Dear Children of Medjugorje,
Praised be Jesus and Mary!
1 - On December 2nd, one could see tears in Mirjana’s eyes. When the apparition was over, she wept for a long while before sharing with us the following message:
“Dear children! Today, while I am looking at your hearts, my heart is filled with pain and apprehension. My children, stop for a moment and look into your hearts. Is my Son, your God, truly in the first place? Are His commandments truly the measure of your life? I am
warning you again: without faith there is no God’s nearness and no God’s word which is the light of salvation and the light of common sense.”
Mirjana added, “I painfully asked Our Lady not to leave us and not to take her hands away from us. She painfully smiled at my request and left. This time Our Lady did not say, I thank you!”
2 - After the terrible pain Our Mother expressed, it is important that we console her aching heart by wholeheartedly living this special time of Advent with her. She is totally focused on the Baby to come. Her whole mind, heart and soul are already unified with this invisible little Being! She will teach us how to speak to Him with tenderness, how to unite with Him in the silence of our soul, how to hold Him in our arms and be completely absorbed in Him. She will show us how to put Him in the center of our lives, because He is our life! She will walk through our days with us and, looking at her face, we will read the desires of Baby Jesus!
I wonder at how Mary could be so peaceful in those days! She was indeed in the worst situation possible: her family, puzzled by the order from Cesar, undertook a journey of 180 Kilometers, at the worst time in her pregnancy, in the middle of winter! Once they arrived in Bethlehem, they counted on being welcomed by their tribe. Instead, they were rejected! They ended up in the most unsanitary place of all, a shelter for animals that was cold, dirty and reeking of manure. We have romanticized the picture so much with our cute little lamps and fuzzy sheep! There was neither light nor water; they did not have a bed or the slightest facility for a pregnant woman about to give birth! Joseph must have been broken at first, not able to provide a decent place for his beloved spouse and Son. Mary, on the other hand, was calm and composed, entirely focused on the Savior’s coming! And what joy she had!
I can imagine each one of us in the same situation - myself especially - absolutely distraught by all the deficiencies of the “shelter”, nervous or angry, making what was supposed to be a wonderful time of grace, a time of constant complaint and frustration!
This Advent, my proposal is that we choose to be joyful in the midst of our difficult situations, in the midst of our lacks and weaknesses, whatever they are. Even if we have enough to eat, enough money to buy nice presents, all of us lack something inside; and it aches. Let us choose to be happy anyway, with things just as they are today. It is beautiful to glorify the Heavenly Father for what we are experiencing today, even for what is difficult; because difficulties do not last into Eternity, whereas the fruit of suffering remains.
Certainly, it takes effort to extract the little, bitter, roots of anger within our hearts, which could hinder the immense joy to receive our Savior and to put Him in the first place. But we want a true Christmas this year, the best ever! Don't we? Then, let’s prepare the manger of the Child, with purity! May each piece of straw and each piece of soft material we use, be a true sacrifice, an extra sincere prayer that we offer to Mary! Thus, she herself will arrange her Son’s bedding in our hearts, and what a joy for Her to lay Him there when He is born on Christmas night! Baby Jesus will feel at home in our hearts and Our Blessed Mother will be so consoled!
3 - Mother Teresa’s calendar. Last month, the visit of Mark Miravalle to Medjugorje gave us much joy. Mark is a permanent deacon in the USA, professor of Theology at Steubenville Franciscan University, Ohio, and a great Marian apostle. During a conversation we had together, he told me an interesting account of some interaction he had with Mother Teresa. He gave me permission to publish it here, since it is connected with Medjugorje.
On August 14, 1994, Mark was in Calcutta, presenting talks on Mary as Co-redemptrix, Mediatrix, and Advocate to six different groups of Missionaries of Charity groups at Mother’s request (including two of which Mother herself attended). When Mark first entered the room and walked over to the place where they were to meet, he saw a calendar with the image of Our Lady of Medjugorje, hanging on the opposite wall. After a few minutes of enthusiastic conversation with Mother on other Marian issues, he pointed up to the calendar and asked her, “Mother, do you believe in Medjugorje?”
She responded by putting her finger up to her lips as if to gesture ‘shhh!’ and she answered, “I asked Our Lady of Medjugorje to come to my first Home for the Dying in Calcutta, and she did!” Mark did not have the courage to push the matter with the future saint by asking, ‘How did she come, Mother -- an apparition? A healing?’ Instead, he left the subject, but he noted that a peaceful smile had spread across her face. Mark never found out what the Gospa did to reveal herself in Mother Teresa’s Home for the Dying in Calcutta!
Through several other witnesses, we know that Mother Teresa took great interest in Medjugorje and believed in it. In fact, she had personal contact with Father Slavko Barbaric. She dearly wanted to make the pilgrimage to Medjugorje, but knowing the enormous impact of her slightest move and how easily the faithful would interpret her initiative as a Church fact, she did not want to be ahead of John Paul II. Out of humility, she chose to wait for him to precede her. According to the official position of the Church, she could have come, since a letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the faith stated in May 1998: “Every person may go to Medjugorje on a private pilgrimage,” (see PS1).
4 -‘The day of joy’. The Blessed Mother always wanted the youth of the prayer group (and all of us) to deeply prepare for “the day of joy”, allowing Baby Jesus to be truly born in our hearts. A few days ago, in an apparition to Ivan, the Gospa invited again the families to pray each day together in front of the crib. This invitation may inspire all of us to create a beautiful Nativity scene in our homes as soon as the beginning of Advent, and not make it in haste during the week preceding Christmas.
5 - Plenary indulgence in Lourdes for 2008! On December 5th, Pope Benedict XVI announced that he granted pilgrims a daily plenary indulgence on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the apparitions in Lourdes. The indulgence is attached to the pilgrims that will visit all the places of the "Way of the Jubilee" designed for the Jubilee Year in Lourdes. The Jubilee Year will extend from December 8, 2007 to December 8, 2008 (See PS3).
Dearest Mother, for the day of joy, we want to offer you the best response ever! At any cost, we want to dry your tears. This Christmas, may you witness in our hearts the full victory of God’s Love!
Sister Emmanuel +
(Translated from French)
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Great News! Sister Emmanuel’s new book, “The Hidden Child of Medjugorje” is out in the United States and in Medjugorje! A wonderful gift for Christmas! Offer this book to your friends and relatives, fill their hearts with hope! Available in the US through our COM store: childrenofmedjugorje.com then click “Shop COM”.
Also available now in Medjugorje at the shops “Devotions”: Tel. +387 36 651 497, or “Phoenix Catholic bookstore”: Tel. +387 36 650 917. (Cost: 9 Euros)
PS 1 – See Arch. Bertone’s letter of May 16, 1998 at childrenofmedjugorje.com. From the home page click “Medjugorje” then “Vatican Perspective”.
PS 2 - Before Christmas, don’t forget the special CD on Baby Jesus: “Baby Jesus, Mary’s Message for the Millenium” by Sr. Emmanuel. See other CDs: “The Rosary with Medjugorje” (double CD); “The Miracle of the Rosary, Joyful Mysteries”; “True Consecration to Mary”; “Story of a Wounded Womb”; “The Most Beautiful Mass of My Life”; “Stressed? Oppressed? Bless!” Go to childrenofmedjugorje.com, then click “Shop COM”.
PS 3 – The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds the faithful that the conditions to obtain the grace of a plenary indulgence includes: the sacrament of Confession, Eucharistic Holy Communion, a prayer for the Pope and being free from any attachment to sin, (# 1471 and following).
PS 4 – “The Hidden Child of Medjugorje” is out in German, 22 Euros from Parvis Verlag, Suisse. Tel: +41 269 159 393 book@parvis.ch. In Polish, at Wydawnictow Marianow, 7 Euros. Tel: +48 22 642 50 82, sekretarz@marianie.pol.pl .The Spanish, Croatian, Portuguese, Lebanese, Romanian, Dutch, Russian, Korean, and Chinese versions are in the process. We are still looking for professional translators for Slovenian, Slovakian, Czech and Japanese!
PS 5 – Register today! Receive the monthly message from Our Lady and Sr. Emmanuel’s report from Medjugorje! In order to receive this monthly report from Sr. Emmanuel in English, please sign up here. If you have registered and do not receive the report anymore, please send us your email address again, or verify if our address is not blocked by your Spam protection!
PS 6– Don’t forget on January 1st, or during your family encounters, to “pick up your saint” for the New Year! Don’t miss to know who your pal is!! (See the explanation on our page about the Saints on COM website!) From the home page go to “Explore” then click “Saints”. In order to receive this monthly report from Sr. Emmanuel in English, please sign up here.
In French:wmmedjugorje@childrenofmedjugorje.com
In Spanish: gisele_riverti@mensajerosdelareinadelapaz.org
In Italian: info@vocepiu.it
In Croatian rsilic@yahoo.com
In Portuguese (new!): medjugorjeport@yahoo.com
© Children of Medjugorje 2007 Permission is given to spread the text of these reports under two conditions: 1) No words are changed and 2) "Children of Medjugorje" is cited along with our website: www.childrenofmedjugorje.com.
