The Lord had decided that Don Claudio and Marisa, though both living in Rome, would meet in Visso,
on 15th July 1971. Marisa was staying in the Domus Laetitiae hotel for health reasons.
The same hotel was chosen by Don Claudio for the field school for the boys of the St.
Peter parish youth club, as he was in charge of it.
When Marisa saw Don Claudio coming along without cassock, followed by his boys, she did not recognize him as a
priest and then she opted he was not the one she expected. Instead, Our Lady showed him to her.
Marisa shyly approached Don Claudio
and said: "I'm Marisa", and Don Claudio replied: "So what?" Marisa was puzzled, but the smile Don Claudio
offered made her understand she could trust him.
Later, Don Claudio decided to take her with him at the camp, and there,
for the first time, he participated in the apparition of the Mother of the Eucharist. This event changed their lives,
for together they started the great mission.
In fact, about a year later, in August 1972, Our Lady asked
Don Claudio and Marisa to leave for Lourdes. In the grotto of Our Lady Shrine she told them that God had called
them for an important mission: "It is a mission involving the whole Church,
involving the whole world... you are free to accept or reject, but remember: you will suffer a lot"
(letter of God, 8th June 1972).
After three days of intense prayer and meditation, on August 12, 1972, during the
celebration of Holy Mass in the Grotto of Lourdes, Don Claudio and Marisa uttered at the same time
their yes when exchanging the sign of peace.
They received from God the greatest mission in the
Church history: to let people know, love and triumph Jesus the Eucharist. More than once The Mother
of the Eucharist addressed the Bishop saying: "You are priest forever after the order of Melchizedek"
and to Marisa: "Your vocation is not a sacrament, but is supporting the sacrament".
Hide
