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25th of the Month Message & Commentary

Our Lady's Message to the World- August 25, 2010

"Dear children! With great joy, also today, I desire to call you anew: pray, pray, pray. May this time be a time of personal prayer for you. During the day, find a place where you will pray joyfully in a recollected way. I love you and bless you all. Thank you for having responded to my call."

Reflection by Fr. Scott LeMaster

My Friends,

You are familiar by now of my habit of quoting from this saint or that scholar when I comment on Our Lady's messages. It is a habit that I have picked up, no doubt, from too many years in school. Today, however, I should like to take a more simple and personal approach to Our Mother's message about living our lives of faith "with joy."
Some years ago, Mr. Drew Mariani produced a videotape entitled "Marian Apparitions of the Twentieth Century." In that tape were, among other apparitions of Our Lady, not only the information about Our Lady of Medjugore, but, also, intriguing news about an apparition occurring in Betania, Venezuela. What was so interesting to me was the footage taken on two young women, probably about twenty years old. The two girls were surrounded by older people (Older? Many were my age, 54! Others were much older, some were children.) While the majority of the people were attendant and devout, these two young women were obviously there simply out of curiosity. Perhaps their mothers had forced them to go; perhaps the young girls went because rumor had it that anyone who went to Betania would see Our Lady. One could see on the film, quite clearly, that the girls were rather frivolous; they were there to see what they could see, and not to pray... until:
Suddenly, first the one girl and then the other... saw! Their faces changed. In spite of their youth, as I said, they were probably only twenty years old, they became even younger, they became like very little children ("Unless you change and become like a little child, you shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven!"). Their faces began to crumble, then to weep, then to beam with a deep, inner glow of children who, after many years of searching have finally found what they have been looking for but could not find... their Mother!! Rather, She found them!  Joy was the only word to describe the countenance which burst forth from within them and came flooding out upon their faces. All of this is recorded in Mr. Mariani's footage. This same joy can be seen in all of the videos which our good friend, Jerry Morin, is producing for us, by the grace of God.
While it is true that we do not judge our spiritual development by subjective feelings, since our emotions, like the waves of the ocean, change from moment to moment. It is also true that joy, the deep joy that is given by the Holy Spirit, the Spouse of Our Lady, is not a mere 'feeling.' Joy is a strange thing. Joy can co-exist even in the darkest moments of our lives. When Our Savior hung upon the Cross, one of His last words was "Sitio, I thirst!," a cry of heart-rending sorrow, indeed, but also a cry of love and joy, because He knew that from the Cross and from the Altar, His thirst for our souls would reach out for all eternity. And the Mother Who stood at the Foot of that Cross also knew, She Whose Heart was pierced with a lance offered up with joy and sorrow, everything... for whom? For you and for me! Though I often disagree with the man who said this, in this case he is correct: "Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God."
Today, by living our plans of life, by praying our Rosaries well, by stopping throughout the day, a moment here, a moment there, by placing our actions under the direction of Mary Immaculate and Her Spouse, the Holy Spirit, by showing acts of loving kindness to one another, then, we can live in joy and peace, the "peace that the world does not know." Let us do this for the Lord and for Our Heavenly Mother. Yes?

May the Lord and His Mother bless all of you!

Fr. Scott- a fellow servant

Our Lady's Message to Mirjana September 2, 2010