Reflections

God created woman in His own image, just as He did with man. It was a single image, though there is a clear distinction. “Male and female he created them,” says the book of Genesis. In the woman God put those parts of Himself which he drew from the deepest layers of His divine being: sensitivity, intuition, tenderness, the capacity to donate self in an unconditioned way without seeking advantage, fortitude and the wonder of a body able to lovingly receive and give life.

The following homily was delivered Sunday, June 15, at St. James Church in Medjugorje by Fr. Timothy Deeter.

Last night, I finished another book for my spiritual reading. I’m constantly amazed at how God directs me to read spiritual works that have important lessons for my own life at the time I’m reading them. The book I just finished is entitled Testimony of Hope and it’s by Archbishop—later Cardinal—Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan. In 1975, only a few months after his appointment as archbishop of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), he was imprisoned by the Vietnamese government for 13 years. Then he was placed under house arrest for three more years, before finally being expelled from Vietnam. Archbishop Van Thuan went to Rome to work in the Vatican, and in the Jubilee Year 2000, Pope John Paul II asked him to preach the annual Lenten retreat for himself and the heads of various Vatican departments. The retreat was so successful that the Pope asked the Archbishop to publish the text of his reflections.

Most people are afraid when they think about their own death, or the death of those who are close to them. In reality, the Gospa tells us, "Death does not exist"! It is simply a veil that falls, like the curtain of the temple of Jerusalem that was torn in the middle, revealing what was already there, hidden in the invisible, the Holy of Holies!

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:

When someone asked St. Ignatius how he would react if his order broke up, he replied that it would take him no more than "an hour of prayer" to get over the shock and disappointment. Anyone who prays - not just this saint - is able to experience that the fruit of prayer is peace. When a spiritual man pours out his soul to God through prayer (encounter with God), his restless heart finds rest. Just as it is the nature of fire to burn upwards, so do man's desires tend to go upwards. And it is in following this order of things, to which man is destined by the bonds of charity, that he finds peace.

... Mary also wishes that we switch off TV during the nine days before great feast days like Easter and Christmas ...

Laureen is an active young woman in a big city of Holland. She is single and works with much zeal, spreading Gospa's messages. She never finds herself jobless when it comes to serving Her! The experience she shares here may inspire us to make good use of our freedom!

At Conclusion of Jubilee Year

There is a message that Mary leaves us; a message without words, that is expressed with extraordinary intensity at MEDJUGORJE. The most precious, it gives meaning and fertility to every other message. I am speaking of the current of grace, that through her living presence, is communicated to souls with the unspeakable power of love.

“Be Holy as I am Holy!” : mere advice, or a command? Is being holy something we can do on our own? We, expert in all that is technical; can we make ourselves become holy? The idea of making oneself holy is illusory. The Lord desired sharing this gift with us. Holiness is such a precious gift, and without it, it is impossible to enjoy the eternal goods of Paradise. God wants his children with him, He wants them to be eternally happy. For this reason He sent His Son who let His heart be pierced so we could receive the Holy Spirit.

“You haven’t heard of Nuestra Señora Del Pilar!? But she’s the Patron of all Hispanic Peoples! .. So, tomorrow we shall take you there.” It was during my visit to Madrid at the beginning of spring that I thus came to know of this story which is both fascinating and important. It is important because the shrine came to be after an apparition of Mary 40 years after Christ’s death (40 AD), that is, while she was still alive.

God Alone Suffi ces!

It was the 20th October 2005. I was with two friends and prayer companions when my Medjugorje voyage began on the day I joined the “Kraljice Mira” community. It all started in 1998, the year our Blessed Mother prepared me for two special encounters with her and her Son. The first was a pilgrimage to Spain, to the tombs of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, and to Garabandal where Our Lady appeared between 1960 and 1964, and only a few weeks later I went on pilgrimage again; this time to Medjugorje where I had not been before.

It is Lent, a time when the Church advises us to live the experience of the desert, to be better prepared for Easter, with an appropriate inner disposition: void of the superfluous and more open to perceive the presence of God, who at Easter, after his Passion and Death on the Cross, will become for us full light, resurrection and glory. It is precisely to this that the Lenten journey invites us. The right tools are needed for the journey. Amongst the means suggested the most important one is fasting, which is the attitude of renouncing something that is dear to us, or good, but which is not strictly necessary for our survival.

If we stop a moment and listen to the rhythm of life that flows within us, perceived especially by the beating of the heart, we will realize that it is slow, calm and harmonious; unless we have forced it to fasten by a lifestyle which makes us rush.

Our paper, the Echo, is sent to many parts of the world, and I hope there are still parts of the world where the folk are not “forced” to live the anxiety of the “developed world” who are caught up in a mechanism of production that threatens them not to stop.

In the message of September 25, 2001 , Our Lady says:

« … pray and fast that God may give you peace … »

Praying and fasting for peace was the substance of the whole life of Fr. Slavko Barbaric, from the very day he entered in the service of the messages of Our Lady. In his last book: “Fast with the heart”, Fr. Slavko wrote especially on fasting and praying for peace. Let us read some passages from this book:

Love, sung, prayed, and proclaimed, has always been the object of man’s attention. To tell the truth, love is the only thing we seek and really need. Lack of love is the root of every conflict whether personal, or a family or world affair. If every person were to fully enjoy a portion of the love for which he was created, no one would ever bother to attack another, but he would simply love!

There is an expression that is repeated very frequently in the messages of the Queen of Peace, perhaps so much so that her distracted children miss the importance of it and their hearts are unmoved by it. This expression is: “I am with you!”

When asked what he thought the most important message Heaven was offering us through Medjugorje, Padre Slavko would respond: “Mary’s special presence in our midst.”

We recently celebrated the Jubilee of Heaven: Our Lady’s presence in our midst for 25 years. Since that distant 25 June 1981, a good part of the world has been to Medugorje. Some pass through but once, but the greater majority return after the first visit, and continue to return as though to a special appointment that one is anxious for.

Medjugorje is known by now in every corner of the world, even if merely by hear-say. Every time one returns is though to drink fresh water from a well-spring which quenches our thirst for God and His love. This thirst is in the hearts of all, but at times is ignored, wittingly or unwittingly, and we often seek to quench it with “polluted water.” Mary came to awaken in us this thirst and to help us find at Jacob’s well Him who quenches every thirst: her Son Jesus. This then, explains the ongoing desire to make this pilgrimage, to begin the journey on which to encounter the Lord. At Medugorje, it is difficult not to encounter Him, not to hear the call to conversion, the need to pray, to reconcile with God through confession and begin a new life.

A reflection for Medjugorje Message of October 25, 2006

This is an unusual message, not so much for its contents, but for its tone. The contents regard, as always, the need to convert, return to God, surrender to Him, and the need to undertake a journey towards the eternal life seriously, consciously, and with deter-mination. The tone, on the other hand, is not that of an invitation, but of reproach. Used as we are to being urged and spurred on, this message surprises us because rather than a call it appears more to capture a situation of distance between us and God.

I remember well the first time I came to Medjugorje. It was in 1997 and I was 14 years old. That pilgrimage marked a turning point in my life. It gave my life a definite direction. The journey, of course, is gradual, but at different moments I have been asked to give my response to God, and in total freedom I renewed my “yes” each time.

I was a boy at the time, and when I first came here to this blessed land I had no particular expectations or biased opinions of any type. As I look back I think I was simply led here by Our Lady. She took me by the hand and led me towards the God of Love. Till then I knew God only by hearsay, but I was soon to be seduced by Him.

Maybe we tend to say: I’ve been able to do this or that, or: this work is mine, revealing a note of self-satisfaction, or even pride. So I ask: how will we see our life when it nears its end? I think we’ll have a serene and luminous recollection of what God has done in our lives and in the lives of others, and for us this will certainly be reason for joy and peace. Perhaps we shall have a distant and even indifferent recollection of what we will have done on our own; and we may also regret not having the ability and possibility of doing what we were once able to do. God, however, does not so much seek our doing – for in an instant He can create the universe – but He seeks our heart, for it is there that He finds His delight.

The air of Medjugorje is bubbling with joy, faces are radiant, everyone is grateful for being here for this important and long awaited occasion: the 25th Anniversary of Mary’s apparitions at Medjugorje.

Everyone feels grateful, even privileged, as though each had received a personal invitation. Everyone certainly feels loved. It is as though the Gospa had “arranged things” in the life of each person to make it possible for him or her to be here. It hasn’t got to do with favouritism, but of being called. We are all called to become apostles, mediators of a grace that is too big to be contained. It is a gratuitous call by God that ought not make us feel better than others, but only responsible administrators of a good destined for all.

The Queen of Peace ends her every message by thanking us “for having responded to her call.” In fact, she has been calling us with endearing motherly passion every day for the last 25 years: “I am, my dear Children, untiring; I call you even when you are far from my heart...” ( Mess. 14.11.1985 ).

Beyond all possible thoughts and imagination. Beyond all possible capabilities and merits. Beyond all possible plans. Such is Mary’s presence at Medjugorje. She is present, beyond all possible human logic; beyond all possible will to keep or ignore her; beyond all possible human law and reasoning.
For nearly 25 years the Blessed Virgin has been visiting Medjugorje to visit her children who still belong to time and space, to help them cross the frontier; now, here on earth.