Zompita (Udine, Italy) January 24, 1984
"Beloved children, I welcome this rosary you are reciting together with such great love and fervor.
As Mother I want to tell you that I am here with you, represented by the statue you have here. Each of my statues is a sign of a presence of mine and reminds you of your heavenly Mother. Therefore it must be honored and put in places of greater veneration.
Just as you look with love at a photograph of a cherished person because it transmits to you a reminder and a likeness, so too you should look with love at every image of your heavenly Mother, because it transmits to you a reminder of her, and still more, it becomes a particular sign of her presence among you.
How deeply saddened I am by the fact that I am, so frequently today, ousted from the churches. Sometimes I am place outside, in a corridor, like some trinket; sometimes I am put in the back of the church, so that none of my children can venerate me.
As a sign of how much I am pleased with the fitting veneration given to my images, is also what I am doing through this little statue. It is a triple sign I give you: that of my eyes, which suddenly come alive; that of the color of my countenance, which changes its hue; and that of my Heart, which exudes a fragrance , now a delicate one, now one of greater strength.
By the sign I give you in the eyes, I want to show you that your heavenly Mother, never so much as in these times, is watching you with her merciful eyes. She is not far from you; she takes cognizance of you in all the difficulties in which you find yourselves, in the difficult moments you are living through, with all the sufferings which are awaiting you, with the great cross you must carry.
And with these eyes I look at all, at those far away, at the atheists, at the drug addicts, at my poor sinful children, to know them just as they are, to help them, to guide them along the path of goodness, of a return to God, of conversion, prayer, fasting and penance.
In a particular way I look at you, my beloved, objects of my maternal complacency. Especially you, beloved of my sacerdotal Movement, who form for me an object of great gratification.
I look at you, and I illumine you with my own beauty. In you I reflect the candor of heaven that is mine. You should be lilies in your purity, roses in your fragrance, cyclamens in your littleness. In this way you compose this beautiful crown of love that makes the thorny crown of my sorrow break into blossom.
By the sign I give you in the color of my visage, I want to show you that I am Mother for all, and today I share in all your needs, and I rejoice in your joys. But I also suffer in all your numerous sufferings.
When a mother is happy and jumps for joy, you see the color of her face become rosy; when she is worried about the fate of her children, you see her face turn completely pale. If this happens to an earthly mother, it also happens to me, and the sign I give you, so human and maternal, is to tell you that as Mother I truly share in all the moments of your life.
When you suffer, I suffer. When you rejoice, I rejoice. When you are good, I jump for joy. When you love me, my face is all aflame because of the joy you give me.
By the sign I give you with the fragrance I exude, sometimes of lesser, sometimes of greater strength, I wish to show you that I am always among you, but especially when you are more in need of me.
If you do not recognize the perfume, or you notice it in a very faint way, it is not because I do not love you, or because you are wicked. The Mother loves with merciful predilection even those who have the greatest need for her!
Understand then why my maternal compassion goes out to sinners, all, but especially those who are furthest away, those most in need of divine mercy.
Appearing at Fatima, I taught you to pray to Jesus in this way:'Bring all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy.' I love all, beginning with the furthest away, those of my children who are sinners, for whom I am a secure and maternal refuge.
Look at my merciful eyes which shed tears of sorrow and compassion. In so many parts of the world I give this sign, causing copious tears to stream from my eyes, even tears of blood. To give a sign of my presence and to accord to your lives a secure support, and amid the tribulations you are living, to call you to joy and to trust,
in so many parts of the world, I am still giving my maternal messages. They announce to you the certitude that I am following you and I am with you; I lead you by the hand along the difficult road of this time of purification.
A fragrant sign of my maternal presence is to be found in the apparitions I am still making in many regions of the world. Yes, in these times I am appearing in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, in America, and in distant Oceania.
The whole world is wrapped in my mantle. In the struggle, now conclusive, between me and my Adversary, my extraordinary presence tells you that my victory has already begun. My beloved children, how much I love you!
From you, to whom I have given so much, this I ask: that you increase your love for me!..."--To The Priests-Our Lady's Beloved Sons, MMP (2009). Interior locutions to Fr. Stefano Gobbi, MMP [1973-97]; #283, pp. 383-85
*Italics and bold print are emphasis of the blog author.
