Our Lady of America and Sister Mary
Click here for link to the Video)
Category Archives: The Divine Will of God
6/11 Eve of the Feast of the Holy Trinity
5/30 Eve of the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will
Meditation 1
***
The Queen of Heaven in the Kingdom of the Divine Will. In the Ardor of Her Love, feeling Herself the Mother of Jesus, Mary sets out in search of Hearts to be Sanctified. Visit to St. Elisabeth; Sanctification of John.
The soul to her Celestial Mother:
Celestial Mama, Your poor daughter has extreme need of You. Since You are my Mother and the Mother of Jesus, I feel the right to be near You, to place myself at Your side, and to follow Your Steps in order to model mine. O please! Holy Mama, give me Your hand, and take me with You, that I may learn to behave well in the different actions of my life.
Lesson of the Queen of Heaven:
Blessed daughter, how sweet is your company to Me. In seeing that you want to follow Me in order to imitate Me, I feel refreshment for the Flames of Love that devour Me. O! Yes, having you near Me, I will be able to teach you more easily how to Live of Divine Will. While you follow Me, listen to Me.
As soon as I became Mother of Jesus and your Mother, My Seas of Love Doubled, and unable to contain them all, I felt the need to pour them out, and to be the first Bearer of Jesus to creatures, even at the cost of Great Sacrifices. But, what am I saying—Sacrifices? When one really Loves, Sacrifices and Pains are refreshments; they are reliefs and outpourings of the Love that one possesses. O! My daughter, if you do not experience the Good of Sacrifice, if you do not feel how it brings the Most Intimate Joys, it is a sign that the Divine Love does not fill all your soul, and therefore that the Divine Will does not Reign as Queen in you. It alone gives such Strength to the soul as to render her Invincible and Capable of bearing any pain.
Place your hand upon your heart, and observe how many voids of love are in it. Reflect: that secret self-esteem, that becoming disturbed at every slightest adversity, those little attachments you feel to things and to people, that tiredness in good, that bother caused in you by what is not to your liking, are equivalent to as many voids of love in your heart; voids which, like little fevers, deprive you of the strength and of the desire to be filled with Divine Will. O! How you too will feel the Refreshing and Conquering Virtue in your sacrifices, if you fill these voids of yours with love.
My daughter, give Me your hand now, and follow Me, because I will continue to give you My Lessons.
So I departed from Nazareth, accompanied by Saint Joseph, facing a long journey, and crossing mountains to go visit Elisabeth in Judea, who, in her advanced age, had miraculously become a mother. I went to her, not to make her a simple visit, but because I Burned with the desire to bring her Jesus. The Fullness of Grace, of Love, of Light that I felt within Me, pushed Me to bring, to Multiply—to Increase a hundredfold the Life of My Son in creatures.
Yes, My daughter, the Love of Mother which I had for all men, and for you in particular, was so Great, that I felt the Extreme Need to give My Dear Jesus to all, so that all might Possess Him and Love Him. The Right of Mother, given to Me by the Fiat, Enriched Me with such Power as to Multiply Jesus as many times as there are creatures who want to receive Him. This was the Greatest Miracle I could perform: to have Jesus ready to give to whoever desired Him. How Happy I felt.
How I wish that you too, my daughter, in approaching people and in making visits, would always be the bearer of Jesus, capable of making Him known, and yearning to make Him Loved.
After several days of travel, finally I arrived in Judea, and solicitously I hastened to the house of Elisabeth. She came to meet Me in feast. At the greeting I gave her, Marvelous Phenomena occurred. My Little Jesus exulted in My Womb, and fixing on little John in the womb of his mother with the Rays of His Divinity, He Sanctified him, gave him the use of reason, and made known to him that He was the Son of God. And John leaped so vigorously with love and with joy that Elisabeth felt shaken. She too, touched by the Light of the Divinity of My Son, recognized that I had become the Mother of God; and in the emphasis of her love, trembling with gratitude, she exclaimed: “Whence comes to me so much honor, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?”
I did not deny the Highest Mystery; rather, I humbly confirmed it. Praising God with the song of the Magnificat—Sublime Canticle, through which the Church continuously honors Me—I announced that the Lord had done Great Things in Me, His Handmaid, and that because of this, all peoples would call Me Blessed.
My daughter, I felt Devoured with the Desire to pour out the Flames of Love that Consumed Me, and to reveal My Secret to Elisabeth, who also longed for the Messiah to come upon earth. A Secret is a need of the heart, which irresistibly is revealed to persons who are capable of understanding each other.
Who can ever tell you how much good My Visit brought to Elisabeth, to John, and to their whole household? Each one remained Sanctified, filled with Gladness, felt unusual Joys, and comprehended things unheard-of. And John, in particular, received all the Graces that were necessary for him, to prepare himself to be the Precursor of My Son.
Dearest daughter, the Divine Will does Great and unheard-of things wherever It Reigns. If I worked many Prodigies, it was because It had Its Royal Place in Me. If you let the Divine Will Reign in your soul, you too will become the bearer of Jesus to creatures—you too will feel the Irresistible Need to give Him to all.
The soul:
Holy Mama, how I thank You for Your Beautiful Lessons. I feel that they have such Power over me as to make me yearn continuously to Live in the Divine Will. But so that I may obtain this Grace— come, descend into my soul together with Jesus; renew for me the Visit you made to St. Elisabeth and the Prodigies You worked for her. Ah! Yes, my Mama, bring me Jesus—Sanctify me. With Jesus I will be able to do His Most Holy Will.
Little Sacrifice:
To honor Me, you will recite the Magnificat three times, in thanksgiving for the Visit I made to St. Elisabeth.
Magnificat
My soul proclaims the Greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for He has looked with favor on His lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and Holy is His Name.
He has mercy on those who fear Him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of His arm,
He has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich He has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of His servant Israel
for He has remembered His Promise of mercy,
the promise He made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.
Ejaculatory Prayer:
Holy Mama, Visit my soul, and prepare in it a Worthy Dwelling for the Divine Will.
5/18 The Answer to solving the problems in Church and society came from Our Lady of America, but will we listen to Her?
A university student emailed me, “I am wondering if you had any advice for dealing with the abuse crisis. It has profoundly affected my spiritual life. I am experiencing feelings of anger, barrenness, and betrayal and struggling with the problem of evil more than ever before. I would really appreciate some guidance. I am feeling pretty lost.”
His anguish of mind and heart describes that of thousands of others, “lost” because of our national painful dilemma.
As for his need for advice, Carrie Gress, in her insightful book, The Marian Option, presents an historical analysis of Our Lady coming to the rescue as indicated in the subtitle God’s Solution to a Civilization in Crisis. Ours now is the Church in Crisis. But the solution is the same.
Where to find it?
Mary can show herself as she “who comes terrible in army array” (Song of Solomon 6.10). And why this militant image? Let us not forget that this is part of the spiritual warfare instigated by the demon and so vividly described by St. Paul in Ephesians 6.10-20. It is part of his overall plan to eliminate all icons of God the Father. Jesus said, “He who sees me sees the Father” (John 12:45). Europe is considered no longer Christian and therefore does not see Christ.
Both St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI were very concerned about the loss of the sense of fatherhood in our contemporary culture. St. Paul shows the relationship of created fatherhood to the divine fatherhood in Ephesians 3:14: “I bend my knee before the Father, from whom all fatherhood is named.”
These scandals we are dealing with have practically destroyed trust in our spiritual fathers, the priests, who are meant to bring us Christ. Natural fatherhood is a blur due to contraception, abortion, co-habitation, same-sex unions, etc.
When the scandals erupted in 2002, a relative said to me that she never realized how much the devil is after priests. She echoed St. Faustina, the Messenger of Divine Mercy, “O Divine and Great High Priest, may the power of your mercy accompany them everywhere and protect them from the devil’s traps and snares which are continually being set for the souls of priests” (Diary 1052).
Our Lady Notifies
Frequently, Our Lady tried to prevent disasters by a forewarning. At La Salette, she wept because of the loss of faith that would result in a famine where children would die in the arms of their parents. But she also emphasized that in the case of their conversion and living faith, the rocks would turn into mounds of wheat and the potatoes would seem to sow themselves.
At Fatima, a universal disaster was predicted as arising from then insignificant Russia. Who followed her lead? We know the results.
From 1981 to 1983, in Kibeho, Rwanda, she emphasized true heartfelt conversion. A decade later there was a national tribal massacre. Then there are those who ask “Where was God?” The reply must be where were we when we were being forewarned.
Our Lady’s Forewarning
Has there been any forewarning in the United States? There does not seem to be any explicitly, like La Salette, Fatima, or Kibeho. But there is evidence of an implicit notice in the message of Our Lady of America. She came under that title to Sister Ephrem (Mildred Neuzil) of the Precious Blood community in Indiana and Ohio. Her communications with Our Lady of America began in 1954 to 1959.
Her Ordinary was Archbishop Paul Leibold of Cincinnati, Ohio – who had been her spiritual director when vicar general. Thus, he was well aware of these messages as they were given. Although he never issued a document authenticating these graces, his actions showed his approval. This included personally financing medals, images and holy cards of Our Lady of America.
The USCCB requested Cardinal Raymond Burke, then Archbishop of St. Louis and the leading canon lawyer in this country, to study this case. He concluded that Archbishop Leibold authenticated the messages of Our Lady of America not explicitly by an official statement but implicitly by action. He stated this conclusion in a letter sent to each member of the USCCB dated May 31, 1997.
Our Lady of America
It is very significant that Mary identified herself as Our Lady of America – The Immaculate Virgin. Interestingly and prophetically, her messages centered on the virtue of chastity in America. This is succinctly evident in her message of Sept. 25, 1956. “I wish it (America) to be the country dedicated to my purity. The wonders I will work will be the wonders of the soul. They must have faith and believe firmly in my love for them. I desire that they be the children of my Pure Heart. I desire, through the children of America to further the cause of faith and purity among peoples and nations. Let them come to me with confidence and simplicity, and I, their Mother, will teach them to become pure like to my Heart that their hearts may be more pleasing to the Heart of My Son.”
She continued on Sept. 27, 1956: “Behold, O my children, the tears of your Mother! Shall I weep in vain? Assuage the sorrow of my Heart over the ingratitude of sinful men by the love and chasteness of your lives. Will you do this for me, beloved children, or will you allow your Mother to weep in vain. I come to you, O children of America, as a last resort. I plead with you to listen to my voice. Cleanse your souls in the Precious Blood of My Son. Live in His Heart, and take me in that I may teach you to live in great purity of heart which is so pleasing to God. Be my army of chaste soldiers, ready to fight to the death to preserve the purity of your souls. I am the Immaculate One, Patroness of your land. Be my faithful children as I have been your faithful Mother…I desire to make the whole of America my shrine by making every heart accessible to the love of My Son.”
This poses the question: Is our present dilemma due to a lack of proper attention and response to this message given about 60 years ago?
While preparing for Mass on the Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady, in the Shrine of Our Lady of Joyful Hope, this idea came to me — which I leave to our bishops’ discernment.
Solution to Drastic Problem
At times a drastic problem needs a drastic answer. It seems beyond just human endeavors to heal these deep wounds. Since this dilemma has a spiritual dimension, something spiritual must be included. May I ask our bishops to consider the following?
Most of the members of the USCCB should be familiar with the message of Our Lady of America, validated by Cardinal Raymond Burke in his letter to all the American bishops. Her message includes her request to be solemnly enthroned in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception by the bishops, promising many conversions. But there seems to be a snag in the process that is detaining its long-awaited fulfillment. Let us pray to her to “untie this knot” to remove this obstacle and make the road smooth for the bishops to take action.
Would the bishops proceed with Our Lady’s request as a plea to her, the Consolation of the Afflicted, for her maternal intervention on behalf of her supplicants? This will definitely be drastic and spiritual. But where else can we get any hope for a remedy for these serious afflictions that are shaking the faith of many, as the university student indicated to me. Therefore, should we not entrust this situation to her by this public act manifesting our great confidence in her?
Should we not make plans for a program on purity of mind, chastity of body and modestly in manners?
Joseph Joins Our Lady of America
We are not alone in this project because not only Our Lady but St. Joseph assures us of assistance. He participated in the messages of Our Lady of America by appearing several times to Sister Ephrem. On March 11, 1958, promising to bring countless souls to a new way of life, he told her, “I bring to souls the purity of my life and the obedience that crowned it… Through me the Heavenly Father has blessed all fatherhood… Fatherhood is from God and must take once again its rightful place among men.”
Sister Ephrem saw his most pure heart and heard these words, “Behold this pure heart so pleasing to Him Who made it.” This would be developed in St. Joseph’s messages to a university student in Itapiranga, Brazil in 1997, where devotion to the Chaste Heart of St. Joseph was taught.
It would be encouraging if the bishops of the USCCB took serious note of Our Lady’s enthronement in her National Shrine and discussed it appropriately. Without doubt, the laity backing their bishops would certainly strengthen them in this endeavor.
The bishops have been inundated with letters expressing national distress. Let us offer them some reprieve with this request to fulfill Our Lady’s desire to remedy the cause.
Remember, that never was it known that anyone who fled to her protection or sought her intercession was left unaided!
Father Smolenski is the director of the Shrine of Our Lady of Joyful Hope in Kingstree, South Carolina
5/13 Our Lady, Queen and Mother of the End Times
Queen and Mother of the End Times, I am your little child in the Most Holy Divine Will, receive me and all people, past present and future.
I give to You my life and in Your Hands, I place my human will, all I have and all I am, my aspirations, desires and projects as Jesus Our King has ordained.
Take away from me all attachment to earthly material things, so that I will look for Heavenly possessions, which cannot be seen because they are spiritual.
I consecrate my life to You today, Queen and Mother, I freely surrender to Your Protection in the Divine Will such difficult instants in which I live, be my lifesaving Ark that will help me to remain afloat without sinking in the middle of the great purification.
May the Rays from Your Hands enlighten my mind, my thoughts and my memories that they be completely healed, and all my sufferings, so that I offer them and my many falls, so that You will lift me to Heaven.
Illuminate my human reason so that it does not compete with my Faith, but may they be one in the Divine Light of the other.
Illuminate my human reason so that it does not compete with my Faith, but may they be one in the Divine Light of the other.
I consecrate myself to You and surrender to You within the great freedom of the little children of the Most Holy Divine Will through The Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta.
Amen.
5/8 Apparition of St. Michael the Archangel (Historical)
“Archangel Saint Michael, Defend me from the infernal enemy, who puts so many obstacles in my mind to make me fail this obedience.” – Vol. 1
April 2022 – The Power of the Divine Mercy