I recently had the pleasure of hearing a woman talk about her experience visiting Medjugorje. (For general information on Medjugorje, you can visit http://www.medjugorje.org/)
It was lovely and inspiring and a beautiful testament to faith.
One of the words that she used is during her story is Invitation. She said she was invited to visit the sacred space. I don’t mean invited like she received a written invitation but that she was invited in a bigger, more spiritual sense.
You know when someone mentions something to you and you get a spark in your mind or heart about that thing and you want to experience it. You may have a feeling that you need to experience it. You are drawn to it and you can’t shake the feeling that you should go. That’s an invitation.
What should you do?
YOU SHOULD GO!!
I believe when this happens it is the holy spirit. You can call it what you want but it is not a coincidence that you are hearing about this or experiencing this now. There is no such thing as coincidence.
While this woman was speaking, I cried. (I believe tears and goose bumps are a sure sign that the holy spirit is working.) She gave an authentic testimony to faith and miracles in her life. She experienced them, she told me, I believe her and my faith is strengthened.
That’s how it works. We are meant to share our stories. We are meant to inspire other people to tell theirs.
In my faith sharing group, we learned about what Thomas Merton wrote. He said that we should think of “all the events of our lives as God’s “words” for the nourishing of our spiritual lives.” We should meditate on and contemplate all of our experiences as if they were classes in God’s school of wisdom.
We learn of God through the Bible. And we learn of God through our lives. Like Psalm 119 says, “The Unfolding of your word gives light and teaches the simple.” The Word – being both the Word of the Bible and the experiences of our lives.
Through both things, the truth unfolds and brings light. We just have to say yes to the invitation.