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.  

 

(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.