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Be an apostle. Do not grow tired. In divisive times, maintain peace.<\/span><\/p>\n Be a light in the darkness.<\/span><\/p>\n All it takes is a match to light up a dark room.<\/span><\/p>\n And so the Virgin Mary instructs us to persevere — and she thanks those who have done so, through what she recently described as increasing “difficulties.”<\/span><\/p>\n Many are feeling that: matters are getting tougher; spiritual challenges, more intense.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Last March she said, “Every pain has its end and then life in freedom begins there where all of my children come – where everything is returned. My children, your battle is difficult. It will be even more difficult, but you follow my example. \u00a0Pray for the strength of faith; trust in the love of the Heavenly Father. I am with you. I am manifesting myself to you. I am encouraging you.\u00a0With immeasurable motherly love I am caressing your souls. Thank you.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n This was at Medjugorje, which we are free to quote and which now is under direct Vatican guidance, with its own archbishop, who firmly believes in the apparitions.<\/span><\/p>\n And so does patience bear fruit, despite tenacious onslaughts by the enemy.\u00a0Let it all shake out.<\/span><\/p>\n In what she describes as a “peaceless time,” she says, on June 25, 2018, the 37th anniversary of her first appearance, during apparitions that are among the most long-lasting in recorded ecclesial history\u00a0(though not\u00a0the<\/em> most long-lasting, the first week of which, in 1981, have been formally accepted by a Vatican Commission):<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDear children, also today I am calling you to peace.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n “Decide for peace.<\/span> Decide for Jesus. He is your peace. Set out together with Him. Be my apostles of peace. Therefore, pray. Do not grow tired in prayer. I am praying for all of you and I am interceding for all of you before my Son. Thank you, dear children, for perseverance, for doing good, and that together with you I am realizing my plans in my coming here.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Last January she said, “Dear children, when love is beginning to disappear on earth, when the way of salvation is not being found, I, the mother, am coming to help you to come to know true faith \u2013 living and profound \u2013 so as to help you to truly love. As a mother, I am longing for your mutual love, goodness, and purity. My desire is that you be just and that you love each other. My children, be joyful in your soul, be pure, be children. My Son used to say that He loves to be among pure hearts, because pure hearts are always young and joyful. My Son said to you to forgive and to love each other. I know that this is not always easy. Suffering makes you grow in spirit.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Also in March: “Dear children! My earthly life was simple. I loved and I rejoiced in small things. I loved life — the gift from God – even though pain and sufferings pierced my heart. My children, I had the strength of faith and boundless trust in God’s love. All those who have the strength of faith are stronger. Faith makes you live according to what is good and then the light of God’s love always comes at the desired moment.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n “Dear children!”<\/em> she said earlier in the year. “I am calling you to be with me in prayer in this time of grace when darkness is fighting against the light.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Here is what the devil would like us to focus on: problems in the Church, money matters, gossip, and politics.<\/span><\/p>\n “Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows,”\u00a0Helen Keller once said, adding:<\/span><\/p>\n “It’s what sunflowers do.”<\/span><\/p>\n [resources: The Hidden Child of Medjugorje<\/a><\/span> and other books about the apparitions<\/a><\/span>]<\/em><\/p>\n [Return to\u00a0<\/span>www.spiritdaily.com]<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n [photo above: Medjugorje Council of Ireland<\/a><\/span>]<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n![\"Image](\"https:\/\/www.sign.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/santuario-medjugorje-2.jpg\")
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In February — in this time of Great Mammon — she said further, “The world and worldly temptations are testing you, but you, little children, look at<\/span> God\u2019s creatures which He has given to you in beauty and humility and, little children, love God above everything and He will lead you on the way of salvation.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n![\"Image](\"http:\/\/www.medjugorje.hr\/files\/img\/news\/2016\/slikao1web.jpg\")
<\/em>If such messages are conjured, they are done so by a spiritually brilliant expositor, exercising an economy of language that is in the league of Hemingway.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mysticpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/18195101_1412870388750907_2834230573043526508_n-Copia.jpg?resize=576%2C445&ssl=1\")
<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/b>Yet, we cannot be positive if what we focus upon is negative. Too, we must know that fear draws what we fear. “For what I fear overtakes me, and what I shrink from comes upon me” (Job<\/em> 3:25). Love is a magnet for Grace.<\/span><\/p>\n
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