[MedjAdmin]

As some of you may know, I was in somewhat of a boat accident 10 days ago. I went fishing in a friend's boat and got launched in the air when we hit an unexpectedly large wave. My friends say I went about 8 feet up, and my head and foot hit hard when I landed. I needed stitches in my chin and broke my foot badly, but despite the pain I am so thankful that it wasn't worse. It definitely could have been much worse.

Anyway, my lack of mobility has given me a lot of time to ponder. I've been reading some old messages. Thumbing through the concordance on medjugorje.org, I found this quote from Our Lady in 1984:

"You do not think of wars, of evil, of chastisements. If you think about evil, you are on the road where one meets it. Your role is to accept Divine peace, to live it, and spread it."

With all the craziness in the world today, I thought this would be good to share. It's how I've been trying to live my life for the past few years despite knowing that there are secrets pertaining to our future.

[bluecross]

/

[MedjAdmin]

Thank you, BC. I'm trying to use this time to think about the value of suffering. My biggest suffering right now isn't even the pain -- it's missing out on my annual lobster diving trip with friends that takes places in the next few days! Oh well, as I said, I am thankful it wasn't worse, and thankful to be alive.

But back to the above message...

I've noticed that Mirjana never wants to speak about the devil when people ask her about it. She always shifts the conversation to something positive.

The message above struck me because Our Lady is saying that if we even THINK about evil, we are not on the right road.

I'm curious to know how people interpret that.

[gtc]

Sean,

I hope you have a quick and full recovery. Our family will pray for you.

[ActionReq]

I'm curious to know how people interpret that.

I don't think we must say that we are on the wrong road when we THINK ABOUT EVIL. I think we are on the wrong road when we think that next thing that will come up is probably evil. We may think that because we are used to it and are expecting it to happen all the time, so we anticipate it. Fatalism. In such way from my experience I learned that we can cause wars and chastisements and we can cause evil to manifest by just thinking fatalistic about it.
If we think fatalistic then we CALL ON EVIL, and evil will come.
If we think God is going to act, we call on God and God will come.
If we THINK ABOUT EVIL, for example because evil just had manifested, then we do not call it, we just think about it, and we should, and from my experience, then you may be affected by it, however evil itself will not come to you, unless you think of it in a special way, then evil will come to you personally and manifest through your intersession.

Resumed Gospa says: You do not think of wars, of evil, of chastisements., then I read that you think about those things may happen soon. And you involuntary were calling on evil.
Involuntary, because most of the time we do not control all of our thoughts. When I think of evil in that special fatalistic way, I can already hear some weird click in my mind. And then I know it already, damn I called upon evil again.
But when evil happens we say to ourselves like Jesus said to the evildoers when evil was manifesting

Luke 22:53 "but this is your hour and the power of the darkness.'

We can think about evil, we are not blind. However we should not cause it by thinking of it.

Sean, by the way, what were you thinking before being launched 8 ft in the air?

[MRSTOL]

Dear Sean,

I pray that you are up and around soon. Sorry to hear that your leg was "badly broken". I hope you did not get pins put in or need surgery".
The BVM interceded and protected you from worse injuries. Maybe she knew that you needed to rest. My friend use to ask me "Is the glass half full or half empty today".
I don't think of the secrets @ all BUT I think of "impending doom" in my life, which is just as bad.
I will pray for your speedy recovery.

Love in Christ,
MRSTOL

[bluecross]

/

[NancyD]

Sean,
I amso sorry to hear of your accident. I am sure you will make a full recovery, and I pray for that. On the topic of suffering, I used to think that suffering was not necessary. I thought Jesus would not want us to suffer. But I was wrong. As a hospice nurse, I cared for hundreds of truly suffering patients. I worked very hard to keep patients as pain free as possible. There are different forms of suffering; physical,as well as psychological. Psychological pain can be greater than physical pain. My feelings of suffering have changed over the years. There is a purpose to it; a great purpose. "I Am The Way", said Jesus. His suffering is the way, his forgiveness is the way. Suffer to Come unto Me. When we suffer, we should offer it up to Christ. suffer with Him and beside Him on the Cross.

I would still do everything I could to keep patients free of pain, for there is much else to suffer in life.

Instead of dwelling on evil, which is a suffering of the soul, isn't it better to dwell on the triumph of God's Mercy now and to come forever more?
God Bless you Sean for all the good you give to all of us.

[LizzysMum]

As some of you may know, I was in somewhat of a boat accident 10 days ago. I went fishing in a friend's boat and got launched in the air when we hit an unexpectedly large wave. My friends say I went about 8 feet up, and my head and foot hit hard when I landed. I needed stitches in my chin and broke my foot badly, but despite the pain I am so thankful that it wasn't worse. It definitely could have been much worse.

Anyway, my lack of mobility has given me a lot of time to ponder. I've been reading some old messages. Thumbing through the concordance on medjugorje.org, I found this quote from Our Lady in 1984:

"You do not think of wars, of evil, of chastisements. If you think about evil, you are on the road where one meets it. Your role is to accept Divine peace, to live it, and spread it."

With all the craziness in the world today, I thought this would be good to share. It's how I've been trying to live my life for the past few years despite knowing that there are secrets pertaining to our future.

Hi Sean,

So sorry to hear about your accident, but thank you for being an inspiration through the way you are handling this by:

1) Thinking about how you were spared a worse fate! (Gratitude to God)
2) Thinking about the value of suffering (Including redemptive. Great thing about being a Catholic is that our suffering needn't be wasted! As you know, if united to Jesus's suffering, our suffering can help those in purgatory and can be used for other good.)

What a good example you set!

Thanks for posting and hope you are LOTS better soon. (Oh,..it may help to get a calendar and mark off the days until your foot is healed! That technique has always helped me, by allowing me to say "only xxxx more days....)

[Steven]

Sorry to hear of your accident. I will pray for your speedy recovery.

Thanks for all of your hard work. I was talking to a 20 year old girl when I was in Medjugorje. She said she came to there after seeing The Triumph. Your work is spreading the word.

It was good to meet you and your family in Medjugorje.

Take care.

steve

[ministryvalues]

Hi Sean,

Sorry about your foot.. I spend a lot of time on boats in the Annapolis area and yes indeed, you are lucky that it was not a lot worse..

Years ago I broke a leg and my shoulder in a boating accident ..Long recovery ..I feel your pain


Since the title of this thread is 'Chastisements" I wanted to say a couple of things.

First: One of the most dramatic messages from Medjugorje occurred on August 25, 1994. Our Lady said
"“Dear Children! Today also I invite you to prayer, now as never before when my plan has begun to be realized. Satan is strong and wants to sweep away plans of peace and joy and make you think that my Son is not strong in his decisions. Therefore, I call all of you, dear children to pray and fast still more firmly. I invite you to realize through the secrets I began in Fatima may be fulfilled. I call you, dear children, to grasp the importance of my coming and the seriousness of the situation. I want to save all souls and present them to God. Therefore, let us pray that everything I have begun be fully realized. Thank you for having responded to my call. ”

Satan and "evil" are important components of medjugorje .. Peace is, of course, the heart of Medjugorje but in the messages "Evil" is mentioned 24 times and Satan is mentioned over 90 times...
I agree with your point that 'Devine" peace is something we should spread and "live" but "evil" is also part of Medjugorje.
Pope Francis has been very vocal about "Satan" and this makes some in our Church uncomfortable.

My second point has to do with your film "The Triumph" ( I loved the movie and saw it in Reston, Virginia) Your tag line is "The Battle Has Begun"...

Maybe you can help me here.. I work hard and pray hard to be more peaceful in my heart and in my day but I also recognize evil is in our lives and throughout the world...SOmetimes the difficulty in being Catholic is accepting that evil is exists and Satan is real.

[pablovb]

dear sean i prayed for you i hope you get well soon

[Maryh]

Hi Sean,
I hope you recover fully soon from the accident. I'm so glad it wasn't more serious also; or a head/neck/back injury.
Still I'm sure it took its toll and must have been an awful shock.

I've often wondered on the whole suffering aspect. I always find it hard to listen when people say 'Oh God protected you from
something worse happening etc., as I had a family member and a good friend of mine, also neighbours who all died in car accidents.
Would I want to go down that road of asking 'why them'...why were they not protected?
In the past when I hear doom and gloom from other Christians that God is going to chastise, it confused me and was total opposite from
the God of 'divine mercy' who tells us to forgive 7 times 70!

One thing I do know however is that God does not cause us to suffer.
Suffering does not come from God, but God wants us to know that
he's there with us & for us when we do have to suffer...even this morning I read; That sometimes God carries ours burdens and sometimes God
carries us. That's why he tells us to turn to him when we are tired and over-burdened & is never closer to us than when we are broken hearted & feeling good for nothing.

A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
Jesus never lied to us when he told us there is a cross however. Jesus already took the weight of the ENTIRE cross of humanity so he is our strength
for whatever cross we encounter in our lives.

I think when Our Lady tells us not to focus on evil, its perhaps because by doing so, it gives it power over us; & creates fear.
That statement 'what you fear, you create'
Why Jesus always tells us 'Do not be afraid' & if we don't focus on God's love and authority, we forget & look at all the evil that
is so prevalent everywhere. We don't see the glory of God anymore either because our perspective is shifted to only seeing the
potential evil that can happen, has happened and is happening. I think it effects our trust in God too.


Some people may be only motivated to know Jesus because they are afraid of evil, so they are more 'fear' based, and will
act only from trying to avoid 'evil' and not motivated to act from the love & peace & power of the holy spirit.
Fear is a type of slavery I think.
Some people think that Christians only do good because they want to get to heaven. They think of it almost as a 'business transaction'.
Its not very inspiring to see Christians acting this way; always worried and focusing exclusively on the sufferings of life.

That's just my understanding of it anyways.

I like this from the bible too.
1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

[cc]

With all the craziness in the world today, I thought this would be good to share. It's how I've been trying to live my life for the past few years despite knowing that there are secrets pertaining to our future.

Bummer about the injury, wish you a speedy recovery.

Doesn't it seem that the messages from the beginning were a wake up call to notice that the evil was "around" and as the messages progressed it became more of a centering on how to be in communion with our Lord(5 stones so to speak)?

I like to think of it this way, evil may be hiding behind every bush, but more so God is.

[Saileog]

Hello Sean, I wish you a speedy recovery.

In my opinion, in regards to Satan, I think he should be kept at the forefront. His greatest feat to humankind is to make us believe that he doesn't exist and the challenge in our modern world is to educate everyone, especially our youth, to realise that Satan is real, and does exist in our world, and is the cause of numerous misfortunes , and is lying in wait to snare us. However, I believe that our eyes and heart and soul should be focused on Heaven and the Communion of Saints and Angels and the wonderful gifts that await us if we do God's Will and to do our best to love our neighbour as ourselves (which can be quite a challenge for some, me included) but always aware that the devil is lying in wait to trip us up which is why I like to have a bottle of Holy Water always near me.

Take care of yourself Sean.

Saileog

As some of you may know, I was in somewhat of a boat accident 10 days ago. I went fishing in a friend's boat and got launched in the air when we hit an unexpectedly large wave. My friends say I went about 8 feet up, and my head and foot hit hard when I landed. I needed stitches in my chin and broke my foot badly, but despite the pain I am so thankful that it wasn't worse. It definitely could have been much worse.

Anyway, my lack of mobility has given me a lot of time to ponder. I've been reading some old messages. Thumbing through the concordance on medjugorje.org, I found this quote from Our Lady in 1984:

"You do not think of wars, of evil, of chastisements. If you think about evil, you are on the road where one meets it. Your role is to accept Divine peace, to live it, and spread it."

With all the craziness in the world today, I thought this would be good to share. It's how I've been trying to live my life for the past few years despite knowing that there are secrets pertaining to our future.

[Light]

"You do not think of wars, of evil, of chastisements. If you think about evil, you are on the road where one meets it. Your role is to accept Divine peace, to live it, and spread it."

I am not sure how to interpret it.

I do not think we can ignore evil or blot it from our thoughts; I was watching a documentary on AIDS in Africa with so many children having no parents to console them or feed them. In a way it provokes repeated reflection on what is available to me to do to help combat it.

Maybe Our Blessed Mother has something else in her mind that thinking about evil makes one meet it.?

[Maryh]

Just read an article called 'the Cause and cure for worry' from Joyce Meyer where she says:

When we worry, we torment ourselves—we're doing the devil's job for him!

Maybe even thinking about evil is a kind of torment!