Sunday, October 13, 2012
My Thirty-day Retreat – Part 6
Dear Friends,
I send you another part of my book “My Thirty-day Retreat” and this is Part 6. May the Lord bless you all.
Father Melvin
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3rd May 1990 – The first hour of prayer was filled with great joy as I contemplated the scene in Galilee (Mt. 28, 16 – 20), where Jesus appears to the Apostles and sends them out to go and make disciples of all nations and at the end He said: “I am with you all always, until the end of the age.” At the end He spoke to me about the new Society saying, “I will give you a prayer to My Blessed Mother which all members will recite daily.” He then dictated it to me and I wrote it down as the words came. Here is the prayer:
Prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary – Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, Mother of the Church and Mother of all believers: you are the bright star of our lives. We venerate you, Mary, Mother of Jesus, conceived without sin, ever virgin. We come to you, your children, full of love and respect. We ask you to protect us and may you always show your maternal care to us all.
We dedicate ourselves to you today, dear Mother, to work in close union with you for the spread of the Kingdom of God in our midst. We resolve to follow Jesus, your divine Son, by a life of poverty, chastity and obedience, modelled on the life He led while on earth. Obtain for us dearest Mother, the grace, the strength, and the resolve to work only for Jesus without counting the cost. Help us we pray, to sow love among all the people we meet, and bring us all one day with You in Heaven to live in happiness with the Father, with Jesus, our Brother, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
What a beautiful prayer from Jesus this is! It shows what love Jesus has for His Mother and we too must have this same love. We see also what role our Heavenly Mother has in our salvation. She can give us the graces we need on our journey. At the end of this hour Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid, I will guide you. I love you.”
At the second hour I was again filled with great joy in the presence of Jesus. I spent the whole hour praising and glorifying Him. What Easter joy! What great love!
At 2:30 I began my third prayer session and during this time Jesus spoke to me about the Society, “The members will have a strong family spirit, be welcoming to everybody, and open to each other. They will share intimately among themselves, especially at community meetings. All must feel at home. Certain feasts are to be kept for the building up of this spirit. Among them the birthdays of the members will be celebrated. As regards the liturgical feasts they will be celebrated in a solemn way. These feasts are Christmas, Easter, Epiphany, the solemn days of Holy Week, Ascension, Pentecost, and the feast of our Mother: the Annunciation, the Assumption, the Immaculate Conception and Her Birthday. Every year the 4th May will be celebrated as the Feast of the Society called the Feast of Jesus, our Brother, and Mary, our Mother. You will celebrate these feasts with a special “agape”, and I will be present in spirit. At the beginning of the meal there will be a passage of the Gospel read, a hymn will be sung and a prayer will be recited. The Servant will give all the members a special greeting. Brothers will wear their religious habit at all community meals. Visitors can be invited to partake of the feast and the meal. As we are on the subject of meals, I remind you that on ordinary Fridays, there will be no meal in the evening for the members of the Society. This is in remembrance of my suffering and death for each of you.”
During the last period of prayer, I prayed especially for the Church. Jesus’ words were, “Pray for the Church, the Pope, the Bishops, the priests, the religious, the families and the youth. Pray for the whole Church that all may have a deeper commitment to Me.”
4th May 1990: The Apparitions – This morning at 6:15 – 7:15, I read the text: John 20, 19 – 23: The Apostles see Jesus. What joy filled their hearts and mine. At the end I prayed for all missionaries that they may have Jesus’ strength to convert the world. Jesus told me, “I will help you. Pray, pray every day.”
The second period of prayer was 8:30 to 9:30, and the text was on the doubting Thomas: John 20, 24 – 29. During the meditation, it came very strong to me the importance of a strong confirmation by Jesus that He wants me to begin the Brothers and Sisters of Jesus. Otherwise I could suffer like Thomas, from grave doubts that I’m fooling myself, and that the inspiration does not come from Jesus. I prayed, “Lord, Help my weak faith.” Jesus spoke about the importance of prayer in the Twin Societies. He said, “The Brothers and Sisters of mine will not neglect prayers. They will pray every day like this: 1. half hour meditation (or contemplation) daily preferably in the morning; 2. pray the Breviary; 3. participate in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist; 4. pray the rosary; 5. make a visit every day to the Blessed Sacrament together; 6. recite together the prayer to Our Lady. Besides these there will be the monthly recollection, the Sacrament of Reconciliation or confession, and an annual retreat. Once a year the Brothers and Sisters will undertake a pilgrimage and call the people to join them. All those who can will walk to the place chosen for the pilgrimage.”
Jesus added these words concerning work, “The main work of the Society will be the evangelisation of the people in the world and preferably the rural people. I must penetrate the hearts and minds of all. So, bring them to me, with them we will build a strong Church. All will be well trained for their work. They will be dedicated to me and devoted to their work. They will remind themselves continuously that it is my work they are doing, and that they should do it with me. Let them see their work as a prayer. I command you to: work with love, love for the people with and for whom you work. You must treat each person as if he or she was I.”
In the last two periods I took this text: John 21, 1 – 25. Jesus’ appearance to the Apostles near the lake, and the threefold question addressed to Peter, “Do you love me more than these?” Jesus had addressed this very question to me at the beginning of the retreat. He wants me to love Him more. I offered myself totally to Him. During the last period, Jesus brought me to visit Our Lady once again. How happy She was. What joy it was for Her to see Jesus again. She told us about Her suffering at the foot of the Cross seeing Jesus in such suffering. She then turned to me, her priest-son, and very tenderly said, “How important it is for you to bring the people to Jesus, that they may know Him. Evangelization will be the most important work for the Society. They will have to be taught right from the beginning the proper method to follow. Don’t wait till they enter the seminary to be taught these things. Once they are taught, they can start to do many things after six months in the Society. Train them to do the following:
1. How to visit the people having a purpose in mind; 2. How to start Small Christian Communities and how to train the leaders; 3. How to teach catechetics to the young; 4. How to animate groups for the young; 5. To teach the young how to pray alone and in church or in groups; 6. To teach about the sacraments and self-denial; 7. How to bring them to Jesus and love Him; 8. To give the young a horror of sin; 9. How to pray the rosary; 10. To teach the young the meaning of all that is done and used during the celebration of the Holy Eucharist.”
Our Lady also spoke about the habit of the Twin Society. She said, “I am a woman, so I am very interested in symbol and clothes. I would like to impress on you that it is important to have a religious habit, and to wear it at all times. You have already a design which is a long white garment with a red or blue yoke on which are two crosses, one in front and one in the back. The white symbolizes purity, purity of heart which all will acquire, and the yoke, and the cross symbolizes the Passion and Death of Jesus on the Cross. It should remind you constantly of the great love that Jesus has for you as a member of the Society. The title, Brother or Sister of Jesus, is very significant as each one is to have a special relationship with Jesus who is their Brother. This relationship will have to be strengthened daily through prayer and work.” I thanked Our Lady for the inspiring words She gave me, and I thanked Jesus for His company.
5th May 1990 – During the first period of prayer, Jesus spoke to me again about the Society. He said, “This Society will play an important role in bringing my salvation to the world. It is not a Society only for Zambia, but it is for the whole world. You must be open to the whole world: to other countries in Africa, to the Moslem world, to the Americas, to Asia and to Europe. Make sure that you don’t accept or copy the ways of the religious in the West.
You will fight secularism in all its forms. Remain poor as I was poor. Melvin, you must have a wide vision. I will use the Society to Christianize the cultures, the ways, the mentalities of the various people of the world. How important it is that the Brothers and Sisters have this mentality that I am giving you. The whole Society will be centred on me. Bring everything to me in prayer, and don’t act before I have given my consent. I want to be the heart of this New Society. Let pictures and statues of me abound in the house to remind all that it is my Society. The Brothers and Sisters will come forward with their own special art. Put texts of mine and my Father’s everywhere, i.e. the story of Tabor. Every room should remind you of me, and that I live there. I would like a picture of myself made by a member of the Society. This picture will express the artist’s idea of myself as his or her Brother. This picture will be multiplied and will be displayed everywhere. I tell you all this because I want to be the soul of the Brothers and Sisters of Jesus. In this way each one will be aware of my presence at all times. I will be in them, and they will be in me. Read John Chapter 17. This text is a foundation text for the Society.” My meditation was on the text of John about the appearance at Tabor, and the words of the Father: “This is my Son, the chosen one, listen to Him.”
At about 12:00 noon I felt a great desire to pray. This special grace stayed with me the whole afternoon and during my two periods of prayer I was drawn to God by this grace. It was impossible to think or to have any mental activity but only to be concentrated on Jesus. I am just there, as if before God, and my heart, my soul, my spirit is adoring God. There is a great peace, but God is silent. I am just carried as if I am going to pass out of this life. I could not concentrate on any text.
In my last period I took the Beatitudes in Luke: 6. I spent all my time on the first Beatitude: How happy are you who are poor. I saw how Jesus loves the poor. I’ve lived with the poor in Zambia for over twenty years and I know what it is. For the love of Jesus I would work with them all my life.