What does Our Lady ask of us?

What does Our Lady tell us to say?

 

            Through the MMP book, Our Lady is forming us, even to help us to know what to say. She gives us an example by her words, actions and silence. In the Gospel, we do not have many words recorded from her, instead she directs us towards her Son, to listen to him, and do whatever He tell us.

 

            She speaks to us through the book, and tells us how it should be read: “With the simplicity of a child who is listening to his mother. He doesn’t ask why she speaks, or how she speaks, or where her words are going to lead him. He loves her, and he listens to her. He does what she says. And then the child is happy, because he feels that in this way he is guided and illumined by his mother. Led by her and formed by her words, each day he continues to grow in life. So should it be for you. ...My only concern is that you live everything I have told you. Then your hearts will be inflamed with love, your souls will be illumined by my light, and I will transform you interiorly to lead you to do each day what pleases the Heart of Jesus. If you are consecrated to me, I take you just as you are, with your limitations, your defects and sins, your frailty, but then each day I transform you to bring you to be in accordance with the plan which God has entrusted to my Immaculate Heart” (M282c-h).

 

            Jesus prayed, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants...” (Lk 10:21). So too, Our Lady reveals herself to the little ones. “Even today I like to reveal myself to my children in places similar to those in which I lived with my Son Jesus: Bethlehem, Nazareth. Yes, even today I choose poverty, simplicity, littleness, and the ordinary in order to manifest myself. I know this can be a difficulty for many; and yet, this is necessary for those who wish to encounter me. It is necessary to be little and that all feel themselves to be just what they are before me: just little children” (M39cd).

 

            She wants to help us to be little: “Never consider yourselves. Accept your littleness with humility and meekness. Say to the Lord: ‘I am your smallest child. I know my poverty, and I thank you.’ And then, love. You can love more if you are truly the littlest. Love always. All that Jesus and I desire of you is love.  Nothing else is yours, but the beating of your heart is yours. ...beat with love only for my Son Jesus, for me and for souls!” (M132b-e)

 

            An example of littleness, we find in our little sister St. Therese who turned with trust and confidence to Our Lady as a child to their Mother. She mentioned in her autobiography: “When my sufferings grew less, my great delight was to weave garlands of daisies and forget-me-nots for Our Lady’s statue. We were in the beautiful month of May, when all nature is clothed with the flowers of spring; the Little Flower alone drooped, and seemed as though it had withered for ever. Yet she too had a shining sun, the miraculous statue of the Queen of Heaven. How often did not the Little Flower turn towards this glorious Sun!

 

            When she was sick, her father had a novena of Masses said for her at the Shrine of Our Lady of Victory in Paris. One Sunday, during the novena, Therese didn’t recognize her sister Marie, which led Marie to turn towards the statue of Our Lady. She entreated Our Lady with the fervour of a mother who begs for the life of her child and will not be refused. Léonie and Céline joined her, and Therese too, nearly dead with pain, turned to our Heavenly Mother, begging her from the bottom of her heart to have pity on her. Suddenly the statue seemed to come to life and grow beautiful, with a divine beauty that Therese shall never find words to describe. The expression of Our Lady’s face was ineffably sweet, tender, and compassionate; but what touched her to the very depths of her soul was her gracious smile. Then, all her pain vanished, Thérèse had been cured!” (Story of a Soul, Ch.3).

 

            “Why do you not wish to entrust yourself to me?” Our Lady asked. “Let it be I who build — moment by moment — your future.  It is enough for you to say just as a little child: ‘Mother, I trust you, I let myself be led by you.  Tell me: what must I do?’ And also, let it be I who act through you.  For this, how necessary it is for you to die to yourself! For this it is necessary that you accustom yourself to suffer, to be misunderstood, to be ignored, to be even trampled on a bit.” (M6cde)

 

 

Our Lady’s Yes

 

            At times, Our Lady responded with silence/reflection like when the angel Gabriel came to her and greeted her. “She was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be” (Lk 1:29). When the shepherds came to see the newborn Christ child, and made known what had been told them about Him, Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart (cf. Lk 2).

 

            At times, we know Our Lady’s words, which Luke and John record.

            When the angel Gabriel came to Mary revealing God’s plan, she asked the angel: “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” (Lk 1:34). By her question, it’s recognized that she had a vow of virginity. She did not doubt the words of the angel, but asked how is it that she will become the Mother of God. In this encounter, she gave her fiat, her assent to God’s will: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” (Lk 1:38).

 

            St. Bernard in a homily, In Praise of the Virgin Mother (Hom. 4:8-9; Opera omnia, Edit Cisterc 4. [1966], 53-54), spoke of this moment in which the angel came to her, awaiting her reply and receiving her response:

            “... Answer quickly, O Virgin. Reply in haste to the angel, or rather through the angel to the Lord. ... Open your heart to faith, O blessed Virgin, your lips to praise, your womb to the Creator. See, the desired of all nations is at your door, knocking to enter. ... Arise, hasten, open. Arise in faith, hasten in devotion, open in praise and thanksgiving. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, she says, be it done to me according to your word.”

 

            Our Lady is forming us to speak and act as she would. “Now something is really changing: it is I who am living and working in you.  Your heart beats in unison with mine; your mind follows my thoughts; your words repeat my voice; your hands repeat my gestures: you are, as it were, born again in me.” (M61c)

 

            Our Lady gave her yes at the moment of the Annunciation, but she repeatedly said her yes to the will of the Father, and teaches us to do the same. Whereas Satan rebelled against God and  serving Him, she teaches us to humbly serve God. “To his renewed gesture of pride and rebellion by which he has now seduced the whole of humanity” she says, “I will again repeat through my little children: ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to your word.’ (Lk 1:38). (M76hi)

 

            Our yes, is also in letting us be formed by Mary unto the likeness of her Son, desired by her Son, so that He can live once again through us and love, pray, suffer and work in order that the Father may be ever glorified in us (cf. M193h). On the feast of her birth, she said: “Look, my beloved ones, at this infant Mother of yours, and learn to be little. You must be little because you are my children, and therefore you should live the same life as I. ...You must be ever littler because your Mother wants you entirely for herself: she wants to feed you, to clothe you, to carry you in her arms. You must be little because in this way you will always say yes to the Will of the Father. Say with me your yes.  Thus in you I will repeat the yes of my perfect docility to the Will of God.” (M109hinop)

 

            St. Maximilian Kolbe spoke of holiness in which our little v corresponds with God’s big V. V for the Latin word voluntas, meaning the will. Our will in complete conformity with God’s will, like it was for Mary and as we also pray ‘thy will be done on earth, as it is done in heaven’.

            She desires to see in us, an interior docility which leads us always to say yes to her and to seek only to carry out her will in whatever we do. And she tell us her will: “I want you humble, silent, recollected and burning with love for Jesus and souls... I want you trustful, abandoned to me and without human preoccupations... I want you mortified in your senses, persevering in prayer, and gathered about Jesus in the Eucharist like living lamps of love. Only thus will you feel me close to you; I want you ever purer; thus you will finally be able to see me... Your life will be transformed by me, as gently and firmly I lead you to sanctity...“ (M130f-k)

            Mary’s will is always in conformity to God’s will. At the wedding in Cana, she told the servants: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). Her will is, that we do God’s will. So when we say ‘yes’ to what she asks of us, we also say ‘yes’ to what God wants of us. “My beloved children, contemplate your Mother at the moment of her annunciation, as with her Heart and her lips she says her yes to the Will of the Lord. You too should learn always to say yes to whatever the Lord now asks of you through the voice that comes to you from the Immaculate Heart of your heavenly Mother” (M173ij).

 

 

Magnificat

 

            Fr. Dermot Roche S.M.A. of the MMP wrote a book titled ‘I Am The Virgin Mother Of God And Your Mother Too...’. He mentions that the angel Gabriel told Mary that her cousin Elizabeth was going to give birth to a child. The angel did not tell Mary to go visit her, and yet as soon as the angel left her, Mary went with haste to visit her cousin who could use her help being pregnant in her old age. Urged on by the love of God (2 Cor 5:14), which leads us to a love of one’s neighbour, Mary went to visit and help Elizabeth.

 

            We do not know how Mary greeted Elizabeth, but we do know that in answer to Elizabeth blessing and praising Mary, she gave praise to God, saying: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation...” (Lk 2: 46-50).

 

            The same spirit that was in Mary and led her also needs to be in us as St. Louis de Montfort wrote in The Secret of Mary (258): “We must do everything through Mary, that is, we must obey her always and be led in all things by her spirit, which is the Holy Spirit of God. “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God,” says St. Paul. Those who are led by the spirit of Mary are children of Mary, and, consequently children of God, as we have already shown. Among the many servants of Mary only those who are truly and faithfully devoted to her are led by her spirit. I have said that the spirit of Mary is the spirit of God because she was never led by her own spirit, but always by the spirit of God, who made himself master of her to such an extent that he became her very spirit. That is why St. Ambrose says, “May the soul of Mary be in each one of us to glorify the Lord. May the spirit of Mary be in each one of us to rejoice in God.”

 

            On the feast of her birth, Our Lady said: ““Gaze today upon your infant Mother.  Learn to be little.  If you do not change and become as little children, you cannot understand my plan.  Its power lies in weakness, and its realization takes place each day in silence and hiddenness. ... By the power of the little ones, my proud Adversary will be defeated, and the whole world will be renewed.  Therefore, all of you, gather today about the cradle of your infant Mother, and repeat with me to the Lord: ‘In my littleness I was pleasing to the Most High.  God has looked upon his servant in her lowliness, and thus He who is mighty has done great things in me; holy is his name.’ ” (cf. Lk 1:48-49) (M230acd)

 

            With discernment, Mary was prompt in saying her yes to what God asked of her through the angel. She was prompt to act according to the dictates of charity to visit her cousin.

            In the life of St. Therese, she was quick to offer her services to Sister St. Pierre who needed help going from the chapel to the dining room, but when she did perform this service, she soon noticed that Sister found it very difficult to cut her bread, so Therese did more than what was asked, she did not leave Sister till she had performed this last service, finishing it with her sweetest smile. (Ch. 10).

 

            We can ask Mary as St. Teresa of Calcutta did: “Lend me your heart” so that Mary may help us to say yes to God and to love God and others as she does. “Mary, give me your Heart: so beautiful, so pure, so immaculate; your Heart so full of love and humility that I may be able to receive Jesus in the Bread of Life and love Him as you love Him and serve Him in the distressing guise of the poor.

 

            We are to join Our Lady in adoring and giving praise to God. “Then each day I present myself before the throne of my Lord in an act of profound adoration; I open the golden door of my Immaculate Heart; and I offer in my arms all these little children of mine, as I say: ‘Most Holy and Divine Trinity, at the moment when You are being universally denied, I present to You the homage of my motherly reparation, by means of all these little ones of mine whom I am forming each day to your greater glorification.’ Thus again today, from the mouths of infants and sucklings, the Lord receives his perfect praise.” (M404kl)

 

            We are to join her in proclaiming the greatness of the Lord. “In the heart of the little ones, I find my greatest joy.  In them I reflect my light, and I see my plan reproduced.  Because little, I am pleasing to the Most High.  Only in the hearts of the little ones does the Father take pleasure, is the Son glorified, and does the Holy Spirit find his permanent dwelling place. Thus, by means of them, the Immaculate Heart of your heavenly Mother can repeat her eternal Magnificat, her canticle of adoration and praise to the Divine and Most Holy Trinity.” (M504c)

 

 

Thy will be done

 

            Our Lady teaches us to say yes to God’s will, even when it means taking up our cross as we follow the Lord.. Our Lord mentioned to St. Faustina: "You often call Me your Master. This is pleasing to My Heart; but do not forget, My disciple, that you are a disciple of a crucified Master" (Diary 1513).

 

            We might not like the sufferings we must deal with, but Our Lady helps us: “Accustom yourself to being trampled on, to being put aside, to being neither understood nor esteemed.  It is necessary that this happen to you! And when you feel an interior rebellion within yourself which causes you to say to yourself: ‘Why?  This is not right!  I must claim my rights!’, answer immediately: ‘Get behind me, Satan!  Will I not drink the chalice which the Father has prepared for me?’ ” (M12cd)

 

            We can learn from the example of St. Therese who followed the little way of spiritual childhood. The Basilica Shrine website of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal mentions:

            “Thérèse never complained about the difficulties of monastic life—and there were many. For one, her superior, Mother Marie de Gonzague, was a very moody woman who would grant permission to do something one moment and then revoke it the next. Yet, according to all the sisters who lived with her, Thérèse remained habitually patient, calm, and joyful.

            Even though she was routinely served cold, sparse, and frequently spoiled leftovers for dinner, she smiled, ate her food, and offered it up for the good of souls.

            And when the other sisters chided and ridiculed her, calling her names like “big nanny goat,” she smiled and remained silent. It wasn’t that their words didn’t pierce her heart. They did. But she offered it to Jesus as consolation for His sufferings.

            She said that “When something painful or disagreeable happens to me, instead of a melancholy look, I answer by a smile. At first, I did not always succeed, but now it has become a habit, which I am glad to have acquired.” (https://miraculousmedal.org/inspire/st-therese-living-marys-yes/).

 

            “This is the hour of Calvary for my Church,” Our Lady tells us “... But it is also... your most beautiful hour for which I have prepared each one of you for a long time.  Say with me: ‘Yes, Father, your Will be done!’ (cf. Mt 26:39) Even if this hour is one of darkness, you are called by me to reflect the light of the Will and the plan of the Father. You will be called to bear witness to the fatherhood and the merciful love of God. This then is your hour, and this is why I am calling you to nothing but prayer, suffering and a total immolation of yourselves” (M71jklm).

 

            In the third secret of Fatima, there was a vision of a Calvary for the Church. In which the children saw “a Bishop dressed in White [who they thought was the Holy Father]. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross... ; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.”

 

            We are to look to Our Lady, who met Jesus along the way of the cross and stood by the cross, repeating her Yes to the will of the Father. Yes to love always. “Do not look to creatures who... will hurl themselves upon you with hatred and violence. And yet... you have always loved and done good to all; you have always sought to help everyone. And now the chill of hatred and ingratitude is spreading all about you. Do not be afraid.  This is the hour of Satan and of the power of darkness. Do not fear: take refuge in my Immaculate Heart. In this motherly Heart you will be warmed and consoled.  Here is the source of your joy and the secret of your confidence. In this Heart you are little children whom I am forming in interior meekness so that, at the invitation of my Son who is associating you in his Sacrifice, you may respond with a yes. Say it with me... this yes of yours to the Will of the Father.  Then very soon you will see appearing the dawn of a new world, washed and purified by your reparative offering.” (M101e-l)

 

            Our yes includes drinking from the chalice Jesus drank from, to share in His sufferings for the good of His Body the Church. Our Lady tells us: “...Your suffering will of necessity grow greater as the great apostasy spreads more and more. This is your martyrdom of heart for which I am preparing you all. Upon my motherly Heart, let each one offer his interior immolation to the Father. Accept, to its very dregs, this hour of darkness. Live this martyrdom of the entire Church, invaded by the night. Remain faithful and confident, now that infidelity becomes more widespread and extolled. Say yes to the Father and to your heavenly Mother, who is gently preparing you to live without fear, through those terrible moments which are now awaiting you.”(M122fijkl)

 

            On another occasion, she tells us that she will help us say our yes: “Behold the path along which I am calling you today: that of Calvary which you must tread with docility and meekness. Do not seek to escape this trial; do not beg for human consolation.  You will always find the Heart of your Mother who will help you to say yes to the Will of the Father.” (M124hi)

            She teaches us to say yes to the Father in imitation of her Son: “you too should say your yes to the Will of the Father. Say it with Jesus, his Son and your Brother, who still offers Himself each day for you.” (M150e) “Do not be afraid if today I want you all with me on Calvary: you are in my motherly Heart, and here you too must learn to pray, to suffer, to be silent, to offer yourselves up. Thus am I preparing you for your priestly immolation.  Say your yes to the Will of the Father. Say it with me, your heavenly Mother, who have long been preparing you in the same way that I prepared my Son Jesus…” (M151m-p)

 

            We can add, to say our yes joyfully “for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:7). While the Missionaries of the Poor, founded by Fr. Ho Lung, took as their motto: “Joyful Service with Christ on the Cross”.

 

 

Proclaiming the Gospel

 

            In the Gospel, the last words of Mary recorded are “Do whatever He tells you.” During Jesus’ public ministry we do not hear her speaking so as not to take away from her Son’s message. If anything, she would have repeated what He said.

            St. Louis de Montfort wrote: “The salvation of the world began through Mary and through her it must be accomplished. Mary scarcely appeared in the first coming of Jesus Christ so that men, as yet insufficiently instructed and enlightened concerning the person of her Son, might not wander from the truth by becoming too strongly attached to her. This would apparently have happened if she had been known, on account of the wondrous charms with which Almighty God had endowed even her outward appearance. So true is this that St. Denis the Areopagite tells us in his writings that when he saw her he would have taken her for a goddess, because of her incomparable beauty, had not his well-grounded faith taught him otherwise. But in the second coming of Jesus Christ, Mary must be known and openly revealed by the Holy Spirit so that Jesus may be known, loved and served through her. The reasons which moved the Holy Spirit to hide his spouse during her life and to reveal but very little of her since the first preaching of the gospel exist no longer.” (TD49)

 

            She would have us faithfully repeat the words of her Son: “By your word, which will repeat ever more loudly and clearly the truth which my Son Jesus has come to reveal to you. ... Always announce the Gospel that you live with fidelity and clarity!” (M91gi). We then are called to proclaim the Gospel by our words and our life (cf. M124p).

 

            “Beloved...., say your yes today to the Will of the Father, your yes to the Gospel of the Son, your yes to the love of the Holy Spirit.  In these times, the Will of the Father is not being accomplished, and the action of the Holy Spirit is being impeded, because the Gospel of Jesus is not being accepted.” (M243f). “I say to you today: announce Christ to everyone; be faithful only to Christ and to his Gospel, and you will become true builders of peace.” (M337f)

 

            In message 241, she says: “I am bringing you all today into the temple of the Lord to present you, as a hymn of perfect glorification, to the Most Holy Trinity.  Your little voices will become strong, like the roar of a hurricane, and joined to the powerful victory-cry of the cohorts of angels and saints, they will go out through all the world to proclaim everywhere, ‘Who is like God?  Who is like God?’ (M241f)

 

            She, the Spouse of the Holy Spirit and Mother of the Incarnate Word, can even help us to speak, so that it is she who speaks and acts through us: “It is the Holy Spirit who suggests everything to you.  But it is the Mother who gives word and form to all that the Spirit prompts you to say, so that you may reach the hearts and minds of those who listen to you, according to their capacity to receive and their spiritual need.” (M129e)

            She who was concerned at the wedding that “they have no wine” (Jn 2:3), reminds us of the need to care for the poor, and speaks of being a voice for those who don’t have someone to speak for them: “I am now making myself the voice of these poor children of mine, who have no voice, to repeat to all: think of these brothers of yours, of those who even today are dying of hunger and need. Give to these little ones of mine that which you have in abundance!” (M214h).

 

 

Prayer

 

            Our Lady inspired don Gobbi to say this prayer to Jesus, which we can also make use of, for no one has ever loved Mary as Jesus did: “ ‘O my Jesus, give me your Heart because I want to love Our Lady as You have loved her.’ ” (M10a).

 

            When Mary and Joseph searched for Jesus and finally found Him in the temple, they were astonished; and she said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” (Lk 2:48). Even with His response, they did not understand what he said to them, but His mother treasured all these things in her heart.

 

            Our Lady reminds us of the importance and necessity of prayer for the salvation of souls. “The prayer of my predilection is the holy rosary. For this reason, in my many apparitions I always ask that it be recited.  I unite myself with those who say it; I request it from all with solicitude and maternal preoccupation” (M275cd). With the rosary, we wish like Mary and with her to treasure the life of Jesus in our heart and ponder upon these mysteries.

 

            “How many times, as you recite the holy rosary, have you repeated this prayer to me: ‘Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death!’ This is an invocation which I listen to with great joy, and it is always heard by me.  If, as Mother, I am close to each one of my children at the hour of death, I am especially close to you who, through your consecration, have always lived in the secure refuge of my Immaculate Heart. At the hour of your death, I am close to you, with the splendour of my glorified body; I receive your souls into my motherly arms, and I bring them before my Son Jesus, for his particular judgment. Think of how joyful must be the meeting of Jesus with those souls who are presented to Him by his very own Mother! (M481klm) Like chicks that run to the hen in times of danger, let us run to her maternal protection and help now and especially at the hour of our death.

 

            She gives an example of prayer for together with the Apostles, she joined in praying for the coming of the Holy Spirit and now joins us in our supplications. “Today I invite you all to enter into the cenacle of my Immaculate Heart in the expectation of receiving in fullness the Spirit of Love which is given to you as a gift by the Father and the Son. My Immaculate Heart is the golden doorway through which this divine Spirit passes to reach you.  And so I invite you to repeat often: ‘Come, Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well-beloved Spouse.’ ” (M226jk; see also: M426a, M604x).

 

            On Pentecost in 1994, she’s repeated this request: “Today you find yourselves gathered together here, in a continuous cenacle of prayer with your heavenly Mother...  And you are repeating, with the intensity of love, the prayer which I myself have taught you: ‘Come, Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well-beloved Spouse.’

​

            The Spirit cannot resist the voice of the Spouse who calls to Him.  And so unite yourselves, each and all, to me, my little children, in invoking today the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Let your supplication become the prayer of these last times.  Let your prayer be habitual, repeated frequently by you, because it has been taught to you and is being passionately demanded of you by your heavenly Mother: ‘Come, Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well-beloved Spouse’ ” (M521abn).

 

            We invoke the coming of the Holy Spirit, so that, as Our Lady mentioned on Pentecost in 1988, “The Holy Spirit will come, to establish the glorious reign of Christ, and it will be a reign of grace, of holiness, of love, of justice and of peace. With his divine love, He will open the doors of hearts and illuminate all consciences. Every person will see himself in the burning fire of divine truth. It will be like a judgment in miniature. And then Jesus Christ will bring his glorious reign in the world” (M383d).

 

            She the Woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars, invites to make use of the prayer we find in the book of  Revelation. On Pentecost 1987, she mentioned, “my action will be, from now on, stronger, more extraordinary and more noticed by all. Gather together in my Immaculate Heart, so that your voices can be joined with mine in a continuous prayer. I am the dawn which is arising to announce the arrival of the brilliant sun of Christ.  Welcome my message with joy, ... unite yourselves all to your heavenly Mother in repeating her perennial invocation which she pronounces together with her divine Spouse: ‘Come, Lord Jesus.’ ” (Rev 22:20)” (M355hijk)

 

            In the first message of 1989, she makes use of this prayer: Come, Lord Jesus, in the life of each one... Come, Lord Jesus, in families... Come, Lord Jesus, in nations... I am today urging you all to band together in the prayer which your heavenly Mother, united with the Holy Spirit her divine Spouse, directs each day to the Father: ‘Come, Lord Jesus!’ (Rev 22:20)” (M397fghi), so that Jesus may bring his reign into the world, a new era of great brotherhood and peace. And in Message 533m: “Proclaim to all his forthcoming return: ‘Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!’ ” (cf. Rev 22:20)

 

            Our Lady spoke of Our Lord’s return for which we pray: “The glorious reign of Christ, which will be established in your midst, with the second coming of Jesus in the world, is close at hand.  This is his return in glory. This is his glorious return, to establish his reign in your midst and to bring all humanity, redeemed by his most precious blood, back to the state of his new terrestrial paradise. That which is being prepared is so great that its equal has never existed since the creation of the world. Prepare yourselves...” (M435cd).

 

 

The Eucharist

 

            Our Lady who is present by every tabernacle of the world, tells us to make the Eucharistic Jesus the centre of our prayer, the secret of our life, the soul of our apostolic action (cf. M476s).

 

            At the Last Supper, in which Jesus instituted the Eucharist, Jesus told the Apostles: “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Lk 22:15). Our Lady tells us that “the institution of the Priesthood is above all ordered to a perpetual, even though unbloody, immolation of Jesus, which perpetuates that which was done by Him on Calvary. And so you too are called by me to suffer with Jesus, to immolate yourselves with Him for the salvation of souls. Climb the Calvary of this indifferent and cruel century, ready to die with Jesus, that the brothers may have life. To this purpose, I am asking of you, in these times, greater and more continuous sufferings. Do not be discouraged; on the contrary, be happy. If you enter into the garden of my Immaculate Heart, you will experience ever more and more that which Jesus experienced in a perfect manner: the joy of being immolated for the sake of love and the salvation of all. And so, each day, to the souls who have been entrusted to you, you can say with truth: ‘How much I have desired to eat this Pasch of mine with you!’ (cf. Lk 22:15)‘ ” (M322ghi).

 

            She leads us to adore Jesus present in the Eucharist. “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 such that you never again feel yourself alone, because He has remained here below to be always with you. And so then, you must go before the tabernacle to gather the fruit of the prayer and of the communion of life with Jesus which develops and matures into your holiness” (M360zAB).

​

Immolated with Christ

 

            “Beloved children,” she says, “ learn from me always to say yes to the Heavenly Father, even when He asks of you the precious contribution of your suffering” (M334a). “I am above all always close to you in climbing Calvary with you, in gathering up every drop of your suffering, in helping you to say yes to the Will of the Father, who is preparing you for the perfect immolation for the salvation of the world” (M345g).

 

            “The way of the Cross, my little children, is the only way that I have traced out for you because it is that which your Mother has first travelled, together with her Son Jesus. Journey along it without fear, because you will be led by the hand, by me, enheartened by my motherly tenderness. Journey along it with me, in my Immaculate Heart; near your cross you will thus feel the presence of your Mother who will comfort and help you” (M71efg).

 

            “Do not allow yourselves to be seized with distress.  My Adversary often wounds you, making use of good persons and persons whom you have also helped in many ways. Sometimes he makes use of your very own confreres. ...You are therefore being called to enter into the Garden of Gethsemane, with Jesus your Brother, who wants to relive in you the sorrowful hours of his interior agony. You too, then, taste the bitterness of his chalice and repeat, together with Him, with filial abandonment: ‘Father, not our but your Will be done.’ (Lk 22:42) Prepare yourselves to experience the indescribable suffering of being abandoned by the most trustworthy, mocked by confreres, set aside by superiors, opposed by friends, persecuted by those who have accepted a compromise with the world and have associated themselves with the secret cohort of Masonry” (M394bcd).

 

            She stood by the cross, helping Jesus to remain on the cross and helps us in offering ourselves with Jesus to the Father: “on this day of Good Friday, permit that I might repeat also to you: Remain with Jesus, on the Cross.  Do not give in to the subtle temptations of my Adversary, to the facile seductions of the world, to the voices of those who again today repeat to you: ‘Come down from the cross!’ No!  You also, like Jesus, must understand the divine plan of your personal priestly offering. You too must say yes to the Will of the Father and be open to words of prayer and of pardon. Because today, you also, like Jesus, must be immolated for the salvation of the world.” (M400mn)

 

            “Stay with me... beneath the Cross, together with your brother, John.

            There is such need for comfort.  For Jesus, who is nailed to the gibbet, raised up from the earth and who is living through the bloody hours of his agony.  And for me, his Mother, intimately associated in his redemptive passion.

​

            There is such need for faith.  Behold Jesus crushed like a worm.  All the sins of the world weigh upon his immolated body.  His Heart is overwhelmed by human ingratitude and by such a profound lack of faith.  ‘He saved others, and He cannot save Himself.  Let Him come down from the Cross if He is the Son of God, and we will believe in Him.’  (cf. Mt 27:42) With me, with John, with the devout and faithful women, with the penitent centurion, you too must say: ‘Truly, this is the Son of God!’ (Mt 27:54)

​

            There is such need for love.  On Golgotha, love appears to be defeated.  There is only hatred, bitterness, wickedness and inhuman savagery.  Darkness descends and obscures the world.  Love is all gathered together in Christ Crucified, who prays, pardons, bows to the Will of the Father and docilely abandons Himself to Him.  Love descends from Him upon the Mother, called to open her Heart to a new and spiritual motherhood, and upon John, who represents all of you, in receiving this supreme gift of the divine Heart of the Son.’” (M516ghij).

 

            “With the strength of the little ones, I will bring back to God this poor humanity, deceived and seduced by false ideologies and particularly ensnared by the great error of atheism. With it, ...  Satan, has wanted to renew before God his proud challenge, bringing humanity to repeat his gesture of rebellion against the Lord: ‘Non serviam: I will not serve Him.’ And so, I gather in the garden of my Immaculate Heart the great cohort of my little children, and I offer them to the perfect fulfilment of the Will of the Heavenly Father. Thus, in them and by means of them, I repeat my gesture of humble and perfect availability to his Will, repeating again my Fiat: let your holy and divine Will be done.” (M578cd)

 

            She teaches us to have the same mind in us that was in Christ. We can say to have the same kind of heart as His and her’s: “I have called you...”, she says, to consecrate yourselves to my Immaculate Heart, that I may give you the grace to live habitually in me, and thus fill your little hearts with the plenitude of my love. Love all your brothers with my Heart, especially those who have lost their way today and are in great danger of being eternally lost.  Love above all those who are furthest away, the sinners, the atheists and those who are rejected by everyone; love even the persecutors and the executioners. Say with love, ‘Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.’ (Lk 23:34) For those who hate, those who kill, those who work violence, those who do evil, those who blaspheme, those who give scandal, bear only love and say, ‘Father, forgive!’ How many of these brothers of yours you will one day find in paradise, drawn on the way of salvation by the irresistible force of your love!” (M186g-k).

 

            Our Lady prepares us for our mission: “For this, your hearts must become purer; you must feel hunger and thirst for the word of God; you must pray and suffer in order to say, with your Brother Jesus, upon my Immaculate Heart: ‘Father, your Will alone be done.  You have taken delight in neither holocausts nor sacrifices; but you have prepared a body for me.  O God, I come today to do your Will.’ ” (cf. Heb 10:5-7) (M195t)

 

            She teaches us to imitate her Son, who was obedient to his Father even unto death on the cross.  “Pronounce with me your yes to the cross ... because for you also the hours of the passion and of Calvary have come. As in my virginal womb I received the Word of the Father, so also I enclose each one of you today in my Immaculate Heart, while I already contemplate you at the moment of your offering of reparation. Your yes, my little children, within the yes which your heavenly Mother continually repeats, with joy, to her God!… Then, in you also, the Will of the Father can be fulfilled, and my Immaculate Heart will become the altar upon which you will be immolated for the salvation of the world.” (M196rstu)