Text of the Eucharistic adoration of September 14, 2013
Feast of Exaltation of the Cross
18th anniversary of the First Eucharistic Miracle (1995)
14th anniversary of official Episcopal service of H.E. Bishop Claudio Gatti
13th anniversary of signing of the decree recognizing the apparitions of the Mother of the Eucharist to the Seer Marisa Rossi, the Eucharistic miracles and Trinitarian theophanies that occurred in the thaumaturgic place
FIRST MOMENT OF MEDITATION
Jesus and the power of the cross
From the Gospel of John (Jn 12:24-32): "Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name! Then a voice came from heaven 'I have glorified it, and will glorify it again'. The crowd that was there and heard it, said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him. Jesus said, "This voice was for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself".
To live the feast of Exaltation of the Cross means to compare two opposite feelings such as suffering and joy coming together in the mystery of redemption. Jesus gives himself to the world in his Passion, he waited for this moment since the first instant when he incarnated within the holy body of his Mother. We know that He, being God, has ever since planned the path that would lead him to open the Heaven to every man. With his sacrifice Jesus repairs the sins committed by men before and after his coming; he has given us the grace, he gives us the absolution when, repented, we approach the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We must never forget what Jesus did for us. Every time we receive Him in the Eucharist, when we are before Him, we must thank Him for having died on the cross for each of us and because in every celebrated Mass He experiences again the sacrifice of Passion. With love He has drawn everybody to his heart as He himself says: "I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself ". (Jn 12:32) Jesus is drawing us to himself every time the priest elevates the host and the chalice to Heaven and at that instant our eyes and our hearts are abducted by "The one they have pierced" (Zech 12:10). We cannot do anything but get down on our knees before Him because His love is our salvation. How can we love, pray, serve God unless we love the cross? How can our hearts be enraptured by the Bridegroom if we forget the cross where He celebrated the wedding ceremony binding Him forever to the Church? The cross is the glory of Christ, is his trophy, is the cup that gathered all his suffering and his blood. If we love Jesus we too will detach from Earth and our Father will take us to dizzy heights. "We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world".
SECOND MOMENT OF MEDITATION
September 14, 1995: First Eucharistic miracle and beginning of the Triumph of the Eucharist. From the biography "You are priest forever"
On September 14, 1995, the day of "Exaltation of the Cross" the great joy: the first great Eucharistic miracle. A host, visible to everyone present, came out from the side of the Crucifix which was brought in the procession and set down on Marisa's hands. Great was the sorrow of the Bishop, Seer, community, and especially of God, for yet another abuse of men of the Church who have deprived the faithful of the Eucharist, but even greater was His reaction. He sided with us, and in the years that followed He has filled us with His presence by sending and bringing to us countless consecrated hosts. On September 14, 1995, our sister received from God the gift of being able to walk in order to carry, during the procession, the Holy Host. None of those present will ever forget that moment. We are increasingly aware that God, in his goodness, wanted us to be witness of one of his greatest work for the salvation of souls. In that holy day the triumph of the Eucharist started, God began to gather "The children of God that are scattered abroad" (Jn 11:52) to accommodate them in his Eucharistic Heart. After 18 years this image takes on a very strong sense for the whole Church: Don Claudio is supporting Christ on the Cross. The humble priest, who will be called to serve the Church in his Episcopacy, holds the source of all Sacraments. The priest, who becomes an intermediary between us and God, is being embraced by Jesus. Marisa, the bride so much loved, collects in her heart the most valuable asset: the Eucharist. She becomes a living tabernacle for Jesus, becomes a victim in order to help the Bishop to carry out his great mission, which will give the new Church the glorious face of Christ on the Cross. Many times, during Christmas too, Baby Jesus appeared to Marisa and behind Him there was a large cross of light. This cross is present because is the very source of life. The Bishop and Marisa decided to follow Christ totally, finding the strength and joy that comes only from the union with Him. The Mother of the Eucharist is the one who totally understood God's mission. In the story of her life that was told to Marisa, she says: "I surrendered completely to my All, clutching in a single embrace the cradle and the cross". Mary knew that her Son had been born to die and give men Salvation. She is full of grace and so is the creature who loves to perfection. Many times the Bishop said to us: "The more you love the more you suffer". We thank Mary for her "Yes" because she was the first to love the cross, she embraced the cross, accepted God's plan for her, but above all she gave her Son, her child. She did not fold on herself, but she loved God, lifted up her eyes to the Almighty and opened her arms and heart to all people who beneath the Cross became her children. Thus we see her too on the cross, but in God's Splendor. We thank her who is the co-Redemptrix of our salvation because she brought Jesus among us and taught us to live for her Son.
THIRD MOMENT OF MEDITATION
14th September 1999: beginning of Episcopal mission
From the Way of the Cross (7th Station)
"And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him". (Mt 27:31)
Let's try for a moment to close your eyes and open our heart to contemplate a moving scene: some men bring a cross, an instrument of awful torture and death, Jesus sees it approaching, looks at it and his eyes are filled with tears of love because he knows that by means of this cross He will conquer death, and hugs it. Guards, torturers and executioners are around him but no one understands the gesture of love of our Lord in embracing the cross. Only Mary understands it. Do we feel love for the cross? It is natural that we fear the cross as a sign of suffering, but we must keep in mind that this is the only way if we want to save our loved ones, our children, our friends. Don't you think that if it were possible to follow a different path from suffering and the cross, wouldn't perhaps Christ have chosen it? If he chose it was because this is the only valid, correct and right way to defeat the world evil and sin. We thank our Lord who embraces, loves and holds to the cross and from now on we can better understand when St. Paul says he is preaching: "Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Cor 2:2), for salvation comes only from the cross. We should not be restricted to have only an image of the cross at home, let us turn more often our eyes to it and pray before it so that at home, in a family or community, it is not just a symbol, a sign, but a reality of salvation. The beginning of the Episcopal mission cannot be seen but in the light of the power of the cross. We must not forget that from the pierced side of the crucified, the Church was born and with it all the sacraments. The effectiveness of the Bishop's mission is the work of the Holy Spirit renewing the sacrifice made every day by Jesus in his ultimate act of love: the gift of His suffering for our salvation, His death for our life. In the Way of the Cross inspired to our Bishop, Jesus makes us partakers of his emotions. Christ, looking at the cross, cries and hugs it. How many times we have seen our Bishop doing the same thing with the total acceptance of God's call together with his sister Marisa. They have accompanied Jesus on the Golgotha; Jesus, who is God and lives outside of time, could count on the support of these two children. Let us close our eyes for a moment and see Jesus loaded up with the heavy cross going up the Calvary with Bishop and Marisa plodding along the way, enduring that massive weight to relieve a little the suffering of our Savior. By climbing the Calvary, Jesus is amending our sins. Think of all the times that the Bishop and Marisa suffered for our sakes, for the ingratitude of those who received from them only good and above all for the opposition by the Church hierarchy. We call for God's forgiveness for the times we have hindered His will and for the times that, faced with the love of the Bishop called to fulfill a mission much bigger than he could bear, we have not been able to understand and love him as he deserved. We know that the gift of the episcopacy brought many fruits, first of all in our life and in the whole Church in such a dazzling way. When listening to the teachings of Pope Francis we realize that for us they are not new.
During the vigil of prayer for peace in the world, the Pope pointed out in his meditation: "In the silence of the Cross, the uproar of weapons ceases and the language of reconciliation, forgiveness, dialogue, and peace is spoken. My Christian faith urges me to look to the Cross. How I wish that all men and women of good will would look to the Cross if only for a moment! There, we can see God's reply: violence is not answered with violence, death is not answered with the language of death". This is the gift that God has given His Church thanks to the sacrifices and sufferings of Bishop and Marisa. The Church is being renewed, the new Pope is putting into practice those teachings learned through the letters of God that have been given to our community. All initiatives that the Bishop has given us such as Eucharistic adoration, fasting, little sacrifices, prayer vigils in order to get from God the graces man needs, today are also offered in the Church by Pope Francis and more and more Christian and non Christian communities in the world are answering "Yes" to this call.