…it will be men themselves who will
provoke the imminent conflict,
and it will be I, Myself,
who will destroy the forces of evil
to draw good from all this;
and it will be the Mother, most holy Mary,
who will crush the head of the serpent,
thus beginning a new era of peace;
IT WILL BE THE ADVENT
OF MY KINGDOM UPON EARTH.
—Our Lord to Fr. Ottavio Michelini,
member of the Papal Court of Pope St. Paul VI,
December 9, 1976
When these signs begin to happen,
stand erect and raise your heads
because your redemption is at hand.
(Luke 21:28)
There is a Wearing Down of the Saints in these days, as the words of Jesus can be felt throughout the world:
…because of the increase in evildoing, the love of many will grow cold. (Matthew 24:12)
It coincides with the rise of the “fourth kingdom” the prophet Daniel foresaw — a neo-communist “beast” that subdues the entire earth in a way impossible in previous centuries:
Thus it is that our age has seen the birth of totalitarian systems and forms of tyranny which would not have been possible in the time before the technological leap forward… Today, control can penetrate into the innermost life of individuals… —POPE BENEDICT XVI, The Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation,n. 14; vatican.va
As such, we may be tempted to despair — to echo the words of those who cried out in Revelation: “Who can compare with the beast or who can fight against it?” [1]Revelation 13:4 The answer is Jesus Christ. For what we are living through in our times is not Satan’s triumph but the Lord’s, even if it entails a climactic Clash of the Kingdoms of darkness and Light — the “final confrontation,” as John Paul II put it. For in the midst of this clash, especially as the Antichrist (“little horn”) arrogantly asserts his reign, Daniel suddenly sees “One like a son of man”:
…He received dominion, splendor, and kingship; all nations, peoples and tongues will serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, his kingship, one that shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13-14)
The Fulfillment of Scripture
According to Daniel and St. John in his Apocalypse, this Kingdom of Christ mysteriously grows throughout the persecutions of the Church until at last the Kingdom of God triumphs after the death of Antichrist.[2]cf. Rev 12:1-12 But this is not the end of the world! Both Scripture and the Early Church Fathers clearly describe this Triumph taking place before the end of time.
Christ the Lord already reigns through the Church, but all the things of this world are not yet subjected to him. The triumph of Christ’s kingdom will not come about without one last assault by the powers of evil… The kingdom has come in the person of Christ and grows mysteriously in the hearts of those incorporated into him, until its full eschatological manifestation. —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 680, 865
The “eschatological manifestation” we await is the fulfillment of the “Our Father”, when Christ’s Kingdom will reign “on earth as it is in Heaven.” More precisely, we pray every day:
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. (Matt 6:10)
The Kingdom was born in “seed” form at Pentecost.[3]‘The kingdom of Christ already present in mystery”, “on earth, the seed and the beginning of the kingdom.”’ —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 669 Jesus likened the growth of this Kingdom to a plant:
…first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. (Mark 4:28)
For Christ to “subject” everything to Himself means to place everything again into the original harmony in which He created it.
Thus is the full action of the original plan of the Creator delineated: a creation in which God and man, man and woman, humanity and nature are in harmony, in dialogue, in communion. This plan, upset by sin, was taken up in a more wondrous way by Christ, Who is carrying it out mysteriously but effectively in the present reality, in the expectation of bringing it to fulfillment… —POPE JOHN PAUL II, General Audience, February 14, 2001
The obvious fruit of this harmony, foretold by the prophet Isaiah, is an “era of peace” in which all human striving against the plan of God ceases.
This is our great hope and our invocation, ‘Your Kingdom come!’ — a Kingdom of peace, justice and serenity, which will re-establish the original harmony of creation. —POPE JOHN PAUL II, General Audience, November 6th, 2002, Zenit
Here it is foretold that His kingdom will have no limits, and will be enriched with justice and peace: “in His days shall justice spring up, and abundance of peace… And He shall rule from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth”… When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony… —POPE PIUS XI, Quas Primas, n. 8, 19; Dec. 11th, 1925
The Church Fathers referred to this triumph as the “day of the Lord“, which they saw represented in the “thousand years” spoken of in Revelation 20 that follows after the death of the “beast” or Antichrist. They called this Era of Peace to come a “Sabbath Rest” for the Church, because she will be purified — living again “in the Divine Will,”[4]cf. How to Live in the Divine Will as Adam and Eve did before the Fall.
Hence it follows that to restore all things in Christ and to lead men back to submission to God is one and the same aim. —POPE ST. PIUS X, E Supremi, n. 8
When [this era] does arrive, it will turn out to be a solemn hour, one big with consequences not only for the restoration of the Kingdom of Christ, but for the pacification of… the world. We pray most fervently, and ask others likewise to pray for this much-desired pacification of society. —POPE PIUS XI, Ubi Arcani dei Consilioi “On the Peace of Christ in his Kingdom”, December 23, 1922
Jesus explains to Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta that this has been the long game of salvation history:
My ideal in Creation was the Kingdom of My Will in the soul of the creature; My primary purpose was to make of man the image of the Divine Trinity by virtue of the fulfillment of My Will upon him. But as man withdrew from It, I lost My Kingdom in him, and for as long as 6000 years I had to sustain a long battle. —Jesus to Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta, from Luisa’s diaries, Vol. XIX, June 20th, 1926
That “battle” is now coming to a head in our times. The Triumph, then, is not a matter of Christ wiping out creation and history and terminating everything because the “beast” was just too powerful and destructive. On the contrary:
Even the demons are checked by good angels lest they harm as much as they would. In like manner, Antichrist will not do as much harm as he would wish. —St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part I, Q.113, Art. 4
The Scriptures, Church Fathers, and Magisterium have positively rejected an eschatological narrative of mere gloom:
We feel that we must disagree with those prophets of doom who are always forecasting disaster, as though the end of the world were at hand. In our times, divine Providence is leading us to a new order of human relations which, by human effort and even beyond all expectations, are directed to the fulfilment of God’s superior and inscrutable designs, in which everything, even human setbacks, leads to the greater good of the Church. —POPE ST. JOHN XXIII, Address for the Opening of the Second Vatican Council, October 11th, 1962
Numerous popes have repeatedly taught this, and beautifully! Read: The Popes and the Dawning Era!
Look up!
The point is this: We need spiritual eyes to see the hidden things of God unfolding in this spiritual darkness. If you stare into the Storm, you risk being taken by it. There is, rather, a beautiful divine plan in motion beyond the tempest, and everyone is invited to take part. It’s not coming — it’s already here. The Kingdom of God is already present within us, [5]‘The Church “is the Reign of Christ already present in mystery.”’ —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 763 but Jesus wants to bring it to fulfillment within us before He brings it to fulfillment outside us at the end of time, when we will receive our resurrected bodies in eternity.
At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. —CCC, n. 1060
What does He want to do within us? Simply put, it is to make for Himself a Bride, united both in Heaven and on earth, who is “without spot or blemish”.[6]cf. Eph 5:27 This “new and divine holiness“, as John Paul II put it,[7]‘God himself had provided to bring about that “new and divine” holiness with which the Holy Spirit wishes to enrich Christians at the dawn of the third millennium, in order to “make Christ the heart of the world.”’ —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Address to the Rogationist Fathers, n. 6 is what Jesus calls the “sanctity of sanctities.” It is…
…a sanctity completely different from other sanctities… the sanctity of Living in My Will is identical to the [interior] life of the blessed in heaven who, by virtue of living in My Will, enjoy within each of themselves My indwelling, as if I were there for each one alone alive and real, and not mystically, but really dwelling within them. —Jesus to Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta, The Gift of Living in the Divine Will in the Writings of Luisa Piccarreta, p. 77-78
This was foreshadowed in many saints and mystics, who speak of Jesus remaining within the soul as though the person becomes a “living tabernacle.”[8]St. Faustina, Diary 1032 St. Padre Pio spoke as though one becomes a “living monstrance”[9]Something New With St. Thérèse, by Suzie Andres, p. 24 as did St. Anthony Mary Claret (1807-1870), Blessed Dina Belanger (1897-1929), and St. Thérèse de Lisieux (1873–1897).
Is God not omnipotent? If we so desire, it would not be difficult for Him to make His sacramental presence in our souls remain from one Communion to the next. —letter to Marie of the Trinity, testimony before the Apostolic Process for St. Thérèse’s canonization; Thérèse of Lisieux and Marie of the Trinity, pp. 69-70
Her words are notable, given that Thérèse is a Doctor of the Church.
If God has already begun this eschatological work within His Bride, what must you and I do? The answer is to first simply desire it and ask for this Gift, “For nothing shall be impossible with God.” [10]Luke 1:37 The second is to “look up” from earthly things to heavenly, that is, to uproot sin and inordinate attachments in one’s life.
From experience we know the truth of Saint Bernard’s claim: “Not to move forwards on the path of life is to slide back.” Standing still is not an option. We need to stay fixed on the goal we would reach, to mobilize our will, orient our desire. To cite Bernard again: “Let us run ahead by our desires and by progress in virtue.” —Bishop Erik Varden, o.c.s.o., cited in Magnicat, November 2025 issue
St. John puts it this way:
Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure. (1 John 3:2-3)
Only a pure soul can boldly say: “Thy kingdom come.” One who has heard Paul say, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies,” and has purified himself in action, thought and word will say to God: “Thy kingdom come!”… The grace of the Kingdom is “the union of the entire holy and royal Trinity… —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2819, 2565
Ah, there is so much more I could say, but then, this will become a book. So check out the Related Reading below if you wish to go deeper. Just know that there is something beautiful coming after this Storm as the Scriptures reach fulfillment:
It would not be inconsistent with the truth to understand the words, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” to mean: “in the Church as in our Lord Jesus Christ himself”; or “in the Bride who has been betrothed, just as in the Bridegroom who has accomplished the will of the Father.” —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2827
Is it not true that your will must be done on earth as it is in heaven? Is it not true that your kingdom must come? Did you not give to some souls, dear to you, a vision of the future renewal of the Church? —St. Louis de Montfort, Prayer for Missionaries
This Kingdom, that both Daniel and St. John foresaw, will never end, even if time and history does.
I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them as their God. (Revelation 21:2-3)
Stay in me as You are in the tabernacle. —
from St. Thérèse of Lisieux –
by those who knew her,
testimonies from the process of beaitification,
Christopher O. Mahony, O.C.D.
Related Reading
The Coming of the Kingdom of God
The Coming Dominion of the Church
The Mystery of the Kingdom of God
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Footnotes
| ↑1 | Revelation 13:4 |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | cf. Rev 12:1-12 |
| ↑3 | ‘The kingdom of Christ already present in mystery”, “on earth, the seed and the beginning of the kingdom.”’ —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 669 |
| ↑4 | cf. How to Live in the Divine Will |
| ↑5 | ‘The Church “is the Reign of Christ already present in mystery.”’ —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 763 |
| ↑6 | cf. Eph 5:27 |
| ↑7 | ‘God himself had provided to bring about that “new and divine” holiness with which the Holy Spirit wishes to enrich Christians at the dawn of the third millennium, in order to “make Christ the heart of the world.”’ —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Address to the Rogationist Fathers, n. 6 |
| ↑8 | St. Faustina, Diary 1032 |
| ↑9 | Something New With St. Thérèse, by Suzie Andres, p. 24 |
| ↑10 | Luke 1:37 |