Medjugorje Message: October 25, 2021
Dear children! Return to prayer because one who prays is not afraid of the future; one who prays is open to life and respects the life of others; one who prays, little children, feels the freedom of the children of God and in joy of heart serves for the good for his brother-man. Because God is love and freedom, therefore, little children, when they want to put you in bonds and use you, it is not from God. Because God loves and gives His peace to every creature; and that is why He sent me to you to help you to grow in holiness. Thank you for having responded to my call.
River of Light
November 2021
As we enter the November season of All Saints, All Souls, and Thanksgiving, Our Lady’s message ends with a clear explanation of her presence and mission for these past 40 years in Medjugorje. So let us “begin at the end” of this month’s message: “Because God loves and gives His peace to every creature; and that is why He sent me to you to help you to grow in holiness.” This concluding statement reveals the keynote of this month’s message: the extravagant inclusiveness of Divine Love—a love that is given “to every creature.” That is, to every human being on earth without exception, as well as to every other life form on the planet.
What does it mean to “grow in holiness” ? It means to grow into the full acceptance, living embodiment, and generous sharing of this Love and Peace that God has given us as creatures made in the divine image. “Holiness” is simply living the “wholeness” of our full human personhood given by God and demonstrated perfectly in Jesus Christ, of whose Mystical Body we are now members. Thus, Our Lady’s job in Medjugorje is cultivating in us this radical inclusiveness and wholeness of Divine Love and Peace which constitute our “holiness.” She explains this in greater detail in the preceding lines of this month’s message, which reveal three vital traits of a person who PRAYS.
Our Lady begins by saying: “Return to prayer because one who prays is not afraid of the future.” This teaching is a favorite refrain of the Queen of Peace, yet so often forgotten. PRAYER is our daily communing with our God-Who-Is-Love, indwelling our inmost being and at the heart of all creation. Anyone who spends “quality time” in silent prayer of contemplating this Divine Presence and action at the center of Being LOSES the crippling, debilitating fear of the future that is currently driving our culture over a cliff of self-destruction.
Fear and insecurity arise from a PRAYER-LESS life in which each person feels they are “flying solo” through a dark and dangerous world, with no sense of the Divine Indwelling Presence of God at one’s center. This vital God-awareness comes through prayer alone; without prayer, we “sleepwalk” through life as “machines” that react reflexively to outer conditions or stimulation at a very superficial level—easily frightened, easily upset, easily angered, easily “triggered” emotionally by what others say and do. This prayer-less “solo flying” state leaves us completely vulnerable to the manipulations of partisan politics, consumerist advertising, social media’s “click-bait,” cable entertainment (posing as journalism), and many other insidious, exploiting forces in popular culture.
Without a daily contemplative/silent PRAYER PRACTICE of communing with our indwelling God-Who-Is-Love, we are fearful, anxious, paranoid “sitting ducks”—prey to the cultural “Influencers” and emotional manipulators from extremist ideologies that are “playing” fearful people for selfish gain, both on the “conservative/right-wing” and on the “liberal/left-wing.” Driving the wedge of polarization between these two extremes is a financial bonanza for the businesses that foment division and hatred between “Red” and “Blue.” Sadly, due to our lack of PRAYER, we are pitifully ignorant and unaware of how we are being used and abused by the ideologies of our day to “line the pockets” of the designers of division who have discovered that FEAR, RAGE, and CONFLICT are their biggest moneymakers. To incite these hateful feelings in a sleeping, prayer-less nation like the U.S.A. is as easy as “taking candy from a baby.”
Our Lady continues: “One who prays is open to life and respects the life of others.” We must take note of the word “AND” which Our Lady repeats throughout this message about God’s radical inclusiveness. Our tragically polarized world is divided into extreme “either/or” camps of “conservative right” and “liberal left,” while Our Lady points us to the God of “BOTH/AND”—that “middle” Truth and Justice that can be found only in accepting what is real in both viewpoints. The issue of LIFE is a volatile ideological football, with the “pro-life right wing” focused on abortion and the unborn, while the “pro-choice left wing” focuses on the “already-born” women, children, poor, imprisoned, and minorities in society. What does Our Lady say? “One who PRAYS is open to life AND respects the life of others.” If we spend time in silent communion with the Indwelling Presence of God in PRAYER, we will see that both the “conservative right” AND the “liberal left” are speaking truthful aspects of Divine Love.
Our Lady continues: “One who prays, little children, feels the freedom of the children of God AND in joy of heart serves the good of his brother-man.” We must note again the “AND” from the Queen of Peace, pointing anew to the Love-God of inclusiveness! Another divisive issue between “leftist” and “rightist” ideologies is that of “individual freedom” vs. “the common good.” The conservative right-wing focuses on individual freedoms such as the “right to bear arms,” the “right to one’s own body” (in regard to vaccination or mask-wearing in the pandemic), and the “right to protect one’s own earned income” from government taxing or regulation. In contrast to this championing of individualism, the liberal left-wing focuses on the “common good“—environmental and social programs to address the needs of the earth’s biosphere, underserved minorities, and the weakest in society who need help (the biblical “widows, orphans and strangers”).
What does Our Lady say? “One who PRAYS, little children, feels the freedom of the children of God AND in joy of heart serves for the good of his brother-man.” If we spend time in silent communion with the Indwelling Presence of God in PRAYER, we will see that both the “conservative right” AND the “liberal left” are speaking truthful aspects of Divine Love. In this particular teaching, it seems that Our Lady seeks a purification on both sides of the spectrum—reminding the “freedom” camp that our human freedom as members of Christ is centered on the “glorious freedom of the children of God” in which we are now “slaves of righteousness” rather than sin; and reminding the “common good” camp that we must serve others in “joy of heart” rather than in bitter, strident, or militant moralizing.
In conclusion, Our Lady makes a profoundly significant point about our world’s current state of hateful division and violent polarization: “Because God is love and freedom, therefore, little children, when they want to put you in bonds and to use you, it is not from God. Because God loves and gives His peace to every creature.” In this final “AND,” the Queen of Peace makes clear that “God is love (the liberal left’s “kumbaya-cry”) AND freedom (the conservative right’s rallying-cry). God is the highest ideal of BOTH the “left” AND the “right.” Therefore, she says, “when they want to put you in bonds and to use you, it is not from God.”
What are the “bonds” by which we are “used”? And who are “they”? The “bonds” are the tight, narrow, pigeon-holing boxes of tribal identities that are thrust upon us, labeling us as only “blue” or “red.” The “bonds” are any ideology that attaches itself to us, reducing and minimizing our full personhood as members of Christ’s Body to just one far-flung end of a manufactured worldly spectrum of loyalty. And “they” are the extremist ideologues and greedy opportunists who run corporations that sell propagandist cable “news,” social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube), mass mailings soliciting money, etc. “They” are any group, organization, or persons who seek to place us in the bondage of an ideology—whether “right-wing” or “left-wing”—by hatefully slamming the “other side” as “anti-freedom” or “anti-love” or “anti-God,” thus fomenting an “either/or” division which “is not from God.”
Especially insidious is any religious entity (a church or ministry) that “wants to put you in bonds and use you” by promoting this false division that comes from the “Father of lies” and “Divider-in-Chief”: Satan—the satanic ego running riot in our present “culture wars.” Sadly, this scourge has infected our churches, too. No parish church or diocese true to Christ’s teaching and the Divine Presence and action in PRAYER will foment the divisions of our day by “putting us in bonds” of choosing to inhabit either extreme “box” as our identity, for, as Our Lady says, this “is not from God.”
Our Catholic mystics are always those who find, through PRAYER, the higher non-dual level of consciousness that can embrace paradox and opposites, overcoming the binary “either/or” conflict with the Divine inclusiveness of God’s “both/and.” Sadly, the mystical or contemplative dimension of our faith is rarely taught in the churches, and often, as Dorothy Day wrote, “the Church is the Cross on which Christ is crucified.”
In the past few years we have all suffered the tragic effects of being “used” and “played” by the corrupt forces of our culture (at BOTH poles of political extremism), leading to sad divisions within families, the end of friendships, and strain on marriages. Our Lady sees and knows our pain, and, thankfully, continues to help us “grow in holiness.” We believe, as St. Paul wrote, that “the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us….In hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God…we wait with endurance.” (Rom 8:18-20)
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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
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“The majesty of beauty is its gracious wholeness.” — John O’Donohue
What part are you playing in receiving and sending transmissions that unite, not divide?
PRAYER PRACTICE
Let us enter a place of quiet stillness of being, a place of eminent trust and receptivity to higher influences. With back upright, heart open, mind attentive, I breathe in deeply every hidden part of my being: all being, everything, everything that is hurt, everything that seems dark, harsh, shameful, maimed, ugly, irreparably damaged, diseased, unforgiving and unforgivable, resentful, resistant, apathetic—everything.
And I hold it as offering, lift it, transubstantiate it, in faith, in hope, in love—in my being as whole, as lovely, as radiant, as loved, in light. I do this on behalf of everyone, and everything. And I breathe out this healing light into the world, all worlds: I am. I wish to be. I can work.
I hand over the complexities of the day, knowing that they are gifts. I hand over the plans for tomorrow, knowing that they will be addressed. I hand over the anxieties and small fears of my heart, knowing that they are known. I lay down my constructed life in order to yield to the Divine-Human Life. I stand unencumbered before God and all others.
And so it is. When we are open, the world itself is a sacrament: we receive the transmission, transform the transmission, partake in the transmission, become the transmission.
—St. Symeon the New Theologian (adapted by Mary Anne Best)
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Welcome, welcome, welcome.
I welcome everything that comes to me today because I know it is for my healing.
I welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons, situations, and conditions.
I let go of my desire for power and control.
I let go of my desire for affection, esteem, approval and pleasure.
I let go of my desire for survival and security.
I let go of my desire to change any situation, condition, person, or myself.
I open to the love and presence of God and God’s action within. Amen.
—Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO
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At some point in our lives, faith will feel like darkness, belief like unbelief, and God’s existence will feel like nothing, emptiness, non-existence. Our minds and hearts will come up dry and empty when they try to imagine or feel God—not because God doesn’t exist or is less present than the physical world, but because God is so massively present, so real, so above all other lights, that God’s reality will dwarf everything to the point where it gives the impression that it doesn’t exist. In faith, God is known this way: As a light so bright that it’s perceived as darkness, as a love so universal that it’s perceived as indifference, and as a reality so real that it’s perceived as nothing.
—Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI
The contemplative dimension of the Gospel is Christ’s program for getting acquainted with the Ultimate Reality as it really is, which is “no thing.” “No thing” means no particular thing, whether concept, feeling or bodily experience. God just is—without any limitation. And the best way to connect with this “Is-ness” is to just be, too.
—Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO
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The God imaged by Jesus exerts no dominating supremacy. In Christ, we see an image of God who is not armed with lightning bolts but with basin and towel….In Christ, God is supreme, but not in the old paradigm of supremacy: God is the supreme healer, the supreme friend, the supreme lover, the supreme life-giver who self-empties in gracious love for all. The king of kings and lord of lords is the servant of all and the friend of sinners. In the aftermath of Jesus and his cross, we should never again define God’s sovereignty or supremacy by analogy to the kings of this world who dominate, oppress, subordinate, exploit, scapegoat and marginalize. Instead, we have migrated to an entirely new universe, a “new creation” (2 Cor 5:17) in which old ideas of supremacy are subverted.
—Brian McLaren
The form of Christianity that has grown in the United States and spread throughout much of the world is what we have to fairly call “slaveholder Christianity.” The founders of our nation drew on a Christian tradition that had been aligned with empire for more than a millennium. This form of Christianity is far, far removed from the Gospel and the example of Jesus as it has failed to respect the divine image in all beings.
In Israel, Jesus and the early church offered people an experience; it moved to Greece and became a philosophy; when it moved to Rome and Constantinople, it became organized religion. Then it spread to Europe and became a culture. Finally, it moved to North America and became a business. The original desire for a “Jesus experience” was lost, and not even possible for most. In spite of the disastrous effects of Christianity’s complicity with empire, the flow of grace was there, too. Inside each of those misguided iterations, humble, loving people emerged.
To communicate Jesus’ social justice teaching today is just to live simply, to not cooperate with consumerism, with militarism, with all the games that have us trapped. Jesus just does it differently, ignoring unjust systems and building up a better system by his teaching: the kingdom of God. The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better. He’s showing us not to be anti-anything. Let’s be for something: for life and for universal love.
—Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM
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Thanksgiving Reflection on the First N. American Settlers
The very land itself meant something quite different to the newcomer than it did to the host people. Something was missing. The difficulty, as the Natives saw it, was with the settlers themselves and their failure to tread lightly, with humility and respect, on the land. The settlers wanted to live on the land, but the host people lived with the land. Living on the land means objectifying the land and natural resources and being shortsighted concerning the future. Living with the land means respecting the natural balance.
To Indigenous peoples, the problems of a Western worldview are obvious. The way of life demonstrated by Western peoples leads to alienation from the Earth, from others, and from all of creation. This lifestyle creates a false bubble called “Western civilization,” which people think will protect them from future calamity. This false hope is detached from experience and reality.
The Western system itself is what brings the calamity. Much of what we are experiencing today as so-called natural disasters have their origin in human carelessness. How do we avoid the impending disaster brought on by a settler lifestyle of living on the land and against nature? We learn to live with nature.
We have jeopardized the future of our coming generation with our greed and lust for power. The warnings are clear and time is now a factor. We speak of our children, yet we savage the spawning beds of the salmon and herring, and kill the whale in his home. We advance through the forests of the earth felling our rooted brothers indiscriminately, leaving no seeds for the future. We exploit the land and resources of the poor and indigenous peoples of the world. We have become giants of destruction.
We must return to the spiritual values that are the foundation of life. We must love and respect all living things, have compassion for the poor and the sick, respect and understanding for women who bear the sacred gift of life. We must return to the prayers, ceremonies, meditations, rituals, and celebrations of thanksgiving which link us with the spiritual powers that sustain us and, by example, teach our children to respect.
—Randy Woodley, Cherokee theologian
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In order to receive the exchange offered by Native American tradition, we must put down the idea that the earth is nothing more than a vast accumulation of natural resources. Instead, we must see the earth as a living presence. We must recognize the interrelatedness of all life and begin to actively engage in protecting and learning from all our relations.
In the “laying on of hands” in many faith traditions, when prayers of healing are offered, people place their hands on the patient. I have decided to do that, and I invite you to join me. The patient is our Mother Earth. She is struggling to recover from the effects of toxic poisoning and exhaustion. Let us intentionally lay our hand on her and say, “Thank you, Mother, for all you have given us. Be healed of all that harms you.” It is only a symbol, but symbols have power. If every person on our planet went outside to lay hands on the earth and ask for healing, it might inspire us all to act, work, and give for the sake of our Mother.
—Bishop Steven Charleston, Choctaw Episcopal priest
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Wisdom from Pope Francis
A true “right of the environment” does exist. We live in communion with it, since the environment itself entails ethical limits which human activity must acknowledge and respect. Any harm done to the environment is harm done to humanity.
(Speech at the U.N. General Assembly)
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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
