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Ave Maria
Milan: January 1, 2005
Year of the Eucharist
TO THE NATIONAL AND REGIONAL DIRECTORS OF THE M.M.P. :
Dear
Brothers,
At the beginning of this new
year, that opens under the luminous sign of the Eucharist, I am
spiritually close to you to offer you my affectionate greeting of peace.
In these times of the great
tribulation, in which sufferings are increasing for all, because we are living
the hour of darkness and of the great power that Satan is exercising upon a
humanity that has returned to being pagan – a victim of practical atheism and of
materialism, with the Law of God being violated and trampled, both at the
individual and social levels – the certainty that Jesus remains with us, really
present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, becomes for us a cause of joy and
of great hope.
Mane nobiscum Domine: Stay
with us Lord.
For this reason, the Holy Father
Pope John Paul II has established that the time between October 2004 and October
2005 be lived out as the Year of the Eucharist.
Let us in the Marian Movement of
Priests be particularly happy to welcome the Pope’s invitation and to unite
ourselves with Mary in Cenacles of love, of adoration and of reparation to Jesus
present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
In 2004, I was able to take part
in regional cenacles in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru,
Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Austria, Germany and Portugal. With 60 flights, I
visited 105 cities and presided over 136 cenacles, in which 65 bishops, 1,900
priests and 450,000 faithful participated.
In Collevalenza [Italy], at the
Spiritual Exercises [Retreat] held in the form of a continuous cenacle, one
Cardinal, 24 archbishops and bishops, and about 300 priests from the five
continents took part.
I am very united with you in
your commitment to the Marian Movement of Priests, for the spread of the
Cenacles among priests and faithful, particularly the family Cenacles.
To give you a sign of my
spiritual unity, I welcome the idea of transcribing the four recorded
meditations I gave during the Spiritual Exercises in Collevalenza, from June 29
to July 5, 2003, and of gathering them together in a booklet. They will serve to
help you understand in greater depth the spirit of this Work of Our Lady, that
today must be known, because the times of our public witness have arrived.
I am especially close to you
during the moments of great difficulty through which you are living: some have
been stricken by incurable illnesses, others by spiritual and moral sufferings.
How true it is that the Immaculate Heart of Mary has become the altar upon which
we are being immolated as victims for the salvation of the world!
I entrust to the Will of the
Lord and to the design of the Immaculate Heart of Mary the fulfillment of the
schedule of cenacles which I have prepared for this year.
1.
THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES
In Collevalenza, from June 26 – July 2,
at the Shrine of Merciful Love, there will take place the
Spiritual Exercises [Retreat] for the bishops and priests of the Marian Movement
of Priests from Europe, America, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
I inform you of the following:
a)
There will be room for all in the same house. Few laypersons will be
allowed to attend, and only those who have a position of responsibility in the
M.M.P.
b) I
invite the priests to bring with them
their surplus Mass intentions
to be offered as fraternal assistance to those who find themselves in
financial difficulty.
c) As
always, address all inquiries and reservation requests to:
P. Florio Quercia S.J.
Via Fagiuoli, 1
57125 Livorno
Tel. & Fax: +39 0586 211082
Tel. +39 333 6322248 (personal)
Email: querciaflorio@tiscali.it
Priests from
the United States may contact:
Rev. Albert G. Roux,
National Director
St. Francis, ME 04774-0008
Tel. (207) 398-3375
2.
REGIONAL CENACLES ABROAD:
Unfortunately, my precarious
state of health and the burden of age do not allow me to accept the warm
invitations that I received to participate in cenacles in Oceania, Africa, Asia
and North America.
Still, I propose to go from
January 13 to March 22 to Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and
Peru; on June 25 to Slovenia; from August 28 to September 4 to the
Republic of Czechoslovakia; from Sept. 4 to 11 to Slovakia; from
Sept. 12 to 19 to Hungary; from Sept. 20 to 25 to Croatia;
from Sept. 26 to 28 to Slovenia; and from October 8 to 22 to Ireland
and Great Britain.
3.
REGIONAL CENACLES IN ITALY:
Bologna-April 7; Florence-April
12; Collevalenza-April 14; San Gabriel-April 19; Rome-April
21; Trani-April 27; Pompei-April 29; Genoa-May 5;
Caravaggio-May 13; Turin-May 17; San Vito-May 31; Padua-June
2; Loreto-June 9.
4.
APOSTLES OF LOVE
We must love and communicate
to all a great love for Jesus really present in the Eucharist, with his
body, blood, soul and divinity.
“In the Eucharist, there
is really present Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that God who, in Him, I saw
at every moment of his earthly life, even if He was hidden under the veil of a
fragile and feeble nature, which developed through the rhythm of time and of his
human growth. By a continual act of faith in my Son Jesus, I always saw my God,
and I adored Him with profound love.
(To the Priests, Our Lady's Beloved Sons (TTP),
August 21, 1987, 360f)
“All these dimensions of the
Eucharist come together in one aspect which more than any other makes a demand
on our faith: the mystery of the “real” presence. With the entire
tradition of the Church, we believe that Jesus is truly present under the
Eucharistic species.”
(Pope John Paul II,
Mane Nobiscum Domine, 16)
“The Word of the Father,
Creator, omnipotent and omniscient God, willed to clothe Himself in weakness and
subjected Himself to the limitations of time, took upon Himself the frailty of
human nature and was born of me; like every infant, He experienced all sorts of
needs.
“How often, while kissing Him with the tenderness of a mother, I
said to Him: ‘And yet You are the eternal kiss of the Father’; and while I
caressed Him, I thought: ‘You are the divine caress conferring beatitude upon
souls’; while I clothed Him in his little garments, I whispered: ‘It is You who
clothe the earth with flowers and the immense universe with stars’; and while
nourishing Him, I sang to Him: ‘It is You who provide food for all living
creatures.’ When with maternal love I called Him ‘My Son!’, adoring Him in my
soul, I prayed to Him: ‘You are the Son of the Father, his eternal
Only-begotten, his living Word…’ ”
(TTP,
February 2, 1983, 258gh)
“The presence of Jesus in the tabernacle must be a kind of
magnetic pole attracting an ever greater number of souls enamoured of him,
ready to wait patiently to hear his voice and, as it were, to sense the beating
of his heart. “O taste and see that the Lord is good!”
(Ps 34:8).”
(Pope John Paul II, Mane Nobiscum Domine, 18)
“Go before the tabernacle to
establish with Jesus a simple and daily rapport of life. (…)
Make of Jesus your dearest
friend, the most trusted person, the most desired and the most loved.
Tell your love to Jesus;
repeat it often because this is the one thing that makes Him immensely happy,
that consoles Him for all the ingratitude, that compensates Him for all the
betrayals: ‘Jesus, You are our love; Jesus, You alone are our great friend;
Jesus, we love You; Jesus, we are in love with You.’
Indeed the presence of Christ in the Eucharist has above all the
function of making you grow in an experience of true communion of love with
Him…” (TTP, August 21, 1987, 360yzA)
5.
APOSTLES OF ADORATION
“During this year,
Eucharistic adoration outside Mass should become a particular commitment for
individual parish and religious communities. Let us take the time to kneel
before Jesus present in the Eucharist… Let us deepen through adoration
our personal and communal contemplation, drawing upon aids to prayer inspired by
the word of God and the experience of so many mystics, old and new.”
(Pope John Paul II, Mane Nobiscum Domine, 18)
“…in my Son Jesus, I always
saw my God, and I adored Him with profound love.
I adored Him when He was still
guarded within my virginal womb, as a little bud, and I loved Him, nourished
Him, caused Him to grow, giving Him my own flesh and my own blood.
I adored Him after his birth,
contemplating Him in the manger of a poor and bare cave.
I adored my God in the Child
Jesus who was growing, in the adolescent who was maturing, in the young man who
was bending over his daily work, in the Messiah who was carrying out his public
mission.
I adored Him when He was
rejected and repulsed, when He was betrayed, abandoned and denied by his own.
I adored Him when He was
condemned and mocked, when He was scourged and crowned with thorns, when He was
led to the gibbet and crucified.
I adored Him beneath the Cross,
in an act of unspeakable suffering, and when He was brought to the sepulchre and
placed in his tomb.
I adored Him after his
resurrection when, firstly, He appeared to me in the splendor of his glorified
body and in the light of his divinity.” (TTP,
August 21, 1987, 360f-m)
“I ask that there be once
again a return to the practice of making everywhere hours of adoration before
Jesus, exposed in the Most Holy Sacrament. I desire that there be an
increase in the homage of love towards the Eucharist and that this become
manifest also through evident but most expressive signs of your piety.
Surround the Eucharistic
Jesus with flowers and with lights; encircle Him with delicate attention; draw
close to Him with profound acts of genuflection and of adoration.
If you knew how the
Eucharistic Jesus loves you, how a little gesture of your love fills Him with
joy and with consolation!”
(TTP, August 21, 1987, 360rs)
“It is the responsibility of
Pastors to encourage, also by their personal witness, the practice of
Eucharistic adoration, and exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in particular, as
well as prayer of adoration before Christ present under the Eucharistic species.
It is pleasant to spend time with him, to lie close to his breast
like the Beloved Disciple (cf. Jn 13:25)
and to feel the infinite love present in his heart. If in our time Christians
must be distinguished above all by the “art of prayer”, how can we
not feel a renewed need to spend time in spiritual converse, in silent
adoration, in heartfelt love before Christ present in the Most Holy
Sacrament? How often, dear brothers and sisters, have I experienced this, and
drawn from it strength, consolation and support!”
(Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 25)
6.
APOSTLES OF REPARATION
“Let us take the time to kneel before Jesus present in the
Eucharist, in order to make reparation by our faith and love, for the
acts of carelessness and neglect, and even the insults which our Savior must
endure in many parts of the world.”
(Pope John Paul II, Mane Nobiscum Domine, 18)
“Jesus in the tabernacle is
surrounded by much emptiness, much neglect and much ingratitude.
(…)
Jesus is surrounded today
by an emptiness, which has been brought about especially by you priests who,
in your apostolic activity, often go about uselessly and very much on the
periphery, going after things which are less important and more secondary and
forgetting that the center of your priestly day should be here, before the
tabernacle, where Jesus is present and is kept especially for you.
He is also surrounded by
the indifference of many of my children, who live as if He were not there
and, when they enter church for liturgical functions, are not aware of his
divine and real presence in your midst.
(…)
But above all, it is the
sacrileges which today form, around my Immaculate Heart, a painful crown of
thorns. In these times, how many communions are made, and how many sacrileges
perpetrated! It can be said that there is no longer any Eucharistic celebration
where sacrilegious communions are not made. If you only saw with my eyes how
great this wound is which has contaminated the whole Church and paralyzes it,
halts it, and makes it impure and so very sick! If you only saw with my eyes,
you too would shed copious tears with me.”
(TTP,
August 8, 1986, 330vxyA)
“And so, my beloved ones and
children consecrated to my Heart, it is you who must be today a
clarion call for the full return of the whole Church Militant to Jesus
present in the Eucharist. Because there alone is to be found the spring of
living water which will purify its aridity and renew the desert to which it has
been reduced; there alone is to be found the secret of life which will open up
for it a second Pentecost of grace and of light; there alone is to be found the
fount of its renewed holiness: Jesus in the Eucharist!”
(TTP,
August 8, 1986, 330B)
(…)Through you, I desire that
the cult of the Eucharist again flourish in all the Church in an ever more
powerful way.
As for now there must be an
end to this profound crisis in regard to devotion to the Eucharist, a crisis
which has contaminated the entire Church and which has been at the root of so
much infidelity and of the diffusion of such a widespread apostasy.
(…)
As of now, the heavenly
Mother wants to bring to Jesus, present in the Eucharist, an ever greater number
of her sons, because these are the times when the Eucharistic Jesus must be
adored, loved, thanked and glorified by all.
(TTP, August 21, 1987, 360DEG)
For this reason, I propose that,
in the Cenacles of the Marian Movement of Priests which are held during this
year, the Holy Rosary be recited before the Blessed Sacrament solemnly exposed
on the altar, also with the intention of following what the Pope has indicated:
“the Rosary itself…which I recommended in the Apostolic Letter ‘Rosarium
Virginis Mariae’, will prove a particularly fitting introduction to
Eucharistic contemplation, a contemplation carried out with Mary as our
companion and guide.”
(Pope John Paul II, Mane Nobiscum Domine, 18)
7.
APOSTLES OF THE EUCHARISTIC REIGN OF JESUS
“At the same time, while the
Eucharist makes present what occurred in the past, it also impels us towards the
future, when Christ will come again at the end of history. This “eschatological”
aspect makes the Sacrament of the Eucharist an event which draws us into itself
and fills our Christian journey with hope.”
(Pope John Paul II, Mane Nobiscum Domine,
15)
“(…)In the end my Immaculate
Heart will triumph.
This will come about in the
greatest triumph of Jesus, who will bring into the world his glorious reign of
love, of justice and of peace, and will make all things new.
Open your hearts to hope.
Throw open the doors to
Christ who comes to you in glory.
Live the trembling hour of
this second Advent.”
(TTP, December
31, 1997, 604opq)
“In the Eucharist, Jesus
Christ is really present, He remains ever with you, and this presence of his
will become increasingly stronger, will shine over the earth like a sun and will
mark the beginning of a new era. The coming of the glorious reign of Christ
will coincide with the greatest splendor of the Eucharist. Christ will restore
his glorious reign in the universal triumph of his Eucharistic reign,
which will unfold in all its power and will have the capacity to change hearts,
souls, individuals, families, society and the very structure of the world.
When He will have restored his Eucharistic reign, Jesus will lead
you to take joy in this habitual presence of his, which you will feel in a new
and extraordinary way and which will lead you to the experience of a second,
renewed and more beautiful earthly paradise.”
(TTP, August 21, 1987, 360vw)
“…Turning our eyes to the
future, we confidently await the dawn of a new Day.
Those who work at the outposts of the Church are like watchmen on
the walls of God’s City. We ask them: ‘Watchman, what of the night?’
(Is 21,11), and we hear
the answer: ‘Hark, your watchmen lift up their voice, together they sing for
joy: for eye to eye they see the return of the Lord to Zion.’
(Is 52,8)
(…)
May Mary, the Morning Star, help us to say with ever new ardor
our ‘yes’ to the Father’s plan for salvation, that all nations and
tongues may see his glory. (cf. Is 66,18)”
(from
Pope John Paul II’s Message for World Mission Sunday,
May
23, 1999, Solemnity of Pentecost)
In the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
with ardor we say our ‘Yes’ to the Father’s plan of salvation, which is
realized in his only-begotten Son who was born and died on the Cross, and is
Risen, because He is the Living One, He is God with us, He alone is our
Redeemer, He alone is our Savior.
Jesus Christ is the First and
the Last, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega, the bright Morning
Star, who leads us to live the new Day, awaited and prepared with so much
suffering.
“Be apostles of the last
times, because you must announce the closely approaching return of Jesus in
glory, who will lead humanity into the new times, when at last there will be
seen new heavens and a new earth.
Proclaim to all his forthcoming return: ‘Maranatha! Come,
Lord Jesus!’ ” (cf. Rev 22:20)
(TTP, December
8, 1994, 533 lm)
(…) “Above all, let us listen to Mary Most Holy, in whom
the mystery of the Eucharist appears, more than in anyone else, as a mystery
of light. Gazing upon Mary, we come to know the transforming power
present in the Eucharist. In her we see the world renewed in love.
Contemplating her, assumed body and soul into heaven, we see opening up before
us those ‘new heavens’ and that ‘new earth’ which will appear at
the second coming of Christ. Here below, the Eucharist represents their pledge,
and in a certain way, their anticipation: ‘Veni, Domine Iesu [Come, Lord
Jesus]!’ ” (Rev 22:20).
(Pope
John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 62)
I entrust to you, who are the directors, the task of
sending this letter to the members of the
Marian Movement of Priests, so that it may bring to
all my affectionate greeting along with my priestly blessing.
I await your response,
informing me of your news.
In the Immaculate Heart of
Mary,
Your little
brother,
Don Stefano Gobbi
