from Ginny Lopez in APPARITIONS LIST ARCHIVES
MEDJUGORJE MESSAGE & COMMENTARY,
June 25, 1996
"Dear children, today, I thank you for all the sacrifices you have offered me these days. Little children, I invite you to open yourselves to me and to decide for conversion. Your hearts, little children, are still not completely open to me and therefore, I invite you again to open to prayer so that in prayer the Holy Spirit will help you, that your hearts become of flesh and not of stone. Little children, thank you for having responded to my call and for having decided to walk with me toward holiness."
COMMENTARY: Why should we decide "to walk with [Mary] toward holiness"? Saint Louis Marie de Montfort explains: "All our perfection consists in being conformed, united and consecrated to Jesus Christ ... therefore, the most perfect of all devotions is ... that which ... conforms, unites and consecrates us to Jesus Christ. Now Mary, being the most conformed of all creatures to Jesus Christ, it follows that of all devotions, that which most consecrates and conforms the soul to our Lord is devotion to His holy Mother. That the more a soul is consecrated to Mary, the more it is consecrated to Jesus Christ." (Preparation For Total Consecration According to Saint Louis Marie de Montfort)
MEDJUGORJE MESSAGE & COMMENTARY,
July 25, 1996
"Dear Children! Today I invite you to decide every day for God. Little children, you speak much about God, but you witness little with your life. Therefore, little children, decide for conversion, that your life may be true before God, so that in the truth of your life you witness the beauty God gave you. Little children, I invite you again to decide for prayer because through prayer, you will be able to live the conversion. Each one of you shall become in simplicity, similar to a child which is open to the love of the Father. Thank you for having responded to my call."
COMMENTARY: Many times during the last fifteen years, Our Lady has invited us " . . . to decide every day for God." Why does she repeat this so often? Deciding for God is conversion and conversion is a daily decision. Conversion is living one's daily life for God in faith and trust, prayerfully, lovingly and peacefully. Conversion makes us children, who, in total trust and simplicity, look to God as our Father. Conversion reveals the God-given beauty of our souls to all who see us as children of the Father.
MESSAGE GIVEN BY OUR LADY TO JOSEPH
REINHOLTZ OF HILLSIDE, ILLINOIS:
June 25, 1996
"Praise Jesus, praise Jesus, my children. Repent for your sins, my children, and convert yourselves to my Son, Jesus Christ. Dear children, some of you are still not praying the Rosary as I have asked. Pray, my children, with sincerity, reverence, love and devotion. Pray from your hearts, my children, so you can find the true peace and love that you desperately seek. I ask all of you to convert yourselves entirely to me as your heavenly Queen, the Mother of Peace. Please, my little children, continue to pray, pray for our Holy Father, the Pope, all my priests and deacons, brothers and nuns and lay persons so that they all continue to do Gods' work. Pray more, my children, for the sick and the elderly, and especially, for the poor souls in Purgatory so that they can gain eternal rest in Heaven. I am your mother, the Queen of Peace and Queen of the most Holy Rosary and I love you all and I bless you in the name of my Son, Jesus Christ. Go in peace, my children, and do good works. This is my request of you." [NEWS NOTE: Joseph Reinholtz was hospitalized recently and underwent surgical removal of a tumor in the area of his bladder. He is undergoing chemotherapy. A friend writes: "He looks good ... he is in good spirits. Of course, he would be; he has the Blessed Mother."]
EMMITSBURG. Several thousand pilgrims, most
of them from
Maryland and Pennsylvania, came to pray at the
National Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto in
the Catoctin Mountains June 24 on the 15th
anniversary of the first reported appearance of
the Virgin Mary in the Bosnian village of
Medjugorje.
They came by the busloads and by car in
heavy, damp heat to
honor Our Lady "in all her titles" but most
especially to contemplate that day in 1981 when
two Bosnian teenagers said they saw a mysterious
light hovering over Mount Pobrdo and in it a
beautiful woman holding an infant whom she was
uncovering to show them. It was the first
reported appearance of Mary in Medjugorje and it
would be repeated daily for years, drawing to the
former Yugoslavian village millions of pilgrims
from around the world.
Among the pilgrims to the Emmitsburg shrine
on this day 15
years later was Monsignor Hugh Phillips, chaplain
of the grotto. He stopped to greet the visitors,
several of whom asked him for a blessing which he
gave with reverence, always leaving them with the
same advice: "Trust in Jesus, trust in Jesus."
Holding rosaries, some of them carrying
Marian devotional
banners, the pilgrims in a line four or more
abreast and a quarter mile long processed in
absolute silence up the steep, narrow paths to
the grotto. They were led by Michael Paige, a
tall, thin man with gentle eyes who carried a
crucifix. He said he was a patient at
Baltimore's Gift of Hope hospice where Mother
Teresa's Missionaries of Charity care for AIDS
patients who have nowhere else to turn.
"This is so wonderful, so wonderful," he
whispered as he
passed by a group of onlookers.
As the procession approached the stone-built
grotto,
10-year-old Christina D'Amato from Dupont, PA,
standing next to her mother and 8-year-old
brother, began to sing the Ave Maria because, she
later explained, "It makes the Blessed Mother
very happy."
The pilgrimage began at 7 a.m. with what
was to be a
12-hour exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.
When the last of eight Masses, healing services,
rosary prayers and confessions was completed, the
celebration had encompassed what its organizers,
Our Father's Work, had set out to achieve: a day
"of prayer, penance and sacrifice, uniting our
hearts here in the United States with those
hearts in Medjugorje before."
At precisely 12:40 p.m., the time of the
first reported
Medjugorje apparition, all the pilgrims stopped
where they were and bowed their heads in prayer
and meditation for 15 minutes. And, as it was
during the procession to the grotto, the silence
was intense.
Afterward, Mary Ellen Lukas, the stigmatist,
consented to a
brief and rare interview. Dressed in black, but
with a radiant smile, and wearing long gloves cut
off at the fingers, she called the celebration
"absolutely wonderful."
It was "so very, very special because it was
the one time
that everyone is in prayer united together not
just here but over in Yugoslavia," she said.
"And the procession was very powerful." At the
end of the 7 p.m. Mass, the last of the day, she
spoke briefly to worshipers who had crowded into
the shrine's glass chapel.
The bright sunshine of the morning gave way
in the early
afternoon to dark clouds, rumbling thunder and
lightning flashes, but the threatening storm
never quite materialized, and most of the
pilgrims stayed for the entire 12-hour day, a day
they all kept repeating, that was wonderful.
There are differences, however. A very
wonderful and holy
priest told us never to forget the reason we
moved here. Never to get too accustomed to
"routine" here. He meant that while one is on
the "high" of a pilgrimage, and the constant
attention to Our Lady, the Sanctuary, Blessed
Sacrament Chapel, Basilica etc., one is not
bogged down with personal responsibilities.
Although a pilgrimage is not a vacation, per se,
it is different from the routine and
responsibilities "back home."
Pilgrims usually are in hotels, served three
meals, no
dishes, no beds to make, and buses are ready for
religious and other tours.
Being a resident, on the other hand, one
needs to remember
constantly that the "daily chores" of general
living must be considered as an interruption to
the real reason that one moved here initially.
We can remember people telling us, prior to
the move, "After
October, Fatima is ours again!" This is a point
to ponder. Buses, pilgrims, traffic and chaos are
all a beautiful part of "welcoming" to this
beautiful place, those who, in most cases, have
monetarily or corporally, sacrificed a great deal
to make the pilgrimage. Some have even walked
hundreds of miles, days and weeks, to reach this
far.
Every country in the world has visited
Fatima. A Mass in
Japanese; decades of the Rosary in Tagala
(Philippines), Russian, French, Italian,
Ukraine, ad infinitum; processions with
Cardinals, Bishops and Clergy of all races. And
all this, the wonder of Fatima, is based on the
testimony of three very young peasant children
and their encounter with the Mother of God. It
is truly awesome!
Living here, one also has the blessings of
repeatedly
meeting those from other lands. Our home, one
block from the Sanctuary, is open to many who
want to know more about Fatima, living here, and
[to] see many videos on Fatima and the Catholic
Church. Many tell us it must have been quite a
"sacrifice" to leave the USA, two and a half
years ago, to come to Portugal. It is NOT a
sacrifice! Although at times we may have been
used to more "conveniences," living here is, for
the very most part, no sacrifice. Our blessings
far surpass any inconveniences one might
encounter. An example is one of the many times
we have a living room with priests from
Vladivostok, Russia, the Philippines and Portugal
all sharing their experiences and finding ways to
better serve God. Or, a Sister from Fiji sharing
totally different encounter[s] than the Sisters
from an Order here who are missioned mostly in
Europe, India and Brazil. What a thrill to
"listen" to the love and experiences shared. One
thing that evolves from all this is the increase
of correspondence which "climbs" each season.
"What about the language?" is the most frequently
asked question. Oddly enough, there are many
Portuguese who are fluent in English. This makes
it difficult for us to learn the language as they
would prefer to speak English for their own
practice. We, however, would like to speak
Portuguese so that we can facilitate our learning
the language quicker. Nevertheless, because my
grandparents were from Portugal, I can fumble
through a bit easier, having heard it as a child.
Our main apostolate here is through E-Mail.
We receive
petitions to Our Lady from all over the world
each night and take them, the following day, to
the Cova where Our Lady appeared. As one
American priest told us, "You are balancing the
satanic influence on internet." Thank you,
Father!
Before presenting the petitions, or prayer
requests, to the
Guards, we remove the E-Mail number of each
petitioner and retain only the message which is
folded and then given for "posting." Many times
we have presented 500 petitions in one evening!
The Guards know us now and some say, "More mail
for Our Lady?" He then places them in the slot
provided in the marble pillar on which Our Lady
stands at the Cova. This is directly over the
spot of the Holmoak tree on which She stood in
1917. While he is mailing the petitions, we
kneel before Her and pray for the petitions and
give "thanks" for so many Thank You's for favors
granted. Our problems seem microscopic in
contrast to those of others.
We read them ONLY because we "screen" them
before placing
them at Our Lady's Feet. We do not want to be,
in any way, instruments for satan's blasphemies
to Our Lady. We are channels only FOR the
children of Our Lady who seek Her intervention.
Fortunately, we have only met one, out of
thousands, [who] was a bit antagonistic. Being
members of the World Apostolate of Fatima, Blue
Army USA, our apostolate is only to spread "The
Message of Fatima" and to serve Her petitioners
because they love Her and hope in Her.
Although we live here in Fatima, and are
totally devoted to
Our Lady of Fatima, we are well aware that She is
the same Lady who appeared at various other
places as Lourdes, Guadalupe, La Sallette etc.
She is Christ's Mother, whom He has given to us
at Calvary. Her messages, in all Her
apparitions, are simple and maternal. As
mortals, we find it difficult to totally commit
to Her wishes, but, like all mothers, She knows
Her children's deepest intentions and credits us
for our efforts in trying to conform to Her
request.
If any reader has a petition to Our Lady, no
matter how
large or small, please contact us at <72561.660@compuserve.com> or, you may write to
us at the following address:
Alan & Junette Merwin
Another interesting note on petitions:
there is someone
from the Sanctuary assigned to read "each"
petition. All petitions are kept for one year
and then burned, except for "special ones" which
are kept "on file." We do not know which'
ones/type constitute the circumstances for being
kept "on file."
Please help us be "instruments for Our Lady
and Her Son"
while we reside in this heavenly place. Like
priests in the confessional, we do not remember
any names on the petitions. There are far too
many.
Our prayers are always for the USA where
our families and
"old friends" take precedence in our thoughts.
Our prayers and rosaries are also a constant for
the "Rosary Crusade" which the Blue Army/USA has
so gallantly promoted. We have learned, through
the study of Portuguese History, that the Rosary
has been the ammunition necessary for fighting
the enemy in overwhelming odds. May the American
Rosary Crusade be as triumphant against the
materialistic and immoral vices which are such a
vast part of our new society. Thank you for
your petitions and for your visits to the "Altar
of the World" here in Fatima. Please keep us in
your needed prayers, too. Prayerfully from the
Cova, Junette and Alan Merwin.
Junette and Alan Merwin are cyberpals.
Rarely does a day go
by without emailing prayer requests to them.
Their apostolate is very powerful. We've
witnessed many healings and answers to prayer
through the intercession of Our Lady of Fatima.
Whenever a prayer request comes into DEAR FAMILY,
it goes out on the Internet to the Merwins.
Someday, God willing, I will make a pilgrimage
to Fatima. This lovely couple has assured me of
a warm welcome.
Something very disturbing was brought to my
attention
recently. It seems that in the southern United
States, a parish priest has removed the
tabernacle from his church. He allegedly told
his parishioners that the adoration of Jesus in
the Blessed Sacrament amounts to idolatry,
thereby denying the True Presence Body, Blood,
Soul and Divinity of the Son of God in the
Eucharist. Please, PLEASE, pray for this priest
right this very moment. Pray daily for all
clergy and religious. They need our prayerful
support if they are to remain loyal to God and
Church. They also need to know that we recognize
and appreciate their ministering to us. And all
of us, clergy and laity alike, must recognize
that obedience to the Magisterium (the teaching
authority of the Church, instituted by Christ,
guided by the Holy Spirit) and the Holy Father,
is a sign of maturity.
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.
UPDATE ON FELICIA: Felicia is still undergoing
chemotherapy, but her doctors say that it is only
prolonging her life at this point. We ask that
you continue to pray for Felicia, Brett and their
family, asking God to bless them abundantly with
the grace and consolation necessary to continue
through this difficult time. Felicia, God love
you.
UPDATE ON KATIE HOBEN by her daddy, Richard:
Recently, Katie underwent experimental chemo to
try and stop the cancer. It did not work, so she
will not go through another round. Katie asked
if this means she won't make it and her doctor
said yes. According to the doctors we have
perhaps a few months. We all know miracles
happen; we just keep on praying. I know you all
are. I also know of your love and encouragement
and support. Katie handles it as best she can.
She is going to help out with a garage sale this
weekend and hopes to make some money on some of
her old books and stuff. Well, I have to get
going. Thanks for all you do. God bless you and
your families.
OUR LADY CONTINUES TO APPEAR DAILY [IN
MEDJUGORJE]: At this moment, Vicka and Jacov are
in the parish and have daily apparitions. Ivan
and his family left for the US on July 27th.
Maria and her family are in Italy and she
promised us that she would visit in mid-August.
Mirjana, who receives pilgrims every day and
Ivanka, who lives a quiet life solely with her
family, are both here. It was through Ivanka
that Our Lady asked us to pray for all those
under the influence of evil. Here it is not for
us to ask, who is under the influence of evil,
but rather to pray every day, being conscious
while we pray the Our Father, that at the end, we
say "deliver us from evil".
This means
that our prayer is always protecting us as well
as others. When we say it consciously, it means
we have listened and then responded to Our Lady's
call.
(Father Slavko Barbaric, July 28, 1996)
VISIONARY IDA PEERDEMAN OF THE NETHERLANDS died
on June 17, 1996 at the age of 92. The Blessed
Mother appeared to Ida as Our Lady of All
Nations. Dissemination of Mary's messages to Ida
was approved by the Bishop of Haarlem,
Netherlands in late May.
THE SUPREME COURT OF NORTHERN TERRITORY IN
AUSTRALIA has upheld the world's first euthanasia
law, permitting doctors to administer lethal drug
doses to terminally ill patients. "Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do."
(Luke 23: 34)
WORDS OF WISDOM FROM SAINT JOHN VIANNEY: "You
must accept your cross. If you carry it
courageously, it will carry you to Heaven."
ADAM PRICE (14) suffers from cancer and is
undergoing chemotherapy. His Aunt Cecilia has
asked that we send him upbeat letters and cards
of encouragement.
In fact,
he would love to hear from fellow teens. You can
email Adam at
TOUR FATIMA on the World Wide Web:
FATIMA: PILGRIM vs RESIDENT by Junette Merwin:
Avenida Beato Nuno #205
Edificio Raquel 2 dto
Cova da Iria
2495 Fatima, Portugal
IN CLOSING:
APPARITIONS LIST ARCHIVES
DEAR FAMILY NEWSLETTER
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