Dear Friends in Jesus and in the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
Enclosed please find the letter from our MMP coordinator, Fr. Quartilio Gabrielli, who was Fr. Gobbi’s secretary and personal confessor for several years. I have no doubt that Fr. Gobbi would have chosen him for this position. This sentiment was shared also by the other participants at the June 2011 Spiritual Exercises, right after Fr. Gobbi was called to Heaven.
Fr. Gobbi
I wish to thank all those who offered their condolences following Fr. Gobbi’s death. It was not possible to acknowledge each one personally. Your prayers, Masses and kind words were sincerely appreciated.
There were true miracles performed by Jesus and Mary through Fr. Gobbi on the occasion of his many cenacles around the world. There are also many graces and at least one reported miracle obtained after his death. He is truly a Saint. I cherish the memory of having traveled with him throughout Canada on four occasions, of the times I was his guest in Italy, of the retreat cenacles guided by him, of the many personal letters that he wrote to me over the years, and of the messages that the Blessed Mother addressed to me personally through him, especially a longer one in which she asked me to travel full time to conduct cenacles in the U.S. and Canada.
Some of you have asked if there is an official prayer for the intercession of Fr. Gobbi. Before there can be anything official, the cause for his beatification has to be opened. It is important, therefore, that no one take it upon themselves to formulate or distribute any prayers at this time; otherwise, it could jeopardize the eventual opening of his cause. You may of course pray to him privately. The memorial cards with Fr. Gobbi’s spiritual testament are still available. Contact us if you would like to request additional copies.
October 2011 Cenacles
During the month of October I conducted a total of sixteen cenacles in twelve states. I thank all those who so generously gave of their time and talents to coordinate these gatherings. This is the work that the Blessed Mother has entrusted to all of us. I witnessed a new enthusiasm among the many who participated. Every cenacle is a response to the Blessed Mother’s call in these last times. If we are faithful to our consecration, to the daily rosary, and to the cenacles, she will guide us in those decisive moments that she has predicted.
We should make it a practice to regularly read the book, “To the Priests…” Our Lady tells us that she is “present in the messages.” (cf. #284j) We will feel that she is speaking to us individually, guiding us in these times of great confusion in the world. She leads us to Jesus, to the Gospel, to the teaching of the Church, to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, to the First Saturdays devotion, and to the necessary devotion to the Angels, in particular to our Guardian Angels. She also accompanies us throughout the liturgical year.
First Saturday Devotion
In their consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the priests promise to offer holy Mass in Our Lady’s honor on the first Saturday of every month. I encourage the laity to join in the observance of the first Saturdays which Our Lady has requested at Fatima and also in her messages to Fr. Gobbi:
“I am asking you to propagate again today the devotion of the five first Saturdays of the month. I asked this of my daughter, Sister Lucia, when she was in the convent of Pontevedra, on the 10th of December, 1925. I am returning today to ask for it as this century turns towards its most painful close.
Why, among all the days of the week, have I asked you to offer Saturday to me? To recall the painful hours, spent by me, during the only day when I remained without my Son. I am asking you to offer it [Saturday] to me, with the recitation of the holy rosary, with the meditation upon its mysteries, with sacramental Confession and a Communion of reparation, and with the renewal of your act of consecration to my Immaculate Heart. In this way you can make reparation for the offenses which are directed at me and which cause my Heart to suffer so much. If you do what I ask of you, devotion to me will spread more and more, and then I will be able to exercise the great power which the Most Holy Trinity has granted to me. Thus I will be able to prepare for all humanity the new era of its complete renovation, in the glorious triumph of my Son Jesus.” (cf. Message #379)
Fr. Gabrielli’s Letter in Spanish
The translation will be posted on our website. You can also call or write to request a copy.
Spanish Edition
The books in Spanish have been out of stock for some time. We are pleased to report that they will be available at the end of March.
40th Anniversary of the MMP
It was on May 8, 1972, while he was praying in the Chapel of the Apparitions at Fatima, that the Mother of God impressed upon Fr. Gobbi her desire that he start the Marian Movement of Priests. May 8, 2012 will mark its 40th anniversary. Let us pray that all of us will be faithful to her mandate.
International Clergy Retreat Cenacle
The international retreat cenacle will be held from June 24-30, 2012 at the Shrine of Merciful Love in Collevalenza, Italy. A special Mass will be celebrated on June 29, the one year anniversary of Fr. Gobbi’s death. If you are interested, please call us for more information. Since flights are generally less expensive earlier in the year, we encourage you to make your travel arrangements as soon as possible. We may be able to offer some financial assistance on a limited basis.
Rates for room and board (Sun. night – Sat. morning): single – 460 euros / double – 350 euros Additional nights of lodging: single – 70 euros / double – 60 euros / Extra meals: 15 euros
If you choose to spend some time in Rome following the retreat, we can make suggestions for your lodging.
U.S. Clergy Retreat Cenacle
Our clergy retreat cenacle last October was a prayerful and peace filled experience for all of us. We have decided to make this an annual event. Again this year, it will be held at the Keller Convention Center in Effingham, IL from November 5-9, 2012. The retreat is open to priests, deacons, and major seminary students. The cost for the week’s room and board is approximately $575. There is no additional charge for the retreat itself. Please contact us if you wish to receive registration info. Deadline for registration with the convention center is October 22, 2012
Sponsoring a Priest
I thank all those who sponsored one or more priests to attend last year’s retreats. This year, priests from other countries also have been requesting assistance from us. We want to be able to help as many as possible. Once again, I invite our members to consider sponsoring a priest for the 2012 cenacle retreats. Your donations for this purpose would serve as a wonderful gift to help a priest in need.
Regional Cenacles
As I continue to become better acquainted with the priests in the U.S., I will be asking some of them to assume a role of leadership in conducting cenacles on a regional level. If any of you priests wish to offer your services in being a part of this mission as entrusted to Fr. Gobbi, please contact me. I will pray that Our Lady inspire many of you to become her apostles. The laity should encourage any MMP priest whom they know to volunteer for this important mission.
Cenacle Schedule 2012
ORLANDO, FL
Date/Time: Weds., May 23, 2012 @ 7:30 PM
Place: Holy Family Church (Daily Chapel)
5125 S. Apopka-Vineland Rd.
Contact: Dalia “Isita” Bonfanti (407) 876-202
MANASSAS, VA
Date/Time: Fri., May 25, 2012 @ 7:00 PM
Place: Sacred Heart Church, 12975 Purcell Rd.
Sandra Vera sjvera09@gmail.com (703) 281-5432
Kristin McCarty kamccarty@vt.edu (571) 330-6987
TAMPA, FL
Date/Time: Thurs., May 24, 2012 @ 7:00 PM
Place: St. Lawrence Church, 5225 N. Himes Ave.
Contact: LaVon Burg Cell: (813) 732-8823
Email: boethius8fish@hotmail.com
NEW YORK, NY
Date/Time: Tues., September 18, 2012 @ 7:00 PM
Place: Church of the Holy Cross, 329 West 42nd St.
Contact: James dell’Orto (914) 472-4062
Cindy Serino: a2602@aol.com (914) 773-0242
These cenacles are open to everyone. If any new listings are added, we will post the information on our website. Call the office if you would like to invite me to conduct a cenacle in 2013.
Also, please let us know if you are planning a citywide or regional cenacle so that we may include all of the details on the website.
Multiply the Cenacles of Prayer
“I invite you to multiply the cenacles of prayer and of life with me. Hold them everywhere.”(#293l)
Throughout the messages, Our Lady often repeats her plea that the cenacles be multiplied. She also stresses the need for family cenacles. We need to heed her urgent request. If your cenacles have many members, I encourage you to split into smaller home/family cenacles. Then, if you so choose, all of your individual cenacles can gather together periodically for an area cenacle.
YOUR CENACLES
In Obedience to Our Lady and to Fr. Gobbi
It has come to my attention that some cenacles are deviating from the cenacle format. Our Lady has told us repeatedly that the cenacles must remain simple, humble and pure in spirit. Through Fr. Gobbi, she has taught us how the cenacles must be conducted. You can request a copy of our cenacle guide if you need direction in this regard.
Your Rosary
It is customary to pray only a 5 decade rosary during the cenacle. We must be mindful of the fact that some members, because of illness or advanced age, may not have the stamina to endure for long periods. Some of you, however, have shared with us that all of your members desire to pray the full 15 or 20 decades, especially if meeting only once a month. This is OK, provided that everyone is in agreement.
Discussion vs. Sharing
There was some misunderstanding about the article in one of my previous letters concerning “discussion” during the cenacle. Some of you were disappointed and explained that you miss this opportunity to be able to share the specific passages in the messages that have touched your heart in a special way. There is a distinction to be made between “discussion” and “sharing”.
The Blessed Mother personally guides each person who listens to her messages. At times, the cenacle members may want to share a part of the message that has touched or inspired them the most; therefore, you may allot some time for “sharing” during the cenacle, but it should not exceed 10-15 minutes. Any sharing should always focus on highlighting those parts of the messages in which Our Lady teaches us how we are to live the spirit of our consecration.
In many cenacles, when a priest or deacon who understands the spirituality of the Marian Movement of Priests is not present, problems have arisen because sometimes a false interpretation of the message has led to great confusion and useless disputations among the members. When there is no time set aside for sharing, then a period of silent meditation and reflection is recommended following the reading of the message.
Refreshments following Cenacle
It is important that we focus on the meaning of the word “Cenacle” and why we are gathered in prayer. The Cenacle is a sacred place; it was the upper room where Our Lady was gathered with the Apostles in awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit. When we enter “in cenacle” with her, she is there with us. For this reason, we must treat this time reverentially, always maintaining a prayerful atmosphere.
Allow me to share a personal experience concerning some negative consequences of serving refreshments following the cenacles. In one of my former parishes, families were taking turns hosting a weekly cenacle. Soon very few were volunteering to host it any longer. Later I learned that it was difficult for some families to prepare refreshments. As soon as I announced that refreshments were forbidden, many more families started to host the cenacle in their homes.
During a large area cenacle that is organized by our Headquarters or by a priest who is responsible at the local level, then it might be appropriate to gather for simple refreshments, for the purpose of meeting and sharing with people from other cenacles.
OTHER MESSAGES
Fr. Gobbi was very strict about not allowing other literature to be distributed before, during or after the MMP cenacles. Our Lady told him, “This is what I ask of you: that you let yourself instead be divested of all other preoccupations. This is not one of many movements, but it is
my Movement…” (#37e)
I am saddened that many are looking to all kinds of alleged mystics to try to see into the future. Some of you have reported being inundated with emails about messages concerning the end times. Often, these emails are from MMP members whom you trust. Even if you know the sender, it does not mean that the content is trustworthy. I have seen some of these messages, and they are instilling fear and panic. The MMP messages, on the other hand, reassure and comfort us. Everything that is from God brings us peace. Anything that disturbs your peace is not of God.
Jesus said: “It is not for you to know the times and the periods that the Father has set by his own authority.” (Acts 1:7)
And Our Lady told us through Fr. Gobbi:
“Do not look to the future; live only the present which your Mother prepares for you.” (#90o) “And so I say to you, beloved sons, do not scrutinize the future, and thus, neither anxiety nor discouragement will take hold of you! Live only in the present instant, in complete abandonment, close to my Immaculate Heart, the present instant which the love of the Heavenly Father puts at your disposal, my little children…” (#81o)
False Prophets
Jesus gave a specific instruction about false prophets and the end times:
“As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached him privately and said, ‘Tell us, when will this happen, and what sign will there be of your coming, and of the end of the age?’ Jesus said to them in reply, ‘See that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and they will deceive many (…) Many false prophets will arise and deceive many.’ ” (Mt 24: 3-5; 11)
Our Lady also warns us about false mystics and visionaries.
“In these times of purification, many are led astray by other words. In fact, my Adversary succeeds in seducing even the good by false manifestations of the supernatural in order to bring about deception and confusion on all sides. He will succeed in working many prodigies which will beguile the minds of even the good.” (#173o)
“Satan has sought in many ways to destroy it [my Marian Movement of Priests], by stirring up… subtle snares on the part of false visionaries and false messages, which have succeeded in misleading a great number of my poor children.” (#497k)
“Do not allow yourselves to be seduced by those who point to years and days, as though they wanted to impose a timetable on the infinite mercy of the divine Heart of my Son Jesus.Today, many are the false prophets who are spreading lying messages in order to cast many of my children into anguish and fear.I am the Mother of Hope and of Trust. Live in peace of heart.” (…) (#316 b-e)
The Ark of the New Covenant
There are also those who spread messages about the need to relocate to so-called safe havens and physical refuges. Do not be deceived. Obviously, it is prudent to take the normal measures of preparedness recommended to us for emergency situations – for example, for the unpredictable weather that is occurring in many parts of the world – but we cannot rely on human means to protect us from the events prophesied in Holy Scripture. Only God can protect and save us. We need to have recourse to prayer, imploring Heaven to intercede so that the chastisement be shortened or mitigated.
The Immaculate Heart of Mary will be our safe and secure refuge, the Ark of the New Covenant!
“Rely only on me and not on human means; entrust yourself only to me.” (#37d)“…you must now all enter right away into the safe refuge of my Immaculate Heart. Just as Noah, in the name of the Lord, called into the ark those who were to be saved from the flood, so now must you, my littlest child, in the name of your heavenly Mother, call into the refuge of my Immaculate Heart those who must be protected, defended and saved from the great trial which has now come for the Church and for all humanity.” (#489c)
All Has Been Revealed
Finally, let us not forget Our Lady’s words to us in her last public message to Fr. Gobbi on December 31, 1997: “As of now, all that I had to say to you has been said, because all has been revealed to you. Therefore, on this night, there come to an end the public messages, which I have been giving you for twenty-five years; now you must meditate on them, live them and put them into practice.” (#604kl)
So what more do we need to know? My advice is that your time be spent wisely in prayer and in living a holy life in imitation of Our Blessed Mother. She asks us for our prayer and sacrifices. By offering our sufferings, we become sharers in her mission. In view of so much suffering today, it seems that Our Blessed Mother is asking many of us to be like her Crucified Son, to help in her work as our Co-redemptrix.
There is one thing that you can always do, and which is the only thing that I want you to do at each moment, because it is so useful to me for the Movement: your prayer, your suffering, your trust in me.” (#37d) So do not waste precious time on your computers sharing these false messages that are being spread about with increasing frequency. This is Satan’s way of distracting you from what is truly important. My advice to you is to focus on the Mass, the Sacraments, the Scriptures, Church teaching, the teachings of the Saints, and Our Lady’s messages to Fr. Gobbi.
“Live in the greatest trust and filial abandonment to me, without allowing yourselves to beseized by vain curiosity to know what is awaiting you.” (#389j)“I am sheltering and defending you. Do not be worried about what is going to happen to you, because everything has already been arranged in my motherly Heart.” (#192e)
Do Not Be Afraid
Because of this barrage of false messages, we hear that some of you obviously are filled with fear and apprehension about what awaits humanity. We must keep in mind that God loves his people, and in his merciful Love, he wants to cleanse, purify, and sanctify humanity. He desires that all come back to Him, not out of fear but out of love.
Especially during those times when the evil one may be tempting you to fear, I invite you to meditate more deeply upon our Lady’s messages which are so comforting and consoling. She promises that she will be at the side of each of her consecrated ones during the time of the purification.
She tells us,“Do not be afraid; fear nothing, because you have your immaculate Mother at your side! …I am inviting you to entrust yourselves completely to me, without fear and without apprehension… In the greatest darkness, the light will come to you from my Immaculate Heart…at the decisive moments, I myself will suggest everything to you. I am the Immaculate One who is at your side. In these moments of your purification I will make my presence felt in an extraordinary way…” (#140)
“Like a mother, I am telling you the dangers through which you are going, the imminent threats, the extent of the evils that could happen to you, only because these evils can yet be avoided by you, the dangers can be evaded, the plan of God’s justice always can be changed by the force of his merciful love. Also when I predict chastisements to you, remember that everything, at any moment, may be changed by the force of your prayer and your reparative penance.” (#282m)
“I am now able to make use of the power that comes to me from your prayer, and I want to intervene as Mother to shorten the time of the trial and to comfort you in the sufferings which await you. Everything can still be changed if you, my children, listen to my voice and unite yourselves, through prayer, with the unceasing intercession of your heavenly Mother.”(#184fg)
The Remedy for Our Illnesses
This is going to be a pivotal year for the future of the United States. Our Lady has given us the cure for our moral, social, economic, and political woes. The answer is not to be found in human means. If we are faithful to God and practice the virtues of an authentic Christian life in adherence to the Gospel, trying to teach and lead others to do the same, then all of us, especially we her priests, become the remedy for our illnesses (cf. Message #340) . We can heal and save the whole world.
“Pray often, using the holy rosary…If the most grave problems for the Church and for the world have not yet been successfully resolved, despite all the human means which have been taken, this is a sign for you that you must now put all your trust in the power of prayer.” (#245e)
“Pray more and more. Multiply your cenacles of prayer. Multiply your rosaries, recited well and in union with me. Offer me also your suffering and your penance. And then, together we will form a great net of love that will envelop and save the whole world.” (#192 p-s)
Prayer Requests
I celebrate one Mass every week for the MMP, in honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Please be assured that all of your special intentions are included. I will remember you also in all my other Masses and prayers. We ask you to pray for all of the deceased members of the Marian Movement of Priests, many of whom are already in Heaven and can intercede for us
Thank you!
Your gifts to us are greatly appreciated and assist us in printing more books. We hope you will understand that, due to a reduced staff, we have been unable to acknowledge every donation. Everything is recorded in our database, so please feel free to check with us if you have any concerns about our receipt of your gift. You can also contact us at any time if you need a tax substantiation letter. The Marian Movement of Priests in the United States is a non-profit organization with IRS 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. For donations exceeding $250, the IRS requires that we send you a receipt for tax purposes. Otherwise your cancelled check will suffice to claim the deduction on your tax return.
Winter/Summer Addresses:
A lot of our mail is being returned by the USPS with the endorsement: “Temporarily Away”. Unless you advise us if yours is a winter or summer address, we have no choice but to delete these from our list. If you wish to continue receiving Fr. Gobbi’s letters, please provide BOTH addresses and indicate which months of the year that you are in residence at each place.
I take this opportunity to wish you a holy season of Lent and a most joyous Easter. Please pray for me.
Most sincerely in Jesus and Mary,
(signature)
Fr. Francis Geremia, c.s.