During the course of this series, "How to Pray With the Heart,"
in this HEARTS TO HEART TALKwe have
traveled a long distance. We have taken a journey from the head to the
heart. We have seen that the thrust into life has to be surrender, not
thought. We have set forth that there are certain obstacles, like pride
and fear that must be dealt with before prayer with the heart can become
effective. There now comes the question, can a person who prays with the
heart endure in it and make it an integral part of his/her everyday life?
The answer is an unequivocal, yes.
With God, all things are possible and, conversely, without Him, one can do
nothing. As the earth cannot continue to rotate on its axis year in and
year out with a refined stability without divine power, as the sun needs
divine power in order to keep it giving light and heat, so does prayer with
the heart need God's divine intervention. It cannot be sustained with
human effort alone.
Let us consider how it is with Our Blessed Mother. Certainly, her prayer
for us is with her heart, in fact, with her whole heart. She ha sprayed
with her heart from her earliest days. Her "fiat" came from the depth of
her heart. She prayed in this manner all through the life of her Son, from
conception to His return to His Father. Her time on earth before her
assumption into heaven was spent in deep prayer with the heart for the
apostles, for the Church, for all God's people. She carried on this form
of prayer during the entire span of centuries to this present moment,
adoring the Most High, expressing gratitude to Him and pleading for her
children on earth.
After years and years of pleading for us, begging from us, crying over us,
she goes on and on and on without ceasing. If it were not for God's power
sustaining her, she could not possibly continue her praying so heartily.
Her motherly heart, given power, given endurance by the Holy Spirit, her
Spouse, brings hope to all of us on earth. Without this assistance, she,
no doubt as any earthly mother, would have thrown in the towel long time
ago, her energy, and love having burnt out.
We are entering into the twelfth year of Mary's appearances at Medjugorje.
Never in all of her other apparitions such as LaSalette, Lourdes, Fatima,
had she spent so much time instructing, forming, guiding, and encouraging
visionaries as she has done with the six young people in this town. Why?
Why would she be so persistent in staying in our midst day after day, year
after year? God only knows. It is His designs and His wishes that Mary is
carrying out. The entire Trinity has a part in this. There must indeed be
an urgency. Never has anything like this been experienced on the face of
the earth. Jesus led a public life, which lasted under three years. His
principal geographical location was limited to the land of the Jewish
people. Mary's twelve years in our midst has had an effect on an entire
world. Here we are not even considering the fact that she is said to be
appearing in many, many countries, in various places within individual
countries.
When a mother senses danger to her children, instinctively she comes to
their assistance. She stays with them as long as the danger exists, doing
all within her power to separate potential harm from them. If the danger
lasts an entire day, she is there for the entire day; if it lasts for an
entire year, she is there for the entire year and so on. Mary is a true
mother and if she has been with us all these years and nonetheless,
continues the danger must still exist.