Be joy and peace!
Our Lady’s messages in Medjugorje are not simply spiritual. When one goes deeper into them one can notice how much they are related to every day life!
Here is the message she gave us on Wednesday August 25, 2021: Dear children! With joy I am calling all of you, little children, who have responded to my call: be joy and peace. Witness with your lives Heaven, which I am bringing to you. It is time, little children, that you be a reflection of my love for all those who do not love and whose hearts hatred has conquered. Do not forget: I am with you and intercede for all of you before my Son Jesus, that He may give you His peace. Thank you for having responded to my call.
Mary calls us with joy! And, her joy, is that not that joy of the man who, although having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, `Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost? (Luke 15:4-6). She keeps calling us little children! Let us remember what Jesus told us: Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me (Matt 18:3-5).
Here is her clear invitation: Be joy and peace! But what is true joy and peace? It is Heaven! Our Mother Mary knows perfectly well the great angst we are living in this shattered world, devoid of any hope and solidarity. Hence, knowing perfectly well the suffering her children are going through she insists: It is time! There is no place for procrastination! Now is the time to act! In other words, to be a reflection of my [Mary] love for all those who do not love and whose hearts hatred has conquered. On international, national and interpersonal level we all know who are those whose hearts hatred has conquered. The Gospa wants you and me to be a reflection of her motherly love for these people. Thus, she is asking you and me to love these people in a maternal way!
For those of us who hesitate at this call we have her personal maternal assurance: Do not forget: I am with you and intercede for all of you before my Son Jesus, that He may give you His peace. Mary’s intercession will fuel us up with Jesus’ peace, the true peace which really the whole world needs! Only Jesus, and no one else, can give us this peace. In the Gospel of John Jesus tells us: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid (John 14:27).
What is beautiful is the fact that Jesus’ peace arrives to us through the Holy Spirit whom the Father sends on us. He tells us of the Holy Spirit: But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you (John 14:26).
How wise it is when we sing to the Lord Jesus: Daruj name mir! Give us your peace! Hence, let us sing together these beautiful and life transforming words of this Medjugorje hymn:
Give us your peace, give us your peace,
in our hearts, o Lord!
Give us your peace, give us your peace,
in our hearts, o Lord!
Stay in here, close to us,
stay in here, close to us,
and your peace shall reign!
You can also find this heavenly hymn if you visit YOU TUBE and write: Daruj nam mir (Dona la pace) – tekst/lyrics
A kind and fraternal word to you, dear brother and sister sceptic about Medjogorje: notice the psychology behind these messages. They are related to our way of being, to the way we feel, think and act. They address our innermost core of who we really are. If you can kindly keep this in your mind and heart how can you look at them and not think, at least for a minute, the immense good these messages will do to you, in the first place? Is it not your life goal to live joyfully and peacefully?
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap