Message of May 25, 2010 :
“Dear children! God gave you the grace
to live and to defend all the good that is in
you and around you, and to inspire others
to be better and holier; but Satan, too, does
not sleep and through modernism diverts
you and leads you to his way. Therefore,
little children, in the love for my Immaculate
Heart, love God above everything and live
His commandments. In this way, your life will
have meaning and peace will rule on earth.
Thank you for having responded to my call.”
Message of June 25, 2010 :
“Dear children! With joy, I call you all to
live my messages with joy; only in this way,
little children, will you be able to be closer to
my Son. I desire to lead you all only to Him,
and in Him you will fi nd true peace and the
joy of your heart. I bless you all and love
you with immeasurable love. Thank you for
having responded to my call”.
The meaning of life
and closeness to Jesus
A world that tends to forget its past more
and more, and that unhealthily tends towards the
new, is easy prey for those who wish to destroy
everything that has to do with eternity and
truth in the heart and soul of man. It is Satan’s
deceit that leads us to seek, love and worship a
fi ctitious, apparent, vain reality, in the place of
the real one, created by God and proposed and
offered to us not for a short time, but for eternity.
It is the age-old struggle between Truth and lies,
it is the battle for life, the earthly battle and that
after death, because it is here, in this earthly
existence, that the experience of a heavenly or
hellish life begins; what is beyond focuses on
what we have chosen, loved and experienced
here on earth for all Eternity!
We all know the Word of God: it is suffi cient
to listen to it and welcome it to enable salvation
to bloom in us, that it might produce blessings
(cfr Lk 11, 27-28; Jn 12, 46-48). Once again
today, and so it will be until the end of time,
there are two pathways; one is the way that
leads to life and goodness, the other to death and
evil (cfr Dt 30, 15-20). The principle remains
the same: the choice between God and Satan is
always the same, it is the attempt to distance us
from God with the fl attery of new, with the trick
of presenting for new and modern, for enticing
that which is terribly old, as old as the snake
that tries to pass it off for new! The true novelty
lies in God and not in Satan. In fact, God is the
Creator and what he creates is always new, never
repetitive, always absolutely original; Satan
on the other hand creates clones, all he does is
repeat himself in his blind and vain attempt to
destroy Creation.
Mary says to us that we have received
from God the grace to live and protect all the
goodness that lies within us and around us and
to exhort others to be better and holier. We
can validly counteract Satan and his followers;
the age-old seduction will be powerless over
us and if we retreat into the Immaculate Heart
of Mary and draw from it that purity that is
untouchable by evil and that will enable us to
love God above all else and experience His
commandments: this is what gives meaning
and truth to our lives, this is what assures peace
on earth; the rest is mere trickery and fatuity.
The Message of June points out a pathway
to us through which to love God above all
things and live his commandments. It is the
pathway that passes through the Immaculate
Heart of Mary, paved by the messages that she
has been giving to us for the past 29 years and it
is thus more feasible to us! Live Her messages
joyfully to be closer to Her Son. Warning: to
live and not only read or listen to or speak of
Her messages, and actually live them joyfully,
we must not fearfully suffer them or experience
them with a sense of passive resignation. We
must experience them joyfully because only
in this way can we be nearer to Him, citizens of
His Kingdom. “Not everyone who says to Me,
‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven,
but he who does the will of My Father in heaven
(Mt 7, 21) Jesus says; and the Will of the Father
is that which is experienced, day after day, by
Jesus. Let us welcome Jesus into our souls, let
us protect His Life within ourselves and we will
fi nd true peace and true joy. That peace and
that joy that come only from Him (Jn 14,27;
15,11), that the world cannot give us because
it does not know them, but that we can know
and experience if He lives in us. That peace and
that joy that not even the evil one can tear away
from us because they are in Christ and not in
the world, they are true and not transitory and
therefore inaccessible to him. Peace and joy in
Jesus and Mary!
Nuccio Quattrocchi
Message of July 25, 2010 :
“Dear children! Anew I call you to
follow me with joy. I desire to lead all of
you to my Son, your Savior. You are not
aware that without Him you do not have
joy and peace, nor a future or eternal life.
Therefore, little children, make good use of
this time of joyful prayer and surrender.
Thank you for having responded to my
call.”
Message of August 25, 2010 :
“Dear children! With great joy, also
today, I desire to call you anew: pray, pray,
pray. May this time be a time of personal
prayer for you. During the day, fi nd a place
where you will pray joyfully in a recollected
way. I love you and bless you all. Thank
you for having responded to my call.”
Joyfully follow Mary
During these last times God wants to
reveal and manifest Mary, the masterpiece
of His hands, Saint Louis Marie de Montfort
says to us in his Treatise on true devotion to
Mary. The “last times” commenced with the
coming of Jesus into the world. Humanity has
been living its last day since the Dayspring
from on high has visited (Lk 1, 78b); it is His
coming that inaugurates the new day, the day
that does not set, that does not give in to the
shadows!
We are experiencing this day, the day of
the Lord but we do not realise it; attracted
as we are by the appearance, the Essence
escapes us; ready as we are to run after idols,
we ignore the Being; accustomed as we are to
buying and selling, the value of what has no
price escapes us, and so we do not know and
we do not cultivate peace, nor Joy, nor Love!
I want to guide you all to my Son and
your Saviour. You are unaware of the
fact that without him you have no joy
and peace or no future and eternal life,
Mary says to us. It is a strong invitation, it
is a call that cannot be postponed, because
“today” and not tomorrow I can decide, I
can change my route. Tomorrow is too late.
Time fl ees so much, it is so limited, it has
a value of eternity in Christ. Redeemed in
Him, experienced in Him and with Him, the
moment is no longer fl eeting but it invests in
and fertilizes the future, it dresses itself in
eternity. Whatever our human condition is,
our health, or terrestrial identity, let us try to
live every breath of ours in Christ’s breath
and our life will not be without a future, it
will not be without hope, it will not be without
consolation, but it will live on God and on His
peace, His joy, His eternity and our day will
not be like any other day of waiting but, the
eternal Day of communion with Jesus Christ
in the Father and in the Holy Spirit. How?
Here is Mary’s answer: pray, pray,
July-October 2010 - Year 26 # 7.8.9.10 - Echo of Mary, Via Cremona, 28 - 46100 Mantova - Italy.
www.ecodimaria.net - A translation of the original Italian: Eco di Maria
211
“And so we have the prophetic word
confi rmed, which you do well to heed as
a light that shines in a dark place, until
the day dawns and the morning star rises
in your hearts”
(2 Pt 1, 19)
pray. May this time be a time of personal
prayer for you. Prayer is a suitable channel
through which to communicate with God
and, if protected from interferences and
disturbances, it is the ideal channel through
which to obtain communion with Him:
during the day, fi nd a place where you can
pray joyfully in recollection. You can reach
things that Internet will never be able to do:
you can communicate with God, you can do
so personally; all you need to do is fi nd a place
that is suitable for recollection and pray with
joy.
It is not diffi cult to fi nd this place (all we
need do is seek it within ourselves); it is much
more diffi cult to joyfully pray because this
condition excludes all prayer that does not
involve the heart; yet it is prayer with the
heart that moves and touches God, as Jesus
teaches us in the Gospel and as Mary has been
teaching us for many years in Medjugorje.
Praying with the heart is synonymous with
harmonising the beats of your own heart with
those of Jesus’ Heart until such time as you
can no longer distinguish them from His,
until such time as you present yourself to the
Father in a single Son. Praying with the heart
is losing ourselves in the Love that is Jesus, it
is experiencing eternal life; it is collaborating
in the building of God’s Kingdom. The prayer
towards which Mary invites us is the pearl of
great value for which we must know how to
give everything with joy (cfr Mt 13, 45-46); it
is not therefore an evasion or an escape from
reality, but concrete life in Christ that alone
assures true Life on this earth. Peace and joy
in Jesus and Mary.
N.Q.
The Chain
of Love
From a remote
corner of Zimbabwe
(Africa) a nun sent
Aiuto alla Chiesa
che Soffre, a sincere
message of gratitude
for having sent hundreds of rosary beads
destined for poor people who feel that
prayer is their only hope.
Sister Clara explained that the rosary
beads were distributed throughout her “Fatima
Mission” as part of a pastoral programme that
invites parishioners to consecrate their homes
to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. “We are truly
happy about the rosary beads. Since we started
to distribute them, we have been surprised
by people’s response”, writes Sister Clara.
“People were truly full of great joy about what
was happening and they were singing and
dancing, they were moved and gave thanks to
God who was visiting them in this way.
Being in contact with Africans, you
perceive that they have a great sense of God
and a great desire to come to know him through
the Scriptures. What they are truly answering
are the opportunities to pray together as a
community and the initiative of the rosary is a
marvellous way to do this”.
Certain reports suggest that people
throughout western Zimbabwe fi nd themselves
in a condition of poverty due to the government
policy of investment and development that
favours other regions that are more in harmony
with the regime.
(From: Aiuto alla Chiesa che Soffre)
Christ’s priesthood
is the fruit of Passion
The numerous and rich refl ections on
the priesthood during the course of the year
dedicated to it (which concluded on the 10
th
of June, the solemnity of the Sacred Heart),
certainly widened our perception of the great
gift that Jesus gave to his Church and that can
only be understood in the light of Christ’s same
priesthood, the Eternal Priest. But what are the
elements that made up Jesus’ priesthood?
In a beautiful homily, during the Feast
of the Corpus Domini, Pope Benedict XVI
invited us to “meditate on the relationship
between the Eucharist
and Christ’s Priesthood”,
in the light of the biblical
texts. Below are some very
interesting passages from it.
“The fi rst thing that we
need is to always remember
that Jesus was not a priest
according to the Judaic
tradition. (…) He was not
one of the descendants of
Aaron, but rather that of
Judah, and therefore legally
the pathway of the priesthood
was closed off to him. The
person and the activity of
Jesus of Nazareth are not
positioned in the wake of the
ancient priests, but rather in
that of the prophets.
In this line, Jesus distanced himself from
a ritual conception of religion, criticising the
formulation that gave value to human precepts
associated with ritual purity rather than the
observance of God’s commandments, that is,
to love for God and for our neighbours, which,
as the Lord says, “is worth more than all the
holocausts and sacrifi ces”. (…) Therefore,
Jesus is not recognised as a priestly Messiah,
but rather, as prophetic and regal.
Therefore, in what sense is Jesus a priest?
Christ’s passion is presented as a prayer and an
offering. Jesus deals with his “time”, that leads
him to death on the cross, immersed in deep
prayer, which consists of union of his will with
2
that of the Father. This two-fold and unique
will is a will of love.
Experienced in this prayer, the tragic
proof that Jesus deals with is transformed
into an offering, into a living sacrifi ce. Given
that he obeyed to the extent of dying on the
cross, he became a “cause for salvation” for all
those who obey Him. He therefore became the
high Priest given that He took all the sins of the
world onto himself, like the “Lamb of God”.
It is the Father who gives him this
priesthood the very moment that Jesus crosses
the threshold of his death and resurrection. It is
not the priesthood according to the order of the
Mosaic law, but “according
to the order of Melchisedek”,
according to a prophetic
order, that depends only on its
individual relationship with
God.
Christ’s priesthood leads
to suffering. Jesus truly
suffered and he suffered for
us. He was the Son and he did
not need to learn obedience,
but we did, we needed it and
we still need it. And so the Son
took on our humanity and for
us he allowed himself to be
“educated” in the crucible of
suffering, he allowed himself
to be transformed by it, like
the grain that must die in
the earth in order to bear fruit. Through this
process Jesus was “rendered perfect”. (…)
For Jesus, the passion was therefore
like a priestly consecration. In the Eucharist
He anticipated his Sacrifi ce, a non-ritual but
personal Sacrifi ce. During the Last Supper, he
acted moved by that “eternal spirit” with which
he will then offer himself on the Cross. (….)
It is this divine strength that transforms extreme
violence and extreme injustice into a supreme
act of love and justice.
This is the work of Christ’s priesthood, that
the Church inherited and prolonged in history,
in the two-fold form of the common priesthood
of the baptised and in the ordained priesthood
of the ministers, to transform the world with
God’s love”.
“I thank you Lord,
because you come on the little
donkey and not on cherubs,
you come in humility and not in greatness.
You come in swaddling clothes
and not in the armour of a warrior,
you come into a manger
and not in the clouds of heaven,
in the arms of your Mother
not on the throne of your majesty.
You come on a little donkey
and not on cherubs,
you come towards us and not against us,
you come to save and not to judge,
to visit us in peace
and not to condemn in fury.
If you come in this way, Lord Jesus,
rather than running away from you,
we will run towards you”
Pietro di Celle
“We must know how to recognise
that losing something, actually, losing
ourselves for the true God, the God of
love and life, actually means gaining
something, fi nding ourselves once again
in a fuller manner.
Those who place their trust in Jesus
already experience peace and joy in their
hearts in this life, that the world cannot
give, and that it cannot take away once
God has given them to us. It is therefore
worthwhile allowing ourselves to be
touched by the fi re of the Holy Spirit!
The pain that it causes us is necessary for
our transformation”.
Benedict XVI
3
Echo 211
On men’s faces
by Francesco Cavagna
There are people who have God’s love
sculpted on their faces. In all of their actions,
these people reveal His presence, His infi nite
goodness. We meet them on the streets that we
walk down every day. We usually don’t even
notice them, concentrated as we are on what’s
on our mind. But sometimes, when a diffi cult
situation or some prayer has dug out a precious
and necessary emptiness in us, it happens all of
a sudden…We must be awake, have the breath
of His Spirit in us, that opens the eyes of our
soul. And then we do notice them, or rather, we
recognise God on those people’s faces.
The Lord uses them to do good, he uses them
as his instruments, he uses their most ordinary
actions to show Himself to the world, to get to
all of His children. This is His greatest wish. He
wants everyone to know Him, He wants those
who are far away to remember Him. And they
do not do anything extraordinary. They live and
they love: their love is extraordinary.
Do we still know how to be amazed at the
silent miracles that come about every day?
People like us have our faces fi lled with hope,
clear eyes, a clear smile although we are living
in this world of ours, which is so suffering and
so full of contradictions. They house God’s life
within themselves…
I was at the station in Mestre speaking to a
man of my age that God let me meet. He said
that he was a non-believer but he continued
to ask me questions on what was happening,
on why so many young, peaceful and normal
people chose to spend their time with the poor
of that inhospitable station. When people fi nd
out that I study theology, they usually fi re a
whole series of philosophical questions at
me…I manage to deal with them discretely, but
I know well that it is certainly not theory that
will satisfy the deep need
that I feel is concealed within
their hearts. I simply asked
him: “Do you recognise
God on certain people’s
faces?”. He answered no,
but immediately he looked
around and asked me to point those people
out to him. He started observing the peaceful
faces of those who were standing around us
with a different look on his face, almost seeking
out, almost trying to “look beyond” as I was
doing.
Jesus Himself said it to us.
“In as much as you did it to one of the least
of these my brethren, you did it to me”.
It is not always easy for us, we are
concentrated on what people must give us,
we expect something for ourselves and so our
interests take the fi rst and only place in our
relationship with others. We are no longer
capable of contemplating the mystery that every
person conceals within himself. We no longer
know how to be amazed at the silent miracles
that come about every day.
But the Lord never ceases to pursue us, and
sometimes he uses these people to suddenly
open up our gaze, to tell us that He is there, to
lead us back to Him. From here commences
the journey to seek Him out always, to force
ourselves to fi nd him in everyone.
Because these people are like burning
fl ames, and we too will certainly have to strive
to become like them, but the great revelation
that is God lies within each of us. God chose
to incarnate himself, to don a human face, and
he confi rmed the dignity of every life for all
eternity.
Yes indeed, when we learn to recognise him
in those faces marked by sadness and suffering,
in low and affl icted gazes, in the scars of the
victims of today’s indifference, then we will
truly be able to say that we have begun to love.
We will know and feel that God is in
everyone, that God is everywhere, that God is
God. And we will stop behaving like the masters
of our lives. And all things will reacquire the
right dimension. And we will be free, free to
love.
INDIA
“The spirit of the fi rst Church!”
Monsignor John Kattrukudiyil, Bishop of the
diocese of Itanagar in India, speaks to us about
his young and living Church, that is capable of
performing miracles!
“After the Resurrection of Jesus, the apostles
are quite troubled. Some of them return to do
the work that they had been doing previously;
in fact they were unsure about what to do. After
Pentecost however, from shy fi shermen, they
become evangelisers because they have peace in
their hearts and strength that they received from
the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit does great work in my
Dioceses also; the presence of the Catechists
in my Communities is in fact a miracle for me.
There is a Church that is alive, that evangelises
because there are many lay people who have
been working for many years. Their faith
astounds me!
In our country there are many animists (37%)
and it was not easy to establish Christianity
here, but many young people have realised that
sacrifi ces are not necessary in order to get close
to God, it is not necessary to kill animals…
One young man told me that he followed the
teachings of a catechist for some time and that
this transformed his life, because he led him to
know a great God: along with other young men
he began to pray. Many Parishes are established
in Arunashal because there are great signs of
God’s work. Theology often does not touch
men’s hearts, it remains in their head, in their
thoughts. The Word of God, on the other hand,
goes directly into the soul and transforms it on
the inside.
Here we experience a Catechism that starts
from the beginnings, like in the fi rst Christian
communities. There is a great deal of freshness
in believers and Baptism is given joyfully to
those who wish to receive it. On occasion we
participate in experiences that are similar to what
Paul of Damascus experienced; there are in fact
people who experience a wonderful conversion
after having persecuted Christians for a long
time. Many people pray for conversion of the
heart to come about in others also, many prayers
are also said for healing. The Holy Spirit gives
his gifts that are also seen in those who do not
know how to read or write, but who have a deep
faith.
There is a young Church that will grow
more and more in terms of numbers and in
terms of faith every year. For all of this, we give
thanks to God the Father and the action of the
Holy Spirit. The existence of the castes in Hindu
society creates some divisions, but Christians
are able to bring some news, even if with some
efforts…”.
(Lidio)
Being with
“Then He appointed twelve, that they might
be with Him” (Mk 3, 14) Jesus does not choose
heroes, prophets, healers, exorcists, preachers,
messengers. He chooses the twelve so that they
might be with him. Then they will be sent. But
fi rst and foremost he chooses life companions,
not people who might do things for him, but
with whom to “set up home”.
Jesus’ primary objective is not conversion,
but the company of men, communion. And
perhaps the Kingdom starts out by making life
more affectionate.
We all experience the splendour of this
being with: with the person we love, our friend,
our companion. Being with the person we love
is an experience that is suffi cient to make up
for days of bitterness; embarking on a journey
with a friend is suffi cient to make up for many
missed steps.
Being with is an experience that is suffi cient
to make up for certain days that are empty or
fi lled with worry.
Being with the people we love is life’s fi rst
form of healing, the basic therapy of existence.
Being with is coming out of the sentence
of an enemy-like solitude. The isolated soul
becomes sick; the sick and isolated man dies.
To love and to be loved in return is suffi cient to
fi ll our life, actually, many lives.
Being with the person we love or our friend
or spouse means coming out of the kingdom of
having to do something and of competition and
entering into the kingdom of gratuitousness.
Jesus chose twelve of them to “set up
home” with them, so that they might enjoy a
life experience with him. The healing of life
is synonymous with freeing it from the illness
of solitude, the tyranny of doing, the charm
of quantity and re-proposing the charm of
communion.
The main objective of sacred history
is the creation of communion. It is the
watershed, the blade that separates the two
sides of history.
On one side the builders of communion,
who do what God does, creating proximity
and alliance. And they are called friends of
God, friends of the human race, custodians
of history. On the other side the builders of
separations, hostility and mistrust, fear and
walls. And they are the ones who do what the
devil does, whose name (from diabàallo, I
separate, I contrast) means “the separator”, he
who distances man from man, who separates
him from himself.
Being with, and later the ability to act will
certainly come, and to do so with the style of
the person with whom you have set up home.
Mary is the creator of relations in the
Gospel. Even in her home with Joseph, the
centre of life is not me or you. The core is in
the relationship, in seeking each other out and
fi nding each other, through distance, for an us,
the knot that ties lives together.
Our generosity occasionally leads us to
skip out on certain stages, to force expiries.
When we’ve met Christ we’ve felt the urgency
to do something for someone. And this is
very beautiful yet at the same time premature.
Perhaps we’ve skipped over the fi rst part of
the apprenticeship: being with him. Perhaps
because we fi nd an hour of prayer less gratifying
than an hour of service? For the fullness of
existence, it is necessary to build, to set up a
home…”.
(Taken from: Le case di Maria - E. Ronchi)
4
Taking
things on
“Let it happen to me rather than to one of
my children…to me one hundred times over!”
A phrase like this has a strong meaning, yet many
times I have heard it; and I have immediately
said to myself: “This is not normal, because
men instinctively
tend to shun evil,
they tend to “save
their own skin” at
all costs! What then
urges a parent to utter
affi rmations such as
this?
There is no
reason, because this
readiness to sacrifi ce
for another is not the
fruit of the mind, of
a clear calculation,
it originates from an
immense, pure love,
that forgets itself
completely and tends
towards the other, the
generated son or daughter…
It is with this sort of love that Mary loves
us and invites us to love our brothers in
Medjugorje. A love that is capable of taking
on the pains that may occur to our neighbour in
order to save him, putting up with the possible
consequences and burning them in a love that
“bears all things, believes all things, hopes all
things, endures all things” (1 Cor 13, 7).
Wanting good things for others (this is
what we mean when we say to someone:
“I love you!”) is not a wish, but an act that
actively involves us: by pushing away the evil
that threatens him, we procure good for our
neighbour. And the best way to do this is to
make a shield for him with our own life, like a
mother does with her child.
It is not always easy, or convenient. On
occasion the bite of pain becomes particularly
acute in our fl esh when we offer our lives
to God to the advantage of others. We feel
the burden of this, we experience negative
thoughts that have no reason to exist, we feel
almost overwhelmed by evil…It is a price that
we must pay if we want to be effective in our
saving action. But the poison will not penetrate
into our depths, because the Spirit himself will
make it harmless and if we offer ourselves to
God with a sincere and generous heart: “The
nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole,
and the weaned child shall put his hand in the
viper’s den…” the prophet Isaiah assures us
(11, 8).
Then our life will become priest-like,
capable of undertaking the consequences of
evil, so as to consume it in the brazier of love,
so as to cause it to rise up into heaven “like a
sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifi ce,
well pleasing to God” (Phil 4, 18).
We will be priests, and fathers and mothers,
capable of generating others to life, preserving
them from death. But we too will benefi t from
it: healing in love, which becomes holy and
immaculate in the measure in which it forgets
itself and gives itself to the other… “Bear
one another’s burdens and so fulfi l the law of
Christ” (Gal 6, 2).
Stefania Consoli
Hearing God’s voice
by Father Kreso Busic
There is a continuous succession of voices
that multiply and echo from one part of the
planet to the other; voices that are summed up
with others, voices that oppose each other and
often generate only noise… “My sheep hear
My voice, and I know them, and they follow
Me” says Jesus in the Gospel (John 10, 27).
Those who wish to follow the Lord and be
guided by the only voice that expresses “the
whole truth”, must know how to recognise it
among others. But how can we recognise it
distinctly? How and where can we listen to
Jesus’ voice?
Often, when saying that we need to
listen to Jesus’ voice, we think of something
supernatural, interior locutions, asking some
visionary for a word for me. But this behaviour
is immature, because we must all develop the
ability to listen anew, to hear God’s voice and
be sure in his guidance.
The fundamental thing is to purify and
heal the deformed image of God within us,
and we can do this only by experiencing the
living Jesus, who is real in our lives. How?
We must ensure that our yes to God matures
within us, a yes that is constantly freer and
simpler. We may experience the peace that is
the touch of the Holy Spirit, in the measure in
which it will grow in us, a deeper yes to God’s
will.
On several occasions on the pages
of the Echo there has been talk of the
offering of life as the right road towards an
ever-deeper knowledge of God. The offering
is merely another expression of that interior
yes, and it remains the only passageway from
the shadows to the light, from the old to the
new. Because “without the offering to God
we will never come into immediate contact
with God, but only with a refl ection, with a
work of God or with an idea of God. I want
to do something for God, but in reality I am
afraid to welcome him. And so the contact
with divine life becomes weak, more and
more suffocating”. And the Christian, who
after many years of walking, rather than
elevating himself, becoming more and more
the new creature, begins an inverse process
of decadence, tiredness, he closes himself off
once again in religious formulae, in boxes,
where the spirit of interior passiveness gives
up when faced with the trials of life.
The offer is the soul’s ability to listen to
the sound of God, his harmony, and to know
the voice of He who speaks to me, forms
me, moulds me; that true voice of the Good
Shepherd that makes us stronger and freer.
We all know that animals follow the voice
and smells: these two faculties allow them to
recognise the person who stands before them
and to feel secure. How much we should
develop the abilities and the powers that our
soul possesses! The main ability is to listen,
to trustingly abandon ourselves to God.
Interior opening comes from
recognising and listening to God’s voice,
from the ability to donate, from the spirit of
sacrifi ce; inner peace comes from this and it
also remains during the diffi culties of life and
it heals trust and faith in God. And so for me,
as a believer, it is important to know He in
whom I have put my trust, and to come to a
better understanding of what He has revealed.
The more I listen to God’s voice, the more
I develop faith that urges me to come to a
deeper knowledge of the person that I trust;
and the more I come to know this person, that
is, Jesus Christ, the more I love him. Because
in knowing him I come to discover the true
value of his sacrifi ce, his forgiveness, in
layman’s terms, I discover how much Jesus
Christ truly loves me.
Only in this way will the fog created
by fear, by mistrust and by impatience
disappear. And only in this way will the old
man within me begin to die with all of his
ways of looking at life, of judging the world:
leaving my selfi shness behind and allowing
God’s love to form a new creature in me, that
sees reality with a renewed and free gaze. I
will begin to think in a new manner, to look
at people differently; I will learn to pray in
an original manner and relate with creation,
recognising it as a gift of the Lord’s infi nite
goodness.
“Charity will lead us to be “all things to all men”
“Charity will lead us to be “all things to all men” (1 Cor 9, 22) to adapt ourselves not
only to the needs of our brothers, but also to the mentality, the character, the tastes and
the personality of each of them. Loving our neighbour for God, recognising the image,
the creature, the son of the celestial father in all men does not mean disembodying
charity, reducing it to a form of cold, stereotyped love that embraces everybody at once
without taking individuals into consideration. There is no doubt that Jesus loved all men
with a divine love; nevertheless, through the pages of the Gospel we can gather that His
love took on different shades and manners according to the people He was addressing.
His love was not standardised nor was it indifferent to the particular needs of each
person. For example, think of His different behaviour towards each disciple, or towards
his friends from Bethany: He did not treat Peter like John, or Martha like Mary.
Charity makes us attentive to treat every brother according to the concrete nature
of his individual situation – temperament, sensitivity, quality, limits – to make him feel
the warmth of an affection that does all it can to adapt to his person and to alleviate his
burdens. “Now may the God of patience and comfort – Saint Paul writes - grant you to
be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus… therefore receive one
another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God (Rm 15,5-7).
Anonymous
5
Reflections of light
from
Mary’s land
by Stefania Consoli
We don’t
need anything
els
It’s all so simple. Entirely natural and more
normal than you might think. A mother’s love
is almost obvious, it is immediate. In a certain
way it is instinctive, although it requires will,
that the mother might fi nd time and space for
her creature.
A mother’s love does not need to be
studied or analysed in order to be understood.
It is learnt from birth. It is received abundantly
during childhood until such time as it takes on
indelible traces within us of manners, growth,
education…It accompanies us always, even in
the memory that becomes nostalgia when it
endures distance or defi nitive absence.
“This is your mother” said Jesus to his
faithful disciple at the foot of the cross as he
was about to die. “These are your children…”
the Lord continues to repeat to Mary, present
every day in Medjugorje with an incomparable
love, full of grace.
The thirtieth year of the apparitions
has commenced and more and more pilgrims
are constantly fl ocking there. To do what?
What urges them to set out on that journey?
Everyone has their own reasons. There are
different methods and approaches. Yet they all
fi nd the same thing: a mother who welcomes
them with immense love. A love that generates,
heals, comforts. A love that directs our steps
towards God, eternal goodness.
We don’t need anything else. It’s so
simple….Why should we try our hardest to
attempt to interpret the Mystery only to then put
it into a cage amidst sterile human categories?
Like children, let us allow his love to reach us
and penetrate us. Then everything will become
clear, comprehensible. We will know exactly
what to do in the time that awaits us, we will
be capable of answering fully and with a sense
of conviction: “Here I am Lord, let it be done
onto me according to Your will”. As she did.
A land of
wisdom
“There’s the groom! Let’s go and meet
him!” shouted a voice at midnight and in the
darkness the women got up to go to him. To
make some light they took some lamps with
them, along with some oil so as not to risk
remaining in darkness.
This is a scene that we are familiar with.
Jesus speaks of it in a parable in the Gospel
according to Matthew (Mt 25, 1-13). A scene
of joy, because the women had wisely obtained
some oil to illuminate their loving waiting: the
oil of hope, in the unwavering faith that the
groom would come. Others however, who
were less attentive, perhaps lazy or distracted,
but certainly superfi cial, had not stocked up,
perhaps taking it for granted that their friends
would also have thought of them.
Drop after drop, for almost thirty years,
Mary has been giving us the oil of grace, of
faith in Medjugorje: “Dear Children! Today I
call you, together with me, to begin to build the
Kingdom of Heaven in your hearts; that you
may forget that what is personal and - led by
the example of my Son - think of what is of God.
What does He desire of you? Do not permit
Satan to open the paths of earthly happiness,
the paths without my Son. My children, they
are false and last a short while. My Son exists.
I offer you eternal happiness and peace and
unity with my Son, with God; I offer you the
Kingdom of God!”, said Our Lady to Mirjana
on the 2
nd
of August last.
Years of waiting, with Mary, for the
Kingdom that will come. Years in which it is
necessary to stock up a good reserve of grace
through faithful and wise vigilance: “…Pray
for peace so that as soon as possible a time of
peace, which my heart waits impatiently for,
may reign....” (25.6.95). “I desire to renew
prayer with you and to call you to fast which I
desire to offer to my Son Jesus for the coming
of a new time – a time of spring”. (25.10.00),
the mother had said in the past.
Where are we today? All we need do is
look around and read the newspapers…It is
the night of waiting. The groom will come, let
there be no doubt. But in the meantime, as we
wait, let us pour a fervent prayer into our inner
lamps, that might know how to illuminate
the darkness that oppresses the world and
causes it to be full of shadows. Let us make
a provision of the grace that
Mary communicates to us
with her example, with her
words, with her living and
life-giving presence. We will
have within ourselves the
light to go and meet Jesus,
who comes to bring all
things to himself.
One of the secrets
revealed to the visionaries
speaks of a visible and
indestructible sign that will
appear in Medjugorje and
remain forever. But “it will
be too late” for those who
have failed to welcome the
invitation to convert, Mary warns us. They
will not be able to participate in the celebratory
banquet. A little like the foolish virgins of the
parable who remained without the oil of faith:
while some wait for everything “to be under
control” before deciding to deliver themselves
to Mary and to her plans for salvation, time is
slipping by and the door risks closing. “Lord,
Lord, open it”, the women cry. But he answered
them saying: “In truth I say to you: I do not
know you!”.
To walk in faith it takes commitment,
creativity and often also the pain of not being
able to change your heart. It takes effort,
sincerity and an amount of good will.
We are not always willing to become
completely involved and so we postpone our
“yes”, or we expect others to make the effort.
“Keep watch therefore, because you know not
the day nor the hour”, Jesus concludes in the
parable.
But there is another invitation for those
who on the other hand, for years, have been
experiencing Mary’s messages lovingly,
keeping their inner lamps burning brightly.
Before they walk through the door and it closes
behind them, they can open their arms in the
form of a cross and prop up the doors so that the
passage might remain open for the latecomers
who want to enter despite everything.
To accept to remain upright on our cross
with a sense of generosity and courage, to the
advantage of others, is a great form of charity.
If it is experienced in communion with others
then, people become fi rmer and stronger; and
so the doors of the kingdom will remain wide
open so that the whole of humanity might cross
the threshold and be saved.
Time of glory,
time of
cross
In the heart of the month of September
the feast that emphasises Christ’s Cross
stands out (the 14th to be exact). This is a very
important celebration in Herzegovina – as we
have written on other occasions - and every
year the summit of Mount Krizevac is full of
people, who climb up to pay homage to the
great white cross, the memory of the cross that
housed Jesus on Golgotha.
It is certainly an occasion to celebrate,
given that through the Cross, the Lord earned
salvation for each and every
one of us. But it is also easy to
celebrate when the cross does
not touch us in our fl esh, when
it remains outside of us…On
the other hand it becomes a
little diffi cult, when, in times
of trial, we see those dreams of
glory in which we had hoped
as we followed Jesus “towards
Jerusalem” fade to nothing.
Let’s try to be a little more
concrete. In general on the
road towards God we identify
somebody as a good guide. We
trust them and we place our
trust in them, despite the fact
that the itineraries proposed
are diffi cult and the passageways narrow and
risky. Despite feeling tired, we continue to look
towards our guide with a sense of esteem and
respect, we identify our steps and his, running
the risk of idealising the man and expecting
him to correspond to our vision of things...
Nevertheless, the moment comes when
the ideal is put to the test and it no longer
promises consent but rather, on occasion it
sometimes even causes public dissent. “Lord,
even if I have to die with you I will not deny
you”, said Peter to Jesus. But He answered:
“Peter, assuredly I say to you this night: before
the rooster crows, you will deny me three
times” (22, 31-34)
The escape routes when we fi nd
ourselves in danger are always open and
they attract our weakness, insecurity, fear.
Sometimes it would be suffi cient to recognise
our fear and humbly place our trust in those
who can help us, to remain coherent with what
we had believed and sustained. And so remain
in peace, leaving events that do not depend on
us to unwind in their own way, even if it is not
always foreseeable and clear in our eyes.
Diffi culty removes our mask, and it
examines the purity of our intentions: “Am
I with him because it is convenient for me,
because sooner or later I will obtain something
6
Now it’s my turn!
There are moments in each of our lives
when we perceive a very special calling that
we feel is addressed only to us. Intuition and
listening progress in the soul and spirit and
reawaken the heart and mind. Like a fl ash of
light in the night, we are struck by a message,
by a voice, by a sound that immediately
interrogates us and awaits an answer. At that
moment, our whole person, in its fullness,
is called to answer: why is God asking me
and not the other person who stands beside
me? The temptation to look around to see if
that fi nger is pointing at someone else behind
us causes us to turn around but strengthens
the message that has been given to us. There
is no more doubt, now it is my turn and He
wants me to be His instrument.
I alone can do this thing, certainly not
because I am the most capable nor the one
with the most expertise, actually, God only
knows how many people will have some
criticism to make! Nevertheless, the Lord
needs me to fulfi l what he has asked of me.
Perhaps the Lord needs my lack of experience
the most, all he needs is my yes.
This is how the living encounter with
God comes about. The calling and the grace
are making themselves heard now and for
me alone, why should I ignore them? In our
freedom we can say yes and be joyful, we can
say no and leave with sadness in our hearts.
What am I actually worried about? To
fulfi l what the Lord has asked me or am I
afraid of other men’s opinion? How many
times do we advise God what he can ask us:
“God, ask me anything but not this!…” But if
I offer God everything, I also offer my arms,
my hands, my voice…certain that at that
moment I am not communicating myself but
God’s action.
We often bury our talents and live in the
fog so as not to provoke anyone and so that
nobody can judge us, but now is the time
of grace in which the Lord needs me. The
Lord is asking me for something original,
it seems as though that voice hits us where
we are most sensitive, like a warm wind that
brings scents of the sea and reawakens new
sensations. Now it is up to me to come out
into the open, to stand like a light on top of
a bushel so that everyone can see me in my
truth and be an instrument. How many people
laughed at Saint Francis, believing him to
be mad, and he allowed himself to be seen
naked and miserable because this is what the
true Father needed…
We were called to life from eternity and
the call to life is repeated every time and in
a different manner, it will have colours and
sounds that are forever new but it will have
only one name: Jesus. Now it is my turn to
incarnate Christ’s love in my life, to be a holy
temple of his presence.
Alessandro Macinai
From the Diary of Sr. Faustina
“Jesus says to her: “My daughter, with
patient submission to my will you give me the
greatest glory and assure merits for yourself
that are so great that you could never attain
them with fasting or mortifi cation of any
kind. Know my daughter that if you submit
your will to mine, you attract my predilection
to yourself. Your sacrifi ce is pleasing to me
and is full of sweetness. I fi nd my pleasure in
it, it is powerful!”.
“Oh victim that is pleasing to my Father!
Know this, my daughter, that the whole
Blessed Trinity has a special predilection
for the fact that you live solely according
to God’s will. No sacrifi ce is comparable to
this…I unite myself to you in a wholly special
way, so that you might love my will more than
graces”.
“In His eternity, God welcomes what
now, in our life, made of suffering and
love, of hope, of joy and of sadness, grows
and becomes. All man, all of his life is
taken by God and in Him, purifi ed, he
receives eternity…
Christianity not only announces some
salvation of the soul in an unspecifi ed
afterlife, in which everything that was
precious and dear to us in this world
would be cancelled out, but it promises
eternal life, “the life of the world to come”:
nothing of that which is precious and dear
to us will go to ruins, it will fi nd fullness
in God”.
Benedict XVI
(Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary)
The peace that I was
looking for
I found myself, a young person among
many, once again in Medjugorje for the
Festival, at the beginning of August. This
time there were really lots of us there! Tens
of thousands, someone said…But it is not the
numbers that make the quality of that event
(that has been repeated for over
twenty years), but rather the
quality of a meeting, that with
Mary, who like always, knows
how to fi nd the way to meet all
of us, one by one, in the secret of
our heart.
I had lost my sense of peace
for some time. Various situations
in my daily life seemed to be going in the
opposite direction. All I wanted seemed to
have its doors fi rmly locked…I was running
around, growing tired, but it seemed to me
that I was only grasping butterfl ies!
In the world we fi ght within ourselves
against the temptation to feel discouraged,
and therefore to feel depressed and to rebel,
and so to seek those distractions that occupy
the mind in a superfi cial way to chase away
the problem more easily…But then, when you
close your eyes in the evening before falling
asleep, worries return like ghosts and take
away the good that you need the most: peace!
This is why I accepted Mary’s invitation on
this occasion also, she who made herself the
Queen of peace!
I arrived in Medjugorje with some
friends; they too in search of answers for
in return? Or because I freely share a journey
that may even penalise me, but that it is worth
experiencing to the fullest?”. We should
sincerely ask ourselves this.
The threat of defeat is always just
around the corner. We don’t like it. Nobody
likes the risk of appearing like losers, failures.
It is not nice being unpopular, nor being
accused or picked on. But this is the price to
pay to bear fruit, especially in the name of
Jesus who chose this and only this pathway:
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for
righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile
and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil
against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and
be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward
in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets
who were before you”. (Mt 5,10-12).
Jesus explains it clearly: “If the world
hates you, know that it hated me before it
hated you…If they persecuted me, they will
also persecute you” (John 15, 18, 20). And
so, if we call ourselves Christians, why then
do we fl ee from beneath the cross? Why do
we abandon our place after having walked
for so long, even if it is an ignoble place like
that on Calvary?
These are deep and personal questions,
which each of us can answer if we wish in the
secret of our own heart. But celebrating the
Cross and its praise at least presupposes the
desire to be with Christ, poor and crucifi ed,
who chooses it so that it might be his throne
of glory and not the cause of betrayal and
escape.
W I T N E S S I N G . . .
their lives. Together we participated in what
the programme proposed. The testimonies
were interesting, the musical moments were
enjoyable, but most of all it was the evening
adorations before the Eucharist that gave
the young people what they really needed:
The living Jesus Christ, who conveys his
tenderness and his love to you; who suggests
that you undertake roads that you would never
have imagined in your life; who consoles
you and comforts you, encouraging you to
experience pain as an occasion to
grow and mature…
The darkness of the night
favours intimacy, a heart to heart
talk. The music, the brief words
of the songs, help to create an
atmosphere of peace. Yes, of peace.
What I had really come to seek in
Medjugorje. I found it in the silence
of the Adoration, not in the racket…I found
it in my heart, ready to re-emerge from the
worries that were crowding it out even before
my departure. I found it in Jesus, who was
there waiting for me…
I never again left it: I brought it home
together with Christ, who will continue to
give it to me every day if I allow Him to
remain alive, present in my heart.
It is my duty to keep it safe, because soon
the aggressions of the world will attempt to
subtract it from me once again. But if I can
succeed in creating a place within me where
I can live the adoration constantly “in spirit
and in truth” nobody and nothing can take
it away from me. And then I will truly be a
daughter who is attentive to and responsible
for the gift of the Queen of Peace!
Elisabetta Parente
7
Waiting for a drop of water
Having accepted an invitation from a friend,
I found myself experiencing a few days on
the island of Fuerteventura in the Canaries.
Some time ago I offered my life to the Lord and
I know that everything that happens to me is in
his hands and is summed up in Him.
I was quite struck by the reality of this
island and its exterior characteristics led me to
contemplate its spiritual
dimension. I saw some
contradictory signs: bare
nature like I’d never seen
before: like a desert, and
alongside that, man-made
buildings that were all too
imposing (luckily not a lot of them) surrounded
by lush palm trees and brightly coloured
fl owers…I was surrounded by the ocean, the
boiling hot sun and yet the air seemed as light
as that in the mountains.
Given that there was no mass celebrated
on weekdays and the church remained closed,
I climbed up the mountain to pray, in order to
come to some understanding of what the Lord
wanted to say to me after having led me to that
place…The mountain was made of volcanic
rock, the soil was brown and dusty. Not one
plant, not an insect, not a bird…Scattered
here and there were some low bushes, almost
completely dry, and they attracted my attention.
They were withered but not completely dead.
They were hanging on to life by a thread. They
were there, at the edge of survival, waiting for
a drop of water...
They immediately brought me back to the
condition of men…Of the “half dead” man who
features in the parable of the Good Samaritan:
wounded by the evil encountered during his
life and awaiting a drop of love so as to be able
to recover and bloom in his originality.
Today’s man, whom the Lord through his grace
– drop after drop – maintains in existence, but
whose spirit is almost dead; yet God, in his
immense wisdom and patience “a bruised reed
He will not break, and smoking fl ax He will
not quench”, but he waits, he offers himself, he
loves…
The souls of purgatory who need our attention
to be helped to welcome Jesus’ offering, so as
to then get back up and enter into the fullness
of life…
And so a spontaneous prayer of blessing
and intercession rose up within me, for the
living and the dead of the island: a prayer of
supplication to the Father so that the strong
wind that was blowing might bring the Holy
Spirit to needy souls; that he might give them
strength and give them an opportunity to
convert and come to a fuller life… The biblical
passage of the dried out bones came to mind (Ez
37, 1-14), which is normally read on the Eve of
Pentecost: “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy,
son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says
the Lord GOD: “Come from the four winds,
O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they
may live.” So I prophesied as He commanded
me, and breath came into them, and they lived,
and stood upon their feet.
In this impervious place that is open to all
types of spirits, I felt the desire to experience
my royal priesthood, to be that drop of love
offered, capable of appeasing all scorching
heat and of bringing what seems dead back to
life.
Elena Ricci
The world embraces the Echo
We did not expect such an affectionate
and united response from all parts of the
world! A true embrace of the Echo, that is
suffering due to a disproportionate increase
in postal dispatch fees – as we shared with
you in the last issue (Echo 210).
We had asked ourselves: “Should we stop
here or is this a further challenge?” And then
we took the time to refl ect and wait for your
proposals.
We received many through letters,
telephone calls, messages. Some people
confi rmed their availability for the service.
Others sent offerings in cash. Others
expressed their esteem and encouragement: a
veritable incitement not to “give up” despite
our serious fi nancial diffi culties. All in all, a
rally of solidarity and friendship, that urges
us to challenge the evidence of costs that are
still extremely high and to continue to believe
in Providence which, if it is God’s will, will
help us step after step…
Remember
“I will now remember the works of the Lord…” (Sir 42, 15)
Recalling a happy event is a little like reliving the joy of that moment. It is important then,
to recall the works that the Lord fulfi ls in us and in others; it is important to recall the gifts of
grace received.
The memory of good received helps us to love, to deal with the trials of everyday. Such a
memory always brings joy, as the psalm says: When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on
You in the night watches. Because You have been my help, Therefore in the shadow of Your
wings I will rejoice. (Sal 63). Yes, we cannot fail to rejoice in the Lord when we recall Him.
Memory favours praise to God, thanksgiving for all of His marvels. The recollection of the
works of God is beauty of the soul and food, it is a shield and a form of defence from the evil
one. And so we are not afraid of the future because Hope dwells in us.
The devil causes us to lose the memory of the Good received and puts a dark future
before us that is impossible to live, in order to instil fear in our souls and make them his. The
loss of “memory” places us in a constant situation of weakness, disorientation, in which evil
may have a large role to play. For this reason “memory” is an important gift that we should
ask God for: He alone can give it to us. It is up to us to keep it in silence; yes, in silence,
because everything that makes noise in us, such as resentment, misunderstanding, confl ict,
envy, ambition, the craving to possess, prevents the soul from understanding.
The Gospel speaks to us of a person who practised interior silence, who “kept all these
things in her heart” (Luke 2, 5). We know that this person is Mary. It is She who helps us to
recall God’s works, it is She who continuously reminds us of the Father’s greatest gift: Jesus.
To Her, therefore we must turn so as not to forget the good received. Let us place our trust in
She who wishes to be our memory. And so the good we have received will not be sterile, it
will be benefi cial to us and to others.
Pruning
Recent studies have shown that plants “suffer” when they are pruned. And so pruning,
which is essential for many plants, especially fruit plants, is a form of “suffering” for them.
Without pruning, the fruit will not go on to be tasty and abundant…
In John’s Gospel, Jesus speaks to us about a vine, which is Him, and vine-shoots, which
are us. The Father is the farmer who prunes the shoots so that they might bear much fruit. The
pruning that we experience in everyday life must not be cause for wonder then: without these
our life would be sterile. It is unthinkable for us to detach ourselves from the Vine so as not
to experience such pruning because that would be an illusion as: “he who abides in Me and I
in him bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15, 5).
Let us grow accustomed then to looking at the “pruning” of every day not as something
negative, to be avoided, but rather, as a gift, an opportunity for grace. And let us not fi ght
against any of those who encourage our pruning: we would fi nd ourselves fi ghting alone,
against the only enemy, who is Satan, because God will certainly not be with us if we fi ght
against our brother. Let us learn from Mary that only love has always brought fruit in great
abundance. Let us ask her to give us a heart that is always attentive, to be able to recognise
the Farmer who comes to prune us, so as not to hunt him away. And so perhaps we will bear
fruits of joy for ourselves and for many.
S
I M P L E
T H O U G H T S
by Pietro Squassabia
A
big
THANK YOU to all of you,
because if the Echo continues to visit the
most hidden corners of the world, it is thanks
to your generosity.
THANK YOU to those of who expressed
your comprehension and comfort.
THANK YOU to those of you who sent
money to cover expenses.
THANK YOU to those of you who
confi rmed their willingness to distribute the
Echo.
THANK YOU to those of you who
agreed to download it from internet yet still
send us a contribution…
THANK YOU, a thousand thanks to
those who pray to the Lord that the Echo
might continue its work; so that it might
continue to be an echo of the grace that Mary
is giving us so abundantly in Medjugorje.
With renewed hope and with a faith
in God that is “purifi ed in the melting pot”
of the trial. The strength of communion
nourishes and supports our commitment and
the responsibility we feel to continue. For
this, and for much more, the Echo would like
to thank and, in turn…embrace the world!
“Poste Italiane s.p.a. - Spedizione in Abbonamento Postale - D.L.
353/2003 (conv. in L. 27/02/2004 n° 46) art. 1, comma 2, DCB Mantova
Legal Dir. A. Lanzani; Printed by DIPRO Treviso
8
Villanova M., 8 september 2010
Echo fully relies on readers’
donations.
To all who have been instruments
of Providence for Echo, enabling us
to continue to help Mary reach her
children, goes our heartfelt thanks,
whom we remember especially in
prayer and at Holy Mass.
If you desire a written response for
your donation, please kindly request
it. May God reward you and your
loved ones onehundredfold!
ECHO on line: http://www.ecodimaria.net
E-mail: eco-segreteria@ecodimaria.net
OUR READERS WRITE…
Elena Belotti from Montello (BG -
I): “…To support you during this critical
moment, I will continue to pay you the annual
contribution according to my own possibilities,
asking you however to no longer send Echo to
my home; I will download it from the internet
from the next issue. I pray to Our Lady that
she might continue to support you so that your
voice might continue to bear witness to faith in
all the homes of the world”.
Piero Lucani from Bologna (Italy):
“After having read about the need to reduce
the expenses as reported in the May issue, I
would like to inform you that I can download
the upcoming issues from the Internet and so
you can avoid the postal dispatch fees. Thank
you for what you are doing and I hope that
your work can continue with the Lord’s help”.
Arda Ramos from Puerto Rico: “I send
you many blessing from those who receive
the Echo in Porto Rico: many people benefi t
from this wonderful magazine that speaks to
us about that blessed place…”
“I am breaking the silence to
encourage you…”
Father Peter from the Carthusian monastery
of Pleterje (Slovenia): “I would like to thank
you for the Echo which, as always, has brought
me a little of the Holy Land – Medjugorje –
where I arrived twenty-one years ago from
America, my native country, to spend the
summer….Such are the ways of the Lord…
and I trust that as he created a pathway for the
Jews into the Red Sea, so too will he prepare a
pathway for the Echo, which I recall every day
in my prayers, especially on the altar.
I was the fi rst foreigner in Medjugorje
to join the brothers of Herzegovina and then
I came here to the Carthusian monastery
eighteen years ago, where I was later ordained
a priest. Now I am breaking the silence a little
and the withdrawn life of the monastery to
encourage you to continue. Many of Mary’s
children throughout the whole world pray for
this intention. A jubilee year is about to begin
for Medjugorje: thirty years from the fi rst
apparition on Podbrdo. I am certain that the
Queen of Peace will not leave us orphaned of
the Echo!”.
A ninety-year-old postman for the Echo
Father Diego Camia from Rapallo (Italy):
“My dear brothers and sisters, I read issue
210 of the Echo of Mary in one go yesterday
evening. I found it wonderful and extremely
useful for all Christians and non-Christians. I
shall quote only one phrase: “You are unaware
of the great love that God has for you…” How
true are the words that Our Lady says to us!
I heard about the fi nancial diffi culties that
you are experiencing due to the postal dispatch
fees. If you want to send me all the private
subscriptions that you have here in Rapallo in
my parcel, I will willingly ensure that they are
delivered to the individual addresses. This is
no trouble for me and for Our Lady I will do
it willingly, although I have already celebrated
my 90
th
birthday, the Holy Virgin continues to
give me much strength and health. Enclosed
please fi nd a cheque for the parcel I received,
it is double the usual amount, to encourage
“When I say “HERE I AM Lord”, then
God’s answer also departs. He gives me
the gift to love, he gives me his touch of
sweetness and tenderness; he gives me
an embrace that no man on earth can
give me, and I accept to live his life and
I set out on my journey with a renewed
faith.
This is because from that living
experience, I begin to believe more
fi rmly that He is guiding my life, He is
guiding the events in time and in the
universe”.
Enjoy the journey!
Personal cheques accepted; also
International Postal Orders.
And where convenient (within Europe)
by bank transfer :
Associazione Eco di Maria
Monte dei Paschi di Siena
Agenzia Belfi ore - Mantova
IBAN
IT 45 M 01030 11506 000004754021
BIC PASCITM1185
you in your current fi nancial diffi culties. May
the Queen of Peace help you and support you
because you are doing an amount of good. I
thank you in prayer and salute you, wishing
you all the best”.
Sergio de Leon from Havana (Cuba):
“We hadn’t received the Echo around here
for some time…Thank you for everything
that you are doing for us missionaries of the
Campesinos. May the Most Blessed Trinity
bless you and may Mary come to your aid…”.
Elsa Molina from Cuba: “I am an
assiduous reader of the Echo of Mary. When I
receive a few copies of it I pass it on to others
who enjoy reading it like me. Please send us
some copies regularly and although our current
situation does not enable us to send you an offer,
we trust that God will help us to support you so
as to receive these beautiful writings…”
Barbara and Luciano Forlini from Lido
di Jesolo (Venice): “Heartfelt thanks for the
Echo, that draws us into another “dimension”
every two months, far from the futile problems
of this earth. We always fi nd it in the parish,
may God bless you. Enclosed please fi nd a
modest offer. If possible we would like about
fi fty copies of your magazine to be sent to
our home, so as to be able to distribute it and
to spread the word about the Blessed Virgin
Mary, Queen of Peace”.
Odette Ostwalt from Erstein (France):
“Thank you for the Echo…I recall when I used
to work in Rome, I would fi nd the Echo in
Saint John’s Basilica. I was in Medjugorje in
1987, when returning with my brother and his
wife, I was involved in a serious car accident.
I was trapped in the back but did not sustain
any serious injuries. Upon returning to Rome,
one of my colleagues used to say to me that
it was a miracle that I survived… I still ask
myself whether it may have been a sign for me
to change my life…”
Manuel Navos from the Philippines:
“I received the parcel containing the Echo
of Mary. I thank you and God through our
blessed Mother because what you have sent
me is of great help in my mission among the
prisoners. I hope that you will be able to send
me as many copies as possible so that I might
distribute them in the prisons that I visit, and
there are lots of them…The detainees thank
you with their prayers”.
Rita and Paul from Six fours les Plages
(France): “Thank you for your bulletin, thank
you for continuing to send it to us and thank
you to Mary for the peace that she spreads
through the Echo…”
Marilene Batt from Weillcourt (France):
“I distribute the Echo to many people
(pilgrimages, trips etc..). I have read about
your fi nancial diffi culties. I am certain that they
will be transitory. I am sending you my offer…
Do not despair, do not stop. The Holy Virgin
wants this little magazine to continue to touch
the hearts of many people. Satan does not want
it, but we mustn’t listen to him! Mary will help
you to help people through the Echo”.
Sister Laure-Marie the Carmelite
convent of Frileuse (France): “Dear friends,
after reading about your fi nancial diffi culties,
I feel that I should thank you so much for this
little magazine that develops God’s Word and
helps us to live in the spirit of the Gospel, like
the Virgin Mary…”
Jacqueline Hiver from Saint Calais
(France): “Your Echo is a holy and excellent
publication, that brings inner peace and grace
and in turn, it develops a desire within us to
become holy. It is of great value in the Church,
that I love very much…May Mary assist you
in your apostolate, which is wonderful and
courageous. I can only help you with prayer
and with the offering of my illnesses and
humiliations…”.
Josette Bugaut from Zournus (France):
“Dear friends, I was so happy to receive the
Echo! You spoke so well of the blessing in issue
208…I am aware that the blessing is necessary
and I never leave the church without having
received it. Then, I bring it everywhere with
me…I am sending you a little offer, which
I will renew often because I would like the
Virgin Mary to be prayed to throughout the
world”.
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