Tautų SEKMINĖS Lietuvoje, 2008. Liudijimas

This year I feasted Pentecost in a special place where Mary appeared 400 years ago: Shiluva. For me that was a special experience to feast Pentecost in the oldest recognized Marian apparition place of Europe. I believe that there is a special link between Mary and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit hurries there where Mary is present.

I arrived in Shiluva with the charismatic community Gyvieji Akmenys on a Friday, and we lived together in the house of Algis Jakelis from Kaunas, who bought that house and renovated it. I met Algis first time in Lourdes in 2005, and after he came with me to Shiluva thinking that something must be done in Shiluva. So, it was quite providential that he bought that house. Friday evening, Gyvieji Akmenys was invited to lead the praising of the Lord. Different communities, who I know myself, participated in this wonderful praising and singing. It was really so powerful.

Saturday was the day of preparation for Pentecost. I myself prayed like a small pilgrim in the different places: adoration of the Holy Sacrament in the Seminary Chapel of John Paul II; prayer in the Basilica and in the apparition chapel. Saturday evening, I joined the healing prayer-group of Vilma, and we prayed until 2 o’clock in the morning. It happened that we had to celebrate birthday everyday: Algis on Friday, Giedre on Saturday, and Vilma on Sunday. But Pentecost was also our birthday; the birthday of the Church.

Sunday was the big day. We had such a wonderful weather that the Lord gave to us. It is true that I expected a bigger crowd, but the quality of prayer of the assembly was very deep and praying. It was more a hidden experience. There was a special atmosphere. It was a real Pentecost. It was wonderful to see the enthusiast young people waving with the different colored flags. They were praying with their body. The highest point was of course the Holy Mass with the archbishop from Kaunas, and especially the communion with the Lord where we became one spirit and one body.

The Agape lunch time was marvelous where I could meet people I did not see since a long time. I had some promising and providential meetings. I liked very much the fact that the archbishop prayed personally on the people. In the evening, we had a praise concert close to the school, and some were dancing in rounds.

After Pentecost should be mission of evangelization. On Monday, some of the communities went to evangelize in different places. I went with a group of Gyvieji Akmenys to Raseiniai where we evangelized in 2 schools. Many pupils were gathered in a big hall and they enjoyed our good humor, our witness, and our songs. “Why do they not come more often?” they said. One of the big joys was that another group of another community (sister Celina and a group among which were also some seminars) joined us in our evangelization.

Personally, I prepared this Pentecost with a book I received from a priest who works in Lourdes. He writes that there is distinction between Pentecost in Judea and in Galilee. The angels and the risen Jesus told to the women: “Go and tell to my brothers that they should go to Galilee and there they shall see me.”(Mt 28, 10) Galilee is the place of the mystery of Incarnation where we learn quietly to live like children of God. Judea is more a noisy and dangerous place like our secularized Christian world today. For me Galilee was Shiluva this time, far away from the cities marked by the world spirit. When Mary and Joseph found Jesus in the temple when he was 12, she said:” Your father and me we are looking for you anxiously” (Lc 2, 48). These words are in fact for everybody of us. “And Jesus went down with them, entered “Nazareth”, and was obedient to them.” (Lc 2, 51) And Jesus went down to the more protected world of Nazareth in Galilee, in the house of Joseph. For me it was a sign that there was hanging a picture of that scene of the 12th old Jesus where we were eating in the Seminary house. “Nazareth in Galilee” also for me was Shiluva. Shiluva is a peaceful place which allows us to become like “children of the Kingdom”. Shiluva was a Pentecost of Galilee, of “the new and bigger holy family”, where we can live the mystery of the hidden wisdom: “You are dead and you are hidden with Christ in God.” (Col 3, 3).

Shiluva was a real blessing, and now I feel again filled with energy to evangelize everywhere the Lord sends me to.

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Grace of Renewal in Galilee (Shiluva)

I lived this time the grace of Renewal in a complete new way. The angels and Jesus himself said to the holy women:

"Go and tell to the brothers that Jesus precedes them in Galilee and that they shall see Him there.” They meet him at the see or at the mountain where he sends them on mission.

This year with 60, I lived Pentecost and the grace of the Renewal in Galilee, in Nazareth, that means in Shiluva with Mary and Joseph, the New Jerusalem of Europe this year. It is the grace to live “in the Beginning” where God can create, operate without disturbance and without any hinder ness. All is fresh, new, and perfect. We are not going back, but we go to the “World of Beginning”; which we find in Nazareth and in Bethlehem; the World of the spiritual Childhood.

Mary says to me: “Your father and me, we are looking for you”! Lc 2, 48

Pentecost in Galilee is different from the first Pentecost in Judea. It is slower and more peaceful; more hidden and more secure; it is the rhythm of the family and of the small children. The grace of the Renewal for me shall be:

1) “You are dead and you are hidden in Christ Jesus”. Col 3, 3

2) “To find and to enter the small door; this leads to life and which little people find.” Mt 6, 14; The Doorkeeper Jn 10, 3

3) “Place where he can reveal himself and the Father to the very small ones.” Mt 11, 25

4) “Where I can learn to become like a spiritual child (the perfection of the Christian) who can enter the Kingdom. Be like children, because the Kingdom belongs to them!” Mt 18, 2-5; 19, 14.

5) “Where we can learn to be prudent like a snake and candid like a coulomb for to be sent like sheep among the wolves.” Mt 10, 16

6) “Where I can be at his school to discover him as soft and humble of heart.” Mt 11, 29

It is Pentecost of Galilee with Mary and Joseph and the child Jesus.

It is the Pentecost of the New Evangelization of the Baptized.

There is a difference between of the grace of Pentecost in Judea, which is fast and chocking, and the Pentecost in Galilee, which is the rhythm of the small ones and of the Holy Family.

There is a difference between the mission in and from Judea and in and from Galilee. Judea is dangerous and open to persecution. It is the place of the top of the flesh man symbolized by the Temple. Galilee is peaceful, hidden, more protected, closer to the Beginning and to the Source; a place where everything is one and together. Christian life starts at the Cross, but we are living the real Shabbat, the 7th day, at the tomb of Jesus where the body is resting of his salvation work but where the Spirit is superactif. But this Shabbat, the other world, can be lived fully in the House of Joseph where everything is hidden. Today in Lithuanian we are invited to live the mission of Galilee, more hidden and more efficient.

This is symbolized by Shiluva.

Kaunas, 2008 05 17

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