Thursday, August 19, 2010

Behold, I Have Prepared My Banquet

“Behold, I have prepared my banquet,

my calves and fattened cattle are killed,
and everything is ready; come to the feast…..” Matthew 22:4

But they refused to come.



Lord, you have prepared a seat at your table for me,
my invitation has arrived.

Excitedly, I tear open the envelope to see what hides inside.

The elegant design and fine script give only a small hint of what is in store for me,

But as I see the date and time of the event, I realize that I can’t make it. I must decline.


What keeps us from the banquet of life to which the Lord has called us? For some of us, it could be past hurts, for some of us it could be the inability to forgive, for many of us it could be the inability to forgive ourselves.

Whatever the reason is that separates us from the banquet of life, we can be assured that the divine mercy of our Lord Jesus can reunite us. A broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not scorn. Psalm 51:17

The Sacrament of Reconciliation gives us the grace to conquer sin, from the greatest offenses down to the least.

Our Lady asks us to go to monthly confession. Pilgrims who come to Medjugorje are always impressed by the number of people waiting in line for confession and the number of priests hearing confession. Many priests have had extraordinary experiences during confessions in Medjugorje. Many of pilgrims who have come to Medjugorje go to Confession for the first time in 20, 30, 40, even 50 years. It is one of the fruits and miracles of Medjugorje.

"Make your peace with God and among yourselves. For that, it is necessary to believe, to pray, to fast, and to go to confession." BVM (June 26, 1981)

"Pray, pray! It is necessary to believe firmly, to go to confession regularly and, likewise, to receive Holy Communion. It is the only salvation." BVM (February 10, 1982)

"Whoever has done very much evil during his life can go straight to Heaven if he confesses, is sorry for what he has done, and receives Communion at the end of his life."BVM  (July 24, 1982)

6 comments:

kam said...

There are so many reasons for not acting on God's call. I know what mine were (and sometimes still are!) and I pray every day that I will continue to see the 'lamp on the stand.' When I read this reading today I had never felt it as much as this time, how who Our Lord speaks about and the timelessness of the problem. Seek His face constantly, and do not swerve from the path. Do not let the world pull me/you/us away from Him. It is so easy to let happen. Very nice post. k

Unknown said...

I agree with KAM- lovely post. The devil as well as our own issues try to keep us from accepting and keeping the invitation Our Lord offers.

Karen said...

Love this post! Reconciliation rocks!

Anne said...

Ditto to the above comments-this is wonderful!

Victor S E Moubarak said...

Thank you for this lovely post. God bless.

Abbey's Road said...

Such a beautiful and IMPORTANT subject of your post. Sometimes, I know I felt that, if I place myself in that position, in church, on my knees, wherever - that I would somehow not measure up or would do or say something out of place and embarrass myself. Well, my dearest, once I got that FIRST Reconciliation behind me when I converted to Catholicism, I learned that where God is, Love lives, and there is nothing that I cannot say or how I say it that is embarrassing. In fact, I feel SO MUCH BETTER once I have been at the table of the Lord!

God love you, sweet one,
Abbey ♥