Medjugorje Message: April 25, 2021
Dear children! Today I am calling you to witness your faith in the colors of spring. May this be a faith of hope and courage. May your faith, little children, not waver in any situation, not even in this time of trial. Go courageously with the risen Christ towards Heaven, which is your goal. I am accompanying you on this way of holiness and am placing all of you in my Immaculate Heart. Thank you for having responded to my call.
River of Light
May 2021
For the “Mary” month of May, Our Lady showers us with uplifting words of encouragement and inspiration. She begins: “Today I am calling you to witness your faith in the colors of spring.” We can take this beautiful opening line in three different ways: (1) “The colors of spring” are themselves a “calling card” from Our Lady through which she invites us to witness our faith. As we see and appreciate the warm, juicy “greening” in the rebirth and renewal of our planet Earth after the cold, dry deadness of a harsh, killing winter, we are moved to, once again, affirm our trusting belief in the Resurrection and newness of life that all creation can experience through Jesus Christ.
(2) We can actually bear witness that we have faith “IN” the colors of spring—that is, in the Earth’s prodigal gifts of rebirth and renewal displayed so extravagantly every year in the sudden greening of fields and meadows, the leafing-out of trees that turn from skeletal barren branches to full-foliage abundance, and the glorious brightness of flowers’ blooming yellows, reds, oranges, pinks, and violets. We’re called to show our awe-filled gratitude for the natural world by participating in it through gardening, spending time outdoors in the “Cathedral of Creation,” and doing all we can to preserve and protect our planet.
(3) We can witness our faith in the “colors of spring” by “wearing” the colors ourselves—both physically, by our lighter spring wardrobe, and through our own example of personal transformation, recreating our attitudes in a refreshing renewal of patience, compassion, positivity, openness to new ideas, loving habits, behaviors and approaches that embody the fluidity and change-ability of our new life in Christ, which mirrors the good Earth’s new life of spring.
Our Lady continues: “May this be a faith of hope and courage. May your faith, little children, not waver in any situation, not even in this time of trial.” Our Lady clearly knows all about our life’s challenges. Looking at the “colors of spring” inspires “hope and courage” in us, as we consider, for example, the extreme winter storm (dubbed “Snowmageddon” or “Snowpocalypse”) that seemingly killed so much of our local plant life, devastating lawns and gardens as it threatened to overwhelm and disable our electrical grid and utilities. And yet, here we are, in Spring, amazed that tiny green shoots are appearing at the roots of many treasured plants we thought were lost, with several perennial flowers coming back better than ever after the brutal freeze!
Our Lady invites us to see “in the colors of spring” how Nature—the first “Bible” of divine revelation human beings were given—teaches us a persevering faith full of “hope and courage.” Such faith never prematurely deems anything in God’s world as “out” or “down for the count.” Like the tiny seeds buried in the dark earth through long, cold winters or the small shoots above ground weathering freezing snows or gale-force winds, our faith must “not waver in any situation, not even in this time of trial.“
Indeed, we are yet in a “time of trial” worldwide, as the Covid-19 pandemic continues, with India now experiencing a horrible surge and record numbers of new cases, despite the development of vaccines. In our own country, “pandemic fatigue” has caused faith to “waver” as people despair of life ever “returning to normal” —prematurely giving up the necessary health protocols of masking, distancing, and vaccination in frustrated “tantrums” of impatience, inconvenience, depression, and media-manufactured disinformation. But Our Lady asks that our “faith not waver in any situation, not even in this time of trial.” We persevere in prayer for all who suffer anywhere, knowing that we are all inextricably linked in the vast network of our shared humanity.
Again, the lengthy “ongoing-ness” of protracted culture wars and social ills in our country continues to be a “time of trial” as we experience constant division, polarization, and tribalism in our national politics, where the brokenness of our democratic system shows itself in the unwillingness of all sides to move from the extremist poles toward the “truth (that is) in the middle” (St. Thomas Aquinas)—toward working together collegially rather than retreating into entrenched competing camps of uncompromising, paralyzing gridlock. Along with this legislative stalemate, there remain sad racial, socioeconomic, and ideological divisions within the whole population, all fomented daily by lying tabloids, cable pundits and social media hacks who PROFIT from sowing hate and propagandizing the American people—on both the “Right” and the “Left” —into “politicizing” EVERYTHING (including the pandemic itself, a non-political public health crisis).
Truly, this long “winter of our discontent” on these many fronts has been a challenge to faith, which Our Lady says must “not waver in any situation, not even in this time of trial.” Surely we have weathered harder and longer sieges in the past, including the Great Depression of the 1930’s and the WW II era of the 1940’s, when much stricter daily sacrifices were required of our whole nation than anything we’ve suffered since. (Hard to imagine the “Greatest Generation” whining about masking, social distancing, or getting a vaccine!)
Our Lady concludes her message with a reminder of the “Big Picture” perspective she always teaches: “Go courageously with the risen Christ towards Heaven, which is your goal. I am accompanying you on this way of holiness and am placing all of you in my Immaculate Heart.” Keeping our eyes fixed upon “the risen Christ” in these remaining weeks of the Easter season, and “going with Him towards Heaven” as we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension later this month, Our Lady reminds us of our “GOAL”: to enjoy eternal life in God/Love when this earthly life ends—as it surely will, and sooner than we think!
But this “goal” necessarily includes our “ASCENDING” with Christ toward the “Heaven/ Eternal Now consciousness,” here in daily life, also. As human beings, we are on a spiritual journey, an endless Upward-Rising Movement from the lower levels of our “fallen/Adam/old man”—our egoic, narcissistic, False Self system with its tribal “mythic membership” fixations on “Us vs. Them” dualistic thinking—toward the “Heaven” of Wholeness/Holiness: UNITY consciousness, realizing our ONENESS with all and everything in Christ: Divine Love. Our spiritual evolution is an ongoing “ascending” movement up a “spiral staircase of consciousness” that continues throughout our earthly life, and then after we die.
Our Lady affirms once again that as our Mother, she is our brave, all-nurturing Companion of the Road, “accompanying [us] on this way of holiness.” Just as she accompanied Jesus from conception to crucifixion—walking with Him every step of his journey with her solace, wisdom, unconditional acceptance, courageous hope, and limitless love—she also walks with each of us, nurturing the Christ-life within us. Indeed, she was commissioned to take this role in our lives by her Son on Calvary. Just as she did with Jesus, also today she is “placing all of [us] in her Immaculate Heart.” What a Mother we ALL have (whether we know it or not); indeed, every person in the whole world can rightfully wish Blessed Mary a “Happy Mother’s Day!”
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Empty yourself.
Sit quietly, content with the grace of God.
—St. Romuald
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Our silence demands of us constant self-denial and plunges us into the deep silence of God where aloneness with God becomes a reality. The Word of God is speechless today. In the Eucharist his silence is the highest and truest praise of the Father. We need silence to be alone with God, to speak to him, to listen to him, to ponder his words deep in our hearts. In silence we are filled with the energy of God himself that makes us do all things with joy.
The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, and the fruit of love is service. To be only all for Jesus we need a deep life of prayer. How do we learn to pray? By praying. Let us adore Jesus in the Eucharistic silence. Souls of prayer are souls of great silence. We must endeavor to live alone with Jesus in the sanctuary of our inmost heart. In reality there is only one substantial prayer, Christ himself. One voice which unites in itself all the voices raised in prayer.
—St. Teresa of Calcutta
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I would try simply to unite persons to God, to bring them to a spirit of prayer. When the Lord dwells in the heart, it is he who sets everything in motion. Without that, everything that you do is completely useless; no matter how you plant the seed and tire yourself out, the life-giving principle is still lacking. But having once tasted God, one will turn to him again and again. It is a treasure in the soul, something to which one is constantly brought back as to his own center.
What have we to fear? The Blessed Virgin is leading us. She is saying to us, “I am marching ahead of you.” Given that thought, who would not feel full of courage and of confidence in any trial? And then, what a source of hope, of reassurance! I profess to belong to Mary, and I want to profess my belonging to her even more…that my dependence on her be total and continual. I shall always hold her by the hand. In my troubles, in my difficulties, I shall say to her, “Blessed Virgin, help me, I falter. I cast myself in your merciful lap, help me to pick myself up again.”
–Ven. Jean-Claude Colin, SM (founder of the Society of Mary)
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What is Love Asking of Us Now?
“You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.” –Anne Lamott
Those are words worth contemplating on all sides of the political and religious divide today. We live in a time of bitter division….Sadly, these divisions have brought out the worst in us. Common civility has broken down and brought with it something “diabolic”—widespread lack of common courtesy, disrespect, demonization and hatred of each other….Where do we go with that?…Perhaps a helpful way to probe for a Christian response is to pose the question this way: what does it mean to love in a time like this? What does it mean to love in a time when people can no longer agree on what is true? How do we remain civil and respectful when it feels impossible to respect those who disagree with us? What should we not do today?
First, we should not bracket civility and legitimize disrespect and demonization; but we should also not be unhealthily passive, fearful that speaking our truth will upset others. We may not disregard truth and let lies and injustices lie comfortable and unexposed….There are sincere people on both sides, but sincerity can be very misguided. Lies and injustice need to be named. Finally, we must resist the subtle temptation to allow our righteousness to morph into self-righteousness, one of pride’s most divisive modalities.
What do we need to do in the name of love?…Love is a harsh thing and that harshness is not just the discomfort we feel when we confront others or find ourselves confronted by them. Love’s harshness is felt most acutely in the self-righteousness we have to swallow in order to rise to a higher level of maturity where we can accept that God loves those we hate just as much as God loves us—and those we hate are just as precious and important in God’s eyes as we are.
Once we accept this, then we can speak for truth and justice. Then truth can speak to power, to “alternative truth,” and to the denial of truth. That is the task. Lies must be exposed…in our political debates, our churches, and our dinner tables. That struggle will sometimes call us beyond niceness. However, while we cannot always be nice, we can always be civil and respectful….A prophet makes a vow of love, not of alienation. Hence, in our every attempt to defend truth, to speak for justice, and to speak truth to power, our dominant tone must be one of love, not anger or hatred….Love still has some non-negotiables: civility and respect. Whenever we find ourselves descending to adolescent name-calling, we can be sure we have fallen out of discipleship, out of prophecy, and out of what is best inside us.
How we will respond to the times remains a deeply personal thing. Not all of us are called to do the same thing. God has given each of us unique gifts; some are called to loud protest, others to quiet prophecy. However, we are all called to ask ourselves the same question: given what is happening, what is love asking of me now?
—Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI
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Invocation Recently Prayed in the Texas House of Representatives
Holy Mystery, you have so many names. The Torah calls you Creator. The Quran calls you Peace. The Gita calls you Destroyer. And the First Epistle of John calls you perhaps the most beautiful name of all, Love.
You are the strange Love uniting all things—the Love that drew elements together after that Big Bang, the Love that drew life itself from those primordial oceans, the Love that drew us all to this exact moment, the Love we were born of, the Love we exist in, and the Love we will one day return to.
In my faith, you expressed yourself through a barefoot rabbi who embodied your perfect Love, a crucified carpenter who gave only two commandments, love of God and love of neighbor, because there is no love of God without love of neighbor. Help us love not just in word but in action. Help us honor not just the name of Jesus but the way of Jesus. Help us free the oppressed, feed the hungry, house the homeless, heal the sick, release the prisoner, welcome the stranger, forgive the enemy, and above all, protect your creation.
Let us not be hearers of your word but doers of your word in our families, in our communities, and in this chamber—not just with prayers but with policies, not just personal love but political love. Because democracy is not just a constitution; democracy is a covenant.
Holy Mystery, open our minds, open our hearts, open our hands, so that we may build a new world in the shell of the old—a world that is more just, more free, more whole, and more in love with you.
In all your many names we pray, Amen.
—Rep. James Talarico
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The “Apocalypse” of Covid-19
What “apocalyptic” means is to pull back the veil, to reveal the underbelly of reality. The closest thing would be contemporary science fiction, where suddenly you’re placed in an utterly different world, where what you used to call “normal” doesn’t apply anymore. That describes this COVID-19 event.
So this word is meant to shock: this is an apocalypse, happening to us in our lifetime, that’s leaving us utterly out of control. We’re grasping to retake control, by things like refusing to wear masks (or vaccinate) and defying boundaries at superspreader events. But we know in a new way that we can’t totally take control.
In all of the apocalyptic sections of the Gospels, we see that apocalypse is for the sake of birth, not death. “All this is only the beginning of the birth pangs.” (Mt 24:8) Yet most of us have heard this as a threat. Anything that upsets our normalcy is a threat to the ego, but in the Big Picture, it really isn’t. In Luke 21, Jesus says right in the middle of the catastrophic description: “Your endurance will win you your souls.” Falling apart is for the sake of renewal, not punishment. In Mark 13, Jesus says “Stay awake” four times in one paragraph. In other words, “Learn the lesson that this has to teach you…Don’t take anything for granted.” An apocalyptic event reframes reality in a radical way by flipping our imagination.
Apocalyptic literature in scripture is not meant to strike fear in us as much as a radical rearrangement. It’s not the end of the world. It’s the end of OUR worlds that we have created. The book of Revelation (also called the Apocalypse of John) is not a threat. It’s an invitation to depth…to wake people up to the real, to the lasting, to what matters. Our best response is to end our fight with reality-as-It-is. We will benefit from a welcoming prayer—diving into the change positively, saying, “Come, what-Is, teach me your good lessons.”
The spiritual message of apocalyptic literature is that nothing is permanent, nothing lasts forever. God puts us in a world of passing things where the only thing that doesn’t change is change itself. It helps us appreciate that everything is a gift that will not last. People who take this moment seriously take every moment seriously, and those are the people who are ready for heaven. If religion isn’t leading us into an eternal now, an eternal moment, an always-true moment, an always-love moment, then we have not lived the moment at all.
—Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM
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Wisdom from Pope Francis
The Church risks turning into a beautiful museum of the past. Our Lady instead gives the Church the feel of a home, a home in which the God of newness dwells. Let us receive with amazement the mystery of the Mother of God, as the inhabitants of Ephesus did at the time of the Council. Like them, let us acclaim her “Holy Mother of God.”
The gaze of the Mother, and the gaze of every mother….A world that looks to the future without a mother’s gaze is shortsighted. A world in which maternal tenderness is dismissed may be rich materially, but it will no longer see others as children, and be poor. The world is completely connected, yet seems increasingly disjointed. Our Lady knows that words are not enough to console; presence is needed, and she is present as a mother.
How many, forgetting a mother’s affection, live in anger and indifference to everything! How many, sad to say, react to everyone with bitterness and malice! We learn from mothers that heroism is shown in self-giving, strength in compassion, wisdom in meekness. God himself needed a Mother: how much more so do we! Jesus himself gave her to us from the cross: “Behold your mother!” Our Lady is not an optional accessory. She is the Queen of Peace, who triumphs over evil, leads us along paths of goodness, restores unity to her children, teaches us compassion. Mary, take us by the hand, lead us to rediscover the bonds that unite us.
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Mark Your Calendar [ai1ec view=”agenda”]
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
