We are in a serious battle for the souls of mankind. Current and past private revelations show
that, in spite of warnings and exhortations from Our Lady and Jesus Himself, we
continue to ignore the directions we’ve been given for our salvation. Much has been said recently about Charlie
Johnston and his visits from an angel of the Lord. Charlie, and other visionaries mentioned in
Fr. Joseph Esper’s book, On the Brink, talk about the messages they’ve received, warning of a chastisement heading our way due to the obstinate refusal of the citizens
of our country to live the Truth of the Gospel.
In The Flame of Love, a reporter chronicles the locutions of
Elizabeth Kindelmann, a lay woman from Budapest who died in 1985, that show Our
Lady’s intense concern for the salvation of souls on a worldwide basis.
But you don’t need to take the word of these two Catholic Christians. Just look to past,
Church-approved apparitions such as Fatima and more recently, Akita and Kibeho
for some warnings, exhortations and instructions from Our Lady regarding the
consequences of mankind’s collective behaviors, and the need for penance and
prayer, especially for the Rosary.
Fatima
As many to most Catholics may know, at Fatima in 1917, Our
Lady requested that we pray the Rosary daily for peace, and that we exercise a
devotion to her Immaculate Heart, including a consecration to her, and a
regimen known as the “five first Saturdays,” (Confession, Mass, Communion and
Rosary with 15 minutes of meditation for five first Saturdays of the month). (1)
Akita
In
Japan, in 1973, Our Lady of Akita gave a warning, similar to that of Fatima, of
a specific worldwide chastisement which is ugly – consistent
with Scripture, and much worse than the possibility of annihilation of several
nations as prophesied at Fatima. In
fact, on October 13, 1973, on the anniversary of the final apparition at
Fatima, Our Lady said, “As I told you,
if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible
punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge,
such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will
wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither
priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they
will envy the dead.
The only arms which will remain
for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son. Each day, recite the
prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and the
priests. The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church
in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, and bishops
against other bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed
by their Confreres. The Church and altars will be vandalized. The Church will
be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests
and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.
The demon will rage especially against souls consecrated to
God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness. If
sins increase in number and gravity, there will no longer be pardon for
them." (2)
Kibeho
Between 1981 and 1989, Our Lady
visited multiple people in this Rwandan community. The messages from
Our Lady are similar to Fatima
and to Akita – urgent appeals for the repentance and conversion of hearts, an
assessment of the moral conduct of the world, the
Blessed Mother’s deep sorrow for the disobedience of all of God’s children, and
the necessity of prayer and conversion before the Final Judgment, which she expresses
repeatedly is coming soon. She also talks about how suffering saves,
saying; “No one will reach heaven without suffering.” As Diane McKelva states in her
blog post on Kibeho at Catholic Stand,
“Nothing has changed on this earth since the Kibeho visions ended in 1989." (3)
So what is one to make of all of
this? Continuing on with the theme from
my last Sojourner’s post—that of taking stock of where we are now spiritually,
identifying opportunities for improvement and beginning to make changes for the
better – we might conclude that there is no time like now to get closer to God. The late Fr. Benedict Groeschel in Everyday
Encounters with God which he coauthored with Bert Ghezzi, tells us that, “…at
the present moment, you are completely able to steer your now into eternity, no
matter what you have done in the past.” (4) The good news is that through His Divine Mercy,
the Lord is the ultimate grantor of “the second chance.” We’ve all got a chance right now, at this
very moment, to take advantage of that and make the changes we need to
make. But don’t hesitate—Mt. 24:42-51
warns that we don’t know the time or place when our “now” won’t exist any
longer.
And any change in what we do as Catholics
ought to take into account the assistance our Blessed Mother stands ready and
willing to offer us along the way. In
fact, a consecration to Jesus through our Blessed Mother is the fastest, most
direct route to follow. (5) Here we have
many good examples to follow in the saints who went before us, including St.
Alphonsus Ligouri, St. Louis de Monfort, St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Francis de
Sales, and Pope St. John Paul II, to name a few. St. Padre Pio had a strong devotion to Our
Lady and to the Eucharist, and writings about his holy life are replete with
quotes about Our Lady and about the Rosary.
Besides the one you’ve probably heard (“The Rosary is the weapon for
these times.”), he’s also quoted as saying, “Some people are so foolish that
they think they can go through life without the help of the Blessed Mother.
Love the Madonna and pray the rosary, for her Rosary is the weapon against the
evils of the world today. All graces given by God pass through the Blessed
Mother.” (6)
By now you probably are seeing why this
post has the title that it does. As St.
Padre Pio said, “The Rosary is the weapon for these times.” I believe that the Rosary is not only the
weapon for our times but it is our heavy artillery for the spiritual battle we
face individually and collectively. Given
all the warnings we’ve received over the last hundred years and continue to
receive through various visionaries, a smart battle strategy would be to deploy
the heavy artillery. In the artillery we
had a command that would come down to the guns, “Fire for effect.” "Fire for Effect" is the command
the forward observer gives the guns once one gun has been zeroed in on the
target. All the guns then let loose, firing at the same coordinates, raining
down destruction on the enemy. Through
the Rosary, we have the ability to bring destruction to our enemy the evil
one. The more weapons we employ and the
more frequently we do so, the better. Our Lady, our Spiritual Forward
Observer, continually encourages us to pray the Rosary daily—to “fire for
effect” on the evil one. This is a
command that we dare not ignore.
Most
parishes have a group that gathers together before or after a particular Mass
to pray the Rosary. If we get up early
or record it for later, EWTN has not only an early daily Mass, but also the
Holy Land Rosary led by Fr. Mitch Pacwa (available on CDs and DVDs http://www.ewtnreligiouscatalogue.com/). We can catch the Rosary on the local Catholic
radio station as well, and pray along in the car. With or without the radio program of the Rosary,
one can pray the Rosary on the way to and from work. And we don’t have to pray all five
decades of a Rosary in one sitting—we can pray as much as we have time for
and come back to it and complete it later.
We can pray while we’re standing in line at the store or at the airport. The opportunities to pray the Rosary are
limited only by our imagination. As our
Spiritual Mother, Our Lady loves us and wants only what’s best for us. When Our Blessed Mother suggests that we pray
the Rosary more, we ought to listen and do what she says.
Next time – more on Catholic devotion to
the Rosary.
4 – Everyday Encounters with God: What Our Experiences Teach Us –
Groeschel and Ghezzi
5 – True Devotion to Mary – De Montfort
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