Marian Centre (WA) Marian Centre PO Box 60 HILLARYS 6923
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Marian Centre (WA) Marian Centre PO Box 60 HILLARYS 6923 Phone: 9447 9819 NEWSLETTER 9402 2480 NO: 100 JUNE 2005 Year Of The Eucharist Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Having just returned from pilgrimage, we had the privilege of meeting Fr Gobbi in Rome. He had just received 7,000 faithful at the Shrine of Pompeii the previous day. He then detoured to Rome to meet us, as we prayed in earnest for Australia. Fr Stefano Gobbi is an old man now, 75 years old. In 1997 he had a massive heart attack and can no longer travel to far-off places like Australia. But he wishes he still could, so when he knew a group of Australian pilgrims was coming to Rome he made a special effort to spend time with us. Fr Gobbi‟s Message for Australia: His message to us was so simple, yet precious and important. He spoke of the big battle which goes on in the world between Mary and her followers and Satan and those who follow him. I recorded his talk to us so let me quote some of it: ”Prayer!! The devil hates it. Through the media, TV, newspapers etc. he fills our minds with many things. Then we talk about what we have seen, heard and read. We talk and we talk and we wear ourselves out and we have no time to pray. This state of affairs affects the faithful, it affects Priests, it affects Religious consecrated to God. Mary, on the other hand, gives us the grace to pray, she give us the desire to pray more. Being consecrated to Mary means to become like little children.” Fr Gobbi then repeated several times in English and Italian the word little, piccoli, little, piccoli. He truly wanted to emphasize this point. “Mary wants to mother us, wants us to be like little children, 2 months old, totally dependent on the mother for everything. As such little children our prayers will be simple, not complicated. The little one calls out Mama, mama, mama. Learn to pray with the voice of Mary, your voice totally in Mary becomes so powerful. She calls for the rosary, such a powerful prayer, a prayer with Mary. The powerful despise the rosary; the proud ones are against it. Mary asks us to pray the rosary like little children. In the battle against Satan the rosary is the armour we must use. She wants to make us beautiful. When we are in God‟s grace we are so beautiful, our souls are a garden of light. The devil is a thief; he tries to take this away from us. He does this through sin, grave sin done with total consent takes away the grace of God. His is insidious and clever. He convinces us that sin is not an evil, but is a means for us to express our liberty. The laws of God are being trampled on every day; he substitutes his own laws for thelaws of God; e.g. regarding sexuality, the 6th Commandment: self-abuse is okay, premarital sex, homosexuality, gay marriage. He turns humanity upside down. This has created its own chastisement; division, hate, violence, terrorism, war. This is the chastisement humanity has created for itself as a fruit of evil. We must follow the commandments of God and, if we sin we must go to confession. Satan thinks he can destroy this great sacrament of Divine Mercy. The devil says to priests: „You are too busy, so many pastoral works, there is no time to sit in the confessional.‟ Thus fewer and fewer priests make themselves available for this sacrament. Then people say: „No-one goes to confession any more‟ and the sacrament is less and less practiced. Our Lady has set out to reverse this situation through the Marian Movement of Priests. Those who go to her cenacles all use this sacrament frequently. Our Lady will make virtues grow; she will transmit to you her own beauty. This is the fruit of the consecration. This is what she wants in us her little children, to give us her own beauty. Then we are to bring her beauty and her presence to others. This will obliterate the ugliness that Satan spreads in the world.” This message of Fr Gobbi is very simple and basic, but If we put it into practice it will transform our lives. For example, in my own case, since I have severely reduced the amount of time I spend reading newspapers and watching television, I find my prayer life has grown a great deal. Mary is replacing the hunger for news with a hunger for prayer. Try it yourself. “My Mother I love you. Love me too and give me a sip of the Will of God for my soul. Give me a blessing also that I might do all my actions under your maternal gaze. Amen. Fiat.” May the Mother of God lead us all to do the Will of God on earth as it is in heaven. Amen. Fr Hugh Thomas C.Ss.R Responsible for MMP WA Thank you Fr Hugh for your opening letter. Your words inspire and challenge us to come ever closer to Our Heavenly Mother and we pray, through her intercession, to lead the whole world back to her Beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus. EXCERPTS FROM CARDINAL JOSEPH RATZINGER‟S HOMILY AT JOHN PAUL II‟S FUNERAL MASS APRIL 8TH 2005 “„Follow me.‟ The Risen Lord says these words to Peter. They are his last words to this disciple, chosen to shepherd His flock. „Follow me‟ – this lapidary saying of Christ can be taken as the key to understanding the message which comes to us from the life of our late beloved Pope John Paul II. Today we bury his remains in the earth as a seed of immortality – our hearts are full of sadness, yet at the same time of joyful hope and profound gratitude. These are the sentiments that inspire us, brothers and sisters in Christ, present here in St Peter‟s Square, in neighbouring streets and in various other locations within the city of Rome, where an immense crowd, silently praying, has gathered over the last few days. I greet all of you from my heart. In the name of the College of Cardinals, I also wish to express my respects to heads of state, heads of government and the delegations from various countries. How often, in his letters to priests and in his autobiographical books, has he spoken to us about his priesthood, to which he was ordained on November 1st, 1946. In these texts he interprets his priesthood with particular reference to three sayings of the Lord: First: „It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain.‟ (John 15:16) The second saying is: „A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep‟. (John 10:11) And then: „As the father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love‟. (John 15:9) In these three sayings we see the heart and soul of our Holy Father. He really went everywhere, untiringly, in order to bear fruit, fruit that lasts. „Rise, Let Us Be on Our Way!‟ Is the title of his next-to-last book. „Rise, let us be on our way!‟ – with these words he roused us from a lethargic faith, from the sleep of the disciples of both yesterday and today. “Rise, let us be on our way!” He continues to say to us even today. The Holy Father was a priest to the last, for he offered his life to God for his flock and for the entire human family, in a daily self-oblation for the service of the Church, especially amid the sufferings of his final months. And in this way he became one with Christ, the Good Shepherd who loves his sheep. 2 Finally, „abide in my love‟: The Pope who tried to meet everyone, who had an ability to forgive and to open his heart to all, tells us once again today, with these words of the Lord, that by abiding in the love of Christ we learn, at the school of Christ, the art of true love. Our Pope, and we all know this, never wanted to make his own life secure, to keep it for himself; he wanted to give of himself unreservedly, to the very last moment, for Christ and thus also for us. And thus he came to experience how everything which he had given over into the Lord‟s hands, came back to him in a new way. His love of words, of poetry, of literature, became an essential part of his pastoral mission and gave new vitality, new urgency, and new attractiveness to the preaching of the Gospel, even when it is a sign of contradiction. Follow me! In October 1978, Cardinal Wojtyla once again heard the voice of the Lord. Once more there took place that dialogue with Peter reported in the Gospel of this Mass: „Simon, son of John, do you love me? Feed my sheep!‟ To the Lord‟s question, „Karol, do you love me?‟ The Archbishop of Krakow answered from the depths of his heart: „Lord you know everything: you know that I love You.‟ The love of Christ was the dominant force in the life of our beloved Holy Father. Anyone who ever saw him pray, who ever heard him preach, knows that. Thanks to his being profoundly rooted in Christ, he was able to bear a burden which transcends merely human abilities: that of being the shepherd of Christ‟s flock, his universal Church.