5 Begin 3

Prayer ~~ "Come Holy Spirit! Come and transform the hearts of all your people! Come quickly, so we may at long last "see" the new heavens and new earth!"

From the GREAT JUBILEE Year 2000, immeasurable graces and blessings have been bestowed upon all who ask and whose hearts are "open" to receive them because Our Lady of Guadalupe is pleading with each and every one of us, her children, to prepare ourselves to become the apostles (meaning "one who is sent" to fulfill a task) of the NEW evangelization!

This apostleship must begin with our own "personal" encounter with the
"Living" Jesus Christ!

JESUS CHRIST AROSE BODILY FROM THE DEAD!

We must all come to realize that these were not just HAPPENINGS that occurred
21 centuries ago, but that Jesus Christ is alive!

Repentance
and
Conversion

Jesus is the door

Heaven

Direct path

If we have listened, we have used the "key" of repentance and conversion to "open the door," which is Jesus Christ! "The strength to pass through that 'door' comes from our faith and hope and love."
(words taken directly from the Papal homily given in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, at the Mass celebrated on 11/27/99 )

We have also discovered that there is a direct path which God had originally intended for us to follow.
It is our own, personal encounter with the "Living" Jesus Christ that leads directly to this pathway that leads us to Heaven.

The path is "narrow" (Matthew 7:14) but it is brightened by the truth and the love of the

"Living" Jesus Christ!

As the Angel Gabriel came to the Virgin Mary to announce the birth of our Lord, so
Our Lady of Guadalupe comes to announce the Birth of a New Age!

As each person has his own, individual encounter with the "Living" Jesus Christ, THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT WILL CHANGE!

It will be a world that no longer condones death at any stage of one's life cycle ~~ born or unborn or at any level of one's existence ~~ rich or poor, young or old, productive or non-productive

It will be a world that no longer condones the darkness of deception, but one that is filled with the Light of TRUTH!

It will be a world that no longer is filled with anger, resentment and despair, but one brimming over with LOVE and HOPE.

Because Jesus had a human mother, Mary, He is not only our Lord and our Savior, but
He is also our Brother!

Encountering the "Living" Jesus Christ, who is our Brother, will bring about the conversion of all sinners. We will be able to enter into an intimate spiritual relationship with Him and when we are in communion with Him, we will be able to enter into this same relationship with all of our "brothers and sisters" throughout the entire world.

The true communion with one another will then bring about an indestructible solidarity in our LOVE and our FAITH!!

In the Gospel accounts of the New Testament, we see that Jesus had many encounters with sinners, non-believers, and idol worshippers. Why would Jesus, being Who He was, holy and sinless, talk to these kinds of people?

Was it to reveal to them His "light" which reflected that of Everlasting Life and to save them from the darkness of eternal death?

One example of a non-believer, was the Samaritan woman, whom Jesus asked for a drink of water. (John 4:7-29) Jesus was not only thirsty for a drink of cool water, but appears to be "thirsty" for her "belief" or faith in who He really was. When Jesus spoke of the living water, she did not understand, but asked Jesus what it meant. When she realized she was speaking to Jesus, the Messiah, she went to the towns people and told them.

You might say she evangelized, or spread the Good News about the Light of Life that she recognized in the "Living" Jesus Christ.

A second example, is the meeting between Jesus and Zacchaeus. (Luke 19:1-10) Zacchaeus was a tax collector, who cheated innocent people, because he worshipped money. After his encounter with the "Living" Christ, he was converted. How was he converted? After being exposed to the Light of Christ, Zacchaeus realized how he had cheated the people, so he made amends by sharing his wealth with the poor. He willingly gave up his material goods in order to share them with those less fortunate.

Mary Magdalene's encounter with the "Living" Jesus Christ was a little different. She was the first to see the Risen Lord. (John 20: 12-18) Jesus urges her to "go and proclaim" to the disciples that He has risen, as He promised.

On the way to a city called Emmaus, Jesus talked with His disciples using passages from the Scriptures. After the disciples recognized the Risen Christ, they went on to Jerusalem to meet with the Apostles and His other faithful followers, in order to share the experience of their encounter with the "Living" Jesus Christ. (Luke 24:25-35)

All of these people had come from very different backgrounds, but what they had in common was that they all realized that once they had had their own personal encounter with the "Living" Jesus Christ, they felt compelled to SPREAD the GOOD NEWS of the LIGHT OF CHRIST!

Once our hearts are "on fire" with the LOVE of having encountered the "Living" Jesus Christ,

So we may help bring all His children out of the darkness of sin and unbelief and into the light of goodness and love.

He reminds us that there are more atheists (those who do not believe in the existence of God) throughout the world today than when Jesus came the first time. Almost the entire world knows "of " the historical figure, Jesus Christ, but more than 2/3 of the world

still does not really "know" Him!

The abundance of graces and blessings being bestowed since the GREAT JUBILEE YEAR will allow all people to "know" Christ ~~ not just the human man who walked and talked on this Earth, but the God-Man who is still alive!

Apostles are needed to personally introduce Christ to those who only know "of " Him.

Our LABOR OF LOVE will be to assist them in developing a real
trusting and loving relationship with Him.

You see, as apostles of the "New" Evangelization, it will be our turn to lovingly take our brothers and sisters by the hand and lead them to JESUS CHRIST,
Who is not dead,