Two Paths

Two Paths

 

April 2, 2014 A.D.


Our Lady Queen of Peace of Medjugorje’s April 2, 2014
Apparition and Message Given through Mirjana on the Day for Nonbelievers

The following is the message of Our Lady given through Mirjana during her apparition:
 

“Dear children, with a motherly love I desire to help you for your life of prayer and penance to be a sincere attempt of drawing closer to my Son and His divine light – that you may know how to separate yourselves from sin. Every prayer, every Mass and every fasting is an attempt of drawing closer to my Son, a reminder of His glory and a refuge from sin – it is a way to a renewed union of the good Father and His children. Therefore, my dear children, with hearts open and full of love, cry out the name of the Heavenly Father that He may illuminate you with the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit you will become a spring of God’s love. All those who do not know my Son, all those thirsting for the love and peace of my Son, will drink from this spring. Thank you. Pray for your shepherds. I pray for them and I desire that they may always feel the blessing of my motherly hands and the support of my motherly heart.”
  

Two Paths

by A Friend of Medjugorje

 

The world does not realize into what sin it is sinking, Our Lady said:

 

February 17, 1984

“…The world has been drawn into a great whirlpool. It does not know what it is doing. It does not realize in what sin it is sinking. It needs your prayers so that I can pull it out of this danger…”

 

Today, Our Lady said April 2, 2014,

 

 

“…Every prayer, every Mass and every fasting is an attempt of drawing closer to my Son…”

 

In the economy of God, even a penny of prayer, the least of the coins of fasting and the measure of Mass always adds wealth for the attempt up the toll road to God and away from sin, a road toward the glory of God. However, the road is not free. Toll roads always cost something but every penny helps, every effort adds up to enable you to attempt traveling up the path to God. It is not always a beautiful, fresh path you will travel, nor a leisurely trek, but rather one that will cost you. But glory is where it ends. In Maria Valtorta’s Poem of the Man-God*, a parable is told by Jesus of two brothers traveling a path. One requires no toll of effort; another requires a price of effort to travel. Both lead in different directions.

 


The father of a family had two sons. He loved them both equally and wanted to be their benefactor impartially. This father, in addition to the house in which his sons lived, owned some property in which great treasures where hidden. The sons were aware of such treasures, but did not know the way to go there because the father, for reasons of his own, had not revealed the road which led there, and that had been the situation for many many years. But one day he called his sons and said: “The time has now come when you ought to know where the treasures are, which I laid aside for you, so that you may go there when I tell you. You had better know the road and the signals which I put on it, so that you may not go astray. So listen to me. The treasures are not in a plain where waters stagnate, where dog days scorch, where dust spoils everything, thorns and bramble suffocate, and where robbers can easily go and rob you. The treasures are on the top off that high rugged mountain. I put them on the top there and they are waiting for you up there. There is more than one path on the mountain, in actual fact there are many. But one only is the right one. Of the others some end up in precipices, some in caves with no exit, some in ditches full of muddy water, some in nests of vipers, some in craters of burning sulphur, some against insurmountable walls. The right road, instead is a difficult one, but it arrives at the top without any interruption of precipices or other obstacles. In order to enable you to recognize it, I placed along it, at regular intervals, ten stone monuments, on each of which is carved these three identification words: ‘Love, obedience, victory.’ Follow that path and you will reach the place of the treasure. I will come along another road, which is known to me alone and I will open the doors to you, so that you may be happy.”


The two sons said goodbye to the father who, as long as they could hear him, repeated: “Follow the path I told you. It’s for your own good. Do not yield to the temptation to follow the others, even if they seem better to you. You would lose both the treasure and me…”


They arrive at the foot of the mountain. The first monument was there, at the beginning of the path, which was in the middle of several paths radiating in different directions towards the mountain top. The two brothers began to climb the good path. At first it was very good, although there was not the least shade. From the sky the sun darted down on it, flooding it with light and heat. The white rock in which the path had been dug, the clear sky above them, the warm sun embracing their bodies: that is what the brothers saw and felt. But still animated by good will, by the remembrance of their father and by his advice, they climbed joyfully towards the top. Then the second monument…and after the third one. The path had become more and more difficult, solitary, warm. They could not even see the other paths with grass, trees or clear waters, and above all, where the slope was gentler, because it was not so steep and the tracks were laid on ground and not on rocks.


“Our father wants us dead when we get there” said one of the sons on arriving at the fourth monument. And he began to slacken his pace. The other encouraged him to go on saying: “He loves us as his very own and even more because he saved the treasure for us in such a wonderful way. He dug this path in the rock and it takes one from the foot of the mountain to its top without any risk of getting lost. And he put these monuments to guide us. Just consider that, my brother! He did all that by himself, for our sake! To give it to us! to ensure that we arrive there without the possibility of mistakes and without any danger.”


They continued to walk. But the paths they had left down in the valley reappeared now and again close to the track in the rock and they did so more and more frequently as the cone of the mountain became narrower near the top. And how beautiful, shady and attractive they were!


“I think I will take one of those” said the discontented brother, when he arrived at the sixth monument. “It goes to the top as well.”


“You cannot be sure of that…You cannot see whether it does up or down…”


“There it is, up there!”


“You do not know whether it is this one. In any case our father told us not to leave this good path…”


The listless brother continued to climb against his will. At the seventh monument he said: “Oh! I am definitely going away.”


“Don’t, brother!”


They went on their way up the path, which was now very difficult, but the top was now close at hand…


They arrived at the eighth monument and very close to it was the flowery path. “Oh! You can see that this one goes up as well, although not in a straight line!”


“You don’t know if it is the same one.”


“I do. I recognize it.”


“You are mistaken.”


“No. I’m going.”


“Don’t. Think of father, of the dangers, of the treasure.”


“They can all go to the dogs! What am I going to do with the treasure if I will be as good as dead when I get there? Which danger is greater than this path? And which hatred is stronger than our father’s, who fooled us with this track to let us die? Goodbye. I will arrive before you, and alive…” and he jumped on to the adjacent path, and disappeared with a joyful exclamation behind the tree trunks shading it.


His brother went his way sadly…Oh! The last part of the track was really dreadful! The man was exhausted. He felt worn out with fatigue and heat! At the ninth monument he stopped panting, leaning against the carved stone and reading the engraved words mechanically. Nearby there was a shady path with water and flowers…”I almost…No! It is written there, and it was my father who wrote it: ‘Love, obedience, victory.’ I must believe in his love, in his truthfulness, and I must obey to show my love…Let us go…May love support me…” He is now at the tenth monument…Exhausted, burnt by the sun, he walked stooping, as if he were under a yoke…It was the loving holy yoke of faithfulness, which is love, obedience, strength, hope, justice, prudence, everything…Instead of leaning on the monument he sat down in the narrow shade which it cast on the ground. He felt that he was dying…From the nearby path came the gurgle of streams and the smell of forests…”Father, help me with your spirit, in this temptation…help me to be faithful until the end!”


From afar the joyful voice of his brother shouted: “Come, I will wait for you. Eden is here…Come…”


“And if I went?…” and shouting loud: “Does it really go to the top?”


“Yes, come. There is a cool tunnel which takes one up. Come! I can already see the top beyond the tunnel, in the rock…”


“Shall I go?…shall I not?…who will help me?…I will go….” He pushed his hands on the ground to help himself get up and while doing so he noticed that the engraved words were not as clear as those on the first monument. “At each monument the words were less distinct…as if my father, being exhausted, had found it difficult to engrave them. And…look!… Here also is the dark red mark, which has been visible as from the fifth monument… The only difference is that here it fills the hollow of each letter and it has overflowed, furrowing the rock as if it were dark tears, tears…of blood….” With a finger he scratched a blotch as large as two hands. And the blotch crumbled into dust leaving uncovered and clear these words: “Thus I loved you. To the extent of shedding my blood to lead you to the Treasure.”


“Oh! oh! Father! And I was thinking of not obeying your order?! Forgive me, father. Forgive me.” The son wept leaning on the rock, and the blood filling the words became fresh and as bright as a ruby, and the tears became food and drink and strength for the good son…He stood up…out of love he called his brother aloud…He wanted to tell him of his discovery…of their father’s love, and say to him: “Come back.” But no one replied…


The young man resumed his way, almost on his knees on the hot rock, because his body was exhausted with fatigue, but his spirit was serene. There was the top…and his father.


“Father!”


“My beloved son!”


The young man threw himself on his father’s breast, his father embraced him and kissed him fondly.


“Are you alone?”


“Yes…But my brother will soon be here…”


“No. He will never arrive. He left the way of the Ten Commandments. He did not come back to it after the first warning disappointments. Do you want to see him? There he is. In the abyss of fire…He persisted in his error. I would have forgiven and awaited him if, after realizing his mistake, he had retraced his steps and, although late, he had passed where love had passed first, suffering to the extent of shedding the best part of his blood, the dearest part of himself for you.”


“He did not know…”


“If he had looked with love at the words engraved in the ten monuments, he would have understood their true meaning. You read it as from the fifth monument and you called his attention to it when you said: ‘Our father must have injured himself here!’ and you read it in the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth…clearer and clearer, until by instinct you discovered what was under my blood. Do you know the name of that instinct? ‘Your true union with me.’ The fibers of your heart, blended with my fibers, startled and they said to you: ‘You will have here the measure of how much your father loves you.’ Now, since you are affectionate, obedient, forever victorious, take possession of the Treasure and of me.”


That is the parable.


The ten monuments are the Ten Commandments. Your God engraved them and placed them on the path that takes to the eternal Treasure, and He suffered to lead you to that path. Do you suffer? God does, too. Do you have to force yourselves? God has, too. Do you know to what extent? Suffering to separate Himself from Himself and striving to know what it means to be a human being with all the miseries of mankind: to be born, to suffer from cold, starvation, fatigue, to suffer sarcasm, affronts, hatred, snares, and at the end to die, shedding all His Blood to give you the Treasure. God, Who descended to save you, suffers all that. God suffers that in Heaven, allowing Himself to suffer it.


I solemnly tell you that no man, however laborious his path may be to reach Heaven, will ever follow a more laborious and sorrowful way than the one along which the Son of man has to go to come from Heaven to the Earth and from the Earth to the Sacrifice, to open the doors of the Treasure to you. On the tablets of the Law there is already My Blood. On the Way which I am tracing out for you there is My Blood. It is the gush of My Blood that opens the door of the Treasure. Your souls become pure and strong through the purification and nourishment of My Blood. But to prevent it from being shed in vain, you must follow the immutable way of the Ten Commandments.

From the Poem of the Man-God, Vol. IV, pp.220-224

If you cry out in prayer without love, do you expect God to listen to your prayer? Yes, He can hear you, but will it move Him? If you, as a child, run around calling out to your mother repeating, “mommy, mommy, mommy” over and over without much sentiment, this is not the same as a child who has injured himself and cries out “Mommy” only once, in the pain of hurt. The mother immediately responds. When we injure ourselves through sin and cry out our Heavenly Father’s name with love, seeking union or renewed union, He immediately responds. Today, Our Lady desires us to understand the Heavenly Father is only one “sincere plea away.”

 

“…I desire to help you for your life of prayer and penance to be a sincere attempt of drawing closer to my Son and His divine light—that you may know how to separate yourselves from sin…”

Especially during Lent, it is beautiful climbing the path up to the Cross here at Caritas. This morning it was unusually illuminated by a backdrop of clouds, brightened by the divine light of the sun rising behind the mountains—a glorious scene which speaks to us today of Our Lady’s words. Before we begin the rugged mountain path to the Cross, praying the 14 stations, there is a beautiful spring we all drink from—a clear mountain stream. And always upon seeing this spring comes the thought of what God has painted for us. He has given you and us this Cross, its mountain, sky, all creation—the scenes and its springs. These are physical manifestations that quench our thirst, both physically and spiritually. As Our Lady said today of our lives:

“…Through the Holy Spirit you will become a spring of God’s love. All those who do not know my Son, all those thirsting for the love and peace of my Son, will drink from its spring…”

The wound from which Blood and then water gushed forth from Our Lady’s Son follows us through life, repeatedly washing us from sins. Our Lady has come to wash the world and cleanse it with the Blood and water of the Lamb. We are the fortunate recipients of this grace, in this time of grace, to be apostles. To be an apostle is to expect trials, temptation, persecution and every difficulty you never experienced before answering Our Lady’s call. The constant striving for conversion must be relentless. We will do well to grasp what is expected of us and make sincere attempts to draw closer to the divine light where we will find the refuge of the fullness of consolation. We will not find safety in the world through its false security of our wealth, our money, our family, etc., but only in the refuge of Christ.

In addition, as always, Our Lady’s messages on the day for nonbelievers, the second of the month, ends with Her saying pray for your shepherds, for many have not accepted Her messages, some even rejected them. Of those who do not believe, those who hamper Our Lady, in this Her time, great and tragic will be the illumination of what passed right before their eyes when they realize they did not make a sincere attempt to draw closer to and listen to the Queen of Peace while She walked the earth in the time of grace. Of this time She Herself said, “This is my time,” and it was She who also said:

 

August 25, 1997

“…now you do not comprehend this grace, but soon a time will come when you will lament for these messages…”

 

This wondrous moment, the second greatest moment in the history of man, will pass into the pages of salvation history and those who could have, who should have, “comprehended this grace” but did not, will “soon” cry out with great lamentation and wailing.

August 25, 2013

“…I do not desire for you, dear children, to have to repent for everything that you could have done but did not want to…”

 

The path Our Lady points to is often rocky and harsh, but as the two brothers discovered, at the end of both of the paths they walked, they found the opposite of what they had experienced on the path. The one who experienced a desert-like path (choosing the spiritual life) was led to an Eden, while the one who experienced an Eden-like path (choosing the world) was led to a desert life.

 

May 16, 1987

 

“O children! Remember: the only way for you to be always with me and to know the will of the Father is to pray. That is why I call you today again; don’t let my calls be without effect. Continue to pray in spite of everything and you will understand the will of the Father and His love.

“Dear children, when God calls men, it is really a great thing. Think about how it would be sad to let pass those opportunities that God allows without taking them.”

 

 

In the Love of Our Lady,
A Friend of Medjugorje

*The Church on April 17, 1993, clearly stated that the faithful could read the writing of Maria Valtorta’s The Poem of the Man-God, but the distribution of the writings must include the following statement:

“The ‘visions’ and ‘dictations’ referred to in the work, The Poem of the Man-God, are simply the literary forms used by the author to narrate in her own way the life of Jesus. They cannot be considered supernatural in origin.”

 

P.S. For more and new insight into Our Lady’s message given today, be sure to listen to the Radio WAVE show with A Friend of Medjugorje, for an in-depth look into even different aspects of Our Lady’s message. To listen or download the April 2, 2014 Radio WAVE show titled, “His Name is Christ, but Only He Knows His Name” click to listen here…


More for your spiritual help, read, Will You Miss Out on the Second Greatest Moment in History?

 

 

 

Grooto La Pluie at Caritas, Alabama

 

Pilgrims who attend the annual December prayer gathering at Caritas of Birmingham climb to the top of Grotto La Pluie, pausing as they pass by the waterfall; a moment of reflection as the sound of the water flows over the rocks.

In a world thirsting for love and peace, Our Lady brings good news. Those who do not know Jesus’ thirst for love and peace, seek them in the world. In the small book, Surrender Your Problems to Me,  A Friend of Medjugorje writes of how to pray and what blocks prayer.


“Through a loss of peace that comes from being inundated with the darkness of the world, a gulf is created between you and your Creator. Your hearts become filled with facts and you can no longer pray…

“Who can come away from reading, listening or watching the news, without feeling anguished and worried?

“…you allow yourself to get caught up in conversations or influenced by those who are hooked into the voices of the world…you will lose your peace; you will be overcome with fear and worry; you will not be able to pray…”

From the writing, “Surrender Your Problems to Me,” by A Friend of Medjugorje

 

Caritas Commmunity drinking from a stream

 

Each Friday evening during Lent, the Community of Caritas prays the Way of the Cross, climbing the mountain together, ending at the foot of the Cross, as in Medjugorje. One of the riches of the journey for all is taking a drink from the clear stream which flows down the mountain. The first drink of the crisp water is so cool, that it can be felt flowing through your body, reaching your heart and chest where it spreads out to refresh the body.

Our Lady said today, April 2, 2014, that we be the vessel for,

“All those who do not know my Son, all those thirsty for the love and peace of my Son will drink from this spring…”

Your life is the witness which many will drink from and come to know Christ. Our Lady said, February 25, 1995:

“…little children, I invite you to live with love the messages I give and to transmit them to the whole world, so that a river of love flows to people who are full of hatred and without peace…”

Jesus said:

“If any one thirsts, let him come to Me and drink…Scripture has said, ‘Out of [My] heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” John 7:37-38

Sunrise over the Field of Apparitions

 

Medjugorje shows us a way of life, a path leading to holiness which will separate us from a life connected to darkness, sin and materialism. The holy open Field where Our Lady has appeared many times under the great Pine Tree (to the left) invites the soul to call out to the Father. The incredible light of the sun above the Field creates a longing for Him, for His light, His hope, His peace to find the soul and unite it to Him again. To free your souls, disconnect yourselves from cell phones, TV and anything else that is creating distance between your soul and God. Through Medjugorje one discovers a renewal of faith in the fountain of their hearts as they discover God is real once again in their life.

Father Ken Roberts wrote of his experience of the early days in Medjugorje and its magnitude:

“Those who have already done this and are doing their best to live for Him, sometimes forget just how many people haven’t. Once one knows God is real, and that He cares deeply about each of His children, everything is changed. The world is totally different, as is one’s place and purpose – in it. There are new rules, new priorities, new opportunities – and a new, clean slate. Nothing will ever be the same again. “ 1

Our Lady said on October 25, 1996:

“…Through you, I wish to renew the world. Comprehend, little children, that you are today the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Little children, I invite you and I love you and in a special way implore: Convert!…”

Pilgrims outside St. James in Medjugorje

Souls seeking refuge and renewal stream in and out of St. James Church in Medjugorje every day. Medjugorje is a sign of refuge and a renewed union with the Father. In the beginning days, the young visionaries ran into the Church seeking refuge from persecutions they were receiving for the apparitions. Our Lady asks us today to run to Her as Mother, to Her Son and the Heavenly Father for refuge through a life of prayer and penance as She said today:

“…that you may know how to separate yourselves from sin. Every prayer, every Mass and every fasting is an attempt of drawing closer to my Son…”

Yet, what are those things in our lives that keep us from prayer, fasting, Mass, from the Heavenly Father’s love?

Visionary, Mirjana spoke of satan’s power of influence in a 1990 interview,

“Sometimes when you are thinking about praying or going to Mass or giving money or charity, something will disturb you or interrupt you or distract you. The phone will ring as you are about to leave for Church, or you will think of something else to use your money for, to please yourself. This is satan.” 2


Medjugorje visionary Ivan

 

Medjugorje visionary Ivan has been meeting on Apparition Mountain with his prayer group for more than 30 years. This action of his is an exemplary witness of constancy in making Our Lady’s apparitions, during his prayer group, available to all. It is the one place Our Lady is most happy when She appears. If we are to be springs of grace flowing out to the world, satan will do all he can to block, thwart and dry up this grace. Ivan tells us to beware of satan’s tactics, especially those belonging to prayer groups consecrated to Our Lady. These Oases of Peace are particularly targeted by satan who desires to turn them into parched deserts. Ivan says:
 

“Our Lady insists that all people on earth be in prayer groups…(because) She knows what lies ahead.” When there is division and even fighting in a prayer group Ivan says, “that shows satan’s hatred for prayer groups. Where there is much temptation, be warned. Take the dissension as a warning for the future. If satan works so hard now to destroy, you can be sure he is setting a course for a future victory for himself.” When asked what does he want, Ivan answered, “Human souls. Prayer groups are a protection from the triumph of satan. Whenever there is dissension, pray more and fast often.” Ivan gave advice as to the kind of fasting one should do in these circumstances: “Bread and water only, three days a week, until the dissension stops.” Ivan says one must pray and fast because “Prayer without fasting is like a soldier with one leg. He is easily defeated.”

1.) Up On the Mountain by Father Kenneth J. Roberts
2.) The Queen of the Cosmos, Jan Connell
 

 

More for Your Spiritual Nourishment:
Past prayer gathering at Caritas December 8-12, 2013
Surrender Your Problems to Me
Medjugorje: Beginning Days of the Apparitions


Prayer for Nonbelievers


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4 thoughts on “Two Paths”

  1. Thank You Blessed Mother! for your love for this world. In this period of Lent, we all are trying so hard to purify our selves by fasting and praying. Thanks and may God Bless You all, dear friends of Caritas!

  2. I felt a deep need for prayer. Renew my intimacy with God through the sacraments of penance and the Eucharist. To pray always for the priests and a longing once again to see the face of my Heavenly Mother Mary. I wish all of us can live as one as the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one. Pray for me too to keep the faith. Thank you Lydia.

  3. Bro. Andrea Sifuna

    Hi friend of God. Thanks for being the channel through which Our Lady speaks to us. Your reflection is valid and timely. Kindly pray for me- Andrea

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