BECAUSE we have not listened. We have not heeded a consistent warning from Heaven that the world is creating a future without God.

Today, I want to speak to my brothers and sisters in the Church who hold the following position: “I do not have to believe in private revelation because it is not necessary for salvation.” This is only partially true. In the words of Pope Benedict XIV:

“One may refuse assent to private revelation without direct injury to Catholic Faith, as long as he does so, “modestly, not without reason, and without contempt.” —POPE BENEDICT XIV, Heroic Virtue, Vol. III, p. 397; Private Revelation: Discerning with the Church, page 38

That is to say, that if we have “reason” to believe that God himself is speaking to us, we actually have an obligation to assent to it, particularly when it involves directives according to His Divine Will:

He to whom that private revelation is proposed and announced, ought to believe and obey the command or message of God, if it be proposed to him on sufficient evidence… For God speaks to him, at least by means of another, and therefore requires him to believe; hence it is, that he is bound to believe God, Who requires him to do so. —BENEDICT XIV, Heroic Virtue, Vol III, p. 394

Thus, this commonly stated notion that one can simply dismiss “private revelation” out of hand is inaccurate. Moreover, it is a false notion that God has ceased speaking to the Church since the death of the last Apostle. Rather, what has ceased is the “Public Revelation” of Christ and all revelation that is necessary for salvation. That’s all. It doesn’t mean that the Lord has nothing more to say.

…even if Revelation is already complete, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries. —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 66

Jesus said this himself!

I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. (John 16:12)

How can we say, then, that the “more” God has to say to us is not important, that we can simply ignore him? Doesn’t this sound absurd? It’s not only absurd, it’s dangerous. Humanity rests on a precipice precisely because we have lost the child-like capacity to hear His voice and obey.

 

A CUP OF TEA WITH MOTHER?

Why is God sending His mother to earth to speak to us if it is not important? Has she come to have a cup of tea with her children or assure little old ladies with rosary beads how nice their devotion is? I have heard this kind of condescension for years.

No, Our Lady has been sent by the Holy Trinity to tell the world that God exists, and that without Him, there is no future. I will give two examples of why disregarding this “private revelation” is not only foolish, but wreckless.

You have heard of Fatima, but listen more carefully again to what Our Lady 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. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war [World War I] is going to end: but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the Pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. 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. —from the “Third Memoir” of Sr. Lucia, August 31st, 1941, for the Bishop of Leiria-Fatima in a message from Our Lady in 1917; “The Message of Fatima”, vatican.va

Despite the “miracle of the sun” to confirm Our Lady’s words, the Church took thirteen years to approve the apparitions, and then several more decades after that before the “consecration of Russia” was made (and even then, some dispute that it was done properly since Russia was not explicitly mentioned in John Paul II’s “Act of Entrustment.”^[1]) The point is this: our delay or non-response objectively resulted in World War II and the spread of Russia’s “errors”—Communism—that has not only claimed tens of millions of lives all over the world, but is poised to drag us into World War III as the communist state North Korea points its weapons at the West.^[2]

The second example is in Rwanda. In the approved apparitions to the seers of Kibeho, the young seers saw visions in graphic detail of the coming genocide—some 12 years before it occurred. They conveyed Our Lady’s message of the call to repentance so as to avert catastrophe… but the message was not heeded. Most ominously, the seers reported that Mary’s appeal…

…is not directed to only one person nor does it concern only the current time; it is directed to everyone in the entire world. —www.kibeho.org

PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD

This is all to say that our refusal to listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd—whether it is through Our Lady, or through His prophets positioned throughout the world—is done at our own peril. You see, many dismiss these men and women as “prophets of doom and gloom.” The truth is this: it is we, not they, who determines what kind of prophets they are. If we listen to them, then they are prophets of hope, peace and justice. But if we ignore them, if we dismiss them out of hand, then they are indeed prophets of doom and gloom.

We decide.

This Advent, we are accustomed to hearing the Gospel proclaimed:

A voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.’ (Matt 3:3)

If you travel through the Rocky Mountains of Canada, there are several ways through. The southern route is very windy, steep and slow. The central route is more straight and level. So it is with the future of this world. It is we—the “free will” response of humanity—who will determine whether we are to pass through the straight and level roads of peace and accord, or the valley of the shadow of death. Our Lady of Fatima promised, “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world”. But she made no guarantees of which road we would take to get there, because that is up to us.

…prophecy in the biblical sense does not mean to predict the future but to explain the will of God for the present, and therefore show the right path to take for the future. —Cardinal Ratzinger (POPE BENEDICT XVI), “Message of Fatima”, Theological Commentary, www.vatican.va

Right now, in various parts of the world, Our Lady continues to speak to the Church with specific instructions on what we are do to do at this hour. But who is listening? Are we continuing to rationalize away if not ridicule her voice, which is both the “rod” and “staff” by which the Good Shepherd is guiding His sheep? It would seem so, as her messages, while continuing to offer hope, also warn now of great spiritual dangers here and coming. They warn that the world is entering into a phase that, while ultimately it will see the Triumph of her Immaculate Heart, it will come through the arduous, winding, and painful roads that we have refused to straighten.

Everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. (Matthew 7:26)

Picking a photo for today’s blog was hard. The tears of fathers, mothers and children all over the world was heartbreaking. Heaven weeps with us, most of all, because the possibility of joy and peace is always within our grasp—but never in our hands. Oh, how the free will of mankind is at once a marvelous and terrifying thing!

One more voice to discern…

Dear children, I am the Immaculate Conception. I come from heaven to encourage you and make you men and women of faith. Open your hearts to the Lord and make of Him the little ark where the truth will be preserved. In this time of great spiritual confusion only those who remain in the truth will be saved from the great threat of the shipwreck of faith. I am your Sorrowful Mother and I suffer for what comes to you. Listen to Jesus and His Gospel. Do not forget the lessons of the past. I ask you everywhere to seek to witness to the love of My Son Jesus. Announce to all without fear the truth announced by My Jesus and the true Magisterium of His Church. Do not retreat. You will yet see horrors everywhere. Many chosen to defend the truth will retreat out of fear. You will be persecuted for your faith, but stand fast in the truth. Your reward will come from the Lord. Bend your knees in prayer and seek strength in the Eucharist. Do not be discouraged by the trials that will come. I will be with you. —Pedro Regis of Brazil; his bishop continues to discern his messages, but has expressed, from a pastoral point of view, very positive fruits from the apparitions there. ^[3]

Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away, and that the Lord may grant you times of refreshment and send you the Messiah already appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the times of universal restoration of which God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old… Everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be cut off from the people. (Acts 3:19-23)