Silence and Stillness

Yesterday, September 2, 2019, Our Lady is reported to have given this message at Medjugorje: Dear children, pray! Pray the Rosary every day—that wreath of flowers which, as a mother, directly connects me with your pains, sufferings, desires, and hopes. Apostles of my love, I am with you through the grace and the love of my Son, and I am asking for prayers of you. The world is in such need of your prayers for souls to be converted. With complete trust, open your hearts to my Son, and in them He will inscribe the summary of His words—which is love. Live in an unbreakable connection with the Most Sacred Heart of my Son. My children, as a mother, I am telling you that it is high time for you to kneel before my Son to acknowledge Him as your God, the center of your life. Offer gifts to Him—that which He most loves—which is love towards neighbor, mercy, and pure hearts. Apostles of my love, many of my children still do not acknowledge my Son as their God; they have not yet come to know His love. But you, with your prayer pronounced from a pure and open heart, by the gifts which you offer to my Son, will make even the hardest hearts open. Apostles of my love, the strength of prayer pronounced from the heart—a powerful prayer full of love—changes the world. Therefore, my children: pray, pray, pray. I am with you. Thank you.” This message at Medjugorje is similar to the August 19 message of Our Lady at Fatima: “Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them.” The message of Our Lady at San Nicolas Argentina in the 1980s is also similar: "God's warning is over the world. Those who stay in the Lord have nothing to fear, but those who deny what comes from him do. Two-thirds of the world is lost and the other part must pray and make reparation for the Lord to take pity. The devil wants to have full domination over the earth. He wants to destroy. The earth is in great danger." Mary tells us, “The weapon that has the greatest influence on evil is to say the Rosary." We need to pray the Rosary every day and to be Apostles of the Rosary. This is a good start, but Our Lady is urging us to go further into union with Jesus and to help him save souls by our deeper prayer. As a young priest, Angelo Comastri, who today is a cardinal archpriest of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome, relates his first encounter and conversation with St. Mother Teresa:  She gave me a Miraculous Medal, put it in my hand, and asked me, “For how much time do you pray each day?” I was astonished and a little embarrassed. Then, gathering my thoughts, I replied, “Mother, I celebrate Holy Mass each day, I pray the Breviary each day…I pray the rosary each day also and very gladly…” Mother Teresa, with her rough hands, clasped the rosary that she always had with her. Then she fixed on me her eyes, which were filled with light and love, and said: “That is not enough, my son! That is not enough, because love cannot be reduced to the indispensable minimum; love demands the maximum!” I did not understand Mother Teresa’s words right away, and, as though to justify myself, I replied, “Mother, I expected from you instead this question: What acts of charity do you do?” Suddenly Mother Teresa’s face became very serious again, and she said in a stern tone of voice: “Do you think that I could practice charity if I did not ask Jesus every day to fill my heart with his love? Do you think that I could go through the streets looking for the poor if Jesus did not communicate the fire of his charity to my heart?”…Enunciating each word, she added: “Read the Gospel attentively, and you will see that Jesus sacrificed even charity for prayer. And do you know why? To teach us that, without God, we are too poor to help the poor!”  Rest with God in prayer. God wants to give you rest so that he can fill, transform, and heal you.