My wonderful family, There are many words or sayings that can be attached to a picture:
* A picture is worth a thousand words. * A beautiful scene. * Awesome! * Wow! * Peaceful! * Isn't that neat? * Wish I were there. * Been there, done that! In the case of the below picture all of those sayings are absolutely correct. However, in this particular picture I believe the following descriptions are a little more definitive: * Faith! * Hope! * Love! * A weapon of Peace! * The weapon of choice. * Abandonment. * Strength! * Into Your Hands O Lord These are excerpts of March 15th report from Medjugorje which really inspired me. 3) This past week a group of Notre Dame students, on their way to Medjugorje for spring break, were in the airport, waiting to board their plane. When one pulled out a rosary the others noticed. Decks of cards, computers, notebooks were quietly put aside. One by one, getting up from where they were sitting, rosaries in hand, they gathered together to pray - even singing the "Ave" between the decades! It was a beautiful sight. In the middle of that bustling airport it did not go unnoticed. Three days later, in a message for World Youth Day 2003, the Holy Father appealed: "Humanity has a decisive need for the witness of free and courageous young people who dare to go against the current and proclaim with force and enthusiasm their own faith in God, Lord and Savior. Don't be ashamed to recite the rosary alone, while going to school, to university or to work, along the street and on public transportation!" (March 11, 2003) This is the fruit of Medjugorje! I witnessed this same fruit 16 years ago as a teacher at St. Joseph Catholic High School (Indiana, USA). A drawer in a desk of the theology department office, for instance, was filled with rosaries. In the previous eleven years it was never touched. I cannot remember a single student or teacher ever taking one. After hearing about Our Lady's apparitions in Medjugorje not only did all those rosaries disappear, but during the next two years I never was able to get my hands on enough rosaries to fill the demand because so many students were asking for them! Students also from Protestant, Jewish, Serbian Orthodox and even atheist families would ask for rosaries for themselves, family members and friends! Girls were asking for rosaries to give to their boy friends, some were beginning to pray on dates. Young people's faith, set on fire by Our Lady's call from Medjugorje, was prompting their entire families to start praying together the rosary! In his message to youth on March 11th the Holy Father continued: "Get into the habit of reciting [the rosary] among yourselves, in your groups, movements and associations; don't hesitate to suggest its recitation at home to your parents and brothers and sisters, because it revives and strengthens the bonds between family members." The rosary prayed by children can save the family! Another student shared that several weeks earlier, her father had come into her bedroom informing her that he and her mother were getting a divorce. Linda, a senior, decided, along with her brother Brian, a sophomore, to go into the basement each night and pray the rosary. One week later her father had again come into her bedroom, she told me, to inform her that the divorce was off. The following week he had gone to Mass with the family for the first time in ten years! She said that the next week their family life was happier than she could remember it ever having been! All this was a result of her and her brother starting to pray the rosary each night. The family was being brought under the protective mantle of Our Lady, Queen of Peace! (see PS). Lets' take up the rosary and recite it whereever we are........ Love n Prayers Your sister Cathy [demime 1.01a removed an attachment of type image/bmp which had a name of Weapon of Peace.bmp] =============================================================================== This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. For more info on the list visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet To unsubscribe from the list send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to the list visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet/join In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] ===============================================================================
