and direct dialogue, which requires physical presence….Sometimes they can keep people apart rather than together, as when at dinnertime someone is surfing a mobile phone, or a spouse spends hours playing with an electronic device…At times they can foster apathy and disconnect from the real world….
The Second Vatican Council spoke of the need for a positive and prudent sex education to be imparted to children and adolescents as they grow older, with due weight given to the advances in the psychological, pedagogical and didactic sciences….Young people need to realize that they are bombarded by messages that are not beneficial for their growth towards maturity. They should be helped to seek out positive influences, while shunning the things that cripple their capacity for love….It is true that masculinity and femininity are not rigid categories….A rigid approach turns into an over-accentuation of the masculine or feminine, and does not help young people to appreciate the genuine reciprocity incarnate in the real conditions of matrimony.
(from Amoris Laetitia—Apostolic Exhortation on the Synod on the Family, ch. 7)
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Mark Your Calendar
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To reject the contemplative dimension of any religion is to reject the religion itself, however loyal one may be to its externals and rituals. This is because the contemplative dimension is the heart and soul of every religion. It initiates the movement into higher states of consciousness. The great wisdom teachings of the Vedas, Upanishads, Buddhist Sutras, Old and New Testaments, and the Koran bear witness to this truth. Right now there are about two billion Christians on the planet. If a significant portion of them were to embrace the contemplative dimension of the gospel, the emerging global society would experience a powerful surge toward enduring peace. If this contemplative dimension of the Christian religion is not presented, the Gospel is not being adequately preached.
– Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO
