Marian Centre (WA) Marian Centre PO Box 60 HILLARYS 6025 Phone: 9402 2480 NEWSLETTER 9447 9819 9402 0349 NO: 87 MARCH 2002 “COME BACK TO ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART” Joel 2:12 After the consecration at Mass, the priest invites us to proclaim “the Mystery of Faith”. One of the acclamations that we can use is: “Dying you destroyed our death, rising you restored our life, Lord Jesus, come in glory”. This acclamation is a succinct summary of the purpose of Our Lord‟s short life on this earth. You will notice that the word “our” is used twice in this acclamation. Jesus died for US. Jesus rose for US. By way of Our Lord‟s Death and Resurrection, He fashioned death into a door that He opens for each and everyone. Beyond that door awaits, besides Purgatory and Hell, the glorious Life of the Resurrection - Eternal Life for “the Righteous” – Matthew 25:46. Eternal Life surely is our preferred option! Within the Church, Our Lord has given us the Eucharist as His pledge and the source of Eternal Life – “Anyone who does eat My flesh and drink My blood has eternal life and I shall raise him up on the last day”. John 6:54. Sadly, there are many members of the Church who ignore and have abandoned this source of Eternal Life. The Australian Bureau of Statistics from the 1996 census, informs us that Catholics are the largest Religious Denomination in Australia – 4,798,950 million or 24.75% of the total population. Yet in 2001, only 15% of Catholics in the whole nation were recorded attending Mass – only a little over 700,000. It is because of these alarming statistics, the Pope has called on all practising Catholics to activate in their Parishes programmes of RE-EVANGELIZATION in order to provide the relevant ways and means of helping lapsed Catholics return to the practise of their Faith. The reasons why Catholics stop practising their Faith are, indeed, many. No matter what the reason, in the model of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, we must take to heart His parable of “The Lost Sheep” – Matthew 18:12-14 and “go in search of the stray”. We must concentrate our efforts and Parish resources in helping our fellow Catholics get back on the pilgrim road of the righteous. Wishing you all a very Happy Easter. Rev. Monsignor Thomas B. McDonald Dean of St Mary’s Cathedral, Perth. Thank you Monsignor for these challenging words. We pray that God may always bless and guide you in your priestly vocation. AVE MARIA TO THE RESPONSIBLES: NATIONAL & REGIONAL My Dear Ones, At the beginning of the second year of the third millennium, I wish all of you my affection of peace, of trust and of great hope. In the Immaculate Heart and with the light of the Holy Spirit, let us understand the Signs of the times in which we are living. If now the Great Trial is upon us, Our Lady has offered us as a secure refuge – her Immaculate Heart – “This is why I brought forth my Marian Movement of Priests, because the message of Fatima, often contested, and by many, refuted, has in your times, its full completion” (8/5/97). In 2001 I was able to participate in Regional Cenacles in Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Slovenia, Germany, Ireland, Scotland and England. I presided over 90 Cenacles in which 38 Bishops, 1800 Priests and 400,00 faithful attended. At the Spiritual Exercises held at Collevalenza, there were 16 Archbishops and Bishops and over 300 Priests from all five continents. Last year I suffered profoundly for the murder, almost right under my eye, of Fr Nazereno Lanciotti, Responsible for the MMP of Brazil and who was particularly united with me. They have now completed the facts of his martyrdom. I entrust his help and his intercession, as he is the first recognised martyr of the MMP. I shall now describe the programme for 2002, whose realisation I place completely in the Will of God and the design of Our Heavenly Mother. Fr Stefano Gobbi Milan 1/1/02 Spiritual Exercises – Collevalenza 23-29th June Cenacles Abroad 15th January-24th March to Brazil; 1-8th May to Fatima (for the 30th anniversary of the MMP) 15-30th May to France; 22nd June to Slovenia; 30th August – 4th September to Austria; 5-30th September to Germany; 12-26th October to Portugal. The Hour of the Great Trial “Never as in your days has peace been so threatened because the struggle of my adversary against God is becoming stronger and stronger, more insidious, continual and universal. The Great Trial has come for all of you my poor children, so threatened by Satan and stricken by evil spirits. The Great Trial has come for the Church and for all of humanity, already lacerated by the spreading of violence, by destruction, hatred, by wars, which are expanding menacingly, by great ills which no one is able to cure. How many people will have to suffer the scourge of hunger, of famine, of discord and of fratricidal struggles, which will spill much blood on your roads (1.1.93). The Comfort of the Great Trial “If the time of the Great Trial has come, the time has also come for all to hasten into the safe refuge of my Immaculate heart. Do not lose courage. Be strong in trust and confidence. I have told you beforehand of the times which await you – painful and difficult times, precisely in order to help you live in trust and in great confidence in your Heavenly Mother. The further you enter into the time of great trial, the more you will experience, in an extraordinary way, my motherly presence close to you, to help, defend, protect and console you and to prepare you new days of serenity and peace. Cenacles of Prayer “Give me garlands of your Rosaries, recited more frequently and with greater intensity. It is the weapon which is to be used by you today in fighting and winning this bloody battle, it is the golden chain that binds you to my heart; it is the lightning conductor that will keep far from you and from those who are dear to you, the fire of chastisement; it is the sure means of having me always close to you‟ (1/5/83). Diffuse everywhere these Cenacles as rays of light that descend and illuminate the earth in these times of great darkness. The Cenacle of my Immaculate heart is a refuge in which you must all enter in order to obtain the gift of the Second Pentecost‟ (7/10/90). Then in the midst of fire, you will feel His refreshment; in the cold, His heat, in darkness, His light; in mourning, His comfort; in fear, His courage; in weakness, His strength and in great suffering, His Divine solace. In the end, after the time of the Great Trial, there awaits you the time of great peace, great joy, holiness; the time of the greatest triumph of God in your midst. Pray with me and live in that expectation which sweetens the bitterness of your daily sufferings‟ (1/1/93). In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph over this ailing and materialistic humanity, bent on the mad search for pleasure and comfort which has built a civilisation without God and has again become pagan, after almost 2,000 years since the first announcing of the Gospel. Go and preach the necessity of penance and conversion and of return to the Lord along the path of prayer and repentance, of renunciation of Satan and all his wiles, of evil and the tyranny of the passions. It is you who must be the instruments of the general return. It is you who must be the apostles of this second evangelisation, so strongly requested by my Pope (30/6/94). Become thus the courageous heralds of this, His triumph because you, little ones consecrated to me, who love from my very own spirit, are the apostles of the last times.” From To The Priests, Our Lady’s Beloved Sons 2 ST THERESE OF LISIEUX – Australian Pilgrimage 31st January – 1st May 2002 Thousands have flocked to venerate the relics of the ―Little Flower‖, St Therese, on the Australian Pilgrimage. St Therese‘s ―Little Way‖ was to thank Jesus for everything – the pains, sorrows, and anxieties of the day. If we can adopt her little way through our difficulties and pain, we too can become closer to Jesus. PRAYER St Therese of the child Jesus and the Holy Face: Teach us to follow your way of confidence and trust. Help us to realize that a Father‘s love watches over us each day of our lives. Give us your own faith and trust, so that we may walk in darkness, as in the light, Holding fast to the way of love, knowing as you did, that everything is grace. A ROMAN EXORCIST TELLS HIS STORY Fr Gabriel Amorth, of the Pious Association of St Paul in Rome, is well known in Italy as a journalist and for his books on Our Lady. His program on Radio Maria reaches 1,700,000 listeners. Publication of his book ―A Roman Exorcist Tells His Story‖ in 1990 has made him internationally known. Father Amorth serves as president of the International Association of Exorcists and is often called upon to assist in cases of diabolical attacks. Here follows a partial transcript of an interview given to Crusade Magazine in June 2000. Crusade: Does television, with its programs promoting magic and spiritism as well as programs that are inimical to Christian family traditions, contribute to the spreading of Satanism? And what about satanic rock music; does it also help the dissemination of the devil‘s power? Father Amorth: When television was invented, Padre Pio was furious.