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.
- 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:
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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)
- 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)
- 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 aclarion 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)
- 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.
In the face of the dangerous snare of a globalism which tends to make all religions equal, in these times the Church must proclaim to all the world with the courage and the strength of her witness to the point of shedding blood, that which St. Peter announced before the Sanhedrin: “For of all the names in the world given to men, this is the only one [Jesus Christ] by which we can be saved.” (cf. Acts 4:12)
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