FOOD FOR THOUGHT	MARY’S WAY?

Fr Francis Marsden

For 4 Jan 1987

Several months ago at the presbytery we received from Milan a free volume called “Open your hearts to Mary, Queen of Peace.” It contains meditations and sermons on the reported messages of Our Lady at Medugorje in Yugoslavia. Whatever judgment about the apparitions there the Church eventually comes to, the homilies of Fr Vlasic and Fr Barbaric certainly make challenging spiritual reading.

We began 1987 under the protection of Mary, Mother of God (let Jan.), so it seems fitting to examine some of the messages coming from this possible new Marian shrine. After all, few things are certain in the future except the promises and love of God. Whatever else happens, He wants to use 1987 to draw us deeper and deeper into his love and truth.

The primary message at Medugorje is a call to prayer and fasting. Prayer is the only means of reaching God. No saint has ever become a saint without prayer and fasting. The Church has never renewed herself in spirit without prayer and fasting.

Prayer is active faith. Christians who do not pray are no longer believers. “I would be happy if families started to pray each morning and evening for half and hour,” Mary reportedly said.

If we say “I have no time for prayer, what we are really saying is “God, you are not worth seeking for.” God is then a lost value for us. When people say they have no time for prayer, Fr Vlasic replies “You are really an atheist: you have time — 24 hours each day — you have time to sleep, eat, pray, joke, gossip —but you have no time to pray. If God is the least important factor in your life, then you are an atheist.” We must prepare a new timetable if we want to meet God. We must set a time for God during the day and not allow it to be taken from us.

In our homes, he writes, we should put God in the place of the television. There should be a room or place in each house for meditation, with a cross or statue, some visible symbol of His presence. “If you want salvation then free yourself from the mad rhythm of your towns — you must leave time and space for God,” or else the pressure of city life will crush the spiritual life out of us.

As to world affairs, remember, “By prayer and fasting you can even dispel wars.” Friday fasting on bread and water or tea is asked for. Do not be fearful about the years to come: “The only attitude of the Christian towards. the future is hope of salvation.” We must all undergo our personal catastrophe of death —perhaps in an accident, in hospital, by a bomb, who knows? It makes no difference. Death is only a transition to the deeper reality beyond, of heaven for the believer. My death is not the end of me. It is not an evil or punishment but a transition. This is the root of Christianity: death and Resurrection. This is the centre. Only if we spend our efforts trying to be secure here on earth, do problems and fears arise.

“Those who think only of war, evil, punishment, are not doing the right thing. If you keep thinking about evil, punishment, war, you are on the road towards them. Your task is to accept the Divine Peace, to love it and to spread it.” Sadly, our British media seem to delight in reporting bad news, spreading an atmosphere of gloom and spiritual malaise.

What is wrong with the world? Although “All adults have the capacity to know God, the sin of the world consists in the fact that they do not seek for God, they are not interested in God. The cities and villages are full of churches and mosques, but people do not go to ask how they must live. The sin of the world lies in this, that there is no interest for God.”

The most important prayer is not for special favours, but “Pray to the Holy Spirit that He may descend upon you. People pray in the wrong way: they go to shrines, to churches, to ask for special graces, but few are those who ask for the Holy Spirit. Those who receive the Holy Spirit have already received everything.”

Why this terrific emphasis on the importance of prayer? Because there is so much sin in the world. The devil’s works are fought by spiritual weapons —prayer, fasting, almsgiving, forgiveness and reconciliation.

Prayer must not become a routine or lip-service. Concentrate on the heart. “Prayer is a dialogue with God. Prayer means understanding God. Prayer is necessary because after it, everything will become clear. Prayer is for knowing happiness. Prayer is for learning to cry. Prayer is for learning to blossom. Prayer is not a trifle. Prayer really is a dialogue with God.” God wishes. to draw each of us into a deep unity with Himself, a deep peace and strength.

Got a Rosary, a Bible and	a crucifix? l987, let’s get praying!

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