Preparing for Christ--Remember your last end--Death Judgement!

Preparing for the Coming of Christ!

 “Remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin.”

November is the Month dedicated to the Poor Souls and signifies the approach of Advent the Liturgical Season given to us by the church to remind us once more of our need for repentance and spiritual conversion. 

Advent was given to us by the church not only to prepare us for the anniversary of the birth of Jesus on Christmas but also, Advent is a time for reflection on the coming of the Lord at the end of our lives and his final coming  in glory at the end of time! Modern man is frantically running from the reality of his own death. Poor simple man is tempted to believe he is something that he is not before his peers and even before God! Advent is time to stop and take stock of who God is and who we are as we stand before him.

Modern Man is Frantically 

Running From The Ultimate 

Reality of His Own Death!

Hieronymus Bosch  “Death of a sinner”, angel and devil weigh a mans soul

      

Busy, modern man is so busy today. Man is so frantically busy, trying to control his own personal destiny and good fortune. In the process he unwittingly makes today's technological advances his God and, in extreme cases, the computer screen has become his tabernacle. The hours he spends looking at the world through the lens of the computer screen. Man is looking for a window to solve his thirst for knowledge. Often a knowledge without God in the picture. The knowledge acquired through the computer is  ultimately only  a knowledge of finite earthly things. Man is still thirsty afterwards. The computer cannot quench the thirst for the knowledge of infinite heavenly realities, but only leaves man thirsting more. Thirsting for answers only God can give.  Having this unlimited source of knowledge at his finger tips man is deceived into believing he is in control of all the images (visions) from the depths of the ocean to the outer reaches of the universe available to him. 

Today's Great Lie and

the serpents deception

 "The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.…Genesis 3:4-6

With this instant knowledge available to men of this age from the computer of good and evil.  Man is tempted once more as in the garden of Eden.  He believes he can finally solve and ultimately control all the mysteries of the universe without God.  Even the spiritual mysteries  of life and death!  This is the Great Lie once again proposed to man from the first original sin in the Garden when Adam ate the fruit from the tree of life!  

The technology depending on how man uses it can become the ultimate deception wrapped up  packaged by the devil and given to men of this age!  Poor simple man he  is once more tempted to believe he is something that he is not before his peers and even before God!

  Technology muffles the voice of conscience
Another victory of the devil that technology has brought us! Men no longer hear the voice of conscience! With all the noise, seductions  and distractions around us Technology muffles the voice of conscience. Without  a conscience man no longer can hear the truth about himself and the truth about God. I fear if we persist down this slippery slope God will allow us to have faith in whatever it is we put faith in.  If we don't turn back to  God in prayer, he may (if he has not already) send the strong delusion described in, Thessalonians 2:11. 


In other words a time may come that God will not permit the deluded to repent. Hence this little catechesis on the 4 last things: Death, Judgment, Heaven or Hell and reality of purgatory as mentioned by the events of Fatima. 

Michelangelo's- The Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel

 

Fatima and the Four Last Things

DEATH, JUDGEMENT - HEAVEN OR HELL

One of the best meditations on Death is the Dies Irae a meditation on the Last Judgment, when Christ will come again in glory, no longer granting mercy, but as the Just Judge who will separate the just from the wicked, casting the latter into eternal fire, and welcoming the former to eternal bliss. The hymn closes with a supplication for mercy before the coming of that terrible day.

The video below is Mozart's Rendition of Dies Irea and it is a powerful piece making one tremble at the coming Judgment. the Day of Wrath.  The Gregorian Chant of Dies Irea   on the other hand, is more somber and reflective giving one hope in God's Mercy at that final hour of our own death or his second coming.  This is chanted during Funeral Masses in the Extraordinary form in the Tridentine Mass! Makes one hope to be buried with that Mass and those prayers to follow you into eternity.

Day of wrath, day that will dissolve the world into burning coals, as David bore witness with the Sibyl. How great a tremor is to be, when the judge is to come briskly shattering every grave. A trumpet sounding an astonishing sound through the tombs of the region drives all men before the throne. Death will be stunned and so will Nature, when arises  man the creature responding to the One judging. The written book will be brought forth, in which the record of evidence is contained whence the world is to be judged. Therefore when the Judge shall sit, whatever lay hidden will appear; nothing unavenged will remain.

 O Thou, God of Majesty, nourishing brilliance of the Trinity,  join us with the Blessed.  What am I the wretch then to say? what patron I to beseech? when scarcely the just man be secure. King of tremendous Majesty, who saves those-to-be-saved free, save me, Fount of piety.

Remember, faithful Jesus, because I am the cause of your journey: do not lose me on that day.

Thou has sat down as one wearied seeking me, Thou has redeemed me having suffered the Cross: so much labor let it not be lost. Just judge of the avenging-punishment, work the gift of the remission of sins before the Day of the Reckoning. I groan, as the accused: my face grows red from my fault: spare this supplicant, O God.O Thou, God of Majesty, nourishing brilliance of the Trinity, join us with the Blessed.Thou who forgave Mary the sinful woman, and favorably heard the good thief, hast also given me hope.  My prayers are not worthy, but do Thou, Good God, deal kindly lest I burn in perennial fire.

Among the sheep offer me a place and from the goats sequester me, placing me at Thy right hand. After the accursed have been silenced, given up to the bitter flames, call me with the blest. Kneeling and bowed down I pray, My heart contrite as ashes: Do Thou  care for my end

That sorrowful day, on which will arise from the burning coals Man accused to be judged therefore, O God, do Thou spare him. Faithful Lord Jesus, grant them rest. Amen. O Thou, God of Majesty, nourishing brilliance of the Trinity, join us with the Blessed. Amen

      At Fatima a Vision of Hell

The Ultimate Justice of God

For Unrepentant Sinners

Mary is the Model Catechist

Our Lady of Fatima did not ask the permission of the parents of Jacinta, Francisco and Lucia before showing them the vision of hell. Remember that Jacinta was barely six years old!  This reminds us that children do not belong to their parents they are only entrusted to them by God. God expects parents to instruct and form them in His ways; to know love and serve Him so that they will have the opportunity to be happy with Him forever in Heaven!  Thus the outrage of abortion. Destroying God's creation in your child that was given to you in order to reflect His image in the world.

The reality of Hell should be taught to children using the same methods our Lady used at Fatima the Model Catechist.  Appealing to their generous hearts by teaching them to help save others from going there. Having this knowledge they will be able tomake the right choices to save themselves from going there as well. Our Lady in showing young children a vision of Hell lead us to understand that children can also go there! Children can and do commit grave sins, even murder. They  have the natural law impressed on their souls so they know right from wrong.  However, we should never under estimate a childs capacity to do good and for self sacrifice. Our Lady at Fatima also showed us how great the heart of a child can become when properly formed! Even to heights of heroic sanctity.



The children saw countless numbers of people who were endlessly falling into the fiery flames.  Our Lady sadly looked upon them as she said "You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart.” And then she told them the secrets of Fatima that are connected with this vision. Material for another post someday.

The Vision of Hell

In the third apparition of July the children were given a vision of hell the ultimate Justice of God for unrepentant sinners. Our Lady pointed to the earth and the light from her hands the light from her hands penetrated the earth and opened the ground so that the children could peer into the depths and could see hell. Lucia describes  it for us: "As our Lady spoke she opened Her hands once more, as She had done during the two previous months. The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were an ocean of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. (It must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me.) The demons could be distinguished (from the souls of the damned) by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent.This vision lasted only a moment, thanks to our good Heavenly Mother who,  at the first apparition, had promised to take us to Heaven. Without this promise, I think we would have died of fright.

The reality eternity was already impressed on this young mind and the possibility of some souls spending an eternity in hell! This thought impressed Jacinta the most. She often called Lucia and Francisco she would ask: "Are you praying with me? It is necessary to pray much to save souls from hell! How sorry I am for sinners who go there and burn forever like wood in a fire! If I could only show them hell so they would not go there!"  Even after she was taken sick, she would get out of bed to bow her head to the floor, and pray as the Angel had taught for the glory of God, and in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended in the tabernacles throughout the world and for the conversion of poor sinners.

Photo taken after the Vision of Hell note the anxious expressions

Many years later Lucia said she believed that most people go to Hell because of sins of the flesh. If souls can be condemned to hell because of one unrepentant mortal sin for all eternity is it not to be understood that other souls could be detained for long years in purgatory who have committed countless deliberate venial sins for which they have had little sorrow and had done little or no penance. The guilt that has been remitted by absolution, but the temporal punishment will have to be paid in purgatory.

 Scriptures say someday 
God Will Send 

A Strong Delusion

I feel it is here in our day!

I wonder if the scriptures of 2Thessalonians2:9-12 is in the beginnings if not already being actualized today! 9The coming of the lawless one with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them a strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

We are spending  more and more time involved in this technology to do what we think are great things! What was supposed to save time for human relationships has become a time consumer. Often we no longer have time for true prayer.  A prayer that enables an openness of soul to God a readiness and receptivity in order to be always praying, (Luke 18:1) and always listening to hear his voice when he whispers to our souls in the silence.  We have lost this form of prayer because there is no longer silence for modern man our ears are plugged into something all day! 

The Message of Fatima confirmed  

the Reality of Purgatory

God’s Mercy vs. God’s Perfect Justice

Why not say the 5 last things 

and include Purgatory?

Purgatory is only temporary end before the final end in Heaven so it is not considered to be one of the last things. However Purgatory is such an important dogma of the church. Incredibly so many Catholics are ignorant of Purgatory so do nothing to avoid it themselves and little or nothing to help the Poor Souls who are there, suffering intensely, as they wait for Masses and prayers to be offered for them. That is why Our Lady brought up the reality of Heaven and Purgatory in her first appearance to the children. Only after strengthening them with the graces given in both the May and June apparitions did the children experience another reality of a place called hell. 

The painting below of Our Lady of Mt Carmel, the 'Throne of Mercy' and 'Queen of the Angels', who takes great delight in sending her Angels to release those Souls mercifully pardoned by her Son Jesus through the prayers and supplications of the church!

This painting is similar of Our Lady in Lucia's Parish Church!
This was how Lucia recognized that it was Our Lady of Mt. Carmel
who also appeared during the Miracle of the Sun in October

During Our Lady's First Visit to Fatima in May Lucia–the oldest of the three, after being reassured by Our Lady that they would all one day go to Heaven. Jacinta and Francisco would go soon and she would go but not right away because it was the will of God that she help promote the devotion to her Immaculate Heart to save poor sinners. Lucia found the courage and asked Our Lady about two of her friends who recently died: "Is Maria das Neves is in Heaven?" "Yes" answered Our Lady, "she is in Heaven."  She also asked about another friend, Amelia. Our Lady answered: "She will be in Purgatory until the end of the world."

Amelia's Fate is a 

Warning for All of Us!

Amelia was eighteen years old when she died. She is in Purgatory and will, on the testimony of Our Blessed Mother, stay there until the end of time.  Let us take to heart and make certain that her fate will not be our own. What could she have done to merit such purgation in those days and what about us and the sins committed in our era?

Why such a lengthy expiation?

The malice of sin is great. What we think are small faults are in reality serious offenses against the infinite goodness of God. Look how the saints wept over their smallest faults. We are weak we say and it is true but God is always there for us offering us graces to strengthen us and giving us lights to see the gravity of our sins. We do not use the lights and graces he so generously offers us, and we do not receive the sacraments as we should.

The saints committed few and slight sins they sorrowed much over them and did severe penances. We commit many and grave sins and we sorrow little and do little or no penance. For the majority of us who do make the positive decision to serve God and are not yet properly prepared (humble enough) to enter Heaven, the only choice is to make the transition to goodness in Purgatory. Our Lord tells us that we shall have to render an account for each and every idle word we say (Matthew12:36 ) and that we may not leave our prison until we shall have paid the last farthing. (Matthew 5:26).

All Venial Sins

Must also be Atoned for!

All sins mortal and venial accumulated for 20, 40, or 60 years of life. Each one has to be atoned for after death. Is it a wonder that souls have to remain so long in purgatory? It cannot be calculated the immense number of venial sins we commit on a daily basis. Faults of self love, selfishness; in thoughts words and deeds.  Acts of sensuality, faults of charity; laziness, vanity, jealousy, tepidity.  Then the sins of omission that we give no credence too. Do we ever thank God as we should for all his blessings given to us?  He waits for our visits day and night in the tabernacle; do we go? He dies for us every morning at Mass and gives innumerable graces to those who participate longing to come into our hearts in Holy Communion. We are too lazy to attend this Calvary. We have luxurious homes, food, clothing while many in the world live in hunger and misery.  Life is given to serve God and save our souls but we are satisfied if we give God five minutes of prayer in the morning and evening and the rest of the 24 hour day is given to work, rest and pleasures.  

And Mortal Sins?

Unfortunately, Most of us have committed mortal sins in our lives and if we confess them we do not make satisfaction for them. Do we return what we have stolen or make charitable contributions to the poor if we cannot. Did we restore the good name of the other who we maligned with our slander or calumny? The tongue can murder another as well as a gun or knife and change the direction of the life of someone for good or ill! St. Gertrude in her revelations indicated that those who have committed many grave sins and have not done due penance, may not share in the ordinary suffrage's of the church for a very considerable time! The venerable Bede also indicated that the justice of God may demand that those who pass a great part of their lives in repeated and unrepentant mortal sins and confess them on their death bed, may be detained in purgatory until even the last day.

We would do well to remember that the best means of lessening our term in Purgatory -- or of avoiding it altogether -- is to have clear ideas of it, to think well and often on it and to adopt the means God offers for avoiding it.   Not to think of it is FATAL. It is nothing else than preparing for ourselves a long and rigorous Purgatory!

The servant of God Fr. John Anthony Hardon, S.J. said many times: “Only the very chaste and very humble shall enter Heaven; No one else! No one else! No one else!”

    Jesus Meek and Humble of Heart
    Make Our Hearts Like Unto Thine!

Fr. Hardon and the Catholic Dogma of Purgatory                     

                  

Further Meditations on the Four Last things

 Divine Providence brought a little booklet titled READ ME or RUE IT  by Fr. Paul O'Sullivn,O.P.  The cover promised that the pamphlet would be a Revelation for many who would read it and it was for me.  I paraphrased portions from this booklet within this post. I also want to mention the Classic Meditations on the Four Last things: DEATH, JUDGMENT, HELL and HEAVEN by Fr. Martin Von Cochem O.S.F.C.  whose quote is one of the titles of this post and will be an valuable source for further meditations. Links for both booklets can be found at the end of this post.

READ ME or RUE IT  by Fr. Paul O'Sullivn,O.P.

Classic Meditations on the Four Last things:

DEATH, JUDGMENT, HELL and HEAVEN by Fr. Martin Von Cochem O.S.F.C.

 

This Post was submitted to Catholic Bloggers 2014 Advent link up

A Priest Never Belongs to Himself He is to be Configured to Christ!

Does Our Consecration 
as Priests

 extend to the Daily Reality of our Lives?

Pope BenedictXVI at the Holy Thursday Chrism Mass   criticized dissent from church teachings as illegitimate pathways toward reform and renewal. In the presence of  1,600 priests, bishops and cardinals, the pope cautioned against calls for women’s ordination, saying such campaigns seemed more “a desperate push” to fulfill one’s own preferences rather than a sincere attempt to conform one’s life more closely to Christ. The pope said he wanted to use the occasion to ask all priests, including himself, to meditate upon what their consecration really means.

Do we operate as men of God in fellowship with Jesus Christ? This question places the Lord before us and us before him. “Are you resolved to be more united with the Lord Jesus and more closely conformed to him, denying yourselves and confirming those promises about sacred duties towards Christ’s Church which, prompted by love of him, you willingly and joyfully pledged on the day of your priestly ordination? We need,  I (also) need, not to claim my life as my own, but to place it at the disposal of another – of Christ. I should be asking not what I stand to gain, but what I can give for him and for others. Or to put it more specifically, this configuration to Christ, who came not to be served but to serve, who does not take, but rather gives – what form does it take in the often dramatic situation of the Church today.

  

           

A Priests Concern should always 

be for the Salvation of Souls!

We are concerned with the salvation of men and women in body and soul. Zelus animarum leads to salus animarum.  No one should ever have the impression that we work conscientiously when on duty, but before and after hours we belong only to ourselves. A priest never belongs to himself. People must sense our zeal,  through which we bear credible witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us ask the Lord to fill us with joy in his message, so that we may serve his truth and his love with joyful zeal.

A Priests Near Death Experience 
Changes His Life!

While reading the Comments and various news reports of the Pope's address to the Priests on Holy Thursday. I recalled a program I saw on Mother Angelica Live in the late 1980’s about a priest who had a near death experience and how it changed his life.  Fr. Steven Scheier was involved in an accident in 1985 while traveling back to his parish. He had a head-on collision with a pickup truck and with Jesus who had condemned him to Hell.

Fr. Scheier was standing before the judgment of Jesus. He doesn’t know how long it lasted. He says the Lord took him through his entire life, and showed him every incident how he had failed in his priestly service. Before the accident he was thinking there would be time to convert but during his judgment scene, Jesus told him there is no more time. He said he knew he was talking to Truth and when you are talking to Truth you can’t give excuses. At the end of his judgment, his sentence from Jesus was hell. Fr. Scheier said “yes” as that was the only logical thing he deserved.  However, because of his devotion to Our Lady, (he was saying Hail Mary’s aloud as he was dying and then recovering) He was favored by God to have another chance.   At that moment, he heard a woman’s voice say, “Son, will you please spare his life and his eternal soul?” 

The Lord replied, “Mother, he’s been a priest for 12 years for himself and not for me, let him reap the punishment he deserves.” “But Son,’ she said, ‘if we give him special graces and strengths . . . then let’s see if he bears fruit; if not, your will be done.” There was very short pause, after which Jesus said, “Mother, he’s yours.”

I hope by including his story in this post it will help someone to save their own soul.  We so easily put blinders upon our eyes and excuse ourselves from grave faults. Bishops, priests and laity take advantage of the time God has given you today to serve Him!  Pray to God that he will show us the truth about ourselves today! It is not guaranteed we shall see tomorrow!   

Click alsoWindow’s Media Player: Fr. Schierer Interview with Mother Anglelica

       
 A priest for himself not for Me!

Father survived the accident but did not recall his near death experience until he was fully recovered and returned to his parish ministry. One day when celebrating Mass, the Gospel was about the fig tree (Luke 13:1-9).     When he was reading the Parable of the Fig Tree the words leapt off the page to him, especially the order to cut down the fig tree but getting a reprieve of one more year to bear fruit. As he read the Gospel he recalled his near death experience.  He finished Mass as best he could and back at the rectory

He remembered the spiritual conversation that had taken place shortly after his accident. In that conversation Fr. Scheier found himself standing before the judgment of Jesus. He doesn’t know how long it lasted. He says the Lord took him through his entire life, and showed him how he had failed in his priestly service. Fr. Scheier said “yes” to everything Jesus said about his life. Before the accident he was thinking there would be time to convert but during this judgment scene Jesus taught him there is no time. Now before Jesus he was talking to Truth and when you are talking to Truth you can’t give excuses. At the end of his judgment, his sentence from Jesus was hell. Fr. Scheier said “yes” as that was the only logical thing he deserved. At that moment, however, he heard a woman say, “Son, will you please spare his life and his eternal soul?” The Lord replied, “Mother, he’s been a priest for twelve years for himself and not for me, let him reap the punishment he deserves.” “But Son,” she said, “if we give him special graces and strengths then let’s see if he bears fruit; if not, your will be done.” There was very short pause, after which Jesus said, “Mother, he’s yours.”

                             

                         

 The Parable of the Fig Tree

"Look here, for three years now I have been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and finding none. Cut it down: why should it be taking up the ground?” “Sir,” the man replied, “leave it one more year and give me time to dig round it and manure it: it may bear fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down.” Click for complete  Homily by Fr. Tommy Lane   

The Pope mentions a group of Austrian Priests' Calling for Disobedience

Recently a group of priests from Austria issued a summons to disobedience, and at the same time gave concrete examples of the forms this disobedience might take, even to the point of disregarding definitive decisions of the Church’s Magisterium, such as the question of women’s ordination, for which Blessed Pope John Paul II stated irrevocably that the Church has received no authority from the Lord. Is disobedience a path of renewal for the Church?

We would like to believe that the authors of this summons are motivated by concern for the Church, that they are convinced that the slow pace of institutions has to be overcome by drastic measures, in order to open up new paths and to bring the Church up to date. But is disobedience  really a way to do this? Do we sense here anything of that configuration to Christ which is the precondition for true renewal, or do we merely sense a desperate push to do something to change the Church in accordance with one’s own preferences and ideas?

Surely Christ himself corrected human traditions which threatened to stifle the word and the will of God? Indeed he did, so as to rekindle obedience to the true will of God, to his ever enduring word. His concern was for true obedience, as opposed to human caprice. He lived out his task with obedience and humility all the way to the Cross, and so gave credibility to his mission. Not my will, but thine be done: these words reveal to us the Son, in his humility and his divinity, and they show us the true path."

Let Us Pray for Our Priests! 

Priests at the Holy Thursday Mass

Lord Jesus, you have chosen your priests from among us and sent them out to proclaim your word and to act in your name. For so great a gift to your Church, we give you thanks. We ask you to fill them with the fire of your love, that their ministry may reveal your presence in the Church. Since they are earthen vessels, we pray that your power may shine out through their weakness. In their afflictions let them never be crushed in their doubts never despair; in temptation never be destroyed; in persecution never abandoned. Inspire them through prayer to live each day the mystery of your dying and rising. In times of weakness send them your Spirit, and help them to praise your heavenly Father and pray for poor sinners. By the same Holy Spirit put your words on their lips and your love in their hearts, to bring good news to the poor and healing to the brokenhearted. And may the gift of Mary your mother, to the disciple whom you loved, be your gift to every priest. Grant that she who formed you in her human image, may form them in your divine image, by the power of your Spirit. Amen

Also see: 

 A Priests Concern should always be Salvation of Souls!

 Bloggers Banter over Traditions!

 The Priestly Blessing is an Epiphany for those with faith!

Videos:

Direct Window’s Media Player: Fr. Schierer Interview with Mother Anglelica

Embedded Sancte Pater Blog:    Fr. Schierer Interview with Mother Angelica

The Divine Mercy Novena and The Spark that Would Come from Poland!

 

Novena to Divine Mercy

"On each day of the novena you will bring to My heart a different group of souls and you will immerse them in this ocean of My mercy ... You will beg My Father, on the strength of My passion, for the graces for these souls." 

Click on each day for links to prayers:

DAY 1 (Good Fri.)       All mankind,and poor sinners.

DAY  2 (Holy Sat.)       Priests and religious souls

DAY 3 (Easter Sun.)    Devout and faithful souls

DAY 4 (Easter Mon.)   Souls with no faith

DAY  5 (Easter Tues.)  Separated brethren

DAY  6 (Easter Wed)   Meek, humble and Children

DAY  7 (Easter Thurs) Souls who venerate my mercy

DAY  8 (Easter Fri.)     Souls who are in purgatory

DAY  9 (Easter Sat.)     Lukewarm Souls 

The Chaplet of Divine Mercy

The Chaplet of Divine Mercy  The Chaplet can be said at any time, but the Lord specifically asked that it be prayed as a novena, especially on the nine days before the Feast of the Divine Mercy starting on Good Friday. And He promised: “By this Novena of Chaplets I will grant every possible grace to souls” (Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska 796).

Remember to pray the Regina Caeli (Queen of Heaven) from Easter Sunday until noon on the Saturday before Pentecost  Instead of praying the Angelus during the Easter Season --See end of post for prayer and Gregorian Chant    

The Spark from Poland that will

Prepare World for My Final Coming 

We are all worried about our country and concerns for its economy and for the erosion of our  religious freedoms. St. Faustina  also worried and prayed for Poland: "Jesus, I beg You for my homeland; protect it against the assaults of its enemies" (Diary of St. Faustina, 119).  

Jesus responded to  St. Faustina as she prayed:
"I bear a special love for Poland, and if she will be obedient to My will, I will exalt her in might and holiness. From her will come forth the spark that will prepare the world for My final coming" (Diary, 1732).   

At the time it seemed as though this prayer of hers had failed.  Poland was conquered, fractured by the Nazi regime and later she was swallowed up by Communism.  It seemed her prayer to Our Lord was not answered.  However, the beginning of  the answer to her prayer and Poland’s  deliverance from Communism began on October 16, 1978. Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, Archbishop of Kraków was elected Pope, taking the name John Paul II.  

This event had an electrifying  unifying effect  for Poland.  Even under Communist rule, Poland  was one of the most devoutly Catholic nations in Europe. The election of a Polish pope the spark from Poland (Diary, 1732). was  the beginning of her political  freedom. God has honored Poland by lighting on her soil “the spark" giving us Bl. John Paul II  who  traversed the entire globe building up the kingdom of God so that it was preached in every land and nation!

Divine Mercy and the End Time

The exact timing is the Lord's But of that day and hour no one knows, not the angels of heaven, but the Father alone  Mat. 24:36   It seems that we have reached a certain critical phase of the end times that  had its beginnings with the Church.

Pope John Paul II alluded at the consecration of the Shrine of Merciful Love in 1981  making note of  the "special task" assigned to him by God" in the present situation of man, the Church and the world."  He urged us "to implore God's mercy for humanity in this hour of history ... to beg for it at this difficult, critical phase of the history of the Church and of the world as we approach the end of the second millennium." (Rich in Mercy 15)

 

It's  ironic that many of the most religious people of Christ's time  who were actively practicing their religion and  even though they awaited the promised Messiah  they were not able to recognize Him when He came. They even condemned him to death on the cross.  The Pharisees, devoted to their rules, and rituals that over the years, had become so important that their real meaning had been lost. They talked a lot of about God, but none of it had touched their hearts.  They were not living the way He wanted them to live.  “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me" (Is 29:13).  

 

Mary Mother of Mercy 

Mary Mother of all graces and Mother of Divine Mercy, Defend us from our enemies and receive us at the hour of our death. O Mary Mother of Mercy, Implore for us the Mercy of your Son!

Our Lady also spoke to St. Faustina: “You have to speak to the world about His great mercy and prepare the world for the Second Coming of Him who will come, not as a merciful Savior, but as a just Judge. Oh how terrible is that day! Determined is the day of justice, the day of divine wrath. The angels tremble before it. Speak to souls about this great mercy while it is still the time for granting mercy. (Diary635).

The Words of the Our Lady to St Faustina are similar to the Fatima Message. There is a sense urgency in them. Like the message of Fatima, it is the same urgency of the Gospel, "The time is accomplished, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent, and believe the gospel.”Mark1:15

"If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world."

Our Enemy is not Evil Around us,
Our Real Enemy is Sin Within us!

Are we not faced with a similar circumstances as we await the final coming of the Lord?  Paul writes in second Thessalonians: “The coming of the lawless one whose coming is according to the working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and lying wonders, And in all seduction of iniquity to them that perish; because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. In order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth but took pleasure in wickedness" 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12

                The Church's Final Trial                

 675 “Before  Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.”Read more: Catechism of the Catholic Church and the last days                                                                                                           

Unceasingly the Church Implores
 God's  Mercy for Everyone!

April 30, 2000 View of  St. Peter's Square Institution of Feast of  Divine Mercy

Speak to the world about My mercy ... It is a sign for the end times. After it will come the Day of Justice. While there is still time, let them have recourse to the fountain of My mercy.(Diary 848)  Read more

Words of Blessed John Paul II: “At no time and in no historical period -- especially at a moment as critical as our own -- can the Church forget the prayer that is a cry for the mercy of God amid the many forms of evil which weigh upon humanity and threaten it. "The more the human conscience succumbs to secularization, loses its sense of the very meaning of the word "mercy," moves away from God, and distances itself from the mystery of mercy, the more the Church has the right and the duty to appeal to the God of mercy with loud cries!”  June 7, 1977  Divine Mercy Shrine in Lagiewniki, Poland .(Dives in Misericordia, n. 15).

  The Regina Caeli

Remember to pray the Regina Caeli (Queen of Heaven) from Easter Sunday until noon on the Saturday before Pentecost  Instead of praying the Angelus during the Easter Season     

                                   

 

  The Regina Caeli (Queen of Heaven)

V/.  Queen of Heaven, rejoice.  Alleluia.  
R/.  For He whom you did merit to bear.  Alleluia.

V/.  Has risen as He said Alleluia 
 R/.  Pray for us to God.  Alleluia. 

V/.  Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary.  Alleluia 
R/.  For the Lord has truly risen.  Alleluia.

  
V.  LET US PRAY. 

R. O God, Who by the Resurrection of Your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, have been pleased to fill the world with joy, grant, we beseech You, that through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, His Mother, we may receive the joys of eternal life, through the same Christ Our Lord.  Amen.