A friend sent this my way this morning it's from Cathy Nolan of MaryTV. I hadn't noticed how much I needed to read this until now, funny how that happens. Sunday, September 4, 2011 7:31 PM Dear Family of Mary! "Dear children! Today I call you to pray and fast for my intentions, because Satan wants to destroy my plan. Here I began with this parish and invited the entire world. Many have responded, but there is an enormous number of those who do not want to hear or accept my call. Therefore, you who have said 'yes', be strong and resolute. Thank you for having responded to my call." (August 25, 2011) Ivan continues speaking about Our Lady, her messages, and the times we live in, in his talk on June 24, 2011: Our Lady talks so much about peace. She talks about prayer. I would say that these two messages are probably the messages that are being repeated more than any other messages during these years of apparitions. Why are these two messages so important so that Our Lady keeps calling us to live them? These two messages, prayer and peace, are the foundation on which we have to place the other messages - all her messages depend on these two messages. For example, the message of conversion: our conversion should start in our heart... In our heart... So how could it happen that we don't have that peace in our heart? How can it happen if we don't pray? [If we don't pray] we won't be able to recognize the things that are not good. We won't be able to recognize what the sin is. We won't be able to be open to the Holy Spirit. Indeed conversion is very important to each one of us. But conversion is a process. It is a program for our life, and we have to make a decision for it, we have to be persistent. We have to change ourselves every day. To leave sin and evil behind us every day. And to be open on this path. It doesn't mean that I am converted overnight just because I have seen Our Lady. No. My conversion is going on every day. And I still want to improve some things every day. Once time there was a pilgrim who asked me, "Ivan, what about your life, how did it change?" You see, I experience all kinds of changes in my life.... It is also a change for me as father to change the diapers of my youngest son! This is the way you change, it is the kind of scenery that you have in front of you -direction in which you know something has to be corrected. And you see in these little things we can recognize huge things. And peace! We can say that this world really doesn't have any peace. Why is it like that, that the world doesn't have any peace? Because there is no peace in the human heart. Everything comes from the human heart. All the problems that are happening in the family, in society, talking about divorces, talking about all evil things in the family, but also we go for other considerations in the world, talking about wars. Because the human heart is not at peace within itself. The heart is not reconciled with God. And this is so important. And this is the reason why Our Lady keeps calling us to place God in the first place, to walk together with Him to the better future. And then everything else will be added to it. And then everything else will work smoothly the way we want. But of course the cross is a part of our life. We have to embrace our crosses. We have to carry our crosses. And some people have to carry very heavy crosses, and the others, those that are not that heavy. We have to accept the cross as the will of God, so that God may be glorified through us. It is very important to be ready to accept the cross. It is probably human that we make those comments when something goes wrong, "God, why did you do it to me? I did so many good things in your name, on behalf of you. I went to church, I prayed with my family. Why me? Why do I have to carry such a heavy cross? Why do you allow illness to come to my family?" But the cross is the gift. And we have to accept this gift. I will say again, this gift could be called the will of God. It is probably through this cross we will be glorified...we will receive much more than without the cross! Everything has its meaning and the reason why. Everything! We don't see it from this point. But we have to think that way. And this is the reason why Our Lady keeps calling us for such a long time. She asks us to forgive. Forgiveness is such an important thing in this world. To forgive yourself first. Sometimes it is probably the most difficult thing - to forgive yourself! How to forgive yourself ?! If I cannot forgive myself, how could I forgive others? How could my heart be open - without forgiveness there is no healing, there is no spiritual fruit, no physical healing, and therefore I say again it is so important to forgive. To have confession. To have your own confessor. Not to be afraid to meet the priest in confession. May your confessor be the priest to whom you could open your heart, sit together and you can talk. Then you'll feel after the confession how free you are. You're not going to fly, but you will be free - free from inside. So once again, forgiveness is very important. (Ivan Dragicevic, on June 24, 2011, sharing about Our Lady, her messages and their meaning for our times) In Ivan's gentle words we hear the echo of Our Lady's voice. Ivan has conversed with her for so long, that his words have become similar to hers. He speaks from his heart, he speaks with love, and gentleness, and with hope. Peace, prayer, confession, forgiveness, conversion, the cross - these are some of the themes that have been woven into such a beautiful tapestry of holiness in Medjugorje. This is the legacy that will be left for the world even after the apparitions cease. These themes, these messages are a great gift for our age, the key to lasting peace. May we be strong and resolute in our commitment to respond to Our Lady in these days, for the sake of souls! ------------------------------------------- "Dear children! Today I call you to pray and fast for my intentions, because Satan wants to destroy my plan. Here I began with this parish and invited the entire world. Many have responded, but there is an enormous number of those who do not want to hear or accept my call. Therefore, you who have said 'yes', be strong and resolute. Thank you for having responded to my call." (August 25, 2011) Ivan spoke for a long time that day in his chapel. You could tell he was very moved on that special day, the 30th anniversary of the first day he saw Our Lady. Here is part 3 of his talk on June 24, 2011: Another thing: Our Lady comes here because she wants the best for us. She wants to encourage us. She wants to comfort us. She knows that we are tired of this world. She knows that this world offers us too much. She wants to offer her own motherly hands to lift us up. She comes to us bringing us divine medication. And the medicine is actually the message, the message through which Our Lady has been leading us. And there will never be any lack of that medication in Our Lady's hands. [She is] like all of you mothers in the way that you treat your children... I believe that you are always so patient; you always have your own medicine that you can give to your children, and that you give that certain medicine to your children, to your family. But what happens when there is no IV for yourself? It is a problem, because parents should be models for their children. During all these years Our Lady has healed our wounds, puts the bandages on our wounds, with so much love, so much patience. But when she wants to heal our wounds and put the bandage on them, we have to press it a little bit, to make it stick. It's kind of like the Band Aid that could peel off if you don't press on it... Everything that Our Lady has done during all these years is with enormous love. For example, every evening during the apparition when the pilgrims are present here, if you could just get an idea of what she looks like at the moment when she looks at us - from left to right and from right to the left. It's such a beautiful smile, which is the smile of love! Something that cannot be described! She knows exactly what is in our heart. Sometimes when I recommend pilgrims to Our Lady (tonight I'm going to recommend all of you) I start saying one intention...then Our Lady interrupts me and she says, "My child I know, I know!" She already knows our hearts. She knows what our hearts want to tell her. And she intercedes to her Son for us. She's not the one who heals. But she intercedes to her Son for us. He's the one who will heal us. Our Lady has been coming during all these years, and she says to us, "Dear Children, the world at this moment goes through a huge crisis." But the greatest one is faith - trust in God. You see we have gotten distant from God. We have gotten distant from prayer. Today's world, today's mankind, today's families, go into the future without God. We're all aware of the reality of the world we live in. We're aware of the situation in the family lives that we've talked about - the growth in spirituality, of holiness. Now we have to talk about the crisis - crisis in the family life. The new society will be based on the family. Without the healthy family there is no healthy society. When we talk about the spiritual dimension we have to say that the family is broken. Connections, relations between parents and children now are broken. Many of these connections between husbands and wives are broken. There is no more love. Love continues more as an artificial subject. It's not a love of the heart, a love that would be shared in the family, the love that should be lived in the family. Fidelity in marriage...every second or third marriage is going through divorce. What is going on, what is happening to children out of these marriages. Children are going through all kinds of troubles. They make their own way. The society seduces children. They don't feel any warmth from their own parents. They don't get any support from the family. So where does it bring the children? It brings them to drug addiction, alcohol addiction, and all these problems we know of today. You see how important it is to live holiness in the family. Should I talk about morals? We can say today the world has a moral revolution, in the media, through the internet, in many different ways, they create idols, and these new moral idols take young people away from God. For example - heavy metal music. This is also something very dangerous for the young people.... it is brain washing.... Mother calls us, "Dear children, bring the prayer back into your families. May each one of your families become a little chapel, a little church where prayer will be said." Our family is really to become a little church where prayer may be said. Our Lady says, "There is no living church without the living church in the family." How will the church be a living church if the family is not living? It cannot exist together. This is the reason why Our Lady keeps telling us how important prayer is. Our Lady wants to start a new evangelization in the family. And I believe it will reach to the evangelization of the world. And I believe this process of evangelization is supporting this world. There are many huge steps made but we have to be persistent and to keep working in the same direction. (Ivan Dragicevic, in his chapel on June 24, 2011) Well, Ivan covered many things in this section of his talk. My favorite is the description of how very much Our Lady loves us and how she looks at us when she comes to Ivan for the apparition. We have no idea how her love is sustaining us! She is covering us with her intercession constantly. If she didn't, we would be so vulnerable. How blessed we are to have such a mother. The crisis that Ivan described in the world and in the world's families is serious indeed. But we have the Mother with us to heal us. Let us never lose hope. --------------------------------------------------------- Dear Family of Mary! "Dear children; with all my heart and soul full of faith and love in the Heavenly Father, I gave my Son to you and am giving him to you anew. My Son has brought you, the people of the entire world, to know the only true God and his love. He has led you on the way of truth and made you brothers. Therefore, my children, do not wander, do not close your heart before that truth, hope and love. Everything around you is passing and everything is falling apart, only the glory of God remains. Therefore, renounce everything that distances you from the Lord. Adore him alone, because he is the only true God. I am with you and I will remain with you. I am especially praying for the shepherds that they may be worthy representatives of my Son and may lead you with love on the way of truth. Thank you." (September 2, 2011) As we begin to respond to this message from Our Lady, I want to continue with Ivan's words on June 24, 2011. This one paragraph captures so well Ivan's clear perception of the spiritual state of things in our world. Like Our Lady, he pleads with us to set everything aside that does not bring us closer to God. Only God matters now. Only God: "There is something else. Our Lady comes here because she wants to offer us hope....because today's world is hopeless. There is no hope. Many live just day by day expecting what the next day will bring. And Our Lady comes to us bringing new hope, not fear, not punishment, not criticism. She comes to us because she wants to lead us to her own Son. And we can find peace and the hope in her Son alone. And Our Lady says, 'Dear children, don't talk about peace but start living peace. Don't talk about prayer, start living prayer. Only if you bring peace and prayer back into your families will your families be spiritually healed.' This world needs to be spiritually healed because this world is spiritually sick. This world is not going through an economic crisis or recession; it is a question of a spiritual recession. Every kind of spiritual recession produces all the other kinds of recessions: spiritual, family, and any other kind. Why? Because man is empty. Man is used up because he has abused his relationship with God. He has turned towards the world. So we can say that families, mankind, lost their credibility and dignity, according to the most important virtues that God gives us." (Ivan Dragicevic, on June 24, 2011) Everything around us is falling apart! That is true. Everything based on human wisdom, human understanding, human values, is falling apart. Only when we live according to God's values will life make sense. Only God will last. Our Lady is with us to bring us back to God. Thank you Mother Mary, for loving us so much! In Jesus and Mary! Cathy Nolan © Mary TV 2011
Often when I am in confusion or am suffering emotionally, I will first seek out the comfort of another, especially my beautiful wife, Geralyn. Today, my 17-yr-old daughter, Therese, was a little distraught. She came over and simply hugged me for a couple of minutes. The reassuring love of that embrace brought her comfort, though no words were shared. These are precious opportunities. They are good and holy. Ivan's talk concerning the motherly love of Our Lady reminds me how important it is to run to Jesus and Mary with my burdens. The prayer of simplicity in sharing my thoughts, joys, and anguish with them authenticates my friendship with each of them. Heart to heart, soul to soul, in simple trust. Jesus is my Healer and he experienced as a child the tender care of his Mother. And so now, he wants me to welcome her into my life and heart, to include her in the healing process. Mary knows me, loves me, and as in Medjugorje, smiles at me with great affection. To have her and her Son so readily available is a gift I too often neglect. I love you Jesus. I treasure you, Mom. I need your hugs.
Great Reading. But after reading, I now have to tell a stroy of what happened this weekend. In short, my daughter needed Mom's hugs...needed Jesus' compassion, but someone got in the way... Ivan said, "To have confession. To have your own confessor. Not to be afraid to meet the priest in confession. May your confessor be the priest to whom you could open your heart, sit together and you can talk. Then you'll feel after the confession how free you are. You're not going to fly, but you will be free - free from inside." He's right, but sometimes it doesn't work that way, though it SHOULD!!! I couldn't believe it, my 5 month-pregnant daughter who came to visit me this weekend wanted to go to confession!!! It has been 8 years. I have been slowly working on her (along with Jesus and Mary of course). She told me that when she did go to confession before, which has not been since high school, it was only because they "made" them go at school. So what she was saying was this was probably the first time in her life that she actually was initiating it herself. I was exctatic! Praise God! So I found out that the church in Rockford that does the Latin Mass had confession before Mass. This would be perfect, we could all (my mom, me, my daughter) go to confession and then attend our first Sunday Latin Mass! Praise to God! But there is a catch. She has been living with her boyfriend for 5 years, and helping raise his daughter, and now they are having a baby, but are not yet married. So, they are "living in sin". She knows this of course. We spent an hour or so the night before talking about how to approach her confession. She didn't know how to approach the living together part, because of course when she goes home she does not intend to stop living with him. But she had some other things she really wanted to get off her chest (things she did not want to tell me but wanted to tell the priest). I mean, how could I tell her NOT to go? I decided to put her into God's hands. I trusted that the priest would know what to say to her, or would have some kind of solution or counsel he could give to this lost lamb trying to return. My advice to her was to go, to tell him everything, talk to him about her situation, and see what happened. Well, we went, and she went, and as I am thanking God for it all - waiting for my turn to go to confession, she came out of the confessional crying, but it was not tears of relief, it was tears of embarrassment and disappointment and hurt. She bolted out of the church. I retrieved her (her grandma was inside doing her penance, otherwise I am sure I would not have gotten her to go back in to Mass). The priest was an old, I think retired priest. He was not the normal parish priest. This priest was substituting. He listened to her sins, but when she talked about her living situation, he became rude and snapped that he couldn't absolve any of her sins and she shouldn't have come to confession. As she sat in shock, he said, "Well, I guess I could give you a blessing." She said, "ok, thank you", and he said, "Bless you". THAT IS IT!!! She started to cry and left the confessional. AFTER 8 YEARS and all my prodding to go to confession, this is the answer she got. Please pray with me that she doesn't completely walk away now. I feel that all these years of work with my talks about Medjugorje and confession and a warning coming and to be prepared may have come undone in 5 minutes in the confessional. Of course we have talked about it, and I tried to make her understand that it was the priest, not her, who was wrong, and not confession in general that was the problem. Of course she said to me, "but Mom, you told me to TELL him! I wish I wouldn't have told him about living with my boyfriend." (because she really wanted to talk to him about the other things on her conscience - it was I who did say this because I didn't want her to not make a good confession). I was hoping he could absolve her of her other sins at least, but even if he couldn't, which she did understand could happen and was prepared to deal with, he didn't offer a compassionate heart to her, he didn't even acknowledge her other sins, not even a word - I feel he didn't do his job. I told my daughter we need to pray for him because he was blind and clearly needs our prayers. A young woman coming into his confessional after 8 years, looking for help, and being turned away? Also it is my fault for being in a hurry and for not taking her a priest that I know would counsel her properly. She didn't want to go to anyone we knew either though... I have been surrounded by such good priests the last few years that I "forgot" they are not all like the priests at Medjugorje, or at the conferences. She knows she needs to try again, to find a priest and make an appointment, but that scares her too, and it may now be another 8 years before she tries again! I hugged her and told her that Jesus knew what she was trying to do and that he can and will forgive her. For now, just talk to him, and we will try again at a better time, with a better priest. I did something myself too, good or bad I don't know. I let the priest know what he did. Honestly, I swore I was "told" to let him know. His homily that day, of all things, was about the good Samaritan! As soon as he started his talk, which by the way was coldly read from a paper without even looking up once to the people, or adding his own thoughts, I felt the words, "tell him" in my head. So after Mass, I went up to him, and said, "My daughter needed a good samaritan, she needed compassion, she needed Jesus.....she didn't get it" He said, "Where is your daughter?" I said, "She was in confession today..." I saw the recognition in his face, then my waterworks turned on full force and I turned away and left quickly, sobbing. Of course I had cried all through Mass too. Confession has become a sanctuary for me, I have been telling my kids how great they will feel if they go. Oh if only that were always true. As Mary says, Pray Pray Pray for our shephards! and for those who are turned away by their apathy.
Its so lovely for me, a single person to see insights into God and love working in families so wonderfully in these ways. Thank you all for sharing.
Connie, The blunt approach obviously failed to open your daughter's heart. I will pray for her and her boyfriend. Your steadfast love toward your children is precious, Connie. Your pleadings before God will bear fruit in due season. John 8:8 And once more he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus looked up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" 11 She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again."
what a shame momscalling, that your daughter had such a tough experience in confession. I remember going for the first time after 10 years, being so afraid what the priest would say to me and I can't believe that the priest said to her given she had been away for so long. So sad, but that is why we must pray for our priests. Jesus of course knows her efforts and must have been thrilled that she went...another lost lamb on that path to coming home. Thankfully she has you to guide her!! My only suggestion if she goes to confession again is to pray ahead of time for the actual priest who will hear the confession. I forget where I read that...it might have been here or on another forum. But when I had a sin to confess that I was real worried about what the priest would say, I said a prayer for the priest each day for about a week. It made me feel a lot better about confessing the sin and it went well...meaning he didn't yell at me! You may want to try that next time.
Its a real mystery why this happened. I think in all my time ging to confession I only ever had one realy bad experience. Priests have a huge privledge and a huge responsibility. May God have mercy on this one. I'll pray for your daughter Connie...and this priest , I don' t know what he was thinking. I'd like to suppose he was having just a bad day, though this in no way excuses him, please God he is not like this all the time. :shock:
Your daughter's tears reveal how much she needs and wants reconciliation. I pray that priest's hard-nosed approach didn't shatter her confidence in the Lord's mercy. This may be a set back, then again maybe it will force the issue, giving her pause to examine the lifestyle choices that are keeping her from full communion. Don't give up, and I know you won't. Maybe ask around the community if there's a particular kindly priest in the area, and make an appointment with him STAT outside the confessional. Tell him of about your daughter and how her negative confessional experience threatens to destroy all the progress she has made in the last few years. In other words pre-screen the priest to ensure there's no repeat of the same. Nobody knows your daughter better than you and with a some effort you'll find one with the compassion and wisdom to counsel your beloved child. Seek this meeting outside of the sacrament of confession for two reasons 1) it might not be as intimidating for your daughter 2) it won't put the priest in the awkward position of sending her away with absolution. I admire you for speaking up without lashing out, letting your tears speak volumes, perhaps reflecting his own sermon back at him.
Rain Said: "This may be a set back, then again maybe it will force the issue, giving her pause to examine the lifestyle choices that are keeping her from full communion. Don't give up, and I know you won't." After it was over, I did think, and still do think about that. And I pray that the blunt and harsh message she did receive will bear good fruit eventually. For the moment she has taken two steps back, but eventually perhaps it will help her move forward. Thank you all, for your good advice, I will try to apply it appropriately when the time is right again. Being pregnant is what she said "made" her think about going to confession. Again, I do not know what other sins are bothering her, but she eluded that there were three, and none of these were her living situation. So she needs counseling by a good priest for sure. I know several priests who would be great for her to talk with, but not close by her home, which is 7 hours away from me. The priest I wish I could get her to the most is in Milwaukee. This may be possible at a later date. She has a very good friend in Milwaukee, so perhaps that can incite a trip there soon - before Christmas, maybe. For now, she seems ok, she has let it rest for now. I pray that she will do like I did about a couple of things that nagged at me for years. I did confess them and received absolution, but for some reason I didn't feel they were "gone". I talked to two other priests about them, actually several years apart, as I continued my conversion back to the church. Finally, I have peace, but as humans sometimes it is hard to let go of something we have held on to for so long. Of course she needs to change her living situation, but she is not the only one involved in that decision. She has wanted to get married, but he hasn't officially asked her - after five years! They were both saying before how they didn't need to be married - but now she is pregnant and that has changed things, for her for sure. She is talking a lot about baptism too, and is worried he will not want to baptize the baby Catholic. He was raised to dislike the Catholic church, by his Catholic father who had bad experiences in his Catholic school upbringing (I don't know any details) She is in a troubled state in her soul about it, while at the same time is in a joyful state becoming a mother. I pray to Mary to nurture her and my new grandbaby and let the joy and God win. I pray to St. Joseph to work on her boyfriend, who is named after him, and to St. Michael, who is also named as his middle name. We just found out today that the baby is a boy! and will be named Michael Joseph. Of course I think about the Warning coming too, and hope that if it comes soon, that they will both convert and then understand what they need to do for their new growing family.
Hi MomsCalling, I'm really sorry to read of your daughter's confessional experience. I feel though perhaps what she may need is more in the line of counselling/conversation than confession at this point. Does she understand that confession is a sacrament and one must have the resolve to avoid the occasion of sin in the future. The priest was harsh I agree but he was right when he said he couldn't absolve her sins because she was going back to the "living in sin" again. It would be great if she had a good experience and that is what we all wish for in our prayers for our loved ones, but God always meets us where we are at. Her journey towards deep love for Jesus may take a little while but I'm sure Jesus will brighten her mind through your prayers and help her to be reconciled to Him in His own time. I will keep you in my prayers. God Bless Border collie
