December 2, 1976

BRANCHES SEPARATED FROM THE VINE

My son, write:

Faith in my Eucharistic presence among you is not enough; no, son, not all priests who celebrate in sin, sacrilegiously, are without faith; the majority of them have it, in a weakened manner, but they have it. Nevertheless, they are terribly mediocre priests; they believe in Me, but they feel an aversion toward Me, caused by the state of sin in which they find themselves.

When a priest is in sin, he voluntarily interrupts the action of actual graces in his soul, that is to say, the impulses of grace that God, infinitely good, gives with liberality to souls in measure and proportion to their receptivity, and thus, while he shuts his soul to God, he opens it to the demon, who can then, without difficulty, influence the souls of the guilty ones, even to the point of making them his slaves.

If a priest does not feel himself attracted to the Tabernacle, he is a stem without a root; he is a branch separated from the vine. A priest who feels no attraction for the Tabernacle, where Love dwells, can have only a fruitless spirit.

Today, how many priests are there, my son, in this state of aridity and spiritual fruitlessness? They are so many, that you could not count them!

We have some allies

Son, I want to give you an explanation about the doubt that entered your spirit at this moment; you thought if a priest in sin has broken every relation with God, he can give nothing and can receive nothing from God; he passes into the orbit of Satan , and then there will no longer be hope of salvation for them. Is it not, thus?

I answer you: It is not thus, my son; you shall never forget the great battle between the powers of evil and the powers of good the action of the Guardian Angel, of the holy patron saint, and the action of the blessed of Paradise. This battle is now unfolding; it is now happening, and it will end only at the end of time.

The souls in grace have the duty of not falling into sin, but the action of the darksome, forces of hell will not cease until, the moment of death.

Therefore it is not enough to believe in the Eucharist, an ineffable mystery, of which the priest is also an artisan, but it is also necessary for the priest to be conscious and aware of the role that God has reserved for him in this great mystery.

In Holy Mass the priest, with Jesus and with the Mother, is the protagonist of the mystery of the Cross, a participant of the royal and eternal priesthood of Jesus; he lives his priesthood in these moments as at no other time, with Christ and with the Mother, offering himself like Christ and like the Mother to the Father, for the remission of sins, and in this offering is the true and efficacious source of salvation, his own and that of other souls.

I repeat, that if a priest is not convinced of this supernatural reality, he is like one who throws a most precious gem of incalculable value into the garbage, not knowing and therefore not appreciating its beauty nor its worth.

This offering that the priest should renew with Jesus and with the Mother, every time that he celebrates, is very important, for it should be an efficacious offering, that is to say, it should cause the annihilation of his ego, as in Jesus and the Virgin Mary, and this means the moral and spiritual immolation of oneself. Did not Jesus do so in this manner? NON MEA, SED TUA VOLUNTAS FIAT: Let not my will, but thine, be done.

To be a magnet

This is what makes a priest holy; this is what makes a priest fruitful; this is the source of the fermenting leaven of grace for souls and for all pastoral action, that the priest should realize.

The priests of today, with the exception of the truly fortunate ones, are arid and sterile, fruitless dry branches, good only for burning, in spite of the very high fever that agitates them and makes them active to excess.

Holy Mass, celebrated in a perfect communion with Christ and with the most Blessed Virgin, with the same finality with which Christ continues immolating himself and the Virgin who offers herself, will be, for the genuine and holy priest, the terror of the demons, who will see themselves deprived of innumerable souls.

The holy priest who celebrates his Mass in union with Me and with the Mother, is the object of God's love, and at the same time a powerful magnet for all souls who need help and spiritual consolation. In him these souls will perceive the perfume of Christ; they will see in him another Christ; the good odor of Christ will go forth from him; it is in this way that the priest becomes a co-redeemer with Me, according to my Heart

I Only in this way will the holy priest be a priest without pretense, that is to say, without simulation; his limpid and pure soul will be the mirror of many, many souls.

The priest who is truly holy is, and will be convinced, that he alone is not responsible for souls, for his activity and for his apostolate, but rather he well knows, and is convinced,. that the protagonist of Redemption is Jesus; the priest knows that he is a collaborator who was chosen, and believes deeply in the words: "It is not you who have chosen Me, but I have chosen you." (Jn 15, 16).

I bless you, son; pray, and love Me greatly.