Welcome to Lent. I pray that, through heartfelt devotion and overflowing zeal, you make it your holiest one yet. And if you could use any considerations to inspire you to make that leap, you’ll find plenty in this post. (In four words: The times demand it.) Please fast and pray especially hard for the suffering people of Ukraine. 

As we’re now within the very year that I had speculated (in a writing from 2018) might harbor the Warning, I should write an update to that post and explain why I am now even more convinced of the imminence of the Illumination of Conscience. That, I hope, will be my next post (subscribe with your email address here at DSDOConnor.com to be notified upon its release). For now, some words on the present crisis and the general prophetic picture are in order – though I’ll mostly save quoting the specific prophetic messages for the upcoming post.

Yet again, what was considered unthinkable mere months ago is now an unmistakable reality dominating even mainstream discourse. What was dismissed as “conspiracy” yesterday has today proved nothing but a “spoiler alert.” What was only weeks ago derided as “sensationalism” by the pundits supremely proud of the nonchalance of their pronunciations can now only be described as an understatement.

The leader of the country with the world’s largest nuclear arsenal just all but explicitly threatened nuclear war, insisting that if his takeover of Ukraine (and other countries doubtless to soon follow) is resisted by outside nations (and it will be resisted, at some point), that such a thing is precisely what will happen – in his own words, there will be:

 “...consequences you have never seen in your history.” – Vladimir Putin

These are the current words of the man who, less than 12 months ago – in a joint pronouncement with president Biden, no less! – said that nuclear war “cannot be won and must never be fought.”

I have no interest in attempting here to navigate the various narratives vying for our attention in this matter; I only seek to look plainly at what is transpiring and to consider its prophetic significance, regardless of whose geopolitical commentary ultimately winds up proving most accurate. 

“All will be humiliated, and peace will come only from Me.  And if you hear them say ‘peace’, it will not be true, but apparent.  Once I have purged everything, I will place my finger in a surprising way, and will give the true peace.  And then, all those who are humiliated will return to Me; and Germany will be Catholic – I have great designs upon her; England, Russia, and every place where blood was shed, will rise again to faith and will be incorporated into my Church.  There will be the great triumph and the union of peoples.  Therefore, pray – and it takes patience, because this will not be so soon, but it will take time.” –Jesus to the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta. October 16th, 1918. 

Putin’s words above were his superlatively ominous warning should anyone dare to get in his way. Words like this have never been spoken by a major nuclear superpower since the Cold War (were such grave threats even then ever publicly and explicitly spoken by the heads of Russia or the U.S.?). Even that comparison, however, does not do justice to the gravity of the present moment. There is nothing “cold” about the present war; it is entirely “hot.” Astute commentators have argued well that to call what we now have “Cold War II” would be a radical understatement. This is already World War III. Fiona Hill is a respected expert on Russia, and was recently interviewed by Politico. Although I do not agree with everything she says there, she concluded her remarks with a point whose prophetic significance she was doubtless unaware of:

” Putin’s opened up a door in Europe that we thought we’d closed after World War II.”

A door we thought was closed is in fact now open.

That is surely a valid summary of what confronts us. Our delusions of “peace and security” (1 Thessalonians 5:3) are about to be shattered. A bell has been rung, and honest experts who scrutinize the present situation realize that it cannot be un-rung. The demon that is World War may have been briefly cast out of the earth, only to have now returned, bringing “… seven other demons more wicked than itself… And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.” (Matthew 12:45)

After World War I – declared “The Last War” by secular modernity’s twisted notion of a “prophet” (HG Wells) – we likewise deluded ourselves into supposing that such a thing could not possibly happen again on account of the inherent and obvious folly of total, global war; a folly illustrated horribly for all to see from 1914-1918. Then came 1939. After World War II, however, and anything but learning our lessons, we even more foolishly assumed that the “mutually assured destruction” of nuclear war precluded the possibility of another confrontation between the world’s military superpowers. 

Now, 2022 (1939’s spitting image) has shown us that the very notion of “Mutually Assured Destruction” is not preventative, but prescient. 

Observe the history of weaponry’s development and answer me this: when have the nations ever gone very long without using the weapons that they have? Moreover, unlike in ages past, every world superpower’s current head of state is a thug. There are no “good guys” left among their ranks.

“Now, just as My Coming upon earth was Our Decree, so is Our Decree the Kingdom of Our Will upon earth… It is true that the times are sad; the peoples themselves are tired, they see all the ways closed to them, they can find no way out even for the necessary natural means; the oppressions, the demands of the leaders are unbearable-just penalty, since they have elected as leaders godless men, of evil life, without a just right to be leaders, who deserved a prison more than the right of regime…Poor peoples, poor children of Mine-under the regime of men without pity, without heart, and without the grace to be able to act as guides for their subjects…The nations will continue to fight against one another-some by war, some by revolution, among themselves and against My Church.  They have a fire in their midst that devours them, that gives them no Peace, and they can give no Peace.  It is the fire of sin, and the fire of acting without God that gives them no Peace; and they will never make Peace if they do not call God into their midst, as regime and bond of Union and of Peace.  And I let them do, and I will make them touch with their own hands what it means to act without God… [but] We [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit], with Infinite Wisdom, will abound with Graces, with Light, with Helps, with surprising Means, so that [people] may let the Kingdom of My Will Reign in their midst.  Therefore, let Me do; when it is your Jesus that has told you this, that’s enough-it is as though already done.  All evils and all creatures together have no power and no right over Our Will, nor can they prevent a single Act of Our Will, wanted by Decrees of Our Wisdom.”

-Jesus to the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta

As we proceed more deeply into the Year of Astronomical Twilight, we should not be surprised to see matters such as these grow ever more grave. This is exactly what the prophecies said was coming. 

What did you expect?

So, “…look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21:28)

Before offering, in my next post, my own speculations on why the Warning could easily be this year, let me consider one simple question for the “professional Catholic” scoffers. And in what follows in this post, I must be a bit stern, so forgive the tone if you find it unappealing. But the salvation of souls is at stake; for God is directing us to lifeboats as the Titanic sinks, while these scoffers are demanding that everyone stay on the deck and dance the night away.

What will it take for the scoffers to admit that we might just be in apocalyptic times?

For the last several decades especially – within the messages of Medjugorje, Fr. Stefano Gobbi, Garabandal, Akita, Kibeho, Pedro Regis, Gladys Quiroga, Alicja Lenczewska, Leandre Lachance, Elizabeth Kindelmann, Barnabas Nwoye, and so, so many others – Heaven has warned us that apocalyptic Chastisements (to be followed by the Era of Peace) are imminent. Anyone who reads these Heavenly messages can easily see a “prophetic consensus” emerge. Although the details naturally grow more precise as we move closer to the events, the essence of that consensus remains unchanged; it was summarized well by the theologian Fr. Edward O’Connor (see Page 458 here) over a decade ago, though even he was only summarizing what had long been known by those who followed the prophecies. 

Nevertheless, the scoffers scoffed. One popular career lay apologist (incidentally, she has since renounced the profession and now speaks against it) even had a hit piece against Fr. Gobbi prepared and ready to publish the very moment January 1st, 2000 came along – the date which supposedly heralded the refutation of Fr. Gobbi’s messages (in another upcoming post, I plan to argue that Fr. Gobbi’s messages are entirely correct and more important now than ever, although they were certainly misunderstood regarding what was said about that particular year.)

More recently, however – in just the last several years – the various Heavenly messages with which God has graced the Church have adopted an entirely new level of urgency and insisted upon a great degree of imminence of the long-prophesied events.

As I wrote in 2018:

“Now the prophetic consensus seems to hold that the world will — in the coming years — completely fall apart. A sort of “natural” chastisement; a consequence of our sins. … When this natural chastisement is at its worst (which will probably take another few years), God sends the Warning.”

The scoffers scoffed still more. “People have thought this before and have been wrong, you know!” was their mantra each time anyone (whose head was not buried miles deep in the spiritual sand) dared to openly ponder if the times may just have become apocalyptic. This knee-jerk dismissal was the scoffers’ sole rationalization for their thinly-veiled Deist position which essentially denounces the very charism of prophecy, even while paying some lip service to its theoretical possibility. Indeed, prophecy as a vague notion is somewhat tolerable to these folk in theory, so long as no prophecies are actually given. (A word to the wise: if the only argument against some proposition that a man can think of consists in complaining that people have presented that proposition before and had been wrong, then it is his position which is the weak one.) 

“These sensational predictions of global pandemic, famine, economic/social collapse, world war, and unprecedented natural disasters are highly unlikely,” they hypocritically pronounced – implying they themselves enjoyed the very prophetic insight that, in so many words, they deny the sheer possibility of. “What a distraction these private revelations are!” these “professional Catholics” patronizingly shouted at pious souls who were inspired to pray the Rosary, go to Confession, to fast, to read Scripture, to go to daily Mass, to evangelize; in a word, to strive to become saints – precisely because of these “distracting” private revelation’s urging them to be sanctified.

Meanwhile, the scoffers themselves displayed zeal only for flashy marketing campaigns and fundraising drives, compromise with and fixation upon worldly and secular themes, shallow academic pseudo-solutions to problems infinitely beyond the grasp of such methods, endless empty “dialogue,” desperate attempts to become liked and respected (or at least noticed) by the mainstream narrative generators, and glitzy conferences at 5 star hotels. 

Well, the next “few years” came along, and impeccably vindicated the prophetic consensus. God, we see, does not require the permission of the day’s professional Catholics to act.

First, 2019 came along. One alleged seer of many giving the same basic message – a certain Fr. Michel Rodrigue – told us that collapse was coming, so much so that he himself was not even to travel internationally after February 2020. He said that 2019’s Christmas would be the last normal one. He begged us to pray the Rosary, to get back to Confession, to consecrate ourselves to the Holy Family – and, yes, to prudently acquire 3 months’ worth of food if we could. 

As I wrote on February 6, 2020 (over a month before Covid was declared a pandemic and well before any Covid lockdowns existed outside of China), “…the long-prophesied events grow ever closer and the prophetic expectation reaches a veritable fever pitch…”

The scoffers scoffed. I and the many others proclaiming the same basic message were ridiculed for our “apocalypticism.” We were denounced as “fear mongering” (whereas you will have a hard time finding any writer whose message about the future is as hope-filled as the one I present). We were condemned by daring to consider that Heaven’s messages might just be worth heeding even before they are formally approved by the Church (recall that Kibeho – now an approved apparition – was only approved long after the genocide it sought to prevent took place), though we were also condemned for promoting the messages of approved revelations!

Then Spring 2020 burst forth, and vindicated all of what the scoffers had denounced. Nevertheless, the scoffers only scoffed ever more: “Once a vaccine comes we’ll be back to normal and all this apocalyptic nonsense will be put to rest!” The prophecies had something else to say. 

As I wrote in March 2020, summarizing their gist:

 “…here is one headline I recently saw, which I do indeed want to dispute: “This [Coronavirus] is the thing that this generation will remember.” No, it is not. Surely, this is a thing that will be remembered, but not the thing; not by a long shot. Though indeed tragic and unprecedented, the present trial is — in terms of temporal disarray — a mere inconvenience compared to what is coming soon.” 

Then 2021 arrived, and the vaccine did come. But it did nothing to end the Pandemic – that concluded, as all pandemics do, naturally – rather, the vaccine only caused matters to grow ever more apocalyptic, instituting a degree of worldwide totalitarianism never before seen, to the point of even completing the Infrastructure of the Antichrist.   

And here we are in 2022. Now that the pandemic already enabled the Infrastructure of the Antichrist to near completion, the nefarious powers that be are – right on cue – letting it fade into oblivion, and the next stage in the Chastisements has arrived: War, and the far more complete societal collapse that War will soon bring with it, and the even more severe persecution and Communist tyranny that this collapse will enable. All of this has been orchestrated in advance, of course. 

Here I must again draw attention to what I wrote recently; December of last year:

And here we are in March 2022, just shy of three months after that writing, with the excuse for the New Tyranny at the very doorstep. Am I claiming that Bill Gates orchestrated what is happening over in Europe now? No. But at the minimum, he’s clearly privy to inside information on the laying down of the Infrastructure of the Antichrist, and what I wrote in December stands: he put a “deadline” on Covid Tyranny knowing that the elite would soon be able to replace it with a new tyranny, even if he himself did not orchestrate that new tyranny.

All this, too, is exactly what the prophecies said. Namely, that the apocalyptic Chastisements would quickly follow one after the other, without intermission: that, after Pandemic, there would arrive War, Economic Collapse, Social Collapse, and Persecution  (then, the Warning, Reprieve, Refuges, Antichrist, Divine Chastisements, and Era of Peace). 

What are the odds – pray tell – that, according only to happenstance and not prophetic import, one clearly apocalyptic and unprecedented dynamic (Covid/Tyranny/2020/2021), itself foretold by the prophecies, would be immediately followed by another causally distinct, though equally clearly apocalyptic and unprecedented dynamic (War/Collapse/2022), also foretold by the prophecies?

Slim to none. 

Yet, it is exactly what we now see (though only the very beginnings – stay tuned and buckle your seat belt), and it is exactly what Heaven has warned us would happen. Yes, God is about to perform surgery on this world. Like any good surgeon, He does not lie to His patients about the difficulty of the procedure; saying it will only be a “pinch” when in fact it will be much more, or that we’ll be up and running the next day, when in fact months of difficult physical therapy will be needed. 

The backdrop of all this is the Great Apostasy, which – perhaps more than any other danger– the prophecies have been warning us about for the last several years. The prophecies have incessantly begged us to remain with the True Magisterium, and to reject anything that contradicts it or Sacred Scripture. They have warned that heresy, blasphemy, idolatry, sin, and error of all sorts would reach the very highest heights of the Church that Divine Providence could possibly allow them to reach. 

Now, we see LGBT ideology infecting every level of the Church, Cardinals bluntly stating that infallible Church Teaching is “false,” a “Synod of Synods” that appears poised to seek to overthrow Catholic Faith and Morals, an “ecumenism” that appears directed towards invalidating the Mass, and on the list goes. The scoffers issue their customary scoffing, assuring us that all of this Apostasy is actually just “dialogue, the spirit of Vatican II, synodality,” or whatever else. They meticulously argue that everything happening in the Vatican is just fine – nothing to see here – and that every opinion of Pope Francis is entirely correct, whereas they insist that the problem is only with these “racist, homophobic, mysognist, medieval” traditional  minded Catholics who are “too stupid and backward” to accept change.  

Thankfully, we still have good shepherds left who have not rejected their duty to guard against the wolves. Among them, Cardinal Muller:

***

But don’t worry, all that is happening now was actually “unlikely” to happen … according to the scoffers. Just like they regard the other imminent Chastisements, the Warning, the reign of the Antichrist, and the Era of Peace as “unlikely,”  or even “impossible.” Just like, pre-2019, they regarded everything that 2020 and 2021 saw as “unlikely.” (… or “fabulist” or “sensational” or “conspiratorial” or “doom and gloom” or “fear mongering,” or whatever other unthinking catch phrase they use.)

Are you seeing a pattern?

One example is worth acknowledging, as his approach encapsulates what St. Peter warned us against in Scripture:

“... remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. First of all you must understand this, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own passions and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming?…” (2 Peter 3). 

A Canadian “independent scholar” who contributes to a left-wing Catholic blog, he has – since May 2020 – devoted himself to writing a series of articles denouncing the “Marian Apocalypticism” of myself, Mark Mallett, Archbishop Vigano, Michael Matt, TFP, LifeSiteNews, Fr. Mark Goring, Bishop Joseph Strickland, Dr. Ralph Martin, and others. In one such hit piece, he assured his readers that St. Louis de Montfort’s prophecies of the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary can be “…simply brushed aside as private revelation or speculation that we should not worry ourselves too much about...” thereby alluding to the very closet-Deism that motivates the positions he shares with most other scoffers. To be sure, we should always be very discerning with private revelations (and never confuse even authentic ones for public revelation – see Part Three of Thy Will Be Done); but to suppose that one can simply categorically and glibly “brush aside” Heaven’s messages because they say what one does not want to hear is a sure way of inching one’s efforts into the camp of the Antichrist, even while superficially heeding Catholicism. This appears to be precisely what has happened in the case of the writings of the scholar in question (I of course do not know his heart and I make no judgment on that!). He openly praises the Great Reset (yes, he wrote an entire article dedicated to singing its praises), Covid mandate tyranny, heterodoxy in Catholic faith and morals, while demeaning tradition, orthodoxy, and Heaven’s messages (and attacking anyone who promotes any of it). And, with a type of blindness so absolute that only a scholar could suffer from it, it seems he cannot even see what has happened to himself. But the point here is not about him; he is only one example – one small pawn among what is now an army (within the Church) of scoffers which the devil has raised up – by appealing to their vain desire to be taken seriously by the worldly – to counter prophecy. 

Therefore, I already know the answer to my hypothetical question, “What will it take?” In other words, the question:

How many times do the prophets have to be right before the scoffers set aside their pride and take these prophets seriously?

Yes, I know the answer…

…It will, in tragically many cases at least, take the scoffer’s particular judgment. Not even the Warning itself will change all of them. Many of the professional Catholic scoffers will simply side with the secularists in seeking to dismiss that Great Event, too, even after it happens. Consider that the Pharisees themselves had their moment of enlightenment, upon Christ’s death on the Cross – only to shortly thereafter return to persecuting Christians. Today’s scoffers, denouncing Our Lord in their own way, will boast of the Titanic’s unsinkability even as it begins plunging into the depths of the abyss, while busily dialoguing on its deck chairs and laughing at those getting into lifeboats.

Until their deaths, many of these scoffers will continue to scoff. They’ve made an existential choice to scoff, come what may. They’ve decided that it’s just who they are. They’ve decided that any private revelation – which is what even The Warning itself will be … even once it happens! – can simply be “brushed aside.” Indeed, ordinary sinners who have not crafted sophisticated intellectual defense mechanisms against Heavenly interventions will fare much better during and after the Warning than will the Catholic Pharisees who know only how to smugly dismiss Jesus’ words today.

Therefore, my point in presenting the paragraphs above is not to try to convince the scoffers of anything (I know I won’t succeed in that), but only to exhort ordinary pious souls to stop listening to them. The scoffers do not fear God; they only fear risking appearing foolish in the eyes of the worldly, and a loss of profits for their “apostolates” (that is, their business endeavors), and as they regard seers and private revelation in general as competition, they will do what any other worldly business does – continue to attack the competition. 

Yes, it is time to take prophecy seriously. The primary aspect of prophecy, however, is not predicting details of the future. That is one small component of it which we should take seriously, but not allow to become our focus.

The primary aspect of prophecy, rather, is proclaiming God’s Will regarding our response to the times that God, from all eternity, has chosen for us to live in.

What He wills of us is what matters. All that really matters. Our marching orders here are clear. I’ve been fanatically devoting myself to trying to disseminate these marching orders for years now. Thy Will Be Done is, I believe, my most effective attempt yet, so I’ll again beg you to read that and promote it. 

Therefore, as you look ahead to what is coming, banish all fear. The absolute commitment to refuse to entertain fears is one of our clearest marching orders. Do also consider this: we have already endured two years of Chastisements. They were difficult, but you made it, didn’t you? The same God who carried you through them will carry you through what is yet to come. In fact, He will only increase His grace and Heavenly protection – not merely in proportion to the increase in the severity of the Chastisements, but rather, far exceeding their increase. Focus only on doing what He is asking you to do. Let this Lent be the most powerful one you have ever lived. Examine every crevice of your conscience and root out all sin, all vice, all doubt, all fear – all self will. Confess your sins more wholeheartedly than ever before and, upon receiving absolution, recommit yourself to pursue sanctity — and its crown, Living in the Divine Will — with more zeal than ever before in your life. Your reward will be great beyond comprehension, and you will aid in the salvation of countless souls more quickly and powerfully than you ever thought possible. 

Nothing but God’s Will can happen.

Jesus, I Trust in You.

Thy Will be Done.

Fiat.