The story of our sister Marisa, a soul consecrated to

God by taking the perpetual vows of chastity, poverty and obedience

Prayer vigil of 17th May 2003, celebrated on the anniversary of Marisa's total consecration to God, by taking the perpetual vows of chastity, poverty and obedience.

What we narrate is the story of our sister Marisa, a beautiful story, rich of love and suffering, indissolubly interlaced with our Bishop's story.

It is the story of a lay person, consecrated to God.

Marisa is a model, an example for all the souls who will want to follow her choice, but is especially an example of love and abandonment for all of us, she is a soul whose existence is a property of the Church, because God called her to immolate herself for the Church.

The Lord gave her unique gifts, but also terrible sufferings.

Marisa has been seeing Our Lady since she was two years old. At the beginning she manifested herself as a playfellow, a lady who only Marisa could see. Growing up, Our Lady made Marisa understand that she was the Mother of God and invited her to keep the secret and not to reveal to anybody her presence. Years of formation and guiding followed in the ordinary everyday, while her life passed by apparently normal.

We use the word "apparently" because since she was young, two essential characteristics of Marisa's life have emerged overbearingly: the first one is the suffering, because Marisa is physically very tried and the second one is the love towards the others. Marisa wanted to help the suffering people and, still without knowing the future call of God, she did her best in those human activities of charity towards the sick people.

She went often to hospitals, religious institutes, she met nuns and priests, but the spiritual guide arrived only in 1971. On March 9, 1963 Our Lady made her see in bilocation the one who would have become her spiritual director, that is our Bishop, in the day of his priestly ordination.

From 1971 to 1986 Marisa and the Bishop prepared for the great mission that God would have entrusted to them.

On May 13, 1986 Marisa took the vows. Also this day was characterized by great physical sufferings and great moral joys.

The following years were those all of us know, with the formation of the first cenacle followed by the opening to everybody of the apparitions of the Mother of the Eucharist.

Acceptance of the mission

Everything began in August 1972, when Our Lady asked Don Claudio and Marisa to go to Lourdes. In the grotto of the Shrine Our Lady announced them that God called them for an important mission: "It is a mission that involves all the Church and all the world… you are free of accepting or refusing, but remember: you will suffer a lot" (Letter of God, August 6, 1972).

After three days of intense prayer and meditation, on August 12, 1972, during the celebration of the H. Mass in Lourdes grotto, Don Claudio and Marisa said their yes in the same moment when they exchanged the peace. And God's plans became reality.

The three vows: poverty, chastity and obedience

Freedom is surely the common denominator of the three vows of chastity, obedience and poverty, the three faces of a pyramidal jewel resting on the fourth one: the individual freedom of wanting to belong totally to God and becoming in this way an instrument in his hands for his plans.

Our Lady taught us: "The vow of chastity lived with love makes you free, limpid and pure. Love your spirit and your body" (Letter of God, January 30, 1994).

The vow of chastity is the absolute renunciation of oneself, so it becomes the best way for giving oneself to God and the whole world. The purity of a soul consecrated by the vow of chastity bursts into the world and becomes light for the one who, afflicted by the darkness, can't find the way to God.

The soul in the darkness thinks all kinds of renunciations are unnatural, especially the chastity, but what seems unnatural from the human point of view, becomes supernatural from God's point of view and it is the essence just of what it seems to deny: fertility.

Who consecrates oneself to purity loves infinitely God and reminds which will the definitive condition of men in Heaven. The consecrated person incarnates a love which is ready to give up everything because wants to give everything; so becomes reality the binomial described by our Bishop: purity and love make a cross whose vertical bar is purity and the horizontal one is love. Paul VI affirmed: "Chastity tells the world that one can love with disinterestedness and inexhaustibility that gets from God's heart and one can give all oneself to everybody with joy, without binding oneself to anybody, taking care of the most abandoned people".

Finally it is a marriage celebrated between a creature and Christ and all mankind enjoys the fruits of this union.

Entrusting oneself completely to God is the seed that makes sprout the marvellous plant of obedience. The soul seems to repeat endlessly its yes to God, moved by the will of reaching perfection, gained only by abandoning completely itself to the divine will. Jesus says: "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work" (John 4,34).

The vow of obedience is carried out by doing the Father's will and by being faithful to the one who represents his authority. The soul must be intimately united with God and must manifest this union by sincerity, charity and by doing God's will before any other thing, even if this could result inconvenient for oneself and cause contrasts with those who wanted to use obedience with blackmail. Jesus affirmed: "When obedience is not asked with love, sincerity and simplicity, one must not obey to those who overwhelm, kill and are aware of doing ill. Obedience is a great and beautiful virtue, but the men destroy it with their power" (Letter of God, June 25, 1998).

Only a humble and deeply sincere soul can live thoroughly the vow of obedience; the consecrated soul puts itself in God's hands and, but without losing its reason and intelligence, is ready to do everything, even what is inexplicable and irrational from the human point of view, provided that it comes from the Highest Good.

"Obedience is a great and beautiful virtue that leads you to holiness" Our Lady said and moreover Paul VI: "Obedience tells the world that one can be happy, even without stopping at a convenient personal choice, but remaining completely available to do God's will, as appears from the daily life, from the signs of times and from the needs of salvation of the world nowadays".

This is one of the great teachings that Christ left us: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5,3).

The vow of poverty expresses in fact the wish of the consecrated person to be in the world but not to be of the world; the freedom of the soul consecrated to God through the vow of poverty becomes full by giving up and separating from all that the world considers to be material certitude. Paul VI says: "The vow of poverty tells the world that one can live in the midst of the temporal goods and can use the means of civilization and progress without being slave of any of them".

Only the Providence is God's hand that leads the soul giving up all riches towards what is really necessary to it. The soul that consecrates itself to God through this vow aims secretly at gaining not the material goods, but something greater, that is the supernatural goods; it knows the only way to gain them is to give up all that prevents from gaining them: materiality.

The soul having inside itself the wish of absolute freedom knows that it will have to be united strongly with the One who is infinitely free to fulfil its wish, the gain of an endless freedom. Our Lady taught us: "Obedience, chastity and poverty have to be offered to God, closed inside a beautiful circle of humility and simplicity and inside an other beautiful circle of love offered to Jesus the Eucharist" (Letter of God, May 26, 2001).

Our sister Marisa had always remained faithful to his vows and embraced the cross for the realization of God's plans, as Our Lady said: "Jesus took into his heart your consecration and your vows and accepted them and you know how many trials, sufferings you bore. Notwithstanding your mumbling, you never said no to Jesus the Eucharist and even today, after decades since the emission of vows, you don't say no to Him. You live your vows with simplicity and humility. In the eyes of the others you can be a little person, but they don't know that through the consecration and the vows to Jesus you have become great in his eyes and in the eyes of those people who are able to love" (Letter of God, May 12, 1999).

Love for the souls

The true consecrated soul loves, accepting completely the teaching left us by Christ: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13,34-35).

The consecrated soul expresses this deep love by carrying on thoroughly the virtue of charity. Without charity, the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience are sterile, as St. Paul writes: "If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing" (I Cor. 13,3).

Jesus died on the cross, giving all of Himself for realizing the plan of redemption wanted by the Father, similarly, all consecrated souls offer their existence to do God's will.

Marisa is a particular soul. God sends great sufferings only to some particular souls chosen by Him. Marisa is one of these souls and she carried on her vow of obedience to God, always accepting all sufferings. From the letters of God is deduced her great love and her total giving herself for the others: "I am worried for the priests and the young people who love you. Don't give them the suffering, I beg you. Make me suffer, but leave the young people free. Relieve a little the sufferings of the sick people and take all of myself" (Letter of God, January 6, 1996).

"I profit by to ask you to help all the sick people, the terminal sick, the young sick and the sick children. Help them all, take me, do what you want of me, but help the sick, the drug addicts, the prisoners, the elderly, the children. All of them need your help" (Letter of God, March 1, 1997).

"Can I tell you one thing? I don't know what to tell you, if you look at me in that way, but take all of me, take everything away from me and go to the priest, to our young people, because they deserve to see you, to hear you, to touch you" (Letter of God, February 8, 1996).

"I told you: take all of me, but help the priest" (Letter of God, April 18, 1996).

"I thank you for the forty days of passion you made me suffer for the salvation of souls and especially of those I entrusted you day and night. I want to entrust you also grandmother Iolanda. It would be so beautiful if you took me for the salvation of the others. By now I have given you everything, take me and make live those I entrusted you; give them joy, courage and strength" (Letter of God, May 1, 2002).

The suffering

The suffering has always been present in Marisa's life, Christ chose her as his bride and called her to a life of immolation, fight and renunciation. The Lord moulded her according to his will and realized in her the highest kind of love, the divine love which is suffering and total donation. Christ called Marisa to live intimately united with Him in the grace and in the immense sorrow of the Passion, as one can read in the letters of God: "Marisa - Soul of Christ sanctify me, Body of Christ save me, Blood of Christ inebriate me, water of Christ's chest wash me, passion of Christ comfort me, o good Jesus satisfy me, hide me inside your wounds" (Letter of God, May 25, 1996).

In the moments of great suffering the creature mingles with the divine and walking together along the sorrowful way from the Gethsemane to the Calvary, they become instrument of salvation for the souls.

"Marisa - The cross is heavy, very heavy…

Jesus - Bring, bring, bring many souls to Me; my Heart needs many souls and especially many priestly souls. Don't leave Me, carry my cross on your shoulders, which is heavier than ever today. Bring many souls to Me! Come on, my bride, the transverberatio, the passion has not come to an end for you; on the other hand you immolated yourself for your spouse and I am your spouse.

Don't abandon Me, bring many priests to Me; few of them love Me and I loved much everybody. Carry the cross with Me. Go, my daughter, carry Jesus the Eucharist, carry Me in your arms and cradle Me, if you can.

Marisa - How should I cradle you? Don't hurt me much, Jesus! Because you make me suffer much. I must reach the altar and you must help me, otherwise I won't succeed.

Jesus - Come on, my daughter, carry the cross.

Marisa - Can I smile with you? The cross of your beloved priests is heavy.

(Marisa mumbles for the pains)

I carry you, you carry me… I carry You, I cradle You…

Jesus - Bring many souls to Me, bring my priests to Me…

Marisa - The cross is heavy.

Jesus - Bring many souls to Me. Bring many souls to Me" (Letter of God, November 16, 1997).

To save the planet Earth God asked Marisa a great suffering that kills morally also the Bishop. In those terrible moments Marisa is lacerated by the sorrow caused by the stigmata, the lance stroke and the crown of thorns. The Bishop is next to her and prays unceasingly participating in her suffering. Our Lady revealed us: "My beloved children, I can't hide you that your sister always keeps on suffering the martyrdom of love: the passion. You must know that the invisible stigmata don't discharge and are painful, on the contrary the visible stigmata discharge and are less painful. But who can understand and realize this? The suffering continues, Jesus chose her and she said yes, even if sometimes she collapses or everything collapse around her. Then she recovers, rises her eyes towards the Father and asks for help, the same happens to the priest. You will never be able to understand what a great suffering got to my two children for accepting the apparitions, for loving the Eucharist for loving the souls" (Letter of God, August 16, 1998).

The physical and moral sufferings caused by the men have added to the supernatural ones and sometimes also bitterness and discouragement have manifested overbearingly.

Notwithstanding this the Bishop and the visionary have gone on with their mission, the grain of corn that fell onto the earth and died produced fruits, the immolation of these two souls is bringing mankind back to the Lord, as God the Father himself announced on June 29, 2002:

"God the Father - Now it is I, God, speaking. You do not see me, none of you can see me, not even you, little Marisa, are able to see me. I am present here to tell you that all your sacrifices, your sufferings, your love, have achieved the conversion of three billion five hundred million and one persons. My dear children, it is I, God, speaking and thanking you: I, God, thank you, little creatures, for all that you have done, but you are not over, as yet, with your prayers and with small and big sacrifices. In this little place I sought after, that I defined thaumaturgical, you have to keep on praying to bring an end to wars, an end to terrorism and to many other wicked actions that take place in this world so corrupted, as my Son Jesus said. Yes, you have to go on, also because it is time for the parents to stop killing their children and for the children their parents with such ease. Men have more compassion for an animal than for a creature of God".

The figure of the mystic

Marisa is one of the most important mystical figures in all the history of the Church.

The mystic is the one who lives intimately united with the Lord, does his will and accepts the suffering to fulfil the mission indicated to him by God.

The mystic can receive from the Lord some charismas which are not for his advantage, but for the others. The true charismatic, any gift he received, is an equilibrated, humble and simple person, because he knows very well that what is manifested is not by his work or merit, but is a free gift of God. Our Lady taught us: "The mystic is the one who is close to God, does his will, suffers and embraces the cross with all his heart. Your sister never told you what happened in 1971, when she healed a child, just touching him. God told her: "Touch the legs of this child and pray". She obeyed and the child was healed. Now he is married and has five children, all healthy…. Your sister prays for everybody, but even if she is sick, she never prays for herself, because the gift she received is for everybody, not for herself… When God calls the souls it is not for them, but for the others. Those people who say they see Jesus and Our Lady and don't suffer and have all joys of the Earth, are neither mystics, nor visionaries" (Letter of God, March 1, 2003).

Unfortunately, along the centuries the mystics have always been treated with mistrust by the ecclesiastical authority, often not enlightened by God. Some of them, people truly loved by God and endowed with great gifts, suffered a lot and the greatest suffering was caused by the ecclesiastical authority at all; some of them have been even imprisoned, others suspected of heresy and then declared saints and doctors of the Church.

This happened because to recognize God's gifts one must be united with Him, he must have the grace in his soul; who denies the charismas denies God's action and presence in the history of the Church and in the life of the faithful; these gifts are a manifestation of the divine will because the Lord can make use of some creatures of his to help others and realize his plans. Our Lady addressing Marisa affirmed: "The great gift God gives to the mystics is the suffering, the continuous union with Him. When God chooses a soul He makes the soul for Him in every way. Yet, you wonder: "Who are the mystics?". You are a mystic, because God has chosen you… God knows your suffering and knows those people who make you suffer. Little by little you will realize that these people who made you suffer, and still make you suffer, will fall one after the other. Stay united with God, set your teeth and fight, without arguing and criticizing. The great mystics are united with God and with the souls who love God and the Church (Letter of God, February 27, 2003).

The victim

The mission of all consecrated souls is that or resembling as much as possible Christ the Divine Victim: pure, holy, innocent, flawless and separated from the sinners.

Jesus, immolating himself on the altar of the cross, offered all of himself to save the souls, deleting all sins. He wanted to make us understand that his love is so great, unexplainable, infinite, that he was ready to drink the chalice of sorrow up to the last drop. As a matter of fact, he wanted to experience the most lacerating pains: the anguish of being abandoned by the Father in the Gethsemane, Judas' betrayal, the scourging, the crowning with thorns, the crucifixion and finally the death on the Cross.

"Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God,

did not count equality with God

a thing to be grasped,

but emptied himself,

taking the form of a servant,

being born in the likeness of men.

And being found in human form

he humbled himself

and became obedient unto death,

even death on a cross.

Therefore God has highly exalted him

and bestowed on him the name

which is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father".

(Phil. 2, 6-11)

The more a consecrated soul lives an intimate and deep union with God, depriving itself of the things of the world and growing in the grace through the sacraments, charity, sacrifice and prayer, the more in the eyes of the Lord it becomes a docile instrument of salvation in his hands.

As a matter of fact if a soul lives thoroughly its consecration, it sustains the priestly action helping the souls to convert.

Our Lady often invited us to meditate on Jesus, Priest and Victim and once revealed: "The Lord wanted you two, my dear children, to get to a particular union, the fusion of your souls into only one; if you, Don Claudio, were priest alone, and you, little Marisa, were visionary alone, you would be very weak. From your fusion originates a living and palpitating energy for all the Church. The efficacy of your apostolate depends on your union; for this reason satan's plan is to separate the priest from the victim. The men will try to separate you, but God won't allow it. You must be united, Don Claudio and little Marisa, as Jesus and I are united. There can be neither Jesus without Mary, nor Mary without Jesus; you will experience all this in the future" (From the introduction of the book of Our Lady's life).

Marisa offered her life for the renaissance of the Church, for the Bishop and for all the wars come to an end all over the world.

God chose you as victim of love, as the one who supports the Bishop and chose you also as our mother in the spiritual walk and you, just as you are, true, simple, straightforward, sincere, full of an immense and total love, give us everything of yourself.

We knew you when our spiritual steps were like those of a child. The steps of a child are safe next to his mother, errors are corrected and the way is straightened. Then the child grows up and the adult has next to himself the same mother who is ready and present, to whom giving a responsible and conscious love. Without you we wouldn't be here, we wouldn't have the right style of love, the one wanted by God, we wouldn't know the strength of the Eucharist, we wouldn't have prayer as a weapon against evil, we wouldn't know the meaning of living the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience in a so authentic and free way.

The passion of Christ, your spouse, is always in you and you are victim, but you win the sorrow because you accept and love your cross. You turn the thorns that pierce your head into spiritual flowers, so our steps become faster and our spirit grows up and gets stronger.

We see in you the strength of smiling while you suffer due to the lance strokes and so you teach us how to understand and accept what is hard to understand for us: when God calls a soul He asks it everything, the bigger the cross, the more He loves that soul.

You teach us how to dedicate all actions and words to God, for his glory; through your example of life you support us, as Our Lady said in an apparition: "Each thing you will do in the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit will be turned into little blossoms that will soar and give off a perfume of love around the tabernacle" (Letter of God, January 7, 1990).

What can we give you, of our love? Just like when we give you a bunch of flowers, each one different from the other, with its colour, shape and beauty, so we want to give you one spiritual flower of ours, that is a prayer, an act of mortification, a deed of charity, a smile, a Mass or a Communion offered for you, to reciprocate your so great and strong love. The more our soul gets richer of a petal, the more we know that to it corresponds a thorn, that you turned into a new petal.