6 March 2019

By Stefania Caterina and Fr Tomislav Vlašić

Father Tomislav: Dearest Brothers and Sisters; I great all the members of the Foundation and all of you who follow our programmes on our website and all those who have joined this path.

We have said that this year we have to celebrate the feasts being particularly united with the whole universe. Today we begin a long feast, from Ash Wednesday until Pentecost. We will go through Lent, a painful time for man, in which God wants to elevate humanity through His Son in the Holy Spirit; this will enable us to return to Him and submit to the Laws of the pure Spirit which transform us into new creatures, completely renewed and introduced to the new creation.

So, in this time I invite you to be united with the Holy Spirit to walk this spiritual path, which is necessary for us to encounter the whole universe, so that our universal communion will lead us to a significant improvement. I invite you to live this time of Lent with great spirituality.

Today I will speak about the message of the Mother of humanity of 13 April, 2017, with the title, “God Loves and Forgives”, which introduces us to this time. I do not want to speak about Lent, as you already know the path of Lent, but highlight three important points of our programme:

1. By welcoming the love of God we are enabled to welcome the whole love of God.
2. Our reconciliation with God in love.
3. The active participation in the love of God to be transformed and become instruments of transformation for humanity.

Let us listen to the first part of the message of Holy Mary.

 “My Dear Children,

Today I want to tell you that GOD LOVES AND FORGIVES. He loves you the way you are, like a father loves his child even when it is fragile and ungrateful. God loves you for who you are, not for what you have, nor for what you do. He is pleased about your commitment to Him and your good deeds, but He loves you also when you are unable to act; He embraces you in all your weakness and supports you with His Love. Few of you understand His Love, and yet, He continues to love you, always and anyway, in this life and in the afterlife. He is your Father for all eternity. He always seeks you to reach out to you in every time of lonesomeness.

I ask you to begin to believe seriously in God’s love for you and to let yourselves be loved by Him. Children, why is it so difficult for you to allow God to love you? Why are you so afraid of opening up to Him and give Him your life? I invite you to lay your existence in His hands, trusting completely in Him, allowing the Lord to guide your steps. Then, you will see your life flourish, and nothing will scare you anymore, even death.”

These are beautiful words but difficult for the man of the Earth to put into practice because there are different kinds of love on Earth. Man is open for many things that satisfy him in the name of love; he has created gods and idols, blocking the passage to eternal love, God’s love; however, man – as believers we should know that at least in theory – cannot be happy except through true, eternal love which never abandons us; we are only damned when we avoid this love.

In the beginning of Lent it is good to remember that God’s love is the Creator’s love. He has created and shaped us perfectly, and He supports us perfectly. As we have heard, Mary Most Holy always accompanies us, and the Father never stops loving us.

God’s love is also the love of the Saviour. When we fall or get lost, when we commit great sins, there is God to redeem us, to pay for us, to lift us up again and give us the chance to rise again. This aspect is little considered in confession; it is rarely seen in our relationship with God through religious practices; however, real healing does not come about if we do not return to God, if we do not enter the Laws of the pure Spirit which govern perfectly our existence. We who speak about the new creation must know this reality and be focused on this truth.

The third aspect of God’s love is the love of the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier. If we give to God all the troubles and sufferings caused by original sin, God will sanctify them. Through this suffering we become co-redeemers; we save ourselves, we please God and can save others when we offer all sufferings, which are part of the life of humanity on Earth as a consequence of original sin.

After all, we are creatures that cannot be realised without the Creator. Let us reconcile with God. Let us listen.

 “Easter is drawing near and you will remember the death and resurrection of My Son Jesus. My children, do not allow the Easter solemnities to be reduced to feasts and noisy events of the world. Commit yourselves to understanding what Jesus has accomplished for you. Ask God for the light to experience the power of His forgiveness. Yes, children, Jesus died and resurrected to obtain forgiveness for your sins. I advise you to face sincerely the sinful situations you found, or find, yourself in and to reflect on how Jesus died to give you the possibility to leave sin behind once and for all. Thank Him for this and turn your eyes towards Him. “

Our reconciliation with God must occur in the love of Christ. God, the Father, sent His Son; He sacrificed Him in us enabling God’s love to enter the innermost place in man; He opened the way for man, giving him the chance to experience God’s love; the true, Triune God is not a deceiving idol but the One who communicates Himself to us and always finds a way to our heart.

The Blessed Mother does not want us to be oppressed by our problems but to see the possibility we have to rise –  that the possibility to rise exists – and thus allow love, which is the only remedy, to heal us from all disappointments, the feelings of guilt, etc.

Lent is a time in which all Christians are called to confess; however, the ritual does not save us. Through the practice of confession we are called to repent, for we have trampled the love of God within us; we have offended God and love; thus, we ask for forgiveness and the gift of love so that it may reemerge within uns. This is necessary for this Lent to bear much fruit for our benefit and that of humanity.

 “Sin exists, children, it is not an abstract concept but a harsh reality that deprives you of your life and your happiness. The author of sin is Satan, the one who hates the children of God. Jesus defeated him through His death and resurrection. If you give your life to My Son, His victory over evil will be your victory as you will be one thing with Jesus. God always forgives you if you desire His forgiveness, but you have to commit yourselves to correct your life so that God’s forgiveness does not remain an isolated event but leads you towards an inner transformation. Try to understand this and pray to receive the light. Life on Earth is a long pilgrimage towards eternity; choose God as your travelling companion and the journey will be less troublesome. Try to be happy.

I pray for you, and I bless you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Today’s humanity does not see sin; it thinks that saying “sorry” is enough, and many of those who participate in the sacrament do not see the depth of evil in sin: the sin that is harmful for us, draws us away from God and the source of life and causes us to weaken; thus, we are dragged by the spirit of the world in which personal interests and contracts based on selfish, egocentric, human love prevail.

Jesus has paid for our sins and has opened the way for us, but we can rise only by participating in His life, that is, the life of the Risen Christ. Therefore, the Blessed Mother asks us to offer our life to God. To offer one’s life to God does not mean to lose it; it means to put it in the hands of the One who has created us and knows us perfectly; to put our life into the hands of the Son of God who perfectly knows what we have done wrong and where our faults lie; it means to immerse our life into the Holy Spirit who is pure love that descends from the Father and the Son and heals our deepest wounds.

You see, our path in this time of Lent shall lead us towards the victory over ourselves and our relationship with the world to which we must bring God’s love and God’s truth; this is our evangelisation.

I invite all of you, as I said in the beginning, to move forward in communion with the Holy Spirit so that I may offer all your prayers and all your wishes to God; and I hope that you desire to find a profound relationship with God as is explained in today’s Gospel.[1] We find that inner relationship with God, the Father, only through resurrection and ascension, that is, when the Holy Spirit envelops us completely and perfectly in the dimension of the new creation. The whole universe is waiting for the response of the “small remnant”, a small group of believers, on Earth who join the life of Jesus Christ and want to participate in His love to manifest it to others.

I bless you all; all of us who belong to our Houses, our Sanctuaries, may accompany you every day to help you move forward on this spiritual, Christian path to reach a profound, inner relationship with God and rise with Him; in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

[1] See Gospel of Ash Wednesday: Mt 6,1-6;16-18