“Shout for joy! Sing
Joyfully!
Be glad and exult with
all your heart!
The Lord, a mighty
savior, is in your midst;
you have no further
misfortune to fear!
Fear not, be not
discouraged!
He will rejoice over
you with gladness and renew you in his love!”
(cf. Zep. 3: 14-18).
On this day of the Feast of the Visitation, I am struck with
God’s call for us to rejoice in His Presence – like Elizabeth did so long ago,
filled with the Holy Spirit, she couldn’t help but cry out in in joy!
“Most blessed are you
among women
And blessed is the
fruit of your womb.
How does this happen
to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
(cf. Lk 1: 42-43).
I cry out, especially on this Feast, with these words of
Elizabeth,
“How does this happen
that the mother of my Lord should come to me - to us?!!!”
Each day, by a prompting of the Holy Spirit, Mary reportedly
goes in haste to love and serve us by bringing us Jesus in a small town called
Medjugorje – just as she went in haste to Elizabeth so many thousands of years
ago!
And each day, when she arrives, she opens Heaven to us in
an utterly unique and privileged way as she brings Jesus to us yet again. Her
presence, her words, her call to repentance and her proclamation of the Gospel,
like St. John the Baptist, whose feast she first visited on, (June 24, 1981),
bring Jesus to life in the hearts of those who come to meet her and who are
attuned to hear the sound of Mary’s greeting like Elizabeth. For the Spirit
leads all who hear her words to leap for joy like the infant St. John did in
the womb, and “to be glad and exult with all our heart” for Mary has brought “Our
Savior in our midst!”
Mary, as the first disciple and apostle and the mother of
Our Lord, is able to come to us in this remarkable way in and through the will
of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. She
said in her first message that Her Son sent her, and He reportedly continues to
send her to earth each day. When she comes as St. John did, crying out like a
voice in the desert, “Prepare the Way of the Lord!”
I’ll never tie of hearing the way Ivan described what it was
like to meet with our Lady for the first time:
“She was floating on cloud, smiling, motioning to us…
My legs buckled, and I couldn’t go forward or backward…
In a moment, like I was floating, with no pain, I was going
over rocks and bushes” --(up what is now known as Apparition Hill, a hill so
covered with thorn bushes and rocks that the villagers never climbed it. Even
the strongest villagers couldn’t keep up and were left far behind when the six
children – the chosen seers - appeared to float and fly rapidly up the hill
over the rocks and bushes).
“Mary was holding the baby Jesus in her arms,
And with her right hand, she blessed us, saying:”
“My dear children, I
am with you. I am your Mother. Do not be afraid of anything. I will protect
you. I will help you. I will guide you.”
“It was very difficult to calm down or come to senses…
Who are you? What is your name?”
“I am the Queen of
Peace, and I have come my dear children, because my Son has sent me to help
you. My dear children, peace, peace and only peace. My dear children, there
must be peace. Peace must reign on this earth. My dear children, peace must
reign between God and man and among people. My dear children, this world and
this humanity is finding itself in a great danger and there is a threat that it
will destroy itself.”
(See and hear more of Ivan testimony here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGZZziXk9Ek)
Later that week, Mary appeared to Marija alone. Marija saw the Virgin again, in tears, near
a cross with rainbow colors, saying:
"Peace,
Peace, Peace! Be reconciled! Only Peace. Make your peace with God and among
yourselves. For that, it is necessary to believe, to pray, to fast, and to go
to confession."
Mary has continued to come every day for 37 years as of June 24!!! And each day when
she comes, she longs to bring us Jesus.
It is heartbreaking that this same Jesus that she longs to bring
to us is again despised, abused, neglected, disbelieved in and crucified again and
again by the weight of our sins and indifference today. A
Savior so unwanted that most fail to even care or be moved by these amazing miracles and this Grand Rescue Mission that Heaven sends
us daily to wake us up and save us.
How incredibly important, powerful and never conceived of in the mind of man for something like what is taking place daily in Medjugorje to be happening - if these reported apparitions are true and there are mountains of evidence to attest to it’s truth!!! (see
How incredibly important, powerful and never conceived of in the mind of man for something like what is taking place daily in Medjugorje to be happening - if these reported apparitions are true and there are mountains of evidence to attest to it’s truth!!! (see
So Jesus remains hidden to all, except to those who listen
to Mary’s voice and let it reach their ears as Elizabeth did, saying with her:
“Blessed are you who
believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled” (Lk
1:45).
We, too, are blessed, like Mary if we believe what is spoken
to us by the Lord will be fulfilled! The
Lord spoke to Mary through an Angel. We are being spoken to by the Lord through
His blessed Mother, who says to us,
“If you knew how much
I loved you, you would cry with joy!”
For a mother thinks about her children day and night, even
if they are not with her and will love them in a way they will never
understand. She comes to us as not our
Jesus’ Mother, but ours, striving to save us from our ruin that will inevitably
come if we continue to live as if God doesn’t exist.
I write this, because again and again this morning, the
Spirit prompted me to write about this incredible Feast Day of the Visitation,
(even though sick and exhausted from a completely sleepless night last night) - I didn’t know how I could put two words together or what I was supposed to
write, but I chose to respond and as soon as I began – the words flowed through
me. All I knew when I began was that I wanted
to share that on this Feast Day last year we arrived in Medjugorje. I have
pondered why Mary planned for us to arrive on this blessed Feast Day; and in
doing so, it has inspired, moved and humbled me that she would invite my family to visit her on this day we celebrate her visitation. I know that
pondering this fact has led me to what I’ve written above, as well as to be
ever more grateful for her daily physical visitation to this world – to each of
us!
I pray, that perhaps through these poor ponderings, the Holy
Spirit leads each of us to leap for joy, to exult at the Presence of Our Savior
that Mary carries to us in our midst! I pray that her words and messages draw us
to God in a deeper way, and pierce our hearts to an ever-greater response of
love and action. I pray that all of us
live and ponder, ever more fully, what the Lord is speaking to us through the
words of His Mother, Mary. Again, how
utterly important it must be for Jesus to send us Mary daily for 37 years – may
her messages reach our ears and move us to repent and respond and to rejoice
that in the fact that the Mother of Our Lord has come to us!!!!
I pray that each of us welcomes Mary into our home in a
special way (perhaps, begin by doing so for these next three months?), so she
and the Savior in her womb can administer to our needs and care for us in this utterly
profound and unique way, so that while they are with us now - and after they
stop visiting us in this extraordinary way - we can go out into the world as
Mary’s Apostles - changing the little area of our world (and beyond in ways we cannot imagine!) with our Love, our
Prayer, our Masses, our Repentance and Fasting, all done in and through our
communion with Mary and Our Savior.
Mary comes to fulfill Jesus’ great command to proclaim His
Good News to all the earth, and when we respond to her requests, we also
proclaim Christ to our world – a world in which so many are lost in nearly complete
confusion and darkness. Let us never be
afraid to say yes to what God is asking of us through Mary, remembering that He
is with us and He promises: “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in
me will do the works I have been
doing, and they will do even greater
things than these, because I AM” (John 14:12).
May our recognition of this Glorious Visitation and our response
to it, cause us to exult and cry out for joy, for no matter our circumstances:
“The Lord, a mighty
savior, is in your midst;
you have no further
misfortune to fear!
Fear not, be not
discouraged!
He will rejoice over
you with gladness and renew you in his love!”
© Janet Moore 2018. All Rights Reserved
Image 1: The Visitation by Raphael
Image 2: First Night of Our Family Pilgrimage May 31, 2017, Janet Moore 2018. All Rights Reserved.
Image 1: The Visitation by Raphael
Image 2: First Night of Our Family Pilgrimage May 31, 2017, Janet Moore 2018. All Rights Reserved.
