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Peace, peace, peace - and only peace!
In a word, Mother Mary's visits to Medjugorje are about peace. About this, She has
been quite clear. Her first message at Medjugorje, in fact, was, "Peace, peace, peace
- and only peace!"[1] Immediately following, She
said, "Peace must reign between God and man and between men."[2]
Why the emphasis on peace? Because God is a "God of love and peace."[3] As
such, it is His will that peace - not conflict - fill His world.
But, we have freely chosen against peace and, as it were, against God. Every day,
in countless ways, we make this choice. We ignore God. We bomb countries. We exploit
countrymen. We mock the poor. We beat wives. We neglect children. We hate ourselves...
In all of these ways - and many more - we repeatedly choose for conflict and against
peace.
Mother Mary understands perfectly the sorrow that our anti-peace stance is causing
us - both in this life and the next. She has come to Medjugorje, then, to remind us
that "those who [encourage] peace have joy."[4] Mother
Mary wants us to have this joy. So, like a good mother, She remains at Medjugorje
to teach us, step-by-step, how to arrive at joy through peace.
Faith
Now, we must remember that peace is a gift from God. And like all gifts from God -
Mother Mary reminds us - it is given freely and abundantly on one condition: we must
have faith.
What is faith? Simply put, it means "we believe in God and...all that He has said."[5] Because
of this belief, we want to know and do His will.
It makes sense, then, that we must have faith in order to receive peace: One who has
faith, wants to know God's will. One who wants to know God's will, finds that He is
a God of peace. One who finds He is a God of peace, wants to make peace in order to do His
will. And one who wants to make peace in order to do His will, is given the means
to do so.
"All things are possible to him who believes."[6]
Conversion
So, if we have faith, we get peace? That's right. But, the problem is, there is a
severe lack of faith in the world today.
For this reason, Mother Mary repeatedly calls us to conversion.
What is conversion? It just means cleaning out our hearts - getting rid of the bad
stuff (envy, greed, lust) and stocking up on the good stuff (faith, hope, charity).
When we do this, we realign our hearts with God. And once our hearts are realigned
with God, He can more easily teach us how to deepen our faith and, in doing so, arrive
at peace.
The best way to achieve conversion is through regular Confession.
Prayer
So, if we convert our hearts, that will deepen our faith and, in turn, bring us to
peace? Right again. However, there is one other problem: working for peace is hard;
establishing/maintaining faith is hard; and converting one's heart is hard.
These goals are so hard to achieve, in fact, that we can't do it on our own. We need
God's help. For this reason, Mother Mary calls us to "unceasing prayer."[7]
Prayer is simply talking to God. And the more we talk to God the better we understand
Him, the more we trust Him and, ultimately, the deeper our faith in Him becomes.
As well, to the one who prays, God will "give whatever he needs"[8] -
including the strength to persevere in hard tasks such as peace, faith and conversion.
Specifically, Mother Mary suggests the following prayer commitments:
-
Daily Rosary (15 decades)
-
Daily Bible reading
-
Weekly Mass (more often, if possible)
Fasting
Hand in hand with prayer goes fasting. Through fasting - Mother Mary also reminds
us - our faith grows even more and is strengthened even further.
What is fasting? It's a special type of prayer whereby you abstain from some - or
all - food and drink for a period of time. Ideally, Mother Mary asks us to fast every
Wednesday and Friday by eating only bread and drinking only water.
There are many benefits to fasting. Most notably, it allows us to practice self control.
This is important because only one who can dominate themselves will be able to persevere
in a life-long commitment to peace, faith, conversion and prayer.
Other benefits of fasting include:
-
Rediscovering appreciation for the material gifts in our lives
-
Developing empathy for the poor
-
Increasing charity (for example, by eating less, you have more to give away to others
in need)
-
Protecting against overindulgence and other excessive habits
[1], [2], [7]: www.medjugorje.hr
[3]: The New American Bible - 2 Cor 13:11
[4]: The New American Bible - Prv 12:20
[5]: Catechism of the Catholic Church - p. 498
[6]: Catechism of the Catholic Church - p. 688
[8]: Catechism of the Catholic Church - p. 689
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