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As you may recall Fr. Gobbi’s 2009 Circular Letter focused on the Mystery of Love and Suffering. With the pronouncement of the Year of the Priest by Pope Benedict XVI, Fr. Gobbi brought in the dimensions of the Holy Father’s Letter along with his own reflections on the priesthood. The following is a list of some of Fr. Gobbi’s thoughts.
-The Pope’s Letter on the 150th Anniversary of St. John Vianney’s birth is meant to promote the interior renewal of the priests. Our Lady asks of this too. “The priesthood is the heart of the love of Jesus”-St. John Vianney
-Quoting from the Message of Oct. 1997, “Jesus is Merciful Love” Fr. Gobbi said, ‘don’t resist His calls, walk along the path of love, have the experience of love for Jesus’.
-The faithful priests, in a great number are in the MMP, the greatest number of which is in heaven, close to us. These friends of Christ stay faithful despite the difficulties of our day.
-Message #260- “Suffering conforms you to the crucified Christ and through suffering the soul receives the love of Christ”.
-Message #224- “Live with me in silence and prayer for the passion is being relived in the Church”. Be participants in the human experience of sufferings. Psychological sufferings, emotional and physical sufferings are seen more and more among our priests like Don Gino our cantor who has recurring cancer.
-MMP priests have a particular interior suffering, whereby superiors and confreres have pushed us to one side as we emanate the perfume of Our Lady that causes us to be marginalized. In the Pope’s Letter to Priests he comments how there are many priest who are opposed in their mission. Many public scandals have been legally punished but look how difficult it becomes to make your vocation present to the world. There is lack of faith, desertion, all the work of the adversary. What can help the Church today to be renewed in the awareness of the gifts from God? The answer is love. Love that is faithful and merciful, that shares in the suffering of the cross. Today the Church is in great suffering, less loved by her own children. Love the Church! The priestly heart carries a sorrow for the state of the Church. Never before has the Church been loved so little, little loved by many priest and faithful.
-Message April 19, ’82, The Church is at Calvary. The Church is in a Good Friday now. You, John’s, are called to love, assuage wounds, to have hope in the crucifixion. This interior commitment is also what the Pope speaks. ‘The priests who have scandalized many is this suffering’. We in the MMP renew first ourselves and then others. This is sacerdotal mediation as St. Paul writes ‘every priest taken from among men is concerned with God for the benefit of others’. It is good to help others but not if you are not bringing them to God! This is the priestly mission!
-Fr. Gobbi made reference to the Evangelical Councils of poverty, chastity and obedience and how the diocesan curate St. John Vianney lived out those councils even though not bound formally.
-May 20, 1974- We need lots of prayer! Our Lady says we talk too much with little prayer. We need to reverse this. The mass prayed well and the Liturgy of the Hours should be done out of love. Our prayer should be centered on the Eucharist and St. John Vianney is an example for us! Jesus in the Eucharist! We have to educate people that the celebration of the the Mass done like the Cure of Ars is more than human words but is the work of God and everything depends on the Mass. The weakness of the priest praying the mass poorly, as an ordinary activity, needs to have his heart pierced by Jesus. The Pope says the media is continually bringing up the scandals but only through love is love renewed. For a true reform we need to kneel before the Eucharist, genuflect, receive communion in the mouth. Our pope wants to bring us back to these devotions. Pope Benedict has attempted to develop Eucharistic Devotion in every diocese (and himself distributes communion in the mouth while kneeling)-mine in italics. Jesus forgives much for one drop of priestly love before the Eucharist.
There were many such insights on retreat. Last years retreat was video taped by the Australian Center of the MMP. Please contact www.mmp-usa.net for information on obtaining those DVDs.
Peace and Blessings!
Fr. Charlie Becker, Co-responsible
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