BLESSING OF MAY 7^TH , 2005. 1^ST SATURDAY OF MONTH
AT PRADO NUEVO. EL ESCORIAL (MADRID).

Our Lady:

Today I’m wearing the golden cloak to bless all the people of the Prado. Raise all your objects; all will be blessed for every soul that comes to this place.

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

COMMENTARY UPON MESSAGES

April 2^nd , 1982

At the very beginning of this messsage, Luz Amparo transmits Our Lord’s sorrow for the immorality of men, "Yes, my daughter, tell the whole humankind (...) they must change their lives, they must cover their bodies modestly, they must not commit so many sins, they must stop offending God"

How much the sin of impurity offends God! A well- known saying in ascetic life sets that " God punishes the proud with the humiliation of impurity". Opposed to the Sixth Commandment and to the Ninth one, impurity is not the greatest of all sins but it is the root and source of many of them; Our Lady actually pointed out in December 8^th 1982, " My daughter, imitate my purity...the most important virtue is purity". She does not say purity is the greatest or the most outstanding virtue; She actually says it is the most important one; Therefore, She emphasizes its importance if we consider it as the root of many other virtues.

Although this message talks about the sexual modesty, this term has several meanings.(1) Here it refers to decorum, propriety and decency; It is a natural quality God gives to human beings when He creates them and it leads us to cover those parts of our body considered as the purest; this physical or corporal modesty conveys an almost invincible repugnance to leave our bodies completely naked. From the point of view of virtue, modesty is a special quality that protects us against temptations and, consequently, we will have to answer for it before God; somehow, it may be considered as a son of the virtue of purity. Nowadays, permissiveness is actually widespread although offences to modesty werealways punished by the Law.

Appart from this, the supernatural modesty or holy embarrasment produces modesty and humbleness in a soul and this virtue pleases greatly Jesus’ and Mary’s Hearts; there are souls that are full of virtues and they do not want honours, they posses the divine goods and they behaviuor as if they did not have them, they feel a kind of embarrasment when realizing they have been touched by the Holy Ghost that sanctifies them. Indeed, did Our Blessed Mary not blushed because of this holy and spiritual modesty? Did this modesty not conquered God? The more She descended in he humbleness, the more She was ascended by God with sublime virtues. The full of Grace, being discovered in her candorous purity before The Most High’s eyes in the Annunciation, was troubled at Saint Archangel Michael’s words; at the same time, resting in her , The Most High was comforted by the lowliness of his servant"(2).

The intellectual modesty prevents us from expressing our thoughts because of humbleness, pride or fear of others taking advantadge of our knowledge.

The modesty of feelings refers to an inclination to avoid showing our most inner emotions and their manifestations ( sorrow, suffering The feelings of love make us blush when they are discovered by others or we, tears, great joy, etc) which we generally experience in solitude. think they have come to be known.

Finally, the modesty of behaviour refers to the way of acting. Especially, the expressions of love make us feel embarrassed when others see us; Indeed, although they may not be bad, they produce a feeling of self- restraint.

" I wish you knelt down to receive Me; if it’s possible, non-consecrated hands may not touch My Body"

Our Lord expresses two wishes related to the Eucharist: we should kneel down to take Him and, if it is possible, we sould receive Him directly in our mouth, which would please him, knowing this widespread practice of taking the Holy Communion standing up and on our hands. Our lady will talk about it later, " How little respect to the Eucharist, my children! How many times I have said, " It does not please either Me or My Son that non- consecrated souls touch His Body, my children! ( 5-7-1986)

On the one side, the process towards this general and current praxis of taking the Holy Communion on our hands has lead to many questions that require an explanation; as it would be too long, we will only bring to our minds one of the primary documents about this controversial aspect. The Letter Memoriale Domini ( De modo Sanctam Comunionem ministrandi),written by Sacred Congregation for the Divine Worship ( 28-5-1969), was a special order of Paul VI and it was prepared to set the way of giving the Communion. It expresses the conclusive decision of the Pope on such a delicate matter, " Therefore, taking into account the warnings and advices of those appointed as bishops by the Holy Ghost to rule the Churches,by reason of the seriousness of the matter and the power of the arguments adduced, the Supreme Pontiff does not consider suitable changing the way, received a long time ago, of administering the Holy Communion to the faithful , ( in other words, in your mouth as it had been done up to that moment). However, this text (nn. 17-18) includes the priviledge of giving the Communion on the hand as a pardon; therefore, this is a priviledge, opposed to the Law, which exempts the beneficiaries from the law of taking the Communion in the mouth and it allows them to do so on the hand.(3)

On the other side, the current regulation of the Church lets us kneel down to take the Communion, " The Church - John Paul II said- has always demanded respect and reverence to Eucharist from the faithful when receiving it. With regard to the way of coming up to Communion, the faithful can kneel down as well as stand up to take it" ( Inestimabile Donum). Saint Paul, knowing perfectly what he was saying, inspired by the Holy Ghost, wrote in an imperative way, "So that at the name of Jesus all knees should bend in heaven, on earth and among the dead, and all tongues proclaim that Christ Jesus is the Lord to the glory of God the Father" ( Phi 2, 10). Consequently, any Christian can kneel down before the consacrated Host; Therefore, with respect to to these two points, are Our Lord’s and The Blessed Virgin’s wishes at Prado Nuevo "misguided"?

To finish with, let us neither fight nor quarrel to defend our views on this matter although we have the right to receive the Communion in our mouth and, if the circumstances allow us to do so, we can keel down. Moreover, let us not judge those who do it in a different way if that is permitted in their Diocese.

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1 - Universal Enciclopedia I, Espasa Calpe. The Spanish word referred to is “ pudor” which has been translated into “ modesty”.

2 - De las Virtudes y los Vicios C. Cabrera de A.;México, 1976;pp. 54-56.

3 - Comunión en la Mano. Documentos e Historia, Mons. Juan Rodolfo Laise ( Bishop of Saint Luis, Argentina), 1997