From Fr. Luca Pescatori, International Director of MSM-MMP
Dear members of the Marian Movement of Priests,
We are living jubilee years: in 2022 we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the birth of the Marian Movement of Priests, in 2023 it was 50 years since the first “public messages” and the birth of the book “To the Priests, Our Lady’s Beloved Sons”, and in this 2024 it is 50 years since Our Lady asked Don Stefano to gather us in a Cenacle (January 17, 1974: Cenacles of Life with Me).
Each anniversary is an opportunity to realise the gift we have received and to renew our response. The Consecration to the Immaculate Heart is truly a gift that comes down from Heaven to help and sustain us in this Time, a true “refuge and way that leads us to God”, as Our Lady had said to little Lucia on June 13, 1917. To learn how to live it, Our Lady has given us another gift: the “Cenacle”. Our response cannot but be full of gratitude and filial love, therefore a sincere and strong, real response, lived in spiritual commitment and in the spread of cenacles.
In recent years, especially around these anniversaries, the signs of the Great Tribulation and of the Purification that Our Lady had announced to us in the messages (for example in those of 1979: Confusion, Indiscipline, Division and Persecution) and the elements of the battle of Apocalypse 12, the red dragon against the Woman clothed with the sun, have been manifesting themselves more and more strongly.
After the death of Fr. Stefano, both Fr. Quartilio Gabrielli and Fr. Laurent Larroque and lately I have tried to read the various aspects and dangers of this battle in the light of Our Lady’s messages, and to see what way she has given us to remain faithful to the Church and victorious with her in the battle, that is, how to make our Consecration to the Immaculate Heart our action of salvation in the Church.
Certainly, at times it seems that some in the Church believe that they are making the light of the Gospel
shine by adapting it to the needs of the world, rather than bringing the world to the splendor of the light of the Gospel. This attempt has always been a great temptation that in reality destroys the Gospel itself and its power.
Jesus had never accepted it, indeed he was very categorical: “whoever does not gather with me scatters” (Mt 12:30), “Yes, yes; No, no” (cf. Mt 5:37), to the point of saying to the apostles: “Do you also want to go away?” … receiving Peter’s answer, “Lord, to whom shall we go? YOU have the words of eternal life” (cf. Jn 6:67-68). Jesus also said to the Apostles, with regard to the Church’s mission, “You are the light of the world” and “You are the salt of the earth” (cf. Mt 5:13-14).
“But if the salt loses its flavour… it is worth nothing but to be trampled underfoot.” Infidelity to doctrine becomes infidelity to the Gospel and to the Lord himself, Our Lady has told us so many times; It presents itself as an apparent fidelity that, in reality, conveys a deception, just as salt without taste looks like salt but deceives those who use it.
How many times Our Lady has called us to fidelity! It is precisely the infidelity of us priests that is the cause of her tears (cf. Msg. 13 July 1973, 31 December 1990), which is why She began Her work in the Marian Movement of Priests with Fr Stefano, since the 8th May 1972.
Infidelity to priestly duties, infidelity to doctrine, betrayal to follow the mentality of the world. It is precisely to teach us to be faithful that she offers us the Consecration to Her Immaculate Heart as a “refuge and way” in this time of Purification and the Great Tribulation (in fact, we sing “you are a light and a way to your children here below”).
These “fiftieth anniversaries” between 2022 and 2024 challenge us and remind us that we cannot simply appreciate, or even love, what Our Lady says, but… You have to live it! To live in deeds as she tells us and not to live in any other way!
Consequently, we can ask ourselves: what is missing from the quality of our MMP life, what do we not live of the Consecration to the Immaculate Heart?
We want to be weapons, yes, but we cannot be unloaded weapons. We are called to be a spiritual weapon that is in reality a medicine, an antidote that benefits everyone against the deadly poison of the Great Dragon that wants to drag down a third of the stars in heaven (Apoc. 12:4; cf. Msg 13 May 1976) and suffocate the Church and humanity with darkness and that “anguish that has never existed since the beginning of the earth”. (Dn 12:1; cf. Msg 29 September 1979)
Lately, I hear more and more people asking “what should we do?”. The Church has never changed doctrine, the only thing to do is to remain faithful to the Gospel and to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which Our Lady has defined as “a special gift of my Immaculate Heart for these times of yours” (Msg 1 January 1993). John Paul II, in promulgating it, declared that “it is an exposition of the faith of the Church and of Catholic doctrine, attested to or illuminated by Sacred Scripture, by the Apostolic Tradition and by the Magisterium of the Church. I recognize it as a valid and legitimate instrument at the service of ecclesial communion and as a sure norm for the teaching of the faith.” (cf. Fidei Depositum, IV). In this regard, Benedict XVI reminded us that “all our proclamations must be measured by the words of Jesus Christ: ‘My doctrine is not mine’ (Jn 7:16). We do not proclaim theories and private opinions, but the faith of the Church of which we are servants.” (Chrism Mass, 5 April 2012). Our faith and our witness, and for us priests our pastoral action, can only remain under this custody. If anything, to the question “what should we do?” it is good to give ourselves the answer that Saint Peter gave: repent, be converted (cf. Acts 2 and 3), which took up Jesus’ first teaching: “Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mk 1:15), “Repent” and “Follow me” (cf. Mt 4:17-19). Without conversion (i.e., without repentance) there is no Christian life, grace cannot transform us, sacraments cannot be received, blessings cannot bring us closer to God or develop the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Without conversion there is only deception.
Our daily path of conversion and fidelity, in particular as Our Lady teaches it to us with the Act of Consecration to Her Immaculate Heart, is our concrete and constructive response. On this journey, She teaches us priests to live deeply the aspects of the priestly life of Jesus.
One of the most important fruits of the Consecration to the Immaculate Heart is to participate in the work of redemption with that which most assimilates us to the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart, that is, the offering of suffering. Not only physical suffering, or the suffering of daily life, but also suffering for the situation of souls in the Great Tribulation and Purification. Suffering for the confusion of so many souls, for the apostasy even of some pastors, for the inability of some to grasp the subtle diabolical tactic that leads from the gospel of Christ to the confusion of the antichrist.
It is suffering for the Church, betrayed and beaten by her own (e.g. cf. 1 January 1994, 4 April 1996).
We are called to accept this suffering; but not only ours, but also that of the lost: to help the suffering of the souls of those who are being carried away by confusion, victims of the evil one’s action against the Church, “In this way you become Good Samaritans for the Church of today, which is suffering so much.” (1 January 1992)
Our suffering must not be closed in on ourselves, but a suffering in mercy.
It is a type of suffering that we should learn to bear, so as not to go off course with the wrong way of suffering. We must learn to make it fruitful and fertile. It’s one thing to complain, another is to know how to suffer, the difference is substantial. If we know how to live it well, it will act as a barrier to the action of the evil one against the Church. Otherwise, it will be unusable. We need to pray to learn to live this suffering as Our Lady teaches us, as She lives it.
I invite you to meditate on two messages in particular: July 9, 1975 “Your Heaviest Cross” and April 8, 1977 “With Me Beneath the Cross.”
They are so rich that I cannot limit myself to quoting just a few sentences from them. After reading these, let us also listen to Our Lady in some other messages where she teaches us to live in trust, in offering, in humility, in reparation, to be consoled and consoling, to pray in the cenacles to invoke the gift of the Holy Spirit:
“Beloved sons, live with me in silence, in prayer and in suffering these precious hours of the passion being repeated in the Church, which is his Mystical Body; it is being renewed in each one of you, called to be the ministers of his love and of his sorrow. […]
Together with me, carry your heavy cross each day. Pour out, with love, your blood. Allow yourselves to be placed on the altar of his very scaffold.
Meek as lambs, allow your hands and your feet to be also transfixed with nails: love, forgive, suffer and offer yourselves to the Father with love, for the salvation of all.
And then let your Mother place you in the new sepulchre of her Immaculate Heart, at the moment when the whole Church is called to live mystically this passion of condemnation and of death, in expectation of the hour of the resurrection.” (April 17, 1981)
“This then is your hour; the hour of the apostles of my Immaculate Heart. Spread courageously the Gospel of Jesus; defend the truth; love the Church; help all to flee sin and to live in the grace and the love of God. Pray, suffer, make reparation.” (January 1, 1979)
“Let the poor caves of your hearts be opened, which, in the deep night, must blaze in the light of an unshakable faith, of a sure hope and of a burning love. And suffer with patience and with trust. As for me, so also for you, the sufferings which the Lord asks of you form part of a loving plan of his.” (December 24, 1984)
“… the joy of the cross: the joy of remaining always in my sorrowful Heart to experience all its indescribable motherly sadness. I want to bring all the priests of my Movement to this joy. They must know how I completely change and transform their existence, taking literally the gift which they made to me by their consecration.
I will lead them, these little children of mine, very far in love, in suffering, in the joy of the cross! These moments are approaching when I will be able to act, for the salvation of the world through the suffering of my priest-sons… From them I want trust, prayer, simplicity, silence.” (March 23, 1974)
“You have entered the grievous times of the purification and sufferings must increase for all.
Even my Church, has need of being purified of the evils which have stricken her and which are causing her to live through moments of agony and of her sorrowful passion. […] Pray, suffer, offer, make reparation together with me, who am the Mother of Intercession and of Reparation.
Thus you – my beloved ones and children consecrated to my Heart – you become, in these last hours of the year, my tear drops, which are falling upon the immense pain of the Church and of all humanity, as you enter into the grievous times of the purification and the great tribulation.” (31 December 1990)
“As day by day propaganda increases, as well as the clamor of the enemies of God who are succeeding in winning everything over to themselves, all I ask you is to respond with your trust and total abandonment, with prayer, with suffering and with your silence.
However, whatever you offer to my Heart will become in my hands a terrible weapon with which to fight and to win this battle. To the haughty cohort of the arrogant who rebel against God, I will reply with the cohort of my little, humble, despised and persecuted sons.” (October 30, 1975)
“Offer the holocaust of your suffering. The hours through which you are living are truly difficult and painful. That which is awaiting you is suffering such as the world has never known.
Yet, through this holocaust, you are able to save those who are seeking your ruin, and you are able to do good to those who are, for you, a scourge.” (June 12, 1978)
“I want to suffer through you. I will expand your heart that you may also be able to understand the mystery of my motherly suffering. See if there is today any suffering greater than mine: my Son Jesus is outraged, despised; He is again abandoned and betrayed by his own… Share in my motherly sorrow! Judge no one; condemn no one. Pray; love; carry the cross of this great suffering with me for the salvation of all.” (June 30, 1982)
“Never judge. Condemn no one. Your duty is only that of saving, with the supernatural force of your prayer, of your suffering and of your immolation.” (October 27,1988)
“Help your bishops with prayer, with your priestly zeal, and be a comfort to them in their difficult and painful ministry. Let your hearts be open in giving assistance to all your brother-priests, especially towards those who are succumbing under the weight of the great tribulation through which you are living. Judge no one. Love all with the beating of my Immaculate Heart.” (15 November 1995)
“In the temple of my Immaculate Heart I am preparing you for your priestly offering.
In these times of the great tribulation, you are being called to carry the burden of a very heavy cross.
How many sufferings await you. So then, you must prepare yourselves for your priestly offering, as a token of reparation and expiation for the salvation of many of my poor lost children.
Offer your whole life to the Lord: your body, your heart, your soul, your mind, your will, your freedom. In this way, you become the chosen victims, precious and pleasing to God, which I can offer to Him, so that the times of the great trial may be shortened.” (November 21, 1991)
“I am asking you again for daily works of mortification and of penance”… (March 4, 1987)
“First of all, have recourse to prayer. Pray more; pray with greater confidence, pray with humility and with absolute self-abandonment. Especially, recite the holy rosary every day.
By your prayer you prevent error from becoming even more widespread; you hold in check the action of the Evil One; you move to the counter-attack, and you limit, more and more, his capacity to act.” (June 12, 1978)
“Pray with me, work with me, love with me, suffer with me, be silent with Me. Silence must become for you the sign of my motherly presence.” (1 May 1993)
“I am truly present in these cenacles and I am joining in your prayer. By this prayer , you offer your heavenly Mother a powerful force in intervening for the salvation of many of my poor straying children and in disposing the painful events of your time according to the motherly plan of my Immaculate Heart.” (October 7, 1979)
“As little children, offer each day the flowers of love and prayer to your Heavenly Mother. I ask you to spread more and more the cenacles which I have requested of you so many times.
– The rosary, which you recite, has a very great power against evil and against the numerous enticements of my Adversary. […]
– Renew each day your consecration to my Immaculate Heart. […]
– “Above all, I ask you to offer me the fragrant and precious flower of your suffering. On the altar of my Immaculate Heart I want to offer all my children, in a perennial act of immolation and reparation.” (May 1, 1994, The Hour of Calvary)
Dear brothers in the priesthood and dear brothers and sisters, who welcome into your lives the work of mercy that the Most Holy Trinity gives us by means of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, let us allow our Mother’s words to guide us to live as she wants this Time of Grace, in which God has placed us to be the cohort of the Immaculate Heart
Fr. Luca Pescatori
responsible – coordinator of the M.M.P.
Some news:
Again in 2023 I was able to visit many cenacles in Italy, France, Venezuela (also for a Priests’ Retreat), Ecuador, Uruguay, Brazil (for the Spiritual Exercises of Priests), Australia and Hong Kong, also meeTng 14 Bishops and 4 Cardinals. Our Lady conTnues to call: many people have welcomed Her Work of the MSM in recent years. There are also many cenacles that have been active for a long time, even in situations of difficulty and suffering: I see that their fidelity is stronger than the difficulties, and in those cenacles the triumph of the Immaculate Heart grows ever greater. The world is drugged by the seductions of evil, someTmes the members of the cenacles may experience a greater difficulty in feeling marginalized or alone, but everything is part of this moment of Grace, everything can be offered to Our Lady so that She may offer it to the Lord on behalf of her liVle children, weak and eager for His help. I warmly and prayerfully thank those who animate the cenacles in their countries, and in particular those who undertake long missionary journeys to distant countries to encourage them to live the Consecration to the Immaculate Heart.
In 2023, the International Spiritual Exercises for priests were held again in Collevalenza at the end of
June, with the presence of 150 priests and bishops, and some lay people representing their nations.
Finally we have been able to take the first formal steps to begin the Cause of Beatification of our dear
Fr. Stefano Gobbi, we pray that within a few months it may finally be officially launched: from that moment (not beforehand) he will be deemed “Servant of God”. As soon as it happens, we will let you all know! As for the Cause of Beatification of Fr. Nazareno Lancioq, we pray that within the year it may be definitively concluded and that we may have good news. Speaking of martyrdom, let us always pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters, who suffer greatly.
For priests: the next International Spiritual Exercises will be held as usual in Collevalenza, from Sunday 23 June evening to Saturday 29 June morning. We ask the lay faithful to support (also financially) the priests and to help them take part. For information, write to Fr. Florio Quercia, querciaflorio@gmail.com, +39.333.6322248
For the laity, I continue to encourage that national, or at least regional, retreats be held in every nation, even if they are for a few people. When they live very far from each other or are unable to make cenacles in their regions, I encourage them to meet at least on internet platforms, as has already been happening for some time in some areas of the world: it is not a replacement for family or parish cenacles, it is an extra cenacle that connects us and helps us to walk together on this wonderful way of the Immaculate Heart. Similarly, I encourage priests from every nation (or at least language group) to meet through the Internet every month to pray in Cenacle, get to know each other and support each other with friendship and witness. It is already happening in many nations with good spiritual fruit.
I would like to recommend that you do not fall into the trap of division, but that you be united with the Church and in the Church, that you accept with ever greater heart and maturity our second commitment, that is, to pray with love for the Pope, as Our Lady also asks of us in the Act of Consecration, and to live the messages and the Act of Consecration without taking away or adding anything. Only humble prayer is effective, only that prayer keeps us on the path of the Immaculate Heart, opens us to discernment, makes us strong witnesses and leaves us confident that the Lord guides the Church according to His sometimes mysterious designs in the time of the Great Tribulation towards the Purification and the Eucharistic Kingdom of Jesus, in which we as Church will finally let the holiness of the Immaculate Heart of Mary shine forth, and finally the Lord will be able to return triumphantly in us and among us.