Our Lady in Medjugorje at times admonished the village for working too much:
July 5, 1984
Also in Autumn 1983:
One can work too much, but can one make work prayer?
James Sebastian, a Caritas Community kid shovels dirt in a recent Community project. A Friend of Medjugorje often had his children work alongside him, a witness of how to work and to imprint an ethic of work in children. The Caritas Community follows in this same witness. The children are really playing, but they think they are working. This builds self-esteem and work ethic.
Is there a balance of work and prayer, or can your work actually be prayer? Our Lady’s first words given in the valley here in a Friend of Medjugorje’s home, were given thirty years ago this very day, November 20, 1988:
A Friend of Medjugorje once heard someone make a remark about the Caritas Community. The person said, “Those people know how to work.” When you offer your work as prayer, then it follows that the quality of your work is the quality of your prayer. If you work sloppy, then that makes your prayer sloppy. If you work to the best of your ability, then your prayer is to the best of your ability.
This is nurtured, it does not come automatically. When Our Lady gave the message about work and prayer on November 20, 1988, She knew exactly who She was working with. A Friend of Medjugorje built up his business from scratch, not taking from his profits to make his life comfortable, but instead put his profits back into building a business that would last. Our Lady called him to give up his business and to run Caritas full-time. Our Lady did not need his money, She needed his business talents for Her plans.
The way the children are raised here is seeing this witness of work. The Poem of the Man-God, by Maria Valtorta, describes a scene with Joseph’s first working lesson to Jesus. Concluding the story, are the words which Jesus described Joseph teaching Him how to work:
“…From him I learned − and never had a pupil a kinder teacher − I learned everything that makes a man of a child, and a man who is to earn his own bread… If I learned quickly and willingly, that does not deprive the just man of the merit of being the person who nourished My young mind with the ideas which are necessary to life. Not even now that I am in Heaven can I forget the happy hours I spent beside Joseph, who, as if he were playing with Me, guided Me to the point of being capable of working…”1
Our Lady recently said through Marija on October 25, 2018:
We live in moments when all have an opportunity to change their life and to begin something new in their families. This time of grace will not last forever. It is important to make good use of this time as Our Lady said:
October 25, 2018
We cannot over-emphasize how much Our Lady is trying to tell us through this recent message about the future life. It is important to begin to instill an ethic of work and prayer in your families, and making work prayer. The need to make work prayer, though important today, is not so much for today as it is for the future life.
Medjugorje.com
Caritas of Birmingham
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1. Poem of the Man-God, by Maria Valtorta, Volume 1
In the days of this 30th Anniversary of Our Lady’s first apparitions here, we encourage you to read through the sections below (over 160 pages worth).
• The History of the Apparitions in the Bedroom and Field
• Caritas of Birmigham, History, Pilgrimage Sites, Persecution and more…
• Community of Caritas, Formation of the Community, Daily Life, School, and much more…
