from Ginny Lopez in APPARITIONS LIST ARCHIVES
MEDJUGORJE MESSAGE & COMMENTARY,
August 25, 1996
"Dear Children, listen, because I wish to speak to you and to invite you to have more faith and trust in God, Who loves you immeasurably, little children. You do not know how to live in the Grace of God. That is why I call you all anew, to carry the word of God in your heart and in thoughts. Little Children, place the Sacred Scripture in a visible place in your family, and read and live it. Teach your children, because if you are not an example to them, children depart into godlessness. Reflect and pray and God will be born in your heart and your heart will be joyous. Thank you for having responded to my call."
COMMENTARY: As a mother, I recognize the sense of frustration when our kids complain that church and religion are "boring." They'd rather be out with their friends, going to movies or to the mall anything but church. Mary is a mother, too. She's our mother and she understands what we are up against as parents. She suggests that we keep the Bible in plain view in our homes. But it's not enough simply to place the book on a table we need to read it and put into action what it teaches. Digesting what is written, coupled with prayerful reflection, strengthens our faith and our trust in the Good God Our Father and provides us with a plan for leading our families to Him. Every situation we could ever encounter in a lifetime is contained in those pages. Faithfully living the word of God in our own hearts, thoughts and actions, as an example to them, is the secret for successfully raising our children, who are God's precious gift to us.
MEDJUGORJE MESSAGE & COMMENTARY,
September, 1996
"Dear children! Today I invite you to offer your crosses and suffering for my intentions. Little children, I am your mother and I wish to help you by seeking for you the grace from God. Little children, offer your sufferings as a gift to God so they become a most beautiful flower of joy. That is why, little children, pray so that you may understand that suffering can become joy, and the cross, the way of joy. Thank you for having responded to my call."
COMMENTARY: This message is about embracing the cross. It is one thing to recognize suffering and pain. It's another thing to willingly accept it. Embracing that cross, whatever it is, and uniting it with the eternal Sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, transforms it into a beautiful, powerful prayer a prayer that unselfishly is requested by Blessed Mother as an offering for her own intentions. For she is our mother, and as such, she has our everlasting good in her mind at all times. She prays for us and with us we are her intentions.
May we not ask for an alleviation of suffering? Of course. The Father desires that we come to Him in all things. He does not wish us to suffer. But, if we are to say to Him, "Look, I wouldn't go out and look for a cross to carry, but since this one has landed on my shoulders, I am willing to carry this cross and unite it to Your Son's," then we are turning ourselves over to His Divine Will and accepting His care for us in trust and faith. We are making of ourselves and our lives, beautiful prayers. We are growing spiritually and with this spiritual growth comes joy.
A SPECIAL PRAYER REQUEST: I would like to thank
you for your [Dear Family Newsletter] and also ask
you to add to your list of people in need of prayer
support the following: Nancy R. (going through a
divorce after many years of being abused; she is
being counseled by real good Catholic priests and
lawyers). Please also pray for her daughters Nancy
and Viviana. Pray for the Mexican authorities, the
Mexican economy and the people that are now working
for less than the necessary, in order to live on,
and also for the unemployed all over the world.
Thank you very much for your prayer support. Your
brother in Christ, RJM. [God bless you and yours,
RJ; you have our prayers.]
THE FATIMA CRUSADER MAGAZINE has announced plans
for its 3rd international Congress on Fatima to be
held in Rome next November. Called "Fatima 2000,"
the conference will bring together Catholic bishops,
priests, religious and lay people from around the
world to discuss the unique role of the Blessed
Virgin Mary in bringing peace to the world. To
date, more than 400 bishop, priest and lay delegates
have indicated they plan on attending the event to
be held between November 18-23, 1996. More
information and regular updates are available on the
World Wide Web at THE FATIMA NETWORK:
http://www.fatima.org [APAR-L/9-7-96]
FROM THE VATICAN: While the Vatican has never
said that Catholics may not go to Medjugorje, it has
told bishops that their parishes and dioceses may
not organize official pilgrimages to the site of the
alleged Marian apparitions, the Vatican spokesman
said. "You cannot say people cannot go there until
it has been proven false. This has not been said,
so anyone can go if they want," the spokesman,
Joaquin Navarro-Valls, told Catholic News Service
Aug. 21 [1996]. In addition, he said, when Catholic
faithful go anywhere, they are entitled to spiritual
care, so the church does not forbid priests to
accompany lay-organized trips to Medjugorje in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, just as it would not forbid them
from accompanying a group of Catholics visiting
South Africa. Navarro-Valls insisted, "nothing has
changed," regarding the Vatican's position on
Medjugorje ... "The problem is if you
systematically organize pilgrimages, organize them
with the bishop and the church, you are giving a
canonical sanction to the facts of Medjugorje,"
which the church is still in the process of studying
... The restriction on official pilgrimages,
however, makes it clear to people that the Vatican
is still studying the apparitions. [Cindy Wooden,
CNS]
A NEW WEB PAGE that outlines Catholic pilgrimage
destinations to Catholic/Marian sites in the DC area
can be accessed at:
http://www.gmu.edu/org/ccm/pilgrim.htm
UPDATE ON CONDITION OF CANCER PATIENT ADAM PRICE
(14): [Adam's] still got cancer, but he made it
home for some quality time with his family ... He
was so near death at the hospital that the doctors
asked him if he wanted them to turn off the life
support. He said, "No, I'd like to continue to
fight." And fight he did. Now he's home. (If you
would like to send Adam an upbeat card or letter,
please address it to: Adam Price, c/o Cecilia
Price, 625 Lee Road 446, Opelika, AL 36801 or email
it to: cia@mindspring.com [Cecilia Price, 9-28-
96]
FROM FATIMA: Word is that Joseph Cardinal
Ratzinger will celebrate Mass in Fatima on October
13.
UPDATE ON JOSEPH REINHOLTZ: Prayer is powerful.
Joseph is doing much better, according to our source
in Chicago. Please continue to remember him in your
prayers.
Richard Hoben wrote:
"I'm sorry to tell you that my darling little Katie passed away last Sunday morning [September 8, 1996] at home. Thank you for all your prayers. I can't tell you how much they meant to all of us. God bless you and your family, Richard."
On behalf of all of us, Richard, I extend to you and to your family, our prayers and our sympathies. You helped us to know and to love Katie and we share in your sorrow. A dear friend and advisor to Dear Family wrote this tribute to Katie:
"There can be only one reason why God permits little children to suffer and die like Katie did. Children raised to be faithful and Katie was as faithful as they come are the only ones who have the "inner" strength to carry the "Cross" that we so-called "grown-ups" are so afraid of.
"Let me tell you: some "poor slob" who couldn't give a care for God or man is going to enjoy the paradise of Christ's company all thanks to one very brave and faithful little girl, and the parents and loved ones who held her hand throughout!
"I never met Katie, but you can bet that from time to time, when I need a blessing from heaven either for my own self or for someone I know, I'm going to invoke the name of "St. Katie" with confidence.
"Blessed Be God in His Angels and in His Saints!" (Bill Gaudry)
TEXT OF JOHN CARDINAL O'CONNOR'S SUNDAY MASS HOMILY
DELIVERED SEPTEMBER 29, 1996 IN SAINT PATRICK'S
CATHEDRAL, NEW YORK CITY:
We deeply regret that this past Thursday the Senate
of the United States voted to legitimize infanticide
in our land, ignoring the cries of babies literally
dangling from their mothers' wombs. This is indeed
to be regretted and mourned. It is not the end,
however. We thank you for your prayers and fasting.
We urge you to continue the same because the day
will come that the people of this land will rise up
in revulsion, as they did finally against slavery,
and this will be overturned.
In the meanwhile, we feel especially sorry for, in particular, those Catholic members of the House and the Senate who either do not seem to understand our teaching or fail to accept it. Some of the media will say, perhaps tomorrow, "O'Connor lashes out at Catholic politicians." I mean to do nothing of the sort. We feel sorry for them and pray for their souls. We pray that they will be enlightened. At this moment we can but ask that our Lord extend to them what He extended to those beneath His Cross when He said, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."
Last week our household had an extraordinary and fascinating breakfast in our residence with a brilliant woman physician, Dr. Kathleen Foley, from Memorial Sloan-Kettering hospital. She has devoted her life to research and clinical practice in the management of pain, especially in the case of cancer. The more she talked the more we all came to realize that this is in large measure the answer to the "Dr. Kevorkians" and to the legislation which legitimizes physician-assisted suicide. A tremendous number of people either believe they can not stand the physical pain that they are enduring or believe they will not be able to stand the physical pain that will accrue at some time in the future.
Dr. Foley, highly skilled in alleviating such pain, makes the point emphatically that this is totally unnecessary. An enormous amount of physical pain can be alleviated if physicians will take the time to learn the methods. Dr. Foley notes carefully that the alleviation of physical pain does not necessarily simultaneously alleviate emotional and spiritual suffering, the suffering of those who fear death spiritually, the suffering of those who fear that they will be burdens to their families or to themselves.
St. Paul, in this exquisitely beautiful portion of a letter to the people of the city of Philippi, gives a clear direction to the sources of emotional strength and the spiritual strength and the origin thereof [Phil. 2:5-7]:
"Your attitude must be Christ's: Though he was in the form of God, he did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at. Rather, he emptied himself and took the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men. He was known to be of human estate and it was thus that he humbled himself, obediently accepting even death, death on a cross!" He could not save the world, except by pain. He could not suffer pain as God, so He became a slave. He took all of our sufferings and sins upon Himself so that these would be crucified with Him. If we recognize the tremendous power of this and how we can unite our sufferings with His, it helps us so much to recognize that that suffering, though never easy, can be tremendously meaningful, can help save souls. It is notable that Paul himself was writing to the people of Philippi from prison and that one day he was going to be beheaded. Few suffered more than he.
We leap from the middle of the first century to the end of the 19th century, specifically to the year 1897. We leap to a young girl who lay dying in a convent in Lisieux, France, a young girl whose status was that of a Carmelite nun and nothing more, whose name was Therese of Lisieux whom the whole world knows as the Little Flower. Her feast day is this Tuesday, October 1, marking the anniversary of her death and beginning the celebration of the centenary of one hundred years in which we recognize the glory of her life, what indeed has been called the "storm of glory" that followed her suffering and her death.
It is a remarkable story, so simply told in the little book often called her autobiography, The Story Of A Soul. It is a tiny little book, but one of the most influential books of our time. Read by hundreds of thousands, indeed by millions of people, it is the story of St. Therese, the story of a soul who emptied herself, it is the story of Christ Himself. She emptied herself completely and entirely, in total humility, in what she called "the little way" that she offers to all of us. She said, 'I prefer the remoteness of obscure sacrifice with all its monotony to every form of ecstasy. To pick up a pin for love can convert a soul.'
The tiniest little things are powerhouses of grace if we do them out of love. Simple household chores, things that must be done every day can be sources of grace: waiting for buses or for subways; being overheated; being cold; cooking a meal; washing a baby; walking a baby at night. The tiniest little acts of our lives, things that we must do anyway, are so meaningful, as surely a couple such as the Fogartys here celebrating 50 years of marriage know, they are part and parcel of marriage and of every other form of life. Picking up a pin off the floor can be an act of love that can save souls. This is the secret of St. Therese. But she paid a price to turn her love into the power of the Christ who emptied Himself and was finally stripped naked and crucified.
In the France of her day, tuberculosis just rampaged throughout the country every year. It was one of the most feared of all diseases. One hundred and fifty thousand contracted tuberculosis. They had no cure. Indeed, right up until approximately 1945 tuberculosis was a great threat. St. Therese contracted tuberculosis in all of its ferocity. She endured the most horrible suffering and she used that suffering.
Many books have been written about St. Therese. None of these, I think, are comparable to her own words. There is a little book on St. Therese by Dorothy Day, the woman who gave herself unconditionally to the poor, you will recall, right here in New York. A former Communist and convert, she reprints some of Therese's writings when she was in the throes of this tragic illness. I read but tiny portions of this book:
"[God] allowed my own soul to be plunged in thickest gloom, and the thought of Heaven, so sweet from my earliest years, [became] for me a subject of torture. Nor did the trial last merely for days or weeks; months have passed in this agony and I still await relief. I wish I could explain what I feel but it is beyond my power. One must have passed through the tunnel to understand how black is the darkness."
Unfortunately St. Therese is always painted so sentimentally, so sweetly, as dropping flowers. It is difficult to relate to her; it is so saccharine.
This is the true St. Therese in her own words:
"When my heart, weary of the enveloping darkness, tries to find some rest and strength in the thought of an everlasting life to come, my anguish only increases. It seems to me that the darkness itself, borrowing the voice of the unbeliever, cries mockingly: 'You dream of a land of light and fragrance, you believe that the Creator of these wonders will be yours forever, you think to escape one day from the mists in which you now languish. Hope on! Hope on! Look forward to death! It will give you, not what you hope for, but a night darker still, the night of utter nothingness!'"
"This description of what I suffer ... is as far removed from reality as the painter's rough outline from the model he copies, but to write more might be to blaspheme ... even now I may have said too much. May God forgive me! He knows how I try to live by
faith, even though it affords me no consolation. I have made more acts of faith during the past year than in all the rest of my life."
Does it sound familiar to you? It certainly does to me. Yet time after time we read these same writings in which she said she would suffer forever and ever, if need be, out of the love of God and to save souls.
Our own Bishop Ahern, recently retired Auxiliary Bishop of New York, has devoted his life to spread devotion to St. Therese and now is giving himself entirely to this. I quote brief portions from the final chapter of a book that he has prepared for publication. Here is a man who went to France to learn French well enough to be able to translate some of her untranslated letters. He writes:
"The long night of faith and the onset of her tuberculosis had begun at Easter of 1896 and lasted for 18 months until her death. Her first hemorrhage occurred on Good Friday (appropriately she thought) and the dark night of her faith began two days later on Easter Sunday! On the day when Jesus rose to eternal life, the frightening darkness descended upon her and blacked out all sense of that life which had never held a doubt for her. She hid her trial the best she could, confiding it only to a few sisters who were intimate with her.
"Slowly the tuberculosis undermined her young body, every cell of which fought back fiercely ... [You see this so often today with cancer patients, with people with advanced stages of AIDS.] But it was all in vain. The disease was well named consumption for it consumed those it attacked. In the last days she was skin and bone ...Then that happened which she had long feared: her breathing became alarmingly short. Her great obsession was that she would suffocate. There was almost nothing left of her lungs, and the tuberculosis had invaded her intestines as well, causing acute gastric distress. She could keep nothing down. 'Shall I never know how to die!' she gasped. On the morning of the 29th the death rattle began. The community gathered in the infirmary to say the prayers for the dying ...
"The morning dawned overcast and raining. 'It is pure agony,' she said, 'without a touch of consolation.'
"All through the day she gasped for breath ... 'If you knew what it is to suffocate! ... I tell you the chalice is full to the brim! ... But God will not abandon me, for sure ... He has never abandoned me! ... Offer me quickly to the Blessed Virgin. I am a baby who can't take any more! ...'
"Around 5 p.m. the bell rang, summoning the community to the infirmary. Therese welcomed the sisters with a smile. She was holding a crucifix in a firm grasp. That 'terrible death rattle' tore at her chest. Her face was flushed, her hands purplish, her feet ice cold. She was sweating so profusely that the mattress was soaked through ...
"[Yet she said] 'I would not want to suffer for a shorter time.'Suddenly she sat up. Her eyes grew luminous with a look the nuns never forgot. Her gaze was fixed above the statue of Our Lady of the Smile. She spoke her last words: 'Oh, how I love You! ... My God ... how I love You!' ... Then she sank back on the pillow, her eyes closed. She was smiling. She was very beautiful and had the appearance of a very young girl. It was about twenty past 7 p.m. of September 30, 1897...
"The 'storm of glory' was about to begin."
Certainly, that ''storm of glory'' has now roared for a hundred years.
Sometime ago Eddie Doherty, who was a reporter for a Chicago newspaper, reared as a Catholic, an altar boy, but fell away from the faith and engaged in all sorts of immoral escapades, one night was in a hotel room and felt utterly desolate. Someone had left a copy of The Story Of A Soul. He devoured it through the night. He burst into tears. He completely recovered his faith, gave everything up and, in turn, gave himself for the rest of his life unconditionally to the poor.
Dr. Kevorkian will never have that kind of power to help the desperate, to help those who are suffering; nor will any physician-assisted suicide legislation. This is the power that comes from the Cross. It matches the medical power of a Dr. Kathleen Foley and gives us to understand what the meaning of suffering can be. [Catholic New York Home Page]
There is a joyful rumor that very soon a new dogma will be proclaimed by the Holy Father: Mary: Coredemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate. It is Catholic belief that the Holy Father is guided by the Holy Spirit, third Person of the Holy Trinity, when he teaches matters of Faith and Morals. When he proclaims a dogma after much prayerful study and discernment, we believe that he does so infallibly. Dogmas define beliefs that have existed since the beginning of the Church. They have their basis in Public Revelation (Sacred Scripture and Tradition). The Second Vatican Council reminded us that: ". . . the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix." As Advocate she pleads on our behalf through her prayers, and as Mediatrix, she bestows on us the graces God grants to her. As Coredemptrix, she is NOT equal to God. It is simply recognized that she shared in the redemptive work of her Son, Jesus, through her own suffering as she followed His Passion and Death, uniting her suffering with His.
An eighty page booklet, Mary: Coredemptrix, Mediatrix, Advocate, by Mark I. Miravalle, S.T.D., Associate Professor of Theology and Mariology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, is available. If you would like a free copy of this booklet, please write to: Most Reverend Martin de Porres, 5330 Oakhill Drive, Alger, Michigan 48610. And do include a dollar or two donation to cover the cost of postage.
God bless :-) DEAR FAMILY, is an independent ministry. It subsists solely on God, free-will donations, which are gratefully accepted, and the generosity of my family. Please copy and pass this newsletter on to others. My thanks to all who make this ministry possible.