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Sor Emmanuel's Diary
June 14, 2006
Dear Children of Medjugorje,
Praised be Jesus and Mary!
1 – Fr. Don Calloway in Medjugorje
Many know about the wonderful conversion of Don Calloway
from delinquency to priesthood (see PS 1). He is now posted
in Steubenville, as the vocations director for his community,
Marians of the Immaculate Conception. At the beginning
of June, Fr. Don was visiting Medjugorje. He answered a
few of my questions:
Sr. Em: When you go on mission, how do you find
the people of God today?
Fr. Don: Everywhere I see that the family is very
much under attack and many people are indifferent to the
Faith. I can’t even imagine what is happening in the
heart of Our Lady, seeing the young generation growing up
knowing almost nothing about the faith.
In my travelling and speaking, I assume that nobody knows
anything about the faith. I start from the basics, lay the
foundation and then build on that. So many of them are not
getting this from their parish. Some of the convents I have
been to are so New Age, feminist, ecological, more concerned
with trees or whatever. It is unbelievable. I got kicked
out of a Catholic High school in the Carribean because they
were promoting contraception and I was preaching against
it.
I think that in many ways the people who need the message
of Medjugorje the most are the priests, because often the
way that they are preaching is not communicating the solid
stuff. The people are just like sheep without a shepherd.
They don’t know where to go so they are going to anyone
who is calling out to them. It is bad in the parishes, in
the schools, the Catholic universities, in the diocese, in
the chancelleries, etc. The smoke of Satan has crept in to
so many areas.
SE: Do you mean that Our Lady failed in Medjugorje?
After 25 years we should see the world be converted and
be reconciled. Such was the plan she expressed from the
very beginning. Has this plan failed?
FD: I think we have failed her; we have ignored
her requests. She is saying ‘I need your prayers, I
need your sacrifices.’ Fasting is an example. Yes,
it is difficult, but it seems that we reject this part of
the message. Then we have wars and all kinds of problems
in the family, the diocese, convents, parishes, and still
nobody is fasting, or so few. I think that the influence
of the world is so strong that the sacrificial element of
living the Gospel is too difficult for most people. We want
instant. Everything has to be now.
I think we are failing Our Lady in a certain sense. I think
that we are trying to come up with our own ways to make things
better, but they are human ways. They are not ways of sacrifice.
The Mother of the Prophets is ignored. The world hates prophets
and tries to silence them. You can almost see Our Lady, the
Mother of Prophets, crying. It is the same for the priests.
When the priests want to preach the Gospel powerfully, almost
immediately they are taken away from their parish and put
out in the country where they have a parish of ten people.
The persecution is great. The evil is strong. I think that
Jesus and Mary are looking for victim souls. They want victim
souls, people who continue the sacrifice of Christ for the
world. There are so few people who offer themselves for this.
SE: Have you found places which give you hope for
the future?
FD: Actually yes, within the belly of the beast
so to speak. In the United States there is a new generation
of priests coming ! They are zealous, they are on fire, many
of them have had some kind of conversion experience. Most
of them have struggled with something, but through John Paul
II, through a World Youth Day, through a Marian apparition,
they come back to the faith and live an intimate relationship
with Jesus and Mary. Now the seminaries in the US are being
filled up with these zealous men. There is a whole new generation
coming in, what I call the John Paul II Generation. They
were formed by that holy man and now they are going to be
the ones who are taking the lead. I think Our Lady is secretly
forming this army that the world can’t see, and if
the world could see it they would hate it. At some point,
they are going to be the ones to lead the charge for the
battle.
SE : Father, your community is very involved in
the Divine Mercy as revealed to Sr. Faustina. Can you explain
how Medjugorje is connected with Divine Mercy ?
FD : Divine Mercy and the events of Medjugorje both
really came upon the scene about the same time. You can think
about Faustina whose work began in the 30s but was banned
for many years. Only with the Pontificate of John Paul II
did it become approved, and then it started strong and went
everywhere. In the same way, at the beginning of the Pontificate
of JP II, Medjugorje starts.
These realities are, in my opinion, the two crucial elements
of the New Evangelization. You have to tell the people things
that will shake them up. This takes a revelation, something
out of the ordinary. Medjugorje and the Divine Mercy is the ‘one-two
punch’ for the spiritual life today! That is basically
what I tell people: The Rosary and the Chaplet of Mercy.
God is offering us these things from heaven.
SE : The merciful Christ speaks of a time of mercy
and the Queen of Peace speaks of a time of grace. These
two words, mercy and grace, have the same root in Croatian!
FD : The Holy Spirit is definitely doing something
through the New Evengelization. The whole world is ready
to be re-evangelized. When you want to make something grow
in the field, you put manure on it. Within the last fifty
years that is what has happened in the Church: it has been
stinky, it has been a mess. But when the new springtime comes
it will be beautiful!
SE : Our Lady is gathering a people willing to
be dedicated to her, just like the Lord, Who changed the
world with twelve men. This He can do again ! Fruitfulness
does not depend upon numbers but on holiness. Then there
is hope.
FD : Exactly! As the vocations director for our
community (MIC), I see that we are getting good vocations.
They are part of the new generation. They want orthodoxy,
they want faithfulness, they are open to Medjugorje, because
they have seen the fruit. God is at work, we just have to
wait and trust.
2 - All the gifts are at hand
It is true that today’s world is seeking peace but
does not know where to find peace! Now, having Divine Peace,
the Shalom, means to be complete, to be filled. Is there
anything that we are missing?
Well, let me share here some luminous words that Jesus
gave to Marthe Robin, the French mystic who lived the Passion
for 50 years, until her death in 1981. Jesus revealed to
her that for each year, each nation, each soul in this world,
He had placed in the huge garden of the Church a complete
treasury of His infinite merits, in order to meet all needs.
Through these gifts, we have everything necessary to take
care of all issues, to attend to all miseries, to satisfy
all souls, and to provide for all atonement. If things are
dark, it is because we neglect the given graces, we refuse
them, we sometimes even look down on them, and reject them.
Then we find ourselves as if the graces had never been given.
Marthe was emphasizing that these graces are given in overabundance.
Remember the Wedding at Cana where, after the miracle of
Jesus, the quantity of good wine far exceeded the needs!
There is such an overabundance of these graces that, if we
accepted them, there would be enough to raise up all peoples,
to sanctify all men even those who have fallen the lowest,
and to free all souls from Purgatory.
Seeing the gifts of God offered in vain, Marthe could also
see the serious responsibility of the Church Militant with
its carelessness and numerous betrayals. Jesus made her understand
that this is why He has allowed the enemies of the Church
to oppress her. (This is just like what happened to the people
of Isreal when they were not faithful to the true God!) Marthe
offered herself to make atonement; she prayed day and night,
and joined her sufferings to those of Christ.
Our Mother's comings to Medjugorje constitute a great part
of the gifts offered by God to our generation. I can't help
asking two questions:
- What would the world be like today if we had accepted
and lived the messages?!
- What will the world be like if, on this very day, each
one of us decides to begin or resume walking on the way
to holiness, guided by the hand of Mary?
3 - The 25th Anniversary is approching!
Today, start the novena for the Anniversary, from June 16 – 24.
What an amount of graces are in store ! Thank you for the
letters that many of you have already sent to the Gospa (see
report of May 15) and also for the Masses celebrated everywhere
for her intentions. In Medjugorje we go to pray on Podbrdo
everyday during the novena, and we will carry you up with
us.
You will find a beautiful novena here: www.medjugorje.org/anniversarynovena.htm
4 - Mirjana tells us
On June 2, the visionary Mirjana Soldo received her monthly
apparition at the Cenacle. She said that the Gospa did
not give any classic message. She blessed all the people
present and our religious articles. Her face was serious
when she emphasized again the importance of the priest's
blessing:
"Remember, children of mine, that it is my Son blessing
you. Do not accept it so lightly.”
Mirjana added that the Gospa talked to her about things that
are to happen and also said to her:
“There is no way without my Son. Do not think that
you will have peace and joy if you do not have Him in the
first place.”
Mirjana stated, “I can't say that the Gospa was sad
or joyful. She was preoccupied, her face showed loving care.“
Happy Anniversary, dearest
Gospa!
May this day of grace be for you a cause of joy,
and for us, a day of your Visitation!
Sister Emmanuel
©Children of
Medjugorje 2005
PS 1 -
Marians of the Immaculate Conception
Eden Hill
Stockbridge, MA 01262
Phone: (413) 298-3931
Fax: (413) 298-0207
Father Donald Calloway's Incredible Testimony is available
on CD, DVD and VHS through www.childrenofmedjugorje.com as
well as through www.marytv.tv.
PS 2 - The French version of Sr. Emmanuel’s
new book, The Hidden Child of Medjugorje, will be published
next month by Editions des Beatitudes, (www.editions-beatitudes.fr).
The Italian version will be available on June 25 at Shalom
Editrice, Ancona, Italy, (www.editriceshalom.it).
The translations into English, Spanish, Portuguese, Flamish,
Croatian, German, Polish versions are progressing. In order
to allow the American copy to be available sooner, Sr. Emmanuel
is seeking an experienced bilingual translator who can translate
from the French version.
PS 3 - The visionary, Ivan, finished building
a prayer room in his garden in Medjugorje. We know that he
allows priests to come and attend his daily apparitions preceded
by the prayer of the Rosary.
PS 4 – At the beginning of this
month, our sending out of the message from Mirjana’s
apparition was an exception. From now on, the messages of
the 2nd day will be, as usual, in the monthly report and
on our website : www.childrenofmedjugorje.com.
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