Extraordinary messages
Two major apparitions that began the same year had potent messages most relevant to our times. Though in remote outbacks, she said her messages were "for the whole world."
Start with this:
True joy comes in closeness with Christ.
Riches of spirit are the only real wealth. All else is fool's gold. So was a message from the Blessed Mother in eastern Africa.
It can't be said enough during this deceived, gilded time.
Poverty? Riches? At this site, Kibeho in Rwanda -- a Church-approved apparition that began in November 1981, in one of the poorest places on earth (chosen, said Mary, precisely because it was still pure) -- she explained why some who pay little or no attention to goodness, charity, and God often seem to do just fine, even magnificently so. Atheists can be celebrities, leaders, beauty queens, billionaires. Why is that? How?
"The devil places no obstacles," said Mary at Kibeho, "on the road to darkness."
We are confused, she said, at how "those who follow Jesus may receive poverty while those who don't may be rich."
But we must remember, she reminds us, that "they are rewarded only on this earth and one day will lose everything."
She warns against those "using deviousness to succeed."
"The one who takes the road to hell will walk with no difficulty, yet he will suffer once for all his evil, and this will last forever."
Find unity with God. Currently, said the Blessed Mother, we are "distracted by earthly goods and desires," though "time is short."
"Man is chasing the wind," she warned -- at this place of many forewarnings. "Some do not believe in Heaven. They say the only Heaven is on this earth. The only poverty is the lack of Grace that leads to the Lord."
It is a time of battle with the devil. Only with prayer and fasting is he driven off, she said. In fact "every attack from Satan," said Mary, can be warded off with prayer and sacrifice.
"The one who turns to God in this life can shorten and even avoid his time in purgatory," said the Virgin of the Word, as she is known there. "Each one of you must give an account of what was entrusted to you. Those who go to Heaven are those who struggled to get there."
The lives of priests and religious, she consoles, is "especially demanding and comprised of many difficulties." (Yet, more the potential for Grace.)
"If the Son of God suffered in this world," asked Mary, "why would you try to escape your suffering? Stop clinging to all that is bothering you and depriving you of peace. In suffering, let there be joy. Blessed is the one who is an instrument for me. I will reward him with Heaven. All the trials he has to endure will end one day"
"There is no one who doesn't suffer in this world," she further explicated. "The poor man suffers because of his poverty, the rich man suffers because of the worries that come with his riches. How humans deceive themselves. We think, that person is so rich, but -- the person's soul is empty."
As we approach major changes, it is a "time of trials," she said in this hilly terrain west of Kigali -- soon to be a horrid war zone, a place of AIDS and genocide.
This is a totally Church-approved apparition, the sanction of authenticity announced from Rome itself (under the pontificate of Pope John Paul II and from Cardinal Ratzinger's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith).
sk for the strength and knowledge to understand what is expected from you; many want to reach Heaven but do not have the strength to ask. "I will teach you to pray," she promised, "from the bottom of your heart."
We must all care for each other, rich or poor, good or bad: "Be patient with all people, because God is patient with you. Don't work for the things of this world, since they do not belong to you."
"You are all taking the same trip, so help each other."
Each day do well what God has asked of you. Have faith in everything, even sickness!
"For those who have been declared 'incurable,' nothing is healthier than a soul at peace," said Mary, in a way a doctor can't. "There is no greater wealth than that of a pure heart." Trials and suffering help us pray better, explained the Virgin of Kibeho: "aim with your strength to the tree of life."
"You must love each other and not hold onto anger. A small seed of anger can grow into a great tree of hatred. Pardon those who have hurt you."
"Those who love to wear flashy clothes try to please men, but aim only to please God. Despite your beautiful clothes, you will always be naked before God. You who pride yourselves on beauty should humble yourselves. Your beauty comes only from God."
"One day soon God will take it all back."
"God has placed us on this earth to do His Will."
"The one who trusts in Me will lack nothing. Follow only one road, not two."
"I will acknowledge the one in Heaven who acknowledges Me on earth," said Jesus -- when He too allegedly appeared to a seer in Rwanda.
At Medjugorje -- in then-Yugoslavia (a Communist nation that jailed the seers, and which preceded Kibeho by several months, beginning June 24, 1981, though it is not yet approved by the Church), Mary has likewise said that this is a "special time" and warned: "You are creating a new world without God, only with your own strength, and that is why you are dissatisfied and have no joy in your hearts."
Think about it.
Cogitate.
Take it to the desert.
Fasting is spiritual hygiene while lust is the thrust of the flesh
"I want you to comprehend," she said at Medjugorje, "that God has chosen each one of you in order to use you in His great plan for mankind. You are not able to comprehend how great your role is in God's design. Therefore. dear children, pray, so that in prayer you may be able to comprehend what God's Plan is in your regard."
In a further comment on prayer, the Virgin of Kibeho said: "You must tell God yourself. Hold back nothing. God knows your every action and your every thought. But you must tell Him yourself -- all the transgressions of body, mind, and spirit. Ask for God's forgiveness from the bottom of your heart. If you seek it sincerely, He will forgive you. This way, my children, the sins you carry will not distract you. Pray to Him fervently. Fast for His blessing. Then you too must ask God to offer forgiveness to all those who have trespassed against you, all who have given you suffering or insult or injury and ask God to bless them and help them. Your prayers have no meaning if they do not come from the depths of your heart. When you lack the strength to pray, pray for my help and I will offer you strength."
The fruit of prayer is love; the fruit of love is forgiveness; the fruit of forgiveness, she has said, is peace.
[resources: Our Lady of Kibeho, The Medjugorje Fasting Book, and Our Lady Speaks]
