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This month’s message of Our Lady seems to be familiar to us and it is as if we have heard it many times before. Our Lady’s apparitions are a grace and a gift from the Heavenly Father. Her presence makes this time a time of grace. Grace, it is God’s affection, nearness and touch that we live from. God wants and desires to touch every heart.
The heart is the essence of the spirituality of apparitions and messages of Our Lady. The question is how to reach the heart, how to pray with the heart? Many people ask: Which prayer is best? Prayer is not a magic formula that we learn by heart. The best prayer is sincere one. When I go to talk to my dad, mom, or friend, I don’t ask anyone what to say, what phrases to use. With close ones and those whom we trust, we talk openly, honestly, and without using learned phrases. That is how we should talk to God as well.
The best prayer is that which comes from the state of our soul, one without a mask and without hiding from God. Our God has a heart. That heart was pierced for us on the Cross. Also, the sword of pain pierced our Heavenly Mother’s soul and heart.
Man too has a heart. He is the image of God. He can love, feel and suffer, have compassion and mercy. God sees only what happens inside man, which symbolizes the heart.
For most of our lives we live superficially, on the margins of our being and heart. Therefore, our heart remains hidden, unawakened, and we do not know how to descend into its depths and discover the riches that are hidden there. We have neglected this inner dimension of our life. And what we neglect begins to weaken and lose its capacity.
Jesus often tells his listeners that their hearts are closed, hard and flabby. To pray with the heart is to find the way of the heart, and that means to connect with God’s heart so that our hearts begin to be in the rhythm of God’s heart and God’s love.
According to St. Teresa of Avila, in prayer it is not important to think much, but to love much. When love for something or for someone is awakened in our heart, then we are ready to endure sacrifices and all difficulties. If there is no love in the heart, then we do not have the strength to do anything worthwhile.
It can happen to us that we do not know how to open our hearts. There are innumerable reasons and causes that have closed our heart. We may close our heart due to injustice, betrayal, or suffering.
We often experience that we need to experience difficulties and temptations in order to begin to pray. It appears that something must first break us and take away everything we thought gave us life so that our heart may soften and decide to pray.
Let us obey the invitation of our Heavenly Mother. Through His Mother, Jesus is calling us and knocking on the door of our heart to open to Him so that He can come to us and work miracles in our lives.
Let us pray: Our Lady, your closeness and presence is a grace and a gift of heaven for us today. Your words and invitations desire to touch every heart. We ask you, Our Lady, to intercede for us with your Son Jesus. We beseech you especially for every heart that has been closed because of suffering, misery and difficulties of life. Into your motherly heart we place every heart that suffers and that is wounded. May every heart experience your motherly love which heals, uplifts and brings new life. Amen.
