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The Mystical Marriage of Mary with God

admin — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 15:44:42 +0000

The Mystical Marriage of Mary with God

By Deacon Antonio Sandoval

There are three stages in Christian spiritual life: the purgative, the illuminative, and the unitive stages. In the purgative stage the Christian believer strives for moral purification, so as to break his attachment with everything sinful and to discipline himself to desire only what is good. In the illuminative stage the Christian believer strives, with the grace of God, to perceive and live in the world by the light of Christ. In the unitive stage the Christian believer rests in the presence of God with an ardent openness to receive the gift of union with God. “The term mystical marriage is employed by St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross to designate that mystical union with God which is the most exalted condition attainable by the soul in this life.” It is also called a transforming union, consummate union, and deification“. (www.newadvent.org).

As we have mentioned before in a previous article, God is neither male nor female, neither masculine nor feminine. These categories apply only to some physical creatures (Masculine and Feminine By Deacon Antonio Sandoval). Therefore, a mystical marriage of a Christian contemplative with God has nothing to do with gender. It resembles a human marriage in that lover and beloved love each other with agape love, that is, they give the gift of self to each other, and the two, while remaining personally distinct, become one. (This, ideally, is also the goal of spouses in Christian marriage.)

In mystical marriages of Christian believers with God, the believers freely choose to accept God’s will in its totality. They desire to will only what God wills, and in as much as a creature is capable, to love as God loves. They are guided in their actions by the Spirit of God. You could say that they choose to be willing and docile instruments in the hands of God. They use all their powers to fully cooperate with God’s designs for them.

This was the case with the Blessed Virgin Mary, “the handmaid of the Lord” (Luke 1: 38). She has always had a mystical marriage with God from the moment of her conception. She is the faithful spouse of the Holy Spirit. Her will is, and always will be, in perfect unity with the will of God. But Mary didn’t have to experience the purgative stage in her spiritual journey. Because she is the Immaculate Conception and has always been full of grace; she was always morally pure from both Original and personal sin, and perfectly illumined by the Light of Christ. Her spiritual progress consisted in going from a state of fullness of grace to an even greater state of fullness of grace in her union with God.

“Furthermore many Fathers and Doctors of the Church have seen the woman announced in the Protoevangelium (Genesis 3: 15) as Mary, the mother of Christ, the New Eve” (Catechism of the Catholic Church #411). She is the spiritual mother of all the children of the New Creation redeemed by Christ, the New Adam, and joined to his Mystical Body. We receive all the graces gained for us by Christ through her. (Didn’t Christ himself come to us through her?) Just as in the Old Creation we received our human life through Eve, so in the New Creation we receive our spiritual life from God through Mary.

Mary, the mystical spouse of God and the very best of mothers, desires the very best for her children, namely, our union with God. Rather than detracting from our relationship with God, she facilitates it. This is why devotion to Mary is the most direct way to the heart of God.

Mary Woman of Courage By Deacon Antonio Sandoval

admin — Sat, 18 May 2013 13:29:25 +0000

May 18, 2013 / Maria News

Mary Woman of Courage
By Deacon Antonio Sandoval

On November 21 we celebrate the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. According to tradition her parents, Joachim and Anne, were advanced in age and childless. Like Hannah, the wife of Elkanah (1 Samuel 1: 9 – 28), they prayed for a child and promised God that if their prayers were answered, they would give the child to Him, as Hannah did with her son Samuel. God answered their prayer and Anne gave birth to Mary.

According to tradition, at three years of age Mary was presented in the temple and given to the Lord (Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God, Vol. I, #422). There she was reared by temple virgins. There she began her life of prayer and Scripture study. She stayed in the temple until 14 years of age, the time when girls became eligible for marriage.

At the Annunciation when the Angel Gabriel sought Mary’s consent to be the mother of the Messiah, Mary, because of her profound knowledge of Scripture, certainly understood that she was being called to be the mother of the Suffering Servant (Isaiah 52: 13 – 53:12). She was being called to share in the suffering of her Son. “For her acceptance of the Incarnation was acceptance of death. Her blood she gave Him, only for Him to shed it” (Hugo Rahner, Our Lady and the Church, p. 90). But Mary bravely and courageously accepted her call, saying to the Angel Gabriel, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1: 38).

Mary also demonstrated her courage by accepting the beginning of her maternity while betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together (Matthew 1: 18). It took tremendous courage to accept the will of God knowing that people would suspect infidelity to her betrothal, and would not believe that her pregnancy was the work of the Holy Spirit. She knew that in the view of many of her people, the penalty for a maiden in her condition was death by stoning (Deuteronomy 22: 24; John 8: 5).

It took courage for Mary to travel with Joseph from Galilee to Bethlehem for the census when the time for her to give birth to Jesus was so close. After Simeon told her at the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple that a sword (of suffering) would pierce her, it took courage for Mary to live her life peacefully in surrender to the will of God. It also took courage for Mary to flee with Joseph and the baby Jesus to their exile in Egypt to escape the murderous wrath of King Herod.

Abraham was asked by God to sacrifice his only son Isaac. God said to him, “Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love and go the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a holocaust on a height that I will point out to you” (Genesis 22: 2). Abraham did as the Lord had requested, but when he took the knife to slaughter Isaac, God’s messenger stopped him and Isaac was spared.

Mary, on the other hand, lived her entire life anticipating the sacrificial death of her Son to which she consented. Her faith and courage were tested beyond that of Abraham because God did not spare His and her only Son. Mary stood at the foot of the cross as a pillar of faith and fortitude enduring intense suffering. As if with nerves of steel, she never wavered in her resolve to accept the will of God. She then had the courage to receive the lifeless Body of her Christ. She held it close to her Immaculate Heart, a heart that endured the most intense pain that a mother has ever felt.

During her life Mary had the courage to resist every temptation so as to remain sinless her entire life. She lived a life of universal mortification continually dying to self without respite so that her human desires would not compromise her commitment to always comply with the will of God.

Mary, valiant woman, help us to be courageous disciples of your Son, Jesus.

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Interior Practices of True Devotion to Mary (I)

admin — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 20:28:23 +0000

February 25, 2013 / MariaNews.com

Interior Practices of True Devotion to Mary (I)

By Deacon Antonio Sandoval

This is the first of a series of articles on the eight interior practices of True Devotion to Mary as proposed by St. Louis de Montfort in his book, True devotion to Mary, in section #115. St. Louis De Montfort doesn’t explain these practices in this section. In sections #257 – #265 dealing with interior practices of True Devotion, he only explains the parts of the eighth practice listed in #115. Therefore, my reason for writing these articles is to elaborate and explain the first seven practices of interior devotion to Mary and to summarize the eighth practice.

First Interior Practice: To acknowledge that Mary is the worthy Mother of God and offer her the veneration of hyperdulia.

The prerequisite for this practice is the acknowledgement that Jesus is God. He is the God who vested himself in the flesh provided by the Blessed Virgin Mary in the hidden recesses of her virginal womb. There the Divine Word, the Second Person of the Trinity, who is the perfect image of the Heavenly Father, united his Divine nature by the will of the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit to human nature in what theologians call the hypostatic union. This is a unique event.

Jesus is the God-Man as a consequence of the hypostatic union. In the virginal womb of Mary during the Incarnation God became man, without ceasing to be God, so that we humans, as members of the Mystical Body of Christ, would be able to partake of the Divine nature. Therein we rise above mere humanity. (The Catechism of the Catholic Church in paragraph 460 quotes St. Irenaeus, St. Athanasius and St. Thomas Aquinas who were proponents of the divinization of man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship.)

The acknowledgement, that Jesus is both God and man, must be accepted by the mind and the heart. The mind must accept this as the truth about Jesus, but it must also accept this as the truth about our own destiny as disciples of Jesus. In communion with Jesus, we who are human persons, partake of the Divine nature. In this sense, by our baptism, we are conformed to Jesus. The heart must receive this truth, not as an abstract concept, but as the personal loving initiative of God to unite himself with us.

Mary is the mother of God because Jesus, her son, is God. But Mary is the worthy mother because she never sinned, she was “full of grace” (Luke 1: 28) and because she is “most blessed among women” (Luke 1:42). One cannot imagine that the all perfect God would choose anyone other than the “most blessed among women” to be his worthy mother.

The worthiness of Mary is not simply due to her disposition to be the biological mother of Jesus. St. Augustine said in a sermon, cited in the Office of Readings for the Liturgy of the Hours for the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary on November 21, that the blessedness of Mary is the result of her doing the will of God. He said, “Indeed the blessed Mary certainly did the Father’s will, and so it was a greater thing for her to have been Christ’s disciple than to have been his mother. She was more blessed in her discipleship than in her motherhood. Hers was the blessedness of bearing in her womb him whom she would obey as her master.”

St. Augustine also said that “Mary is blessed because she conceived the Word in her mind through faith before conceiving him in her womb. Both, the Truth that Mary conceived in her mind and the Body she conceived in her womb, were Christ. But what is conceived in the mind through faith is of a higher order than what is conceived in the womb.”

Because Mary became the worthy Mother of God by faith and obedience, we give her the highest honor that we can give to a saint. The honor and veneration that we give to a saint is called dulia, (a word derived from the Greek). The veneration that we offer Mary is hyperdulia, the absolute highest form of veneration.

Acknowledging that Mary is the worthy Mother of God and understanding the reasons for her worthiness is the first step in the practice of True Devotion to Mary.

Archbishop JOSÉ H. GOMEZ: Advent is Always a Season of Mary

admin — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 15:54:48 +0000

December 11, 2012 / MariaNews.com

Archbishop JOSÉ H. GOMEZ: Advent is Always a Season of Mary

By The Tidings

LOS ANGELES (The Tidings) - Advent is always a season of Mary. On Dec. 8, we celebrate the holy day of her Immaculate Conception and then, four days later, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

As many of you know, the apparitions of Our Lady to St. Juan Diego actually began on Dec. 9, 1531. In those days, that was the day when the Spanish Church celebrated the Immaculate Conception.

In my mind, there is a deep connection between these two feast days.

In God’s plan of salvation, Mary was conceived without original sin to announce the world’s “new creation” in the coming of Jesus. Many centuries later, in the apparition at Tepeyac, God was sending Mary to announce the coming of Jesus to the “new world” of the Americas.

In each case, Mary is the “sign” our Father sends to bring us his Son.

In this Year of Faith, we are starting a new tradition at our Cathedral. We are going to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe with the traditional las mañanitas. This is an evening festival of songs and worship leading up to a midnight Mass that I will offer on the feast day of Dec. 12.

This big celebration in Advent is appropriate for us now because our new chapel to Our Lady contains the precious relic from St. Juan Diego’s original tilma that bears Our Lady’s miraculous image. It’s the only relic outside of Mexico City, where the tilma resides in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

There is more information on my Facebook page. But I hope many of you can make this celebration a part of your devotions in this holy season.

And in this “season of Mary,” during this Advent in the Year of Faith – I hope we will all turn to Mary in a new way.

St. Thomas Aquinas used to say that besides God our Father, Mary is the only other one who could rightly call Jesus, “Son.” Because she is the mother of Jesus, no one can help us more than Mary to grow in our awareness that we are children of God.

In fact, by his last words on the cross, Jesus told us, “Behold, your mother.”

He spoke those words to St. John. And “from that hour the disciple took her into his own home,” the Gospel tells us (John 19:27).

Each one of us has to do the same thing. We have to take Mary into our homes. Into our lives. We need to love her and learn from her as our mother. She was a perfect daughter of God, so we can learn from her how to act as God’s sons and daughters.

One thing we notice about her life is that it is filled with silence and hiddenness. All the events in her life that we read about – the Annunciation, the Visitation and the rest – they are all “off the radar.” They were silent. Hidden. Nobody was there to see them or record them.

This is a lesson for us. Almost all of us lead quiet lives. The good that we do will only be seen and known by the small circles of those closest to us – in our families and neighborhoods; in the places where we work.

Like Mary, we can live as children of God – filling our days with quiet acts of faithfulness. Carrying out our daily duties with love and care for others. Sharing our joy and love for Jesus in simple and natural ways.

This is how a child of God lives. And this is the most basic expression of the “new evangelization.” It means sharing Jesus Christ person-to-person, one heart speaking to another heart in love.

The goal of our life is to become more and more like Jesus. So just as Jesus did, we have to learn from our mother Mary what it means to be a child of God. That means we have to relate to her more and more as a mother.

One practical thing we can do: Try to spend time every day thinking about the Blessed Virgin Mary – maybe by looking at a picture of her. Talk to her as her child. Tell her everything that’s on your mind. Ask her to help you grow as a child of God.

Let’s keep one another in prayer this week. And let’s ask our Blessed Mother Mary to help us to be truly devoted to her – so that we can learn to love our Father as Jesus loved him, as true children of God.

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Identity of the Church by Deacon Antonio Sandoval

admin — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 21:24:26 +0000

November 5, 2012 / MariaNews.com

Identity of the Church

By Deacon Antonio Sandoval

MariaNews.com - The Church has a multi-faceted identity. It is the Mystical Body of Christ because Jesus promised that he would remain united with us. He said, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him (John 6:54). He compared our union with him as fruitful branches united to him, the True Vine (John 15:5).

The Church as the Mystical Body of Christ is a single living organism with many members united with Christ because it has a single principle of life, namely, the Holy Spirit. The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes St. Augustine saying, “What the soul is to the human body, the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ which is the Church” (CCC #797).

The Church is also the Bride of Christ because the love of Christ for his Church is nuptial love; lover and beloved give the gift of self to each other and become one, but remain distinct persons. Christ left the Heavenly home of his Father to be joined with his bride, the Church, and offered himself in sacrifice for her salvation. Therefore, he identifies himself as the bridegroom (Mark 2:19), and St. Paul encourage husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her…” (Eph 5:25)

The Church is also called our mother because she has given us birth at the baptismal font. But the Blessed Virgin Mary is also called our mother because Jesus gave her to us to be our mother before he died on the cross. He said to Mary, “Woman, here is your son”. Then he said to the Apostle John, “Here is your mother”. The Church has always taught that John represented all of us. This presents us with a dichotomy about the identity of our spiritual mother.

The early Fathers of the Church avoided this dichotomy when on numerous occasions they stated that Mary and the Church were one. (See Mary and the Church by Hugo Rahner, Zasccheus Press) St. Cyril of Alexandria in the year 431 AD went even further. In his sermon on Our Lady at the Council of Ephesus he said, “And let us praise with songs of Joy Mary ever Virgin who herself is clearly the holy Church, together with her Son and her most chaste spouse” (Our Lady and the Church page 12-13).

Pope Leo XIII in his Encyclical on Devotion to St. Joseph promulgated in 1889, wrote, “Now the divine house which Joseph ruled with the authority of a father, contained within its limits the scarce-born Church. From the same fact that the most holy Virgin is the mother of Jesus Christ she is the mother of all Christians whom she bore on Mount Calvary amid the supreme throes of the Redemption; Jesus Christ is, in a manner, the firstborn of Christians, who by the adoption and Redemption are his brothers. And for such reasons the Blessed Patriarch looks upon the multitude of Christians who make up the Church as confided especially to his trust—this limitless family spread over the earth, over which, because he is the spouse of Mary and the Father of Jesus Christ, he holds, as it were, a paternal authority”.

What I hear in the words of St. Cyril of Alexandria and Pope Leo XIII is that the Church is the Family of God which began with the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. After their passage to eternity Jesus, Mary, and Joseph remain with the Church and are the Church in a spiritual manner. (Jesus also manifests his presence sacramentally.) When we provide for the needs of the Church, protect and defend the Church, and serve the Church we are participating in the life of St. Joseph in the Church. When we bring new Christians to the baptismal font to be born as adopted children of the Father and nurture their faith we are sharing in the maternal life of Mary in the Church. When we accept the mission of Jesus as our own mission, and do all that he commanded us to do, we are sharing in the life of Jesus in the Church.

One multi-faceted Church – Body of Christ, Bride of Christ, and Family of God, Jesus, Mary and Joseph spiritually present with us – gives multi-faceted blessings to us.

Marija: Stop Satan’s Plans By Fasting

admin — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:44:16 +0000

October 29, 2012 / MariaNews.com

Marija: Stop Satan’s Plans By Fasting

MedjugorjeToday.tv - The Virgin Mary knows that Satan is studying the situation and is working on something – this is why she repeats her call to fasting in her recent message, visionary Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti said upon receiving it. Marija laments lack of fasting discipline throughout the Medjugorje movement.

Fasting on bread and water is paramount in offsetting plans that Satan is having at this time, Medjugorje visionary Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti told Radio Maria when sharing the message the Virgin Mary had given her earlier in the evening of October 25:

“Dear children! Today I call you to pray for my intentions. Renew fasting and prayer because Satan is cunning and attracts many hearts to sin and perdition. I call you, little children, to holiness and to live in grace. Adore my Son so that He may fill you with His peace and love for which you yearn. Thank you for having responded to my call.”

Our Lady knows that Satan is studying the situation and is working on something, and Our Lord reminds us that certain devils can be forced away with prayer and fasting. During all these years Our Lady has called to fasting: after this message, and starting with me, I have to get better about it” Marija commented.

Sparing neither locals nor pilgrims, the seer went on to lament what she sees as a laxity in fastingthroughout the Medjugorje movement:

“From the first days Our Lady began asking us to fast, and I would say it is what we do the least of nowadays, starting with us and going on to all the pilgrims” Marija said.

Editor’s Pick: MARY’S HUMILITY AND OUR VIRTUES

admin — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 14:37:10 +0000

October 10, 2012 / MariaNews.com

MARY’S HUMILITY AND OUR VIRTUES

By Deacon Antonio Sandoval

True Devotion to Mary leads Mary’s devotees to imitate her virtues, particularly, her virtue of profound humility, but also her virtues of continual prayer, her prompt obedience, her heroic patience, her universal mortification, and her divine purity, because humility is the root of all her other human virtues.

Humility is truth, the truth that we were created by God out of love, and everything we are and everything we have that is good is a gift from God. The truth that we do not belong to ourselves, we belong to God. The truth that we are dependent on God for everything, even every heartbeat and every breath we take; the truth that by nature, we are inclined towards evil; and without God’s grace we will become victims of our own evil inclinations. A firm conviction of these truths enables us to comply with what God wants of us, and in doing so, we will become virtuous.

Scripture says, “Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted (Mt 23:12). Since Mary is the creature most highly exalted by God, she is also the most humble. In relationship to God, Mary considered herself to be lower than the dust. Therefore, imitating Mary in her humility is the key to our acquiring virtue.

In the Canticle of Mary (Lk 1:46-55) we get a glimpse of Mary’s humility. She says, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord”; (She doesn’t proclaim her own greatness.) ”my spirit rejoices in God my Savior”. (Mary calls God her Savior because she recognizes that as a daughter of Eve she was in need of salvation, but by a special privilege, God gave her salvation by anticipation at the moment of conception so she could be the Immaculate Conception) “For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me and holy is his name” (Mary recognizes the truth of her blessings, but attributes them to what God has done for her).

Humility is necessary for the virtue of continual prayer. We must humbly admit that without the help of God we cannot even pray properly. The catechism says that humility is the foundation of prayer. Only when we acknowledge that “we do not know how to pray as we ought” (Rom 8: 26), are we ready to receive the gift of prayer. “Man is a beggar before God.” (St. Augustine) (CCC #2559) Humility makes it possible for us to approach God as beggars and sets us free of pride which is the root of most sins.

The virtue of obedience is directly related to humility. Scripture says that Jesus humbled himself and became obedient even unto death (Phil 2: 8). Self-exaltation is the opposite of humility and leads to disobedience of God. (CCC #1850) The Blessed Virgin Mary does not exalt herself; “Her soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord… and she speaks of her own lowliness” (Lk 1:46-48), and unlike the first Eve, she is obedient to the Lord.

The Blessed Virgin Mary had the virtue of heroic patience. Humility gives us the conviction that God knows better than we do what is best for us and the right time for us to receive his blessings. With this conviction as the pillar of our prayers, we can wait with heroic patience for God to satisfy the yearnings of our soul.

Mary also had the virtue of universal mortification. Humility informs us of the truth that we are weak and can’t let go of the saving hand of God. We must put an end to self-reliance and replace it with God-reliance by dying to self. For Jesus said, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Mt 10:39).

The virtue of divine purity consists in having the focus of our faith and our hope exclusively on God. Humility informs us that making self, or some other creature, the focus of our faith and our hope is idolatry.

Praise be to Mary, our model of how to live a virtuous Christian life!

Read more by Deacon Antonio here

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Medjugorje: Holy Spirit Gains Prominence in Messages

admin — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 18:28:05 +0000

October 4, 2012 / MariaNews.com

Holy Spirit Gains Prominence in Messages

By Jakob Marschner

MedjugorjeToday.TV - After only one mentioning in 2005-10, the Virgin Mary has talked about the Holy Spirit nine times to visionary Mirjana Soldo in 2011-12. “What is to come requires the full presence of the Holy Spirit” and “Heaven is ready to give the graces of the Holy Spirit now” Medjugorje experts explain.

When the Virgin Mary’s message to Medjugorje visionary Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo on Tuesday made mention of the Holy Spirit, it was the ninth such mention in 22 messages given to Mirjana this year and last year.

In comparison, the Holy Spirit was mentioned only once in Mirjana’s messages from these became regular in 2005 until 2010, message research conducted by Crown of Stars editor Bernard Gallagher reveals.

Long-time followers of the apparitions and messages of Medjugorje believe the trend is meaningful and worthy of notice, they tell Medjugorje Today.

“I feel the Holy Spirit is being credited a little more often at this time due to the length of time the apparitions have occured. Does the mention of the Holy Spirit add anything new to the messages received by Mirjana? I do not think it does in a direct way because He is mentioned frequently in the monthly messages received by Marija (Pavlovic-Lunetti)” best-selling author Wayne Weible sets out.

“However, in these times with so many abnormalities in nature, it is more of an acknowledgment of the presence of God on earth as Jesus predicted in Holy Scripture. The very act of an apparition is evidence of the Holy Spirit. What is to come requires His full presence, and we are seeing the rumblings of what is to come when the secrets actually begin to occur” Weible tells Medjugorje Today.

MaryTV message commentator Cathy Nolan’s reply springs from the Virgin Mary’s actual message given to Mirjana on October 2:

“Dear children, I am calling you and am coming among you because I need you. I need apostles with a pure heart. I am praying, and Pray that He may fill you with grace and mercy. Only then will you understand me, my children. Only then will you understand my pain because of those who have not come to know the love of God. Then you will be able to help me. You will be my light-bearers of God’s love. You will illuminate the way for those who have been given eyes but do not want to see. I desire for all of my children to see my Son. I desire for all of my children to experience His Kingdom. Again I call you and implore you to pray for those whom my Son has called. Thank you.”

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Visions of Our Lady: Mary Asks for Prayers for World Leaders

admin — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 16:00:13 +0000

September 21, 2012 / MariaNews.com

Visions of Our Lady: Mary Asks for Prayers for World Leaders

By Jakob Marschner

MedjugorjeToday.tv - Reinforcing the call to pray for world peace from September 16 in Turin, on September 19 the Virgin Mary asked for prayers for the leaders of the world. Visionary Ivan Dragicevic received the renewed call before 2,000 people in Villa D’Adige, Italy, where many came from earthquake areas.

Leaders of the world need the prayers of ordinary people to use their power in the service of peace, the Virgin Mary told Medjugorje seer Ivan Dragcievic on September 19 when more than 2,000 watched Ivan’s apparition in Villa D’Adige, Italy.

“Dear children, today in a special way I want to call you to pray for all the rulers, that they may promote peace and work for the good of man with the power that God has given them. I wish, dear children, that they, too, may be an instrument in my hands. Dear children, pray especially for life. Thank you, dear children, because also today you have responded to my call” the Virgin Mary said.

The appeal came three days after the Virgin Mary had called to prayer for peace, in an unusually strong message given to Ivan on September 16 in Turin. The message was all about prayer for peace, a call that was repeated five times.

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Visions of Our Lady: Mary Strongly Calls to Pray for Peace

admin — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 19:56:48 +0000

September 19, 2012 / MariaNews.com

Mary Strongly Calls to Pray for Peace

MedjugorjeToday.tv - With the petition repeated five times, the Virgin Mary issued her strongest appeal to join her in prayer for peace in the world for many years in her message to visionary Ivan Dragicevic on Sunday in Turin, Italy. “Collaborate with her in constructing a new and better world” Ivan added.

Medjugorje visionary Ivan Dragicevic’s visit to Turin, Italy, on September 16 turned out to be all about the need for prayer for peace in the world.

In this local setting, void of the immediate worldwide attention paid to her regular monthly messages to Ivan’s fellow visionaries Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti and Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo, the Virgin Mary passed on her most pressing call to prayer for world peace for years:

“Dear children, also tonight I want to help you. Pray for peace. Pray with me for peace in the world. Peace, dear children! Only peace! I am praying with you for peace in the world. For this reason I say to you, dear children, persevere in prayer! Thank you, dear children, because also today you have responded to my call” the Virgin Mary said, according to Radio Maria.

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