Be carriers of the Peace and Joy of the Risen Jesus
The message which Our Lady has given us on April 25, 2023, at Medjugorje, is replete with joy and hope. Its positive tenure encourages us all the more to let God make you and me instruments of His everlasting peace.
Here is the text of Message: “Dear children! I am calling all of you to be carriers of the peace and joy of the risen Jesus for all those who are far from prayer; that the love of Jesus, through your lives, may transform them to a new life of conversion and holiness Thank you for having responded to my call. ”
Our Lady is urgently calling you and me to be carries of the peace and joy of the risen Jesus. Certainly this peace and joy of the risen Jesus are beautifully expressed in the prayer attributed to St Francis of Assisi:
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.
This sweet humble prayer reminds me of what Pope Francis said about peace and, when seen and studied profoundly, perfectly accords to what Our Lady is calling us to live. In his homily on Monday 28 May 2018 the Holy Father reproposed the theme of being men and woman bearing the joy of Christ with the following words: Joy does not mean living from laugh to laugh. No, it’s not that. Joy is not entertainment. No, it’s not that. It is something else. Christian joy is peace, peace that is deeply rooted, peace in the heart, the peace that only God can give. This is Christian joy. It is not easy to foster this joy.
With Saint Francis of Assisi and, most of all, hugely motivated by Our Lady’s Message at Medjugorje of April 25, 2023, let us keep praying insistently: Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap
