Saturday, july 22, 1995 1:10 p.m.
FATHER LUIS FERNANDO INTRIAGO: …every once in a while the Lord sends his workers, the workers of the Lord to announce what has already been said, but according to an era, according to an instant in history, they tell us again what we already know to awaken what sometimes starts to fall asleep inside of us.
So, without anything else to say, here is Mrs. Maria Esperanza.
(The seminarians sing to Mrs. Maria Esperanza)
MRS. MARIA ESPERANZA DE BIANCHINI: Good afternoon to everyone.
I truly feel moved by seeing these young men who are starting to give their first steps in contact with life; and I say, in contact with life, because when they begin to awaken… how many dreams? How many things do we do in our life in the midst of our vocation?
And the vocation… What do You want me for? What do You wish for? Where should I go, is this the place?
I would tell you, boys, our place is where we are welcomed with kindness, consideration, good will, and where we find a good hand, a young priest consecrated to the Lord who loves and feels his Mother, and is willing to surrender it all… a vocation, his vocation to teach, to spread the Word of God, the Gospel, and to hoist his God, the Body of Jesus Christ so you, youngsters, may receive Him, may nourish with that Body, so at the same time you may come to think: “What do you want me for, Lord? Is this my vocation? Could I reach such a vocation, Jesus? I want to serve You, I wish I could talk to You, hold You, Jesus Christ, in my hands free of all guilt from sin. Of course, there are human weaknesses, but could I, Lord, have enough will power to go to the seminary to serve You, love You, make You be acknowledged by all of your children on Earth, and spread the Word of Our Lord?”
Evangelization, “love one another as I have loved you”, as the Savior said.
O Jesus of all times! Here You are among us and we are preparing ourselves, but each one is wondering: Lord, what do You want; could it be that I could have the needed will to fully surrender to You, Christ?
Behold the answer of the Lord, “All those who are seeking Me, come to Me. Here is my Heart with the fire and the flame of my love to transmit it to all of you, my little ones. But one thing is needed, go to confession, receive the absolution of all of your sins, and receive Me everyday. This is the delicacy I offer you; it is my nourishment, my Body.
”Think for a moment about what I have gone through: the Pharisee made Me, yes, my children, the man of all times, they were the ones… With my hardship, with my agony on the Cross I was able to save the People of my Father, Who had called Me to unite all men on Earth, and especially those who received me, my apostles. They were tough men, some were fishermen, others were learned, yes, there were some who were prepared, there were some who knew nothing; they had to be taught, I had to teach them to follow in my footsteps throughout all the land of Galilee, from one point to the other: Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, Capernaum…
”We traveled so many places together. We frequently did not have anything to eat, and when praying to my Father for something, the catch was plenty, and we would carry both, the bread and the fish in baskets to feed ourselves.
”My Father inspired Me with such joy, with such happiness. And I pointed out the path, yes, a beautiful, flourished path, perhaps with many thorns, but roses of love fell from heaven because my Mother, in the midst of all of this, would accompany Me with so much humility and generosity surrendering herself following in my footsteps.”
”Those days were so beautiful, and these days too when I see these jubilant youth wishing to serve Me. What I long for is for my Father to be served; serve Him. He is the One who can achieve it all. Say this to those who follow Me. It is my Father and the Holy Spirit enlightening your souls, your understanding, and giving you warmth, and the fire of my Heart in yours.
”It is so beautiful to go from one place to another spreading the message of unity, brotherhood, of constantly holding hands following the swift flight of this Son of God.
”Walk hastily, do not waste your time, for these times are decaying because man has abused the charismas he has received, and of the graces that have descended upon your families, homes, and great communities.
”This is the time of the awaking of consciences, it is the time of living the Gospel, this is the time that cannot wait. It is needed to sow, to harvest the fruits at once. Thus, my Mother is appearing in different parts of the world because I have told her: Mother, take the scepter and follow Me, let us go together to call everyone, the People of God, jubilant youth that are waiting at the threshold of the Temple so they may fully enter to consecrate themselves and wear the garments, the wonderful clothing of priesthood because I need holy priests, religious who constantly pray and do pilgrimages throughout the world spreading my Word, Word of God, the Word of a Father to a Son, of this Son to his children, to everyone because I consider you my children through my Father and Mother.
”Behold, then, little ones, unite in prayer, meditation, penance, and in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the nourishment. Do not feel tired. You shall have your rest when you come to my side at the tabernacle. You shall receive so many graces. My life is concentrated there, and your life too, so united we may fashion an army that may reach all men, so the motivation of a great powerful day that is approaching hastily shall come true.
”I shall make Myself felt so all my bear your yoke of love, the loving yoke that I am offering you so you may fully live convinced that I live among You in all the altars of the world, but that I also quietly cross your houses, homes, families, and all the communities where one brother gives a hand to another sharing together, sharing their bread, their song, their prayer.
”You have such unmatched beauty: the desire to learn, to live, and to live evangelization! Perhaps many still have not awoken. A little more time must elapse, but there are some, seven of you, who are willing to take a step; perhaps there could be more, but there are seven hearts that in a simple way have awoken. These are the seven pains my Mother had, because with pain my Mother is calling you to enter the lines of priesthood.
”I want you to be holy priests, and your lives have to turn into serene, warm, harmonic, and joyful lives. The joy of the innocent child when he sees his mother, his father full of toys, yes, these toys are the goal of finding the promised truth, the lifesaving seat of your souls, and the light of a new horizon that is opening to your lives henceforth.
”You see this poor woman, she knows nothing, very little perhaps, but the Holy Spirit works in the creatures that surrender without the smallest trace of disappointment, in those who are encouraged that the Lord loves and answers on their behalf.
”Thus, you, each one of you has a light, an inner light that enlightens you, in order to truly determine what to seek, therefore We are here. Knock and the door shall be opened; speak, say what your feel and you shall be heard; and, ask, ask for whatever you wish for and this shall be granted. So, today reaffirm your trust.
”And now it shall be my Mother, Our Mother, the Mother of all mankind, it shall be she, my Holy Mother, the one who shall work in your hearts, it shall be she with her humility, patience, docility, and tenderness who shall touch your hearts.
”Do not ask yourselves: What is this, who is this lady? No, children, no. Keep quiet, remain silent, and hush. Only with your hearts you shall be able to truly bear what my Father wants for you, with the purpose of opening routes and paths for those who are coming behind you. Because the People of God is fashioning itself in you, in the youth.
”There is nothing else to ponder: embark in the barge of my Mother, it is Mary, she is the tender and generous Mother, the one who works so you may lead a fair life throughout all the seas of the world, all of its rivers, lakes, wherever there is life, where there is water to drink and quench your thirst.
”So, enliven your trust, fully live the Gospel, unite with each other, and keep your souls cleansed of all impurity; of course, while there is flesh and blood perfection cannot exist in any human being, but it can be achieved with humility, and with the patience of not offending my Father, or my Mother, or this Christ of all times. And you shall be able to say: My soul has been saved.”
Well, you can see that the inspiration has passed. Now, it is me, Maria Esperanza, with the good things I can have, because we all have something good, a good feature: The desire to serve, children, to serve and not to be served. This is the greatest thing when someone comes to you with their grief, sorrow, filled with anguish, and you do not tell him: No. Come, brother, let us solve the problem. Do not leave them lonely, because many have gone astray because they did not find a helping hand on time; therefore, you are all here to help each other, more or less, of the same age.
I truly want a cenacle to be erected here, the cenacle of the love of Jesus Christ and his Mother Mary – she is the door that is waiting for all of you to enter.
You are going to meditate, you need to go to confession, you need to make questions and more questions, in order to take to heart this moment, the moments of my God.
I am no one, children; I am a poor woman who has fought in life since I was a child. It was not easy, but do you know why I persevered? Because of prayer, constant prayer. I do not go to bed… every night I go to bed at 4:00 in the morning praying. Sometimes I say: Lord, I am going to die. But at the same time I say: O Lord, You give me such strength when I open my eyes and I refresh my mind, an unthought-of world for man opens to me, a world filled with hope, dreams, and constant joy with a big and numerous family: seven children, fourteen grandchildren, all their husbands, and the wife of my son; all the family that is united!
I pray to the Lord: O my family, Lord, my God, I surrender it all to You! Lord, I want nothing for myself, what I wish is that they may serve You, Lord, with humility and love in all those who may knock at their doors, regardless of where they come from or how they arrive, the point is to stretch-out their hands to them.
You too, transmit this love and the idea that these times are very difficult times for mankind; we are at the brink of war. We must stop it with prayer, meditation, penance, the Eucharist, our efforts, not resting: a glance, a word, hope.
Read the Holy Bible so Jesus may guide us, so He may lead us by the hand… lead you preparing your souls to meet Him, Our Lord Jesus. Sometimes we see Jesus like someone that you cannot… not Christ. Jesus lives among us, He is watching each one of our acts in life, observing, guiding our steps in life, telling us what we are good for. Each one has something he can do: some will be doctors, others lawyers, gardeners, carpenters; this does not matter, the important thing is to have something to do in life. But there is something very beautiful and grand, that I believe is the most perfect thing a man can do… yes, a family, a home, a son; but it is priesthood, nuns, holy priests.
We need Host, pure, and virgin souls. Virginity, my greatest pain was to have to get married. He knows this is true. I wanted to be pure for God, but God sent me to the world, “My daughter, live in the world. You are going to face man, but I shall give you the needed courage to forge ahead.” For me it was very hard to be at the Convent trying to lead my life there, when one day Saint Therese of the Child Jesus threw me a rose from the altar, which pierced my hand with a thorn that made it bleed. These were things that made me say: My God, how can this be? And this made me feel ashamed with the nuns, but they were with me, it was not a hallucination. Then, I felt my Lord telling me, “No, my daughter, go to Rome, your place is there, you have a place there.”
To make those decisions was very hard. The nuns told Monsignor, and he told me, “Well, Maria Esperanza, daughter, go on fighting, you have to with much humility.”
It was hard for me to leave my mother behind, my God, when I left with the nuns. Mother Saint Gabriel took me – the Mother Superior was so nice – it was tough when I left. But then what happened was that there were many vocations, so much so that one was named Maria Esperanza. As you can see, these are things that I say: Lord, we have to do sacrifice by any means, because immediately you can see, then, hope, comfort in your soul by seeing that God compensates his creatures in one way or another.
Therefore, I ask you, young boys, pray very much. My life is a life of prayer, of faith. The world is a very serious problem; if people see me the way I truly am, they will say, “She is pretending.” I have to be natural, just the way God made me, and I have to hide everything that is mystical, because I am a mother, and mothers have to give their children warmth and support. We are not going to hide; we are not going to try to change everything. You have to be spontaneous and natural. Life is made out of small details, not great things, it is simple, natural, at hand, everyone united.
I see you and my heart rejoices due to your simpleness. When I was a child, I also would sit on the floor to pray to my Mother. I would kneel at her feet and would spend hours, hours and hours – I would not get tired.
So, children, I beg you, I wish that Host souls, young boys could be consecrated to Jesus here in Guayaquil; those that truly… I know that the group is of thirteen or fourteen, perhaps. But I do not know… looking at you I feel that seven can be able to reach their goal, the desire they hide within.
Perhaps, many of you have not said: “I want to be a priest, I have the desire.” Perhaps, you still are fearful, but do not be scared, everything is possible in life. Right now we need a regiment of lives to constitute the beauty and splendidness of our Catholic, apostolic, Roman, and universal Church.
We have a Holy Father who is giving himself, going from one place to another every year. He underwent a life assassination attempt, but God has kept him, even with the pain that does not let him sleep sometimes at night, because the wound that he had still hurts, but his heart even more. However, he goes on humbly, simply, honestly helping us walk better in life, teaching us that to donate a life to the Lord is to donate many lives, because they are following the path of the father, that is to say, our Father the Pope, our priests, our beloved pastors.
Behold, a new world of dreams is born, because the grace descends, and the grace brings the dream of sharing with our brothers, living the Gospel, and helping each other be cleansed by saying: Amend this – but with much delicacy. No one should ever say to a person: Look, you are no good, or you are this. No, never. You should know how to say things, be careful, serene, and patient. To mistreat or offend each other hurts the Lord very much. Never offend each other; bear each other. And when your superiors reprimand you, listen to them, because they know more than you, they have gone to the seminary, left their parents, their families, everything.
Therefore, I love priesthood. When Monsignor Pio Bello told me to write a letter to send it to Rome, I said: I am going to offer my life to priesthood, to priests, to the religious ones of the world, to all those who have left everything behind to surrender themselves to the Lord. I was not able to do so, but the Lord has given me other things that have filled my life with much love and the knowledge that human value is the most beautiful thing that exists, courage to face daily problems, and above all, to reaffirm our steps wherever God places us.
So, I want you to think from today on: Confession to start a new life.
You are going to feel something beautiful in your hearts. You are going to feel the soft touch and the warmth of Mary, the simpleness of Mary, the humility of Our Mother. You are going to feel something that is talking to you, correcting you, teaching you. Deep down you truly are going to feel Mary with her roses, her fragrant scents. And the blowing breeze of the Holy Spirit, a breeze that you suddenly feel helping you, clearing your mind, guiding you, helping you survive those sad and cloudy days you may have.
It is the time to open an entrance in which you feel you are one with God, with your brothers, and with all mankind, because Jesus is there, it is the Divine Son, and the Holy Spirit with his gifts: the gift of understanding; of good counsel for all of you; the gift of piety, yes; and the gift of the fear of God to not offend Him.
It is not that He is going to punish us, no, God is not a punishing Lord, no; He is a Lord that calls us, that calls man to his conscience. You know when you have done wrong, when you have not followed the rules, the doctrinal principles of the commandments of the Law of God, you know when you have done something wrong. So, we must say:
- Lord, forgive me, I want to live according to that wonderful Church You have left us; Lord, lead me by the hand; Lord, invite me to prayer, I want to pray with You, Jesus.
- Our Father.
I do not know, I hope you were able to understand me. I know nothing, I simply let myself be led by that divine and wonderful current that fills me within, and makes me happy when I see that others are happy.
I wish… I know that you will receive the grace of the Holy Spirit today. May it blow upon you, and may you truly feel the Lord in the Eucharist in the tabernacle.
My whole life has been of hours of adoration, I do not waste the hours. I frequently say: Lord, it is true that tomorrow I have to wake up early. But I tell Him: I cannot forsake You, there are so many tabernacles that are alone where no one is praying to You, Churches that are closed where there are no… I do not know if you understand me, but one day you will understand the meaning of the Eucharist, of the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament of the altar. This is what has given me strength, and when you see me feel… it is such an immense joy to feel the Lord lives among us in the midst of our sins and weaknesses.
I speak in a heartfelt way; there are no lies or deceits; it is a solid and thinking truth. So, young men, I love you.
When I see you there seated, I think – and I always say: Humility is the crystal bridge that leads us to heaven; without humility there is nothing we can do. Let us ask for humility, humility, humility. Not the humility of dressing in drags, no, no, no. The Lord wants us to be just the way we are, to have a profound heart, to meet Him, to embrace Him in order to make the soil fruitful, so all communities in the world may nourish each other with the value of a true Christian who loves and feels his God.
May God keep you all. God bless you.
Thank you all for listening to me; you truly have been very well mannered. Boys, I have seen each one of you. Learn on your own with courage, wholesomeness, and will power to correct yourselves. Immediately after you do something, call yourself and you will not dare do any wrongdoing, no, no. God will not allow you to go astray, or make a mistake that has no point of return.
Therefore, go on. And let us ask the Lord to fill our hearts with joy, hope, and the dream that Mary lives among us, and that Jesus is among us too; we do not see Him, but He is there, his presence, yes, in all the altars of the world locked in the Eucharist waiting for us. But He also goes out and comes, so we may follow his walking steps, a tireless walk guiding his sheep, Shepherd of Souls.
“In the Name of my Father, I bless you, my children.
In the name of my Mother, I heal your body and soul,
and I keep you here in my Heart, I shall keep you, keep you, keep you,
I shall keep you here in my Heart from today on and forever.”
May peace be with you, and may the light of the Holy Spirit enlighten your souls. You are in peace and in harmony with the whole world.
- Most Holy Mother of God, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
(The Betania Choir sings “Ave Maria de Finca Betania”.)
