Sufferings for Christ; Trust

I read The Liturgy of the Hours each day for morning and evening prayers.  (You can see it online at www.ibreviary.com).  Often it includes excerpts from Scripture, and often they are presented at just the right time, like this one I read this morning:

From the first letter of the apostle Peter (4:12-5:14)

“Do not be surprised, beloved, that a trial by fire is occurring in your midst.  It is a test for you, but it should not catch you off guard.  Rejoice instead, in the measure that you share Christ’s sufferings.  When his glory is revealed, you will rejoice exultantly.  Happy are you when you are insulted for the sake of Christ, for then God’s Spirit in its glory has come to rest on you.

See to it that none of you suffers for being a murderer, a thief, a malefactor, or a destroyer of another’s rights.  If anyone suffers for being a Christian, however, he ought not to be ashamed.  He should rather glorify God in virtue of that name.

The season of judgement has begun, and begun with God’s own household.  If it begins this way with us, what must be the end for those who refuse obedience to the gospel of God?  And if the just man is saved only with difficulty, what is to become of the godless and the sinner?  Accordingly, let those who suffer as God’s will requires continue in good deeds, and entrust their lives to a faithful Creator.

… You young men must be obedient to the elders.  In your relations with one another, clothe yourselves with humility, because God “is stern with the arrogant but to the humble he shows kindness.”  Bow humbly under God’s mighty hand, so that in due time he may lift you high.  Cast all your cares on him because he cares for you.

Stay sober and alert.  Your opponent the devil is prowling like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, solid in your faith, realizing that the brotherhood of believers is undergoing the same sufferings throughout the world.  The God of all grace, who called you to his everlasting glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish those who have suffered a little while.  Dominion be his throughout the ages!  Amen.”

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Among the many readings I pulled from my bookshelves of late, I found a small booklet titled: Our Lady Teaches About Prayer at Medjugorje.  I liked what I read.  It gave me pause:

‘You can’t pray and worry at the same time.  If a student is excessively worried about his exams, the worry impedes his studies for the exam.  Similarly, worry crowds out prayer.  Worry is the fear of the future --- an impending evil.  The future belongs to God.  He has a No Trespassing sign there.  When you trespass into the future, the penalty or fine for so doing is worry.  Someone said: ‘Sorrow looks back.  Worry looks ahead, and Faith looks up!’”

“So on July 5, 1984, Our Lady again pleaded: ‘Dear children … Always start your work with prayer and end your work with prayer.  These days you have been praying too little and working too much.  Pray therefore.  In prayer you will find rest.’  In the Our Father, Our Lord taught us to pray: ‘Lead us not into temptation.’   The great temptation today is to depend totally on our own resources, to try to go it alone without God.  The truth still is ‘without Me you can do nothing’ --- absolutely nothing!”

“St. Thomas wrote: ‘You pray not to make your needs known to God, but to make known to yourself your need for God.  You pray not to change God’s mind, but to change your mind to His.  You pray not to move God to do your will, but to be moved to do God’s will’ If prayer is not changing you, then you are not praying well.  Our Lady asked: ‘Why are you praying?  To be with God, to experience God within.  After five minutes for prayer something ought to happen within you, if you do it properly.’”

“She said: ‘Pray from your heart.’  Again and again she asked for this kind of prayer.  ‘Dear children, I invite you to prayer of the heart and not only by habit.’  And so she pleads again and again.  What is Our Lady asking for?  It is simply that our prayers be heartfelt.  That we really mean them.  It is the difference between ‘saying’ prayers – words, words, words, words, and ‘praying’ – meaning what we say.”

“If your prayer is from your heart, you’ll not only experience God in you, but you’ll begin to think like God and want like God.  One mistake we can make in prayer is to pray only for our own needs.  Jesus never taught us to pray that way.  Some people have even reduced the Madonna of Medjugorje to a personal piety.  They go there only to see what they can get from it. They are thinking only of themselves and not of anyone else.  Whenever we let our own plans and projects crowd out God’s, then atheism sets in.  At Medjugorje, Our Lady told s to widen our horizons in prayer.  She said: ‘Dear children, continue to pray so that all my plans may be carried out.’  Her plans!  Again, on January 25, 1987, she said to the visionaries: ‘I want you to understand that God has chosen each one of you in order to use you for the great plan of salvation of mankind.’  God’s plan is for the salvation of mankind, not just you and me.”

I have never been spoken aloud to by God or Mary or the saints, but I DID feel called to visit Medjugorje in 1987, and my heart was changed by that visit.  Since then tens of millions have visited there, and huge numbers changed their lives, as I did.  What is happening; what does it mean?  God doesn’t tell me directly, but these things keep crossing my path.  I don’t believe in coincidences.  The visionaries in Medjugorje say God/Mary has given them a look at future events, many tragic events, trials, which will occur in their lifetimes if the world does not change.  They are now in their 50’s.

My prayer is for God’s mercy.