| 09-18-06 We Are Sent |
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September 18, 2006
"We Are Sent" It is time now for the Church to go forth, devoted to prayer and ministry of the Word, particularly coming against the enemy and preparing - truly preparing - the way of the Lord. For more than a year the Lord has been saying to us in prayer, "Prepare My second coming." This message has come over and over. When we were in Medjugorje a couple of years ago, Our Lady gave us a light that this is actually what she has been trying to do ever since she has been coming there with her five point peace plan. We never quite put together the fact that she has been trying to prepare her Son's second coming. I always thought of the second coming as that final coming. Then one day as a confirmation we were informed of a beautiful word that St. Bernard gave. It is in the Office of Readings, the Divine Office for Wednesday, the first week of advent. He says, "We know that there are three comings of the Lord." I thought to myself, "No, I didn't know there were three comings. I just thought there were two." St. Bernard goes on to say, "In His first coming Our Lord came in the flesh, our flesh and in our weakness. In the second coming, this middle coming, He comes in Spirit and in power. Then in the final coming He will be seen in His glory and majesty." We are talking about the second coming right now. Jesus Himself talked about it. He said, "If anyone loves me, he will keep My word and My Father will love him and We will come to him." This is a God who comes and wants to come in a special way to each of us individually, and in a deeper way, through us and through our intercessory prayer, for the whole Church. In Hebrews we read, "A body You have prepared for Me." I asked Him about that. "How, Lord, do we prepare the body for You?" He is speaking of the Church, His mystical body. He is also speaking of us, individually. How do we prepare a body for the Lord? Then, the Scripture came from Isaiah, "A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the Lord" (Isaiah 40:3). We will be going deeper into the desert, deeper into silence, deeper into solitude, deeper into that contemplative posture, so that we will be truly devoted to prayer and ministry of the Word in our intercession. We must remember the words in the letter to the Hebrews, "Jesus is at the right hand of the Father now in a far more excellent ministry, that of intercession." We will be in the desert in deeper silence and deeper solitude where we will receive the deeper inner healings that we all need so that He can come into our own bodies, our own temples in a deeper way. We know that the power and the wisdom of God comes from the Cross, so we know that we will encounter it. The Cross is the very heart of Christianity. All of this comes out of desert spirituality. We must intercede every day for that gift of wisdom, deeper wisdom, that can see, that can know, that can understand, a wisdom that we need today more than ever. Our former Holy Father, John Paul II, said, "To listen to the word of God is the most important thing in our lives." Can you imagine that? He was saying that to the whole Church. To listen to the Word of God is the most important thing in our whole lives. We must spend some time in responding to that; we must spend time listening to the word of God. We know that to surrender to God's Word is the highest form of wisdom. As we surrender to that wisdom, we come into union with Wisdom Himself. We come into the full power of God, the Holy Spirit. Jesus, made flesh within us, is Wisdom Incarnate. Our Lady and the Holy Spirit together bring forth Jesus. She could not have done it without Him. He definitely could not have done it without her. Our Lady, Lady Wisdom herself, and the Holy Spirit together will teach us to prepare the way of the Lord. Every year at Bellwether, on January 1st, the feast of the Mother of God, we have a communal rosary. We set aside this day every year for her to enlighten us on the intentions of her heart. This year the image of a ship was given over and over in many different ways. She said it was called "Queen Victorious." In other words, she is the queen and she will have the victory. There was an image given of a very high tower. On top of the tower the Vatican flag was flying together with flags from all countries. They were blowing in the wind, the wind of the Spirit. The moment that this image came in that rosary, our intercession at Bellwether began to change. God began to call us into what we call more global intercession. He began to show us different nations that needed prayer and how to pray for them. He started to show us more global intercession even in the United States. He started to show us specific bishops that needed extra prayer right now and chanceries and dioceses and our government. It was interesting. Every week our teams including our laity began to meet and our intercession became very global. It was a new and deeper way of intercession for us because we began to experience the urgency that God has for this kind of intercession. In fact, in that rosary Our Lady kept giving images of shoes, new shoes. In the armor, that is the footgear of zeal, which she is obtaining for us now - a new zeal for the salvation of souls. She gave us Haggai 2: 9, which says, "Greater will be the future glory of this house, than the former." That is so encouraging isn't it? The future glory of the Church is going to be much greater than where we are now and where we have been. Our Lady also spoke through the rosary about the heart of Jesus and the New Pentecost. She spoke of the pierced heart of Jesus, where that new life flows through blood and water. Out of that comes the New Pentecost. We are being prepared to tread the wine press. We can say to Jesus, as Our Lady did, "They have no wine." Well, who do you think is going to produce that wine? How is the Church going to get the New Wine if there are no souls that are going to go to the Cross and tread the winepress? These are all little glimpses of what she has in store for us in this deeper call of intercession. In Isaiah 42: 6-7 we read, "I, the Lord have called you for the victory of justice. I have grasped you by the hand. I have formed you and set you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations." Jesus is the light of the world. He is calling us now individually and collectively as Church to be a light to all the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring prisoners out of confinement and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness. This means bringing people out of deception, out of all kinds of bondage. This is the power of intercession. We have the power. We really have the power. Now we must use it, distribute it, and send the Holy Spirit out on visitations. . He loves to visit people, parishes, chanceries, dioceses, nations. I think we may not be keeping Him busy enough. I think He is restless. He wants to get going. This is the power that we have in intercession. Jesus says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me. He has sent Me." This is God's power moving through each of us. He is sending us, through prayer, to all these different areas in people's lives for the needs of the Church.
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