San Vittorino, September 23, 1973
“You are now at the end of these days of prayer and of union with Me. How many graces I have given you and how I have led you into the depths of my Immaculate Heart! How you have experienced, my son, a Mother’s sweetness!
However this is not for you alone; it is also for your brothers in my Movement who will come here tomorrow for the first gathering. I will speak to them through you, and I will tell them how much I love them.Their consecration to Me will be the means which will allow them to enter ever more deeply into the depths of my Immaculate Heart and I will cause them to experience a sweetness which only a Mother can show to her own children.
Those who will come have for some time been called, chosen and prepared by Me. They will quickly feel at home and amongst themselves it will seem as though they had always known and loved each other.
The secret scheme, which in a hidden way I have been preparing for some time in order to realize my great plan, is now beginning to become visible: the Movement of my Priests, my cohort ready for the decisive battle, and destined for victory.What must they now do, these sons of mine for the first time find themselves gathered together? They must prepare themselves; they must be ready:
–To obey my orders, because I will soon call them and they must be ready to respond, ready to be used by Me for the ultimate defense of my Son, of Me, of the Gospel and of the Church.They will be the salt in a world which is completely corrupted and a shining light in the darkness which will have enveloped everything.
–To fight, because my Adversary will set loose his army upon them. They will be ridiculed, despised, persecuted, and some will even be killed. But I will always be with them, and will protect and defend them, and will console them, wiping away every tear as only a Mother knows how.
–To defend the Pope, who is already so very much alone in carrying the cross of the Church; there will even be a time at which, like Jesus on the way to Calvary, he will be as though abandoned by everyone.Then these sons of mine will be his comfort and his defense, and together with Me they will be victorious in the greatest battle of the Church.
For the present, my beloved sons, pray, love one another, be as little children: let yourselves be formed and guided by Me alone. (…)”
Some thoughts:
Today is the Feast Day of Juan Diego, one of Mary’s chosen children. When Mary first sent him to the Bishop and he wasn’t believed, Juan Diego asked our Blessed Mother if she could send a better speaker. How often do we ourselves feel that way? That maybe someone else could do the job that we’ve been assigned better than us. But that’s not what the Lord is looking for, not the eloquent, popular, or who the world considers the beautiful people. God chooses those who have a heart for Him because those are the ones that He can work through the best. But we still wonder and worry how we will accomplish this great task at hand. But Mary says to us, what she said to Juan Diego.
“Now listen to me. Do not let anything bother you, and do not be afraid of any illness, pain, or accident. Am I not here, your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? What more could you want? Don’t worry about your uncle. He is well already.”
The participation of lay people in Christ’s priestly office (Catechism of the Catholic Church)
901 “Hence the laity, dedicated as they are to Christ and anointed by the Holy Spirit, are marvelously called and prepared so that even richer fruits of the Spirit maybe produced in them. For all their works, prayers, and apostolic undertakings, family and married life, daily work, relaxation of mind and body, if they are accomplished in the Spirit – indeed even the hardships of life if patiently born – all these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. In the celebration of the Eucharist these may most fittingly be offered to the Father along with the body of the Lord. And so, worshipping everywhere by their holy actions, the laity consecrate the world itself to God, everywhere offering worship by the holiness of their lives.”434