Why Fr. Michel Rodrigue? A Virtual Retreat

March 26, 2020

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

My joy is great today when I am with you to share the project of this new monastery that our Father in heaven has asked me to accomplish. My joy is amplified because this year marks the eve the 40th anniversary of apparitions in Medjugorje. Our Mother has been appearing and she is assuring us that her time is coming for the Triumph of her Immaculate Heart.

Why has God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit chosen us to realize, in our lifetimes, this project dedicated to forming the new priests who will lead the people of God into the era to come? Why are we involved in the project of our Father to serve in the reign of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary?

Is this not more than a question of curiosity? The answer is simple: it is essentially a participation in the Sacred Mystery of the role of our Mother who was chosen by the Merciful Father for the coming of Jesus into the world. As holy John Paul II has written in is encyclical Redemptoris Mater:

1. The Mother of the Redeemer has a precise place in the plan of salvation, for "when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'" (Gal. 4:4-6)

With these words of the Apostle Paul, which the Second Vatican Council takes up at the beginning of its treatment of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I too wish to begin my reflection on the role of Mary in the mystery of Christ and on her active and exemplary presence in the life of the Church. For they are words which celebrate together the love of the Father, the mission of the Son, the gift of the Spirit, the role of the woman from whom the Redeemer was born, and our own divine filiation, in the mystery of the "fullness of time."

This “fullness of time” indicates the moment fixed by our Father for the Incarnation of Christ, and at the same time, reveals the journey of the Church, bringing salvation through Jesus Christ. Another mystery is directly related to the Incarnation of Christ: the mystery of Pentecost. In the center of this mystery, the Mother of God was present with the apostles. First, by her Fiat, Christ, Head of the Church, entered this world, and then through her intercession for the Church, that is the Body of Christ, the “fullness of time” continues until Christ comes again!

Notice the fact that all those who know the coming of Christ in grace in our time are sons and daughters of Mary, our Mother. We are chosen for a special role: to be obedient to the Holy Spirit and our Mother Mary and to stand ready and able to help our brothers and sisters step into the journey of the Church.

Together we have received this mission, and we will fulfill it in the ways shown to us by the Virgin Mary: a new art of life imbued with prayer and offerings to our Father. Our home will be a refuge, our land will bear fruit, and the Day of the Lord will shine upon us. Before all these events, we will profess our faith. Our journey will be the journey of the Church, and the Virgin Mary will accompany us. She has already provided the arms for our own protection. The Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the Miraculous Medal, the Rosary, the Five First Saturdays of the month, the call to the Consecration to her Immaculate Heart and to the Sacred Heart of Jesus are gifts from Heaven. And now, Jesus wants His priests prepared and ready to reach out to His people: His Church. Are we arguing against this? No. We are willing to act in His will and to be humble servants, as Mary taught us during her life and in all of her apparitions.

My dear people of God, we are now passing a test. The great events of purification will begin this fall. Be ready with the Rosary to disarm Satan and to protect our people. Make sure that you are in the state of grace by having made your general confession to a Catholic priest. The spiritual battle will begin. Remember these words: THE MONTH OF THE ROSARY WILL SEE GREAT THINGS!

Dom Michel Rodrigue fabl

Father Stefano Gobbi

Italy (1930-2011) Priest, Mystic, and Founder of The Marian Movement of Priests

The following is adapted, in part, from the book, THE WARNING: Testimonies and Prophecies of the Illumination of Conscience, pp. 252-253:

Father Stefano Gobbi was born in Dongo, Italy, north of Milan in 1930 and died in 2011. As a layman, he managed an insurance agency, and then following a call to the priesthood, he went on to receive a doctorate in sacred theology from the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. In 1964, was ordained at the age of 34.

In 1972, eight years into his priesthood, Fr. Gobbi traveled on pilgrimage to Fatima, Portugal. As he was praying at the shrine of Our Lady for certain priests who had renounced their vocations and were attempting to form themselves into associations in rebellion against the Catholic Church, he heard Our Lady’s voice urge him to gather other priests who would be willing to consecrate themselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and be strongly united with the Pope and the Church. This was the first of hundreds of inner locutions that Fr. Gobbi would receive over the course of his life.

Guided by these messages from heaven, Fr. Gobbi founded the Marian Movement of Priests (MMP). Our Lady’s messages from July 1973 to December 1997, through locutions to Fr. Stefano Gobbi, were published in the book, To the Priests, Our Lady's Beloved Sons, which has received the Imprimatur of three cardinals and many archbishops and bishops worldwide. Its contents can be found here: http://www.heartofmaryarabic.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/The-Blue-Book.pdf

In the introduction of the de facto handbook of the MMP: To the Priests, Our Lady's Beloved Sons, it says of the movement:

It is a work of love which the Immaculate Heart of Mary is stirring up in the Church today to help all her children to live, with trust and filial hope, the painful moments of the purification. In these times of grave danger, the Mother of God and of the Church is taking action without hesitation or uncertainty to assist first and foremost the priests, who are the sons of her maternal predilection. Quite naturally, this work makes use of certain instruments; and in a particular way, Don Stefano Gobbi has been chosen. Why? In one passage of the book, the following explanation is given: “I have chosen you because you are the least apt instrument; thus no one will say that this is your work. The Marian Movement of Priests must be my work alone. Through your weakness, I will manifest my strength; through your nothingness, I will manifest my power” (message of July 16, 1973). . . Through this movement, I am calling all my children to consecrate themselves to my Heart, and to spread everywhere cenacles of prayer.

Fr. Gobbi worked tirelessly to fulfill the mission Our Lady entrusted to him. By March of 1973, about forty priests had joined the Marian Movement of Priests, and by the end of 1985, Fr. Gobbi had boarded over 350 air flights and taken numerous journeys by car and train, visiting five continents several times over. Today the movement cites membership of over 400 Catholic cardinals and bishops, more than 100,000 Catholic priests, and millions of lay Catholics around the world, with cenacles of prayer and fraternal sharing among priests and lay faithful in every part of the world.

In November of 1993, the MMP in the United States, based in St. Francis, Maine, received an official papal blessing from Pope John Paul II, who maintained a close relationship with Fr. Gobbi and celebrated Mass with him in his private Vatican chapel annually for years.

The messages that Our Lady gave to Fr. Gobbi through interior locutions are some of the most numerous and detailed regarding her love of her people, her constant support of her priests, the coming persecution of the Church, and what she calls the “Second Pentecost,” another term for the Warning, or the Illumination of Conscience of all souls. In this Second Pentecost, the Spirit of Christ will penetrate ever soul so forcefully and thoroughly that in five-to fifteen minute’s time, every person will see his or her life of sin. The Marian messages to Father Gobbi seem to warn that this event (and afterwards a promised Miracle and also a Chastisement or Punishment) were to occur at the end of the twentieth century. [Message #389] The messages of Our Lady of Good Success also mention that some of these events will occur in "the twentieth century.” So what explains this discrepancy in the world’s timeline?

“I am prolonging the time of mercy for the sake of sinners. But woe to them if they do not recognize this time of My visitation.” (Diary of St. Faustina, # 1160)

In the Blessed Mother’s messages to Fr. Gobbi, she stated ,

“Many times have I intervened in order to set back further and further in time the beginning of the great trial, for the purification of this poor humanity, now possessed and dominated by the spirits of evil." (#553)

And again to Fr. Gobbi she revealed:

"... thus I have again succeeded in postponing the time of the chastisement decreed by divine justice for a humanity which has become worse than at the time of the flood.” (#576).

But now, it seems, God delays no further. The events that the Blessed Mother foretold to Fr. Stefano Gobbi have now begun.

Note: About 23 years ago, a man and a woman in California, who were living together in a life of sin, began a profound conversion through Divine Mercy. The wife had been prompted interiorly to start a rosary group after experiencing her first Divine Mercy novena. Seven months later, a statue of Our Lady of the Immaculate Heart in their home began to weep oil profusely (later, other sacred statues and images began oozing fragrant oil while a crucifix and statue of St. Pio bled. One of those images is now hanging in the Marian Center located at the Divine Mercy Shrine in Massachusetts). This led them to repent of their living situation and enter a sacramental marriage. About six years later, the man began audibly hearing the voice of Jesus (what are called "locutions"). He had next to no catechesis or understanding of the Catholic Faith, so the voice of Jesus both alarmed and entranced him. Even though some of the Lord's words were of warning, he described Jesus's voice as always beautiful and gentle. He also received a visitation from St. Pio and locutions from St. Thérèse de Lisieux, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Michael the Archangel and dozens from Our Lady while in front of the Blessed Sacrament. After conveying two years of messages and secrets (known only to this man and to be announced at a future time known only to the Lord) the locutions stopped. Jesus told the man, "I will cease speaking to you now, but My Mother will continue to lead you." The couple felt called to start a cenacle of the Marian Movement of Priests where they would meditate on the messages of Our Lady to Fr. Stefano Gobbi. It was two years into these cenacles that the words of Jesus came true: Our Lady began to lead him, but in the most remarkable way. During the cenacles, and on other occasions, this man would see “in the air” in front of him the numbers of messages from the so-called “Blue Book," the collection of the revelations Our Lady gave to Fr. Stefano Gobbi, "To the Priests Our Lady's Beloved Sons." It is noteworthy that this man does not read the Blue Book to this day (as his education is very limited and he has a reading disability). Over the years, these numbers that materialized would confirm on countless occasions the spontaneous conversations in their cenacles, and now today, the events taking place around the world. Fr. Gobbi's messages did not fail but are now finding their fulfillment in real-time.

Whenever these numbers become available to Countdown to the Kingdom, we will make them available here.

For a powerfully effective Marian consecration, order the book, Mary’s Mantle Consecration: A Spiritual Retreat for Heaven’s Help, endorsed by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone and Bishop Myron J. Cotta, and the accompanying Mary’s Mantle Consecration Prayer Journal. See www.MarysMantleConsecration.com.

Colin B. Donovan, STL, “Marian Movement of Priests,” EWTN Expert Answers, accessed July 4, 2019, https://www.ewtn.com/expert/answers/MMP.htm

See above and www.MarysMantleConsecration.com.

National Headquarters of the Marian Movement of Priests in the United States of America, Our Lady Speaks to Her Beloved Priests, 10^th Edition (Maine; 1988) p. xiv.

Ibid. p. xii.