Text of the Eucharistic adoration of December 8, 2015

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

Introduction

Dear Jesus the Eucharist, you are here present in our midst in body, blood, soul and divinity and today is a very important day for our community and for the whole Church. It is the feast day of the Immaculate Conception and, on this occasion, it coincides with the opening of the extraordinary Jubilee of mercy called by Pope Francis. It is a great opportunity of grace for the return to You of so many of Your children. Never as in these times there is a need to pray for peace and that all people may convert and open the doors to Christ. Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, the Queen of peace, told us several times that the Rosary is a powerful weapon that can stop wars. In the past years, Monsignor Claudio Gatti, our Bishop, Bishop of the Eucharist, ordained by You, often urged us to pray for peace and had convened, starting from 2004, the years devoted to a particular theme. We like to think, Lord, that each of these years was a prerequisite in order to be prepared to live the Jubilee of mercy in the best possible way. Starting from the year dedicated to You, Jesus the Eucharist, we went on to the year of Love, Humility, Hope and Faith. Our community and the members spiritually united with us around the world have prayed for the intentions of the Bishop, which are really your intentions and those of Your Mother. If we take the theme dedicated to every single year we can see how, from each of them, the profound inner beauty and spirituality of Our Lady is revealed.

Year of the Eucharist

Our Lady is the root of the Eucharist, the Co-redemptrix of human kind, the one who, with her Yes, gave us her Son and through Him, salvation. Jesus himself, newborn, gives her the title which is most beautiful and pleasing to God, the one closing history, telling her: "You are the Mother of the Eucharist".

Year of Love

Our Lady is the human creature that He loved most. It is the same Jesus Christ who, while on the cross, entrusted her with the whole of mankind, making us an immense gift, and knowing very well that to the fullness of her grace corresponds the fullness of love that has no bounds.

Year of Humility

Our Lady is humility personified. This emerges from the wonderful catechesis of our Bishop: Don Claudio told us that when Jesus and the Apostles moved from place to place to evangelize, often she would stay behind to make room for the Redeemer; then it was the Son, with love and respect, to intervene telling his mother to take a step forward because He wanted her at his side. Yet, the Gospels do not talk a lot about Our Lady because she really wanted her Son to emerge. Our Heavenly Mother lived all her life in concealment, even if she was the Mother of God.

Year of Hope

Hope is certainty as our Bishop used to tell us, and there is no human creature that was able to embody this hope better than Mary. She herself is the hope of humanity, Mediatrix between God and men, the one who continued to hope and pray even in the most dramatic moment, at the foot of the cross, when she saw her Son die, because she knew that soon He would resurrect thus conquering death.

Year of Faith

Our Lady’s faith is greater than that of Saints who live or have lived on Earth at all times. Her unshakeable faith sustained her up to the time of Christ’s resurrection. It is to her faith that we must inspire in order not to collapse and to snatch from God the grace for the spiritual resurrection of all mankind. To her, Lord, we ask to intercede with You so that in the world, which you created, may return peace among peoples and peace in our hearts. To her, Lord, we ask for the triumph of truth and the acknowledgement of those who gave their lives for You and for the revival of Your Church.

First moment: the gift of the Holy Door in the thaumaturgical place

Today, Lord, we remember the great gift you have given to the Church and to all humanity, here in this thaumaturgic place you love so much: the gift of the Holy Door, that is, the ability to gain indulgences. On Christmas night of 1999, in fact, God decided to grant a plenary indulgence of the Jubilee to the chapel "Mother of the Eucharist". It is a huge gift, and that is why we want, on the day of the beginning of the Jubilee of Mercy, to thank You Lord and remember its importance and Your announcement. The big announcement of the opening of the Holy Door was given 16 years ago. It was the eve of Christmas 1999 and a few minutes before the prayer vigil in preparation for the midnight mass, Our Lady said to Marisa, through an interior locution, that God had decided to grant a plenary indulgence of the Jubilee to the chapel "Mother of the Eucharist" and that He would command Bishop Claudio to open the Holy Door of the chapel. Marisa was troubled by this sentence because of the negative reactions that the opening of the Holy Door could cause within the ecclesiastical authority, but the mother of the Eucharist added: "Fear not, little Marisa, let yourself go to God, tell the Bishop the decision of my All and prepare just a little hammer". In the eve apparition our Mother announced: "In the letter of God is written in golden letters that in this small chapel, the Basilica Mother of the Eucharist, God wants the Bishop to open the Holy Door. Now please, do what Our Lady tells you to do; don’t be afraid of the cold, for Jesus will warm you up. Come out of this little chapel, go along the entrance corridor and follow the shepherd. All along I will show you what you have to do. The Holy Bishop will open the Holy Door of this small but great chapel". Those present, amazed and moved, did what Mother asked, gathering in prayer around the Bishop who, to open the Holy Door, knocked at the door of the chapel with a simple Carpenter's hammer and said: "Open the doors to Christ". Subsequently the Bishop spread his arms and uttered this prayer: "O Lord, we lift up to You our thanks and our gratitude for the gift that you gave us: to gain a plenary indulgence for the Jubilee in this place you already declared Holy and thaumaturgic. Grant, o Lord, that now each of us may feel deep sorrow and repentance of our sins and be committed before Your mercy and goodness not to fall into sin and to avoid any evil opportunity. Grant, o Lord, that Your grace may always be present in all of us and may soon return to the souls of the people we entrust to You now in the silence of our heart". The greatest news is that the Holy Door of the chapel "Mother of the Eucharist", by the will of God, at the end of the Holy Year of 2000, while other doors were shutting down, it remained open. This follows from the letter of God of December 25, 2000: "God, for the time being, has not decided to close your Holy Door. Take the opportunity to gain the indulgence, for indulgences are important".

Second moment: the Jubilee of Mercy

The Jubilee of Mercy opening today is a great opportunity for grace and conversion for those who are far from God and also an opportunity for the enhancement of spiritual life and prayer for all believers. We welcome the fact that for the first time a Pontiff has opened the Holy Door in Africa, in advance of the beginning of the extraordinary Holy Year. A country that in the eyes of the world is considered to be the last was raised and highlighted. Dear Lord, we are experiencing hard and difficult moments in the history of mankind, in the life of our community and in many critical moments of the Church life and for its revival the Bishop and the Seer have suffered and offered their entire life.

Through Mary’s intercession, who is the mediator between God and man, as we can also see from the beautiful mosaic in our little chapel showing our Heavenly Mother with one hand pointing towards the Earth and the other to the Heaven, we wish to entrust this disorientated humanity that lost its way. We pray to you for the leaders of all Nations and for all people of goodwill to stop bringing death and destruction by wars because the planet Earth is on the brink of abyss and we are at the dawn of a third world war. You, Lord, can penetrate into the hearts, even in those of the most hardened terrorists filled with hate. Convert them and helps us to grow in love because everyone has to be the bearer of peace in places where he is called to live, in the family or at work. We pray for the Holy Father, so that he may continue the cleaning work within the Church. Finally, Lord, we pray for our community so that we may have the strength to carry on with simplicity and humility the mission that you have entrusted each of us, so that we may testify to our brothers about the great miracles You've worked here and in our hearts and give and communicate the immense spiritual treasures received, which are everybody’s heritage and that we would like to share with our brothers.