Oblate Program at Belmont Abbey, NC

A reality often hard to believe or understand

I am expressing my feelings to you: my motherly love which carries me to you is inexpressible, mysterious but real. My most beloved Son illuminates lives, dispels darkness; an understanding and motherly benevolence:
Part of a message to Mirjana on 2 Jan 16

The human heart longs for God’s love more than anything I believe. It comes out in our seeking after relationships. Yet the problem with this deep desire is that in order to experience the hearts deepest longing, there has to be trust on some level. Even tentative trust is enough. For it is like the seed that Jesus talked about that is planted in good soil. If trust is not there then growth is not possible.

How is it that God’s loves us so much? One way of looking at this is that God has no fear, and rejection does not deter the Infinite outpouring of love. It is God’s nature. In some way, I believe that God suffers when we refuse to love Him in return. Jesus is the revelation of the Fathers face for mankind; if this is believed then that revelation of love has to be responded to if one’s faith is alive.

Many people live out of al world view that is often identified as ‘practical atheism’. They live as if God does not exist and will often forgo passing on their faith to their children. Or by their example make the faith something that is done only on Sunday (if that), or for Christmas, Easter, marriages, and funerals. Their religious tradition becomes a function for major events in life, but other than that; useless. The reality of the soul, the inner life is regulated to a place of marginal importance. In the above message Mary states:

“my motherly love which carries me to you is inexpressible, mysterious but real. My most beloved Son illuminates lives, dispels darkness;”

I wonder what would happen if people actually took time to delve deep enough to understand what that means. Love in the human realm for me is mysterious, so the love of God is even more so. Yet if I don’t accept love, or believe in it on the human level, I will never experience it until something happens to off-set that. People can come into our lives that can transform us because of a love that is pure and true, even though they see us deeply. So the love of God is something deeper and more intense, yet, if I don’t believe in it, or if I can’t bring myself to trust, then I can put myself in a position where I will not experience it as well. Until, and I believe this happens to everyone, where at a point in their lives the Infinite love of God will in some way manifest itself. A totally free, unmerited gift, often unexpected yet can be life transforming. Like what happened to St. Paul and many others through out history and today as well.

I do believe that the Blessed Mother is a prophetic figure for the modern world. One of the first things she said when she first started appearing in Medjugorje is this: “I have come to tell you that God exists: Yes, prophetic I believe, indeed.

Br. Mark Dohle, OCSO
Holy Spirit Monastery

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