Those are some good thougts. When thought of in that way, Jesus, in revealing His Mercy to Saint Faustina, and His desire to make in known to the world, is very much in the perspective of the "wooing" of us to run toward His Mercy, and to trust. ...The full unfolding of the understanding of His Sacred Heart, I have heard someone say. In that regard, then, it seems to be less about prophetic warnings of the end of time (though He mentions it, because the end of time=the end of Mercy). Whereas modern apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary seem to be urgent calls to prayer, sacrifices, penance, and the sacraments with the urgency punctuated by prophetic warnings and promises, that are timely. ...A Motherly teaching, and prompting of her children to a practical application of the Truths God has revealed to His church, including that of His Divine Mercy. The urgency of which is related to the culminating point in time and space at which we have arrived, so prophecy may be more central.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world; have mercy on us! Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world; have mercy on us! Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world; grant us peace! Mario, when I say those words at mass, I say them with all my heart. They are very meaningful. But I am starting to think I must be imagining things, as no one else seems to read what I read. Jon and Mario, How do you explain these words of Jesus to St Faustina? 378 Once as I was talking with my spiritual director, I had an interior vision-quicker than lightning-of his soul in great suffering, in such agony that God touches very few souls with such fire. The suffering arises from this work. There will come a time when this work, which God is demanding so very much, will be as though utterly undone. And then God will act with great power, which will give evidence of its authenticity. It will be a new splendor for the Church, although it has been dormant in it from long ago. That God is infinitely merciful, no one can deny. He desires everyone to know this before He comes again as Judge. He wants souls to come to know Him first as King of Mercy. When this triumph comes, we shall already have entered the new life in which there is no suffering. But before this, your soul [of the spiritual director] will be surfeited with bitterness at the sight of the destruction of your efforts. However, this will only appear to be so, because what God has once decided upon, He does not change. But although this destruction will be such only in outward appearance, the suffering will be real.
St Faustina's Diary........ 177 +Renewal of vows. From the moment I woke up in the morning, my spirit was totally submerged in God, in that ocean of love. I felt that I had been completely immersed in Him. During Holy Mass, my love for Him reached a peak of intensity. After the renewal of vows and Holy Communion, I suddenly saw the Lord Jesus, who said to me with great kindness, My daughter, look at My merciful Heart. As I fixed my gaze on the Most Sacred Heart, the same rays of light, as are represented in the image as blood and water, came forth from it, and I understood how great is the Lord's mercy. And again Jesus said to me with kindness, My daughter, speak to priests about this inconceivable mercy of Mine. The flames of mercy are burning Me-clamoring to be spent; I want to keep pouring them out upon souls; souls just don't want to believe in My goodness. Suddenly Jesus disappeared. But throughout that whole day my spirit remained immersed in God's tangible presence, despite the buzz and chatter that usually follow a retreat. It did not disturb me in the least. My spirit was in God, although externally I took part in the conversations and even went to visit Derdy. [59]
I want to respond to this thread but I really don't know where to start. I think I have gone beyond so much literal comparing. I drove myself nuts for a couple of years, waiting for this day and that day, and stressing out over details. I believe in what a lot of visionaries and locusionists say, and in my mind I do not have much trouble marrying them all together in some sort of similarity that works for me. Remember, each person has their own way of explaining things. When they try to tell others what God has shown them in images, it is affected by their own human interpretation. Their minds cannot fathom the message fully, any more than ours can. Hence differences happen, and descriptions vary in some ways. Also, when they are not allowed to reveal dates, or certain specifics of the vision, then they perhaps toss in some blanks that get our imaginations going in a wrong direction. Also, I have read that God explains things so that the recipient can understand. This means that he will explain something to a child differently, perhaps, than he would explain it to a grown woman in a religious order. What he shows the children may be a simpler or maybe less complete version than that shown to an adult. This doesn't mean he contradicts himself, it simply means that each understands and intrepets what they "see" a little differently. This is how I justify the differences in visions from visionary to visionary. That said, I do still have one thing about Garabandal that "unsettles" me. It is not the messages, it is the way in which the visionaries looked into the sky with their necks craned almost unnaturally and that they ran through the town during their ecxtacy. Some of the photos of the children leave me feeling uneasy. I don't know of other approved visionaries of apparitions acting in this manner. Except for in Medjugorje they would run up the hill to meet Mary in some of the earlier apparations and some said it was amazing how fast they got up the hill, but once there they fell to their knees and it was then a peaceful encounter to the witnesses. This issue doesn't make me discount the Garabandal visions altogether as not of God, it only gives me some concern. I want to remain open. Somewhere above, someone said that the events described were not the same events. That is another big possibility. Some say that one of the secrets of Medjugorje is not the warning described at Garabandal, that they are different events. That the permanent sign at Medjugorje and the miracle at Garabandal will not happen at the same time, yet others speculate that they will, and that many more places on the earth will have similar occurrances so that many will be able to see these signs firsthand. Who knows? We all think something different, don't we? Some of us dream about these things and then the dream we have affects how we think it will be. But is our dream a vision, or just our human minds trying to make sense of all the images these different intreperetations are putting into our brains? I think the thing we are missing, most of all here, is Faith. We need to have faith, then the tiny details won't matter to us anymore. And peace can enter into our thoughts on all this, and when the "doors" are in front of us, we will know exactly which one to go through.
Hi Padraig, I am still soooo busy, but I can only stay away for so long. With the Pope resigning and my head reeling about the implications of that, an unexpected way for a Pope to be elected...not to mention an unexpected way for a Pope to be forced to leave the Vatican , well, I had to see what was buzzing on the forum again. I should be doing lesson plans, but I have instead been poking through the forum for the past 3 hours.
Connie, I have kept quiet on Garabandal. It is the one major apparition I have not done research on. I am listening intently and learning alot, but I am glad you brought this up. I too found this leaving me completely uneasy every single time I see a picture or a video of these children with their heads craned backwards, running backwards, screaming for hours, etc. I never saw pictures or descriptions of children in other apparitions having to do this. I leave it in the hands of the Church. I LOVE the message tho and remain open! P.S. I GUESS WE SHOULD HAVE DISCUSSED THIS ON THE GARABANDAL THREAD...OOPS!
Maybe you just had to be there to understand...and I have never been there at all, so I also do not presume to judge too harshly. Many, many people are passionate about Garabandal, and so I also am waiting to see what happens. Fruits are the most important thing, so that must also be taken into account. I have experienced the holiness of Medjugorje firsthand, and perhaps if I went to Garabandal, I would know in my soul what to believe. For now, I will listen to others and watch for the fruits, and wait for the signs to happen. Perhaps God knew that it would take those harsh physical manifestations to make people there, at that time, believe the children. Perhaps at Madjugorje, the people needed gentler signs...??? At Lourdes, it was the water, at Fatima, well, the sun scared everyone to the point of panic didn't it...so hmmm...here I go trying to figure out why God does what he does, doing just what I said I don't want to do anymore...LOL PSS> YOU ARE RIGHT MS7! OOPS! WELL IT WAS THE COMPARISON OF THE TWO THAT GOT ME GOING ON THIS THREAD ABOUT THIS. OKAY, BACK TO ST. FAUSTINA'S DIARY DISCUSSION EVERYONE
Gosh! That could be my post! I am very excited to be going to Medjugorje after the Divine Mercy weekend. My Mother has been saying she wanted someone (read 'me') to go with her to Medjugorje for some time now. I have put it off because I just couldn't see how it would be possible, my children are at school and my husband works long hours and I'm working too. Then suddenly my mum brought it up again and I thought, Yes! and I'll bring the children with me! Now four of us are going for four days, during the Easter holidays, on my daughters birthday. I am excited and slightly afraid. I so desperately want this to be an amazing experience for my children.
I brought four of my children Freedom. They were 9, 12, 13 (ADHD) and 15 at the time. They really enjoyed it and loved the experience. We too went for the Easter Week. Was beautiful. Even my son with ADHD loved it there, though he was a handful at times!! Just in the evenings though, he was as good as gold during the day. I am sure that you will have a lovely time. I am not sure how old your children are? But just watch whose talking loudly around them. Too much talk of the devil etc can be frightening for a child. I am not saying that this will be happening. Just good to know in advance and to be ready to move your children away from the conversation or to ask those around to respect that there are young sensitive ears around.
My son was 7 on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, and the day the Pope resigned. My daughter will be 9 the day we go. Both are sensitive, my son especially is easily scared. I am keen to give them something to hold on to in their faith since no one around us is religious at all. They go to a C of E school but it all feel rather hollow, to be honest.
I see you are in the UK Mary's child. Did you hear John Humphreys talking to Cardinal Cormac O'Connor on Radio 4 this morning?
No I didn't Freedom. I rarely have the radio on in the mornings. I am sure that your children with love Medjugorje, and the chances of people talking about the devil etc are very slim. I was talking more about the fellow pilgrims. I have been twice and encountered this chat one of the times. Pilgrimages etc, lay strong roots in the soul. I believe this very much. They laid strong roots in my child from childhood, and stood out just as much as my sufferings. They are landmarks in my faith. No one goes to Medjugorje by accident. It is by invite. I realise this more and more when doing RCIA etc as well. God orchestrates so many things that we are completely unaware of.
I love the concept that no one goes to Medjugorje by accident. I think I may have completely drifted away from the church if it hadn't been for me revisiting the Fatima messages. I was told that everyone has a handle to God, Mary is mine. I don't have any trouble believing she is here trying to help us. I wish I could say the same for my sister who told me today that she was struggling with her faith at the moment.
Say the creed every day on her behalf Freedom. I do that for my sister, and I don't have any fears. I concern myself with God's family. I know absolutely, 100% that He concerns Himself with mine. This is not the reason that I concern myself with God's family lol, but He will not be outdone in generosity.
I'm sure this is the wrong place to ask, but I don't know anyone who has been. We're going independently because all the organised tours seemed too long and I was afraid of over-facing the children. Do you have any tips? Besides avoiding people scaring them about the devil - which I will because it doesn't take much to scare mine
I would look online and see if you can get some tours whilst you are there. The tour guides know when the visionaries are speaking etc and will take you to see them. Also, they know where all the places are for stations of the cross etc. But you could ask fellow pilgrims about those. Do find out and visit Cenacolo. Amazing! Former addicts and people who were lost in their lives joined this community and God transformed their lives. They will not scare the children. Also, when I was there, this is where the life size model of Christ crucified is, hair now grows on His legs! Others will add to this am sure.
I'm going to see Ivan in St. Louis on the Feast of St. Patricks Day! Taking my 30 yr. old daughter with me!
