Our Lady of Sorrows
ONE
On December 2nd, 2007 Mirjana, one of the visionaries of Medjugorje reported her encounter: “Our Lady was very sad. Her eyes were filled with tears throughout the whole time. She said, ‘Dear children, today, while I am looking at your hearts, my heart is filled with pain and trembling. My children, stop for a moment and look into your hearts. Is my Son, your God, truly in the first place? Are his commandments truly the measure of your life? I am warning you again.’…
In her book, My Heart Will Triumph Mirjana shared that Our Lady emphasized prayer, fasting, confession, reading the Bible and going to Mass. Fr. Jozo called them, her “five stones,” an allusion to the story of David and Goliath.
Our Lady doesn’t demand that we embrace these things. Instead, she encourages us, and she presents a map that will lead us on the path to love. Through her messages, she reminds us that the means for living Heaven on Earth—and after Earth—are at our fingertips, available freely to everyone.
“Many false truths are being offered to you,” she said on January 2, 2015. “You will overcome them with a heart cleansed by fasting, prayer, penance and the Gospel.”
TWO
“Dear children! In the great love of God, I come to you today to lead you on the way of humility and meekness. The first station on that way, my children, is confession. Reject your arrogance and kneel down before my Son.” (July 2, 2007)
Our Lady has said that confession is a “medicine for the church in the west” and that whole regions of the church will return to the church through the sacrament of reconciliation.
Our Lady asks us to confess our sins at least once a month
What prevents us is a loss of the sense of sin. We don’t think we have any sin because we do not do a daily examination of conscience. If we did – we would know we had sin.
Here is a simple examination called 3-2-1:
a. Begin by finding 3 ways your day went well. These should include ways you resisted temptation. Thank God for his blessings and graces of the day.
b. Next, review 2 problematic ways you could have done better that day. If you have failed to complete any resolutions, wasted too much time entertaining yourself, done something you shouldn’t have, failed to do something you should. The point is not to beat yourself up, but to find what weaknesses the enemy is exploiting in you.
c. Finally make 1 resolution for the following day that will help to counteract weaknesses by practicing the opposite virtue.
THREE
“Dear children, my motherly heart begs you to accept prayer, because it is your salvation! Pray, pray, pray, my children.” (January 2, 2005)
“Pray that you can be apostles of the divine light in this time of darkness and hopelessness. This is a time of your trial. With a rosary in hand and love in the heart set out with me.” (March 2, 2012)
At Medjugorje Our Lady is asking for a greater quality and quantity of prayer, what she calls prayer of the heart
Prayer is essential to the Message of Medjugorje because prayer is friendship with God.
Teresa of Avila writes: Mental prayer…is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us.
At Medjugorje, Mary has called for the fifteen decade rosary daily, and if one is quick to dismiss this as just impossible in the present world, it might be good to keep in mind that John Paul the Second got fifteen decades in each day and because he did, was inspired to do the same and therefor, Pope Francis also gets in his fifteen decades, so, they have rather packed schedules, rather significant calendars, and yet they get their prayers and so perhaps it’s not as impossible of a request as one might think at first glance.
The Third stone is to PRAY WITH THE BIBLE
Our Lady asks us to pray not only with our hearts, but also with the Bible, the Word of God to our homes.
“With a simple heart accept His word and live it. If you live His word, you will pray. If you live His word, you will love with a merciful love; you will love each other.” (August 2, 2015)
“My children, to live like my Son means to live the Gospel.” (December 2, 2014)
The most important thing is to open it regularly.
How are you praying from the heart? How are you praying with Scripture?
FOUR
The Fourth Stone is FASTING
Fasting is the way to harness our desires and direct them to God, who alone can fulfill all our desires for happiness. Our Lady at Medjugorje has asked for a bread and water fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. If you cannot digest grains, then fast on water (or coffee). An 18 hour fast from 6pm to 12 noon is an excellent start and very good for the body. But there are many things to fast from – news, entertainment, porn, social media…
“My children, pray and fast that you may be able to recognize all of this which I am seeking of you.” (December 2, 2013)
How are you going to respond to Mary’s call to fast?
FIVE
The 5th Stone is the MASS
From the beginning of the apparitions, Our Lady emphasized the importance of Mass.
“May the Mass, the most exalted and most powerful act of your prayer, be the center of your spiritual life.” (August 2, 2008)
“…In the Eucharist my Son gives Himself to you anew.” (April 2, 2015)
Eucharistic Apparition in the Fall of 1916
The children took their sheep to an grove of Oak grove, where the pigs fed on the acorns
The angel appeared to them holding a chalice in his left hand, with the Eucharist suspended above it, from which drops of Blood fell from the host into the Chalice.
Leaving the Chalice and the Host suspended in the air, he prostrated himself down on the ground beside the children and made them repeat three times this prayer:
“Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly. I offer You the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He is offended. By the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg for the conversion of poor sinners.”
Then, rising, the Angel took the Chalice and Host
And he gave Lucia the Eucharistic Host in communion
Then he gave the Precious Blood from the Chalice to Francisco and Jacinta, and he said:
"Take and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged by ungrateful men! Make reparation for their crimes and console your God."
Once again, prostrating himself on the ground he repeated with the children three times the same prayer: Most Holy Trinity… and disappeared.