Holy Thursday by Ermes Dovico
CHURCH

“We are at war, but some are already in Mary’s triumph.”

Full house at PIME, Milan, for the Daily Compass meeting with Sister Emmanuel Maillard. The nun’s words about our time: “Our Lady in Medjugorje said that ‘there will be trials’ and we will not be strong. The problem is that today we consider our time in this world as our only concern, forgetting that we have a soul. There are young people who don’t even know they have a soul. The world is in agony, because we are at war: but this means that the triumph of Mary’s Immaculate Heart is close and some are already experiencing it. However, Our Lady asks us to collaborate, by loving her Son Jesus, putting Mass and Eucharistic adoration at the centre of our lives. And, as Ratzinger had already foreseen, by forming many small prayer groups, open to God’s will.”

Ecclesia 22_01_2020 Italiano Español
Sr. Emmanuel Maillard at the Compass meeting

On Sunday there was a packed audience at the meeting “Mary prepares us for the future”, organised by the Daily Compass at the PIME theatre in Milan, with testimonies by Diego Manetti, Mariologist and voice of Radio Maria, and Sister Emmanuel Maillard, of the Community of the Beatitudes. Below are excerpts from the testimony of Sister Emmanuel. You can watch the full video of the day on our Compass Facebook page (HERE).

TRIALS
Today there are so many trials in the family, in the Church. Many live in fear and anguish; the troubles are there and She tells us: “There will be trials”. What will they be? The visionaries have not explained, but Our Lady repeatedly warns us.

“YOU WILL NOT BE STRONG”
Another warning She gives us about the trials is “You will not be strong” because even in the Church many strive for the well-being of the world but, “dear children” (as Our Lady calls us), Satan distracts you with modernism, materialism and selfishness.

THE WORLD
We consider worldly time as the definitive time. Everything we do is about the world: work, career, etc... We work for the world, but we have forgotten the soul, which is at the bottom of our list. There are young people in France who don’t even know they have a soul. France is in trouble, pray for France.

STRENGTH
We need to get back on the straight and narrow. It is urgent for all of us to become strong, strong in faith and strong in prayer, with the strength of God, strong in devotion to Jesus, strong with Our Lady to prepare ourselves for a third prophecy.

“SHE PREPARES US”
What will we do when sin reigns? “But if you are mine you will triumph, for your refuge will be in the heart of my Son Jesus”, says Our Lady in Medjugorje. Our shopping malls are full, but our churches are empty. So Our Lady prepares us for the mystery of the Mass, the Adoration and the Most Holy Eucharist. “If you are mine you will win”. She means: the more intensely we experience the Eucharist, the more we will be one with Him, Our Lord, and these trials will be shorter.

WAR
If there is a triumph, the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which Our Lady prophesied in Fatima, it means that before the triumph there was a war. This war is raging now. Therefore the triumph is close.

EUCHARISTIC ADORATION
Our Lady asked us to be in love with Jesus in the Eucharistic. She says: “Adore my Son at length in your heart”. Our Lady invites us to create a chapel of perpetual adoration in all parishes. I have been to Trieste. Trieste was the city with the highest number of suicides. Father Justo (Father Justo Lo Feudo, Missionary of the Most Holy Eucharist, ed.) first brought Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration to the city. They needed about 300 people. After a year the number of suicides fell by half, because when Jesus is present with His body, His blood, His soul and His divinity, He is alive and comes with His whole life. So I come to worship: I’m tired, I’m distracted, I have my thoughts, but if I come with all my best intentions to spend an hour with Jesus, what happens? What happens is that Jesus present there is never tired, He is never distracted. He is all there for me and He sends me His divine presence, He sends me the rays of His presence. Rays of light, of love, of joy, and of mercy. Even if I nod off. And these rays do not stop on me: they travel elsewhere and touch and do good to all the people in the city hosting this chapel of adoration. When a chapel is opened, suicides, divorces, drugs, Satanism and all evil doings are reduced. It is a fact that can be measured.

MASS
During a festival Our Lady said that we should put Mass at the centre of our lives. But today we concentrate on career, work, and sex. And the more we concentrate on other things, the less happy we are. Many do not know that during the offertory, each one of us can bring our offering to the altar through the water in the chalice. It is the offering of my suffering, my trials, my illnesses, my anguish. I can put everything in Jesus’ blood, and this is beautiful. And what is Jesus? When He takes the chalice: “This is my blood”, suddenly everything becomes divine and therefore Jesus transforms everything I have put in it into something divine, into His blood. And what does it mean that my suffering becomes divine? It bears fruit: this drop in the wine that becomes Jesus’s blood, this suffering of mine is about to be offered to the Father who sees His sacrifice in the sacrifice of His children. This is how God sends rivers of blessings into the world and for this reason Our Lady says: “Your sufferings are to become glory”, This can only be understood with the Mass. Your sufferings become glory, She said: “When you suffer, when you grieve, Heaven enters into you”.

THE TRIUMPH HAS BEGUN
Fatima told us that triumph will come. But this triumph - as Marija Pavlovic said in Vienna’s cathedral - has already begun. Then she said that this triumph has already begun in the hearts of some individuals: let us hope that we will all share this triumph. Our Lady said: “Thank you for bearing my triumph and some are already in the triumph”.

FAMILY
John Paul II created the Institute for Marriage and the Family and asked Caffarra to direct it: he wrote to Sister Lucia of Fatima and she not only agreed, “Yes, let us pray for this”, but added: “Satan’s last battle with God will be over the family and marriage”. We’re in it. This very battle is raging now.

AGONY
It is not only the Church that is in agony, but humanity. Jesus allowed himself to be arrested like a defenceless child. But what happens? He dies. Everyone despairs. It’s over. Only one woman stood there, hoping, praying and suffering with joy. She saw that on the cross her Son had achieved His goal for the salvation of the world. She knew this; in her immense pain she rejoiced that her Son was overcoming all the evil in the world. If we are in agony today, it means that we are close to triumph; we are close to the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

“I PREPARE YOU FOR THE NEW TIMES”
I like these words. We have an example of this new time. What happened on August 5th, 1984? That day in Medjugorje we celebrated Mary’s 2000th birthday. Every single person lined up for confession and everyone was crying for the sorrow of having offended God with their sin and for the joy of forgiveness. The priests also wept when they witnessed the tangible grace that was descending. One could touch peace. That day Satan was shackled. She said: “Dear children, I have never wept with sorrow as I weep with joy today”. Her tears turned from water into blood and then into tears of gold; joyful, sorrowful and glorious mysteries.

THE MANTLE OF MARY
It protects us from the devil, from attacks that make our life impossible. What is this maternal mantle? She received it on the day of the Annunciation, when the angel said: “The Holy Spirit will descend upon you, the power of the Most High will overshadow you”. Our Lady is covered by the Most High, from that day this is the maternal mantle. But this mantle is made of God Himself. That is why Satan could never penetrate this mantle because it was God Himself, so all those who are under it are protected by Our Lady. However, we could be outside this mantle If we don’t do what He asks of us. And we must observe the messages. To be under this mantle we cannot say “Mother, I’m not doing this because I can’t”, as if a mother were asking us something impossible: Mass, Rosary, fasting, reading the Holy Scriptures.

MARTHE ROBIN
She had foreseen that God will prepare a new Pentecost of love. She said: there will come a moment in the Church when it will seem that there is nothing more to be done. Instead, Our Lady will create small groups of religious fervour: small prayer groups, this is the future of the Church, Ratzinger had foreseen it. The Church will be poor, hidden, persecuted and powerless, but the authority of Jesus will be there: this is the future of the Church. Our Lady invites us to create small prayer groups, the Holy Spirit works in the world through prayer groups, and prayer groups are open to God’s will. They will be the only strong ones: not parishes, not dioceses. She is counting on this for the triumph of the Church.