I welcome all of you to the first blog post on our new Mysterium Christi website! Every few weeks I will upload a new post — some update from the ministry of the house, or an archived teaching from Father Peter. As we begin, it is only appropriate to revisit an important document that was written by Father Peter Hocken (who died in June 2017) and Mrs. Therese Celmer (still living in Gaithersburg, Maryland) which is called the Maranatha Vision Manifesto. This document captures the reason for the existence of this house on Wienerstrasse 15, Hainburg — a place dedicated to the preparation of the return of the Lord in glory!
And so I quote here the opening statements of the Manifesto:
The Spirit and the Bride say “Come”!
“Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.” (Rev. 22: 20). This is the deep cry of the Holy Spirit from the heart of God: that Jesus will come again. This is the longing the Holy Spirit imparts to the Bride. The growing union between the Spirit and the Bride will hasten this Day.
Every outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God upon the Church brings to life in the faithful the “blessed hope” of the visible return of Our Lord Jesus Christ in glory. This 20th century has seen the rise of major streams of the Holy Spirit in the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. Since the 1960’s all Churches, including the Catholic Church, have been touched by this torrent of blessing. Not only have the Churches been touched, but for the first time since the early centuries of the Church the Holy Spirit has been raising up congregations of Jewish believers who acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah (Yeshua) while continuing to affirm their Jewish identity and Jewish life-style.
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the 20th century represents an intensification in the Lord’s preparation of the Church for the return of Jesus, to make the Bride ready for the wedding feast of the Lamb. The Holy Spirit works to make whole and to restore fullness to the Body of Christ so that a holy and united people can be presented to Christ and to the Father. The Holy Spirit is the steward of the grace of preparation, the sole preparer of the Church for the Lord’s Coming.
The Lord is raising up servants of the Spirit, announcing the hope of the Church, so that the Church awakened by the Spirit can prepare for the Coming and rejoice in the anticipations of the Coming with which the Lord graces his people. This work of preparation involves a deepened revelation of the Father’s love, an intensity of union with Jesus and a radical obedience to the Holy Spirit. This Trinitarian work transforms believers at every level of their humanity.
Father Peter’s gravestone in Hainburg bears witness to this calling — and the Word of God that is written there still cries out for the coming of the Lord in glory.
So, let us cry out together with the Spirit, “Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus!” We pray that we will have the courage to live as Father Peter lived, in obedience to the Spirit and with a wide vision of the Spirit’s work in the world.
— Sr. Mary Paul Friemel, October 14, 2019