Hello again, everyone!
I just finished reading The Medjugorje Prayer Book, by Wayne Weible. This was a book I wasn't too sure I'd be excited about when I picked it up, but one I came to really appreciate by the time I put it down. My thoughts are below.
Before I continue to the review, though, I would just like to remind all of you why I'm doing reviews such as these, and why I think these resources are important to you.
I've spent the past several years immersed in reading messages from Our Lady of Medjugorje as well as many resources devoted to spreading those messages. It is amazing Our Lady blesses us with words of guidance, giving us the blueprint to make it to Heaven.
But there is a reason Our Lady is coming to us, and for such a long time now. The apparitions at Medjugorje (over 25 years) are the longest-lasting apparitions of Our Lady in history. Our Lady has told the visionaries these are also her last apparitions on Earth, because after these apparitions her presence here will no longer be necessary. She is coming to us because the world needs correction:
"I have come to tell the world that God exists. He is the fullness of life, and to enjoy this fullness and peace, you must return to God".
There is little known about the secrets the Medjugorje visionaries hold, but we know some involve chastisements which will come to the world after the apparitions are complete. This doesn't matter, because if Our Lady wanted us to know about them she would have told us. The point is that we all have to be doing better because God is not happy with the state of the world. We don't know when the apparitions will cease, which means our personal conversion needs to begin now.
There are many reported miracles and healing which has come from what is happening at Medjugorje. These blessings are examples to us that all things are possible through God. It's that "fullness and peace" Our Lady spoke of. She wants us to have that. We're all capable of it, but we need to take steps forward in our conversion to achieve it.
And it's not difficult. It just involves small steps. Reading the monthly messages is a start. Applying them to our lives is the point, though. Simply being interested in what is going on doesn't help. We all need to take Our Lady's words to heart and make it happen.
This is why I am making these great resources known to you. They have helped me start to take those small steps forward, to start to put to practice what Our Lady asks of us, and I know they can for you, too.
Our Lady has really made the point that, overall, we're kind of asleep at the wheel in our lives. We have so many distractions nowadays that it is really no wonder. But there are tons of good resources out there, which can help us get and stay on track for the only thing that really matters - our eternal life.
I hope that you find my recommendations useful (tell me if there is something I could be doing better, because I appreciate your feedback). But whether you use these resources or others, seek and learn and grow and spread what you know!
Erik Haan
Good resource for:
Anyone who is looking for deeper, more meditative prayer. This is a good read for those of us who feel prayer is saying a bunch of words but don't feel that connectedness with God when we say those words.
Summary:
An important lesson I've learned from my research of the messages of Our Lady of Medjugorje is that prayer is a conversation with Jesus / God / Mary / The Holy Spirit. Conversations, according to Dictionary.com, are an "informal interchange of thoughts, information, etc., by spoken words". The point of this book is to make prayer that "informal interchange" and a more relaxed and fulfilling experience for you. It's all about connecting with Jesus / God / Mary / The Holy Spirit on that personal level.
Weible does this in The Medjugorje Prayer Book by taking us through what he calls "The School of Prayer".
"The School of Prayer" is a library of meditations which can be said on their own or prior to traditional prayers, such as the Rosary. Weible, a former Protestant who converted to Catholicism after personal experiences related to the apparitions of Our Lady of Medjugorje, presents prayers he has come to feel inspired by Our Lady to say throughout the years. They're meditations which help him to stay out of the rut of just saying the words of the Rosary, for instance, without really meaning what we're saying.
This is where I really connected with this book. In my own personal prayer life, it seems there are certain prayers which have just popped into my head and then become part of my daily routine. I think this comes from slowing things down and listening in the silence of meditative prayer. So I think Weible is really presenting something which can help take your personal prayer life to the next level.
Weible is quick to point out his meditations are more a guideline than anything. While he encourages his readers to use the prayers which he has come to find have helped him, he also points out that as we grow in our prayer life we'll come to find our own meditations which serve us better.
