(The announcements that were posted previously can be found here)

Eight years ago I wrote “the unfathomable worth of your knowledge,” and today’s post issues a similar, updated, exhortation.

As the long-prophesied events grow ever closer and the prophetic expectation reaches a veritable fever pitch (I keep hearing of more and more people predicting The Warning for this year), a temptation may exist among some of the faithful to react to the imminence of the Chastisements by retreating into realms of apparently safety. (I say apparent because, indeed, there is absolutely no safety of any sort outside of the Will of God — and God’s Will is not that any of us retreat.) Such souls, if they succumb to the temptation, may proceed to retreat by, among other things:

• Dedicating themselves to survivalism — stockpiling freeze dried food, weapons, and gas masks — which will do nothing (this is not to repudiate a sober and moderate degree of prudent preparedness)
• Dedicating themselves to preserving their “privacy,” online or otherwise (sorry, there’s no such thing: everything will be known by all on Judgment Day) as, in this effort, they pass up opportunity after opportunity to be more powerful evangelists and reach more souls. 
• Backing down on the boldness of their public witness, if not neglecting it entirely, for fear of being more easily caught up in the no doubt imminent persecution that the faithful will have to endure.
• Becoming “spiritually orthorexic” busy-bodies, dedicating all their concerns to striving — in vain — to ensure that each member of their little cliques are fully on-board with their own personal opinions on every single event that transpires in the Church.
• Becoming ever more caustic in their demeanor — which is tantamount to giving up on evangelization (for we all know that caustic attitudes convert no one) — because of how very “sick and tired” they are of how bad things are. And, indeed, things are more horrible today in the Church and the world than ever before in history. But the results of our efforts are up to God. We only answer for our faithfulness in doing what He has called us to do. Allowing ourselves to grow caustic because of how “sick and tired” we are with the apparent lack of temporal results, therefore, is rebellion against God’s Will and retreating from the battle He has called us to.
• Giving up on their apostolates — even if they are convicted God has called them to these apostolates — because they aren’t seeing the immediate and visible fruits that they would have liked to see, and they foolishly say to themselves “considering how messed up the Church is today, what’s the point anymore?” as if Jesus has somehow forgotten the promise He made in Matthew 16:18. Thus they continue to go to Mass and undertake the bare-bones basics of the Faith, but they revert to being “normal”: they reserve their zeal and dedication for career advancement, possessions, financial security, etc., and, in a word, “abandon the love they had at first” (Revelation 2:4)
• Growing ever more restrictive in their social circles: supposing that even reaching out to, much less genuinely conversing with, anyone outside of their tiny unwritten list of “approved Catholics” risks dirtying their hands by contact with someone they deem inferior to themselves in orthodoxy.
• Doubling down on their own flimsy personal opinions (and the personal opinions of their favorite Catholic pundits), instead of doubling down on the fundamentals, in these times of confusion. (Bear in mind that I am not here advocating for flexibility in dogma — rather, I strongly encourage doubling down on those teachings contained in the Catechism, especially — but in times of confusion we should not react by doubling down on our personal opinions on this or that Church discipline, liturgical style, prudential response to a delicate situation, political stance, etc.)

(If particular sternness towards some circles of  “right wing” Catholics is detected in the admonitions above, that should not be regarded as any sort of endorsement of the opposite wing’s errors, to whose adherents I do not here even bother offering an exhortation, for one ought not cast pearls before swine. For many so-called “left wing” Catholics today have not merely retreated, but have actively joined ranks with the enemy by their promotion of behaviors that are intrinsically and gravely contrary to the moral law; and that they retain the name “Catholic” and even claim to be allies of the Pope will be of no help to them on Judgment Day.) 

Retreating into realms of apparent safety when the going gets tough is for the cowardly (including the cowardly who parade themselves online as courageous so as to receive the praise of men); it is for the deserters and the effeminate (no matter how superficially masculine) who care more about preserving their own delicate flesh than about their dedication to the King. Retreat is not for those who form the front lines of the most elite fighting force in history — which is exactly what you are if you are a devout, sacrament-frequenting Catholic dedicated to proclaiming the Divine Mercy and the Divine Will. 

For the very opposite of the aforementioned temptation is true: the power of your witness only grows ever stronger with each passing moment that brings us closer to the long-prophesied Great Events, and each new day presents an ever more urgent call to boldly proclaim the Faith. I am genuinely convinced of this, and I implore you to test out my thesis yourself. You will find it vindicated.

I’d like to share just a few experiences I’ve recently had with God’s utterly gratuitous outpouring of grace through my own meager efforts — efforts that all the faithful are easily capable of — in hopes of inspiring you to do likewise. 

A couple of them have to do with my driveway; or, rather, the statue of Mary and the large Divine Mercy image we have at the base of the driveway, which, in turn, is on a busy road.

As our driveway is long and I cannot even see the base of it from my home’s windows I find myself most often near, I do not usually know what is transpiring down there. But the few times I do find myself at that spot (checking the mail, etc.), have often been encouraging when there happen to be passersby around. Just recently, as I was checking the mail, an elderly woman was walking by with her dog. She stopped to thank me profusely for the statue and the image; saying that pausing at them has become part of her daily prayer routine and has given her great hope. (She is Catholic but only just moved to the area and was greatly encouraged right away)

But it’s not just about edifying and encouraging the Faithful; it’s also about reaching out to the lost sheep. Some time before running into that elderly woman, a young woman was passing by when I was checking the mail and also thanked me effusively for the image and statue. I could easily tell she was very “new agey” and probably very spiritually confused, but the Divine Mercy image and the statue of Our Lady nevertheless spoke deeply to her, she said, and she very much appreciated being able to gaze upon them, which, she also shared with me, gave her great peace.

Earlier still, I started finding pots of flowers devotionally placed, anonymously, under the statue of Our Lady. 

And these are just a few of the effects that I know of, that these simple channels of grace have provided. On Judgment Day, I am sure, I will discover exponentially more. 

Mind you, I live in New York’s Capital Region: consistently ranked as one of the most, if not the most, post-Christian, “least Biblically minded” urban areas in the entire country. And even here, the Gospel can be proclaimed with great success. Not only do I live in this “post Christian” area, but I teach at a secular, public, New York community college. There, too,  I will not be silent about my faith. Below is a picture of my desk, in my office, where any student who comes to my office hours is treated to an opportunity to exercise devotion:

Recently a student of mine was so taken in by the picture of Jesus and Mary that she asked if she could have one of those cards. Obviously I happily obliged and offered her as many as she would like. Some time after she reached out to me (after she was not only no longer my student, but also had graduated — so this was no effort to receive extra credit points!) and thanked me profusely for the cards and said she wanted to try and be more religious now.

These are just a few small examples of fruits I have seen from very tiny efforts I have made to evangelize; efforts anyone can easily make. Even if you aren’t feeling ready to walk through the ghetto proclaiming the Divine Mercy (I still try to regularly do my Divine Will Missionary of Mercy walks — www.DWMoM.org) or stand in front of a class lecturing on God’s existence, these small steps and others like them are so easy for anyone to do. And, mark my words, God will work marvels through your efforts. Lives will change. Wounds will be healed. Faith and Hope will be restored. Charity will flourish again. And, above all, salvation will be secured. All because of a bit of willingness on your part.

I know I constantly harp on the need to proclaim the Divine Will — and, if you’re tired of hearing me insist upon that… well… too bad, because I’ll never stop insisting upon it! But, remember, the indispensable foundation for proclaiming the Divine Will is the Gospel. And the Divine Mercy is at the heart of the Gospel. So we must never allow our proclamation of the Divine Will to dampen our zeal in proclaiming the Divine Mercy; we must, rather, grow in our zeal for proclaiming the Divine Mercy now that we know its crown — the Divine Will — is available for the asking! 

 

So, a few ideas:

• Be a Divine Will Missionary of Mercy in whatever way and to whatever degree you discern God calls you to be. www.DWMoM.org
• Pray and sidewalk counsel outside of a Planned Parenthood (perhaps by participating in a local 40 Days for Life campaign)
• Hand out Divine Mercy cards or any other evangelizing material you feel drawn to
• Have a Divine Mercy card displayed on your desk at work
• Have some evangelizing materials on your lawn. Here’s the statue I have at the base of my driveway. And I made the Divine Mercy image next to my driveway using GotPrint.com’s aluminum sign tool
• If you have social  media of any sort, boldly proclaim your Faith in Christ there
  • If you don’t have social media wherein you can have an online outlet to boldly proclaim your faith, then start a blog in which you do so, in order that you may stand up and be counted. Blogs are free and very easy to start. Simply refusing to fear a “Google-ing” of your name revealing the depth of your devotion can itself be a great witness. You don’t need to be a blogger simply to have a blog on which you post just a brief few items/links/resources.
• Encourage souls in need of evangelization to visit www.PrepareToSeeHim.org, or any other website of your choosing that you think will effectively evangelize them
• Have a Divine Mercy/Guadalupe bumper sticker. You could also use GotPrint for this, or buy a premade one. I prefer, however, simply printing out an image, laminating it, and using clear packing tape to affix it to the back of my car. A little cheesy, maybe; but I, for one, have better things to worry about than the perfection of my car’s appearance.
• Gently, gracefully, and naturally evangelize in every conversation you have; even if it is only very subtle. Pray each night for these seeds you have sown to be given growth by God. Do not underestimate what these tiny seeds sown can do.
• Bid the cashier farewell with “God bless you”
• Wear a visible crucifix or something similar. A miraculous medal or a brown scapular, though more subtle, can also be very powerful: people will ask you what it is, to which you may respond, even if you only have a moment to spare, “It’s a brown scapular. Google it! It will change your life.”

As usual, my lists are intended just to get the ball rolling. Ponder, yourself, how you can best witness the Faith; be both innocent as a dove and wise as a serpent! Don’t let the worldly outdo us zeal. For we actually have something worth being zealous about. 

No special skills are needed for any of this. No theology degrees are needed for any of this. No mandate or permission from your bishop or pastor is needed for any of this. No apologetics training certificates are needed for any of this. In fact, nothing special at all is needed for any of this. Sufficient, indeed, is a bit of good will, a bit of desire to be an instrument in God’s hands for the salvation of souls, and a bit of detachment from the various goals of this low world that you may think you “risk damaging” by being bold in proclaiming the Faith.

So, stand up and be counted.

Do not retreat.

Your efforts will not go unrewarded.

In the twinkling of an eye, all the glories of this passing world shall seem scarcely worth remembering; but the opportunities you used, in this world, to build up treasures in the next — that shall never be forgotten.

I’d like to expound upon an essential point covered many times in The Crown of Sanctity and The Crown of History and which I really emphasized during a talk I gave at the Conference in Texas. 

I was recently contacted by a reader who has not read my books but wanted to know how Luisa’s revelations square with Catholicism. Although the answer to that question pervades both of my books, I suppose I should make it clear here, on a post, as well! (And I should also note that I certainly take no offense at one not wishing to read my books. Quite the contrary, I eagerly look forward to the day when my books will simply collect dust: that is, the day when each person throughout the world has already devoured the knowledges of the Divine Will directly from Luisa’s revelations, at which point my own unworthy introductions to the same will be unnecessary. For as I always say and truly mean: my mission is merely to invite people into the Divine Will and give very basic introductions to It.)

Therefore, I will do so in this post — immediately below these words, as a huge pasted image, so that no one can miss it:

Because — as Scripture admonishes, as has always been the teaching of the Church, and as has always been the insistence of the Saints — our aim above all aims is to become holy; to attain sanctity. Our goal is not merely to be saved (that is just the beginning of the adventure of Christianity), our goal is not merely to do good things (that is simple activism), our goal is not merely to be rid of sin (that should occur in the preliminary stages of our pursuit of holiness), and no, our goal is not even the Sacraments themselves (necessary and holy as they are — they are means to the end of sanctity, not sanctity itself — consider that they will not exist in Heaven and that there are plenty of people now in Hell who, while on earth, had received the Sacraments); our goal, rather, is to fulfill as much as possible the central petition of the only prayer that Jesus Himself taught us to pray. Our goal is to do the will of God here on earth just as it is done in Heaven above. 

I focus so heavily on this idea of the Gift of Living in the Divine Will as the Crown because, first of all, that is Jesus’ own teaching in His words to Luisa; but also because it emphasizes the very thing we must be most careful about regarding Jesus’ revelation to Luisa: Like any good crown, it fits perfectly and beautifully upon the head on which it is placed. That is, it fits perfectly and beautifully with Scripture, Magisterium, and Sacred Tradition.

And, even more so: The Gift of Living in the Divine Will is the very thing Scripture, Tradition, and Magisterium have always been leading us towards; step by step, and it leaves none of these things — which are its very foundations — behind, much less does it contradict them. In fact, it impels us to value all these things even more! 

I did my lowly best to trace out this dynamic in clarity in my books, so within this post I will not repeat all of that (see pages 115-193 in the Crown of Sanctity or pages 64-91 in the Crown of History for it), instead I will reiterate what this entails:

It entails no contradictions whatsoever with what we already have and believe as Catholics:

• No dispensation from the Sacraments.
• No dispensation from the Hierarchy.
• No dispensation from the moral law.
• No new dispensation at all.
• No new public revelation.
• No changing of doctrines.
• No “evolution of dogmas.”
• Period. 

As I said in my talk, 99% of Luisa’s followers already fully recognize this dynamic: they are completely orthodox and devout Catholics who would never dream of entertaining a heresy, even if they (wrongly) thought that Luisa’s writings taught one.

But, sadly, the remaining 1% seem to neglect this absolutely essential nature of Luisa’s revelations — and they do so at the risk of great damage to their souls and great damage to those they influence. For Luisa’s revelations are private revelations with no right to correct, surpass, or complete public revelation.

Now, nowhere do Luisa’s writings make any attempt to do any of those things; so, in a sense, this entire point I here make is superfluous. For the problem is not within the writings themselves; the problem is that, if a Catholic who does not fully understand Church Teaching and what Jesus is telling Luisa (that is, every Catholic alive; for we all have a very imperfect grasp of the enormous depth of our Holy Faith) approaches Luisa’s writings thinking them to be a new public revelation, he may in turn fail to correctly resolve any apparent contradictions between Luisa’s writings and Church teaching (as with any mysticism, one is likely to encounter situations in Luisa’s writings that appear to him to be examples of such contradictions, even though there are, in fact, no actual contradictions — as indeed the authority of the Church has repeatedly affirmed — see The Crown of Sanctity pages 72-75).

For one who realizes that there will be no new public revelation, the resolution is simple: when one’s mind presents an apparent (because there are no actual) contradiction between Church teaching and Luisa’s revelations, he must always favor Church Teaching.

The 1% attempts to wiggle out of this fact by claiming that the Catechism’s teaching, in §66, “no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ,” does not apply here precisely because Jesus’ revelations to Luisa are the “glorious manifestation” there referenced.

But by that logic, any private revelation in the history of the Church (considering how gloriously each and every one of them manifests Our Lord Jesus Christ) could have simply claimed to be an aspect of Christ’s manifestation in glory, and thus the distinction between Public and Private revelation would be eliminated. But that distinction is dogma; consequently, anything that seeks to eradicate it is heresy. 

Clearly, this teaching of the Catechism refers to Christ’s final coming at the end of time; not to any of the various comings in grace that the Church has experienced and will experience before then. Not even the greatest coming in grace that will institute His kingdom on earth will change this; for remember — we reject Millenarianism! As I wrote in The Crown of History (and went into much more detail on in The Crown of Sanctity pages 351-455):

I understand the temptation that this 1% experiences: they read those passages in Luisa’s writings that refer to this Gift of Living in the Divine Will (now in a small number of souls; soon over the whole earth in the Glorious Era of Peace) as the “Third Fiat of Sanctification,” (The First being Creation, the Second being Redemption) and they think to themselves (erroneously):

“Hmm. Well, just as Christianity basically replaced Judaism, then this Fiat of Sanctification must, at least in some senses, replace Catholicism.” Wrong.

Remember: Judaism was not one of the Three Fiats of God. It was a temporary Covenant that God made with Israel in order to prepare for the coming of Christ. It was designed by God to be replaced. It was made to eventually give way to a new dispensation. That is radically unlike what we have with our Faith (Catholicism): we have the new and eternal Covenant. It will never be replaced — neither in its totality nor in any parts of the Deposit of Faith of which it is constituted.

Furthermore, this new and eternal covenant we have is itself one of the Three Fiats of the Almighty!! It is the Fiat of Redemption. And answer me this:

Did the Fiat of Redemption replace the Fiat of Creation?

Of course not!

It took place entirely within the context of the Fiat of Creation.  Christians live in the same world, eat the same food, have the same bodies, etc., as the Jews before them did.

So it is (and will be until the end of time) with the Fiat of Sanctification. It is taking place — and always will take place — entirely within the Fiat of Redemption: and all of the Sacraments, Doctrines, and Hierarchies that necessarily, by Divine Constitution, come with it. We are never dispensed from these things. Even in Heaven, we will still be Catholic (though we will be in the Church Triumphant then, not the Church Militant); although at that point the veils will be completely removed and hence the Sacraments will no longer exist.

Above all, it is Luisa’s revelations that make this dynamic clear and obvious. Jesus even goes so far as to tell Luisa that these two Fiats — Redemption and Sanctification — hold hands and are really just two acts of the same Eternal Decree.

I traced out a portion of this dynamic on page 515 of The Crown of Sanctity:

I’ll conclude this post with a few more relevant points from The Crown of History’s appendices:

 

Yes, he really did. And I’ll get to that in a moment; first, a few forenotes. I finally finished the audiobook for The Crown of History; I’ve posted it for free on YouTube here, and it will soon be available through Audible on the book’s page on Amazon. Also, just a reminder that I’ll be speaking this weekend at the Divine Will International Unity Conference in Arlington, Texas; along with Mark Mallett, Fr. Elijah, and others. I believe there may still be some spots available. Finally, bulk discounted orders of the paperback of the Crown of History can now be ordered directly here.

***

Here we stand at penultimate Sunday of Ordinary Time before embarking upon the great season of Advent, in which we await with eager expectation the imminent Coming of Christ.

And, quite fittingly, the Holy Father chose this day to announce, with no ambiguity, that the Kingdom of God will soon come upon earth; that this Kingdom is indeed the Crown of History:

The destruction of the Temple pre-announced by Jesus is the figure not so much of the end [i.e. chronological cessation] of history, as of the end of history [i.e. purpose of history itself]….This is the eloquent sign that the Kingdom of God is coming to us, namely, that the realization of the world as God wills it is approaching. It is He who leads our existence and who knows the ultimate end of things and of events.The Lord calls us to collaborate in the construction of history becoming, together with Him, agents of peace and witnesses of hope in a future of salvation and resurrection. Faith makes us walk with Jesus on the torturous ways of this world, in the certainty that the force of His Spirit will subdue the forces of evil…

—Pope Francis. Angelus Address. November 17, 2019.

This, indeed, is the entire purpose of Jesus’ revelations to Luisa: that, after 6,000 years of arduous preparations, the time is finally ripe to renew the world to be fully in accordance with God’s Will, so that the Will of God may indeed be done on Earth as it is done in Heaven.

The realization of the greatest petition of the greatest prayer in history; the only prayer taught by the Son of God Himself — Thy Will be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven — is no pipe dream. It is the very definition of certain, and 2+2 is more likely to stop being 4 than is history to end without seeing the fulfillment of The Our Father prayer.

Dear brethren in Christ, never forget that, and never doubt it. Instead, dedicate yourself to hastening its arrival.

Thy Kingdom Come!