Medjugorje Message: September 25, 2026
Dear children! May this time be a time of prayer for peace. I am calling you to renew in your families the prayer of the Rosary for my intentions, so that I may be able to multiply your prayers and intercede for you before the Most High, to heed your prayers and to give you peace. I am with you and like never before I pray for you and with you, my little children. Thank you for having responded to my call.
River of Light
October 2026
Like Never Before
“May this time be a time of prayer for peace.”
Can we distill it all down—
all our urges, yearnings, wants and wishes?
The things we think we must have or do or be
in order to feel whole—shake all our attractions, aversions, needs and dreads
down to one simple supplication:
Peace.
A prayer for peace.
This time in which we’re living is a time—if ever there was a time—
to pray for Peace….only Peace….nothing but Peace.
For Peace includes all our wants and needs.
“I am calling you to renew in your families the prayer of the Rosary for my intentions.”
Three big asks in one little line:
first, to “renew prayer in our families” where, maybe, dear Lady,
there’s never been family prayer to begin with!
Oh my, how to proceed?
Can we soldier through our awkward discomfort
and the tedium of explaining things that could inaugurate
in our homes a communal spiritual practice with our dear ones?
Our housemate-spouses, siblings, children, parents, friends?
Second, “the prayer of the Rosary,”
which to many of our hopped-up, digitized, neuronormative brains
is a trial in itself with its repetition of words
so alien to the other 23.75 hours of our day’s speech.
Third, “for my intentions“—Our Lady’s.
Not our own? Really?!
With all the effort of rounding up a community,
handing out the beads and repeating the pious words—
we’re to do it all for someone else’s intentions?
Not for our own cherished urges, yearnings, wants and wishes,
attractions, aversions, needs and dreads? But why?
“So that I may be able to multiply your prayers and intercede for you before the Most High, to heed your prayers and to give you peace.”
Here is a mystery to be accepted on faith:
Our Lady claims a supercharged ability
to “multiply our prayers” through her intercessory power
that can rocket them toward realization.
So, coupled with her in a partnership of purpose,
the cause of Peace now marries its own manifestation
in a unique way whenever we say:
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners
Now and at the hour of our death.
By this invitation to her, enlisting and recruiting her aid,
we hitch our wagons to a star: this Woman of the Gospel
promises a heeding of our prayers as surely guaranteed
as the world’s best broker—if given our capital to invest—
for a return like we’ve never seen!
We surrender our treasure to brokers all the time—
and countless scammers, as well:
do we dare turn over twenty minutes a day
to Mary Theotokos, Mother of God,
for her to invest in our future and our beloveds’?
“I am with you and like never before I pray for you and with you, my little children.”
“Like never before” ?
Throughout history you have mediated miracles
by way of the Rosary—many extraordinarily sensational,
profound and public; millions more hidden and unknown!
Through times of war, famine, plague, every scourge of
human brutality and natural disaster—but here,
in the Now of 2026, you are “praying for and with us
Like Never Before” ?
In this, our time of unimaginable potential
for human-engineered mass destruction
via climate crisis, artificial intelligence, the insane horrors of war,
and our toxic misguided “progress and development,”
you see us, maternally, like never before, as “my little children” —
“poor banished children of Eve, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears.”
Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us,
and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, JESUS!
* OCTOBER is the Month of the HOLY ROSARY: Let’s pray daily! *
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PERENNIAL PEARLS…
Empty yourself. Sit quietly, content with the grace of God.
—St. Romuald
The purpose of silence is to break through the crust of the false self.
—Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO
If God is the center of your life, no words are necessary. Your mere presence will touch hearts.
—St. Vincent de Paul
It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than to have words without a heart.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi
Contemplation is a wordless resting in the presence of God beyond all thoughts and images.
—James Finley
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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that we used when we created them.
—Albert Einstein
Division begins in the MIND and can be ended by the HEART.
—Robb Smith
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Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. Each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish.
—St. John Paul II
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“Incarnatio continua!”: The Incarnation continues IN you, AS you.
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Find inner peace and thousands around you will find salvation.
The purpose of the Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit.
—St. Seraphim of Sarov
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LOVE is the most universal, the most tremendous and the most mystical of cosmic forces. LOVE is the primal and universal psychic energy. LOVE is a sacred reserve of energy; it is the blood of spiritual evolution.
—Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
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Every being exists in intimate relation with other beings and in constant exchange of gifts with each other.
—Fr. Thomas Berry, CP
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Recognizing “enoughness” is a radical act in an economy that is always urging us to consume more.
—Robin Wall Kimmerer
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Our Amma/Abba, Divine Source-Who-Is-Love,
Whole and Holy is Your Name.
May Your reign of Love come, Your will of Love be done
Here on earth, just as it is with You.
You give us each day all that we need
and You hold no accounts against us,
just as we wish to hold no accounts against each other or ourselves.
Leave us not in temptation of believing the lie of separation,
But deliver us from its consequences of acting out in fear
and the evil delusions of ego.
For Yours is the power and the glory of endless Life, Light, and Love
now and forever, amen.
—Aramaic translation of the Lord’s Prayer
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OCTOBER PEARLS…
October 4: 800th Anniversary—St. Francis of Assisi
At the end of his life, sick and blind and leprous, Francis of Assisi said to his brothers: “Let us begin anew, for until now we have done nothing.” They were shocked. Everything was behind him—the conversion, the Rule, the order, the stigmata, a lifetime that the Church would spend eight centuries celebrating—and he called it nothing.
But Francis had arrived at that place of interior freedom where every end is a new beginning and every arrival a new departure. He was not despairing. He was free. And by then he was worshipping God in the cathedral of the cosmos, where brother sun and sister moon and sister-mother earth all spoke the divine word of glory and beauty and wonder. The earth is awesome to the core.
So let us begin anew. Not with a new doctrine, but with the meaning the word “catholic” carried before it was given an institutional sense: “I believe in one whole, in which divine and human and cosmic realities are unified.” That is what kath’holou meant. It is what the Nicene Creed professes about the structure of reality that we have long heard as a claim about the true faith.
We are at the end of an era and on the cusp of a new age. The key to life is freedom, and the way to freedom is to die a thousand deaths. Nature lives by death and resurrection. So instead of worrying and mapping our escape route in the face of existential death, maybe it is time to start dying. “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (Jn 12:24) The seed knows something we have forgotten.
It is what every seed knows and every autumn performs without complaint: that nothing becomes new without first consenting to surrender. The word “humus” at the root of the human is not an accident. Soil happens after the letting go. It is the richest ground there is, made entirely of things that agreed to stop being what they were.
Can we let go? Let go of the certainty that was never knowledge? Let go of a divine power located outside ourselves? Let go of the institutions that have confused their survival with their mission, and the explanations that we mistook for understanding, and the small hard self we have defended as if it were the whole of us? Can we let go of the demand that everyone arrive at our conclusions before we’ll consent to love them as persons? Can we let go of doctrines and dogmas that have outlived their usefulness? Can we become, like nature, free in our being-ness? Let us begin anew.
—Sr. Ilia Delio, OSF
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In 1219, during the Fifth Crusade, Francis of Assisi crossed active battle lines in Damietta, Egypt, to meet with the Muslim leader, Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil. Initially arrested, Francis was received by the Sultan as an honored guest. They spent multiple days in peaceful dialogue, discussing their respective faiths. While St. Francis did not convert the Sultan to Christianity, nor did the Sultan convert Francis to Islam, they parted with deep mutual respect. This historic 13th century meeting is viewed as a model for peaceful interfaith dialogue.
The Catholic Church has engaged in dialogue and collaboration with followers of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Shintoism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Zoroastrianism, as well as with traditional religions of Africa, and of course, Judaism and Islam. Despite this progress, the difficulties surrounding dialogue remain. Some circles continue to question its appropriateness, fearing doctrinal relativism or a dilution of religious identity. Misunderstandings persist regarding the very nature of dialogue.
The journey is demanding; it requires humility, courage, and discernment. The true believer is not driven by arrogance. Far from making us inflexible, the security of faith enables witness and dialogue with all. Rooted in the Church’s evangelizing mission, it presupposes a sincere commitment and recognition of the freedom of conscience as the foundation of every authentic relationship. It is a matter of proclaiming the truth in a manner befitting the Gospel: with esteem, listening, and charity—a genuine sharing of what dwells in one’s heart.
This dynamism of love has nothing to do with proselytism; the words of a lover do not disturb others, they do not make demands or oblige—they only lead others to marvel at such love. With immense respect for their freedom and dignity, the lover simply waits for them to inquire about the love that has filled their life.
Interreligious dialogue is not a matter of founding one great world religion in which all beliefs are flattened. Such a possibility must be excluded out of respect for oneself and for others. Rather, it is a matter of building a fraternal society capable of accepting differences. Dialogue does not consist merely in presenting one’s own doctrines or comparing worldviews. Today, believers of different traditions, while aware of their differences, are called to seek the conditions necessary for peaceful coexistence.
A genuine shift of mindset is necessary: abandoning the logic of defensiveness, hostility, or conquest in order to adopt an attitude that is open, benevolent, and courageous. Monolithic, closed views of reality become sources of violence and suffering for the most vulnerable. The defensive entrenchment in one’s own position and the view that proselytism is the only way to engage with the other no longer make sense in a world that is an interconnected and constantly evolving global village.
It is time to promote a new ethic of dialogue: a culture of complexity, flexibility, and friendship. It is no longer a matter of fearing or keeping one’s distance from the “other” believer, civilization, way of thinking—but of daring the encounter. The one who was once perceived as a threat, an enemy to be feared, or even destroyed, can become a dialogue partner, an ally, a friend, even a “pilgrim of truth” with whom one shares the journey.
—Pope Leo XIV
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Study the path of others to make your way easier and more abundant. Lean toward the whispers of your own heart, discover the universal truth, and follow its dictates. Know that the truth always leads to love and the perpetuation of peace. Its products are never bitterness and strife. Clothe yourself in the work of love, in the revolutionary work of nonviolent resistance against evil. Anchor the eternity of love in your own soul and embed this planet with goodness. Release the need to hate, to harbor division, and the enticement of revenge. Release all bitterness. Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already won.
Choose confrontation wisely, but when it is your time don’t be afraid to stand up, speak up, and speak out against injustice. And if you follow your truth down the road to peace and the affirmation of love, if you shine like a beacon for all to see, then the poetry of all the great dreamers and philosophers is yours to manifest in a nation, a world community, and a Beloved Community that is finally at peace with itself.
—John Lewis
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Most people spend their entire lives living up to the mental self-images of who they think they are, instead of living in the primal “I” that is already good in God’s eyes. But all that we can “pay back” to God or others or ourselves is who we really are. It is a place of utter simplicity. It feels utterly unadorned. There’s nothing to congratulate myself for. I can’t prove any worth, much less superiority. There I am naked and poor. After years of posturing and projecting, it will feel like nothing. But when we are nothing, we are in a fine position to receive everything from God. As Merton says, our point of nothingness is “the pure glory of God in us.”
If we look at the great religious traditions, they all use similar words. The Franciscan word is “poverty.” The Carmelite word is nada or “nothingness.” The Buddhists speak of “emptiness.” Jesus speaks of being “poor in spirit” in his first beatitude. (Mt 5:3) A Zen master would call the true self “the face we had before we were born.” Paul would call it who we are, “hidden with Christ in God.” It is who we are before we’ve done anything right or wrong, before we even have a conscious thought about who we are.
Thinking creates the separate self, the ego self, the insecure self. The God-given contemplative mind, on the other hand, recognizes the God self, the Christ self, the true self of abundance and deep inner security.
—Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM
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Who are we choosing to follow? Throughout history, societies have suffered whenever people have blindly followed political leaders, ideologies or public opinion without asking difficult questions. Blind loyalty can become dangerous. Christians are never called to follow personalities uncritically. Our first allegiance is always to Christ, who alone is “the way, the truth, and the life.” Every other authority must be measured against His Gospel.
—Fr. Patrick van der Vorst
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—Dom Hubert van Zeller, OSB
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—Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, MSpS
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—Bro. David Steindl-Rast, OSB
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Wisdom from Pope Leo XIV
Decree for the Eighth Centenary of the Death of St. Francis of Assisi, Proclaiming a Special Jubilee Year with the Concession of Plenary Indulgences
The year 2026…will be the Year of St. Francis and we are all called to become saints in the contemporary world, following the example of the Seraphic Patriarch….Between the 12th and 13th centuries, in an era of so-called holy wars, relaxed morals and misguided religious fervor, “a sun was born into the world”: Francis, who, as the son of a wealthy merchant, became poor and humble, a true alter Christus on earth, providing the world with tangible examples of evangelical life and a real image of Christian perfection. Our times are not very different from those in which Francis lived, and his teachings are perhaps even more valid and understandable today.
When Christian charity languishes, ignorance spreads like bad habits, and those who extol harmony among peoples do so more out of selfishness than out of sincere Christian spirit; when the virtual takes precedence over the real, social discord and violence are part of everyday life, and peace becomes more uncertain and distant every day; may this Year of St. Francis urge us all, each according to our own possibilities, to imitate the Poverello of Assisi, and to mold ourselves as much as possible on the model of Christ.
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
