“I was alive during World War II, and it wasn’t this bad even back then.”

This I overheard one man say to another last week as I was out and about my daily endeavors — back when things were nowhere near as bad as they are today as I write this post … under government mandated lockdown in New York and deprived of what has been the anchor of my daily life for the last 12 years — Mass and Holy Communion.

But I do not write this post to reiterate sentiments akin to the one above: almost every article generated every day in the mainstream media is doing precisely that:

“Apocalyptic.” “The Sky is Falling.” “This is not a recession: it’s an ice age.” “This is without precedent.” “Life will never be the same again.” “The world will never be the same again.”

These are the types of headlines one is constantly seeing even in the very mainstream media outlets that are regarded for their cool-headedness. And I will not dispute the validity of these headlines.

But there is one headline I recently saw, which I do indeed want to dispute:

“This 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. (I give an important qualification on this point later in this post)

It is with absolutely no flippancy or glibness that I chose the title for this article: my wife will be delivering our fourth child any day now, and I know full well that the first birth pang, while it will be quite painful for her, will be only a preview of what is to come thereafter. 

But it is also with no sense of  “doom and gloom” or “fear mongering” that I chose the title for this article, either: despite all the pain of labor and delivery, it is itself nothing compared to the glory and the beauty of what follows: a new life emerging visibly into the world.

This, of course, is why Our Lord chose precisely this analogy in prophetically describing the days that, it seems, we have now officially embarked upon:

“All these things are merely the beginning of the birth pangs” – Matthew 24:8

Yes, unprecedented Chastisements are about to inundate the world. But so is a glorious Era of Peace beyond anything the world has ever seen — wherein God’s Kingdom will arrive more fully than ever before, and His Will shall be done on earth as it is done in Heaven. 

But I have been proclaiming this message for a long time; so why this post now? 

Because it is now long overdue for the scoffers to cease and desist their scoffing, and get on their knees and beg God’s forgiveness for opposing Heaven’s messages for so long, now that the truth of these messages is stunningly displayed for all the world to see. (And most of the “scoffers,” by the way, are not the worldly; the worldly generally know nothing of these prophecies — a sorry state of affairs I largely dedicate myself to trying to change. The scoffers, rather, are usually “orthodox Catholic” lay people who have appointed themselves the judges of private revelation or who flippantly denounce it merely because it is not a constituent of the Deposit of Faith or because it does not align with their own personal eschatological speculations)

• In recent years, trustworthy private revelation has been saying that, very soon, the Eucharist would be very difficult to find. The scoffers scoffed. Now it is a reality — more so than ever before in the entire history of the Church, as far as I can tell (Yes, there were Mass cancellations during the 1918 pandemic as well, and other pandemics, but it seems that those cancellations were nowhere near as universal as what we are now experiencing; in better days, our shepherds did not compete to see who could cancel public Masses more quickly in the face of danger). 
• In recent years, trustworthy private revelation has been saying that a new disease would inundate the world. The scoffers scoffed. Now it is a reality.
• In 2019, Fr. Michel Rodrigue announced that he was told that, come February 2020, he was not to travel outside the country any longer. The scoffers scoffed. This admonition could not have been more prophetic.
• In 2019, Fr. Michel begged Catholics to make sure they got to Confession before 2020. The scoffers scoffed. Now they can’t get to confession at all.
• In 2019, Fr. Michel said to have several months of food and supplies on hand. The scoffers scoffed. Now they must wish they listened.
• In recent years, trustworthy private revelation has been foretelling an imminent financial collapse (to be followed by economic collapse, then total societal collapse). The scoffers scoffed. Now the market has plunged more drastically than ever before in American history, already eclipsing the Great Depression itself. And the collapse seems to still only be in its initial stages.

[For now, I am going to spare you a long list of the details of and quotes from these fulfilled prophecies; I am contributing towards a website that will be public on the Feast of the Annunciation, www.CountDownToTheKingdom.com, that will have much of this]

Update: More about Fr. Michel can be found here: https://www.countdowntothekingdom.com/why-fr-michel-rodrigue/

This isn’t an “I told you so” blog post. I am the last one worthy of saying that, for God knows how many things I should be doing which I am not doing, and what I plead for is His Mercy on my soul, not the vindication of myself before others.

No, rather, this is an “I beg you to now begin listening before it truly is too late” post. 

For a mere ounce of common sense should cause even the most arrogant of scoffers to now pause and consider:

“Hmm. These prophecies have already proven true, so perhaps it is high time I consider what else is contained within them.”

Well, let me make a long story short. Here is what is contained in their consensus (much of these processes have begun already; but in the coming times, they will increase exponentially):

The warnings before THE Warning:

(in no particular order)

• God will bring man to his knees — or, rather, God will allow the natural consequences of modern man’s sinfulness and apostasy to be experienced throughout the world.
• There will be enormous earthquakes and volcanoes; including in places that rarely see them. There will be tsunamis.
• There will be “new phenomena” to stun mankind; phenomena that we likely do not even have names for at present, and perhaps only speculate about. (Including celestial/cosmic phenomena)
• There will be enormous storms; hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, hail, etc.: the likes of which the world cannot remember.
• There will be enormous fires.
• There will be war: probably a Third World War; possibly a nuclear war
• The financial meltdown will be followed by a total economic collapse, which in turn will be followed by a total societal collapse. Famine will precipitate the collapse. “First world” developed nations will begin to look more like Venezuela has for the last few years. 
• Communism will suddenly re-explode onto the world scene: probably through the machinations of China and Russia. 
• There will be increasing apostasy within the Church — only that which is directly Divinely Protected (e.g. the actual Papal Magisterium itself) will be safeguarded from the corruption of heresy and blasphemy.
• There will be a severe persecution of the faithful; what is already happening in many countries (the infallible and immutable Christian — and natural — Moral Law being declared “hate speech”) will explode in severity and scope. 

With each event that comes, it will become increasingly clear that their confluence is no mere coincidence, but is rather none other than the fulfillment of the prophecies and the initiation of the days spoken of in the Book of Revelation

In the midst of these warnings, THE Warning will come.

Miraculously, everyone throughout the entire world will be shown the state of their souls before God. Most will be horrified. But this, the greatest act of mercy in the history of the world, will give souls a chance to repent. (We do not know when, in the list of chastisements above, the Warning will come; but the prophecies seem to indicate that at least a couple more of these chastisements will occur before The Warning hits)

A brief time of peace will follow it.

For the world will be dazzled by the experience. This is the chance for the faithful to evangelize like never before. But the “experts” — secularists in science, media, government, and even many in the Church hierarchy — will write it off as a purely material phenomenon not to be taken seriously (I speculate that they will chalk it up to a cosmic influx of some sort of gamma radiation that triggered a release of a certain hormone at the same time in all people), and those who have not genuinely repented and converted will soon forget it and go back to their old sinful ways; or, rather, they will become even worse in their rebellion against God.

Then, the Antichrist enters. 

…to gather up his own, institute the Mark of the Beast, and pretend to have claimed for himself the Throne of Peter. This indeed will be the Abomination of Desolation. It will be time to, as Our Lord says in the Gospel, “flee to the mountains” (Matthew 24:16). 

Much of the faithful remnant will be miraculously lead to refuges.

…where they will be Divinely protected from the Antichrist and the even greater scourges that will  occur on earth during his 3 year reign.

Through the Three Days of Darkness at the end of his reign, the Antichrist will be defeated

and all those who sided with him will be destroyed. The world will be radically transformed through this unprecedented upheaval, and left ready to be made as God intended it to be.

Christ will come, in grace (not physically) to institute His Kingdom on earth

…even more fully than ever before, and the Divine Will shall reign. The glory of this Era of history can scarcely be described; although I have tried my best in pages 463-483 of The Crown of Sanctity and pages 3-9 of The Crown of History]

After an unknown amount of time of this Era of Peace, the definitive events of the End of Time will commence

(Gog and Magog, The Final Coming of Jesus in the Flesh, the Eternal Resurrection, the Last Judgment).

[Again, much more detail on the above will soon be available at www.CountdownToTheKingdom.com Also note that some refer to what I have called “the warnings” as “the minor chastisement/minor tribulation” and the time of the Antichrist/3 Days of Darkness as “the major chastisement/major tribulation; and the post-Warning peace as the “minor Era of peace” and the post-Antichrist peace as the “Major Era of Peace.” That is fine; although I prefer the terminology I’ve used above.

Others argue that the Antichrist can only come at the very end of the world, and any Era of Peace must precede him. Others predict several different Chastisements and several different yet-to-come temporal Eras of Peace. Still others argue that there will be absolutely no Era of Peace, and that the end of the world itself is imminent. All these mistaken positions are refuted in pages 356-396 of The Crown of Sanctity] 

Another note to the scoffers:

Now, lest any scoffers insist upon maintaining their scoffing, allow me to refute their attempted last bastion of defense: “well, these alleged prophets issue so many prophecies, like grape shot, they are bound to be right sometimes!”

No, they are not. Every “psychic” out there experienced in the craft of his fraud knows full well that the grape shot approach is one doomed to failure. There are far too many possibilities that the future may hold to even bother attempting this approach  — for it will always be revealed as fraudulent. Allow me to draw an analogy: the future is like an extremely strong password. If you have an extremely strong password and someone still breaks into your account, you can rest assured that this person somehow acquired your password, and did not merely “brute force” (i.e. “grape shot” approach) generate it with a hacking program. Similarly, it is a mathematical fact that the world’s most powerful supercomputer is utterly powerless against a simple 128 bit encryption key. Indeed, these scammers know that, instead, they must simply stick with asserting generalities that can seem to be fulfilled no matter what actually happens. But we are not dealing with generalities that can be molded to fit any scenario with these prophecies; we are dealing with specific messages regarding specific events to come in the future that are being perfectly fulfilled before our very eyes and should confound even the most incredulous skeptics and jaded cynics who haunt the pews of Catholic Churches today. 

Now, of all the private revelations given throughout history, the one that has the most fulfilled prophecies is the revelation of Jesus to the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta. I described just a few of the fulfilled prophecies on pages 98-110 of The Crown of Sanctity and pages 28-34 of The Crown of History, but most of what Jesus told her regards what is yet to come; and most of that, in turn, regards the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth. But much of it also regards the Chastisements that must precede the Coming of the Kingdom. 

While I advise you to simply check out www.CountdownToTheKingdom.com in a few days for more private revelations on what is to come, I do want to include in this post just a few insights from Luisa’s revelations. So here are a few miscellaneous excerpts (these are just snippets; you can easily find the contexts and the dates by searching for the quotes you are interested in on the PDF of Luisa’s volumes — link on the right-hand sidebar.)

Jesus tells Luisa:

There is much more I could quote from Luisa’s revelations on the Chastisements, but instead I want to now turn to a much more important message:

I know; much of this may be quite frightening to hear. But we must not allow ourselves to become frightened. None of the Chastisements are arbitrary. They will all serve to prepare the ground for the Reign of the Divine Will; the Coming of the Kingdom. Jesus tells Luisa:

My daughter, everything you saw [Chastisements] will serve to purify and prepare the human family. The turmoils will serve to reorder, and the destructions to build more beautiful things. If a collapsing building is not torn down, a new and more beautiful one cannot be formed upon those very ruins. I will stir everything for the fulfillment of my Divine Will. … when We decree, all is done; in Us, it is enough to decree in order to accomplish what We want. This is why what seems difficult to you will all be made easy by Our Power. (April 30^th, 1928)

The Chastisements are far more difficult for Jesus than for anyone else; for in Chastising – or allowing Chastisements – He is Chastising His own Mystical Body. He can only tolerate this because He sees what is to come on earth after the Chastisements. Jesus tells Luisa:

And if there was not in Us the Certainty that Our Will would Reign in the creature, in order to form Our Life in her, Our Love would Burn Creation completely, and would reduce it to nothing; and if it supports and tolerates so much, it is because We see the times to come, Our Purpose Realized. (May 30, 1932)

In a word: the Chastisements are not primarily punitive; they are preparatory and, indeed, salvific.

Why are they salvific? Because most souls will indeed turn to God in times trial. God loves His children so much that He will try everything else before resorting to Chastisements – but, ultimately, even the worst temporal Chastisement is infinitely better than eternal damnation. Within a passage already quoted earlier, Jesus also tells Luisa:

“My daughter, courage, everything will serve for the Triumph of My Will. If I strike, it is because I want to heal.  My Love is so much, that when I cannot conquer by way of Love and of Graces, I seek to conquer by way of terror and fright.  The human weakness is so much that many times he does not care about My Graces, he is deaf to My Voice, he laughs at My Love.  But it is enough to touch his skin, to remove the things necessary to natural life, that it abases his haughtiness.  He feels so humiliated that he makes himself a rag, and I do what I want with him.  Especially if they do not have a perfidious and obstinate will, one chastisement is enough-to see himself at the brink of the grave-that he returns to Me into My arms.” (June 6, 1935)

God is love. Therefore, God’s Chastisements – whether willed directly by Him or only willed permissively – are also acts of love. A soul in God’s grace should have no fear of the Chastisements, for even at their most terrible, he approaches them like a person with dirt on his body approaches a shower. Jesus tells Luisa:

Courage, my daughter—courage is of souls resolute to do good. They are imperturbable under any storm; and while they hear the roaring of the thunders and lightnings to the point of trembling, and remain under the pouring rain that pours over them, they use the water to be washed and come out more beautiful; and heedless of the storm, they are more than ever resolute and courageous in not moving from the good they have started. Discouragement is of irresolute souls, which never arrive at accomplishing a good. Courage sets the way, courage puts to flight any storm, courage is the bread of the strong, courage is the warlike one that knows how to win any battle. (April 16, 1931)

What a beautiful teaching! Without ever succumbing to any form of flippancy regarding the looming Chastisements, we can nevertheless await them with a type of holy excitement; for we can use them, as Jesus here asks us to, in order to cleanse ourselves of what we know is filthy but which we have not yet found the strength to be rid of.

And remember, there is great protection from Chastisements through devotion to Our Lady. As I always quote, and will continue to quote:

[Luisa:] “But who knows who will see when this Kingdom of the Divine Fiat will come? O! how difficult it seems.” … [Jesus:] “My daughter, and yet It will come. You measure the human, the sad times that involve the present generations, and therefore it seems difficult to you. … what is impossible for human nature, is easy for Us…And then, there is the Queen of Heaven who, with Her Empire, continuously prays that the Kingdom of the Divine Will come on earth, and when have We ever denied Her anything? For Us, Her Prayers are impetuous winds such that We cannot resist Her… She will give Unheard-of Graces, Surprises never seen, Miracles that will shake Heaven and earth. We give Her the whole field free so that She will form for Us the Kingdom of Our Will on earth. She will be the Guide, the True Model, It will also be the Kingdom of the Celestial Sovereign. Therefore, you also pray together with Her, and at Its time you will obtain the intent. (July 14, 1935)

You must know that I always love my children, my beloved creatures, I would turn Myself inside out so as not to see them struck; so much so, that in the gloomy times that are coming, I have placed them all in the hands of my Celestial Mother—to Her have I entrusted them, that She may keep them for Me under Her safe mantle. I will give Her all those whom She will want; even death will have no power over those who will be in the custody of my Mother.” Now, while He was saying this, my dear Jesus showed me, with facts, how the Sovereign Queen descended from Heaven with an unspeakable majesty, and a tenderness fully maternal; and She went around in the midst of creatures, throughout all nations, and She marked Her dear children and those who were not to be touched by the scourges. Whomever my Celestial Mother touched, the scourges had no power to touch those creatures. Sweet Jesus gave to His Mother the right to bring to safety whomever She pleased. (June 6, 1935)

Your Heavenly Mother is going to be so close to you in all that is coming upon the world and upon your own life. Trust her. Love her. Consecrate yourself to her. Pray her Rosary every day. And know that you have absolutely nothing to be afraid of.

But there is simply no longer any avoiding it; no possibility of ignoring the fact that…

Coronavirus and everything that is going along with it — the suspension of the public sacrifice of the Mass, the financial and economic collapse — is one of two things. Either it is…

My sense is that this present trial is not the initial event, but is indeed rather “the warning before the warnings before THE warning.” I know of no prophecy indicating this; it is merely my fallible sense of things. It seems likely that society will, after some months of this trial, return more or less to its normal operation — briefly. This will be our last chance. Get to confession. Center your life on the Eucharist (preferably by receiving every single day, if at all possible). Have several months of food and supplies on hand.

Because all of long-prophesied events listed above are at the very doorstep:

• Above all, the veritable prophetic consensus insists upon this; as you will soon see at www.CountdownToTheKingdom.com
• Coronavirus itself, unprecedented and game changing as it is, is a clear fulfillment of many prophecies already.
• As followers of Medjugorje know, the Time of the Secrets begins (i.e. The Chastisements, Miracles, Era of Peace) when the Apparitions end. Well, we just took a major step in that direction last week when Mirjana announced that the Blessed Virgin told her that her monthly apparitions are now over. And here we are, on the cusp of the 40th anniversary of the Apparitions there beginning… a major milestone that many have speculated will mark their cessation (as I mentioned in this post from 2018)
• The entire world rests upon the Holy Mass, and its historically unprecedented nearly universal suppression cannot possibly not have eschatological and immediate repercussions
• We will likely never climb our way out of the financial and economic collapse that has now begun. The House of Cards that is modern society has now been revealed; how utterly precarious the present order is. The Man Behind the Curtain has been seen, and his revelation cannot merely be forgotten once things “calm down.” The world’s reserve currency is likely about to super-inflate into oblivion, and the West’s exploding debts are about to destroy the economic order.
• The time of weakness now being endured by the West will likely embolden its enemies to pounce with Communism reemerging through China and Russia

A Note on the Absence of the Mass

I do wish to clarify something I said above. I am not claiming that this Coronavirus Pandemic actually is a mere “inconvenience;” my point is only that, compared to what is coming soon, that’s what it will look like. But, of course, each death is a tragedy and I pray every day for those affected. 

But, as I said, there is at least one aspect of this Pandemic that certainly is universally tragic beyond words: the cessation of the public sacrifice of the Mass. If that is not eschatological, then nothing is. And so many prophets today have been told it is coming soon.

But I wish to offer a few words to individual souls suffering from the absence of the Mass.

As I wrote in page 255 of the Crown of Sanctity:

I could probably count on my fingers alone the number of times I missed daily Mass, during the entire 12 years that preceded last week. It has, that entire time, been the anchor and the foundation of my life. I say this only so that no one dares to accuse me of any sort of Quietism or Laxity as I admonish all to not lose their peace over circumstances that they cannot control. For, quite the contrary, I do not think you are likely to find a more zealous advocate for daily Mass than myself — but, notwithstanding the glory of the Eucharist and the glory of the Mass, the fact remains that nothing can thwart God’s Will; and God’s Will is your sanctification. Not sometimes. Not most of the time. Not almost all of the time. But all of the time. 

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification” – 1 Thessalonians 4:3

Nothing can stand in the way of your sanctification if only you say, and believe, and act in accordance with, the greatest prayer: “Thy Will be Done.”  

Use this painful time without the Eucharist to grow ever deeper into that which is the source of the Eucharist itself: the Will of God. 

Pray the Our Father at noon (Rome Time, which is 7am Eastern US Time), as the Holy Father requested, on the Feast of the Annunciation (March 25th).

Receive the new and historically unprecedented Plenary Indulgence every day — simply by reciting the Divine Mercy Chaplet for an end to Coronavirus and with the will to get to Confession and Communion as soon as you can (if, like me, you cannot make it to either due to government mandated quarantines).

• Above all, remain a good Catholic. As soon as you can, confess your sins, and remain always in a state of grace. As much as possible, live life centered on the Sacraments. Keep doing everything you are doing as a Catholic striving after sanctity (and stay away from any follower of Luisa who pretends, in stark contrast to what Jesus actually said to Luisa, that Luisa’s revelations allow one to “move on” from these things).
• Pray the Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet every day.
• Wear one or more of the following: a blessed Crucifix, the Brown Scapular, the Miraculous Medal, the St. Benedict Medal.
• Read Scripture and other spiritual reading every day (especially Luisa’s writings), and meditate each day
• Proclaim the Divine Mercy and encourage all to trust in the mercy of Jesus.
• Fast, and otherwise offer sacrifices, for the salvation and sanctification of souls, the deliverance of the holy souls in Purgatory, the mitigation of the Chastisements, and the hastening of the Coming of the Kingdom.
• Consecrate yourself, your family, and your home to the Holy Family
• Ask God every day for the Gift of Living in the Divine Will: “Jesus, I Trust in You. Thy Will be done. I give you my will; please give me Yours in return.” Consecrations to the Divine Will and “Prevenient and Present Acts” in the Divine Will can also easily be found online.
• Pray the Hours of the Passion. Jesus promises the Salvation of a Soul for each word of it read, in His Will, and protection for an entire city from Chastisements if even one soul in it continuously unites to His passion through these Hours.
• Do all your acts in the Divine Will – asking Jesus to do in you whatever you are doing at the moment – to mitigate the Chastisements and prepare the ground for the universal reign of the Divine Will.
• Proclaim the Kingdom – the Divine Will. Promulgate the truths you have here learned!
• Grow in virtue every day
• Do not neglect a prudent degree of sober minded physical preparedness (several months’ worth of food/supplies)

Fear nothing.

God is completely in control.

(And He’s about to make that overwhelmingly clear for all the world to see.)

 

Upon hearing today’s Gospel proclaimed at Mass this morning, an understanding of its meaning that I have never before considered flew into my mind without invitation.

Doubtless, we have all heard more homilies and read more articles than we can count expounding upon this parable as an exhortation to trust in God’s Mercy; and that is a good thing, as Divine Mercy is certainly the main theme of the parable.

But a deeper exhortation lies within the juxtaposition of two simple and overlooked statements made by the elder brother and the father:

Notwithstanding how heroic the father in the parable indeed is, we must not be too afraid to admit that it is rather sad that this elder brother, who apparently always served his father and never once disobeyed him, was never given so much as a young goat to feast on with his friends (we must always assume, unless the parable itself indicates otherwise, that the words spoken by the characters within it are true). I suspect that most who first hear this parable do feel some sympathy for the elder brother precisely because of this feast-absence in his life, but quickly shrug it off, fearing it may be an impious sympathy.

But let us now consider: Why wasn’t the elder brother ever provided with such a feast? Well, since the father assured him that everything he had was already his, we must conclude that if only the elder brother had ever asked for such a feast, it would have immediately been his. So we are forced to conclude that the reason for the absence simple: 

Because the elder brother never asked. 

“How many gifts do We want to give! But because they are not asked for, We retain them within Ourselves, waiting to give them when they are asked for.”

—Jesus to Luisa. March 20th, 1932

Longtime readers of my blog, no doubt, already can guess exactly what I’m going to do next: issue yet another exhortation to ask God for the Gift of Living in the Divine Will. And if that’s what you guessed, you’re right.

ASK!!!

Simply say, with sincerity, and so repeatedly that God can no longer listen to your plea without granting it: 

“Jesus, I trust in You. Thy Will be done. I give you my will, please give me Yours in return.”

But, in fact, I want to leave Luisa’s revelations aside for a moment and simply issue an exhortation to all the Faithful — whether they have heard of Luisa or not, whether they believe in her revelations or not — to pause and ponder why they have not asked God for union with Him in the highest possible degree.

Why, dear soul, would you possibly not ask for that?

Such a soul reminds me of a cowardly young man who, year after year, fails to propose to the young lady he is courting even when that is clearly the called-for course of action.

What is he afraid of?  

That she’ll say no? She would have dumped him long ago if she was going to say no. 

That he’ll have to give up his “freedom” to do things he did in his single days? He already gave up those pathetic “freedoms” by entering into courtship anyway, and those “freedoms” aren’t worth batting an eyelash over losing.

That he might be able to find someone “better” down the line? There’s no such thing as a “better” plan than God’s plan — and if God has made His will clear in the courtship then it is absurd to wait for something “better” down the road. 

Someone needs to come along and strongly admonish this young man to fish or cut bait (or perhaps so admonish using an even more pointed expression regarding the need to not linger in the bathroom… a phrase I will refrain from writing here for the sake of keeping it clean!)

What is more, none of these concerns are valid when we step out of the analogy and consider God Himself. 

God will not say no. He wants union with you even more than you — in your best moments — want union with Him. 

God will never diminish your authentic freedom — union with Him only ever increases it and causes you to be a more flourishing and fully alive individual than you ever would have been without union with Him (or with a lesser degree of union with Him). If you’re already following the Commandments, believing the Dogmas, etc. — in a word, doing what you must do to be in a state of grace –, then you are already in the “courtship” phase with God anyway, and you already have lost the  “freedoms” one must lose (that is, the “freedoms” to sin) in order to be prepared to receive the highest union with Him (and if you’re not in a state of grace, I am not addressing this post to you — I’d instead ask you to go to www.PrepareToSeeHim.org)

God’s very life as your own life will never be eclipsed by some still-better offer out there waiting to be discovered. What exactly, pray tell, could possibly come down the line in the future for you that, in having union with God, you will have to reject? A moment’s reflection will make you realize that it is only things that you have no moral right desiring in the first place, and sealing your life off to ever fulfilling these lowly desires is nothing to lament. 

God has been begging us, for over a century now, to ask Him for His life as our own life. He has revealed to so many authentic mystics that this is indeed His Will for us — in this age where “sin abounds,” so that “grace may abound all the more” (cf. Romans 5:20), for He “saves the best wine for last” (cf. John 2:10). In this age where the foundation for the Crown of Sanctity has finally been fully laid through the teachings of the Fathers of the Church on Divinization, the Doctors of the Church on Mystical Marriage, the Spiritual Masters of Sacred Tradition on the Union of Wills, and the great Marian Saints on Marian Consecration. In this age when, after 2,000 years of praying the Our Father, its central and greatest petition is almost ready to be fulfilled — Thy Will be done on earth as It is in Heaven.

In this age where God has explicitly made the request through prophet after prophet:

• St. Faustina was clearly told by Jesus of His Will that we become “living Hosts” through the “cancellation” of our self-wills and living “solely” by His — receiving this “unprecedented” grace that has not been received by “holier and better souls” before us, wherein we are “fused with God” and “transconsecrated.”
• St. Maxamilian Kolbe taught that Marian Consecration now must be directed towards a “transubstantiation of the self into the Immaculata” (not, of course, literal in the same sense the bread is transubstantiated — but a real change nevertheless), exceeding the merely moral union of Marian Consecration before the 20th century.
• St. Elizabeth of the Trinity taught a “personal possession of the Trinity” wherein the Holy Spirit transforms the soul “into another humanity of Jesus” and into a “living host.”
• Blessed Conchita was told by Jesus of a new “mystical incarnation,” available for the asking, by virtue of which we are united with Jesus in a degree “much more than spiritual marriage” (the highest holiest possible in days gone by), the “grace of graces” that gives the soul, even on earth, the very same manner of holiness as elect in Heaven; the only difference being that the veil here still remains.
• Blessed Dina Bélanger, whom John Paul II praised as desiring to “fully correspond to the Divine Will,” speaks of a participation in the Divine Life the same as the “state of the elect in Heaven,” wherein we are Deified in a similar manner “in which the Humanity [of Jesus] united to the Divinity in the Incarnation.”

(References for all the teachings above can be found in pages 148-168 of The Crown of Sanctity or, more briefly, pages 76-80 of The Crown of History) (Update: Thy Will Be Done, published November 2021, gives a better introduction and overview. See the Third Part of this book for more on the teachings above.)

There simply is no longer any doubt about it. So why aren’t we asking Him? Why do we Catholics incessantly insist upon Protestantizing ourselves; pretending that “a personal relationship with Jesus” is enough — as if our union with Him need not be fundamentally different than our union with close friends — when He wants infinitely more of us than a mere relationship (no matter how “personal”)? Why do we dabble in sanctity while resisting the very crown that sanctity itself has always been intrinsically ordered towards, even when it is freely offered to us?

Why are we being like that cowardly young man who is wasting away his life on mere courtship?

Why don’t we love God enough to believe what He is saying and take Him up on this unbeatable offer?

Don’t be like the elder brother who went about his whole life failing to ask for what his father would have readily given if he had just asked. Don’t go your whole life living so far below your calling (I solemnly assure you that you are called to the highest union with God possible) because of fears, or trifles, or quibbles, or sloth, or attachments, or whatever else. 

ASK

(And you shall receive.)

Many years ago I gave up on that rather lame habit of incessantly checking the news to see what was stirring in the world that might be of prophetic import; for I have since then been of the opinion that the long-prophesied events (and the imminent Chastisements that will precede them) will burst onto the world scene suddenly and unexpectedly — so much so that, when I hear of the worldly fretting about some looming threat, I usually think to myself “ah, well, this isn’t it. Not yet.” But I decided to deviate from my norm today, now that I have been relentlessly hearing about Coronavirus from every corner of my purview and its effects are even beginning to influence life here in New York. I was confirmed in this decision to so deviate when I saw the following as today’s top stories on Google News:

Seeing that Italy is now seriously involved in this potential pandemic immediately inspired me to see what Luisa’s writings had to say, if anything, about this. And indeed they did have things to say.

On December 29, 2019, the first cases of Coronavirus were officially identified. Two days later, the outbreak in Wuhan was formally announced.  But exactly 93 years earlier (to the day), we read the following in that day’s entry in the diary of the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta:

…[Jesus said:] “This Sun is my Will – hold It tightly, never let It escape you, for It has the power to convert you and all your acts – everything, into light, in such a way as to incorporate you completely into It, forming one single Sun.” Then, afterwards, I was thinking about everything that my sweet Jesus had done in His coming upon earth for the Redemption, so as to unite myself to His acts and ask Him, for love of His own acts, to make His Will known in order to let It reign. … [and Jesus said:] “See then, how much this Kingdom of my Will cost; with how much love I developed It within Me.  Therefore, this Kingdom exists – there is nothing left but to make It known, so as to let all the goods It contains go out into the field. …” After this, my sweet Jesus escaped me like a flash, and I wanted to follow Him, but, to my highest bitterness, in that flash I saw that contagious diseases were to come, which will spread almost in all nations, not excluding our Italy.  It seemed that many were dying of it, to the extent of depopulating homes. In several nations the scourge would rage more strongly, but almost all of them will be touched.  It seems that they hold hands in offending the Lord, and Our Lord touches everyone with the same scourges…

—December 29, 1926. Luisa’s Volumes.

I included more context from the quote than just the prophecy of contagious diseases because I am not a preacher of doom and gloom, as some “Eschatologists of Despair” are today who reject the imminent Era of Peace — I will always strive to remind all souls that the coming storm is a prelude to clear skies, therefore when we see the storm approaching ever closer, we should not grow afraid, but excited. This is not flippancy; it is faithfulness to Our Lord’s own words:  

Contagious disease, in particular — though a frightening scourge indeed — is closely associated in prophecy with the renewal of the world. Jesus also told Luisa:

“There will be a general uproar – confusion everywhere. I will renew the world with the sword, with fire and with water, with sudden deaths, and with contagious diseases. I will make new things. … All will be humiliated, and peace will come only from Me. And if you hear them say ‘peace’, that will not be true, but apparent. Once I have purged everything, I will place my finger in a surprising way, and I will give the true Peace. Then, all those who are humiliated will return to Me…There will be great triumph and union among peoples. Therefore, pray…”

—October 16, 1918

On June 21, 1923, Luisa described a vision she had as follows: ”I saw as if contagious diseases were to come, and many people were carried to leper hospitals. A general fright was reigning, and many other maladies of new kinds.”

While we do not speak any longer today of literal “leper hospitals,” they are nevertheless essentially the same things as what we have seen repeatedly over the last month: entire cities (or cruise ships!) turned into quarantined quasi “leper hospitals,” with great human rights violations occurring within them (above all, in China). Interestingly, a recent NPR article made exactly this point. One also thinks of the huge hospitals built practically overnight earlier this month in China, specifically for the sake of this disease. 

There are many other prophecies of contagious diseases in Luisa’s writings, but let me turn to other prophetic sources. 

Many people may remember that Fr. Michel Rodrigue — whom I think is indeed an authentic prophet; scroll down on my post from  last year to see his prophecies –said in 2019 that God told him that, come February 2020, he was not permitted to travel outside North America. That seemed strange to hear. Suddenly, it makes perfect sense and, I think, should be taken as a further argument in support of his authenticity. 

Luz de Maria — a seer who has both approval and a strong endorsement from Bishop Mata of Esteril — reported the following message on February 16, 2020. Although this message cannot yet be considered “prophetic,” as it was given after the outbreak of the disease, future events may well change that:

“You look with a little concern at what is threatening humanity: AN ILLNESS THAT HAS MUTATED, YET SOON YOU WILL FORGET IT without attaching any importance to it, and forgetting the preventions, the disease will spread everywhere. Most of the children of Our King and Lord Jesus Christ live moment by moment, they do not persevere, they soon forget, and this is what leads them to fall into the clutches of evil.”

Pedro Regis, a seer who enjoys the support of his Bishop, has many prophecies of impending epidemics. In 2005, he was told that a “famous city will be deserted. An epidemic will cause many of its residents to flee, and the rest will die,” “Mankind will carry a heavy cross because of an epidemic,” “Man has prepared his ruin by his own hands. Clever men have gotten together and prepared destruction in a laboratory. Man will see death in that which exists to give life,” “A mysterious disease will arise. From the sand it comes,” and, in 2006, was told “Mankind will carry a heavy cross. A disease will come, worse than all those that already existed. Men will be contaminated and millions of cadavers will be spread everywhere.”

In an excellent recent post, Mark Mallett quotes another seer who appears credible and posts messages on the website “wordsfromjesus.com.” This seer has prophesied not just disease in general, but has prophesied specifics that seem perhaps to refer to the present Coronavirus outbreak. I present Mark’s quotation and commentary here, although I recommend reading his whole post:

There are so many other relevant prophecies, but instead of presenting them, I would prefer to end this post now, because I think I have said enough to justify my inspiration in writing it: namely, to encourage you to immediately go out and buy thousands of face masks and buckets of hand sanitizer and then lock yourself in your room!!!

Kidding.

My inspiration in writing it is, of course, as usual, to be the broken record that I am: the long-prophesied events are coming very soon. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself. Forgive and seek forgiveness. Frequent the Sacraments. Pray the Rosary. Remain always in a State of Grace. Proclaim the Divine Mercy to all those souls less spiritually fortunate than yourself. Live in and proclaim the Divine Will. Do these things, and you haven’t the slightest thing to fear — continue going about the duties of your state in life well.