(Fr. Stanko Cosic)
Joy!
(c)Mary TV 2013
J.M.J
February 5, 2014
St. Agatha
Dear Family of Mary!
"Dear children! Today I call you to approach prayer actively. You wish to live everything I am telling you, but you are not succeeding because you are not praying. Dear children, I beseech you to open yourselves and begin to pray. Prayer will be your joy. If you make a start, it won't be boring to you because you will be praying out of joy. Thank you for having responded to my call." (March 20, 1986)
Fruit
of Medjugorje, Episode 101 featured Fr. Stanko Cosic. Fr. Stanko is the
youngest Franciscan stationed at Medjugorje right now. He is 28. He was
not even born when the apparitions began!! He has lived his whole life
with Our Lady of Medjugorje! And you can see the fruit of it in his
peaceful and joyful countenance.
I have begun to transcribe his talk, because it is a so beautiful! His theme is Joy! Here is the first installment:
Fr. Stanko Cosic
Talk given in the John Paul II building in Medjugorje in 2014:
I
would like to greet all of you. My name is Fr. Stanko Cosic. For the
time being, I am the youngest Franciscan Priest here in Medjugorje.
(Applause) To be honest with you, this morning I wanted to prepare
myself with prayer and meditation for this encounter with you. But of
course you know you can't plan everything. Things don't go every time
the way you plan. I had to go to Mostar this morning to do some errands
and I just arrived 15 minutes ago!
These are the situations when I actually say to the Blessed Virgin Mary that she has to take over.
I
would like to start with this, to give you the first line of this
conversation today, because the topic will be joy! Joy is actually the
opportunity to be who I am and to give myself time to be built up into
the person she wants me to be. Also, we need to be joyful because things
don't always happen the way we schedule them to happen. Joy that I am
able to accept myself and everybody around me just the way they are.
When
we look at Jesus we see that His point of view is very specific. The
first time He met Simon, He told him, "You are Simon Peter." He didn't
tell Peter only who he was. He also told Peter who he was going to
become. He didn't tell Simon what he was in his past, but he told him
what he was at that moment, and what he would become later on, what he
was going to be. This is nice, because then I can see that I can do more
in my own preparation and in my own giving, and I can give to Jesus all
the things I haven't given to him yet. Also the old things, I can give
them to him, because he knows what I will become. This is difficult for
me, because many times I am actually facing obstacles and
misunderstanding, but I know very well that Jesus knows what I will
become one day. That is a source of joy within myself.
When
we are reflecting upon the messages that Our Lady has given here in
Medjugorje...and as you know the apparitions started here on the 24th of June,
back in 1981...she finishes them with one sentence. As you know, every
message ends with one sentence, "Thank you for having responded to my
call." She is not saying, "Thank you that you will respond to my call."
No, she says, "Thank you for having responded to my call." Then I always
think of this meeting of Jesus with Simon Peter, because Our Lady sees
what we are going to do in the future. She sees in us what we are going
to become.
The 24th of June
is the day connected with the last prophet. Our Lady, Queen of Peace,
didn't pick that day by accident. Of course we do not know all her
reasons. But there is one really nice story that I would love to share
with you.
When
Our Lady appeared to one man, she said to him, "I have something very
important to share with you." And she told him to wait a little bit.
Then she finally told him that thing after 50 years! So I can tell you
that it is going to take a long time to accept and to understand.
But let's go back to the 24th of June
which is connected with John the Baptist. He was the one who was
invited to prepare the way for Jesus. Now we may ask ourselves, what
does this mean in our life? Is it [Jesus' return] only connected to our
death? Or maybe it [Jesus' return] is connected with our life. Jesus
said, "When the Son of God comes to earth, will he find any faith?" I
don't think He is only thinking of His second coming. But every time
that two people come together in His name, He is within us. And when we
connect with the role of John the Baptist, then we can say that it
connects to our everyday life. That is why we have the invitation from
Our Lady, to prepare our path towards Jesus. [We have to get ready for
the coming of Jesus.] In order to do that we have to know Jesus. How can
we talk about someone we don't know?
Imagine
that you live in your family, spending your whole life with a person
you don't know. How can you do that? It is literally hell. But if we are
called to get to know each other on a daily basis, every day to know
ourselves better, how can we do these things without knowing God? As
much as we know God, we actually know ourselves in a better way. As much
as we know God, we also know the people around us in a better way. We
will learn to understand how Jesus was looking upon Simon Peter. [Jesus
shows us] that people have opportunities to grow to perfection. That is
the source of joy within ourselves. (Fr. Stanko Cosic)
"Joy
is actually the opportunity to be who I am and to give myself time to
be built up into the person she wants me to be." I love this statement.
Joy is the opportunity to be...it is the moment when we feel life is ok,
we are ok, God loves us, life is good, there is hope for good to come.
Joy is the moment when we can entrust ourselves to God and to Mary,
because fear has left us and faith reigns! Joy is the sign that God
knows who I will become, and He is happy with me! Just as Jesus could
see into Simon's future and knew he would become Peter, so also Jesus
looks into our lives and sees that we will be His beloved children, His
dearest family in heaven. And so we can rest in that certainty. Jesus
loves us and will love us into holiness. Isn't that wonderful!!!
More tomorrow...
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2014
"Medjugorje is the spiritual center of the world!"
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