Heart to Heart
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This Advent, our parish is launching Heart to Heart, an initiative to ignite a deeper love for Jesus and each other by committing to a rule of life inspired by the 5 stones of Medjugorje. Together, we’ll prepare the way of the Lord in our hearts so we can radiate His Sacred Heart to every soul we encounter.For Jesus to be King of the Universe, he must first be King of my heart.
What are the 5 Stones:- Sunday Mass and Holy Days
- Daily meditation on scripture
- Daily Rosary
- Monthly confession
- Fasting or some form of penance
Advent marks the start of the Church’s New Year—what better time to embrace these essentials of prayer, fasting, Scripture, the Eucharist, and Confession as a family? Guided by Our Blessed Mother’s wisdom, we’ll journey from simple steps to transformative living, with opportunities for all ages: homily series, book studies, blogs, podcasts, and daily reflections.Our 2025 vision:
500 homes committed to the 5 stones by Christmas.
1,200 Homes by Easter.
Each week of Advent we will highlight and unpack the depths of each of the 5 stones and how they connect to the perennial themes of each week of Advent.- 12/1 - Hope: What are the 5 stones?
- 5 Stones Theme: Fasting and Mass
- 12/8 - Peace: Resting in the peace of Reconciliation with our Lord
- 5 Stones Theme: Confession
- 12/15 - Joy: Knowing Jesus in our heart of hearts is the fuel of Joy
- 5 Stones Theme: Scripture
- 12/22 - Love: The Rosary tells the story of love, the weapon of love
- 5 Stones Theme: Pray the rosary
Join us in building a movement of grace—because every heart matters to His Sacred Heart. -
Tell me more about the messages from medjugorje
Messages given by Our Lady in Medjugorje began in the summer of 1981 and first appeared to six children in the small village of Medjugorje in what at the time was war-torn Bosnia-Hezegovina.
Summarizing her overall message, advice, and wishes, and to underpin and support her five key themes of Peace, Faith, Conversion, Prayer, and Fasting, Our Lady in her messages gives us what may be described as five stones, similar in a way to the five stones David used to slay Goliath (1st Samuel, Chapter 17).
The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, with the assent of Pope Francis, has given its approval on Sept. 19, 2024 to the promotion of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title “The Queen of Peace,” linked to the “Medjugorje phenomenon.”
It gave the nihil obstat (“no objection”) to the Medjugorje phenomenon, this means, as the relevant norm states, that, “Without expressing any certainty about the supernatural authenticity of the phenomenon itself, many signs of the action of the Holy Spirit are acknowledged ‘in the midst’ of a given spiritual experience, and no aspects that are particularly critical or risky have been detected, at least so far.”
“The time has come to conclude a long and complex history that has surrounded the spiritual phenomena of Medjugorje. It is a history in which bishops, theologians, commissions, and analysts have expressed a series of divergent opinions.” The Vatican emphasized that the nihil obstat “does not imply that the alleged supernatural events are declared authentic. Instead, it only highlights that the Holy Spirit is acting fruitfully for the good of the faithful ‘in the midst’ of this spiritual phenomenon of Medjugorje.”“The positive fruits are most evident in the promotion of a healthy practice of a life of faith, in accordance with the tradition of the Church. The uniqueness of the place lies in the large number of such fruits: abundant conversions, a frequent return to the sacraments (particularly, the Eucharist and Reconciliation), many vocations to priestly, religious, and married life, a deepening of the life of faith, a more intense practice of prayer, many reconciliations between spouses, and the renewal of marriage and family life. It should be noted that such experiences occur above all in the context of pilgrimages to the places associated with the original events rather than in meetings with the ‘visionaries’ to be present for the alleged apparitions. -Vatican's approval of Medjugorje devotion, 9/19/2024
These five stones are essential for protecting our conversion, and in turn to aid the conversion and protection of others. -
We will be mapping the growth of homes committing to the live the 5 stones of Medjugorje.
