Sunday, april 13, 1997
Good evening to all of you.
- The Angelus
Brothers and sisters in Our Lord Jesus Christ, here I am, here I am, here I am, through the grace of the Lord, because He has wanted it this way, because my Mother has brought me here. Mother and Son have come to an agreement through the grace of the Father, through the light of the Holy Spirit, so that I could truly reflect if it was convenient for me to be here, if it was his holy will; and being it his will, here you have me.
I do nothing else but obey my Mother. I feel like a little girl in her arms, and she says: “Walk, daughter, walk. Go ahead, do not be afraid of men, no, no. Jesus is taking care of everything, and this Mother guides you making way for those coming behind. Yes, daughter, but you must keep going on and take shelter in my Heart, so you do not get lost in the middle of the way of confusion that reigns in the world.”
“Right now man is looking for his truth, the majority of them. Where is the truth? Well, the truth is in my Father, in the Father Who created us in his own image and likeness, and you all must follow his advice in This, his Divine Son.”
“That is why, go and reflect, think, meditate and observe the people. It is in the behavior of a human being where you clearly see how those persons are.”
And now, I say, brothers, are we truly prudent, simple, humble and generous; proving here in this silence that we are looking for our truth and the incentive of being able to serve the Lord, to serve Mary, to serve our mother the Church, the mother Church, that is calling us to correct our weaknesses and to meet with our brothers to hold each other’s hand and live the Gospel?
How beautiful it is to hold each other’s hand, to feel that the Gospels are our goal to be able to go and meet all the men and women on Earth. Evangelization, we all have to prepare to go seek our mother the Church, to reaffirm our footprints and lift up our heart to the Lord asking for his mercy and forgiveness for all our weaknesses and frailties, and even more, praying for all mankind: for our brothers in greatest need, the poor, those who do not have a place to live or a piece of bread to eat; for those swarming around the streets at night, many times not knowing where to go. Let us think of them.
Let us think about our homes, our houses. We have a place to live, and how can we resist looking at others who do not? Lord, what a great unbalance. And it all is a consequence of human egoism. Each one of us thinks in himself, in his own, in his own problems, in his things. Let us think of the others… When we extend our hands to someone who asks us for something, we will be able to understand how big the divine manifestation of the Lord is toward us, helping us, protecting us, saving us from being exposed to the elements of nature out in the streets.
That is why I talk about this subject, because in recent times I have been through great things, things about many people who are getting lost because they isolate themselves and because they do not try to look around and wonder: “Who is passing by? Who is in front of me? What do you need, brother? Do you want something? Would you like to share with me a minute, a second, for at least ten minutes of your time? Yes, tell me what is going on. I want to help you, I want to soothe your heart, so that you can go on and live like us who can have a place to live, bread to eat, a blanket to wrap ourselves up. I want you to have it too.”
Yes, brothers, and I speak in this way because we have to start thinking how many children are getting lost. Children, they do not deserve to live so sadly, society forsaken. We have to do something. We have to think about children, the innocent children, so that they may also be joyful with their parents, if they have them, being able to live together peacefully under the same roof.
Here we have the important point of this hour in the world. How many people starve to death or die because of religious impiety? Yes, we have to be true religious persons. If we love and follow our religion, if we comply with the duties of our holy mother the Church and our duties at home, with our families we have to start by loving our brothers that are beyond our reach, so that when we shake hands with them they may feel the warmth of a mother and father who are inviting them to enter to share in community, in family like a Christian family, the children of God, of Jesus Who comes to open to us the doors of his divine mercy so that we may be able to live in accordance with our mother, the Church.
Forgive me, brothers, sometimes it is painful to address these things, because I do not want to bother anyone, but there is much pain, there is much pain in some families and it is the time to rectify. We all have to rectify thinking about the poorest children in the world, those who do not have a home, a family. Let us help them. From today on let us have a thought for the children. Yes, there are homes for children, for orphan children, but many times not all of them can make it to these homes, because they do not have someone to take them, to give them that protection.
So, it is time for us to make an effort to nourish their souls, to feed their bodies, to nourish their lives fully. Today, a little bit of our work, of our efforts, we can give from what we daily receive for our work for our family, for food, for a loaf of bread, to buy the food. We can put aside, at least a little bit, and we will be doing something.
How beautiful it is to help a child, how beautiful it is to feel free from the bonds of sin, because it is a sin to ignore those who suffer. It is a sin to not observe the commandments of the Law of God, “You will love your neighbor as yourself”.
With this I want to express, that you are going to feel infinite happiness in the soul, peace, serenity, hope, great thrill of being able to share your things with others, with everyone. I know that you do many deeds, you are working, you work, you work hard to help others, but many times we forget, we do not truly realize what is happening around the city or around our cities, around our town, or in the city where we live.
Every night we must pray very much for the homeless who do not have a place to go.
Yes, brothers, it is beautiful to serve and not to be served. It is beautiful to love even though we are not loved in return, and it is beautiful to ask, to ask and to ask the Lord for the grace to receive the gift of understanding, in order to truly be able to understand what He wants from each one of us, and in order to be able to live the Gospel.
The Gospel is the blessed formula that the Lord gave us as a precious gift in our lives, and it is new life. Our cells, our blood, our veins, our arteries are renewed all the time with new life, with supernatural life.
Right now the Lord is inviting us to walk along with Him, as his priests do, by his side, experiencing the hope of saving souls, many souls. How beautiful it is to serve, to save souls, many souls, in order to be able to feel free within from the bonds of the world of sin!
And I specially pray for you to pray for priests and nuns. They left everything behind, and we are in our homes with our loved ones. They had to rip their families from their hearts. They have to carry them only in their hearts, giving them up in a materialistic sense. They live somewhere else, with their brothers. Their parents are somewhere else. That is a sacrifice of love for Jesus, by the call of Jesus Christ. How did He call and teach them? Guiding them to the seminary to be educated, to study and live the Gospel, and after that, as consecrated priests, going out to the world to spread the Word of the Lord to convert souls, save sinners and soothe the burden of many needy human beings.
And I ask you this because we need holy priests, many holy priests, many priests.
Young boys, I call you to reflection. How beautiful it is to be a good priest! Young girls, how beautiful it is to be a beautiful nun, a lovely nun serving that Holy Church!
We cannot let our lives wither doing nothing for that mother Church that is crying out to us, so that we all stand: mothers, fathers, our children, everyone in only one love to help that youth, which are you, to grow spiritually, surrendering to religious communities.
This is a community of faith and love, of principles, of families with ideals, of people with good habits, with the firmness of the person who truly loves and feels its Church, because I know that you feel our mother the Church. And you may tell me: “You already talked about this subject yesterday, more or less the same subject: our mother the Church.”
It is the most important thing. We are in it, we are here, it is the Church that calls us, that invites us to prepare ourselves to begin our swift flight in search of those in greatest need, so they may enter in the classrooms of the Master, our Master Jesus Who invites us to enter into his classrooms to teach us through his priests.
So, I tell you: let us work. We all have the right to work and give our spiritual contribution, our personal contribution to soothe the burden of the People of God that longs for social justice, yes. When society will come to love its neighbor, that society will be free from the bonds of men. It is free because it is with God, it is obeying the Lord, it is obeying its Church, and is giving its spiritual contribution, its contribution as a person to cling to those teachings and to that doctrine that the Lord bequeathed us.
So, brothers, let us unite. And let us hope that all may gather every week so that in a loving invitation with the priest of your parish you may be able to express your ideas, your feelings, and may truly reach agreements in order to be able to help whoever is in need. I know that you are doing so, but it seems to me that more courage is needed, with much energy, and with great decision, so that our brothers may wake up and may help with the burden of a People of God.
If God brought me here, it was not simply for coming, to say a few things, no; or for you to serve me, no; God knows that it is not the case. I wish I were hidden, hidden, Lord, only with your glance, but You have sent me here and that is why I am here, so that you also wake up and that grace of the Holy Spirit may bathe you all in your homes, in your families, in schools and universities, and in every spiritual residence where people pray, where the Word of God is given, so that everyone joining positive forces may be able to touch the hearts of the weakest; and in that way a little chain of love may emerge, and holding hands may form a great heart, the Heart of Jesus, Who has come looking for us. The Heart of Christ that comes to teach us again, in this times of great calamities, the Heart of Jesus as the Savior, the Risen Christ again in this times, in a very special way, unbelievable to the eyes of the world.
Everything I just told you may sound insane. It is not insanity, it is a great reality. And I say lived, because there are so many great things that I have been through and that I would like to share with you all. But the Lord will give you the experiences that are going to make you feel so happy in your homes, with your children, with your family, and you will praise his Name every day. I know that you praise the Lord, but your praises will be more precise, more generous, and you will feel free as the innocent children when they run in the prairies, in the woods, out in the open, where only the sky and nature can fill you with spiritual joy, because the Lord is present and He is making Himself present in all of us. And I say this, because He touches our hearts and He is making Himself felt in a tender, delicate and soft way, to help us feel that we truly are his younger brothers, and those brothers must answer Him.
And now, brothers, thank you all for last night, thank you for dinner, and thank you for this hour, when the afternoon is fading away and night is coming, and the stars and the moon appear to think, to meditate and then with a prayer…
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.
From today on I will keep you, I will keep you,
I will keep you here in my Heart, from today and forever.
May peace be with you all and may the light of the Holy Spirit enlighten your souls. You are in peace and in harmony with the entire world.
Thank you all. May God keep you and bless you.
And go ahead carrying in your hand the light of a new horizon to live the Gospel. To live the Gospel, do not forget it, we must live it always in order to be able to pass on to our brothers that it is our salvation.
Thank you all.
(Applause.)
