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This
is a short passage from the great page of the Gospel about the solemn
moments when Our Lord dealt with the greatest subject of Christian life
for His support and, then, for His victories.
Evidently Our Lord likes this, why does Our Lord like this? Because He
wants His subject and His redemption to be effective. Why does He want
them to be effective? But because He wants to save us. From whom does
He want to save us? Have you ever thought of it?
Why was Christ crucified? To save us from whom? Mind you, He didn’t
want to save us from our parents! He didn’t want to save us from
governments, and so on. He didn’t even want to save us from thieves,
He had other means in this case. It was not the case to be crucified and
bear that terrible torture after a long sorrowful preparation for such
a silly thing. And then from what did He want to save us? Why was Christ
crucified? And why didn’t His Mother, the Virgin, interfere? She
was at the foot of the cross. Could she stand such a madness by Her son
for a silly thing or for a crime of average importance and this way watch
Him go to the terrible block of death on the cross?
Then, there is a different reason, it’s very clear. It’s very
clear, but it’s denied. Today, in the very nice times of our progressive
activity, it’s unsettled and denied. The Lord accepted His Celestial
Father’s will, the death on the cross, to save us from Evil with
capital “E”, that is from Satan. And it is high time that
people stopped denying it, even among several priests, let’s say
things as they are, that they stopped denying or smiling with a laughing
tone with a conceited air at the great and terrible and true character
of Satan considered as a person.
A few might talk about it with the same competence as this poor friar.
But it’s so. Then He saved us from Satan. And who helps us in this
way to salvation? He is enough. Yes, He’s enough, it’s true,
He’s God, He is enough. But the Lord doesn’t do anything useless.
But men, having a fair amount of stupidity or of incapacity, do a lot
of useless things, when they don’t do harmful things, and then everything
is clear. But He doesn’t, He doesn’t do anything useless.
And so the great and powerful fight against satan, God gave it to the
Blessed Virgin.
In fact, when we consider the very sad and serious episode of the original
sin in Adam and Eve, the Lord tells the snake that it will be cursed forever
and that it will creep eating the earth’s dust and a Woman will
crush its head. It will lay a trap for Her heels and the woman’s
breed and the snake’s breed will fight, the woman’s breed
will certainly win.
Now the woman is the Virgin. The woman’s breed is Christ the God
made flesh. Evidently, God made flesh is more powerful than the Virgin,
but He gives this mission to His beloved Mother to crush this snake. Here
is the great usefulness of our Lady’s sanctuaries.
It’s true, the Virgin can be prayed in any church, in any parish
you like, the Virgin can even be prayed in the street, even in the middle
of a field, in the mountains, this is very clear. We are not authorized
to send any hearing aid to Her ear to have Her hear us, we can’t
even lend Her the aid of the eye specialist to give Her some glasses to
make Her see. She can see awfully well and she can hear deeply well.
Then? In any place we can pray our Lady and from this Altar I willingly
give you advice, but, but, it’s clear that the Virgin has some will.
Today in the clerical world people often say unpleasant things. Unpleasant
things? What do they say, what are these unpleasant things? The fact is
that this Virgin always appears to some young girls, to some young boys,
to some people, but there is some exaggeration, but is this thing possible?
Is this thing possible?
Street walkers are allowed to speak, thieves are allowed to speak, murderers
are allowed to speak, rascals are allowed to speak, all the dust and the
mud of life is allowed to speak; God and the Virgin are not allowed to
speak any more! Do the Governments perhaps forbid them to speak? Who is
allowed to speak ? God, sure. In fact He has a particular name: the Word
made Flesh. A word, all quiet, is a solemn teasing for everybody. God
is allowed to speak. He has repeatedly spoken. The Old Testament is full
of His Voice and of His force. The Virgin is allowed to speak.
It’s the christian tradition tested to the nth power of the truth,
She has spoken. And when did she speak? Well, you know how many times
more or less, she spoke.
Now one of the most effective, most solemn expressions is always under
that name which has almost become a fashion: Fatima, Fatima. Yes, Fatima
is right. Did She speak at Fatima? But sure. And when ? In 1917.
Yes, yes. Only? No, not only. In 1917 She appeared and spoke, she appeared
for six months on the famous 13th of each month, but, but… The Virgin
of Fatima also spoke in other moments, I mean the Virgin as She appeared
in the same clothing, in the same aspect that we call of Fatima because
so She appeared there. And what did She say? Well, I don’t want
to make you sad, but I want to pour the truth into your mind and into
your heart.
The Virgin spoke in 1929, precisely on 13th May 1929 repeating and giving
strength to the great, the great truth she was announcing. And what is
this truth? The Virgin addressed the famous Lucia, now she is still a
Carmelite Nun in a cloister in Coimbra. She spoke and said: “God
wants it, our Lord wants it”. Now it’s not just anyone who
wants it, but it’s God who wants it.
I don’t know…when we pray we say, I think everyday: Our Father
who are in Heaven, Your kingdom come, Your will be done. God wants it:
your will be done. Which will? Your will, my Lord, not mine.
There is a fashion even in clerical life and it’s quite a wrong
fashion. We pray our Lord to help us to do what good we wish for us. It’s
not this. God’s will is a different one. We should pray God to do
His will with our help, that is may His will be done, not ours because
we think a lot of things are good, but we don’t know if they really
are so. They seem appropriate, but we don’t know if they really
are appropriate. They seem up-to-date, but we don’t know if they
really are up-to-date. God knows everything: may Your will be done. How?
On Earth as it is in Heaven. This is the prayer taught by Jesus. So it’s
a very great will, isn’t it? Exactly.
So, the Virgin said to Lucia:” The Lord wants The Pope together
with all the Bishops to consecrate Russia to My Pure Heart. For this –
mind you – for this Russia will be saved. And as a consequence the
world.”
A short time afterwards the Lord appears, He speaks to Lucia and says:
“They didn’t want to do it. It will happen to them what happened
to the King of France.” What happened to the famous French King
? The guillotine, also because of the thoughtlessness of his wife, the
queen, who hadn’t finished to make up yet. You women, think twice
about it when you lose a lot of time in front of the mirror, don’t
lose too much time when it’s necessary for something else. The queen
of France lost time in making up while the Duke of Vandée was waiting
for her at the border of the region and while he was waiting the revolutionaries
arrived. They took the queen, the King, everything and the King was guillotined.
This happened for the queen’s sweet devotion to the mirror and powder
and cosmetics. Incidentally, it has nothing to do with the Gospel.
So? “What happened to the French King.” And then? Ah! “
Then they will understand – the Lord continues – and they’ll
do it: it’ll be too late. Russia will already have spread its mistakes
and its revolutionary spirit all over the world. The intercontinental
war which is already in progress, it’s in progress and it won’t
stop.. Here it is. The war. The Church will be terribly persecuted, the
Pope will have a lot to suffer from”.
Not to blame the Pope for it, the Virgin intervenes and says:” Pray
for the Pope so that his heart may not surrender itself to such a great
grief.” The Pope Pious XII, Pope Pacelli, consecrated Russia 13
years later and precisely on 13th May 1942. It was a great thing.
Then it was done, wasn’t it? No, it wasn’t done. The Virgin
and the Lord appreciated the Pope’s quick intervention and praised
him. But the order was for the Pope and all the catholic Bishops. Not
even one Bishop did it. I was in Rome, I remember, the Pope might have
had five or six Bishops around him, they had retired for old age or for
sickness and so…they were still Bishops, but they were not all the
Bishops of the Church.
So it happened that the episcopacy didn’t obey the Virgin and didn’t
obey the pope. This is why the spirit of disobedience has pervaded our
clerical world and the world itself, the worldly one. Everyone wants to
do what he wants. Of course, at that moment, God thought of restoring
the situation as the governments do: increasing the taxes. God increased
the taxes and added VAT too, so that we might pay more, but it’s
not about money. We have to pay morally, physically, sorrowfully, with
a classic name that is never lost: with the cross. We have to pay for
those who didn’t pay and who don’t want to pay. Here is the
great issue. Here is what the world is paying today. We say: but what
is this criminality, this revolution, this disorder, this evil: it’s
because of this. It’s because of the increase of the taxes. We pay
for those who didn’t want to pay, probably we also pay for the moments
when we didn’t want to pay.
At this payment and at this system of remuneration and reorder, our wonderful
and I should say adorable Mother, the Blessed Virgin, acts as a Chairman.
I talk about it because the Virgin has come here several times. The last
time was on the last 20th February at ten o’clock in the morning.
When this sanctuary was opened, the Virgin said:” I will never desert
those who come to this sanctuary of mine.” Don’t forget these
words, you would make our Lady’s promise empty. You have been lucky
enough to come here, the Virgin will never desert you, unless you have
a kind of revolution in the mind and say: “but I don’t believe
it” and everyone is free to believe it or not but then he must bear
the consequences.
So this is the issue. In conclusion we are in a place which is blessed
by the Virgin. Besides, I remember that digging the foundations of this
temple, digging, one day and only that time wearing black, She was sowing.
The Virgin was sowing and said these precise words: “I’m sowing
the graces one day you will pick up in this sanctuary of mine.”
Why She called it great I don’t know, but these were the very words.
Then ? Then, everything supports the same thesis, because the time will
come and probably it won’t be very far, in which we will see the
hour of the world become more and more serious than it is now, but we
will also see our Blessed Virgin’s precise, wonderful, powerful
and sure action.
May we know if, by any chance, the Virgin has given us a weapon to protect
ourselves in any time? Sure, we can, and you know it : the beads. I don’t
mean the Rosary as a prayer, we already know that the Virgin asked for
the prayer of the Rosary. But I tell you the beads, the object with which
you say the Rosary. The Virgin said:” wear it, have it in a pocket,
but bring it always with you: it’s the only powerful salvation.”
Everyone is free to believe it or not. But it’s clear that the time
of the Virgin is more and more powerful and I, I praise you because you
have chosen a place of prayer of Mary, for Mary. I should say you have
been lucky because you have chosen a place which has been specifically
chosen by the Virgin for these times, so you have come into the Virgin’s
will or at least in the Virgin’s Providence. And doing this, you
have signed the decree for your protection and for the beauty of your
times, but above all what is more important for eternity.
Now in a different way, so from this Gospel, what do we learn? What has
the Gospel to do with what I have told you? This Gospel reminds us that
Jesus multiplied the loaves and gave them to 5 thousand men and as many
children and women. Considering the importance of the episode, the people
were so enthusiastic that they looked for him because they wanted Him
to be their king. Well, with such a king we will never suffer from starvation!
Considering the good intent of the people, they were quite material but
they admired the miracle, he retired to the mountains and said to the
disciples: “ Go out to sea and towards Capernaum, I will reach you
there.”
But they find Him at night, why at night? Because, because the disciples,
considering the importance of such a great episode, had spent time talking
among them and with the enthusiastic people; in this enthusiasm the night
had come and they went out to sea; the wind, the agitated waters and at
a certain moment the danger. They see the ghost, it’s a ghost. But
John says to Peter:” It’s the Lord!” Ah, it’s
the Lord!
So Peter puts himself in the position to go towards Him, then he says:
“If you are the Lord order me to walk on the waters.” The
Lord says : ”Come.” And Peter walks on the waters as if they
were a hard floor to walk well on it, but he gets scared to see the waters.
He starts to doubt as we poor christians do in the moments of strife,
and that is enough to make him sink.
Mind that since I was a boy, I have been used to water, to the sea, it’s
not possible to start sinking. When you are there, you go down, then the
force of the waters will take you up again, but you go down. That slowly
starting to sink is already a miracle in itself established by Christ’s
power so that the disciple might scream and say:” Save me, my Lord!
Save me”. The Lord catches him, He pulls him up, He takes him arm
in arm, Peter walks on the waters again and goes towards the boat and
they reach the shore.
The miracle of the loaves was as great as this miracle of the waters of
the sea, or of the big lake, because they called it lake. The great miracle
which promises, the speech at Capernaum which says: ”Whoever eats
of My flesh and drinks of My blood, he will have life in himself”.
Here is the victory we must have. Here is the Person against whom satan
fought and is fighting. The doubt, the distance from the very holy Eucharist,
that is the Communion.
I don’t want to expatiate even if I have something very important
to tell you, but I don’t want to expatiate because time has value
for you too. So, remember that all Christ’s work was meant to save
us with the grace of his blessing, to feed us in his salvation for the
Eucharist, to bring us, as a consequence, to that sentence He uttered:
“It’s me, don’t be afraid.” It’s Him.
But where is He now? Where is He? Don’t you know where He is? He
is here behind me in the tabernacle: the Christ Jesus will descend even
more on the Altar during the mass.
Then, remember these words: ”It’s me, don’t be afraid.”
The Virgin will help us to fight against the enemy of this truth, She
will combine together the greatness of faith, the joy of the protection
of the Great Queen and the very sweet power of the eucharistic feeding
which will for ever give us life.
I believe in one only God…
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