The Storm at Hand

WHEN this ministry first began, the Lord made it clear to me in a gentle but firm way that I was not to be shy in “blowing the trumpet.” This was confirmed by a Scripture:

The word of the LORD came to me: Son of man, speak to your people and tell them: When I bring the sword against a land… and the sentinel sees the sword coming against the land, he should blow the trumpet to warn the people… If, however, the sentinel sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the sword attacks and takes someone’s life, his life will be taken for his own sin, but I will hold the sentinel responsible for his blood. You, son of man — I have appointed you as a sentinel for the house of Israel; when you hear a word from my mouth, you must warn them for me. (Ezekiel 33:1-7)

The young have shown themselves to be for Rome and for the Church a special gift of the Spirit of God… I did not hesitate to ask them to make a radical choice of faith and life and present them with a stupendous task: to become “morning watchmen” at the dawn of the new millennium. —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Novo Millennio Inuente, n.9

With the help of a holy spiritual director and much, much grace, I have been able to raise the instrument of warning to my lips and blow it according to the leading of the Holy Spirit. More recently, before Christmas, I met with my own shepherd, his Excellency, Bishop Don Bolen, to discuss my ministry and the prophetic aspect of my work. He told me that he did “not want to put any stumbling blocks in the way”, and that it was “good” that I was “sounding the warning.” Regarding more specific prophetic elements of my ministry, he expressed caution, as he should have. For how can we know if a prophecy is a prophecy until it comes true? His caution is my own in the spirit of St. Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians:

Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophetic utterances. Test everything; retain what is good. (1 Thess 5:19-21)

It is in this sense that discernment of charisms is always necessary. No charism is exempt from being referred and submitted to the Church’s shepherds. “Their office [is] not indeed to extinguish the Spirit, but to test all things and hold fast to what is good,” so that all the diverse and complementary charisms work together “for the common good.” —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 801

Regarding discernment, I want to recommend Bishop Don’s own writing on the times, one that is refreshingly honest, accurate, and challenges the reader to become a vessel of hope (“Giving An Account of Our Hope“, www.saskatoondiocese.com, May 2011).

 

THE GREAT STORM

During the past six years of this writing apostolate, the Lord has referred to what is coming upon the world as a “Great Storm” ^[1]cf. The Great Storm. As I sat down to prayer this week, my heart was overwhelmed with a sense of longing… a pining for goodness and holiness and beauty to be restored on earth. Is this not a beatitude we are called to live?

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. (Matt 5:6); “Here… righteousness seems to mean the saving activity of God.” —footnote, NABR, Mt. 3:14-15

A question rose up in my heart that did not seem to be my own:

How much longer, Father, until your right hand falls upon the earth?

And the answer, that I promptly shared with my spiritual director, was this:

My child, when My hand falls, the world will never be the same. Old orders will pass away. Even the Church, as she has developed over 2000 years, will be radically different. All will be purified.

When the stone is recovered from the mine, it looks rough and without brilliance. But when the gold is cleansed, refined, and purified, it becomes a brilliant gem. That is how drastically different My Church will be in the Era to come.

And so, child, do not cling to the dross of this era, for it will be blown away like chaff in the wind. In a day, the futile treasures of men will be reduced to a heap and that which men adore will be exposed for what it is—a charlatan god and an empty idol.

How soon child? Soon, as in your time. But it is not for you to know, rather, for you to pray and intercede for the repentance of souls. Time is so short, that Heaven has already drawn in its breath before Divine Justice exhales the Great Storm that will ultimately purify the world of all wickedness and usher in My Presence, My rule, My justice, My goodness, My peace, My love, My Divine Will. Woe to those who ignore the signs of the times and do not prepare their souls to meet their Maker. For I will show that men are mere dust and their glory is fading as the green of the fields. But My glory, My Name, My divinity, is everlasting, and all will come to adore My Great Mercy.

 

IN THE SCRIPTURES, IN TRADITION

After receiving this “word”, the Lord seemed to confirm it in Scripture when I opened my bible straight to Ezekiel 33. There, the conversation I just had with the Lord in prayer, was sitting before me in black and white:

Our crimes and our sins weigh us down; we are rotting away because of them. How can we survive?

The word of the LORD came to me: Son of man, speak to your people and tell them: When I bring the sword against a land, if the people of that land select one of their number as a sentinel for them, and the sentinel sees the sword coming against the land, he should blow the trumpet to warn the people…

Say this to them: Thus says the Lord GOD: As I live, those among the ruins shall fall by the sword; those in the open field I have made food for the wild beasts; and those in rocky hideouts and caves shall die by the plague. I will make the land a desolate waste, so that its proud strength will come to an end, and the mountains of Israel shall be so desolate that no one will cross them. Thus they shall know that I am the LORD, when I make the land a desolate waste because of all the abominations they committed. (Ezekiel 33:10; 1-3; 27-29)

These are strong words—words that many do not want to hear, or believe could never apply to us in any kind of manner of chastisement or divine correction from Heaven. But not only does that contradict the New Testament, but also those charged with preaching it in the early Church, who foresaw that the world would eventually be cleansed in a purification, and given a period of rest before the end of time:

Since God, having finished His works, rested on the seventh day and blessed it, at the end of the six thousandth year all wickedness must be abolished from the earth, and righteousness reign for a thousand years… —Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius (250-317 A.D.; Ecclesiastical writer), The Divine Institutes, Vol 7

…when His Son will come and destroy the time of the lawless one and judge the godless, and change the sun and the moon and the stars—then He shall indeed rest on the seventh day… after giving rest to all things, I will make the beginning of the eighth day, that is, the beginning of another world. —Letter of Barnabas (70-79 A.D.), written by a second century Apostolic Father

Therefore, the Son of the most high and mighty God… shall have destroyed unrighteousness, and executed His great judgment, and shall have recalled to life the righteous, who… will be engaged among men a thousand years, and will rule them with most just command… —4th century Ecclesiastical writer, Lactantius, “The Divine Institutes”, The ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, p. 211

The prophet Zechariah wrote of such a purification when the shepherd of the Church would be struck and the sheep scattered (a persecution), thus purifying a people for God:

Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the one who is my associate —oracle of the LORD of hosts. Strike the shepherd that the sheep may be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones. In all the land—oracle of the LORD—two thirds of them will be cut off and perish, and one third will be left. I will bring the one third through the fire; I will refine them as one refines silver, and I will test them as one tests gold. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them; I will say, “They are my people,” and they will say, “The LORD is my God.” (Zech 13:7-9)

Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) perhaps spoke prophetically of this little remnant:

The Church will be reduced in its dimensions, it will be necessary to start again. However, from this test a Church would emerge that will have been strengthened by the process of simplification it experienced, by its renewed capacity to look within itself… the Church will be numerically reduced. —Cardinal Ratzinger (POPE BENEDICT XVI), God and the World, 2001; interview with Peter Seewald

The prophets Jeremiah, Zephaniah and Ezekiel speak of a day when the idols of the earth will be smashed, using the language and symbolism of a “storm”:

Near is the great day of the LORD, near and very swiftly coming… A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of thick black clouds, a day of trumpet blasts and battle cries against fortified cities, against lofty battlements… Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them. (Zeph 1:14-18)

Jeremiah alludes to the seals of Revelation Chapter 6 and their agents of purification (the four horses of the Apocalypse):

See! like storm clouds he advances, like a whirlwind, his chariots; Swifter than eagles, his horses: “Woe to us! we are ruined.” Cleanse your heart of evil, Jerusalem, that you may be saved. (Jer 4:13-14)

And Ezekiel alludes to the apostasy, a period of lawlessness that marks the impending purification.

The day is here! Look! it is coming! The crisis has come! Lawlessness is blooming, insolence budding; the violent have risen up to wield a scepter of wickedness. But none of them shall remain; none of their crowd, none of their wealth, for none of them are innocent… Their silver and gold cannot save them on the day of the LORD’s wrath. They cannot satisfy their hunger or fill their bellies, for it has been the occasion of their sin. (Ezekiel 7:10-11)

St. John, of course, echoes this purification of “Babylon”, which Pope Benedict interprets as “the symbol of the world’s great irreligious cities”: ^[2]cf. On the Eve

Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. She has become a haunt for demons. She is a cage for every unclean spirit… For all the nations have drunk the wine of her licentious passion… Therefore, her plagues will come in one day, pestilence, grief, and famine; she will be consumed by fire. For mighty is the Lord God who judges her. (Rev 18:1-8)

Really, what the prophets are speaking of is the fruition of the “culture of death”, of man raining upon himself the storm of his own rebellion.

And let us not say that it is God who is punishing us in this way; on the contrary it is people themselves who are preparing their own punishment. In his kindness God warns us and calls us to the right path, while respecting the freedom he has given us; hence people are responsible. –Sr. Lucia, one of the Fatima visionaries, in a letter to the Holy Father, May 12th, 1982. 

But these “wicked” men will fail to fully achieve their plans, those who, through the subversive and diabolical activity of secret societies, are plotting to remake the world in their own image (see Global Revolution!). Psalm 37 is the great song that sings of their demise, followed by a time when the renmant, “the meek shall inherit the earth.”

Those who do evil will be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD will inherit the earth. Wait a little, and the wicked will be no more; look for them and they will not be there. But the poor will inherit the earth, will delight in great prosperity. The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them; but my Lord laughs at them, because he sees that their day is coming…. Sinners will be destroyed together; the future of the wicked will be cut off. (cf. Psalm 37)

The beast was caught and with it the false prophet who had performed in its sight the signs by which he led astray those who had accepted the mark of the beast and those who had worshiped its image. The two were thrown alive into the fiery pool burning with sulfur. The rest were killed by the sword that came out of the mouth of the one riding the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh. (Rev 19:20-21)

 

NOT THE FATHER’S WILL!

We can only understand these dire Old Testament passages, and in fact, any prophecy regarding divine chastisement, in the light of divine mercy. That is, in the light of the New Testament. Jesus tells us that God did not send Him into the world to condemn it, but rather, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life. ^[3]c. John 3:16 This was an echo, in fact, of the prophet Ezekiel:

I swear I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! Why should you die, house of Israel? (Ezekiel 33:11) 

The great message of Divine Mercy, conveyed through St. Faustina, is a deep plea to sinners to turn back to God, no matter how dark and terrible their sin.

Souls perish in spite of My bitter Passion. I am giving them the last hope of salvation; that is, the Feast of My Mercy. If they will not adore My mercy, they will perish for all eternity. Secretary of My mercy, write, tell souls about this great mercy of Mine, because the awful day, the day of My justice, is near.—Divine Mercy in My Soul, Jesus to St. Faustina, Diary, n. 965

In the Old Covenant I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart. I use punishment when they themselves force Me to do so; My hand is reluctant to take hold of the sword of justice. Before the Day of Justice I am sending the Day of Mercy. —Ibid. n. 1588

But as we see the world around us rapidly descending into the jaws of the dragon, that ancient serpent and conceiver of the culture of death, how can a merciful God stand by idly? Hence, the Lord has been sending prophets to awaken the Church and call the world back from the brink of her self-made abyss.

But are we listening?

 

BLESSED ELENA AIELLO

Among the many mystics of the Church are some of the lesser known souls such as Blessed Elena Aiello (1895-1961), a stigmatic, victim soul, and prophet for our times. I want to share with you some of the words, allegedly conveyed to her by the Blessed Mother, only made known to me recently. They are an echo of many themes that the Lord has given me to write about since 2005.

The words are serious because these are serious times.

People are offending God too much. Were I to show you all the sins committed on a single day, you would surely die of grief. These are grave times. The world is thoroughly upset because it is in a worse condition than at the time of the deluge. Materialism marches on ever fomenting bloody strifes and fratricidal struggles. Clear signs portend that peace is in danger. That scourge, like the shadow of a dark cloud, is now moving across mankind: only my power, as Mother of God, is preventing the outbreak of the storm. All is hanging on a slender thread. When that thread shall snap, Divine Justice shall pounce upon the world and execute its dreadful, purging designs. All the nations shall be punished because sins, like a muddy river, are now covering all the earth.

The powers of evil are getting ready to strike furiously in every part of the globe. Tragic events are in store for the future. For quite a while, and in many a way, I have warned the world. The nation’s rulers do indeed understand the gravity of these dangers, but they refuse to acknowledge that it is necessary for all people to practice a truly Christian life to counteract that scourge. Oh, what torture I feel in my heart, on beholding mankind so engrossed in all kinds of things and completely ignoring the most important duty of their reconciliation with God. The time is not far off now when the whole world shall be greatly disturbed. A great deal of blood of just and innocent people as well as saintly priests will be poured out. The Church shall suffer very much and hatred will be at its very peak.

Italy shall be humiliated and purged in her blood. She shall suffer very much indeed on account of the multitude of sins committed in this privileged nation, the abode of the Vicar of Christ.

You cannot possibly imagine what is going to happen. A great revolution shall break out and the streets shall be stained with blood. The Pope’s sufferings on this occasion may well be compared to the agony that will shorten his pilgrimage on earth. His successor shall pilot the boat during the storm. But the punishment of the wicked shall not be slow. That will be an exceedingly dreadful day. The earth shall quake so violently as to scare all mankind. And so, the wicked shall perish according to the inexorably severity of Divine Justice. If possible, publish this message throughout the world, and admonish all the people to do penance and to return right away to God. —Virgin Mary to Blessed Elena Aiello, www.mysticsofthechurch.com

What is the heart of the Father saying to us in this moment of suffering in the world? Here is another message for the Church to discern, allegedly given at the apparition site in Medjugorje, which is currently under investigation by the Vatican:

Dear children; As with motherly concern I look in your hearts, in them I see pain and suffering; I see a wounded past and an incessant search; I see my children who desire to be happy but do not know how. Open yourselves to the Father. That is the way to happiness, the way by which I desire to lead you. God the Father never leaves His children alone, especially not in pain and despair. When you comprehend and accept this, you will be happy. Your search will end. You will love and you will not be afraid. Your life will be hope and truth which is my Son. Thank you. I implore you, pray for those whom my Son has chosen. Do not judge because you will all be judged. —January 2nd, 2012, message to Mirjana

 

 

 

RELATED READING:

• Do you have plans, dreams, and desires for the future unfolding before you? And yet, do you sense that “something” is near? That the signs of the times point toward great changes in the world, and that to move forward with your plans would be a contradiction? Then you need to read Trajectory.