(...)-Maria, you mention the prayer so often that I would like to ask you why you attach so much importance to it.
-Prayer brings us closer to God. Look at it this way. The first thing we give to friends is our time and they do the same. If we don't spend time with our friends, it won't be long before we find ourselves completely alone and lost and in darkness. So when we give our time to a friend we do two things: we listen and we talk. And if we want to preserve their friendship, listening is more important than talking. Two true friends can be very supportive simply by standing next to each other in silence. Most of the time, prayer is simply about being with God in silence: listening to Him, watching Him, and immersing yourself in Him. There is no one whom God ignores. And when we pray, we are spending time with our best friend, the friend who gave us life. Wouldn't it be appropriate then to give him back some of the time he himself has created and given us? I believe it was St. Augustine who said that prayer is man's greatest achievement and God's greatest gift to man.
-What do you think is the biggest mistake we make when we pray?
-It seems to me that many run to God only when they have problems or when they think they need something. Prayers of petition are fine and of course they are also heard, but we should always be praising God and thanking Him for all that He has given us and for all that He has done with us and for us. In our world today there are many ungrateful people who take everything for granted. And that quickly leads to greed and then to hatred. The implicit teaching of today's society, that we should all have equal opportunities to achieve a college degree and a big house with two cars, does not come from God. God reveals his greatest secrets and gives his greatest joys to the least among us.
Satan promises power, influence and success. God promises peace, joy and fulfillment. The most superficial of all prayers is: "God give me this", "God give me that". If we go back to the example of the friend, how long will he stay with us if we do nothing but say, "I need this," "give me this," and "give me that"? Very young children go through this stage of their social development when they discover their own individuality. We see them throwing plastic buckets at another child's head, pulling out their shovel, and throwing sand in their eyes. At this stage they should be taught discipline. Prayers should also include "hello," "thank you," "sorry," and "I love you.
-Then should we learn how to pray and develop it?
-Yes, that's right. We must learn to make it, and develop it, from within, where God performs the greatest of miracles. Truly pious people take nothing for granted and they immediately see, hear and feel the greatness of God in the smallest things, both internally and externally. When we pray, we offer to God all that we have inside and all that is around us. Children learn to speak only when they listen, and this should also happen between the child and God. If the child understands that God is always by his side, then he will quickly learn that he is loved and protected. And this is something that cannot be done by his family and his teachers alone.
A sensitive child who does not know God can feel lost when he learns that his parents and his best friends also make mistakes. Children who do know Him find balance and are greatly strengthened. They are the ones who learn to relate affectively to everyone and everything around them. Children who are denied the opportunity to know God grow up in fear, which leads to the need to seek power, status and material goods. And then they never get to enjoy the peace that God wants for everyone. We cannot blame God for the way the world is today! The world is like this as a consequence of our turning away from Him. Everything that worries and hurts us today is the result of ignoring God. Let us return to Him, let us pray again, and the results will be seen immediately. God is the only friend who never, ever sleeps.
-Then, if we must learn to pray, does that mean that we must first begin by taking little steps, as children do?
-Yes, exactly. As long as we are very aware that we must not judge prayers; there are no small or big prayers, no outstanding or suspenseful prayers. God is God, and the true saint is the one who becomes completely humble before Him. That is why Mother Teresa could say with sincerity: "I am much more sinful than anyone else".
-What would be her advice to someone who has never prayed and wants to start talking to God this evening?
-Turn off the TV, ignore it... or better disconnect the phone, go to your room and close the door. Prayer is the only thing we can afford to be completely selfish about. Then, silently, tell God that you want to be close to Him. It is something that must be done in a habitual way, without letting Satan take us away from God with his "I, I, I" talk. Then, let him learn more about Jesus, his holy family and his disciples. These are small, constant steps to enter into the presence of His total love. Then let him put in a corner of his room, where he finds peace and silence, an image of Jesus or a cross. There you will hear God more clearly. Let him turn his heart towards God. Let him give it to God, only to God, during that time. You can begin, perhaps, with fifteen minutes and gradually increase the time up to one hour. If you pray for a month, you will be surprised at the peace and joy it will bring, but I must warn you of one thing: there will be distractions that try to distract you from prayer and from God. We must ignore them calmly, but firmly, and simply continue to pray.
Then, if we feel the need to change our whole life (and today the world is full of this need) we will have to go to a good priest and tell him that we have enlisted in God's kindergarten and that we want to continue this journey together with other people. For God, we are all in the kindergarten. Conversion implies a change of heart. Conversion means stopping everything that blocks our way to Jesus.
We can then take the Bible and bring it to our "selfish" little corner. If we offer everything to God and his Holy Mother, we will soon find ourselves in a state of peace. There has never been a single person who somewhere in his heart did not feel the need to have peace. God himself has said: "Before you were formed in the womb, I knew you". And that experience (that our soul is in the peace of the Lord) is present in every soul to some degree.
The best teacher to get to God quickly is his Mother, who after all was also his teacher and guide. If Mary is ignored in her church, or if it is argued that her role is not necessary, then the priest should be told to reinstate her worship, or to keep looking until he finds someone who can help us.
Today, there are, for instance, Marian shrines or centers in Medjugorje in practically every state and every country. There you can ask for the messages and take them home. You can study them in our time of meditation, but you should not go too fast. Meditating on a message every three or four days is more than enough. Just as we have all grown little by little, we will also approach Jesus step by step with what she tells us. Once we have taken these small steps to change our lives, we will soon realize (and this I assure you with all my heart) how important they really are. We have to do it with the heart and not with the mind. There are many brilliant theologians who have yet to discover God in the simplest and purest things.
-Do the blessed souls in purgatory say anything when conversions take place in their families?
-Oh yes, they show great, great joy and, of course, they also help in the process of conversion of their relatives.
-Mary, in seeking a church, do you have any suggestions for those of us who want to seek a community to pray in God's presence?
-Only a few suggestions to quickly approach the totality of the truth of the Gospel. Churches that do not speak out clearly against abortion should be avoided. Also those led by a person with too much training and, therefore, too much power; and those that attack the Vatican, and those that carry social acts inside the temples. Those in which it is taught that Satan does not exist should also be avoided. And the "churches" that invite people to participate in certain mental exercises by saying that they bring them closer to God. We cannot forget that Jesus is always with us and we do not need any mental exercise to reach Him!
One should look for a church that believes in the Nicene Creed or the Apostles' Creed, or at least some nearby variant.
-Is there any particular kind of prayer that is better than another?
-No. God knows us infinitely better than we know Him. We have all been created in very different ways, so the best prayer for one is the one in which one prays best. And we must not forget that God knows what is best for us, for the others and for the whole world, so it is best to pray a lot so that God's will is always fulfilled. And in addition to praying, it would be very good to follow the advice of Jesus in the Gospel, and likewise to pray for the good of others.
And in addition to praying, it would be very good to follow the advice of Jesus in the Gospel, and also to begin to fast.
Fasting benefits our prayer life immensely, and prayer will help us to fast. There are many good books on fasting. With the combination of prayer and fasting we come much more quickly to God and to His Mother in Heaven. Let us be like children and surrender to them with complete trust. Together with them we will find peace and the true joy of being alive.
-What in your opinion is the correct definition of fasting?
-Fasting, as practiced and taught by Jesus, as well as prayer, is a spiritual discipline that we must initially attain when it comes to consuming food. Our Mother teaches that the ideal is to eat bread and water at least one day (or two or three days) a week preferably on Fridays . But this should also be done slowly and cautiously, and never, for example, against the recommendations of the doctor. We must always fast in a prudent manner, as God would have us do.
Fasting also means abstaining from things, situations, persons or temptations that can easily separate us from what Jesus wants for us. Situations that control us and make us lose the freedom to do good deeds. The list is endless, of course, since we are all different from each other.
Something that may be a temptation to you may not be to me and vice versa. In our hearts we know more than anyone else what attracts us most, and we must always strive to be honest and clear about what we do not need. Fasting means holding back to the point where we can see that God is doing more for us than the world around us. Fasting is another powerful way to reach God, and it is very important because each of our souls is much more valuable to Him than the entire universe.
I know people who have fasted for seven, eight, or nine years continuously, and when they stopped fasting, they had been transformed inwardly in a way that could be considered totally miraculous. What God had done in them cannot be accomplished by any other method or teaching that exists in the world.
Fasting helps us to pray more easily, and prayer also makes it much easier for us to fast, and fasting for the souls in Purgatory is also a great help to them, a help for which they will be eternally grateful.
Today there is a great need for TV fasting. Thus, we will help those souls who did not fulfill their family obligations or left their children behind. I know that Purgatory is full of such cases. I insist, the value of fasting has no limit. A small fast of something brings much good, as does a small prayer.
-Can you give me an example of a little prayer that has made a big difference?
-Yes, every prayer, however small, is heard. Let me think. Oh, yes, and in this case too it is a soul that came to me some years ago.
One evening, a man came to me, and after having told me what I needed to be freed, he stood in front of me and asked me: "Do you know me? I had to answer him no. Then he reminded me that many years ago, in 1932, when I was only seventeen years old, he had traveled with me for a short time in the same compartment of a train in the direction of Hall.
Then I remembered. This man had complained bitterly about the Church and religion, and I responded to his complaints by telling him that he was not a good person for criticizing such sacred things. My answer surprised him, made him angry and he said, "You are still too young to give me a sermon. Then I simply couldn't resist being a little rude and shouted at him, "I'm still smarter than you! ". That was it, she started reading the paper and didn't say another word. When she arrived at her station and got off the train, all I did was pray down: "Jesus, don't let this soul get lost. And when he introduced himself to me, he told me that this little prayer had saved him from getting lost.
-Maria, are there any prayers that you are particularly fond of?
-In my case? Not really, but I love to witness what happens to those who discover what prayer really is.
I often encourage people to rediscover Jesus in Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. It is an enormous grace and a source of healing and miracles that has been drastically abandoned by what is now called the modern Church. Doing Adoration two or three times a week would bring peace to whole countries.
For my part, I have a special love for the rosary, which is so purifying, especially for families.
And I often recommend the prayers of St. Bridget of Sweden, who received two sets of prayers from Our Lord and one from Our Lady.
One of Our Lord's is prayed for one year, while the other received from Our Mother is prayed for twelve years. From Our Mother he received daily devotion to his Seven Sorrows. Our Lord and His Mother promised St. Bridget so many graces for the souls who pray these prayers that we must make them much more known than they are today.
Our Lord's promises to those who will pray the series for twelve years are as follows I remember them because they are only five; yet the immensity of these five promises is undeniable. To all those who pray these prayers Our Lord promises:
He who prays them will not suffer in purgatory.
He who prays them will be accepted among the martyrs as if he had shed his blood for faith.
The one who prays them can choose three other persons whom Jesus will keep in a state of grace sufficient to make them holy.
No one, of the next four generations of those who pray these prayers, will be lost.
The one who prays them will be warned of his death one month before it occurs.
But I would like to warn that no one should think that one can continue to live as he wants and that these prayers are a guarantee to go straight to Heaven. One must live close to God in all sincerity while praying these prayers, and from then on. Because whoever thinks he can outsmart the light of God will be very uncomfortable surprise when the time comes to go to it.
-Can the souls in Purgatory ask their relatives for other things than prayers?
-Sometimes, yes, a soul who has shortened his life by smoking too much may come and ask a relative to stop smoking for a while. Then this would be a fast, of course.
-What is the importance or the spiritual meaning of joining hands when we pray?
-If we join hands while praying, God gives us more thanks. This is what the souls have told me.
-How much should we pray for others as opposed to what we pray for ourselves?
-Oh! -We should pray much more for others than for ourselves. As a rule we should do less for ourselves and give more to others. That is what God wants from us.
Get us out of here!
Interview with Maria Simma Nicky Eltz