Sr. Emmanuel Maillard (Founder of Children of Medjugorje)
Sister Emmanuel is a member of the Community of the Beatitutes who has lived in Medjugorje since 1989 . Her mission is to spread the message of Our Lady throughout the world through her talks, books, tapes, newsletter and television.
Date: Thurs. Oct 22, 2009
Time: 7pm Holy Mass, talk & Q&A
Place: All Saints Catholic Church
1415 Royal York Road, Etobicoke, ON, Canada
Notes on the Talk by Sister Emmanuel Maillard of the Beatitudes Community Given at the All Saints’ Church, Etobicoke on October 22, 2009
(Taken by Simon Lau)
Introduction
I am a witness of what I heard from Our Lady in Medjugorje. I wish to share with you some concerns Our Lady has as given in her messages in the past years. Our Lady expressed great concern in her message conveyed by Mirjana Dragicevic on October 2, 2009 that the world is immersed in great sin.
“Dear Children, as I look at you, my heart seizes with pain. Where are you going my children? Have you sunk so deeply into sin that you do not know how to stop yourselves? You justify yourselves with sin and live according to it. Kneel down beneath the Cross and look at my Son. He conquered sin and died so that you, my children, may live. Permit me to help you not to die but to live with my Son forever. Thank you!” (10/02/2009)
The world is going further and further away from God and Our Lady comes to bring us closer and closer to God. Our Lady has not failed but we failed based on Our Lady’s message on October 2, 2009. The talk is focused on Our Lady’s concerns in this message.
On Family
- Children in the family have always been very dear to Our Lady’s heart. Today, families are breaking up in great numbers.
- Satan wants to destroy the human race by first destroying the family. Satan wants to destroy this planet, earth. Our Lady has been appearing to the visionaries in Medjugorje for the past 28 years, giving us weapons to fight Satan. We will have to work with Our Lady to stop Satan from winning.
- We need to pray as a family. The family that has no time to pray will easily be subdued by the influence of the devil. When we pray as a family, the Holy Spirit is with us. But in today’s world, there is so much temptation keeping us away from praying as a family – TV, internet, sports and others. We have to overcome such temptation.
- The key for unity in a family is to have God as the centre of the family. The following tradition adopted by the young Croatian couples in their wedding ceremony is a very good example of placing God in the centre of the family.
- A crucifix, held by the bride and groom, is blessed by the priest in the wedding Mass. This signifies that Jesus is the centre in the marriage and has become the centre of the new family. The crucifix is then placed on the wall of the new home and the couple will pray to Jesus everyday. When the couple have children, they will realize that Jesus is the centre of the family who keeps the family together.
- If you do not have Jesus as the centre of the family, begin to pray as a family in the morning and in the evening and gradually, you will feel the difference.
- Family members often find no time to pray. Prayer in fact multiplies time. The goal of prayer is love. The goal of praying as a family is to ask Jesus to come to our family. Jesus gives inspiration to each one in the family as they pray together. If Jesus is in your family, there is no place for Satan to do harm. Make your family the first prayer group that you join.
- Make God, the Father, Our Lady, the Mother and the Church, the home of your family. When you do that there is no fear of breaking up in your family.
On Children
- It is important that the children realize the importance of prayer and that God is participating in our prayer. Children who do not engage in prayer will grow up with anxieties. They have to be taught that prayer is part of the essential routine of the day.
- It is important for an expecting mother to pray together with her baby in her womb. The baby will realize the love in the prayer and will grow up to be a more balanced person as the baby is born with love.
- Our Lady adores life. Do not be afraid of raising children in your family. Children bring grace and love to the family. The more children you have, the more love you have in the family.
- Praise God for giving grace to children. When Our Lady sees children, she sees the likeness of God in them. Our Lady invites us to have babies. In her message on December 25, 2000, Our Lady proclaimed:
“Dear Children, today when God granted to me that I can be with you, with little Jesus in my arms, I rejoice with you and I give thanks to God for everything He has done in this Jubilee year. I thank God especially for all the vocations of those who said ‘yes’ to God completely. I bless you all with my blessing and the blessing of the newborn Jesus. I pray for all of you for joy to be born in your hearts so that in joy you too carry the joy I have today. In this Child I bring to you the Saviour of your hearts and the One who calls you to the holiness of life. Thank you for having responded to my call!” (12/25/2000)
When you go to Bethlehem, open your eyes and pray with baby Jesus in your heart. We will need new born babies to heal our society. All of us need to reject our old life and adopt baby Jesus’ innocence to change this world.
- Our Lady has a plan for each family. There is not one situation that she cannot intervene. She has a plan for peace for each one of us in the family. Family should have children. Each child is a blessing.
- The goal and responsibility of each parent is to receive their children and bring them up to fulfill Our Lady’s plan for them. Our Lady wants to see children to blossom in life. Give your children’s hands to Our Lady and she will lead them to Jesus. Our Lady wants to inspire all parents to follow her example in leading Jesus to fulfill God’s plan for Him.
On Love
- Our Lady wants you to give divine love and not human love to your family. Human love concerns fulfilling materialistic satisfaction for your family, like providing food, cars and other items coming from nature. Matters that come from nature will not stay eternally.
- Divine love is the love that drives your family members to be saints. As parents, we should extend divine love to our children in fulfilling God’s plan for each one of them by leading them to follow a deep Christian life. Trying to realize the desire of God for your children and pray for them that such desire is materialized.
- Here is an example of a mother who gives divine love to one of her sons who became a saint.
- Barbara raised her family in a difficult time when Yugoslavia was under communist rule. She has a great deal of love for Jesus, so much so that she decided to fast three times a week on bread and water and prayed to Jesus with one prayer intention for each one of her family.
- One day, one of his sons came to Barbara and told her that he wanted to be a priest. Barbara supported his wish and his son became a priest. Barbara continued to fast and pray for her priest son to be a holy person and later, he became a Bishop.
- The communist regime wanted to separate the Yugoslavia Church from Rome and this Bishop son fought hard and managed to keep the link with Rome at the expense of being put in prison for a couple of years. Barbara kept supporting her son by visiting him and continued fasting and praying for him to be a more holy person.
- This Bishop son of Barbara was eventually released from prison and was appointed a Cardinal in 1953. He died in 1960 and was canonized as a saint by Pope John Paul II in 1989.
- Barbara’s son is Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac.
With Barbara’s divine love of a mother, she prayed hard for his son to fulfill God’s plan to be a saint. This is not without a great deal of sacrifice, just like Jesus sacrificing his life for mankind.
On Prayer
- We need to pray in order to realize God’s plan for us. Build your relationship with God in prayer.
- When we pray as a family, each member in the family will be inspired by the Holy Spirit. When we pray together, we help each other to do the right thing at the right time. This will save a lot of our time so we can spend more time on prayer.
- Fr. Slavko said, “When you find no time to pray in the day, try to pray at lunch time. You will always find time to eat your lunch.”
- When we pray, pray with love in our heart. Prayer with love will give meaning in our prayer. Prayer without love will lead us to find excuses.
On Confession
- The key thing about confession is to be able to purify your heart. In confession, Jesus will forgive and forget our sins.
- Confession is the gift of joy. Take the bag of joy with you when you leave the confessional.
Our Lady’s Five Weapons
Our Lady gives us these five weapons to lead us to holiness and to fight Satan.
- Pray with our heart. Pray the rosary daily. Pray as a family.
- Read the Holy Bible daily. Keep an open Bible at a convenient place at home for easy access of the family.
- Fasting on Wednesday and Friday with bread and water.
- Go to confession monthly.
- Go to Holy Mass which is the greatest privilege God gives us.
Our Lady, we thank you for appearing in Medjugorje and for teaching us how to pray.