THE SPIRIT OF MEDJUGORJE P.O. BOX 6614 • ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA 16512 www.spiritofmedjugorje.org SUBSCRIPTION RATE - FREE WILL OFFERING - PLEASE SEE PAGE 8 If this is the first time you have received this newsletter, and you would like a “Beginner’s Guide,” please contact us for one. EDITOR: JUNE KLINS EDITOR EMERITUS: JOAN WIESZCZYK PHONE: (814) 898-2143 SPIRITUAL ADVISOR E-MAIL: [email protected] FR. RAY DONOHUE VOL. 33, NO. 8 PUBLISHED MONTHLY AUGUST 2020 MONTHLY MESSAGE OF JULY 25, 2020 ON THE 25TH DAY OF EACH MONTH, THE BLESSED VIRGIN GIVES A MESSAGE TO THE VISIONARY, MARIJA, THAT IS TO BE GIVEN TO THE WORLD. “Dear children! In this peaceless time in which the devil is harvesting souls to draw them to himself, I am calling you to persevering prayer, so that in prayer you discover the God of love and hope. Little children, take the Cross in your hands. May it be your encouragement for love to always win, in a special way now when the Cross and faith are rejected. You be a reflection and an example with your lives that faith and hope are still alive and a new world of peace is possible. In August we have three beautiful celebrations of Our Lady. Our Lady told the visionaries that August 5 was Her “real birthday” I am with you and intercede for (even though we celebrate again with the official Church feast day on September 8). We also celebrate Our Lady’s Assumption on August 15 and Her Coronation on August 22. The picture shown you before my Son, Jesus. Thank above was taken in St. Francis Xavier Church in Metairie, Louisiana. This statue of Our Lady of Medjugorje was a gift from visionary you for having responded to my Ivan, whom this church has hosted on a number of occasions. You can read on page 6 about Ivan’s visit there on February 1, 2020. call.” The Way to True Peace and the Joy in Getting There By Fr. Ray Donohue I cannot believe it is already for us and our intentions in Holy Prayer to Her Divine Son, August! This is like the year that Jesus. We look to our Mother for peace, guidance, help, for never happened, and if it did, it patience, and for so many things. was, in many ways, nightmarish! Last month, Vicka, the visionary, had serious back But better days are coming, and surgery. We all know that Vicka in some cases, it is better now has been infirmed in many ways than even 2 months ago. We for many years. I have prayed with look to the Lord and He gives her, and her with me, one-on-one us strength! We walk by Faith many times. When I see her and and not by sight! We walk in she is talking to other pilgrims, she the Light of the Lord Jesus! We always asks me to lead the Holy Trust in Jesus! Rosary in English for the pilgrims; Recently, after a morning and when she prays over me or Mass in town, a lady asked me: “Father, you really love others, Vicka takes her time, holds Mary, the Mother of Jesus, don’t you?” I replied: “Yes, her hands so tight and powerfully indeed, I have great devotion to Her, and I love Her very on your head, and she prays, and much, with all my heart and the soles of my feet!” (My prays, and prays. A person knows mother would say that to me when I was a child.) J She that they have been prayed for then said to me, “But aren’t you only supposed to worship when they have been prayed for God and God alone?” Vicka and over by Vicka! She is humble, I was quite taken aback from this statement, and I holy, compassionate, and kind and saw a great deal of misunderstanding in her question, so I loving. Vicka has never complained about her pain, the true asked her a question. “Let me ask you, do you love your agony she experiences every single day and night. When husband?” “Why…yes, I do, very much so,” she replied. So you see Vicka, she is always smiling and joyful and loving! I continued, “Well, do you worship him?” “Worship him? Why? How can this be? Why? I will tell you. Because she Why, no, I don’t worship him,” was her answer. knows God. Because she is a pray-er, and pray-ers PRAY. I changed the line of my question to her: “Well then, tell They are devoted to prayer, and through prayer, they get to me, have you ever asked him to do anything for you, a favor know God. Through pain and suffering, they get to know or for some help in any way?” “Why, yes of course I have. God. They share in HIS suffering! In doing so, they share in I do that all the time!” Then, I continued, “Do you ever His LIFE! just think about him, reflect on him and your relationship, Jesus knew prayer. He was always in Communion with His on your love, how you met and how that love grew and Father though Holy Prayer. In the garden of Gethsemane, blossomed?” She replied, kind of confused and with a bit Jesus poured out His Heart to God in Holy Prayer – true of frustration, “I fail to see what my relationship with my Devotion to His Father and His God! He prayed for strength husband has to do with anything!” “Ah!” I said. “It has a in His humanness, and for others. What He was about to do, great deal to do with everything!” in His passion – what Jesus did all His life on earth – was for You see, worshipping anything others. Never about Himself; always for others. Jesus was a “For or anyone other than God is wrong pray-er! the worship of and sinful. Some people worship Vicka can endure the pain and agony because she knows infamous idols is the money, and make that their god. Jesus’ pain and agony, through love and through Holy reason and source and Some, their material wealth and Prayer. Vicka offers up that pain for you and for me and extremity of all evil” possessions, their position in life, all the pilgrims and all in need. She offers up her pain for (Wisdom 14:27). their goal in life – these become all people in pain, pain of all sorts: physical, emotional, and their “gods” and this is so wrong every other kind of pain. She does that because she loves. and evil. These things are material things that pass, objects And Vicka loves because she knows Our Lady and she we make idols over time. That is why this is evil. knows Jesus. We may be devoted to another, like a spouse or a vocation, My rheumatoid arthritis is nothing. I offer up any pain be devoted to our families and to other good things, but and suffering for all in need, and all those who have we do not worship them. That is indeed reserved for God asked me to pray for them. My pain is nothing. I ask the alone. But we have devotion, respect, love, charity, and joy Blessed Mother to pray to Jesus to use any pain, as little as in others, or in other things. This is good, and it brings about it is, the things I can’t do anymore that I enjoyed in the past, goodness and happiness, which shows on our faces and in for those who are ill or suffering in any way, and in need our hearts, and especially in our actions! of any kind of healing. I surround them in Holy Prayer, as I have great devotion to our dear Blessed Mother. Vicka does, only she does it so much more than I could ever Our Lady’s “YES” changed the world and the hereafter! do or even imagine. I learn from those who pray. I see the That one “YES” of Mary opened Heaven for us through Her fruits of the labors of those who pray. Son, Jesus. We ask our Mother for many things: for help in Our Lady once said to us through the visionary Marija: problems, for safety for children and family, to intercede “Dear Children, Today I am calling you to pray even more, until AUGUST 2020 - 2 - THE SPIRIT OF MEDJUGORJE you feel the holiness of forgiveness in your heart. There must be they have a “blanketed dispensation”. We are NOT doing holiness in the families, little children, because there is no future ALL we can do. We are letting evil win and not doing enough, for the world without love and holiness—because in holiness and and in some cases, we are doing nothing at all! “PRAY PRAY joy, you give yourselves to God the Creator Who loves you with PRAY” were and ARE the words of our Blessed Mother from immeasurable love. This is why He sends me to you.” (1/25/2020) the beginning of Her apparitions in Medjugorje and right up Our Mother comes to us, because She is devoted to us as to this day! Our Mother is not coming for Herself. She is here our Mother! I want you to stop, and think of that! Pray that for you and for me and the world. She is giving us a lifeline, sentence. Put it in your heart! and that lifeline is Prayer from the Heart! Our Holy God sends our Blessed Mother to us and allows Our Blessed Mother is showing us the way.