Erik's Corner - Pentecost

Our Lady refers to the celebration of Pentecost in May's message to the world. I find the holy day of Pentecost to be the most inspirational of the Catholic Church's celebrations.

Think about what it must have been like to be an apostle shortly after Jesus' crucifixion. You just spent years leaving behind everything in your life to follow someone speaking of the divine, and now your world has been completely shaken up. You've lost your spiritual leader, the Jews are looking for you to crucify you, and your thoughts are probably completely consumed with fear and doubts about what you have devoted your life to. You spend your days hiding, not knowing what to do next.

Then in comes the Holy Spirit - in visible form - and the Church is born.

The apostles experience the miraculous in seeing the Holy Spirit as fire and are filled with inspiration and new abilities. Fear is dropped and the missionary work of the Church begins. Absolutely incredible!

I think the celebration of Pentecost is too often read as something that happened a long time ago but doesn't have the same relevance now. The Holy Spirit has not changed - It is the same as It was 2,000 years ago - and is accessible to all of us!

I have experienced being filled with the Holy Spirit so often. Praying the Rosary daily has strengthened my faith and opened my eyes to the working of the Holy Spirit in my everyday life. When you feel the presence of the Holy Spirit you realize all things are possible. When nothing is impossible fear, anxiety, and stress melt away. You realize the concerns of this life are passing, and eternal life becomes your focus.

I think God gives us the miraculous when we need it. The apostles, fearful of so much in the days after Christ's death, needed to experience the visual and physical to be strengthened enough to begin spreading the Gospel throughout the world. While we are not necessarily blessed to see and experience the visual and physical with regards to the coming of the Holy Spirit, it is nonetheless equally gratifying to feel its presence and be guided by Its divine wisdom.


Erik

MEDJUGORJE - OUR LADY'S JANUARY 25, 2008 MESSAGE

Peace to All!

Below please find the official translation of Our Lady's January 25, 2008 message to the world as translated and provided by the Information Center in Medjugorje.

Our next mailing will be Fr. Danko's commentary on Our Lady's message at the end of the month.

God Bless!
Steve and Ana Shawl
the Medjugorje Web
http://www.medjugorje.org
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Message of January 25, 2008

“Dear children! With the time of Lent, you are approaching a time of grace. Your heart is like ploughed soil and it is ready to receive the fruit which will grow into what is good. You, little children, are free to choose good or evil. Therefore, I call you to pray and fast. Plant joy and the fruit of joy will grow in your hearts for your good, and others will see it and receive it through your life. Renounce sin and choose eternal life. I am with you and intercede for you before my Son. Thank you for having responded to my call.”

A Few Things I Would Like to Point Out

My hope is to make this blog a resource for those seeking some additional information about Medjugorje. I am currently using the blog to be a metaphorical microphone for the Virgin Mary's messages to humanity, but there are also some features of this blog you will not find at the official Medjugorje Web site.

First of all, I have some Medjugorje videos. If you look at the right side of the page, you will see some video thumbnails served by YouTube. If pictures speak a thousand words, I think videos tell the whole story. While I don't have control over the selection of the videos displayed on this blog (YouTube serves the videos based upon keywords I enter into a search algorithm) I think most - if not all - of the videos are relevant. Here's an old 20/20 report from the 1980s, soon after the apparitions began:



Secondly, there are links to books about Medjugorje and other helpful stuff. Again, this is on the right side of the blog. Check it out. There's a link to the official Medjugorje Web site and even a link to e-mail a prayer to the Virgin Mary!


Third, there are ads being served by Google. I generate revenue if you click on the links. My hope (maybe it's a pipe dream but I hope not) is to drive enough revenue from the ads that I can devote my entire workday to spreading the Medjugorje messages.


Additionally, the appearance of this page is helping to spread the word about the Medjugorje apparitions because it is providing links back to the official Medjugorje Web site. This helps that Web site get ranked higher in Google search results!

And so will your traffic, so keep visiting! I'll try to post fresh content regularly to keep you coming back!

Medjugorje - Our Lady's September 25 Message

Peace to All! Below please find the official English translation of Our Lady's message to the world of September 25, 2007.


God Bless!
Steve and Ana Shawl
The Medjugorje Web
http://www.medjugorje.org
------------------------------

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Message of September 25, 2007

"Dear children! Also today I call all of you for your hearts to blaze with more ardent love for the Crucified, and do not forget that, out of love for you, He gave His life so that you may be saved. Little children, meditate and pray that your heart may be open to God’s love. Thank you for having responded to my call."

Commentary of Our Lady's Message of August 25th, 2007

MAY YOUR LIFE BE A REFLECTION OF GOD'S GOODNESS

"Dear children! Also today I call you to conversion. May your life, little children, be a reflection of God’s goodness and not of hatred and unfaithfulness. Pray, little children, that prayer may become life for you. In this way, in your life you will discover the peace and joy which God gives to those who have an open heart to His love. And you who are far from God’s mercy, convert so that God may not become deaf to your prayers and that it may not be too late for you. Therefore, in this time of grace, convert and put God in the first place in your life. Thank you for having responded to my call." Message of August 25, 2007


The motherly words of Our Lady are words from the Gospel said with simple, motherly words. In this message we also hear a reflection of Jesus' words from the beginning of the Gospel: “Convert and believe the Gospel.” Conversion is a continuing process. It is everyday walking with Jesus, everyday following His word which is demanding and at the same time embraces the very life of God, of Jesus. The Virgin Mary has emptied herself, subdued her will to God's will. Our Lady did not expect a message from God. It was she who renounced her will and therefore was able to understand so clearly that God called her to be the mother of His son Jesus. Her life became God's life. She is full of God and all turned towards God. She is persistent with us because she knows that there is no other, easier or faster way that will lead us to God and to His gifts of joy and peace He wishes to bestow upon us. Her messages reveal Her determination and motherly love that wishes us wellbeing, the salvation of our souls and eternal life in God. Mary has remained a reflection of God. That is why she calls us and wants our lives to be a reflection of God's goodness, not of hatred and unfaithfulness.

“Pray, little children, that prayer may become life for you.” Some say that they do not like to pray as they cannot bear to dive into their own souls. Prayer is not looking at oneself. It is looking at God. To pray is to direct a spotlight towards Christ. What I need to do reveals to me gradually. It happens inside of me. By getting to know Christ I get to know myself. The mystery of man reveals itself only in Jesus Christ. Without Jesus we are unknown to ourselves. Who knew Jesus better but the very Virgin Mary who carried him under her heart, who raised him and believed in him until the end of his life, all the way to the foot of the cross at Calvary . Even today she is still the One who leads us to Jesus through Calvary towards resurrection.

The Gospel is not the past. God did not love us only once. He loves us every day, every moment throughout our life. This very moment is also filled with God's love and presence. This is why mother Mary and the Queen of Peace is coming to encourage us, to wake us up, to open the eyes of our souls in order for us to open our hearts and meet the source of life, of peace and joy – God. God brings us to truth with love, and if it must be so – with suffering, too. He does everything to save our souls. He cannot remain still and indifferent to us – people - who are the crown of His creation.

The time when the Virgin Mary comes to us and appears before us is a time of grace, time bestowed upon us as a gift. This is why she says to us: “In this time of grace, convert so that it may not be too late for you.” We are free to think that besides this time of grace, there is also a time when God denies His grace and pulls back His held out hand. Let us listen to the voice and words of our heavenly Mother Mary which save our souls and make us feel the joy of life, so that we are not too late to enter the feast of life.


Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medugorje 26/8/2007

Medjugorje - Our Lady's August 25, 2007 Message

Peace to all! Below please find the official English translation of Our Lady's August 25, 2007 message to the world as provided by the Information Center in Medjugorje.


Message of August 25, 2007

"Dear children! Also today I call you to conversion. May your life, little children, be a reflection of God’s goodness and not of hatred and unfaithfulness. Pray, little children, that prayer may become life for you. In this way, in your life you will discover the peace and joy which God gives to those who have an open heart to His love. And you who are far from God’s mercy, convert so that God may not become deaf to your prayers and that it may not be too late for you. Therefore, in this time of grace, convert and put God in the first place in your life. Thank you for having responded to my call."

How Can I Make This Interesting?

My intent in creating this blog is to spread the messages given to us by the Virgin Mary at Medjugorje, leading us back to her son Jesus.

It's important I take up my cross and spread these messages but, coming from an online marketing background and realizing this information is readily available elsewhere, I'd like to make this blog an interesting place you'll want to come back to regularly.

Please, if you have any thoughts on what would interest you enough to check back here, feel free to drop me an e-mail at haan.erik@gmail.com or respond through a comment on this blog.

Today I share with you a map to show you where in the world these events are taking place. Medjugorje is located in Bosnia Hercegovina.

God Bless!
Erik

Medjugorje - Commentary on Our Lady's July 25, 2007 Message

The following is first the Virgin Mary's monthly message for the world, given July 25th, 2007, followed by Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic's (of Medjugorje) commentary on the message.

Mary's message:

"Dear children! Today, on the day of the Patron of your Parish, I call you to imitate the lives of the Saints. May they be, for you, an example and encouragement to a life of holiness. May prayer for you be like the air you breathe in and not a burden. Little children, God will reveal His love to you and you will experience the joy that you are my beloved. God will bless you and give you an abundance of grace. Thank you for having responded to my call." Message of July 25, 2007

Fr. Ljubo's commentary:

Our Lady calls to us as our Mother and invites and encourages us today, on the day of Saint Jacob the apostle, the patron saint of the Parish of Medugorje and pilgrims to inherit the life of the saints, the lives of those who came to heaven into a homeland we shall never leave. In her message on the 25th of July 2002, Our Lady also said: Dear children! Today I rejoice with your patron saint and call you to be open to God's will… Ask your holy protectors to help you grow in love towards God.” The saints are those who intercede for us and stand up for us before the face of God. That is why we turn to them and give up our prayers to them so that they may present them to God. The holy are an example to us that it is worth being faithful to God and that God will never betray us.

“Let prayer be like the air that you breathe” – says Our Mother Mary. Our body needs air. We know how we feel when we don’t have enough air. Without air our body cannot live. So as we have a physical body we also have a spiritual body. We can imagine that we are spiritually dead without prayer. Without prayer man’s life only consists of the body, material things, on dead things which do not have any life. Prayer is not something that is stipulated or ordered by the Church, God or Our Lady. Prayer is not only a devout exercise. Prayer is much more than this. Prayer is life. Without prayer we are dead and there is no life in us. Without prayer God has no room in us in which he can visit and heal us, save us and heal our hearts and souls.

It is only in prayer that God can reveal his love and we can experience the joy of being beloved children of God and Our Lady. From experience we know that it is not enough to only know that food is good, it is necessary to eat it to be able to live. It is not enough to know that God and Our Lady love us, rather it is necessary for us to experience this, experience it in out life as a reality more true than the physical one we see with our eyes.

“You will experience the joy of being my loved ones” – Our Lady says to us. However, it is necessary to fulfil one condition and this is prayer with our heart in which the soul opens and surrenders to God through Our Lady. The Gospel tells us at Jesus’ baptism at the River Jordan from the heavens thundered the voice of our Heavenly Father: “Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mark 1, 11). These words apply to Jesus. But through Jesus and in Jesus, also to you and me. Everyone of us are in Jesus and through Jesus the beloved son of the Father, beloved daughter of the Father, the chosen one, favourite of Our Father’s Heart. In Jesus and through Jesus we are also Our Lady’s beloved children.

Throughout our lives we have been told many times that it is important to love God. However it is far more important that God loves us. Our love towards God is of secondary importance. God’s love for us has precedence: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4, 10) – tells us the apostle John in his gospel. And still adds: “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. (1 John 4, 16).

Let the Virgin Mary, full of grace and Immaculate lead us and introduce us to the secrets of Our Father’s heart and love which he has for us.

Fra Ljubo Kurtovic

Medugorje 26.7.200