Mary's April, 2011 Messages and The Rosary

Our Lady’s message of April 2, 2011 to Mirjana at Medjugore

Dear children; With motherly love I desire to open the heart of each of you and to teach you personal unity with the Father. To accept this, you must comprehend that you are important to God and that He is calling you individually. You must comprehend that your prayer is a conversation of a child with the Father; that love is the way by which you must set out – love for God and for your neighbour. That is, my children, the love that has no boundaries, that is the love that emanates from truth and goes to the end. Follow me, my children, so that also others, in recognizing the truth and love in you, may follow you. Thank you.

I like that Mary tells us that prayer is our conversation with God. We so often rattle off prayers that we forget the point of them. Prayers are not some sort of divine credit where you get a certain amount of points each time your pray. A lot of people think of prayer this way. On Catholic message forums I read posts from people always asking questions like, “Why did I get this illness although I pray every day?” We must remember that Jesus never said, nor does the Church teach that misfortune will never befall those who pray. In fact, the history of the Catholic Church seems to show quite the opposite. Usually the saints and other faithful people led challenging lives and were often persecuted or martyred.

Prayer is the language — Image by Lel4nd via Flickr

Instead of viewing prayer as some sort of spritual ATM, we must think of it more as our opportunity to voice or concerns and thanksgivings to God. But almost more importantly, we must take that time to listen to what God tells us. The true power of prayer is not that God will make our lives easy but that He will give us strength and guidance when difficult times hit us. Furthermore, we have powerful prayers like the rosary. The mysteries of the rosary and the structure of its prayers provide a framework for conversing with God. Think of it as a way of speaking God’s language and making you more receptive and more likely to understand what God tells you.

Our Lady’s message of April 25, 2011 at Medjugorje

Dear children! As nature gives the most beautiful colors of the year, I also call you to witness with your life and to help others to draw closer to my Immaculate Heart, so that the flame of love for the Most High may sprout in their hearts. I am with you and I unceasingly pray for you that your life may be a reflection of Heaven here on earth. Thank you for having responded to my call.

Visitation, from Altarpiece of the Virgin (St ... — Image via Wikipedia

Mary asks us to not to pay lip service to our faith through a lot of empty words and promises. Rather, she wants us to live our faith with every word we speak, every thought in our mind, and every action we make. She calls us to live in constant prayer so that we may be a beacon of Jesus’ love to all those around us.

We should remember Mary’s message when we pray the Second Joyful Mystery of the rosary — The Visitation. Mary, after having accepted God’s Will in The Annunciation traveled to see her cousin, Elizabeth. In the Gospel, these events happen side by side for a reason. The first thing that Mary does after receiving God’s grace is go out and share the good news with others. She did not keep that grace bottled up nor did she brag about God having chosen her to bring Jesus into this world. Similarly, Mary calls us to not keep our faith bottled up. Rather, she wants us to go out and be a reflection of Jesus’ love to all those around us. When you meditate on the Visitation while praying the rosary ask yourself, “are my actions an accurate reflection of Jesus’ love?”