December 08, The Hour of Grace for the World 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
The Hour of Grace for the World is celebrated from 12.00 PM to 1.00 PM at the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is connected with the revelation of Mary on December 8th, 1947, in Montichiari, Italy, where She said: It is my wish that every year, on the 8th of December, at noon, the Hour of Grace for the World be celebrated. Many divine and bodily graces will be received through this devotion. … This Hour of Grace will produce great and numerous conversions. Hardened and cold hearts resembling this marble will be touched by divine Grace, and they will become faithful to Our Lord in loyal love. … it is my wish that the Hour of Grace for the World be made known and spread throughout the world. … Soon one will recognize the greatness of this Hour of Grace. … If anyone is unable to visit his church, yet will pray at noon at home.
At the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow-Łagiewniki, the Hour of Grace is traditionally practiced in the chapel with the miracle image of Merciful Jesus and the tomb of St. Faustina. Please join all the Faustinum Members around the World in these prayers.
THE REQUEST OF OUR BLESSED MOTHER FOR THE HOUR OF GRACE:
1. Day and time of the Hour of Grace: December 8th, Feast of the Immaculate Conception, to be started at 12:00 noon and continuing until 1:00 p.m. for one full hour of prayer.
2. During this hour, the person making the Hour of Grace either at home or at church must put away all distractions (do not answer the telephones, or answer any doors, or do anything but totally concentrate on your union with God during this special Hour of Grace).
3. Begin the Hour of Grace by praying three times the 51st Psalm.
4. The rest of the Hour of Grace may be spent in silent with God meditating upon the Passion of Jesus, saying the Holy Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet praising God in your own way, or by using favorite prayers, singing hymns, meditating upon other psalms, etc.
The Hour of Grace on December 8 at 12:00 PM -1:00 PM
Not so many people have heard of the apparitions of Our Lady in Montichiari-Fontanelle, although the service known as the Hour of Grace has already been adopted in many parishes around the world. It falls on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary - December 8 from 12.00 PM to 1:00 PM. At its beginning are the apparitions of Our Lady of the Spiritual Rose in Montichiari
A small town in northern Italy, at the foot of the Alps, 20 km from Brescia, became known just after World War II. It was then, in 1946, first in Montichiari, and then - in the following years - in the slightly out of the way in the district of Fontanelle, Our Lady appeared many times to Pierina Gilli, a nurse from the local hospital. Thanks to these revelations, the town completely changed its character. In the old castle towering over the area, now called Mary's Castle, a center for the sick and the old was located, while at the Fontanelle spring - according to the wishes of Mary - a huge healing center with pools with healing water from the spring was built.
Pierina Gilli
As I mentioned, Our Lady's confidante was Pierina Gilli, born on August 3, 1911 in the village of San Giorgio near Montichiari. She came from a poor family with many children. After her father, Pancrazio, died of wounds sustained during World War I, little Pierina was taken to an orphanage run by nuns. The family's financial situation improved when her mother Rosa remarried and Pierina was able to return home. However, she was treated badly by her stepfather. In difficult times - as she recalled - she sang the Litany of Loreto to the Mother of God in order to stop his aggression.
At the age of 18, she started working as a nurse in a hospital in Montichiari. Convinced from childhood about the protection of the Mother of God, she wanted to enter the convent, but due to poor health and lack of a dowry, she was not accepted, but, she gave her life to Mary. She decided to practice works of mercy and penance at the same time. Influenced by spiritual inspiration, she made a private vow of chastity and refused to marry. The goal of the path she chose was her own sanctification, as well as offering penitential practices and suffering for priests and consecrated persons experiencing difficulties. She again applied for admission to the monastery at the age of 32. Although she was accepted into the Congregation of the Servants of Mercy, she did not take perpetual vows, mainly due to serious illnesses plaguing her. At the age of 35, she saw Our Lady for the first time.
Revelation of the Spiritual Rose
Pierina experienced the first apparition on November 24, 1946, while working in the hospital. She saw a crying Madonna with three swords plunged in her chest. Mary's robe was decorated with three roses: white, red and gold. Mary called herself the Spiritual Rose. The main message was a request to spread the cult of Our Lady of the Spiritual Rose for the sanctification of consecrated souls. When Pierina told her confessor about this vision, he did not understand, what's more - he ordered her to be silent.
During subsequent apparitions and mystical ecstasies, Pierina saw the Mother of God in various places: at home oratory, in a hospital room, in a home chapel, in churches ... Hundreds of people witnessed these apparitions. In numerous messages, Our Lady referred to great revelations: in Lourdes - calling herself the Immaculate Conception; in Fatima - wishing that in religious congregations devotion to her Immaculate Heart will be developed and that she will be venerate under the invocation of the Spiritual (Mystical) Rose; on rue du Bac in Paris - ordering the minting of a medal similar to the one from 1830, when the apparitions of St. Catherine Laboure took place. It seems from this that the messages of Mary in Montichiari turned out to be very ecclesial, and thus universal, hence the statues of Our Lady of the Spiritual Rose soon began to be placed in many churches around the world.
The phenomenon of these apparitions is the aforementioned Hour of Grace: 60 minutes between 12.00 PM and 1:00 PM on December 8, that is, on the Solemnity of Mary's Immaculate Conception. Here are her words: “I wish that every year on December 8 at noon the Hour of Grace for the whole world will be celebrated. Thanks to prayers in this hour, I will send many graces to soul and body. There will be mass conversions. Souls hardened and cold as marble will be moved by God's grace and will once again become faithful and loving God. The Lord, my Divine Son Jesus, will show great mercy if good people will pray for their neighbors. It is my wish that this Hour be spread. Soon people will know the greatness of this Hour of Grace. If anyone cannot come to church at that time, let them pray at home."
The Word of the Church
The apparitions of Montichiari were not approved by the Church for many years, despite the fact that they were confirmed by miracles of healings, light and solar phenomena seen many times in Montichiari, and even that Pope Paul VI had a statue of the pilgrim Madonna of the Spiritual Rose on his desk.
Bishop of Brescia Giacinto Tredici, who ultimately had to make a verdict on the truth of the apparitions without opposing them, suggested Pierina Gilli to live in hiding. She humbly followed his instructions and lived for many years in a modest house at the Franciscan monastery in Fontanelle, where she met pilgrims in her small chapel. She led a hermit life until her death. She devoted herself to prayer and penance, but never donned a religious habit. She died in the odor of sanctity on January 12, 1991, she did not live to see the approval of the apparitions. Her tomb and apparition sites are visited annually by over 100,000 pilgrims.
Another bishop of Brescia, Giulio Sanguinetti, seeing the statues of Mary with three roses on her chest or with three swords, conquer the world, on August 15, 2000, recognized the cult of Our Lady of the Spiritual Rose of the apparitions in Montichiari. He also sent a letter to two associations that spontaneously looked after the places of worship in Fontanelle. He informed them of the appointment of a priest Fr. Pierino Boselli director of the diocesan department of liturgy to deal with the matter of worship and apparition. Soon a new association was established in Montichiari, made up of the two existing ones, approved by the bishop and the parish priest of Montichiari, Fr. Franco Bertoni. Its purpose is to spread devotion to Our Lady of Fontanelle. This new association is called the Spiritual Rose - Fontanelle.
Recognition of the revelations of the Spiritual Rose resulted in even more numerous founding churches under this title, new religious movements emerged; also, many people who visit and get to know Montichiari discovered a priestly or religious vocation. So, although the apparitions in Montichiari-Fontanelle did not bring anything new either to theology or to Marian piety, it should be written that God always chooses only the known and appropriate moment for His message to the Church and the world. The message of Our Lady of Montichiari is a call for the endangered sanctity of priests and consecrated persons, it is a call to pray, to undertake works of reparation and penance, especially for those priests who are experiencing a crisis of faith, and often leave the path of their vocation or even openly fight against the Church.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george