March 5, 2020 A.D.
What is the value of penance and prayer as Our Lady in Medjugorje has called us to do?
(Medjugorje photo taken September 27, 2018) – A BVM Caritas Medjugorje pilgrim kneels while climbing Cross Mountain. Acts such as walking barefoot up the mountain, or carrying rocks up the mountain are common penances which many pilgrims offer while in Medjugorje.
Our Lady has, on many occasions in Medjugorje, called us to penance and prayer. This is one of the four main messages of Medjugorje. Many take these messages as being repetitive, or simply calling us to do what most religious people have done throughout the ages. Yet, many do penance and prayer without really understanding what it is all about. A Friend of Medjugorje, in just a few words, sums it up:
Interior wars within self are spiritual and are the fiercest battles against your soul’s soul. Your exterior battles with self are physical battles against your being. You can only conquer the physical by seeking and winning the “battle within.” …Sacrifice and penance assaults and tames the flesh that is always raging, trying to rule over the spirit. The clashes can be cataclysmic when conversion and/or continued conversion initiatives are launched. It is a battle within.
– a Friend of Medjugorje
The Battle Within, August 2, 2016
In choosing to do acts of penance and prayer, we learn from a Friend of Medjugorje that this is when we truly engage evil, both within us and outside us. Our Lady is calling us to penance and prayer because She wants us to engage evil. This leaves the understanding that until we perform acts of penance and prayer, we have not engaged in the battle against evil. Therefore, the call, if we wish to follow Our Lady, is to engage. This means penance.
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2 thoughts on “What is the Value of Penance and Prayer as Our Lady in Medjugorje Asks?”
The Catholic Catechism, along with Bible, tells us, nothing impure can enter Heaven. We recognize Purgatory as the place & means for further conversion of those whom as Our Lady says, “will not even feel the passage from this life to the next life.”, and those who, “will begin to live the life of Heaven on earth.” Our Lady reminds us, as Jesus did in Luke 12:58, that it’s much better to make an effort to settle on the way, rather than wait till you’re before the Judge, where you’ll have to pay your full account. In this way Our Lady is telling & showing us, that Penance & Prayer are a way to enter directly from earth to heaven through the “Narrow Door”, spoken of in Luke 13:22. Through this door, we won’t feel the suffering, required in Purgatory, to remove the Dross in order for us to become an “Original” in the Likeness of Her Son. Just as Jesus was presented in the Temple, some will be before God, as those whom remain cleansed with robes of white, through the Blood of the Lamb.
The Catholic Catechism, along with Bible, tells us, nothing impure can enter Heaven. We recognize Purgatory as the place & means for further conversion of those whom as Our Lady says, “will not even feel the passage from this life to the next life.”, and those who, “will begin to live the life of Heaven on earth.” Our Lady reminds us, as Jesus did in Luke 12:58, that it’s much better to make an effort to settle on the way, rather than wait till you’re before the Judge, where you’ll have to pay your full account. In this way Our Lady is telling & showing us, that Penance & Prayer are a way to enter directly from earth to heaven through the “Narrow Door”, spoken of in Luke 13:22. Through this door, we won’t feel the suffering, required in Purgatory, to remove the Dross in order for us to become an “Original” in the Likeness of Her Son. Just as Jesus was presented in the Temple, some will be before God, as those whom remain cleansed with robes of white, through the Blood of the Lamb.