5. I will be your Leader (from the Blue Book)
July 16, 1973
Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
“You ask Me why I have chosen you to spread my Movement, while you feel so inadequate and helpless. Rightly do you see your nothingness and your weaknesses and you ask Me: ‘Why do you not choose someone more suitable and capable than me? How can you rely on me when you know very well my past infidelities?’
My son ‘ I have chosen you because you are the least apt instrument; thus no one will say that this is your Work. The Marian Movement of Priests must be my Work alone. Through your weakness I will manifest my strength; through your nothingness I will manifest my power.
I myself will be the leader of this army. I am now forming it in silence and in hiddenness just as, for nine months, I formed Jesus in my womb, and for many years in silence and hiddenness I brought Him up day by day.
This is the way it is now for the Marian Movement of Priests: like the little Jesus, I am forming it in silence and in hiddenness: this. is the time of its infancy and its hidden life. What is needed now is much silence and humility, much confidence and prayer.
In Humility
I myself am now choosing the Priests of the Movement and forming them according to the plan of my Immaculate Heart. They will come from everywhere: from the diocesan clergy, from the religious orders and from the various Institutes. They will make up the cohort of ‘my Priests’ which I myself will nourish and form, preparing them for the approaching battles of the Kingdom of God.
Let there be no leader among you: I myself will be your Leader. You must all be brothers: loving, understanding and helping each other. The only thing that matters is that you let yourself be formed by Me: for this it is necessary that each one of you offer himself and consecrate himself to my Immaculate Heart and entrust himself completely to Me just as Jesus entrusted himself totally to Me; and then I will take care of everything.
I will form you to a great love for the Pope and for the Church united to him. I will prepare you for a heroic witnessing to the Gospel which, for some, will be even to the shedding of their blood.
And when the time comes, the Movement will then go out into the open to fight openly that cohort which the Devil, ever my adversary, is now forming for himself from among the Priests. (…)“
2559 “Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God.”2 But when we pray, do we speak from the height of our pride and will, or “out of the depths” of a humble and contrite heart?3 He who humbles himself will be exalted;4 humility is the foundation of prayer, Only when we humbly acknowledge that “we do not know how to pray as we ought,”5 are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer. “Man is a beggar before God.”6
Catechism of the Catholic Church
No where do we acknowledge our own smallness more than when we turn to the ‘lowly maiden’ herself. Mary has already perfectly execute all that we still need to. In invoking Mary, we call on our mother who loves us so much and wants nothing but the best for us…her Son!!! Many claim that they don’t need Mary, because they can approach the Lord Himself. Of course they can, but our relationship with Mary does not impede that at all, it only enhances it since she teaches us how to best live our lives with Him.
2677 Holy Mary, Mother of God: With Elizabeth we marvel, “And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
36 Because she gives us Jesus, her son, Mary is Mother of God and our mother; we can entrust all our cares and petitions to her: she prays for us as she prayed for herself: “Let it be to me according to your word.”37 By entrusting ourselves to her prayer, we abandon ourselves to the will of God together with her: “Thy will be done.”
Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death: By asking Mary to pray for us, we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners and we address ourselves to the “Mother of Mercy,” the All-Holy One. We give ourselves over to her now, in the Today of our lives. And our trust broadens further, already at the present moment, to surrender “the hour of our death” wholly to her care. May she be there as she was at her son’s death on the cross. May she welcome us as our mother at the hour of our passing38 to lead us to her son, Jesus, in paradise.
Catechism of the Catholic Church
One for of prayer that so perfectly embodies all of this for us is the Holy Rosary. Where we sit with Mary and meditate on the life of Jesus. You can use the link above to help you through it, I also like the app iRosary, and my absolute favorite these days is praying with Alexa. If you have an echo Dot or any of the Alexa run items available by Amazon (if you are reading this on Black Friday, it just so happens to be on sale…see below). Just install the Holy Rosary ‘skill’ …and you’ll be lead through the rosary.