Echo of Mary Queen of Peace 204 (March-April 2009)

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Message of January 25, 2009

“Dear children! Also today I call you

to prayer. May prayer be for you like the

seed that you will put in my heart, which

I will give over to my Son Jesus for you,

for the salvation of your souls. I desire, lit-

tle children, for each of you to fall in love

with eternal life which is your future, and

for all worldly things to be a help for you to

draw you closer to God the Creator. I am

with you for this long because you are on

the wrong path. Only with my help, little

children, you will open your eyes. There

are many of those who, by living my messa-

ges, comprehend that they are on the way

of holiness towards eternity. Thank you for

having responded to my call.”

Prayer:

a seed in Mary’s heart

God the Holy Spirit has informed Mary,

his faithful Bride, of his ineffable gifts. He

chose her as the dispenser of everything that

he possesses: so that she might distribu-

te all of his gifts and graces to whomever

she chooses, whenever she chooses, as she

chooses and when she chooses. No gift from

Heaven is granted to men passing through her

virginal hands. It is God’s will in fact, that

everything should be given as a gift through

Mary (Treatise on True Devotion to Mary,

thesis 25).

These words by Saint Louis Marie de

Montfort are sufﬁ cient to comment today’s

message from Mary on their own, at least as

far as Her role in the salvation of humanity is

concerned. Let prayer be like a seed for you

that you shall plant in my heart, I will give

it to my Son Jesus for the salvation of your

souls. Our prayer planted in Mary’s heart is

like a seed that will bear deﬁ nite fruits, it will

produce the salvation of our souls, because

She will deliver it to Jesus and He does not

refuse anything that He receives from Her.

Our prayer, planted in the Immaculate Heart

of Mary, shall bloom clear and pure and shall

therefore be pleasing to God.

I desire, little children, for each of you

to fall in love with eternal life which is your

future, and for all worldly things to be a

help for you to draw you closer to God the

Creator Eternal life is life in God, it is the

gift of salvation conquered for us by Jesus, it

is knowledge of God through Jesus and life in

Him (ref John 17, 2-3). Already on this earth

we can grasp something of life in Him, we can

savour a foretaste, a ﬁ rstling of that eternal

life that we will experience in full in Heaven,

and this will allow us to fall in love with eter-

nal life, which is our future and it will make

it easier for us to orientate everything that is

part of our earthly experience in the order de-

sired by God. And so, with Mary’s help, all

things of this earth will constitute a form of

help to approach God the Creator and no

longer an occasion to wander far from Him or

to be cause for sin; to touch, to use all things

for the common good, and not to subject them

to individual exploitation or make them an

instrument of power or predominance over

other men.

To promote life and to defend it from all

forms of overpowering, violence, death; this

is approaching God the Creator, that is, the

God who creates and gives life and who does

not want death. We must use all earthly things

to grow close to God: joy and pain, health

and illness, gratiﬁ cations and trials, succes-

ses and failures, loving rapture and spiritual

dryness, etc… I am with you for this long

because you are on the wrong path. This

is the answer that should quieten those who,

even among religious and consecrated people,

are so scandalised by this “prolonged presen-

ce of Mary” which is so “anomalous”, that it

leads them to believe that it is not true. Far

from fearing that, given its exceptional nature,

this grace could indeed be the last possibility

for reformation and salvation offered by God

to the world, rather than remaining quiet and

following the opinion of Gamaliel, they risk

ﬁ nding themselves ﬁ ghting against God! (Acts

5, 38-39). Only with my help, children, will

you open your eyes. And His help is also this

Presence of His, which is already bearing fru-

it: There are many of those who, by living

my messages, comprehend that they are on

the way of holiness towards eternity. May

Mary wish for those who are already on the

right road to proceed safely and those who are

on the wrong road to mend their ways as soon

as possible, so that everyone might carry Her

seal of salvation in their heads and in their he-

arts.

Nuccio Quattrocchi

“Fasting is the soul of prayer

and mercy is the life of fasting,

and so whoever prays should fast.

Whoever fasts should be merciful.

Who in asking wishes to be answered,

should answer those who ask him some question.

He who wishes to ﬁ nd God’s heart open to him,

should not close his heart to those

who plead with him”

(From Discourse by Saint Peter Christologist)

Message of February 25, 2009

“Dear children! In this time of renun-

ciation, prayer and penance, I call you

anew: go and confess your sins so that gra-

ce may open your hearts, and permit it to

change you. Convert little children, open

yourselves to God and to His plan for each

of you. Thank you for having responded to

my call.”

A time of renunciation,

prayer and penance

to open up to God

Today’s message, on Ash Wednesday, is

fully in line with the Lenten period: forty days

of renunciation, prayer and penance with

which the Church unites itself every year to

the Mystery of Jesus in the desert (Catechism

of the Catholic Church, thesis 540). Time of

Lent: a time for puriﬁ cation, discernment, re-

turn to the Father. A time for liberation from

everything that is an obstacle to communion

with God and with our brothers; a time for re-

conciliation, reciprocal pardon, a rediscove-

ry of love in Love, immersion in the Will of

the Father which is pure and merciful Love.

A time for strong choices that require seriou-

sness and effort but that enable that birth

from on high, which is necessary in order to

see the kingdom of God, that birth from water

and Spirit, which is necessary in order to en-

ter into the kingdom of God (John 3, 3-5). It

is of no use to outwardly appear righteous to

men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and

lawlessness (Matthew 23, 28).

Today also, like then, we must be able

to distinguish between ﬁ ction and reality,

between appearing and being; we must choo-

se between Truth and lies, between Life and

death, between God and Satan; and today, in

the era of the civilisation of the image, it is

perhaps even more difﬁ cult than yesterday to

implement the right choice. But You, Mother,

are with us, you do not leave us alone: Dear

children, during this time of renunciation,

prayer and penance, once again I invite

you: go and confess your sins so that gra-

ce might open your hearts and allow it to

change you.

We should take this invitation seriously, it

is not new, it is the same invitation as always

and this is one more reason to take it very

seriously: it is not an occasional exhortation

but an existential urging; it is a choice that

does not have to do with our life in a period

of time, but for the whole of its time and be-

yond, for eternity. It is a choice that cannot be

fulﬁ lled with our forces alone; we must draw

from the divine grace assured by the sacra-

ment of Confession. But we must be careful:

confession is not the list of sins that we pre-

sent to the priest to collect the receipt for pay-

ment; we are not at the supermarket, we are

before God! We must approach the confessor

with the repentance, the love and the fear of

March - April

2009 - Year 25 # 3-4 - Echo of Mary, Via Cremona, 28 - 46100 Mantova - Italy.

www.ecodimaria.net - A translation of the original Italian: Eco di Maria

204

the son who decides to return to his Father

(Luke 15, 18-19). We need to expose oursel-

ves to the Love of the Father, open our hearts,

our minds and our soul to Him, and enter His

Heart in order to draw New Life from it.

Time for renunciation: renunciation of

Satan, everything that comes from him, eve-

rything that is foolish, deceitful, inconsistent,

and apparent, everything that wounds Love,

that cruciﬁ es Love.

Time for prayer: to breathe in His

Presence, to satisfy the thirst for living water,

to renew hope, to love Love, to praise, give

thanks, bless God and offer ourselves to Him

in Jesus Christ.

Time for penance: to open ourselves up

to God’s mercy, to recognise ourselves as the

dust of the earth and wait for the breath that

transforms it into a living being (Gen 2, 7)

and participant in the fullness of Christ, who

is the head of all Principalities and all Power

(Col 2, 10).

Converting, opening ourselves to God

and to his plan for each of us, so that every

only son of the Father in His Son Jesus and

God might be everything in everyone (1 Cor

15, 28).

N.Q.

Conversion is…

Conversion is “re-becoming” Christians,

by means of a constant process of inner chan-

ge and advancement in our knowledge and

love of Christ.

Conversion is never once and for all, it is

a process, an inner journey lasting throughout

our whole life.

Converting means seeking God, going

with God, gently following the teachings of

his Son, Jesus Christ.

Converting is not an effort by means of

which to achieve a sense of self-accompli-

shment, because the human being is not the

architect of his own eternal destiny. We are

not the ones who created ourselves.

Conversion is synonymous with imple-

menting the Master’s invitation: “Whoever

desires to come after me, let him deny him-

self, take up his cross

and follow me” (Mark

8, 34), because the

Cross is the deﬁ nitive

revelation of divine

love and mercy for us

also, men and women

of this era, who are all

too often distracted by

worries and earthly

and momentary inte-

rests. God is love, and

his love is the secret

of our happiness. To

enter into this myste-

ry of love, there is no

pathway other than that of losing ourselves,

giving ourselves, the way of the Cross.

Conversion is therefore synonymous

with valuing penance and sacriﬁ ce more,

rejecting sin and evil in order to conquer sel-

ﬁ shness and indifference. Prayer, fasting and

penance as well as works of charity towards

our brothers thus become spiritual pathways

to be taken in order to return to God.

Benedict XVI

(Little extracts from the General Audience

o Ash Wednesday)

OPE

’

INVITATION

FOR

ENT

“May fasting make us

God’s living tabernacle”

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into

the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

And when He had fasted forty days and forty

nights, afterward He was hungry.(Mt 4, 1-2).

This is the main scene that we see during

this holy time, the Lenten period that prece-

des the great central event of Easter; forty

long days that are offered to us as a time of

grace in order to train with Jesus in a sort of

“retreat”, similar to that of athletes prior to an

important sporting competition, who need to

be in the right form in order to face the com-

petition and win it. In our case, the challenge

is that against death, which will be conquered

during the days of the Passion, only to then

crown the victory with the glorious resurrec-

tion of Jesus, which we will celebrate this

year on the 12

of April.

As usual, the Holy Father gives Christians

a message that might guide them through this

“intense spiritual training that is meant to

celebrate Easter in the best possible man-

ner and thus experience God’s power as he

conquers evil, cleanses sins, gives innocence

back to sinners and joy to the afﬂ icted. He

dissipates hate, bends the hardness of the po-

werful, promotes concordance and peace”

MEANING

FASTING

This year Benedict XVI lingers to re-

ﬂ ect on the value and the meaning of fasting.

Those of us who have been at the school

of the Queen of Peace in Medjugorje for

years have heard our Mother’s invitation on

several occasions: “Dear children, today I in-

vite you to begin fasting with the heart. There

are many people who fast, but they do this

because others do it…Dear children, fast and

pray with the heart! (Message 20

September

1984).

Let us ask ourselves sincerely: can we

answer her appeal? Many of us started out

enthusiastically, but then among the thousan-

ds of daily temptations we grew tepid, justi-

fying little concessions of superﬂ uous things

here and there and in the end they took root

in our hearts, generating veritable “jungles”

of desires and passions that are beyond our

control.

But we are called to freedom. And then

we can recommence with renewed energy.

For this reason the Church creates favourable

conditions for us to experience our renuncia-

tion in communion with all others: “There is

strength in numbers” recites a well-known

proverb, but in our case we can even say

“There is strength in communion!”.

“We may well ask ourselves what value

and what meaning it has for us Christians to

deprive ourselves of something that in itself

is good and useful for our sustenance”, wri-

tes the Holy Father in a Message, “Sacred

Scripture and the whole Christian tradition

teach us that fasting is of a great help in avoi-

ding sin and everything that it leads to. For

this reason, throughout the history of salva-

tion, the invitation to fast recurs on several

occasions”.

This then is the ﬁ rst form of assistance in

our intention: we must not fast because food

is harmful, but because sin is nesting within

us, it is a poison for our whole being. The

ﬁ rst fast was ordered by God to avoid the ﬁ rst

great sin, original sin, when the Lord orde-

red man to abstain from eating the forbidden

fruit: Of every tree of the garden you may

freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge

of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the

day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

(Gn 2, 16-17).

“In the New Testament, Jesus sheds light

on the profound reason for which true fasting

which is aimed at eating the “true food”, is

doing the Father’s will (cfr Gv 4,34). If the-

refore Adam disobeyed the Lord’s orders “to

not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good

and evil”, with fasting, the believer’s inten-

tion is to humbly subject himself to God, tru-

sting in his goodness and mercy!”.

The force of fasting was known to the

ﬁ rst Christian community, and following

this, also to the Fathers of the Church, who

believed it to be “capable of keeping a reign

on sin, repressing the longings of the “old

Adam”, and opening the pathway to God wi-

thin the heart of the believer”.

And today? “In a culture that is marked

by the search for material wellbeing”, writes

the Pope, “the practice of fasting appears to

have lost a little of its spiritual value and it se-

ems to have acquired the value of a therapeu-

tic measure for the care of our body. Fasting

is certainly useful for physical wellbeing, but

for believers in the ﬁ rst place it is a form of

therapy to treat everything that prevents them

from conforming to God’s will. With fasting

and prayer, we allow Him to come and satisfy

the deepest hunger that we experience within

ourselves: hunger and thirst for God. When

we look closely, we see that the ultimate aim

of fasting is to help each of us, as the Servant

of God Pope John Paul II wrote, to give him-

self totally to God”.

redaction

The Pope to the ill:

In Christ lies the answer to the enigma of pain and death

“Man’s life is not a disposable asset, it is a precious casket to be kept and cared for with all

possible attention… Participation in the Holy Mass immerses us in the mystery of His death

and His resurrection and every Eucharistic celebration is the perennial memorial of Christ

cruciﬁ ed and risen, who conquered the power of evil with the omnipotence of His love. It is

therefore at the “school” of Christ the Eucharist that we are given the possibility to learn and

love life always and to accept our apparent impotence before illness, death and pain, which

remain, in their meaning, unfathomable for our mind.

The Gospel shows Jesus crushing the spirits with his work and healing those who are ill”

(Matthew 8, 16), pointing out the pathway of conversion and faith as conditions in order to

obtain healing of the body and spirit. The light that comes “from Above” helps us to under-

stand and give some meaning and value to the experience of suffering and dying. Let us ask

Our Lady to turn her maternal gaze towards all ill people and towards our families, in order

to help them to carry the weight of the Cross with Christ”.

(Summary of the Message to the ill 2009)

Echo 204

It is so exciting to come across a ﬂ ower

in the midst of the desert… A ﬂ ower that is

perfect in its structure and colour, and perhaps

also with a beautiful scent. What’s it doing

there? How did it sprout up in the midst of

that scorching heat? And before ﬁ nding the

answers to these questions, we are ﬁ lled with

pure wonder.

The sight of a garden brimming with

splendid ﬂ owers would not be the same thing.

Naturally their unquestionable beauty would

win us over, yet seeing them is entirely nor-

mal. That subtle sense of wonder, capable

of transﬁ guring our soul, is born of the only

unique and unforeseeable pair of desert and

bud. It astonishes us. In order to be born and

to grow in fact, the ﬂ ower certainly needed to

conquer many contrary forces that in such a

barren place would usually force the seed to

remain closed within itself. Only a tenacious

will enables that ﬂ ower to bloom. It seems

impossible, to the point that it leaves us open-

mouthed.

We too are given the possibility to face

the challenge and to bloom, by ﬁ rst destroy-

ing so many favourable and beneﬁ cial condi-

tions. We are given sufﬁ cient time to experi-

ence a veritable desert, eliminating certain

elements from within ourselves that enrich the

garden of our existence but that are not always

essential for a truly fertile life. It is only by re-

ducing the external means to a minimum that

we can experience the hidden power in the

deeper layers of our being; that innate ability

to bear fruit by using only the resources that

God gave us within ourselves.

Lent is this lengthy period given to us

as a special occasion during which to reduce

the sphere of our needs to a minimum and to

understand that we only need Him: a Father

who wants to give us the seed of his Word,

the water of his Spirit and the nourishment of

the Body of his Son to make us bear fruit. It

will then be Mary’s mantle that will shelter us

when adversities would otherwise risk dama-

ging the bud of our life.

One thing can help us to live this sea-

son of frugality. Sobriety. In everything.

Whether it is then simplicity, littleness, pover-

ty…Knowing how to make small or large sa-

criﬁ ces is an infallible means by which to re-

gain possession of ourselves, to take back our

dominion for ourselves and to remove power

from the passions that often, despite oursel-

ves, despotically govern our actions and make

us into slaves. If they then become habits, it is

very difﬁ cult to uproot them.

Forty days of patient and careful exerci-

se, in which we must test our will to become

spiritual men, weakening the arrogance of the

carnal man, spoilt by the opulent and consu-

merist mentality within which we have grown

up. Everything can be a good thing, but only

in the right measure and in the most appro-

priate manners.

We tend to accumulate, occasionally

cramming our homes full of many things that

in the long run, actually risk suffocating envi-

ronments. As psychologists afﬁ rm, the home

is the symbol of our intimate space, and so the

weight of this accumulation will sooner or la-

ter also be felt on an interior level.

Let’s do a test. We start to empty out a

drawer, to lighten a wardrobe, to clear out a

utility cupboard and throw away that bundle

of useless papers piled up here and there….

We will feel a sense of lightness, as though it

were easier to breathe. Then if we start to get

at that forgotten dust behind furniture and we

get in deeper with a duster, we feel as if more

light has entered our homes and also our souls.

Women of other generations know this, with

“spring cleaning” they eliminate the winter

soot in order to make space for the breezes of

the new season.

The Churches are also cleared of all or-

naments during Lent, perhaps some of them

are even too austere; but this is a sign that in-

dicates the pathway towards that “minimum

amount” that is good for the soul, in contrast

with the “maximum allowed” that the world

continues to promote. It is therefore ancient

wisdom to start from the outside in order to

encourage things on the inside also: tidying up

in order to free the heart that is choked up by

feelings and desires; and then the mind that

is burdened by memories, scruples, thoughts,

but also noises, sounds, occupations…and la-

stly the soul, perhaps still tangled amidst the

chains of recurring sin that is so difﬁ cult to

uproot.

In our life, which has been dried out a

little by fasting, which has been made more

vigilant by sacriﬁ ce, freer from useless en-

cumbrances, a solitary ﬂ ower will bloom,

unique in its beauty, because it has sprouted

in a place that seems impossible. It will leave

us feeling in awe and admiring because from

the nothingness that we are, God will give rise

to good, to beautiful…. And it will make us

into new creatures, ready to consume the Holy

Easter with Him.

In illness

I sing my Magniﬁ cat

“My “yes” to the Lord in suffering, which

has accompanied me since the time of my

birth, still surprises me today, I do not know

how I said it. It is always new, and it always

gives new things in which you are called to

commit, to experience your union with Him,

for his love and for the love of your brothers

and sisters. It is something that invites you

and attracts you, and you, even with your

limits, but with total trust in God, reafﬁ rm

and live because after all, all you need do is

have trust. It is a “yes” that invites you to no

longer look at yourself but at everything that

surrounds you and to look at it in that light

with which you were able to have your “here

I am” bloom.

Who am I? A person who will constantly

remain unhappy until I ﬁ nd the true purpo-

se of my life. I managed to ﬁ nd the meaning

several years ago, when I discovered a Work

in which my illness is almost a privilege, be-

cause through the offering, I can co-operate

towards the salvation of many souls who do

not need money, homes or terrestrial goods,

but progress even in the midst of many difﬁ -

culties. I remember when I went to a course

on Spiritual Exercises for the ﬁ rst time, it was

held in the Community of the “Silent Workers

of the Cross”, everything around me seemed

to be black, not because it was, but because I

was unable to look beyond myself.

It was the week that broke my view in

order to give me the gift of an ever more be-

autiful one, a clearer one that is more suitable

for my expectations. It was the week of my

discovery that there was a wealth within me

that I had never appreciated: God was calling

on me to offer up my illness. I remember that

it was like being born again, ﬁ nding myself

in the world of joy even with my suffering.

Every year I renew my “yes” that the Lord

always changes, renewing it with his love.

Even when I have to carry the Cross with Him,

my “yes” must be there also. What is the Cross

after all? It is something painful, undoubtedly,

but it detaches you from the world that is not

yours and it unites you with He who attrac-

ted you one day because he is true Love, and

through you he wants to get to those around

you. And in this manner, when it is offered,

life itself becomes an apostolate”.

Sister Nazarena Cimarelli

* The Silent Workers of the Cross live

their consecration through strong Marian

spirituality, totally dedicated to the service

of the suffering, in order to collaborate with

their integral promotion, with the objective of

putting the value of the person at the centre,

activating all the person’s potential and su-

staining them in the search for the meaning

of the mystery of human suffering.

Alongside this Community, the founder,

Monsignor Luigi Novarese, also gave life to

other communities, including the Centre for

Volunteers in Suffering, which was initially

established as a solid answer to the tragedy

of human suffering, which often leads man

to wander far from his Creator. The Centre

sees the suffering offered by the ill person

as a form of participation in the Easter my-

stery of Christ, which makes him an apostle

and therefore the primate and prophecy for

valuing all forms of suffering present in the

life of man. All of this is done in a spirit of

deep adhesion to the requests for prayer and

penance, which are part of the Marian spiri-

tuality of Lourdes and Fatima.

At the foot of the cross, the apostolate

of the CVS therefore recognises his identity,

looking at the world of suffering as the “land”

of his mission and giving each man a choice

of life that is open to salvation.

The impossible comes

about in the desert

by Stefania Consoli

The Eucharist will pulsate

in the heart of Jerusalem

To the land that saw Him being born,

growing, preaching, and more precisely, to

the city that participated in His priestly of-

fering – culminating on Calvary, only to then

lead to His glorious resurrection – Jesus re-

turns in Eucharistic clothing, in a more sta-

ble and visible manner. He does so on the 24

of March, on the eve of the Annunciation, the

day on which the Perpetual Adoration of

the Most Blessed Sacrament commences

in a solemn manner. The site destined for

this purpose – a little chapel near the Fourth

Station of the Cross, the point where, accor-

ding to tradition, under the weight of His

Cross, Christ met the affectionate gaze of

His Mother – is particularly signiﬁ cant, as it

was She, Mary, who inspired this initiative,

She who has been repeating these words for

years in Medjugorje: “Adore my Son in the

Most Blessed Sacrament, fall in love with the

Most Blessed Sacrament on the altar, becau-

se when you adore my Son, you are united

with the whole world” (message of the 25

of September 1995).

This is referred to us by Piotr Ciolkiewicz,

the young lay Polish promoter of this impor-

tant plan which is in the process of being ful-

ﬁ lled: “Approximately two years ago, I was

in Medjugorje for a pilgrimage and while I

was in prayer in the little adoration chapel,

a thought came to me: bring this practice

to the land of Jesus. Then, during a trip to

Jerusalem, I met a conventual Franciscan

Friar, Father Kazimierz Frankiewicz, who

normally carries out his pastoral service in

the Basilica of the Resurrection and with him

the idea came about to organise a movement

of perpetual adoration”.

The “Queen of Peace Community” was

the fruit of that meeting, an association that is

presided over by Piotr and the aim of which

is to create a chain of hearts to embrace the

whole world through prayers of adoration, to

bring peace back to the Holy Land and to

the rest of the world.

“Its essential aim is the spread of

Eucharistic worship. The members are in-

vited to promote every activity for peace and

reconciliation between men”, says Piotr, and

he then adds: “In particular, I wish to point

out that the Association bears the name of the

Queen of Peace because it contains an im-

portant message: by trusting in Mary, with

Her we want to adore Christ, the Prince

of Peace”.

It is therefore natural to match

Medjugorje, where, from the beginning,

Mary does nothing other than repeat this in-

vitation, and Jerusalem - Yerushalaim, the

“City of Peace” – continuously lacerated by a

conﬂ ict spanning many years, set within the

delicate fabric of peace.

But why is this initiative so surprising?

Because, in a certain sense, it is a novelty

for the Holy Land. In fact, the practice of

Eucharistic Adoration initially came about

in Europe, with Saint Basil of Caesarea The

Great (IV century) and it was consolidated

in a more stable manner in France at the be-

ginning of the XIII century. In the United

States this type of prayer also experienced

enormous consensus, so much so that the

Franciscan Sisters of the Perpetual Adoration

have continued to pray it ceaselessly since 1

August 1878. And yet, right where the Son

of God was made man, Eucharistic adoration

is not common because the presence of the

Lord is venerated above all through the wor-

ship of holy sites.

But a monstrance was needed in order to

make the project really complete, to give the

initiative the importance that it deserves. It

was the exarch of the Catholic Church of the

Armenians, Monsignor Raphael Minassian

who came up with the idea to make an altar-

piece in a triptych shape to contain the mon-

strance and exactly one year ago, the whole

project obtained the full approval of the pa-

triarchs.

ELESTIAL

ERUSALEM

This is the name of the work of art created

by the Polish artist Mariusz Drapikowski,

who is known above all for having executed

the bright amber dress for the Miraculous

Image of the Mother of God in the Shrine

of Czestochowa in Jasna Góra – which was

created as a vow of thanksgiving for the life

and pontiﬁ cate of John Paul II.

The passage…

It is worth lingering for a moment on the

description of this work of art, which leads us

through a large doorway to a symbolic pas-

sage from the Old to the New Alliance. Seen

from the outside, in fact, the triptych seems

to be a large bronze wardrobe, with ﬁ gures in

relief that illustrate the Terrestrial Jerusalem.

In the cen-

tre, there is

the Christ

Cruciﬁ ed and

John Paul II

at his side in

the act of ce-

lebrating the

Eucharist –

the Sacriﬁ ce that is also the promise of eter-

nal life. Above, the parousia of Christ, the

Supreme Priest, his second coming.

“I am the doorway: anyone who enters

through me, shall be saved”. It is by fulﬁ l-

ling this passage that we access the Sacriﬁ ced

Lamb, positioned in the centre on the book

with the seven seals that have now been ope-

ned, in the midst of a series of crystal icicles.

“The Angel showed me a pure river of water

of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the

throne of God and of the Lamb” (Ap 22,1).

The light and the witnesses

Upon opening the triptych we fulﬁ l our

passage through Christ-Door and we enter

into the Celestial Jerusalem. The atmosphe-

re of the New Land, of the New Heavens, is

immediately revealed, illuminated internally

by a source of light – an important element in

St. John’s vision.

On the wings of the triptych the Two

Witnesses symbolised by two olive trees and

two lamps recall the vocation and duty of all

Christians to provide a legible and truthful

testimony of their belief, that is, to ﬁ rmly

confess their faith in Christ before the world.

The refusal of such a testimony shall become

one of the reasons for the last judgement over

the world. The fate of the witnesses is similar

to the destiny of their Lord, because they are

the sign of contradiction and they fulﬁ l the

sacriﬁ ce of life, but from God they receive a

new life and participation in His glory.

The Woman dressed in…amber

In the central part of the triptych there

is the monstrance. Its shape recalls the look

of the Woman

holding the

E u c h a r i s t i c

Christ in her

arms. The

Woman – Mary,

is the Mother of

the Redeemer

and of the

People of God

of all times;

but it is also the

symbol of the

Church, which

in the space of

history, amidst

great pains,

always gives

birth to Christ.

The suffering

Woman – the

persecuted Church – appears as a magniﬁ cent

Bride in the midst of the warm reﬂ ection of

the amber surrounding her.

Mary is the annunciation of the New

Jerusalem where there are no longer either

tears or crying, the Jerusalem that forms the

vision of the new world, transﬁ gured and il-

luminated by the glory of God: “The city had

no need of the sun or of the moon to shine

in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The

lamb is its light” (Ap 21, 23).

At the end of his book, Saint John expres-

sed his last desire and his expectation: Come,

Lord Jesus! (Ap 22, 20). We too want to take

up the prayer of the “Patmos visionary” who,

along with dawning Christianity, shouted out:

Come, Lord Jesus! Come and transform the

world! Come today and win with peace!

Blessed by the Pope

By now everything is ready for the depar-

ture, we are almost at the eve of the inaugu-

ration of this new “holy place” in Jerusalem,

a point that we hope shall attract all the pil-

grims who, travelling along the painful pa-

thway, want to meet the face of the king of

Peace, who shall be exposed day and night.

But during its journey towards the Land of

the Saint, the triptych stopped off in Rome,

to be blessed by the Holy Father. All the

members of the Association accompanied it,

along with the organisers and the bishops of

their cities. This is a moment of grace that we

of Echo were able to experience, in the name

of the “Queen of Peace”.

redaction

Our Lady is appearing in private!

The Bishop of Mostar asked that the ap-

paritions of the 2

of the month should no

longer occur in public. We know that up to

now the Comunità del Cenacolo housed the

visionary and a very large number of people

gathered from the ﬁ rst light of dawn to ac-

company her with prayer during that moment

of grace. Let us unite ourselves spiritually

with Mirjana who will receive the apparition

of the Virgin in her home with her family

every 2

of the month.

Message of the Queen of Peace

through Mirjana:
2

February 2009

“Dear children, today with a maternal

heart I want to remind you of or draw your

attention to God’s immense love and the pa-

tience that ﬂ ows forth from it. Your Father

sends me and is waiting. He is waiting for your

hearts to be open and ready for his works.

He is waiting for your hearts to be united in

Christian love and in mercy in the spirit of my

Son. Do not waste time, children, because you

are not the masters. Thank you”.

March 2009

“Dear children! I am here among you. I

am looking into your wounded and restless

hearts. You have become lost, my children.

Your wounds from sin are becoming greater

and greater and are distancing you all the

more from the real truth. You are seeking

hope and consolation in the wrong places,

while I am offering to you sincere devotion

which is nurtured by love, sacriﬁ ce and truth.

I am giving you my Son.”

A sabbatical year

for Father Jozo Zovko

Siroki Brijeg, 9 February 2009

“I am writing to you to inform you that,

the divine wedding. Those who experience

Jesus-Eucharist want to allow themselves to

be evangelised by Him in silence, they want

to allow themselves to be dragged by his trail

of light so as not to be corrupted by the habit

of daily evil.

In this retreat we are called “face to face”

with the great Eucharistic Mystery: Jesus is

veiled in a Piece of Bread and He urges us to

develop this great Mystery and to consolidate

our union with Him, to see him and love Him

more clearly. This is a need for our soul.

If we fast in silence and listen to the

Word, Eucharistic prayer becomes very

powerful and it strengthens us in faith, be-

cause near Him we become strength, rock…

“If they tell you that I am here or there, do

not go, because your love will attract me and

I will come to you”. Jesus invites us to come

out of our prison, to put our hands in His so

that He can lead us to where He is going.

Let us prepare for the dawn of His co-

ming with fasting, so that the offering of our

nullity might be a purifying incense for us

and for others and so that it might make us

witnesses of truth and the light of the Risen

Christ.

Learning to fast

in Medjugorje

Mary’s school in Medjugorje is an in-

fallible school for those who wish to put the

most recurrent invitations of her messages

into practice: prayer and fasting. Seminars

are currently being organised in various lan-

guages for this purpose, in order to expe-

rience these requests of the Queen of peace

in a deeper and more conscious manner (the

Domus Pacis home – for the date destined for

various nationalities please consult the ofﬁ -

cial website of the Parish http://medjugorje.

hr.nt4.ims.hr/).

Anna Fasano, the organiser of the

Seminar for Italians says: “Every year we

have the opportunity of experiencing a re-

treat in Medjugorje which is characterised by

a powerful action of grace that washes and

puriﬁ es untidy feelings, which are hidden in

the most intimate folds of our heart. These

feelings often veil our soul: spiritual jealousy,

the desire to be at the centre of attention, con-

ceit….killing the love in us and in the heart

of our brothers. If we can succeed in leaving

all of this behind us and if we are able to en-

ter the retreat with a sense of openness and

willingness, pure love will fall like a dew into

our hearts: Jesus will pour it out abundantly

over us, so much so that we will also inevita-

bly give it to others. We can embark on many

pilgrimages, meetings, gatherings, but they

often remain merely beautiful and moving

experiences, they do not produce love! Jesus

in the Eucharist is the only one who reveals

himself within us; he reveals his Face and

Truth irradiates from the power of his Love.

He wants to make our hearts into al-

tars where the incense of prayer and the

adoring silence of the love offered burns.

This love is offered like snow that whitens

and covers everything and reﬂ ects light alo-

ne. This light of hearts rises up to God.

This is the Medjugorje of Mary the Queen

of Peace. We must be witnesses of love, we

must experience charity in order to give joy

to others…we must be joy where there is

sadness, we must be truth and justice. The

pollution of love is criticism; we are all rea-

dy to criticise and we are less willing to love

and to teach to love. Love is the strength of

the human heart, it is the Face of God in us

and through us, it shines on earth. If we al-

low love to be quenched in us, then what will

happen?

Words are no longer convincing, we

must experience the messages that our

Mother recommends to us. Silence is often

more illuminating than words and true words

originate in the midst of lengthy silence, si-

lence leads us to contemplate the Word of

God and to be free from idols. If the heart is

bombarded by idols then the tongue talks and

talks and talks, but if the love of Jesus is in

our hearts, then silence prevails as well as the

stupor of the wonders of God. It is in silence

that the Holy Spirit gives us the ﬂ utter of His

song! If there is too much exultance we do

not have Christian prayer. God fulﬁ ls great

things in simplicity, in smallness.

Silence is the renunciation of the word

to become a cry in the desert, a song, a

poem, liturgy, ecstasy; it is the custodian of

the Word of God and the preferred place of

Thank you Mother who intercedes con-

stantly for us, so that we might love Jesus in

the Eucharist. You who are the living taber-

nacle, transform us into altars where an in-

cense of love burns for the coming of Jesus.

Make haste Lord to install your kingdom

in all hearts. For always.

Anna

For ITALIANS the Seminary

of silence, prayer and fasting

will be guided by Father Danko Perutina

from the 19th to the 26th of April 2009

at Domus Pacis

Information: Anna Fasano

mobile 335 5780090

email liveloveuniversal@libero.it

for reasons to do with health, rest and conva-

lescence and the commencement of the buil-

ding works on the island of Badija (Croatia),

Father Jozo Zovko has asked his superiors if

he can live outside of his Province, his request

has been approved by the administration of

the Province. For the reasons outlined above,

the plans foreseen for the current year are he-

reby cancelled. We would kindly request all

of our co-ordinators and collaborators, orga-

nisers of pilgrimages to Medjugorje, organi-

sers of prayer meetings and also all the cen-

tres in Medjugorje and pilgrims to take this

into consideration and not to plan or request

meetings with Father Jozo during this period.

Thank you for your understanding.

(On behalf of Father Jozo) Vesna Cuzic-International

God-Parenthood for the Herceg-Bosnian Child”

Sister Emmanuel writes

on this subject:

“When the Lord allows a void, a hole, a

painful absence to be created, He knows the

reason for it and he has His plan. Abraham’s

request to give up his son Isaac was in order

to become more fertile, but he had to pass

through this apparent destruction of God’s

promise. When Saint Joseph believed that he

had to give up on marrying Mary, it was to

ﬁ nd her even more, but he had to experien-

ce this agony in order to enlarge his heart.

When…

If Father Jozo’s absence is a painful re-

nunciation for pilgrims and for each one of

us here, nevertheless, we must welcome this

fact in a positive manner, not as a disaster but

as a gift that God will use for a greater good.

It may be the case that this change of rhythm

might enable him to grasp other aspects of

Mary’s plan for Medjugorje, only to then

transmit them to us at a later stage. We are

sure that we are not mistaken in welcoming

this trial with faith and recognition, because

this will allow God to beneﬁ t from it over

time and in eternity”.

(“Enfants de Medjugorje” - www.enfantsdemedjugorje.com)

It’s happening in Medjugorje...

“The Eucharist truly is a shred of hea-

ven that opens up on earth. It is a ray of glo-
ry of the celestial Jerusalem, that penetrates
the clouds of our history and sheds light on
our pathway”.

(JOHN PAUL II Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 19)

Poetry of the soul:

JOURNEY

INTO

THE

ORLD

THE

SALMS

EARCH

They resound in the heart of the Church

in all languages, sung in Gregorian, recited

with alternate choirs or murmured, to give

praise to God every day. It is a wonderful

experience to be able to venture a little into

the world of the Psalms in order to come

to some understanding of their origin and

to follow their traces throughout history

and above all in the souls of those who pray

them.

They are veritable poems. As well as in the

so-called Book of Psalms, the Psalms also fea-

ture in various biblical books. This enables us

to understand that prayers of praise, supplica-

tion and proclamation occupied an important

position among the heroes of history, in the

words of the prophets and in the reﬂ ections

of the wise. Nevertheless, true psalm praying

mostly expresses the welcoming of the mar-

vellous presence of God who saves his people,

who wants to save them, and who can save

them if the faithful pray to him. The Psalms

are therefore an appeal to God fulﬁ lled by va-

rious men, in various historical situations, but

they are also God’s answer to man, or better,

his revelation through prayer. The old Israelite

marked out his life with prayer, which occu-

pied his time three times a day: “In the eve-

ning, at dawn and at midday, I cry and sigh;

He listens to my voice” (Psalm 55, 18). The

God of Israel was a God who was far away in

his holiness but near in his mercy, a God who

was always present, every day.

The secret moans delivered at the Temple

The psalms recollected the supplications

of individuals and offered each of them a

common form of language and profound theo-

logy. At that time, personal prayers were brou-

ght to the Temple and delivered to the priest,

who examined them and kept them. But some

were used in the liturgy alongside others. In

this manner, over time, the liturgical text of

Israel took shape.

The Book of Psalms forms a vast conti-

nent of 150 poetic compositions, the Psalms.

It is currently divided up into ﬁ ve books, like

the ﬁ ve books of the Pentateuch. We can say

therefore, that the praying Pentateuch of the

Book of Psalms was juxtaposed with the hi-

storical Pentateuch (the Torah), man’s bles-

sing and blessed answer to God the liberator.

Towards an explosion of joy

It is worth taking a look at the themes that

diversify these ﬁ ve groups. The ﬁ rst book (1-

41) is dedicated to the Psalms that narrate the

comparison between the righteous believer

and the godless. In the second book (42-72)

the Psalms describe the desire for God, which

lies in the heart of the exiled Israelite. The

third (73-89) is a so-called cushion book: it in-

sists on faith and meditates on the past and at

the same time, it expresses the expectation of

the last times. The fourth book (90-106) is the

celebration of the power of the Lord, Pastor

of his people. And lastly, the ﬁ fth book (107-

150) is the book of praise that the believer

expresses after having reached the summit of

God’s mountain; deﬁ nitively it is the book of

the explosion of joy as regards the Lord, as a

conclusion to the entire Book of Psalms that

reveals how all things must praise and reco-

gnise God.

Prophets, priests, kings, simple believers…

The book of psalms gathers together the

pieces written over a period of at least six cen-

turies, which can be classiﬁ ed into very diffe-

rent literary genres. All the areas of Judaism

contributed to its formation - consisting of

prophets, priests, kings, learned, simple belie-

vers, poets and writers of Israel, and so it is not

a composition that was formed around a table

and ﬁ xed in an immobile form. In Jewish litur-

gy, the Book of Psalms was in fact used, co-

pied and repeated endlessly and it arrived at us

as an ancient work, rich with human emotions

and authentic faith. Despite this, the Book

of Psalms ﬁ nds its unity in determining key

points, that is, in certain themes that help us to

read it according to the Jewish mentality.

Without a doubt, the main theme is that of

God’s love, which also includes faithfulness,

mercy and grace. The second one is the torah,

the law, which is God’s teaching, the truth re-

vealed to Israel. But above all, the torah is

God’s gift to his people, it is His presence, it

is the creating Word. Then there is the theme

of the enemy, the antagonist, a character who

is present on the scene from the beginning, as

a negative and chaotic force that resists God’s

ordering word.

Only if we bear in mind these three rea-

lities that emerge in the Psalms, can we un-

derstand the whole dynamic of the prayer and

faith of the Psalmists, and discover the unity

of the Book of Psalms, which would not be

seen with a superﬁ cial reading of the text.

Christian prayer par excellence

Having taken a look at the variety and the

wealth of the Psalms, it would be a good idea

to also look at them in their relationship with

and in Christianity. From the beginning, the

Church made the Book of Psalms its book of

prayer, it gave it to the communities of every

language and people. The Psalms therefore

constitute Christian prayer par excellence, al-

though they remain a patrimony that is shared

with our Jewish brothers.

But what makes this prayer so authenti-

cally “Christian”? The simple fact that the

Psalms were the prayer of Jesus Christ!

Jesus let the “cry” towards his Father come

out of the depths of his status as a believer,

using the Psalms with great freedom, while

they illuminated his mission.

But we must be tread cautiously however,

the Psalms were not Jesus’ prayer as he was

a pious Jew, but because He was Christ, the

Messiah, appointed to give us access to the

Father through prayer.

Jesus gives the expectation expressed

in the Psalms its purpose, its culmination. If

the psalmist were to ask God to send him the

light and the truth, in Christ we have He who

is this Light and this Truth, He who walks

and guides towards the Father’s house. The

Psalms therefore pass from the synagogue to

the church, thus becoming the daily “Prayer

of the hours” and given that in baptism we be-

came “one thing with Christ”, Christ’s prayer

also becomes ours.

Reading and praying the psalms today?

The Psalms must be adapted to time, to

culture. It is not a good idea to remove them

because the Psalms always have a novelty wi-

EARN PRAYER

With hands outstretched: ask

“Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and

you shall ﬁ nd; knock and the door shall be

opened onto you” (Mt 7,7).

“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you

ask when you pray, believe that you receive

them and you will have them” (Mk 11,24).

Prayers in

which we ask

for things,

although of-

ten used and

abused, are

still legitima-

te, personally

authorised by

the Master of

Nazareth with

the guarantee

of welcoming

and consent if every request made to God the

Father is accompanied by the meditation of

the Son. Any request for material and spiri-

tual things may be presented, as long as it is

in harmony with Trinitarian plans, in line with

the fundamental principle codiﬁ ed in the Our

Father: “thy will be done”. My request is good

if I am not intent on, or if I do not presume that

I can mould God to my way of viewing things

(which is impossible!) but if I feel that I must

do it as what I am asking for seems necessary

or very important to me.

“Asking” seems easy…in actual fact no

prayer is easy, because it is not sufﬁ cient to

open our mouths and believe a series of re-

thin them that surprises and nourishes man.

We must only avoid formalism and a mechani-

cal reading of the Psalms, so as to experience

God’s search each time, which is part of this

type of prayer. “Given that they are a form of

theology of prayer, the Psalms are above all an

implicit reﬂ ection on the meeting with God”,

therefore they are a living dialogue with the

Lord. In conclusion, in the Psalms, we meet

a God in whom love, faithfulness, trust and

intimacy are experienced. Through the em-

phatic experience enabled by the Psalms, God

reveals himself, in a conjugal manner, to his

People, to the Church and to every single wor-

shipper:

O God, You are my God;

Early will I seek You;

My soul thirsts for You;

My ﬂ esh longs for You

In a dry and thirsty land

Where there is no water.

So I have looked for You in the sanctuary,

To see Your power and Your glory.

Because Your loving kindness is better than life,

My lips shall praise You.

Thus I will bless You while I live;

I will lift up my hands in Your name.

My soul shall be satisﬁ ed as with marrow

and fatness,

And my mouth shall praise You

with joyful lips. (psalm 63).

Seeking God does not mean possessing him,

for us life has meaning if we seek God. And

the best manner in which to do this is to pray.

Pietro Di Mattia

quests to be “prayer”. In fact, every prayer

is an act that goes beyond natural abilities. It

presupposes faith, it is born of hope, it mani-

fests the love of trust in God. It is a theological

act supported by the Holy Spirit, the animator

of all Christian initiatives.

We should never lose sight of this, espe-

cially in the type of prayer in which we hold

out our hands to ask for something. It may

easily be distorted and isolated from the ge-

neral context of relations with God. If I inter-

view a man on the street, ninety-nine times

out of one hundred he will answer me saying

that “praying” means “asking” for something

that only God – if he exists – can give us. The

risk of transforming the request into a claim is

therefore easy.

A claim, not a prayer! This often occurs

with the aggravating circumstance according

to which, in cases where there is no answer, no

fulﬁ lment, the man on the street conﬁ rms his

false conviction that there is no point wasting

time in prayer, because “nothing changes any-

way!”. What a sad conclusion!

The tenaciousness of the votive candle

comes to mind. When lighting it, there are

those who believe that they are stipulating a

bilateral contract with God (or with Our Lady

or some Saint): I will pay but you must give

me back the equivalent. Seen in this manner,

the ancient devotional tradition of the lighting

candle overturns the original perception of the

gesture. The ﬂ ame is gradually and silently

quenched, it is the alternate sign of my pre-

sence, of my praying invocation, of my wil-

lingness to accept the divine answer. But the

man on the street does not know this. In the

majority of cases it is like a hurried delegation

(I have many things to do…I don’t have time

to linger”). And so people hope that that ligh-

ting candle might exercise continuous pressu-

re to lead God to answer our request. Perhaps

on the other hand we should say before lea-

ving: “Lord, I can’t stay long but I am leaving

my heart here….welcome this ﬂ ame as my

symbolic presence here, as an act of trust in

you, then do whatever you believe to be most

appropriate!”

The deﬁ nite invitation to seek, to knock,

to ask, also resounds within the framework of

prayer in which we ask for things. Jesus even

puts the reputation of the Celestial Father into

play. He lets us know that infallible divine

hope has established a true relationship betwe-

en the demand and the granting of the beneﬁ t.

When I ask for what I believe with an upright

conscience to be necessary or very useful for

the purposes of my eternal survival, then it is

certain that it will be granted.

(From: “Tirelessly” by Lorenzo Netto)

3. To be continued

The gift of freedom

Jesus came to this earth, not to bring us obligations and impositions, but to offer us free-

dom. If we were able to fully understand the importance of this gift, then perhaps we would

constantly and joyfully give thanks to our Lord.

And when Jesus said: “I give you a new commandment: love one another as I have loved

you” he did not give a new prescription to be added to the many others that the Jewish people

were to respect, but rather, he offered a gift of freedom, which was by now completely lost.

The gift of being able to love our enemies and those who hate us, rather than being forced,

like before, to hate them. The gift of turning the other cheek to those who strike us, rather

than giving eye for eye and tooth for tooth. Therefore with this commandment we are not

being given an obligation, but rather, a possibility: to love everyone, like He did.

What a great gift, that must not be underestimated! The price paid is proof of the greatness

of the gift of freedom that is offered to us: the life of Jesus, the life of a God. Let us welcome

this gift then, and constantly give thanks, without ever complaining, because He made us

his friends, and no longer friends of the devil, incapable of loving because they are forced to

hate.

With the gift of freedom, Jesus did not abolish any ancient law, He made it new, and with

it, He made us all new along with the whole of creation. He gave us new eyes with which

to freely contemplate creation with God’s eyes. And so man was given the ability to see the

“Heavens” from this earth. Mary is the new creature who saw and who sees all things in a

new way because she contemplates them and loves them with the heart of God. Let us learn

then, from Her, let us trust in Her because these seem to be the times in which She is leading

her children by the hand in a special way, to teach them to see with new eyes. Perhaps these

are times in which Mary wants to take all fear away from us and make us understand how

beautiful it is to love everyone, everyone, with God’s love. Perhaps these are the times in

which Mary wants to make us see the marvels that the Father fulﬁ lled and continues to fulﬁ l

in us and in others, for the joy of many.

Lights…of mercy

Only with feelings of mercy can evil be distanced from our lives and from that of others.

Only with feelings of mercy can sin be conquered within the world. For this we cannot ﬁ ght

hatred with hatred, violence with violence, pride with pride, because this manner of doing

things is not accompanied by mercy, it does not contain mercy.

Jesus gave us the example: He conquered sin and all forms of evil with mercy, nothing

else. We know that mercy is a single thing with Love. Mary too always operates with mercy.

This is the only manner in which she works for our good.

In the wonderful prayer, “Hail Holy Queen”, the church invokes Mary as “Mother of

Mercy” from whom “our life, our sweetness and our hope” derives, that is, all other gifts ori-

ginate from her mercy. Even our way of acting, speaking, writing, only if it is an expression

of mercy, is a form of good that lasts forever, because it becomes eternal, like mercy, like

Love. Our life is always a loss: the elderly know this because they have lost their health, their

strength, the physical beauty that they once had, but young people can also experience this

because, every day, they all experience situations of pain, be they great or small, that always

constitute a loss. Even a cold or a simple ﬂ u are sources of pain and therefore of loss. Even a

little lack of love is a loss. But every loss of ours, if accompanied by mercy, becomes a lamp

that illuminates our pathway and that of others. This light is important for life because it is

always presented as a nighttime walk, in which light is essential for progress.

When He died, Jesus lit a great light in the world because He welcomed the loss of “life”

with much mercy. The bright light of the Resurrection certainly derived from the light of that

loss, which was welcomed with immense mercy. Men were illuminated and saved by this

light of mercy, not by anything else. And so we too always feel comfortable with feelings of

mercy to illuminate life by means of many lights…of mercy.

Let us invoke the Mother of Mercy and we will be given a merciful heart. In this way,

perhaps, nothing will harm us because we will have the light to distinguish good from evil.

Even our little journal called Echo may be a light for our pathway and perhaps, for that of

many others, if it is accompanied by the mercy of those who write it, print it, distribute it and

read it.

Father Tonino Bello wrote:

Holy Mary, ferial woman,

help us to understand

that the most fertile chapter of theology

is not that which positions you inside

the Bible or patristics,

spirituality or liturgy,

dogma or art.

But that which places you

inside the house of Nazareth,

where amidst pots and looms,

amidst tears and prayers,

amidst balls of wool

I M P L E

T H O U G H T S

by Pietro Squassabia

and rolls of Scripture,

in the utmost of your

natural femininity,

you experienced joys

without malice,

bitterness without desperation,

departures without returns.

Holy Mary, ferial woman,

Free us from the nostalgia of epic poems,

and teach us to consider daily life

as the construction site in which

we are building

the history of salvation.

Loosen the anchors of our fears,

so that like you, we might experience

abandonment to God’s will

in the prosaic turns of time

and in the slow agonies of the hours.

And return to walk discreetly with us,

oh extraordinary creature,

in love with normality,

who, before being crowned Queen

of the Heavens

swallowed the dust of our poor earth.

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by bank transfer (specify for

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Convert us to you, oh Father, our salvation

and train us for the school

of your knowledge,

so that the Lenten commitment

might leave a deep trace in our lives.

Villanova M., 25 march 2009

Easter is the celebration

of the rolled boulders

It is the celebration of the earthquake…

On Easter morning,

having gone to the orchard,

the women saw that the boulder had been

removed from the tomb.
Each of us has his own boulder.

An enormous stone

Positioned at the mouth of the soul,

that does not allow oxygen to be ﬁ ltered,

that oppresses us in a bite of frost;

that blocks every blade of light,

that prevents communication with others.
It is the boulder of solitude,

of misery, of illness,

of hatred, of despair, of sin.

We are alienated tombs.

Each of us with his own seal of death.
May Easter then be for all of us

The rolling of the boulder,

the end of nightmares, the beginning of the

light,

the spring of new relations.
And if each of us, having come out of his

tomb,

Works to remove the

Boulder of the tomb alongside us,

the miracle that gave us the resurrection of

Christ, will ﬁ nally be repeated.

Father Tonino Bello

Everything has

been fulﬁ lled!

STORY

PRISONER

WHO

REFUSED

ALLOW

HIS

FREEDOM

ROBBED

According to the Christian concept, up to

the time of their death, men are called to ful-

ﬁ l the Father’s will, and death is the last act,

the deﬁ nitive and ﬁ nal one, of the fulﬁ lment

of this will. Jesus teaches it from the cross.

He is a work concluded by the Father. He is

the most beautiful work! He has not been left

half undone! We often risk being “unﬁ n-

ished” each time that we turn our backs on

God and on his calling. He calls us to life and

we prefer to contemplate our deaths. He calls

us to joy, but we prefer to feel sorry for our-

selves. He calls us to holiness and we prefer

to remain swamped in the mud of our sins

and our inconsistencies.

When the creature allows itself to be

modelled by God, when it allows this artist

to fulﬁ l his splendid work of art, we partici-

pate in a true marvel, the marvel of holiness

that can even reach extreme testimony: the

gift of life….martyrdom.

Perhaps many people are not aware of

this, but there is a man who has a lot to teach

us about this. A Dutch Carmelite priest, Tito

Brandsma, a professor of philosophy and

“history of mysticism” at the Catholic uni-

versity of Nijmegen. It was during the Nazi

era and professor Brandsma openly accused

Nazis…He was obviously arrested by the

Gestapo, he went on trial and he was impris-

oned. In a page of his diary he wrote: “My

vocation for the Church and for the priest-

hood enriched me with so much sweetness

and so much joy that I now voluntarily ac-

cept everything that may seem unpleasant to

me…I certainly miss Mass and Communion,

but God is near to me all the same, in me and

with me…”.

On Good Friday of 1942 the guards in

the camp went crazy. They put a crown of

thorns, made of copper wire, on a priest’s

head and they forced the prisoners to sing

the hymn: “Oh head crowned with prickly

thorns”. During the evening of that terrible

day, Father Tito secretly meditated on the

mystery of suffering. A witness states the fol-

lowing: “Around him, the prisoners were in

camp beds arranged in three rows. The whole

hut smelt of rotten sewer rats, ﬁ lthy clothes

and sweat. Those men with shaved heads

looked at him with dead and somewhat sinis-

ter eyes…right before me, standing up on top

of an empty potato box, professor Tito spoke

to us about the Passion…the words he uttered

came directly from his heart, they came up

from the deepest depths. And the whole shack

remained in silence. The silence was almost

oppressive. Each of them was struggling with

his own problems (…) and his own misery,

but father Tito gave everyone a solution: our

love for God…And then he added: on this day

there must be an atmosphere of happy rec-

ognition within us, so that we might see the

passion of Christ combined with our suffer-

ing”. Another one of his listeners says: “We

returned in silence to our huts; nobody was

speaking: the spirit of God had just skimmed

over us”. The guards sensed something of

this strange meeting and the day after, the

Carmelite father was punished.

On the 19

of June of the same year he

was interned in the Dachau concentration

camp, there his own true Calvary began.

The ﬁ rst meeting was with the head of the

block who harboured a particular hatred for

ecclesiastics. He started to strike him with

a plank of wood and as he was walking he

took enjoyment in kicking him in the heels, to

the extent that he caused them to bleed. This

treatment was then reserved systematically

for him every day. Upon seeing him in such

a bad state, one of the SS guards told him not

to worry because he could soon celebrate his

Ascension, passing through the ﬁ re of the cre-

matory oven. The work was extremely difﬁ -

cult, so many humiliations, so much beating,

for him they seemed to have been doubled, to

the extent that the others were saying that he

was being treated like the ﬂ agellated Christ.

But in no manner would he criticise his

jailors. He trusted his loves: Our Lady of

Mount Carmel and the Eucharist. The sup-

port of the Eucharist was precious above

all, he managed to have it almost every day

from the German priests who were prisoners

in the camp, seen as they were allowed a little

more freedom. He would keep a little piece

of it until the day after, in his glasses case;

even up to ten people received communion

with the remainder, risking the cruellest

punishments each time. During the night

when he was unable to sleep for many hours,

Tito would adore that little piece of holy host,

entrusting everyone’s suffering to it.

Then the faithful day came in which fa-

ther Tito, like Jesus, said: Everything has been

fulﬁ lled! He was so exhausted that his fellow

prisoners thought it was a good idea to recom-

mend to the head of that division that he be

sent to the hospital section. The doctor was

also almost too inclined to help them. Tito was

taken away and they never saw him again.

We know everything that happened next

from an exceptional witness…She was the

one who killed Tito and she converted be-

cause the recollection of this priest never

again abandoned her. At the time that girl was

a nurse, but out of obedience she carried out

the inhuman orders given by the ofﬁ cial doc-

tor…This women told the story of how the

words of father Tito became sculpted inside

her as she was incurring terrible mistreat-

ment: “Father, let not my but your will be

done”. All the ill people insulted and hated

her, on the other hand, with the gentleness

and the respect of a father, that priest said to

her: “What a poor girl you are, I will pray for

you!” He even gave her a gift of his Rosary

beads. She told him that she did not know

how to pray. He answered: “You don’t need

to even say all the Hail Mary, simply say:

Pray for us sinners!”

On the 26

of July 1942, she was the one

who injected him with phenic acid. As that

woman injected that mortal serum into the

veins of the Holy martyr, he transmitted the

tenderness of God’s love and faith to her with

his beautiful testimony.

Still today, Christ continues to suffer in

his body which is the Church! What fruits of

redemption his passion still carries! Before

Jesus’ “everything is fulﬁ lled” and the words

of the blessed Tito, let us seriously ask our-

selves: where am I? What am I doing with my

life? Is the seed dying in me in order to bear

fruit?

Fr. Gabriele Pedicino o.s.a.

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to continue to help Mary reach her

children, goes our heartfelt thanks,

whom we remember especially in

prayer and at Holy Mass.

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it. May God reward you and your

loved ones onehundredfold!

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