BLESSING OF APRIL 3 ^RD 2004 . 1^ST SATURDAY OF MONTH.
AT PRADO NUEVO. EL ESCORIAL (MADRID)

Raise all your objects; all will be blessed with a special blessing to protect you against the enemy.

I bless you as the Father blesses you, through the Son and with the Holy Spirit.

COMMENTARY UPON MESSAGES

January 8 ^th, 1982

Some parts of this message are commented on along these lines. Firstly, Our Lord says:

"I am constantly giving them opportunities to save themselves, I am offering my Mother to them because I know they are weak and they fall into the same sin once and once again"

Nowadays, Our Lady’s function is really important; it has always been so although during the first period of the Church, the development of her function was more concealed somehow. Indeed, Saint Louis Mary Grignion of Monfort pointed out wisely: " The world’s salvation started by means of Mary, and by means of Her it must reach its prime. Mary was hardly manifested during the first coming of Jesus Christ so that men, who were little learned and illuminated about her son, did not move away from the truth attaching too strongly and imperfectly to the Mother because of her wonderful charming-even in her appearance- given by the Most High, as it would have surely happened if She had been known".

Besides, he includes a noticeable example: "It is so true that Saint Dennis the Areopagite wrote when he saw her that he would have regarded her as a divinity because of her secret charming and incomparable beauty if his faith, which was well founded on, had not taught him the opposite (…) Nevertheless, in the second coming of Jesus Christ, Mary must be known and revealed by the Holy Ghost in order that Jesus Christ is known, loved and served by means of her, for the reasons that moved the Holy Ghost to conceal his wife during her life and manifest her partially since the Gospel began to be preached do not exist now"

"Love one another as I have loved you, to the point of fulfilling my Father’s will. I fulfilled my Father’s will and I shed My Blood till Its last drop to redeem you from sin"

After these words, He shows Luz Amparo some moments of his Passion. Recently, a new film has been released, The Passion. Although it is a human work and – therefore - it is not perfect, everybody should watch it.

Thus, the Prefect of the Congregation for Clergy, Cardinal Darío Castrillón, said, ‘ This film leads the audience to prayer and reflection, to a true and heartfelt contemplation (…) watching this film produces feelings of love and compassion. It makes the audience try to love more, be strong and good, no matter whatever happens, as Christ did before his terrible suffering (…) all priests should watch The Passion. It is a triumph of art and faith’

Meanwhile, Juan Orellana, manager of the Cinema Department of the Spanish Episcopal Conference regards the film as ‘ cinematographically and christianly great’.

Besides, the chairman of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, John P. Foley, pointed out, ‘ The work will be a moment of ‘authentic meditation’ for those who watch it’

Finally, the film’s director, Mel Gibson, said, ‘I wanted to express the greatness of the sacrifice as well as its horror, but I also wanted a film with moments of true lyricism and beauty, and a permanent feeling of love because, all things considered, it is a story of faith, hope and love. In my opinion, it is the greatest Story we could tell’.

As a matter of act, this movie deals with a basic topic in Prado Nuevo’s spirituality. Indeed, Our Lady said at the beginning of the apparitions, ‘ I am Our Lady of Sorrows. I want a chapel to be built in this place in my honour. I want people to come here from all over the world to meditate on the Passion my Son endured, because it is forgotten’ (14^th June 1981). Therefore, the Australian director’s film will undoubtedly help to make Our Lady’s wish come true; by the way, She has a decisive role in the movie.

Let us read some scenes contemplated by Luz Amparo; some of them will surely remind you of moments of the film:

'I see a woman, she comes out from crowd, she takes a cloth, she gives it to The Lord whose face is bloodstained; The Lord wipes the blood off his face, He gives it back to that woman (…)

The Lord’s walking fatigued, He can’t stand it anymore, He’s going uphill, stumbling over stones. They reach the top, the mount; The Cross is laid there on the ground (…)

Now they’re nailing His right hand, they begin to stretch his left arm but the log is longer than his arm and it doesn’t reach the hole they’ve made (…), They’re stretching his arm violently; The Lord’s writhing in pain (…) Poor Him! My God! When they’re nailing him, the sound of the hammer can be heard; blood‘s welling out his hands. In pain The Lord ‘s writhing (…) his feet are being bound with a rope. He begins feeling the hammer on his feet. He looks up the skay, the whole face is bloodstainee! The Lord is speaking, he looks at, to the sky, and asks his Father to help him’

Immediately after, Our Lord explains Luz Amparo the meaning of those images:

'Yes, my daughter, this torment you feel is what I feel everyday for those souls who injure Me with so many impurity sins. And how they profane My Body! They do it daily; they are nailing me everyday; that is why I ask you, my daughter, to be victim of my Passion because I accepted with resignation my Father’s last will, which was suffering, suffering to the end; and I did everything to erase the sin of so many sinners so that they could reach my kingdom’

Finally, He asks her to be his Cyrenian to share the burden of The Cross with her:

‘I want you to be like that good man who helped me to carry The Cross, He was a great sinner but with how much love he was helping me to carry that Cross! that Cross of love!’