A Friend of Medjugorje shares a moral clarity for our times, how to prepare yourself and how to approach people for evangelization - a necessary message on this July 4 to bring light back to our nation.
**The text
in this transcript may not match perfectly with audio**
[ANNOUNCER]
The
subject matter contained in this presentation is based on Biblical principles
and designed to give you accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered. It is provided
with the understanding that neither the presenter nor the broadcaster is
engaged to render legal, accounting, or other professional advice. Since your
situation is fact-dependent, you may wish to additionally seek the services of
an appropriately licensed legal, accounting, real estate, or investment professional.
"No
one can serve two masters. He will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You
cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I tell you, do
not worry about your life-- what you shall eat or drink-- or about your body--
what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than
clothing?
"Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or
reap. They gather nothing into barns, yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are
not you more important than they? Can any of you, by worrying, add a single
moment to your life span?
"Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from
the way the wildflowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not
even Solomon in all his splendour was clothed like one of them. If God so
clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven
tomorrow, will He not much more provide for you, oh you of little faith?
"So do not worry and say, what are we to eat? Or
what shall we drink? Or what are we to wear? All these things the pagans seek.
Your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
"But seek first the Kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry
about tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its
own evil."
[THEME
MUSIC]
[ANNOUNCER]
This
is Mejanomics with a Friend of
Medjugorje.
[SONG
CLIP: GOD BLESS AMERICA]
God bless America,
land that I love. Stand beside her and guide her through the night with the
light from above.
[CLIP]
This
weekend the highways and resort places are jammed with millions of Americans
celebrating a historic event when on July 4, 1776, 50 men gathered in
Independence Hall in Philadelphia to declare this nation free from Great
Britain.
[LIBERTY
BELL SOUNDS]
From the
day of our Founding Fathers until this July 4 weekend 1961, His hand of
blessing has been upon America.
Pericles
built a civilization upon culture and it failed. Caesar built a civilization
upon power, and it failed. Our forefathers founded our nation upon religion,
and America will only survive and be great as long as
she honors God. History tells us that the picture of Moses was upon the first
coin that was ever made in the United States. And today we still have on our
money, In God We Trust. Our forefathers werent ashamed to talk about prayer,
God, and faith. They built a building upon a firm foundation when they built it
upon freedom, God, and religion.
Certainly,
upon this 4th of July weekend, we should be upon our knees thanking
God for all that He has given us. This has been a country where everyone has
had an equal chance. What a nation of opportunity, a nation under God, blessed
as no nation in history! It is evident to everyone that freedoms, that have
been purchased by the blood, sweat, and tears of thousands of Americans of
history are now in danger this weekend. Were in danger from moral corruption
within and Communist penetration from without. No nation can ignore God the way
weve ignored God in the last few years and get away with it.
Christians,
recognizing the seriousness of the hour, are beginning to awaken and are now
ready to sacrifice, to see revival in our time. At this dangerous hour of
history, we spend 200 minutes a day watching television, 32 minutes a day
reading magazines, and 50 minutes a day reading out newspapers. We spend more
time in our newspapers than we do in the Bible! We spend more time in
recreation than we do in prayer. Yet, were enjoying our freedoms and luxuries
today only because Gods mercy is from everlasting to everlasting. And He is a
long-suffering God. But the Bible warns that God will judge any nation that
forgets Him!
As we
approach Independence Day, my prayer is that we shall use this day to soberly
think about the reasons for our decline as a nation, and the dangers that lie
ahead. There is grave danger that we take our great heritage of freedom for
granted. Never in the history of any nation has money flowed as freely as it is
today. Even the so-called poor people of America are prosperous and rich
compared to the rest of the world. It is alright to have money, but too often
money gets the man. Theres a poverty of prosperity that rubs the man of the
true perspective of life. Money is the purchase of everything except happiness
and a passport to every place except Heaven. Communism is a materialistic
ideology and we condemn it. But here in America, were in danger of turning in
the same direction! Godless materialism is devastating to the soul, whether it
is found in Moscow or New York!
Before the
pilgrims left for the New World, these words were read by Revered John
Robertson, And I will make of thee a great nation. And I will bless thee and
make thy name great and thou shall be a blessing. On this Independence Day
weekend, let us renew our vows to Almighty God. Let us declare to the world
that were one nation under God. Let us quit being apologetic about our faith
in Him! Let us quit being weak about our witness for Christ! It is time for
every man to stand up and to be counted and to say, As for me and my house,
we will serve the Lord.
[SONG CLIP:
GOD BLESS AMERICA]
God bless
America, my home sweet home.
[REYES]
And you were listening to the
Reverend Billy Graham from 1961, a very important message given over 50 years
ago. And it seems as if that message could have been given today. Today, as we
celebrate the feast of July 4th, the birth of the United States, the
beacon of freedom for the whole world. Were going to share with you an
encounter with a Friend of Medjugorje from June 24, 2019. Now this was an
encounter with the BVM Caritas pilgrimage group, but the most important part of
what hes saying is hes giving a moral clarity for our times. And as we just
heard the Revered Billy Graham from over 50 years ago, its important to
understand how we become evangelizers of this time of this land, wherever that
you live in the world.
But a Friend of Medjugorje gives solid
advice on how to form yourself, how to approach people, and what is necessary
to be evangelizers and light in our land and throughout the whole world. And so for this July 4th, here is a Friend of
Medjugorje.
[CLIP: A FRIEND OF MEDJUGORJE]
Theres one thing thats very
profound that I ran across several years ago. I put it in Seize the Moment.
This is an incredible short book. Its about Endurance. I dont know if
youve read the book, read it. It is incredible. Its about a ship that got
frozen in the Artic and they spent their whole winter through there, how they
survived. Its an amazing thing. But they seized the moment to survive and what
they did.
And really Medjugorje parallels
that. You can learn a lot of things by secular books. You dont have to just
read the Bible and just read the saints. Those things are fortified by life.
When you hear a priest on the altar talking stories and telling things and then
bring it back to the Scriptures, it brings it to life. Just reading Scripture
becomes sterile. Oh, is that naphtha? You know who said that? Pope Benedict,
Cardinal Ratzinger, Father Ratzinger. He said, We cannot continue
repeating Im quoting him Sterile repetitions of the Scripture.
Thats why so many people like Dr. Tony Evans or Joyce Meyes,
yall know who she is? Man, you can listen to this woman. Shes got the
stories. And she convicts you. Then she ties it to the Bible. Tony Evans is a
black minister. He was a Dallas Cowboys pastor for a long time. He built a 25-million-dollar
church in Texas. Somebodys getting food. Youre not going to give that kind of
money. If you want a good steak, if you want a good meal, you give. You got a
good church, you give to that.
So, Our Lady is here because weve
become sterile. Were not getting fed from the pulpit. And why? Because we just
get words. There was a study done by the corporate world and they use this to
sell products. And its an amazing, amazing thing. Our Lady told Ivan on June
21, our group was here, if you were here you were on the mountain. Speak
less about the messages and live the messages more People are going to
misinterpret that. You say, Well, were not talking about the message. Thats
not what Our Ladys saying. Shes saying something else.
There are three ways to communicate
in any given situation. The categories are first, words; second, voice tone and
clarity; and third, body language. The greatest impact on delivering to others,
your communications of what you want to say is in categories 55% for one of
them, 38% for another, and 7% for another category. So, which holds the place
of first? Words? Your tone and clarity? Or body language?
[PILGRIMS]
Body language.
[A FRIEND OF MEDJUGORJE]
Youve been reading this stuff.
Its amazing. The least impact, which is 7%, is words. Contemplate that. So,
Our Lady said, Speak less and live more [the messages]
So, the total composition of words is 7%. Voice, tone, and clarity is 38%. And
body language is 55% in the total picture of communicating. So, does that mean
you dont speak about the messages? No. We covered that ground yesterday, but
Ill say a little bit about it for the visitors today. You can speak a lot
about the messages. You can talk about that. But, your
body language is your works. When people see what you do, then those words have
power. Otherwise its just words. And thats what we get in the sterile
repetitions of Scripture.
Cardinal Ratzinger went on to say,
and this was about the third secret of Fatima. They put this out when Bertone
was releasing it. They said that we cannot confine ourselves to sterile repetitions
of Scripture which is public revelation. We need, and we need to accept, and we
need to have the right mentality. He didnt say mentality, but he was conveying
that, of private revelation because the invigorate public revelation. They
bring the Scripture to life. So thats why Tony Evans and Joyce Meyers and
Robbie Zechariah. Theyre so full of stories and everything and relating it to our
time, to the Scriptures, and the Scripture turns to life and you can put it into
life.
So, Our Lady wants you to communicate.
She wants to you to speak to the messages. She wants you to tell people about it,
first with your body language, how you carry yourself. In the Poem of the Man-God
it talks about St. Joseph, that he did everything swiftly. He was quick at what
he did, but he didnt look like he was in a hurry. He had a composure how he did.
What about your modesty? Especially women. What are you communicating? What are
you telling? Our Lady changes Her dress in Guadalupe to show that She was queen.
She changes dress here in Medjugorje. Shes in a grey gown now, but its for feast
days She comes golden dressed. Actually the gold is coming
through Her dress. So, She adapts to that. But Shes not
adapting to your fashions, especially the women today. Shes coming to a modern
time, and yet this time Shes not changing to adapt to it.
It was in Fatima, There will be
fashions that will greatly offend God. And were riddled with this so much
that were blind to it. So, Our Lady is coming to give us sensitivity. So, body
language says a lot. You cant just speak words. You have to
put something into it. You have to put stories into it
to communicate. And those stories are things that have happened to you that brings
the message to life.
Im in Atlanta airport the other day.
We pull from the gate and the air conditioner goes off. Its hot in Atlanta right
now, and its dead. So the pilot tries to play with it
a little bit. We have to go back to the gate. Were sitting there. Well, well
just check it out, the pilot says. But we cant deboard because weve already gone
through everything. And so we sit on the plane. We sit
there 20 minutes. They had to bring other people. Then they diagnose the part. Were
there an hour. Were literally full of sweat. And so, were sitting there, and Im
in a nice seat, which is an aisle seat, but the guy in the middle is a big guy.
Hes a stocky guy, military like. We end up an hour and a half there.
We just got in conversation. I wasnt
trying to talk about Medjugorje. We start talking. Hes from Nashville. He lives
in Germany. Hes black. He was in the military. Hes retired. And we start talking.
Where are you going? What are you doing? I start telling him about Our Lady. We
talked about Our Lady for two and a half hours probably. Maybe three hours before
we went to sleep. I think he said hes Baptist. And he was so turned on to what
was happening here he couldnt believe it. I gave him materials and he really got
into it. He was so into it that he said, How can I get there? So, Ive
got to call him back home when they wake up to get him a flight here to come in
Friday. Hes got to work because he got a job after his retirement. He wants to
come here this Friday. Hes got to be back to work by Monday morning. And he wants
to get a flight. Hes a Protestant! I wasnt trying to convert him. Before we got
off he said, Im not supposed to be sitting here.
He was in the back of the plane and they overbooked, and they moved him up to the
seat. He relayed God put him there. And He did.
The more you live your body language,
the more clarity in your tones of what you do, the works of mercy, and Im not talking
about feeding the poor. Im talking about people that, our poor that we should be
after first, not this socialist justice garbage that weve adopted so much. But, those who are headed toward perdition. There are no more
poor people than those people who eternally lose salvation. Thats the poor Im
called to feed, and Im telling you, thats the call you are called to feed through
these messages. Poor people are usually close to God if they are legitimately poor.
They depend on God. We dont. Even middle class doesnt because we have every convenience
that we spoke about yesterday.
So, here it is, people are impoverished
in their soul, the injuries, the broken families, the broken marriages. People,
theyre hurting. And he went through a bad divorce 10 years ago. And we talked about
things. I talked about How to Change Your Husband, things Ive written. And
here it is that God put me there with this appointment. So, this communication something
is very important to understand, and to understand the context when Our Lady says,
Speak less and live morethe messages You can speak a lot about the messages.
You can talk a lot about it with just the 7% words if you have lived more of the
messages. The more you live the messages, the more you have the authority to convict.
I didnt talk a lot about the messages
in the beginning years. So little did I talk about the messages, I had to go about
eight years, no nine years, after being converted and growing that Our Lady had
to give me a message to Marija to say, Ok, youre at the point. I want you to
start going out. Because I was passive. Because I saw that in the message.
I saw it in St. Paul. He got converted. He had to live nine years, maybe 11 years
before he started speaking. He had a history of living Christianity. He had to learn
it. Those of the apostles, they learned three years. They didnt know anything about
the Mass until the end of three years and they were with God Himself. So, he had
to form them and train them. Look at how many mistakes and how many bad things they
did. Peter said, Get away from me, for I am a sinner. Depart from me, Jesus.
So, all these lessons you have to go through cognition. I happened, in Italy with Marija,
her in laws were coming down from upstairs. And they were coming to the apparition.
And they called 5 minutes before Rosary starts for the apparition and say that they
just suddenly got deathly sick. They both got into bed. Marija came to me and said,
Strange. They went out the door, ready to come down the steps. They got sick.
She ran up there and came back and told me. So we started
the Rosary. At the end of the apparition, Marija said Our Lady gave a message. A
message that changed my direction. My direction was, work on myself, do what I need
to do. I went to Medjugorje in 1986. I found out about Medjugorje in 1982, 83. I
couldnt find a way to get there. I told a priest, if you ever get there, dont
even call me. Just book my whole family. Well go and Ill give you a check.
So, here it was May 31, 1995. Marija
turned to me after the apparition and said, Our Lady gave you a message and
for you and your family and the Community. She said, Little children
And because her in laws werent there, I was the only one with her. And Marija,
she knew immediately, it was a message directly for us, me and my family and Community.
Little children, I desire that through your lives Its easy for us to
live the messages, and its easy for us to sin because youre always a sinner. But
that doesnt mean because you sin, youre not living the messages.
Our structure at Caritas and in the
Community is built from 1986 to this point that the messages are part of our life.
We speak about the messages all day long. Were working with the messages. Weve
patterned our whole life on the messages which gives us the authority to speak.
So She says, Little children, I desire that through
your lives Thats what Im talking about, our life, daily life, 5:00 - 6:00
in the morning, praying, 7:00 praying again, Rosary time praying, 3:00 praying,
do prayers at nighttime. And thats structed prayer. And the rest of it in between
is prayer.
Our Lady, the first thing She said when
She came to Alabama through Marija in 1988 was, Let your work be your prayer.
Thats the first words breathed in our valley. We didnt know what She meant until
later that She was going to give us a lot of work. And we work. We have a strong
work ethic. Our kids work. Were known even around the region, even the people who
are anti-Catholic, One thing we know about those people, they work. Let your
work be your prayer. So, were blessed, or She told them here, You work
too much. She wants you to pray more.
So, I developed a whole system on the
messages about work. So, She said, I desire that through
your lives you are witnesses, that you are my extended hands, my instruments. Get
as many hearts as you can close to my heart and lead them to God, to a way of salvation.
I asked Marija what She meant when She said, a way. Did She mean, the way? Because
we know the way. The way of salvation is the Scripture and of course Christianity,
what we do, etc. But we had a specific way. I had already written I See Far.
I wrote How to Change Your Husband. I had written many things we already
patterned in those nine years of a way of life. So, when She said through the witness
of your lives, it confirmed to me that what you are living, you convey this way
of life. A way of life! Not the way, you can go to Heaven in the way of salvation,
but we have a specific way, an agrarian-based way. At the same time, were in the
other side of the world of being very advanced to print and produce what we do which
all I write about is what we lived.
So, at that point, when Our Lady back
in 1995 gave this message, we were passive. I was. I was very low key because I
had to become the message. From that point, Our Lady said no more passivity; I want
you to make the passage and be proactive. And thats when we really started being
proactive. And through that, youre here for some of those reasons. Im telling
you this for your benefits because the first thing you have to do to attract people,
or you get on an airplane and youre sitting next to somebody, you have to have
the graces attached to your life that you can convict. We have people counselors,
psychiatrists, all these people saying this, all people giving advice and all they
have is a diploma, a PhD, that says that they can do that, that theyre qualified.
Well, how many people call us for marriage
counseling and all kinds of things, all kinds of difficulties with their children?
And we dont have a PhD. We have a PhD from Our Lady. And so thats what She wants
to do with you. She wants to put you in that position. And a lot of people want
to be in that position. I never wanted to be in that position. I hate homework and
thats all I do, but God puts you where you would be the last place you would expect
to be.
And now I understand obedience because
those nuns told me over and over and I would get first place for saying and writing,
I must obey. And that used to be the punishment in Catholic school and be 100 times,
500 times. And so I dont like writing because I had to
do so much of that. And I mean a lot. And then you give it to the nun the next morning
at school and they just throw it in the garbage. You did it for nothing. But one
thing it did for me, it impressed to me, I must obey. So
God did that. I really understand obedience. If authority is over me, Ill obey
it. Where the Church as jurisdiction over me, they wont have any qualms with me.
But if they dont have jurisdiction over me, Im obeying Our Lady.
And thats why in January, I announced
on a Radio Broadcast and I had written, and I told everybody, if you heard it, Break-Out
2019: Green Light Medjugorje. No bishop is going to stop me anymore. No priest
is going to stop me. No cardinal, no pope is going to stop me. Because they cant!
because they dont have jurisdiction. That may shock you.
Private revelation, if theyre not condemned,
every single Catholic has the right to promote the devotion, to spread it anywhere
you want to. And the Church just clarified that bishops now can come here, priests
can come here, we can speak in the dioceses and in the parishes. But theres been
bad interpretations, Medjugorje, if a parish starts adopting it, it divides the
parish. Why? Because Our Lady here divided this place. And the messages of Our Lady
is dividing all this.
Everything in Washington between Democrat
and Republican, all this is dividing. Light is going to be light, and dark is going
to be dark. Its growing more strongly in clarity instead of being amalgamated.
If you have 50% Christians, 50% pagans together, nobody shines out. Were all diluted.
The early Christians separated
and the Roman history said, See how they loved one another. We dont have
power mixed in with the culture. Separate from it. So, you have
to understand the dynamics of the structure of by yourself you cant do anything,
but with Our Lady and following Her way, we gravitate toward that. She said, Prayer
is important. Verbal prayer is important. The most powerful pray is community prayer.
Theres power there.
And wherever we go, the restaurants,
we do the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory Be, and Bless us O Lord. And we do
dont it to show, thats just who we are. No matter where we are, what were doing.
If its apparitions time or were traveling, we stop, we knelt
down, 20 of us, at the airport, praying, looking out the window. That impacts
people. When we were in Athens four weeks ago below the Acropolis which is the god
of Athena thats up on the mountain. So we were praying
on this grassy area, and theres wrought iron there, and the whole group that went
to Patmos, Greece, we were all kneeling down, were not looking behind us. We did
the whole Rosary. We got out of the way so we could have some privacy at this point.
After we get through the Rosary, theres how many people behind us just standing
there? Seven people. They stopped. And one woman asked me, said, This is beautiful.
This is peaceful. What were yall doing? She didnt even know what we were
doing. But she stayed there. I said, Well, we prayed the Rosary. I ended
up have some material and gave it to her. We didnt even know they were behind us,
but people are searching. Theyre seeking. Now if just one person theyd say, Thats
a nut back there. But whats 30 people sitting there, whatever the number was?
What are they doing?
Theres a hunger in the human heart
today to seek what Our Lady is bringing to the world. And its through you who bring
Her to others through your life, how you live that life.
[REYES]
And, that was a Friend of Medjugorje
June 24, 2019 speaking to us a very important message that we need to hear on this
special feast of the birth of our nation and how we can bring light back to the
people around us, light back into our nation through our own conversion and how
we change people through the way we live, through our witness, and how we approach
them. Our prayers continue to be with all of those who continue to support and fund
this mission. We are in great need of your support for
the future and for many things which we have.
As many of you heard a Friend of Medjugorje
say on the broadcast last night, Medjugorje is just beginning. Were just now at
the starting point. And so, it has been training up to this point. Now it is time
to fulfill the mission. And so, we need your prayers and your continued financial
support for this mission and we ask you to give from your
heart. We ask you to give a tithe every month to this mission. And, in order to
give that tithe, you can contact Caritas in the U.S. at 205-672-2000. Outside the
United States, you would dial 001-205-672-2000. Or you can visit mej.com and click
on donate.
We constantly put that in front of you.
We know the importance of Our Ladys work. We know that many of you know the importance
of Our Ladys work. And we, along with a Friend of Medjugorje, have the advantage
of being able to see the global view of people who are being touched, that you may
not be aware of. And so, continue to keep this mission in your monthly financial
giving.
And so on this
feast of July 4th, on behalf of a Friend of Medjugorje, Caritas of Birmingham,
the Community of Caritas, BVM Pilgrimages, the Medjugorje Mission House, Medjugorje.com,
and Radio Wave 24-hours, goodbye.
[THEME
MUSIC]
[ANNOUNCER]
The subject matter contained in this presentation is based on
Biblical principles and designed to give you accurate and authoritative
information with regard to the subject matter covered. It is provided with the
understanding that neither the presenter nor the broadcaster is engaged to
render legal, accounting, or other professional advice. Since your situation is
fact-dependent, you may wish to additionally seek the services of an
appropriately licensed legal, accounting, real estate, or investment professional.
Last Updated April 1, 2021 | Mej v 3.8.29
Caritas of Birmingham | 100 Our Lady Queen Peace Dr, Caritas, AL 35147 USA