The Book of a Marian Conference, held at Buckfast Abbey on 12-13 October 2017, during the Centenary of Our Lady of Fatima, has now been published. The book, edited by Fr Serafino Lanzetta, collect the essays of important scholars, such as Fr Manfred Hauke, Roberto de Mattei, Fr Thomas Crean, Dr Caroline Farey, Fr John Hunwicke, and others.
The key-note speech was given by His Eminence Card. Raymond Burke.
What follows is part of the Presentation by Fr S. Lanzetta:
In 2017 the Church was particularly blessed for the celebration of the Centenary of the Fatima apparitions. The ‘White Lady’ came to speak – from May to October 1917 on the thirteenth of each month – to three little shepherds, Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta. The last two were canonised last 13th May by Pope Francis, while the process for the canonization of Lucia is progressing. Of all the private revelations approved by the Church, Fatima is one of particular significance give its theological vision of history. Our Lady not only delivered a supernatural message – a call to penance and prayer for rescuing sinners from eternal perdition in hell, but also foretold what would happen if her call were unheeded. As a celestial appeal, Fatima is not something belonging to the past, but a prophecy for the Church today.
It is extremely interesting to revisit what Pope Benedict XVI said at Fatima in his homily during the Mass on 13th May 2010, which sounded to many like a ‘correction’ of what he had previously said as a Prefect of the Congregation for the Faith, when, in giving the official theological explication of the third part of the Secret (revealed in the year 2000), he declared that the vision of a city half in ruins with corpses of bishops, priests, religious and lay people laying on the ground was something referred to the great persecution of the Church in the 20th century. Therefore, something already accomplished. As a pope, Benedict put forth a new scenario stating:
“We would be mistaken to think that Fatima’s prophetic mission is complete. […] In sacred Scripture we often find that God seeks righteous men and women in order to save the city of man and he does the same here, in Fatima, when Our Lady asks: ‘Do you want to offer yourselves to God, to endure all the sufferings which he will send you, in an act of reparation for the sins by which he is offended and of supplication for the conversion of sinners?’ (Memoirs of Sister Lúcia, I, 162)”.
Fatima tells us that it is God who guides the course of history; his Divine Providence leads all events to a salvific end, though the personal judgement is different: eternal happiness for those who accept to do God’s Will, but perdition for those who freely choose to reject God and remain in the state of mortal sin. The history of mankind is not a place where conflicting human interests and powers of all kinds meet and fight each other, but the place of human events guided by God’s love. If He is cast out of society – as it is nowadays – the history can be but a very dark scenario: either the occult strength of a fate will determine the will of men or a pessimistic vision of a collective non-sense will take over and be truly overwhelming. Historical events are not pre-fabricated and unavoidable situations. They can change if man changes in them: if he converts and returns to God with all his heart. This opening of one’s heart to God is the beginning of a change that affects more people and finally the whole society. Penance, conversion and prayer are the means of a true revolution in history and properly what Our Lady asked for…
More in the book that can be purchased on any of the on-line bookstores or by requesting it directly to Casa Mariana Editrice: cme.libri@gmail.com.
Here one can watch all talks recorded by EWTN Great Britain.
And here some photos.
La grave crisi morale di abusi sessuali che investe la S. Chiesa ha radici molto più profonde del cattivo comportamento di alcuni sacerdoti e prelati. E non è sicuramente espressione di quella debolezza umana che i giovani capirebbero più di tutti in quanto essi stessi cadono e si rialzano, come ha insinuato recentemente il Card. Baldisseri nella conferenza stampa di presentazione del Sinodo dei giovani (1° ottobre 2018). Anche le giovani vittime di numerosi predatori clericali capirebbero facilmente questa debolezza? La radice del problema prima di essere morale è dogmatica. A monte c’è il rifiuto della dottrina di Cristo sull’amore umano e sulla sessualità. Dicevamo in un precedente articolo che tale dottrina s’incrina fortemente con una pubblica e “ufficiale” ribellione ad Humanae vitae nella Chiesa. Mettendo in discussione l’inscindibilità dell’amore coniugale e della procreazione, si aprivano le porte alla giustificazione di ogni possibile unione. Però quella tempesta che infuriò nella Chiesa non sarebbe del tutto comprensibile se non facessimo un ulteriore passo indietro per andare al momento iniziale di quel dissapore cardinalizio circa il divieto degli anticoncezionali, che poi portò all’aperta ribellione a Paolo VI. La protesta si accese pubblicamente, ma già covava sotto le ceneri. Bisogna affacciarsi dietro le quinte del Concilio Vaticano II e lì scoprire gli inizi dei malumori. Due figure chiavi in tutto ciò: il Cardinale Leo Joseph Suenens, primate del Belgio e lo Schema XIII che poi divenne la Costituzione pastorale Gaudium et spes.
Suenens si definisce nelle sue «Mémoires» sul Concilio Vaticano II (un testo di 69 pagine dettato dal Cardinale belga immediatamente dopo il Concilio, contenente i suoi ricordi personali e che costituisce i documenti 2784 e 2785 dell’“Archivio Suenens”) padre e iniziatore della Gaudium et spes. Scrive così: «Le schéma XIII, dont je suis le père, l’initiateur», sebbene non ne fosse «extrêmement enthousiaste» per il fatto che Paolo VI aveva inviato alla Commissione mista, il 23 novembre 1965, quattro modiche riaffermavano la dottrina classica della Chiesa sul matrimonio da inserire ai paragrafi 51, 54 e 55 del testo redigendo.Questi modi tra l’altro riguardavano il chiarimento della posizione della Chiesa sui metodi anticoncezionali, rifacendosi al magistero di Casti Connubi, che il Papa voleva si citasse esplicitamente. C’è da notare che prima di ciò, Paolo VI aveva chiesto a Suenens un testo per una possibile dichiarazione in linea con l’apertura agli anticoncezionali favorita dal primate belga (cf. Fondo Suenens 2503). La reazione di Suenens al vedersi negata quella dichiarazione fu molto dura. Voleva lanciare una campagna tra i Padri conciliari per votare contro il nuovo testo. Soltanto quando fu rassicurato da Mons. Prignon che Mons. Heuschen e il prof. Heylen avevano reso quei modi inoffensivi, e che la questione dei birth controlrestava in sospeso nel testo conciliare, allora Suenens accettò di votare placet.
La ragione per la quale Suenens era favorevole allo Schema XIII era la speranza di vedere modificata la posizione della Chiesa sui metodi contraccettivi nel capitolo De matrimonio.
Il 7 maggio 1964, egli lancia un baillon d’essaiin occasione di una conferenza stampa a Boston, dove dichiara: «La ricerca medica si sta avvicinando alla scoperta di una pillola che semplificherà alle coppie sposate il pianificare le loro famiglie senza violare gli insegnamenti della Chiesa». Come testimonia Werner Wan Laer, fu proprio grazie al Card. Suenens che il capitolo sul matrimonio in Gaudium et spesresta uno dei testi più aperti del Vaticano II.
Di più, Suenens, costituito da Paolo VI moderatore del Concilio insieme ad altri 3 Cardinali (Agagianian, Döpfner e Lercaro), era riuscito a introdurre in aula quattro quesiti concernenti la sacramentalità e la collegialità dell’episcopato e la reintroduzione del diaconato permanente. Senza l’appoggio di Paolo VI, che in verità fu molto esitante, e contro il volere di Ottaviani e del segretario del Concilio, Pericle Felici, i Moderatori e Suenens in particolare proposero ai Padri una “votazione orientativa” sui quattro quesiti, prevista per il 17 ottobre 1963, ma pubblicizzata con anticipo da «L’Avvenire d’Italia». Paolo VI rinviò la votazione e ordinò di bruciare le 3000 schede stampate su ordine del Card. Lercaro. Fu allora che la lunga e ben consolidata amicizia tra il Cardinale belga e Papa Montini cominciò ad incrinarsi; al punto che Suenens rimprovererà a Paolo VI di non aver agito in maniera collegiale nella pubblicazione delle sue encicliche Sacerdotalis caelibatus (1967) e Humanae vitae (1968).
Paolo VI non voleva che in Concilio si menzionasse la questione dei contraccettivi. Suenens racconta nelle sue «Mémoires» che il Card. Agagianian, il quale in quel momento presiedeva, aveva preparato un testo in cui avrebbe detto ai Padri di non trattare quell’argomento. Suenens invece non era d’accordo e modificò quel testo in questo modo: «Tratteremo quest’argomento, ma unicamente in riferimento ai primi principi, senza entrare nei dettagli». Paolo VI si adirò con Suenens e, come riferito da questi, gli disse che in tal modo aveva perso credibilità in Concilio presso i vescovi. Tuttavia Suenens rimase orgoglioso di quel gesto. Anche un suo collaboratore, il Rettore del Collegio Belga, p. Aeber Prignon (1919-2000), gli disse: «Voi avete aperto l’avvenire». E difatti si trattò proprio di questo: di aver aperto un triste avvenire, carico di problemi per il mondo e soprattutto per la Santa Chiesa.
Suenens poteva far affidamento sul testo di Gaudium et spes, dal tenore ottimista e con maglie abbastanza ampie, per le successive ermeneutiche a lui consone. Ma dello Schema XIII (prima XVII) che poi divenne Gaudium et spesnon era fiero neppure il p. Henri de Lubac. Non per la medesima convinzione di Suenens, ma per il fatto che, lanciato con un’intenzione troppo pubblicitaria, a giudizio del gesuita francese, «il risultato era mediocre. Nessuna coerenza dottrinale e, più ancora, nessun vigore cristiano. Molti vescovi lo vedono, lo dicono in privato e in pubblico; ma nessun mezzo per rimediarvi pienamente; è troppo tardi». Quello che era più grave, a giudizio di un altro critico di Gaudium et spes, Mons. Blanchet, era il fatto che, come aveva sottolineato molto bene il Card. Siri, si riscontrava «un eccesso di ottimismo, nessuna allusione a ciò che tuttavia è uno dei caratteri del nostro tempo: la diminuzione del senso del peccato».
Suenens invocava la collegialità, tema fortemente dibattuto in Concilio e favorito dalle “aperture” del Card. Parente alle istanze dei collegiali, ma per la quale bisognerà correre ai ripari con la Nota praevia apposta a Lumen gentium. Collegialità però già assente, a giudizio di Suenens, nella scelta di campo di Humanae vitae. D’altronde era sua convinzione che le maglie di Gaudium et spesfossero abbastanza larghe per permettere un futuro pronunciamento magisteriale a favore dei mezzi anticoncezionali. Così non fu e di qui la sua ribellione al magistero di Paolo VI, che senza dubbio rivestì anche un valore simbolico: mostrò fino a che punto potesse spingersi il divorzio tra le proprie idee e il perenne magistero della Chiesa. Con effetti, senza dubbio, sull’attuale situazione.
Da tutto ciò è bene trarre un elemento di valutazione. La confusione e ribellioni post-conciliari ad Humanae vitaesono legate – sebbene indirettamente – all’incertezza magisteriale del Concilio Vaticano II, specialmente in Gaudium et spes. Non si può semplicemente attribuire la colpa alle ermeneutiche contrastanti nate nella fase ricettiva del Concilio. Fu il Concilio stesso con la sua indeterminatezza dottrinale su vari punti a porre il problema ermeneutico. E furono dapprima i Padri a vedersi, spesso con i loro teologi, dinanzi a tale problema. Un esempio tra tutti: si assiste a un Paolo VI da un lato e alla Commissione teologica dall’altro che disputano circa il valore costitutivo della Tradizione apostolica. Paolo VI lo riafferma con il Magistero precedente, i periti e i Padri della maggioranza lo tralasciano per motivi ecumenici. Di fatti “vincono” questi ultimi.
Che il problema dell’opposizione ad Humanae vitaesia da ricondurre in ultima istanza a Gaudium et spesrisulta anche dal tentativo di riannodare Amoris laetitiaalla Costituzione pastorale del Vaticano II in modo da superare l’enciclica di Paolo VI sulla vita con una riappropriazione del magistero conciliare sull’amore dei coniugi e nella famiglia, introducendo una presunta “dignità della persona” nella valutazione morale dei metodi di regolazione delle nascite (cf. AL 82) e giustificando de facto il rapporto coniugale more uxorio.
Accanto a questo c’è anche un altro fattore da considerare. Il sinodo dei vescovi sotto Francesco ha ora conosciuto un nuovo statusin cui le istanze da discutere vengono perfino poste dall’uomo, dal popolo, dai giovani. La Chiesa “ascolta” e non più insegna. L’insegnamento sinodale se approvato dal Sommo Pontefice verrà a far parte del suo magistero ordinario, segno tangibile di un’idea di “Chiesa dal basso”, di un magistero in fiericome un cantiere sempre aperto (o un “ospedale da campo” dove solo si fasciano ferite) e di una sovrapposizione di ruoli tra laici e sacerdozio ministeriale. Questo nuovo “paradigma sinodale” è una via per riagganciarsi alla collegialità conciliare bloccata dalla Nota praevia, ma invocata fortemente da Suenens con una visione preponderante di Chiesa che si fa strada facendo con il consenso (collegiale) della maggioranza? Se così fosse, allora, mentre da un lato il Vaticano II assurgerebbe ancora una volta a paradigma conciliare, dall’altro verrebbe anche usato per una nuova forma di opposizione nella Chiesa al suo magistero perenne. Un concilio contro la Chiesa! La rottura magisteriale e il suo nuovo inizio è il migliore anestetizzante delle coscienze. Serve ad esorcizzare i fantasmi di una morale cupa e proibitiva. Tutto ciò confermerebbe comunque che la radice ultima della crisi morale odierna dovrebbe essere ricercata nel tentativo ultimo di sovvertire la retta dottrina in nome della pluralità conciliare. Un’ermeneutica senza fine, però, non risolve nessun problema. Anzi ne suscita di nuovi e per di più molto gravi.<
The perpetual Virginity of Mary is a dogma of Faith, unfortunately put into discussion so many times in these recent years. The catastrophic effect of this attempt to obscure it in order to also overcome the modern taboo of chastity is a general identity crisis that affects the whole Church. Mary’s Virginity is the form of Christianity because She has moulded in her womb Christ and with Him also the Mystical Body. There is a hierarchy to respect: first Christ’s virginity with Mary’s, then religious consecrated life, celibacy and widowhood, and finally marriage. Mary’s Virginity set the example of sponsality with the Lord and of martyrdom – two key aspects of early Christianity.
Listen to Fr Serafino M. Lanzetta’s podcast on this topic:
Serafino M. Lanzetta, Secundum Cor Mariae. Esercizi spirituali ai sacerdoti, Cantagalli, Siena 2019, pp. 120, euro 14.
Dall’Introduzione (pp. 8-9):
Entriamo nel Cuore sacerdotale di Gesù, vero Santo dei Santi, dove troviamo accesso non solo in qualità di sacerdoti, ma soprattutto come olocausto d’amore, quando diventiamo noi stessi, con tutta la nostra vita, sacrificio per la Chiesa e per le anime da salvare. È vero, parole come “olocausto”, “sacrificio”, “anime da salvare”, sono divenute alquanto desuete nel nostro vivere quotidiano e perfino nella nostra teologia. Si ha paura, ad esempio, che “sacrificio” ci riporti all’Antico Testamento e all’idea di distruzione della vittima per essere accetta a Dio. La distruzione fa paura un po’ a tutti e per questo facciamo presto a tralasciare un lessico sacerdotale, che, in realtà, ben spiegato con l’ininterrotta Tradizione di fede, è davvero il cuore di tutta la nostra esistenza sacerdotale. Ripercorreremo le tappe del sacerdozio di Cristo e dell’offerta sublime del suo sacrificio per imparare nuovamente cosa significa propriamente essere sacerdoti. Lo faremo facendo tesoro in particolare dell’esegesi di uno dei massimi esperti della Lettera agli Ebrei, il Cardinale Albert Vanhoye, S.J., insignito della berretta cardinalizia da Benedetto XVI per i suoi meriti teologici.
Per Gesù essere sacerdote significa essere diventato lui stesso sacrificio. Solo così il Signore è diventato mediatore di un’alleanza nuova, inaugurata dall’offerta del suo Sangue prezioso. Sangue dell’alleanza e Spirito eterno sono le due direttrici sacerdotali lungo le quali si svolge il ministero salvifico del nostro Redentore. Egli è stato macinato nel frantoio della sua dolorosa Passione, «con forti grida e lacrime» (Eb 5,7), perché accogliendo il suo «Cuore nuovo», il suo Cuore sacerdotale, «reso perfetto» (Eb 5,9) nella sua sofferenza, potessimo avere la vita. Così siamo trasformati a nostra volta e diveniamo sacrificio spirituale (cf. 1Pt 2,5) per il vero «culto spirituale» (Rm 12,1). Siamo pienamente sacerdoti se diveniamo noi stessi in Gesù per mezzo del suo Spirito sacrificio per i fratelli.
In questa economia sacerdotale un posto specialissimo è da esser riservato alla Vergine Maria. Lei in modo unico ha collaborato con Cristo alla nostra rigenerazione soprannaturale. Noi sacerdoti applichiamo alle anime i frutti della salvezza in modo sacramentale nella Redenzione soggettiva. Maria invero ha partecipato – Lei sola – allo stesso farsi della Redenzione, al suo momento oggettivo. Perciò ha posto in essere un’azione sacerdotale che trascende quella della Chiesa, tanto nel ministero sacerdotale quanto nel sacerdozio battesimale o comune.
Dalla IV di copertina:
Questo libro è il frutto di un corso di esercizi spirituali che l’autore ha predicato ai sacerdoti, presso la Casa di Esercizi dei PP. Passionisti, a Roma. Un itinerario spirituale alla riscoperta della grandezza del dono del sacerdozio e delle inestimabili ricchezze che esso riversa su chi compie la scelta di essere sacerdote, non solo in virtù del sacramento ricevuto, ma anche e soprattutto con tutta l’esistenza trasfigurata da questo mistero. In una parola: desiderare di avere il Cuore di Maria per accogliere il Cuore sacerdotale di Gesù, farlo proprio e così essere pienamente suoi. Desiderare di essere secundum Cor Mariae per essere pienamente secundum Cor Iesu.
Il libro è acquistabile su tutti i negozi on-line o in libreria
A thematic book review by Fr George M. Roth
In the book In Sinu Jesu: When Heart Speaks to Heart, The Journal of a Priest at Prayer we find the teachings of Jesus to a Benedictine Priest at adoration before the Blessed Sacrament in the form of interior locutions. His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke in his comments on the back cover of the book says: “In Sinu Jesurecounts the graces experienced in the life of one priest through the healing and strengthening power of the Eucharistic adoration.” The Servant of God, Fr. John A. Hardon S. J. tells that what is true adoration: “The act of religion by which God is recognized as alone worthy of supreme honour because he is infinitely perfect, has supreme domination over humans and the right to human total dependence on the Creator.It is at once an act of the mind and will, expressing itself in appropriate prayers, postures of praise, and acts of reverence and sacrifice. (p. 13 John A. Hardon, S. J., Modern Catholic Dictionary) Our Catholic priests and laypeople need to adore Our Blessed Lord in the Blessed Sacrament in these days of crisis. Those who have read this book know this truth so well as so many readers have promoted this book by word of mouth and by buying books for their bishops, priests and friends.
Sadly, so many today do not believe in the Holy Eucharist and are like the Jews and many of Jesus’ disciples who walked away from Him at Capharnaum, when in Chapter 6 of St. John’s gospel on the day after He had multiplied the loaves and fishes for five thousand men, not counting the women and children, He said I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world.” Jn. 6: 51-52 They murmured and said: “This saying is hard, and who can hear it?” Jn. 6:61 So, today, according to In Sinu Jesu (On the Bosom of Jesus), the single most important means of transforming and restoring the crisis in the Catholic Church today is the adoration of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. Everyone in the Church today, priests and laypeople, need to learn how to adore Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
The dialogue between Jesus and the Benedictine priest at prayer is a good way to learn about adoration. Jesus shows us that adoration given to Him is nothing else than every act of praise, honour, trust, confidence, glory, thanksgiving and all other acknowledgements of His infinite goodness and power is adoration. Jesus, by speaking to the heart of the Benedictine priest at prayer tells him and all the faithful:“I will speak to your heart as I spoke to the heart of My beloved disciple John, the friend of My Heart, the priest of My open Heart.”(p. 5)
Adoration
What is most important in this book is the means by which we can adore Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Jesus tells us to come to Him in His Divine Presence in every tabernacle: “Adore Jesus at every moment: Never miss an opportunity to greet Me, to adore Me, to remain with Me, even if only for a moment, in the Sacrament of My love. In eternity you will see the inestimable value of every moment spent in My Eucharistic presence.” (Ibid, p. 32) We are to adore the face of Jesus which represents His divine person: “To adore Me is to see My Face and to approach My heart, full of wonder and of holy fear, and above all, full of love, Adoration is the wordless confession of My divinity.Adoration proclaims that I am all and that all else is nought.….When St. Francis repeated during the hours of the night, ‘my God and my all!’he was offering Me the adoration in spirit and in truth that My Father desires.” (p. 40) Sadly, so many priests today do not adore Jesus and seek their consolations in creatures and useless pursuits: “So many of My priests have never really heard and understood the invitation to an exclusive and all-fulfilling friendship with Me. And so, they feel alone in life. They are driven to seek out in other places and in creatures unworthy of the undivided love of their consecrated hearts, the fullness of happiness and hope and peace that only I can give them. So many go forward in bitterness and disappointment. They seek to fill the emptiness within with vain pursuits, with lust, with possessions, with food and drink. They have Me, very often, near to them in the Sacrament of My love, and they leave Me there alone, day after day and night after night.” (p. 27)
Only Jesus Can Help Us
On many occasions, Jesus reminds that He alone can help us and that without Him we can do nothing. “Did I not say to My Apostles on the night before I suffered,“Without Me, you can do nothing”?(cf. Jn. 15:5) Why is this word of Mine so often forgotten? It is a word of immense power for the healing and liberation of souls because, understood rightly, it obliges them to run to Me in every necessity of body, mind, or spirit, and to allow Me to be their Saviour, their Physician, and their God. (p. 163)
Priestly Pentecost
Jesus spells out that the renewal of His Church will only begin with the renewal of the priest in adoration: “Every priest is called to be a priest adorer. Every priest is invited to experience the most fruitful hours of his ministry in the radiance of My Eucharistic Face. For every priest My Heart remains open, a refuge ready to welcome him, in the Sacrament of My love. This is part of the message that I am giving you for My priests. It is time for My priests to return to the Sacrament of My divine friendship for them, and through them, for all believers. The priestly Pentecost of which I have already spoken to you will begin when priests return to My Eucharistic presence, when they return to the cenacle wherein I will bless them with a holy intimacy with My Sacred Heart, and with a chaste and fruitful union among themselves. (p. 67)
The Priest as Victim
Jesus calls all His priests to imitate Him in His sufferings: “The holiness to which I call My priests, the holiness to which I am calling you, consists in a total configuration to Me as I stand before My Father in the heavenly sanctuary, beyond the veil. Every priest of Mine is to be with Me both priest and victim in the presence of My Father. Every priest is called to stand before the altar with pierced hands and feet, with his side wounded, and with his head crowned as My head was crowned in My Passion. You need not fear this configuration to Me; it will bring you only peace of heart, joy in the presence of My Father, and that unique intimacy with Me that I have, from the night before I suffered, reserved for My priests, My chosen ones, the friends of My Heart. Say “yes” to Me. Tell Me that you want for yourself only what I want for you. Tell Me that you desire what I desire for your life, and nothing else.” (p. 64-5)
Jesus Waits for us
As Jesus says so often in this book, He wants us to come to Him as He anxiously waits for us: “In this Sacrament I wait for you. So many emphasize that they must wait for Me, and yet I am already present, close to them, and disposed to reveal to them the secrets of My Heart. They forget that it is I who wait for them to come to Me. How often did I say to My disciples, “Come to me, all you that labour, and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is sweet and my burden light.” (cf. Mt. 11:28-30) They understood, at least most of them did, the intensity of My longing for the company of souls. I would have all souls come to Me and remain with Me.” (p. 94).
The Need for Reparation
Adoration includes reparation for the sins of the world. “A priest at adoration should also be a priest who is making reparation for his own sins and the sins of the world. “This is where reparation begins: in the identification of your soul with all My interests, with all My sorrows, with all that offends Me; and in the union of your soul with My burning zeal for the gloryof My Father and for the holiness of all people.” (p. 53)
Heavenly Intercessors
Jesus proposes several teachings to help us to adore Him. First there is the intercession and mediation of His Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary:“Speakoften of My Immaculate Mother’s mediation. For you and for many souls, this doctrine is the secret of holiness.Trust in the goodness of My Mother’s Heart. Know that her gaze is ever upon you. Her mantle surrounds you like a protecting shield. She is attentive to every detail of your life. Nothing of what you need or suffer is insignificant to her, and this because I have given her a Heart capable of mothering My entire Mystical Body and each of its members from the greatest to the least.” (p. 21) Of special importance to obtain the virtues needed in these critical days of the lack of holiness in the priesthood is the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock in Ireland. In one of his interior – now Marian – locutions, the Benedictine priest reports this in his Journal: “Here at Knock I want to reveal myself to priests as Virgin Bride and Mother. This is a secret that I have held in my heart for this time of trial for the Church. To every priest who desires it and asks me for it, I will give the grace of living in my presence as Virgin Bride—this was the vocation given to Saint Joseph—and of living in my presence as Mother—this was the vocation given to Saint John when, from the Cross, my Son entrusted me to him, and him to me.” (p. 35)
“I want priests to begin to come to Knock. I want them to come with their bishops. The desire of my merciful and Immaculate Heart is that Knock should become a wellspring of purity, holiness, and renewal for all priests, beginning with those of Ireland. I have waited until now to reveal this project of my Heart. The time is short. Let priests come to me here at Knock. I wait for them as Virgin Bride and as Mother. Let them come to wash themselves in the Blood of the Lamb, my Son, and to be united to Him, Priest and Victim, in the Mystery of His Sacrifice.” (p. 35) Jesus reveals how much His Mother Mary and devotion to her is important for overcoming evil in these days of darkness: “Love My Mother, love My Mother more and more. You will never approach the love of My own Heart for her by yourself, but I, by My free gift, can and will unite you to the love of My Sacred Heart for her. Thus will you come to experience the ineffable union of our two Hearts in your own heart. Be faithful to her Rosary. It is the shield and sword of spiritual combat. It assures your victory over the powers of darkness. Why? Because it is a humble prayer, a prayer that binds the soul who prays it to the victory of My Mother over the ancient serpent. (cf. Gen. 3:15) ‘I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.’ (Gen. 3:15) And yes, pray the Ave Maris Stella for all your brother priests, daily if you can. My Mother loves that hymn and responds to it as often as she hears it, with an abundance of graces poured out on those for whom it is offered. (p. 59)
Other Heavenly Intercessors
Although most of us are familiar with union of the souls in the Mystical Body, few realize the powerful intercession of those in the Church Triumphant in heaven for those in the Church Militant on earth. Jesus reminds our Benedictine priest and us that He has special intercessors for all of us here on earth: “Mother Yvonne-Aimée is very close to you. It is she who obtained for you great graces from My Heart. It is she who obtained that you should come back to France again. She will never forsake you. You are for her a beloved son. Dom Marmion also intervenes on your behalf, as well as a multitude of saints whom you know and love. Saint Peter Julian Eymard recognizes you as one of his own. He will communicate to you a share in his spirit. You will live from this and you will cause others to live from it.” (p. 7) Jesus tells our anonymous Benedictine priest of one of his special intercessors. “How have you won the love of My Heart? you ask. By learning to say sincerely and with confidence, ‘O Jesus, King of Love, I put My trust in Thy merciful goodness.’ (Mother Yvonne-Aimee de Jesus—Yvonne Beausvaism 1901-1951) That little invocation expresses all that a soul needs to say to win My Heart’s tenderness and favour. (p. 116)
Intercessory Prayer
One of the many revelations that has been overlooked in the Church is the need for intercessory prayer. In the book In Sinu Jesu, Jesus tells us that He wants us to pray for others by praying that they would do the will of God in their lives. “There is no form of intercessory prayer more efficacious than that of the soul who approaches My Eucharistic presence, certain of finding Me and certain of being heard.I am not distant from souls in need. I have made Myself close to them, as close as the nearest tabernacle. Would that My people understood this! My churches would be filled to overflowing at every hour of the day and night. I would never be left alone in the Sacrament of My love. (p. 213-4)
Union of Jesus and Mary
Jesus reveals a most important teaching about His Co-Redemptive relationship with His beloved Mother: “She is the Coredemptrix.Just as My Sacrifice is renewed mystically in every Mass, her offering, her participation in My offering, is also renewed.The priest who knows this and allows it to penetrate his heart will be graced with a holy fervour in every Mass he celebrates.” (p. 44) Although it is not a defined dogma of the Church, Jesus reveals how this little understood teaching of His union with Our Lady in the offering of the sacrifice on the Cross was so important for the Redemption: “I offered myself to the Father from the altar of My Mother’s Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. She accepted, consenting to bear the full weight of My sacrifice, to be the very place from which My holocaust of love blazed up. She, in turn, offered herself with Me to the Father from the altar of My Sacred Heart. There she immolated herself, becoming one victim with Me for the redemption of the world. Her offering was set ablaze in My holocaust by the descent of the Holy Spirit. Thus, from our two hearts become two altars, there rose the sweet fragrance of one single offering: My oblation upon the altar of her heart, and her oblation upon the altar of Mine. This, in effect, is what is meant when, using another language, you speak of My Mother as Co-Redemptrix. Our two hearts formed but a single holocaust of love in the Holy Spirit.” (p. 168)
Keep the Churches Opened
One of the major reasons for the lack of adoration in Church today is that churches are closed. “How I desire to see My churches open! Open the doors of My consecrated houses and trust Me to fill them with adorers in spirit and in truth! Come to Me in the Sacrament of My love and I will fill you with the sweetness of My friendship. Know that there is no companionship on earth that can be compared with Mine. For this too did I institute the Sacrament and Sacrifice of My Body and Blood: so that souls might find Me present in My churches and, by remaining in My presence, learn from Me all that I have heard from My Father. For this reason, do I call you friends.” (p. 55) Jesus reminds us of the inestimable treasure of Holy Eucharist, “the pearl of great price”: “The emptiness of My churches apart from the hours of the liturgical offices is an indictment, first of all, of My priests, and then, of My faithful. My Eucharistic presence meets with coldness, with indifference, and with a chilling ingratitude, even on the part of My priests and of consecrated souls. They fail to recognize in the mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist the pearl of great price, the treasure once hidden in the field but now offered freely to all who would partake of its inexhaustible riches. (p. 215)
Gift of the Eucharist
Jesus continues to remind us of the treasure of the Holy Eucharist: “My intention was threefold. It was first to perpetuate My one Sacrifice through all ages and even to the close of the age. It was to nourish souls with My Body and Blood for their healing, their sanctification, their union with Me and with all the members of My Mystical Body, in view of My return in glory when all will be one in Me, and I will be in them, and the sacrifice of our praise to the Father in the Holy Spirit will be unending. But I had a third reason as well: it was to offer souls—and especially My priests—the companionship and light and warmth of My Real Presence.” (p. 85) Sadly, Jesus reminds us what this loss of faith in Holy Eucharist causes in His priesthood: “The loss of faith that afflicts so many souls is incompatible with a life of adoration. Souls do not stop adoring because they have lost their faith; they lose their faith because they have stopped adoring Me. This is why I would have you hold fast even to the outward forms of adoration.” (p. 87)
Transformation into Christ
One of the most important effects of adoration is transformation of the priest into Jesus Christ: “The work of transformation into Me is My work. My priests have only to expose themselves to My Eucharistic Face. Little by little, the radiance of My Face will cause the indelible character of My priesthood in them to emerge from the sin that has obscured it and defaced it. It will begin to shine, and this will draw souls to Me through My priests. (p. 112)
Spousal Love in Christ
This transformation into Christ comes about by spousal union of Christ with the priest: “This is why I so insist on adoration for all My priests. It is the crucible of their priestly perfection. It is the furnace of love in which I purify them like gold in the fire. It is the nuptial chamber in which I draw them to My Heart, and speak to them face-to-face, as a bridegroom to his bride, and as a man to his friend.(Song 2:4)The nuptial bond of the priest with Me pertains to the relationship between My divinity and the priest’s soul. My humanity offers the priest a divine friendship, but that friendship leads to the union of the soul with My divinity and to a fruitfulness that surpasses every action and work of the priest acting of his own initiative.Consent to My friendship and I will espouse your soul.Espousal means the most intimate union in love; it is in this sense that the soul is espoused by the Persons of the Adorable Trinity. The Father nonetheless unites Himself to the soul as a Father; the Son unites Himself to the soul as Bridegroom and as the Father’s only begotten Son; the Holy Spirit unites Himself to the soul as the fruition and completion of love.This is why I so insist on adoration for all My priests. It is the crucible of their priestly perfection. It is the furnace of love in which I purify them like gold in the fire. It is the nuptial chamber in which I draw them to My Heart, and speak to them face-to-face, as a bridegroom to his bride, and as a man to his friend. (p. 133)
Divine Radiance
An important teaching about Jesus’ presence in the Blessed Sacrament is the radiating effect of the sacrament. Jesus told St. Faustina that when a soul trusts in Him, she will radiate grace to all those around him. How much more will it be for the Holy Eucharist where Jesus Himself is present: “Where there is faith in My real presence, there will be adoration; and where there is adoration, there will also be an efficacious radiance of My presence, drawing souls to My Eucharistic Heart and surrounding them, even at a distance, with the healing influence of My Eucharistic Face. In those places where I am exposed upon the altar to receive the adoration, the reparation, and the companionship of My friends—and, first of all, of My priests—My radiance is powerful and strong. Faith, adoration, and love act as receptors; thus, is My power drawn out and made effective, invisibly but really, in space and in time. (p.169)
The Source of Priestly Holiness.
Another important teaching about the Holy Eucharist is the altar of sacrifice: “The altar is the source of priestly holiness. The kiss given to the altar at the beginning and end of Holy Mass means that the priest recognizes this. By kissing the altar, he makes himself vulnerable to My piercing love. By kissing the altar, he opens himself unreservedly to all that I would give him and to all that I hold in the designs of My Heart for his life. The kiss to the altar signifies total abandonment to the priestly holiness that I desire and to the fulfilment of My desires in the soul of My priest.” (p. 64)
Jesus Inspires Our Prayers
Many people think that they initiate their prayers. Jesus reveals that it is He who inspires all of our prayers: “See, you have prayed according to the inspirations I gave you through My Holy Spirit. There is no better way to pray.One who listens to my Eucharistic Heart will pray rightly.His petition will be heard by My Father.It is I who will tell you how to pray. (cf. Lk. 11:1-4)I will make known to you those things for which I want you to ask. And I will grant the graces that I will have caused you to desire and for which I will have inspired you to pray.This is what My Apostle meant when he wrote that ‘the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness, for we know not how to pray as we ought.’”(Rom 8:26)Ibid. , p. 73-4
When you pray, there is no need to worry about what you will say or for what things you ought to ask. (cf. Mt. 6:7-8) It is enough to come humbly into My presence and to pray as My Holy Spirit gives you to pray. Such prayer will always be fruitful. Such prayer is always efficacious because it springs not from you, but from Me, not from what you may desire, but from what I desire to give you. (p. 74)
Jesus Shows Himself to Adorers
There is nothing more important than time spent in adoration: “The more time you dedicate to Me alone in the Sacrament of My love, the more will I bless you in all that you are called to do. Resist every temptation to cut short the time dedicated to adoration. You are set apart for that work of reparation and of love, and nothing can take its place in your life.” (p. 97)“What matters is that you have come into My presence, seeking My Face and offering Me all the love of your heart. This is enough. With this little act of adoration and love, I will do great things. I do not ask for things beyond your strength. I am not a harsh and demanding taskmaster; I am the most loving and grateful of friends. No moment spent in My sacramental presence goes unrewarded, for I love those who love Me. I show My Face to those who seek Me, and I give My Heart to those who yearn for My friendship.” (p. 217-8)
The Boundlessness of Our Lady’s Annunciation<
Our Lady reveals one of most startling revelation of this book by expressing the hidden depths of Her joy in the Annunciation by which God becomes incarnate. “I am happy to have spoken to you on this feast of the Annunciation that filled me with divine joy so many years ago in Nazareth. That divine joy remains. No one will ever make it decrease. In eternity it multiplies itself to infinity; it is an ocean of joy having no boundaries, and its depth cannot be measured. This is the joy that I would share with you and with all my priest sons today.” (p. 111)
Purity of Heart
Another important revelation concerns the importance of purity. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus extolled the importance of purity: “Blessed are the clean of heart for they shall see God.” (Mt. 5: 8) Here the Benedictine priest comments on the single most serious problem of the priesthood today: “I call you to newness of life in purity of heart and in faithful adoration. Purity of heart is the effect of persevering adoration, and its fruit. One cannot abide before My Eucharistic Face day after day without being changed from one degree of purity—that is, of brightness—to another. Those who adore My Eucharistic Face will be like mirrors in the Church, reflecting My holiness, My majesty, and My boundless pity for all to see. (p. 111) Every time a priest sins, he sins directly against Me and against the Most Holy Eucharist toward which his whole being is ordered. When a priest approaches My altar laden with sins that have not been confessed or for which he has not repented, My angels look on in horror, My Mother grieves, and I am again wounded in My hands and My feet, and in My Heart. I am again struck on My mouth and treated with a terrible ignominy.This is why I call My priests to purity of heart and to frequent confession.This is why I ask you to confess your sins weekly and to let the adoration of My Eucharistic Face purify your heart and make you less unworthy of offering My Holy Sacrifice. The sins of My priests are a grievous affront to My own priesthood and immaculate victimhood.” (p. 115)
The Father’s Goodness
Another valuable teaching that is not understood nor taught concerns the importance of the God the Father in the spiritual life: “My Father’s goodness and love remain hidden from so many souls. They have not understood that I came into the world to reveal My Father who is all love, and to draw souls to Him in filial confidence and in the joy of abandonment to His goodness. Love our Father. Trust our Father. Depend upon our Father in every weakness. This revelation of God as a Father who cherishes His children, and so loves them that He sent Me, His only-begotten Son, into the world to suffer and to die, lies at the very heart of My Gospel.(“For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting.” (Jn. 3:16) Love My Father and open your heart to the immensity of His love for you. Thus will you become for Him, in Me, a beloved son in whom He takes delight.” (p. 174)
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
One of the most important aspects in the faithfulness of the priest today is the misunderstanding of the of Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Jesus points out the importance of His Sacrifice of the Cross in the Mass for every priest. “Every moment of your life is a preparation for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, just as every moment of My life was a preparation for, and slow ascent to, the Sacrifice of the Cross. Understand this and you will see that nothing in your life is foreign to My plan for you:everything you have done, every place you have ever been, every person with whom have been or are connected, is part of My design for your life.All of your life moves towards thealtar, just as all of My life moved toward the Cross. Even the things you have suffered are part of My preparation of your priesthood, part of the things by which I fit you to stand in My place as victim and priest.” (p. 257)
Priest as Victim for Christ
Jesus teaches how important it is to accept the sufferings in our lives when we united them to Him on the Cross.“When I find a priest who suffers—and who suffers with Me—becoming a victim with Me in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and in every moment of his life, I embrace that priest with all the divine tenderness of My Heart, and I draw him to the wound in My side, there to drink deeply of the refreshing torrent that every flows from My Heart.” (p. 262)
The Words of Jesus for Our Time
The book, In Sinu Jesus, is a great blessing for our Church and our world in this critical time which Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Astana, Kazakhstan, calls one of “the four greatest crises in the history of the Church.” This book is a call, as Jesus tells us, for His “Priestly Pentecost” at a time when the priests of the Church have abandoned their true vocation which is to be “the praise and glory of God” at the Eucharistic altar of Sacrifice. Nothing the Church can do with its various programs, conferences or synods will be as effective as the renewal of the priesthood through prayer and adoration as In Sinu Jesu reminds us continually. All who will read this book will recognize the truth of Jesus’ spiritual teaching to the Benedictine monk as sole means of renewal of the priesthood and the Church. Every priest, bishop and Catholic should read “In Sinu Jesu.”
Papa Francesco ha voluto che questo mese di ottobre fosse un mese missionario straordinario per festeggiare i 100 anni dalla promulgazione della lettera di Benedetto XV sulle missioni dal titolo Maximum illud. Missione, secondo le parole chiare di Gesù, è andare in tutto il mondo, annunciare il Vangelo ad ogni uomo e fare discepoli del Signore tutte le genti. Eppure, la missionarietà, pur rilanciata nei suoi accenti classici, rischia di fatto di significare tutt’altro. “Missione ad gentes” oggi è andare verso le periferie esistenziali, abbracciare problemi sociali e territori sfruttati, quale quello Amazzonico. “Convertire” significa uscire da se stessi per aprirsi a una nuova comprensione delle culture e dei territori, rigidamente fissi sul dialogo e sull’incontro. Bisogna evitare il proselitismo, cioè di convertire nel senso classico della parola. Perché allora rilanciare la Maximum illud?
“Love one another; just as I have loved you, you also must love one another.” (John 13:34)
This teaching of the Holy Gospel focuses on the importance of love. This is the new commandment given by Christ before entering into His Passion and Death – a commandment that sums up all others, not superseding them, but bringing all of them (including the Ten Commandments) to their completion. Jesus in fact did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it.
The love we show towards other people – to our brethren in faith first, and then all others – is the way by which we are known as disciples of the Lord. In fact, we can never love God if we do not love our neighbour. St John, in his first Epistle, says thus: “If any man say: I love God, and hateth his brother; he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth not?” (1 John 4:16) Love towards God must then be visible – concrete – in our every interaction with other people.
However, it is also true that if we do not love God, our love for one another will never be a proper act of charity – will never be a perfect, that is, self-giving love. Love needs a measure; it cannot be the measure of itself. It can never be itself the reason why we love; the reason must be discovered elsewhere – behind it – otherwise we always run the risk of loving as we wish, as we understand love. We need a measure by which to love, and that measure is God, because God is love.
It is therefore opportune to reflect on the nature of love. Love is a great word, but today it is much misused, especially when it is put against moral law (both natural and positive), for the fact that love would have no law. Hence freedom becomes an antagonist of the law. What is then love? It is a relation between two persons, and has its foundation in our will. In order to love, we have to will. When our will – that is, our soul – is not loving wholeheartedly and with no other interest than to love for its own sake, that relation is faulty; it is selfish.
We can distinguish three levels of love. First, there is the lowest one: eros, according to the Greeks. Eros is a love that is more inclined to self-satisfaction. It is to love another for the sake of oneself. Love, in this sense, is something I do for me, to please myself. Second, there is the love of friendship: filia. This is about loving another person for the sake of that person. In true friendship, there is no selfishness. This form of love, although more perfect, is not the one Jesus is asking of us when He instructs us to love each other. We must strive to attain the third level of love: agape. Agape is a love of communion – a sharing of one’s life with another person, to the point of even giving it up for the sake of that person. “God is agape.” (1John 4:16) The new commandment of Christ is right about this request of love. It is a communion. In agape there is no selfishness, nor even the simple consideration that my neighbour is a person worthy to be loved; rather, it is a truly unconditional love, the offer of a divine measure – the love of Christ for us unto the end. What is this end?
So we understand why Jesus adds to His commandment a second part: “…as I have loved you, you also must love one another.” In Christ we have the model of love – how to love – and also its definitive truth. “As I have loved you” is now the imperative for all Christians to conform their lives to this love. How did Jesus love us? We should again make reference to the Gospel of St John to find out. In the same chapter, at the beginning, we find these words: “…having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end.” (John 13:1) This end is the Cross. Let us remember that Jesus is pronouncing these teachings before His Passover. While nailed to the Cross, stretching wide His arms as to embrace mankind, Jesus said, “It is finished” – “It is consummated,” (John 19:30) and breathed His last.
The sacrifice of the Cross was thereby accomplished. The love of Christ unto the end is therefore a reference to the completion of the sacrifice of the Cross. Jesus, our divine Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, was slain, was immolated. In His death, we have been saved. Dear brothers and sisters, this is to love – to die for the sake of another. Jesus died for us. Are we able to die to ourselves in order to love as Jesus did, and give our life to another as an exchange of divine charity? Christian love is not a social work, or mere human compassion. It is giving ourselves to another person as Christ did for us, and for the sake of His love for us.
Love requires sacrifice up to the Cross. Love, if it is not sacrificial, might easily become another way to merely display our skills, our philanthropy. We not only give to others part of our time, our money, or share with them our food – we give them our hearts. We not only help a person in need – we see in that person Jesus Christ, our divine Saviour. Love needs God; conversely, God wishes to be loved in a free exchange of love for love.
“Love unto the end” is finally also the manifestation of the Holy Eucharist as the sacrifice of the Cross unto death. Christ loved us to such an extent that He immolated His life for us. Again, in the Gospel of St John, the beloved disciple of the Lord, we read: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
In the Blessed Sacrament of Jesus’ Body and Blood, we have the infinite love of God, but abased. God became man and died for us, so as to be ground in His death as the grain of wheat fallen to the earth (cf. John 12:24) in order to become bread – the Bread of Life. If we do not adore the Holy Eucharist, we have no strength to serve the poor and the most in need with unconditional – divine – love. Love can never put the sacraments aside and say: Better to do something than waste my time in worship and prayer! Let us always begin with adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, so as to love in truth, according to that divine measure – a love with no measure, that is eternal, and which transforms us from egocentric persons into Christ-centered faithful. So may we love with enduring charity. Amen.
P. Serafino M. Lanzetta, Semper Virgo. La verginità di Maria come forma, Casa Mariana Editrice, Frigento 2019, pp. 161 (ISBN 978-88-98577-15-6).
La verginità perpetua di Maria è la forma del Cristianesimo. È come «un filo rosso che cuce insieme tutte le maglie della fede cristiana. S’intreccia con il mistero cristologico e per questo fa unità con il dogma centrale della fede, l’incarnazione del Verbo. Al punto che se si nega la verginità di Maria cade sotto la sferza anche l’incarnazione e viceversa», scrive p. Serafino M. Lanzetta nel suo nuovo libro uscito per i tipi della Casa Mariana Editrice.
Il P. Lanzetta con questa nuova pubblicazione riprende e rimodella interamente un suo recente scritto sulla verginità di Maria. Se viviamo in un periodo di amorfismo totale, in cui le cose sono ormai tutte uguali, in cui si rivendica il principio secondo cui tutti possono essere tutto e tutto può diventare tutti (vedi ad esempio le richieste della teoria del gender) questo è perché abbiamo smarrito la ragione che distingue le cose, che coglie in ciascuna la sua forma e perciò la sua identità. Anche in ambito teologico, dice il p. Lanzetta, abbiamo smarrito quella ragione teologica che coglie la forma dei misteri, la loro essenza e quindi la loro ragione specifica. L’abbiamo smarrita quando si è pensato di disfarsi della metafisica e quindi del dogma della fede, visto non più come un presupposto logico per conoscere i misteri, ma come un macigno che impedisce la libertà di ricerca. Il dogma ha iniziato ad evolversi e la ragione si è confusa.
L’autore di Semper Virgo reputa che una delle confusioni centrali in ambito teologico stia nell’aver smarrito la fede nel dogma della sempre-verginità di Maria e con esso la forma della vita cristiana, cioè quella distinzione specifica che vede in modo gerarchico e complementare la vita consacrata, il celibato sacerdotale e la vita matrimoniale. Tutto è uguale e tutti possono essere tutto anche nella Chiesa, al punto però che sia la vita consacrata a Dio che il matrimonio oggigiorno versano entrambi in una situazione deplorevole. Con Amoris laetitia la cosa addirittura si complica: il rapporto more uxorio sarebbe pari al matrimonio che nel post-concilio era già divenuto pari alla verginità.
Maria Vergine può ristabilire l’ordine della fede dando alla vita cristiana la sua forma e solo così si restituisce agli stati di vita del cristiano la loro specificità e il loro giusto posto, senza confusione o egualitarismi. Maria, scrive il p. Lanzetta, è la forma sanctitatis, la forma che con la sua verginità corredentiva struttura intimamente la sponsalità dell’anima con Cristo fino alla suprema testimonianza nel martirio. Verginità e martirio sin dai primi secoli vanno sempre insieme perché hanno in Maria la loro unità e il loro fondamento. Una chiara fede nel dogma della verginità di Maria è l’inizio per una ripresa della Chiesa da una crisi senza precedenti che la stringe come in una morsa.
Il libro è stato prefato dal P. Stefano M. Manelli, Fondatore dei Francescani dell’Immacolata. Questi, in un passaggio illuminante, scrive che è necessario vigilare con ogni premura perché intaccare la verità della verginità di Maria «significa intaccare e compromettere anche altre verità della nostra fede che fanno tutte armonia divina con essa, a cominciare dalla verità sublime del mistero dell’Incarnazione del Verbo nella Vergine Immacolata. Il padre Lanzetta passa in rassegna gli errori antichi e recenti con vigile attenzione per richiamarli puntualmente e intelligentemente alla più netta e misurata interpretazione sempre fedele ai suoi perenni e intoccabili contenuti sia biblici che dommatici, approfondendo, magari, in verticale, i contenuti di più alta ed estesa grazia per noi povere creature sempre bisognose».
La IV di copertina del libro, infine, sintetizza così gli auspici più alti di questa nuova pubblicazione: «Il mistero della verginità di Maria è la garanzia del primato di Dio nel mondo. È la prova che quel Regno portato da Cristo inizia non dalla carne ma dallo spirito – «Dio è spirito» (Gv 4,24) – per nobilitare la carne e portare tutto l’uomo in una dimensione che va oltre, quella del Regno nella sua pienezza, dove Dio sarà «tutto in tutti» (1Cor 12,6). Maria è il grembo verginale nel quale è custodito come in uno scrigno il mistero di Cristo e della Chiesa».
Il libro è disponibile nelle librerie e in tutti i negozi on-line, oppure è acquistabile presso la stessa Casa Mariana Editrice: https://www.casamarianaeditrice.it/prodotto/semper-virgo-la-verginita-di-maria-come-forma/
