By Stefania Caterina and Tomislav Vlašić

 

Dearest Brothers and Sisters,

After the great grace of the apparitions of Fatima, God gave another great event to prevent wars and punishments: the grace of the Divine Mercy. Let us open up for this grace so that it can act within us and enable us to recognise the graces of our time.

We will read the passage on page 260.

Faustina Kowalska and the revelation of the Divine Mercy

The Lord found the right instrument for His new work in a young polish religious woman: Sister Maria Faustina Kowalska, today St. Faustina. Through her Jesus urgently recalled the humanity of the Earth to recognise its sins and invoke the Diving Mercy. He dictated her a powerful prayer  known as the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy with which we invoke mercy from God the Father in the name of the sufferings endured by Jesus in His sorrowful Passion; He promised great benefits to those who prayed it with devotion and steadiness. Jesus gave profound explanations about the sublime value of mercy for the humanity oppressed by evil. He confronted every man and woman and also the peoples of the Earth with the reality of sin.

In addition, Jesus appeared to St. Faustina dressed in white raising His right hand in blessing, and pointing with his left hand on His chest from which flowed forth two rays: one red and one white; He asked for a painting depicting the image of that vision containing the message, “Jesus, I trust in you”. That image was to be venerated in the whole world with the purpose to receive great spiritual benefits. He asked that a feast was dedicated to the Divine Mercy to be celebrated on the second Sunday of Easter. In that feast the Divine Mercy was to be adored.

All these explanations and requests of Jesus were addressing the Catholic Church and had only one purpose: to purify the humanity of the Earth from its sins and to indicate a quick way of redemption through the Divine Mercy. Lucifer and His friends were preparing a new disaster for the Earth and for this reason Jesus intervened. Through St. Faustina He wanted to help humanity to understand that sin offends God and attracts disasters on mankind; however, if people trust in the Divine Mercy, they will be welcomed and pardoned by God and live a new life and be protected from evil.

What is the Diving Mercy? It is not a concept but a Person: Jesus Christ. He is the Divine Mercy that has become flesh for you. Jesus Christ has embodied all divine prerogatives because Jesus is true God and true Man. Power, intelligence, force, wisdom, goodness, justice and mercy became visible in Jesus, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity. When man recognises Jesus Christ and offers himself to Him, he recognises the power of the Trinity; then Jesus begins to act and the power of His divinity dwells in man. As God becomes visible in Jesus, so Jesus becomes visible in the person who loves Him and receives Him with faith. For you on Earth this occurs mainly through the sacrament of the Eucharist by which Jesus enters you: His Body and Blood become your body and your blood if you love Him and recognise Him as the Lord of your life.

When Jesus asked humanity and the Church through St. Faustina to welcome and adore the Divine Mercy, He asked to be recognised, invoked and adored because He is the Divine Mercy.

If Jesus’ requests had been carried out quickly and if the cult of the Divine Mercy had been spread rapidly, God would have forgiven the grave sins of the humans and annulled the work of Lucifer. Therefore, Jesus wanted the Church to inform the Christians and humanity about the revelations He had given to St. Faustina; however, once again, this did not occur. The Catholic Church felt no urgency to recognise Jesus’ requests. Sister Faustina suffered many persecutions; her writings were considered dangerous and could circulate only secretly; the feast of the Divine Mercy was not established. Nevertheless, many faithful and humble people prayed according to Jesus’ wish and venerated the image He had wanted; however, that was not enough. Through St. Faustina Jesus had spoken, reminded and explained in many ways that there could be no peace without forgiveness and no forgiveness without mercy; He had recalled the peoples to convert, among them Poland, the home of St. Faustina, but in vane. St. Faustina died in 1938. In 1939 Nazi troupes invaded exactly Poland initiating the horrors of the Second World War the consequences of which still weigh upon the humanity of the Earth.

Sister Faustina Kowalska was proclaimed saint by the Church in the year 2000. In the same year the feast of the Divine Mercy was established, about seventy years after Jesus had requested it.

Why is the official or hierarchic Church always so slow in taking a position in front of extraordinary events like apparitions, visions, revelations, etc.? Its slowness causes the action of God to be slowed down in a certain period. There are particular graces that God grants in relation to a particular historical period, and it is precisely then that the grace unfolds its utmost power and may affect history so deeply that its course will be modified.

The official Church, however, distrusts in every extraordinary gift from the beginning even before its authenticity has been verified; so, the judgement turns into a prejudice that leads nowhere but to paralysis. The Church calls them “private revelations”, which the faithful are not obliged to follow, as if God revealed these things as a pastime or to do somebody a favour. God does nothing in private; He has totally given Himself to you. When God speaks, He speaks to all of you, to the entire humanity. It is true that through Jesus Christ everything has been revealed, but not everything has been understood. So, should God not intervene to help His people to better understand His teachings? Which teacher teaches an issue only once without explaining repeatedly the same things, showing them from different angles, to help even the slowest to understand? God is a Teacher who explains things repeatedly, and He does it the way He wants: in the intimacy of the hearts, through an angel or a man. God is the Lord and He knows the hearts. Or, might there be any better masters than Him?

Who may have the last word in the issues of God? God or His representatives? Who carries the house key: the owner or the administrator? Of course, the owner; the administrator might at best have a copy. God has the last word and He has the power to confirm unequivocally the truth of His gifts. How? Through the faith of the people who produce fruits of goodness.

It is not difficult to notice that when extraordinary events occur, people are ready to welcome them far earlier than the Church hierarchy. For example, the priests or the bishops are always the last to arrive at the places of the Marian apparitions. Often they do it secretly as Nicodemus did with Jesus. They are the last to kneel down and the first to raise doubts and create obstacles. Why? They should be the first to kneel down and ask God for the light to discern; to kneel down humbly together with the people to ask God to help them understand His wishes. Then God Himself would confirm everything: what does not come from God would drop and what is authentic would remain, because God never allows that the humble are confused.

The official Church gives little consideration to the faith of the people in front of the great signs of Heaven; on the contrary, it often accuses them of fanaticism, ignorance and superficial devotion; therefore, it intervenes promptly to block any enthusiasm. The Church takes its time in the name of caution and lets months, years, even centuries pass by before expressing its view. Its silence lies like a headstone on God’s signs. In the meantime, though, the faith of the little ones runs ahead and they feed on those signs as good as they can; however, they are left alone by the shepherds, the ones who actually should open the way for the faith of the little ones. I tell you that thanks to the faith of the people the Church was spared from many punishments; therefore, the Church hierarchy would do well in showing attention to this faith instead of suppressing it as it has done so often.

The official Church has always been suspicious of prophets, mystics, visionaries and of anyone who received special gifts. It treated them as it wanted. History is full of such examples: prophets, mystics, visionaries have been humiliated, persecuted and publicly scorned. Rarely, it has taken care of them; the priests who tried to do so were called enemies of the Church. All this has even put the signs in a bad light that God has given through the persons chosen by Him. This has greatly harmed the people of God: many graces that God has granted through chosen souls could not fully unfold within the Church due to the hostile attitude of the hierarchy that fears the mystery. Mystery always invades the area of human interests and this disturbs many, even among those who govern the Church. The heavenly signs disturb the human calculations, infringe privileges and humiliate the arrogant. But woe to those who have suffocate the life of God of a chosen soul trampling God’s gifts and signs in that soul! On the Day of Judgment they will suffer the fate of the murderers.

Many prophets and visionaries were first persecuted and then proclaimed saints by the official Church and elevated to the altars. That is not enough. Prophets, mystics and visionaries must be recognised and welcomed when they are living in the midst of the people of God, during the time they have been sent to the Earth to accomplish their mission. Proclaiming them saints when no one remembers them anymore, when they have been buried for centuries, may serve as an example of virtue but the potential of their earthly mission is already exhausted. God will take this into account despite the nice ceremonies of canonisation. Whoever has ears, let them hear.

The chosen souls have always been a gift for the Church: through them God has instructed His people and lifted them up to an ever higher level of comprehension and knowledge of the divine life. The first Christians knew this well: in their assemblies resounded the voices of the prophets through whom God instructed the first communities, revealed His plans and carried out miracles. Extraordinary gifts were normal events. Then things changed: mystics and prophets became rare in the bosom of the Church, exceptions that needed to be held under observation, virtually disappearing to the sight of the people. If someone speaks of prophesy and mystic gifts today, the faithful think of something unattainable or belonging to a distant past that does not concern them anymore. On the contrary, prophets, mystics and visionaries are vital lymph for the people of God.

Unfortunately, the official Church has locked the spiritual life more and more in a kind of cage that is sometimes called doctrine, magisterium, theology or Code of Canon Law. The hierarchy expects that even the Holy Spirit, respects the perimeter of that cage, but it is not so. The Spirit blows continuously where it wants and the way it wants guiding His people above and beyond any kind of hierarchy, interest or doctrine however sublime. If it were not so, the Church would have disappeared a long time ago whereas it is eternal like the Spirit of its Master and Lord. He has brought forth prophets and will always continue to arouse prophets, mystics and visionaries to give new life to His people and take them out of the cages made by men.

While the humanity of the Earth refused the great gift of the Divine Mercy, Lucifer was preparing his “gifts” for humanity: Adolf Hitler Josif Stalin and Benito Mussolini, ambitious, merciless, corrupt and mean-spirited men, some of the worst humanity has ever seen.

This reading is very rich; it contains many profound points that enlighten our soul. We need to reflect on this content and elaborate it all our life. God never criticizes anyone, not even the official Church; together with us He reflects on the historical events. By looking at history, He teaches us to recognise if we have welcomed the graces or not. In this moment, through these teachings He prepares us for the extraordinary events of this time; we are already in it, but the events will become much more evident. So, the message is for us to understand and prepare ourselves for these events; hopefully we will recognise these graces so that they may fruit a hundredfold.

It is said that the simple people recognised the graces but were not supported by those who should have helped them. Maybe they were very simple people, but what could they do without anyone’s help? The fundamental message comes at the end: it is a call to immerse ourselves in the Holy Spirit who blows wherever it wants. What does it mean? It means that there should be no cages in our heart: no distrust nor prejudice, envy, jealousy or arrogance. If faith and genuine hope and charity act within us, the Spirit will move about freely and we will not fail because He is the perfect guide of every believer and of the Church. Unfortunately, He cannot act beyond our freedom; we get in trouble by ourselves. This reflection invites us to be generous, to respond with generosity to the graces of these times.  We will continue to speak about this subject more and more as we go ahead, but it is important that each episode brings us a step closer to God.

I bless you; may the Holy Spirit find your heart ready to welcome the grace and to collaborate with the graces of these times. God has not neglected His Church, neither His people nor any soul. In these difficult times God is present in the midst of His people and as it has been said in the Holy Scriptures: His Church will become His adorned bride [1] beautiful and immaculate and so may become all the people of God; in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

 

[1] Rev 21:2