Prayer formulated by H.E. Mons. Claudio Gatti on 10th June 2007

This is the prayer that H.E. Mons. Claudio Gatti, Bishop ordained by God, formulated spontaneously before the Eucharist that bled on the occasion of the Feast of Corpus Domini.

Today we want to contemplate, in a particular way, the Eucharistic mystery, so that we may enrich ourselves. We are here before You, Jesus the Eucharist, truly present in Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.

We carried you in a procession, moved and joyful and, as the path unfolded, I wondered, actually I asked You: “Jesus, does this procession follow in the footsteps that led you to Gethsemane, where your Passion began? Or does it follow in the footsteps of the procession that accompanied You to the place indicated by You, from where you then ascended to the Father, in a blaze of glory that belongs to You, as God?"

You can give the answer to our heart, Jesus. To me, as I have already heard in spontaneous prayers, which have been offered to You with much love by the members of this community, Your community, my community, our community, it seems to having heard, to a greater extent in my heart, that it was like the procession that accompanied you to Gethsemane.

Lord, You have not yet finished suffering for your Church and You are asking from those who love You to join in this suffering. You are God, You have infinite strength and power supporting You. You have a courage that makes You unique and, above all, You have a love that is always offered infinitely, continuously, to every creature. Despite our goodwill that want us to be close to You, we still invoke You: "Lord", remembering your words: "Come to Me all you who are tired and exhausted and I will give you relief and bread", and we come after You. It is true Jesus, we are tired, very tired, I am tired, Marisa is tired, young people are tired, the adults of the community are tired. Fortunately, children are excluded from this tiredness. Lord, You know, many years have passed by now, and our mission has almost reached its thirty-sixth milestone, this will happen in about a month. All these years have united us to Your suffering in a bloody and bloodless way and now, humbly, we say to You: “Lord, aren’t all these years enough for You, all these tests of love, of testimony that each of us has offered You, since we met in this thaumaturgic and blessed place? Since then we have never abandoned you even if, at times, there were moments of weakness. Jesus, only You can give us, in the most beautiful way, what many times you promised." We, at this moment, are afraid, but not of men, not of opponents, we are not even afraid of the devil, we are only afraid of our tiredness that could paralyze us, block us and stop us. So, take each of us by the hand, restore serenity and peace to our hearts, give us a word of hope. We have always professed our smallness, our weakness; we have never felt like heroes, but small creatures who, only with your grace, with your help, can support weights greater than our strength. Jesus, we love You, we believe in You, we don't distrust You, we are attached to You, as you taught us to do. At this moment I entrust these intentions to Mary's immaculate heart, to Your Mother. You see Jesus, here before You, a symbol representing our situation, the blue of the mantle of Your and our Mother extending over the whole world and covering all her children, including You. In fact, that bouquet of roses, in the shape of a heart, is You Jesus, as a man, as a Son: even on You the mother extends her protection. Those little petals, on the other hand, are all of us and all the men in the world who are looking for their mother's protection as little chickens wanting to feel her warmth, wanting to be grown, trained and supported by the masterly ability of this mother. All our love is contained within two sentences: Jesus the Eucharist, Mother of the Eucharist, everything is in there: our spirituality, our starting point, our goal. Lord, when You speak to us, the heart always opens to hope, when God the Father speaks to us, we feel, in those moments, a new fervor being born in our soul. When the Mother of the Eucharist speaks to us, we no longer feel alone or abandoned. This is why I ask you: keep talking to us, keep showing up, because, like children when they wake up in the middle of the night they need to hear the parents' voice, so we need to hear You pushing us. Never get tired of telling us that You love us, that You are with us thus releasing our hearts from any emotion, any agitation, any fear. Yes, now it is true, and it is your merit, Jesus, we feel free to speak to you sincerely, to externalize what we have inside. Some time ago we would not have had the courage to say publicly what we had in our hearts out of modesty, out of fear, but now it's different, You taught us to open ourselves in a sincere and frank way. Behold, Jesus, this is what I, shepherd of this community, ask You, express to You, expose to You. Although it has been a hard year, full of suffering, uncertainties, even if, at times, we have known the breakdown, discouragement and disappointment, it has been a year that has seen, in an incisive and powerful way, the beginning of the Church rebirth. In Jeremiah it is written: "I will give you shepherds according to my heart and they will pasture with intelligence and wisdom". What You had promised in the Old Testament, you kept and realized in the New, you are giving us new pastors, honest pastors, pure pastors and, to them you have given the seal of episcopate, of priesthood, through the bishop You ordained. This is an enormous, great, beautiful realization that men and, by saying men, I mean those of the Church, are not able to appreciate and recognize. Jesus, do speed up your action of purification in the Church, let her face finally shine, let there be no pride or filth in it. Let the Church become the one You founded that walked in persecution, poverty and suffering in the first decades of its history. The Church must return to shine with that light that You have given her and men have darkened; this is our great desire. We want your interventions to be speeded up, because we want to see the Church, finally, as our mother, as the bride of the Holy Spirit, as the daughter of God the Father. Thank You Lord, because you have listened to us patiently, thank You, above all, because You continue to guarantee and assure us that you will not forsake us and thank You because You are with us day after day, hour after hour, minute after minute. Jesus, true God and true Man, to the glory of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.