MEDJUGORE MONTHLY
MESSAGES AND REFLECTIONS
YEAR 2000

Message of December 25, 2000 "Dear children! Today when God granted to me that I can be with you, with little Jesus in my arms, I rejoice with you and I give thanks to God for everything He has done in this Jubilee year. I thank God especially for all the vocations of those who said ‘yes’ to God completely. I bless you all with my blessing and the blessing of the newborn Jesus. I pray for all of you for joy to be born in your hearts so that in joy you too carry the joy I have today. In this Child I bring to you the Savior of the your hearts and the One who calls you to the holiness of life. Thank you for having responded to my call."                                               

Message of November 25, 2000 "Dear children! Today when Heaven is near to you in a special way, I call you to prayer so that through prayer you place God in the first place. Little children, today I am near you and I bless each of you with my motherly blessing so that you have the strength and love for all the people you meet in your earthly life and that you can give God’s love. I rejoice with you and I desire to tell you that your brother Slavko has been born into Heaven and intercedes for you. Thank you for having responded to my call."

Message of October 25, 2000:""Dear children! Today I desire to open my motherly heart to you and to call you all to pray for my intentions. I desire to renew prayer with you and to call you to fast which I desire to offer to my Son Jesus for the coming of a new time – a time of spring. In this Jubilee year many hearts have opened to me and the Church is being renewed in the Spirit. I rejoice with you and I thank God for this gift; and you, little children, I call to pray, pray, pray – until prayer becomes a joy for you. Thank you for having responded to my call." 

Message of September 25, 2000: "Dear children! Today I call you to open yourselves to prayer. May prayer become joy for you. Renew prayer in your families and form prayer groups. In this way, you will experience joy in prayer and togetherness. All those who pray and are members of prayer groups are open to God’s will in their hearts and joyfully witness God’s love. I am with you, I carry all of you in my heart and I bless you with my motherly blessing. Thank you for having responded to my call." 

Message of August 25, 2000:   "Dear children! I desire to share my joy with you. In my Immaculate Heart I feel that there are many of those who have drawn closer to me and are, in a special way, carrying the victory of my Immaculate Heart in their hearts by praying and converting. I desire to thank you and to inspire you to work even more for God and His kingdom with love and the power of the Holy Spirit. I am with you and I bless you with my motherly blessing. Thank you for having responded to my call." 

REFLECTION ON THE MESSAGES OF 25TH - Mar/Apr/May 2000 AD

Let us take the above last three messages of our Lady, Queen of Peace - March, April, and May - reading them consecutively.

Begin with the holy season of Lent, March, which indeed is a special time given to believers for prayer, penance, self-denial and purpose of conversion.  What was your Lent like?  How did you use your time this past Lent?

Recall that it was from the very beginning of her alleged apparitions, that our Lady of Medjugorje asks, particularly, that her children pray the rosary daily, offer up sacrifices as penance for yourselves and others, to fast (bread and water), to deny yourselves ordinary and legitimate needs such as food and water and other comparable human necessities, and furthermore, to seek conversion - simply meaning to seek change in your lives.  Recall the axiom:  If you want others to change, you have to do the changing - beginning with yourself.  YOU have to do the changing!

However you or I may have fared during these special times of grace, our Blessed Mother continues to assure us of her concern.  She pleads for our prayers.  Her intercessions speak to us of an open heart to God's love which can only happen with a personal disposition for praying.  Habitual prayer can become a joy when your faith is confident and hopeful.  Shake off any doubts that your prayers are not heard  EVERY PRAYER, AND EVERY INTENTION TO PRAY, can be enormously fruitful as well as pleasing to our Lord.  Your desire to pray is a movement of the Holy Spirit within you.  Cooperate with it by your confident and hopeful prayers.  Your prayer can then begin to come truly from the heart and joy shall swell up in your heart to become a fountain.  Prayer from the heart is opened to God's action in you.

The first call from Our Lady is to pray.  Her desire is for our happiness and fulfillment; in other words, meaningful.

The theme of all of our Lady's messages is "Pray, pray, pray".  Her APRIL message cautions us about the material world dominated by the evils of consumerism.  We want more than we need.

Do not become discouraged with your prayer time - try, try again, try harder!  Discipline your time for prayer.  Try hard to keep to a schedule for prayer.  Decide everyday to seek personal conversion by spending some time with God in reflected prayer, sometimes referred to as contemplation - thinking about God and you.  Find joy in what you're doing, even if it's not pleasant and irritable.  Live your day in His presence and whatever you're doing and whenever you're about shall be meaningful.

In MAY, our Lady's message turns to the Holy Spirit - a call to conversion and a renewal of the Spirit already within us. Can you hear our Lady's voice speaking to your hearts? - assuring you and I of her presence and support:  "It is up to you!"?   She looks to open your hearts to God's love.  In that spirit, our Blessed Mother repeats herself, as she has every time we are in earshot.  She urges us to pray more - "pray, pray, pray from the heart".  Prayer is a gift of the Holy Spirit.  I refer you to what has been mentioned above, namely, "

HABITUAL PRAYER CAN BECOME A JOY WHEN YOUR FAITH IS CONFIDENT AND HOPEFUL.  SHAKE OFF ANY DOUBTS THAT YOUR PRAYERS ARE NOT FRUITFUL.  EVERY PRAYER AND EVERY INTENTION TO PRAY, CAN BE ENORMOUSLY FRUITFUL UNTIL YOUR PRAYERS BECOME A CONSOLING JOY AND PLEASURE".

As Lent and Easter were special times for renewal, this beginning of the new millennium 2000 and this day of my writing this reflection - the vigil of Pentecost - is timely.  I have a special affection for this day in that it is the anniversary of my priesthood.

The time of Grace is upon us.  This is the moment of the spirit.  You already have the Holy Spirit with you through the Baptism and the sacraments you receive, but it is the gifts of the spirit that need to be renewed and " fired-up " as our Lady says "so that you may be able to witness to those who have strayed or fallen from prayer and confident faith.  How often have you heard the words, "love one another, as I have loved you"? - that is where the spirit of love reaches out to others.  Respond to our Lord's prayer; don't be afraid to open yourself to others.

The difficulties of the future are pre-visioned in Her message; namely, where she says: "...pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit so that in the spirit of love, every day and in each situation, you may be closer to your fellow-man; and that in wisdom and love you may overcome every difficulty..."

The problems of diversities of race, color and creed shall be the challenge of the future.  Our witness is to accomplish the prayer of our Lord, "that all may be one, Father, as you are in me and I in you, that they may be one in us."

Our Lady calls us to know one another better, and in every day to become closer with our fellow-man so that in wisdom and understanding, we shall overcome every difficulty.  Pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The gift of the Holy Spirit bestowed upon Christians are:

WISDOM, UNDERSTANDING, COUNSEL, FORTITUDE, KNOWLEDGE, PIETY AND FEAR OF THE LORD!

REFLECTION ON THE MESSAGES OF the 25th - DEC 1999/JAN/FEB 2000 A.D.

Reading and re-reading Our Lady’s messages of the past year and before, my discernment became focused upon a common thread of emphasis repeating itself in her messages. So many times has she called us to "Pray, Pray, Pray; and "Pray from the heart". I could not help notice the absence of the word in the December message, which happened to be a singular historical moment celebrating the Millennium Jubilee of Her Son’s Birth, Christ Jesus, Our Lord. That moment was marked by the opening of the symbolic "Holy Door" by the reigning Vicar of Christ, Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II.  "OPEN WIDE THE DOORS TO CHRIST" is the phrase declared by our Holy Pontiff which ushered in the promise of a flood tide of God’s Divine Mercy and Graces for the Reconciliation of a world fast bent on self destruction; FOR PEACE!

On that day instead of the repeated word, "Pray" , Our Lady’s message for the Millennium Jubilee was her special intervention for her children and the world, that "This is a time of grace..."   She encourages us to say "yes" to the invitation to accept  "...God’s forgiving and reconciling love. God offers His Mercy to whoever is willing to accept it..."    Consistent with Our Lady’s Message , our Holy Father’s Pastoral Message for Lent, in this year 2000, prophetically repeats her call - FOR PERSONAL & UNIVERSAL PEACE!

"Art. # 4. The Jubilee is the time of grace in which we are invited to open ourselves in a particular way to the mercy of the Father, who in the Son has stooped down to man, and to reconciliation, the great gift of Christ. This year therefore should become, not only for Christians but also for all people of good will, a precious moment for experiencing the renewing power of God’s forgiving and reconciling love. God offers his mercy to whoever is willing to accept it, even to the distant and doubtful. The people of our time, tired of mediocrity and false hopes, are thus given an opportunity to set out on the path that leads to fullness of life. In this context, Lent of the Holy Year 2000 is par excellence "the acceptable time . . . the day of salvation" (2 Cor 6:2), the particularly favorable opportunity "to be reconciled to God" (2 Cor 5:20)." (See complete document under Reflection.)

Especially and singularly emphatic was her latest message received on February 25^th. "Wake up...", she cries; Our Lady reminds us of her words spoken at Christmas, the Jubilee of Our Lord’s Birth, "This is a Special time of grace..."; her February Message uses the those same words. She conveys a sense of urgency in her call, "...because this is a Special time of grace which God has given you."

Since June of 1981, for over eighteen years, which date only her messages from Medjugorje (not counting her pleas for prayer and reconciliation, Peace, emanating from the many other of Our Lady’s Apparitions and Messages), the Blessed Mother of Medjugorje continues relentlessly to speak the same call for prayer and peace.

Why so many times over and over again and again? What does the frequency of her repeated request for prayer and reconciliation tell us and intend for us who have listened to her and are trying to respond to her call?

My search carries me to the history of our salvation, to remember interventions made by God, recorded in the Old Testament history of our faith, particularly the witness of the Patriarchs and Prophets. From Abraham on to the present day, Heaven’s intervention tries to OPEN THE DOORS to all mankind, created to His Own Image and Likeness, hoping that men shall freely acknowledge that God, Our Creator, does exist and is now, as yesterday and forever, a personal God, a caring, and powerful Father, the Almighty Creator of all things visible and invisible. "I am your God. You are my People",   give Glory and Praise to My Name.

Despite our disposition to rebel, God patiently taught His people and led His people by the witness of many spectacular and powerful events attributed and possible only to a God.

Here I believe we find the pattern of our purpose. The answer found in the common thread found in the history of our salvation repeating itself over and over again, "I am your God. You are my People". God wants to be acknowledged as a just and merciful Father, who loves to forgive and forgets our unfaithfulness, but remembers only the good things we have done as His Children. His purpose is our very own purpose of existence, the purpose for which God, our creator, made us and continues us, which is simply to acknowledge Him as Father: to love, to serve and be happy with Him forever, giving praise and Glory to His Name. SO BASIC.

Through history His intervention called His People to pray, to depend on Him in every crisis, in every kind of situation or problem. "I am your God." I brought you out of your miseries before and since. The first words of the dialogue (Ten Commandments).

The very first message to the children of Medjugorje by the Lady, who called herself , "Queen of Peace", was a demand of mankind, "Believe That God Exists", "Believe that God exists..." 

This emphasis is Our Lady’s purpose and has been and shall always be her ambition, that is to bring us all to acknowledge her God , who is a "Father" and "Her Son", as Our brother and Lord, Jesus Christ with The Holy Spirit, as "Her Spouse". She reaffirms that we are her children and can achieve our ultimate purpose by prayer, which acknowledges and praises and glorifies Her God and Our God. This is our witness that God exists and His testimony is true.

What is our witness for PEACE, but Prayer? Prayer from the heart which images God’s Infinite Love and Gives Glory to His Name, which in turn fosters deeds. A warm personal love reflecting like the brightest sun. A lamp giving off light to all around you.

God’s love of His creation, as Father and the love of the Son, Jesus the Christ as one sent from the Father becoming man for us came to reconcile the world to the Father.   By revealing the Father to us and witnessing for the Father, His Sacrifice, continues to this day at the Altars of those who believe, who remember.  Christ is the same Yesterday, Today and Forever.

This pattern continues and Mary, our Mother, Queen of Peace, urges us with her continuing  relentless plea for PRAYER, that we pray from the heart, that we witness by the example of our deeds and of our love for one another.

Her message of January becomes for me a conclusion, " If you pray, you are closer to God and He will lead you on the way of peace and salvation."   Open your hearts and become those who give a gift of peace and others will discover peace in you and through you and in this way, you will witness God's peace and love which He gives you.   

... Monsignor Benjamin Franzinelli
Spiritual Director   

REFLECTION ON THE MESSAGES OF the 25th - JUN/JUL/AUG 2000 A.D.

The June's message celebrated 19 years of Our Lady's presence in apparition as Queen of Peace to the children of Medjugorje. The messengers and the messages have been constant and authentic and true to Her Son's purpose of repeatedly calling us to spiritual renewal. In our own time, Our Holy Father has echoed her call. Our Mother Mary's message repeats her request of us, her children, to pray. She reassures us of her love and presence. "Don't be afraid of the future", she has told us, "have no fear, I am with you". In all those situations when we experience fear, Mary reminds us to pray and "do not forget that I am with you. Am I not your mother?"

Again in her July messge, Our Lady calls us to prayer with a special emphasis and caution of our human disposition not to forget that our true home is in heaven, our true destination in life is the goal of heaven. The egoism she speaks of is the me, myself and I habit and tone of our prayers, which oftentimes can lead us dangerously close to selfishness and pride which are the seed beds of sin. Prayer is the key word and antidote so make good use of your time; make it God's time in prayer. Discover that He exists and is near and hears you especially when you pray for others. Be confident that He is nearest to you in prayer and the Sacraments. This August message is particularly interesting to me. Our Lady of Medjugorje, Queen of Peace speaks to Her Immaculate Heart, and her desire is to share her joy of vicotry with you. This message particularly refers me to the happenings of her apparitions in Fatima and pointedly to May 13th of this Jubilee year - the visit of Our Holy Father to ther Fatima Shrine and the occasion of the revelation of the third secret. Past issues of this Marian Newsletter have focused on the victory of prayer and conversion. Many have come closer to her and her Son, Our Lord, by their faithful response to her messages and request for prayer, penance and sacrifice for the conversion of Russia, the evils of the past century, and by acts of reparation for the conversion of souls. To carry on the pleas of her Immaculate Heart, she thanks us for the past and inspires us to work even more for God's Kingdom with love and the help of the Holy Spirit. Mary, Queen of the Holy Rosary, blesses you and encourages all her children to carry on the battle in this New Millennium. Victory is ours under her banner and call - Mother and Queen of Peace.

I look forward to the Medjugorje message of September 25 and with even greater anticipation of Our Holy Father's words of the coming October Feast Day of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary schedule for Rome, October 7th, the first Saturday. ... Monsignor Benjamin Franzinelli

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