Prayer formulated by H.E. Mons. Claudio Gatti on 25th October 2009

Feast of the Mother of the Eucharist

My dear God, You know that, initially, I thought to be silent on this occasion because for me it would be easier to let my heart talk secretly and silently so as not to risk being overwhelmed by emotion, as it happened to someone. But I felt in my heart an encouragement to speak, and I remembered the times when, to start the day, Marisa and I would recite our prayers, entrusting them to Your divine protection. I recognize that, sometimes, these prayers were perhaps a bit too long but often they were attended by all the Heaven. You Father, You Son, You Holy Spirit, surrounded by the Mother of the Eucharist, angels and saints, were there to hear the Bishop’s words that You, my God, commanded; and Marisa, jokingly, would often raise her hand and would show the index and middle fingers, clutching like scissors, to tell me not to dwell too long. I am convinced that now, instead, she is telling me to speak because she can interpret God's thoughts and the feelings we experience.

At the beginning of the Eucharistic procession it was sung the song that You, Jesus, turning to Marisa, have defined as "our song"; I saw the scene of the groom, hopping happily, dressed in red, going to meet the bride and I also saw the bride’s emotion.

I take the liberty, and those who have preceded me should not feel hurt by it, to make a small correction. We are not celebrating Marisa’s mystical marriage, but we are commemorating it now, we are reminding it to us and to the whole world. We are reliving it for those people, and we are among them, who could not be present because the mystical marriage took place in Heaven when you, Marisa, finally took off, freed from earthly ties, closing your eyes to the world realities and opening them again to the Heavenly realities and, at last, you were in the arms of your Bridegroom who welcomed you, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit and with the gratified smile of our heavenly Mother, the earthly mother and all the Heaven.

My God, in no way I want to show disrespect for You but you must allow me to divert my speech to Marisa, my sister and Your daughter.

Dear little Marisa, today, probably for the first time and I hope the first of a long series, you could have participated to the whole course of the procession. When you lived on Earth, in fact, your ailments blocked you and often were unable to come down among the community members. Sometimes God allowed you in an extraordinary way, through bi-location, to be present, but today you are present in an ordinary way as a creature of Heaven. And you were there, next to your Spouse, carried solemnly in procession and enthroned because we wish to bring to the world the Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah, Head and founder of the Church and we also want to make Him known and loved by the whole world. We did everything with this intention. Then this moving Eucharistic adoration began. It is not difficult, my God, to guess where little Marisa is: she is here, close to me. But as Marisa had seen the behavior of the Mother of the Eucharist, gathered in adoration before her Son, now, at last, Marisa too is now prostrate on her knees before You and this is another joy she is tasting. Little Marisa used to love so much to kneel and adore You but, unfortunately, her physical condition never allowed it. You, my God, taught us, through the Mother of the Eucharist, that is not so important to be standing, kneeling or sitting, but what matters is to get to You and, above all, to receive You in our heart with grace, with Your grace. And here is the great lesson emerging from Marisa’s life. Even if she lived in a dirty world destroyed by evil, she was never at all infected by all this; actually she radiated light and splendor around her, turning the mud into fertile land, wickedness in love and selfishness in generosity. That's what our dear sister did and turning to me now she is asking me to stop talking about her but Jesus. And I, on the other hand, with Your permission my Lord, I still talk about you, little Marisa, because I have God’s permission, and you too used to say that to Him you cannot say no. I too in no way want to say no to God and this prayer, this never ending prayer of yours that you share with grandmother Iolanda, the Mother of the Eucharist, St. Joseph, and with all the other saints and angels of Heaven, is addressed to You my God, so You may speed up the time for the Church to be born again. My God, enough with unworthy pastors, enough with mercenaries, give Your holy Church pastors who are generous, unselfish and also ready and prepared from the cultural and theological point of view. Donate people who know how to love, to live in love because love is grace, is presence of God because it means to be embraced by God: this is love. How do you see love between spouses? Doesn’t it transpire, perhaps, by the caring attitude they exchange? Well, how do you see the love towards God? By the caring attitude that the human creature has for the Father and vice versa. You have seen, my God, how many words flow from my lips because I have so much to tell You and I guarded them in my heart, they are reflections I have matured in recent weeks, in recent months, but I do not want to bore more my brothers and sisters, what I want to shout is exactly this: we want to love You, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, truly present in the Eucharist and in order to love You, we are ready for anything, as little Dominic Savio said: "death, but no sin". We want to fight sin but perhaps it is presumptuous. We want to destroy sin, but unfortunately, my God, You taught us that it will never happen because there will always be someone, as it happened among angels betraying You. And in the same way it will happen among men, some of them will continue to betray, for they are taken by spasmodic desire for wealth, power and positions, putting number one first and dragging, as Lucifer did, a third of the angels in hell. Those people, unfortunately, with their attitudes and bad example drag many people to hell, a dreadful word that I would almost erase from our vocabulary and replace it with the other word, Heaven because by saying Heaven it is like if it were a blaze of light being emitted, it is like having a precious carpet lifting us to You, it's like seeing plenty colorful flowers and, above all, perfumes filling a garden that is Your earthly home. My God, we speak of that home we want to prepare for You, where every flower, every blade of grass, every clod is a good and generous soul, full of love for You.

Now, my God, assist us in this Holy Mass, give us peace, strength, courage and love; give us again your Son in the Holy Communion so that we may, through the Eucharist, look more and more like You are and we too may be as He is, a loved Son, embraced, desired and protected by our Father.

Thank you, my God, for listening to me and forgive me if, once again, You had had to be patience with me, with all my weakness, I want to be a priest and victim because, by now, it has become a reality but, actually, my God, I hope to end this reality so that I may just take up my role as priest for the benefit of souls and the Church rebirth. And now, my God, Glory to You, One and Triune God, Glory to the Father, Glory to the Son, Glory to the Holy Spirit. Let me give a kiss to my sister and within it lies the kiss of the whole community just as, and today I made a small liturgical abuse, I have kissed You when I took you from the little throne. But the kiss was not only mine but from all souls that love You and want to follow You and wish to live united to You because only then can we say that Heaven is anticipated on Earth. I wish a beautiful smile to be born and flourish in everyone’s heart, as an expression of the fact that we are happy to be in Your presence.

Thank you, my God, for your love for us, thank you, my God because you have redeemed us, thank you, my God, for the gift of the Eucharist.