Medjugorje Message: November 25, 2020
Dear children! This is a time of love, warmth, prayer and joy. Pray, little children, for little Jesus to be born in your hearts. Open your hearts to Jesus who gives Himself to each of you. God sent me to be joy and hope in this time, and I am saying to you: Without little Jesus you do not have the tenderness or the feeling of Heaven which is hidden in the Newborn. Therefore, little children, work on yourselves. By reading the Sacred Scripture you will discover Jesus’ birth and joy, as in the first days which Medjugorje gave to humanity. History will be truth which, also today, is being repeated in you and around you. Work on and build peace through the Sacrament of Confession. Reconcile with God, little children, and you will see miracles around you. Thank you for having responded to my call.
River of Light
December 2020
Our Lady’s Advent message is filled with both hope and serious instruction. As we begin our four weeks of spiritual preparation for Christmas, Our Lady says: “This is a time of love, warmth, prayer and joy.” Yes, we are still suffering a horrible spike in the Covid pandemic’s ravaging daily numbers of new infections and deaths, with our country among the worst-hit in the world. Yes, many people are even going hungry and suffering severe anxiety and depression in the dire economic crisis caused by the virus. And yes, our nation remains sadly divided politically, with shocking efforts to undermine our democratic process in the aftermath of a free and fair election, despite our desperate need for more honest, compassionate and competent leadership.
Even in the midst of these difficult circumstances, Our Lady reminds us that the coming of Jesus Christ into the world through the mystery of the Incarnation in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago is, for us, today, in this moment, “a time of love, warmth, prayer and joy” as we approach the celebration of the Lord’s birthday. Christmas music, decorations, greeting cards, feasting and gifting still capture our hearts and minds in this holy season, despite the Covid health crisis and all the other afflictions we suffer. In spite of our raging hate, it is “a time of love” ; in spite of our cold, hard hearts of cynical meanness, it is “a time of warmth” ; in spite of our million worldly distractions, it is “a time of prayer” ; and in spite of our overwhelming grief and sadness for loss, it is “a time of joy.” Only a BABY has the power to upend our emotional world in this way!
Our Lady continues: “Pray, little children, for little Jesus to be born in your hearts. Open your hearts to Jesus who gives Himself to each of you. God sent me to be joy and hope in this time, and I am saying to you: Without little Jesus you do not have the tenderness or the feeling of Heaven which is hidden in the Newborn.” Here Our Lady is inviting us to enter into the contemplative dimension of the Gospel, where, through deep silence and meditative prayer upon the Incarnation (3rd Joyful Mystery of the Rosary) we can be mystically joined to Our Lady’s own experience of birthing the Divine into the world.
Indeed, our greatest theologians and spiritual teachers have recognized this. St. Augustine said, “What does it avail me that this birth of Christ, the Son of God, is always happening if it does not happen in me?” And the Franciscan Angelus Silesius wrote: “If Christ were born a thousand times in Bethlehem, but not in you, you would remain lost forever.”
What does this really mean? Our Lady explains: “Open your hearts to Jesus, who gives himself to each of you.” To EACH of us! Not just to Mary in Bethlehem—but to Joe Blow in Schenectady and to every other person on earth! The Christ Child wants to be born anew within each living being—all of whom were created by him and for him (Col 1:16), for “through him all things were made” (Jn 1:3). But in order for this fresh incarnation of Christ to take place in each of us, one thing is needed: the “manger” of our OPEN HEART. PRAYING for this interior birth of Jesus will begin to open our hearts.
Again, Our Lady emphasizes our radical need for Baby Jesus, without whom “we do not have the tenderness or the feeling of Heaven which is hidden in the Newborn.” Here she unveils a great secret: In our fallen human condition, a fundamental ingredient is “missing” from our character, psychology, behavior, and from our responses to life and one another—the quality of “tenderness or the feeling of Heaven.” Surely we can confirm the truth of this statement—our tragic lack of “tenderness.”
The hardening of our hearts and the ice-cold steel of our stony self-will have been on full, shameless display throughout this dark and contentious period of American history which has glorified greed, materialism, incivility, disrespectful language, flagrant lying and deliberate disinformation as justified means to secular “winning” and worldly power. Such callous hard-heartedness totally precludes “tenderness,” making the gentle love of the “feeling of Heaven” impossible for us.
Yet, Our Lady says, these two sorely-needed qualities are “hidden in the Newborn.” Setting aside Jesus, the Baby Divine, for a moment—we all know that even “garden variety” infants have an amazing power to disarm us and stop our cold, greedy, lying, cynical, aggressive, “winning” agenda in its tracks, reducing us, instantaneously, to a puddle of cooing wonder at their tiny, powerless, vulnerable “tenderness” —giving us a momentary, inescapable “feeling of Heaven.” The question is HOW to hold on to the tender, heavenly Presence of the newborn and carry this sensibility of “joy and hope” into the rest of our life?
Our Lady says: “Therefore, little children, work on yourselves.” Conversion, while offered to each of us by God as a grace, always requires WORK on our part to make it an ongoing reality of our spiritual evolution, our soul’s continual unfolding toward divinization. As many early Church Fathers (e.g. Athanasius, Clement, Augustine) taught: “God became man so that man might become God.” The “might become” clause hinges upon “work on yourselves.” And what is this work, according to Our Lady?
She says: “By reading Sacred Scripture you will discover Jesus’ birth and joy, as in the first days which Medjugorje gave to humanity. History will be truth which, also today, is repeated in you and around you.” On the very first day of Our Lady’s apparitions in Medjugorje (June 24, 1981), she did not speak at all, but appeared to the children holding an infant in her arms. Likewise, every Christmas Day, she appears to them holding the Baby Jesus.
This Advent she invites us to revisit the experience of her “first days which Medjugorje gave to humanity” by “READING SACRED SCRIPTURE.” The pages of the Bible, when read and prayed in the meditative style of “Lectio Divina” (sacred reading), can truly transport us to a personal discovery of “Jesus’ birth and joy.” In fact, through Sacred Scripture, we will begin to discern the whole history of our salvation as “truth which, also today, is being repeated in us and around us.” The Bible, while not a literal account, is an accurate account of the human condition, and reading it prayerfully offers us profound treasures of wisdom and insight into timeless Truth that is continually “repeated in you and around you.”
We see in Sacred Scripture the many classic dramas of the False Self in action, under the spell of satanic ego; these result in selfish behavior, idolatry, hatred, discord, dishonesty, oppression, injustice, political power plays, despotic leaders, rebellions, revolutions, prophetic leaders, liberations, private/individual sin, social/systemic sin, advances and reversals of fortune. Strikingly, we see how little things have changed in our world as these timeless truths of the human condition are still “being repeated” today, just as we read of them—from Genesis to Revelation.
But the GOOD NEWS (“Gospel”) is the inbreaking of Heaven into our troubled world through the Incarnation—the birth of Baby Jesus in Bethlehem. Our Lady wants us to see that this scriptural event, too, is constantly being repeated, along with the Lord’s paschal mystery of Passion/Death/Resurrection! It is not just the egoic False Self dramas that keep repeating, but the salvation history of Christ’s outpouring of new life and spiritual power, as well! The “work on ourselves” in opening to God’s grace is what enables us to claim this power here and now, in the 21st century after Bethlehem’s silent, holy night.
Returning to those “first days which Medjugorje gave to humanity,” Our Lady’s first spoken words there were: “Peace! Peace! Peace!” and she identified herself as the “Queen of Peace.” In this month’s Advent message, she says: “Work on and build PEACE through the Sacrament of Confession. Reconcile with God, little children, and you will see miracles around you.” Through Confession—the Sacrament of Reconciliation—we “work on peace” in our life and we “build peace” in our broken relationships. How does this happen?
Peace flourishes when there is a clear, clean conscience; but without a clear conscience peace is impossible, for the heart is troubled and off-balance. In Confession, we humble ourselves and admit “what we have done, and what we have failed to do” —in our thoughts, in our words, in our actions—through our own faults and selfishness; through allowing our ego and False Self to take control rather than opening our heart to the Divine Indwelling Spirit of the tender, heavenly Christ-Child who yearns to be born there.
As we “reconcile with God” through Confession—leaving behind our burden of sin and guilt, freed of all shame and self-recrimination through the merciful forgiveness of our Lord in the cleansing power of the sacrament—we experience a fresh start, a clean slate, a renewal of our baptismal promises, and the liberating PEACE through which we will now begin to “see miracles around us.” Then, as St. Paul wrote, “the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:7) May we soon see miracles of a massive healing and re-uniting of our country and our world in love—which is “the bond of perfection.” (Col 3:14)
This Advent, let us respond to Our Lady’s call by “working on ourselves” through heart-opening prayer for Jesus to be born in us, contemplative reading of Sacred Scripture, and confessing our sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Merry Christmas!
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Choose to perceive in every event today the Presence of transforming grace.
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Lectio Divina: The Divine Reading of Sacred Scripture
This ancient prayer form has Four Movements, each involving a slow, attentive reading of a short passage of Scripture with openness to the Holy Spirit who attracts us to one or a few words through which Christ is speaking directly to our own soul:
- LECTIO (“read”)—Prepare to hear the Word of God by silent stillness, opening the mind to find Christ in the passage being read. Listen attentively to the slow, focused reading.
- MEDITATIO (“meditate” or “reflect”)—Enter into a gentle pondering of the passage read, not a theological analysis or dissecting of it; keeping the mind open and considering the words from different angles, allowing the Holy Spirit to inspire thoughts about its personal meaning for you.
- ORATIO (“pray” or “respond”)—Enter into a dialogue with God based on the Scripture passage, responding to what you have heard and how it has made you feel; answer Him now by speaking from your heart to the Heart of Jesus, saying whatever you wish.
- CONTEMPLATIO (“contemplate” or “rest”)—Return to the silence of simply being present to the Presence encountered in Sacred Scripture, resting in silent love with God.
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In…a terribly jaded age, there is a deep hunger for something beyond: a hunger to be reminded that this life is only the beginning, that all of the pain and suffering will one day be washed away; a hunger for…some kind of serenity and peace; a hunger for a spiritual life that is best reflected in prayer….This is what Advent is about: the spirit of prayer….
It is the period during which we are reminded of the longing of the entire human race for the potential of salvation after original sin. It is the period during which we are reminded of the longing of the Israelites when they were on pilgrimage in the desert after escaping from slavery to the Egyptians—wandering, weary, lost, confused, just as we are so often, praying to get to the Promised Land, the symbol of heaven.
Advent is a reminder of those nine months of prayer in which Mary engaged, praying to the Father, awaiting the Son’s advent, his birth on Christmas Day. It is appropriate, therefore, that we try during Advent, with all the hustle and bustle…to enter into a season of recollection, a season of reminder, a season in which we reflect on…the second coming of Christ. Glorious as was his first advent, the second advent will be of immeasurable glory.
—John Cardinal O’Connor
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Our Advent songs are nothing but cries, begging for someone or something to come and ease our burdens, slake our thirst, calm our restlessness, take away our tiredness, and fill the empty spots inside us. But what do we desire? For what do we long?
Desire is not a simple thing at all. Most of the time we do not know what we really want even when we think we do. We pursue certain persons, possessions, achievements, and experiences, but in the end, we always find that we want more. We live in chronic dissatisfaction, no matter what we attain or achieve.
We experience only brief moments of relative fulfillment. Ninety-eight percent of life is spent waiting—waiting for this moment to end and something else to come; waiting for a season of life to pass; and waiting to meet those persons and circumstances whom we hope will bring us the happiness for which we yearn. For 98% of our lives we live in Advent, waiting for the “Messiah” to come.
This tells us that no one person, no one thing, no one achievement, no one experience will ever fully soothe what aches inside us….Desire is strong and waiting is hard. Every love song really is an Advent song and all human longing echoes St. Augustine’s words: “You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” Advent is the season that celebrates this.
—Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI
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Beloved, our Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal creator of all things, today became our Savior by being born of a mother. Of his own will he was born for us today, in time, so that he could lead us to his Father’s eternity. God became man so that man might become God. The Lord of angels became man today so that man could eat the bread of angels….The Lord who had created all things is himself now created, so that he who was lost would be found….God is born a man to free man from his guilt. Man fell, but God descended, man fell miserably, but God descended mercifully; man left through pride, God descended with his grace.
What miracles! What prodigies! The laws of nature are changed in the case of man. God is born [of] a virgin become pregnant with man.
—St. Augustine
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“By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.”
—Priest’s Offertory Prayer at Mass
Jesus is the new man who calls redeemed humanity to share in His divine life. The mystery of the Incarnation lays the foundation for an anthropology which, reaching beyond its own limitations and contradictions, moves towards God himself, indeed towards the goal of divinization. This occurs through the grafting of the redeemed onto Christ and their admission into the intimacy of the Trinitarian life….It is only because the Son of God truly became man that man, in him and through him, can truly become a son of God.
—St. John Paul II
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Look at yourselves, for in him you will find yourselves, and in yourselves, him…in that he is creating you in his own image and likeness—gratuitously—and within yourselves you will discover God’s boundless goodness in having taken on our likeness by the union the divine nature has effected with our human nature. Let our hearts explode wide open, then, as we contemplate a flame and fire of love so great that God has engrafted himself into us and us into himself! Oh unimaginable love!
—St. Catherine of Siena
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Wisdom from Pope Francis
Advent is the season for remembering that closeness of God who came down to dwell in our midst. We need to recognize God’s closeness and to say to him: “Come close to us once more!” We should pray “Come, Lord Jesus” at the beginning of each day and repeat it frequently…in every important or difficult moment of our lives: “Come, Lord Jesus!”
If we ask Jesus to come close to us, we will train ourselves to be watchful. Jesus’ final address to his disciples can be summed up in two words: “Be watchful!” It is important to remain watchful, because one great mistake in life is to get absorbed in a thousand things and not to notice God…so drawn by our own interests, and distracted by so many vain things, we risk losing sight of what is essential. Being watchful in expectation of His coming means not letting ourselves be overcome by discouragement. It is to live in hope.
But drowsiness can overtake us. There is a dangerous kind of sleep: it is the slumber of mediocrity. It comes when we forget our first love and grow satisfied with indifference, concerned only for an untroubled existence. Faith is the very opposite of mediocrity: It is ardent desire for God, a bold effort to change, the courage to love, constant progress. Faith is not water that extinguishes flames, it is fire that burns; it is not a tranquilizer for people under stress, it is a love story for people in love!
We rouse ourselves from the slumber of mediocrity with the vigilance of prayer….Prayer is vital for life: just as we cannot live without breathing, so we cannot be Christians without praying. The way we rouse ourselves from the slumber of indifference to the needs of others is with the watchfulness of charity. Charity is the beating heart of the Christian: just as one cannot live without a heartbeat, so one cannot be a Christian without charity. Being compassionate, helping and serving others are the only things that win us the victory on the day of the Lord, when all else will pass away and love alone will remain.
Come, Lord Jesus! Draw close to us. You are the light. Rouse us from the slumber of mediocrity; awaken us from the darkness of indifference. Take our distracted hearts and make them watchful. Awaken within us the desire to pray and the need to love.
—First Sunday of Advent 2020 homily
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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
