OUR LADY OF MEDJUGORJE’S MESSAGE OF JANUARY 25, 2010

“Dear children! May this time be a time of personal prayer for you, so that the seed of faith may grow in your hearts; and may it grow into a joyful witness to others. I am with you and I desire to inspire you all: grow and rejoice in the Lord Who has created you. Thank you for having responded to my call.”

How to Converse with God

A. A Time of Personal Prayer.

1.What is Prayer?

a. St. Teresa of Avila: “Prayer is a loving conversation between two friends who know they love each other very much and who especially enjoy each other’s company in their private time together.”

b. Personal prayer is conversational prayer. Conversations are spontaneous, because the sharing springs from the heart naturally. That is why it is often said that prayer cannot be taught; it must be experienced or practiced. The more we converse, the more real and spontaneous our sharing becomes.

2. How to Pray? Jesus has given some excellent pointers on this to a mystic.

a. “Come with your heart in your hand,” Jesus says. That means come with:

1) Great desire. “Desire is another name for love.” – St. Augustine

2) Joy. “Express your joy in being with Me.”

3) Delight. “Delight in this opportunity to be with Me and speak with Me.”

b. “Open your heart to Me.”

1) “Tell Me what is exactly in your heart and on your mind.”

2) “Share with Me your joys and sorrows, problems and concerns; your life.”

3) “Tell Me what is happening in your life today.”

c. “Listen to Me; give Me a chance to speak.”

1) “To make some comments on what you have said.”

2) “Let Me say what is in My Heart.”

3) “I want to tell you then what I desire of you.”

3. Become More Child-like.

a. Jesus says to take on the heart of a child; children are so open and simple, so real and spontaneous in the way they speak.

b. Jesus said that is why I told you in the Gospel: “Unless you become like      little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

c. Jesus also said: “Little children confide spontaneously in the Lord. The child trusts in the Lord very naturally and so understands the truth, because they understand with love.”

B. So that the Seed of Faith May Grow in Your Hearts.

1.Faith is the soul of prayer, and faith is a gift. So Our Lord wants us to pray continually for this gift. Pray “Lord, increase our faith.” Faith puts us in contact with the real presence of God.

2. Love is the root and cause of faith. That is why faith pertains more to the heart than the mind. Unless our faith causes a spontaneous movement of the heart, a spark of love, there is no prayer. Our mind and heart can only raise themselves to God if God Himself draws them.

a. God raises our mind to Him by the light of faith;

b. God raises our heart by the spark, the ardor, the desire brought on by this light of knowledge touching the heart.

c. You believe that God is your Creator. That means that God loved you  from all eternity and created you that you might respond by loving Him  in return. Therefore, I thank God for this and I offer Him my love.

3. Effects.

a. You will be led to live in the presence of God more and more.

b. Continual conversation with God. Faith binds us to God in a continual communion. Our spirit merges with the Spirit of God, our hearts merge with the Sacred Heart and we share His sentiments.

c. We see things the way God sees them.

-Rev. Robert Hughes, S.M.