Church of Jesus Christ of the Universe

By Mauro

Medjogorje, Saturday, 15 October 2022 – 27th Week in Ordinary Time – Cycle II

St. Theresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

Readings of the day: Eph 1,15-23; Psalm 8; Lk 12,8-12

Introduction

We have asked the Lord to make us instruments of His peace. We have forgiven. Giving forgiveness has a price; the price for truly giving forgiveness is so high that it causes us pain, and that pain becomes co-redemption. The first step in giving forgiveness in certain situations, even to ourselves, requests an act of violence against our ego, against ourselves, which always wants to be right, finding a thousand reasons to avoid giving forgiveness; a thousand reasons to say, “I have done enough; I cannot do more; I have already done a lot, now it is his turn”.

I repeat that the forgiveness, of which St. Francis speaks and that we have to give tonight, causes us pain as it goes against our ego, but it is an instrument of peace. When Mother Teresa asked for support for her poor, she accepted nothing that had not caused pain to the person who gave her support. She did not accept money unless the donation was painful for those who made it. In what sense? She said, “You have to give to the poor out of love, but you have to detach yourselves from something that costs you a lot, that hurts you, that you would never give up, for nothing in the world. You do it only for the love of God. I want that pain”. The same is true for forgiveness.

In these days, we have spoken about co-redemption. There is no co-redemption without pain because it means going beyond human nature. This is impossible for the human being, remember that, but nothing is impossible to God. We are entering this area. After taking the first painful step, we are the first to receive peace and freedom. If we give forgiveness or make a gift of something we are attached to, as soon as we have done it, we become free persons. God fills this freedom with His grace; He fills this freedom with His Spirit and His power.

Let us remain quiet for a moment to send our forgiveness out into the Universe and to the world, and then let us sing “Gloria”.

Reflection

Today St. Paul gives thanks, and he prays for each of us. When he says: “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers“ (Eph 1,15-16). I tell you that he remembers each one of us in his prayers. St. Paul is beside us and around us just as the whole Church. St. Francis and St. Clare have been given us as protectors, but I believe that St. Paul is very close to us in the dimension of newness we are opening and of truth we are bringing. That is because he experienced it personally in the confrontation with the Jews and with the first Christians. Even the first Christians stopped him a bit.

Therefore, he prays for us today. He says: “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better” (Eph 1,17). I believe that we must always go through this process. The specific call we have received by placing us here, as Foundation, as Church, is so immense that it truly surpasses our possibilities. Thus, we need someone like St. Paul to helps us understand. He helps us widen ourselves and prevents us from remaining closed in our patterns, even the spiritual ones.

Today, I would like to give thanks to God together with you. I want to thank God for making use of us; I want to thank Jesus, who has considered us ready to answer His cry when He told us: “Go to Medjugorje to pray for peace.” I want to thank Him. “Thank You, Jesus!” Because having been chosen as collaborators of Jesus means much more than being chosen by a powerful man of this Earth. He considered us worthy. He knew that we would come here, that we would pray, that we would speak of Mary the Co-Redemptrix. He knew that our prayers, together with Mary’s prayers, the prayers of a people, would open the heart of the Father. I want to thank Him because He has treated us as friends[1], because He opened His Heart to us. At that moment, He said: “I am burdened, tired and nauseated of this Earth,” but He said it to friends; He said it to some friends, not to strangers. Please take it that way: as friends of God. I ask you to listen to the words He said to the Apostles after their mission as if they were addressed to you. The Apostles were happy about the miracles they had made, about Satan who was running away, but Jesus said: “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10,17-24).

With a friend, we may take the liberty of warning him. We can tell a close friend, “Wake up, this is not right,” but we only speak like this to a friend. Excuse me if I insist on this, but I do it because this is how Jesus speaks to us, His friends! However, if we return this friendship, we cannot deny anything. If that friend is Jesus, how can we say “No” to Him?

Tonight, we supplicate for peace for the whole Universe. We beg for peace for the Earth, and thus also for the Universe, as Jesus has always said: “The situation of the Earth affects the whole Universe. The lack of peace on Earth is a disaster for the whole Low Universe.”

The forgiveness we have given at the beginning[2] made the number of people who ask for peace increase; we are more now. All we have done this week has produced this: the Church has enlarged, it has grown. I am sure that our forgiveness made some fellows of the enemy waver. By accepting forgiveness, they are destabilised; it is no longer so easy for them to be evil, to activate the disintegrating energy. Our love touches them, challenges them and blocks them. When I spoke of the wall of silence, I meant that this love and forgiveness are that wall, which blocks everything. This is how wars are stopped.

The Gospel says: “I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God“ (Lc 12, 8-12). We have recognised Him, and we have recognised Mary the Co-Redemptrix. As I told you this morning, part of our being co-redeemers is a willingness to continue to recognise them, even if it costs us dearly. It is part of our identity to be children of Mary the Co-Redemptrix, to be part of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Universe, to bear at all costs the Sign[3] that is the testimony of it. When they welcome us, we are happy. We are open for all, but this is who we are, with the Sign and everything we have. We do not want to impose ourselves, but we do not want to lose our identity either only to gain someone. If we lose our identity, Jesus says that this will happen: “I will not recognise you before the angels.”[4]

The Gospel further says: “Remain simple and serene, do not worry about what you should say. That is the task of the Holy Spirit, who will place the words in your mouth before any authority.”[5] Do not think that this only applies to situations before authorities, persecutions or anyone in power, but this also happens before every person and situation, as you will find the right words and even the right attitude.

We ask for peace as a people, as children of Mary the Co-Redemptrix. This is what we can give. We will leave it to Mary, who knows how, to present us to God; She knows it.

Prayer

Oh Father, we come to You today in the name of Jesus, in the name of Mary Most Holy. We come because they have called us; we come because they have chosen us and because we feel loved, welcomed and forgiven by them. We feel like family members of them. Through them, we feel like family members of God, family members of Yours, oh Father. Through them, we feel Your fatherhood, Your goodness, your infinite love, and we come to ask You for peace, peace for this humanity.

Oh Father, we can only offer ourselves to You. We present ourselves to You as we are. We can offer to You the gift of all our limitations; we can offer to You our desire to be one with You; we can offer to You the gift of our thoughts, in the awareness that we are still far from Your thoughts. We offer to You Your own Love as a gift.

Oh Father, You have created us; You have loved us first; You have given us Jesus Christ; You have given us Mary and all Your infinite gifts. You have given us life, and You want us to return to You. We believe in this and we offer ourselves to You; we offer all the little ones of this Earth to You, Father. We offer all aborted children to You, all the children who have suffered the wickedness of this world as well as those frozen in embryos and those rejected and thrown away. We offer to You all the little ones of this humanity, rejected because they mean nothing to the world: the poor, the sick, the elderly. We want to offer to You all that the world rejects.

We also want to bring You all the suffering that the world creates; the suffering caused by wars and famines, by the powerful who think for themselves. We elevate to You all physical, spiritual and moral pain, all mental distress, all the terrible situations that this Earth is full of. We also want to elevate to You all the blood of the martyrs of this time, the blood of those who are killed violently in wars or even in families and all the blood shed in the name of wealth and money. Even the blood that is offered on Lucifer’s altars, we want to snatch it and offer it to You.

Dona, dona nobis pacem…

Accept, Father, also all the good that is done in silence on Earth and all people of good will hidden in so many religions, in so many different situations. Collect all the good of Your instruments, both the extraordinary ones, who pave the way for us, and the ordinary ones: Your people who pray and offer themselves to You in silence. We want to bring all this to You through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Burning Heart of St. Joseph and the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

We want all our offerings to be elevated from this altar, which is Mary’s Heart, so that from this altar our lives and our offerings become one with Jesus, so that we too can be love sacrificed in peace.

Dona, dona nobis pacem…

Thank You, Father, because we are sure to be welcomed; we are sure that Your Justice is also Your Love. We are not afraid because we know we are in Your hands; we know that nothing will be snatched from Your hands, and we know that Your plan to recapitulate the whole universe in Christ will be accomplished. Thank You.

Dona, dona nobis pacem…

And today, Father, Almighty God, with this bread and this wine that we offer to You and You have given to us welcome our lives, the sacrifices, the offerings, the efforts, the pains, the joys of our lives; welcome the whole people we have presented to You.

Blessing

Oh Lord, may Your blessing bring peace to the whole Universe; may it bring peace here on Earth. May Your blessing bring the desire for peace of Your whole Church; may it be filled with all our prayers and all our love. May Your blessing be filled with the power of the Angels and Archangels, of all extraordinary instruments. May your blessing reach those who seek peace, and may it hurl all those who do not want peace into the lake of fire, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit

[1] See John 15, 14-17

[2] He refers to the meeting of the “Plea for Peace” at the Sanctuary “The Face of Mary” in Medjugorje

[3] See the category “The Sign is a Cross” on https://towardsthenewcreation.com/

[4] Luke 12,8 paraphrased

[5] Matt 10,19 paraphrased