Good morning from rather a cold London. Summer certainly seems to have escaped us this year with the cold weather now coming.
Yesterday I was in Alysford. It’s a large Carmelite priory held together now by only a few aging monks.
As I walked about the large property I wondered if like the hot weather if it’s days of glory had not gone.
With fewer and fewer vocations many religious orders such as the Carmelites are left with very large properties which are both expensive and difficult to maintain for an aging community.
Yet that said we had a very fervent bus load of pilgrims with an entire day dedicated to the divine mercy.
At times it seems that God keeps doing new things and raising up new devotions and ways of prayer such as the divine mercy, the charismatic renewal and Medjugorje while letting some of the preexisting ones decline and even die out.
I’m not by any means predicting the future of the Carmelites and yet common sense would say that without a serious renewal that like weather today, it looks bleak.
Interestingly I also received a locution while I was there yesterday from Our Lady and she too spoke to me about the challenging times ahead.
“Our Lady
My little child, the coldness you feel today is like the coldness God feels from so many of His children who do not know him and despite plea after plea, warning after warning, refuse to change their lives and embark on the heavenly journey of sanctification.
Imagine a world without light where everyone is lost and crash into eachother. That is how your world is today spiritually with chaos at every turn.
My children, what unimaginable darkness you live in and how instead of valuing the little light that you have left, how it is being searched out and extinguished in an effort to live in total darkness.
Satan desires earth to be like hell in the same was as God desires earth to be a foretaste of heaven.
My little ones, be not fooled by Satan my adversary who promotes a type of human happiness without God. Just like a piece of cheese is used to trap and kill an innocent moose is this strategy being used to drive humanity further to its peril.
Do not lose hope because Satan underestimates my intervention and his inevitable failure.
I call my chosen ones to prayer, to sacrifice and to trusting while things grow darker and darker and while it seems that heaven is doing nothing.
Just when all will seem lost will the powers of heaven be stirred and will my reign, the reign of my immaculate heart come.
Fear nothing my little flock but trust in your blessed mother in all things.“
I read this message myself a few times as I reflected on it. On one hand Our Lady is calling those of us who have placed ourselves under her mantle to be joyful and to trust because she is protecting us. On the other hand she’s telling us that things are going to get darker and darker in the world with Satan raging to take as much control as he can.
These type of messages aren’t really what we’d like to hear humanly speaking. We’d like to hear something like “everything is going to be fine, relax and don’t worry” while instead we are hearing “everything will not be fine at all but consecrate yourselves to me, convert your hearts and pray and I will protect you”.
Yet there is one very strong message that Our Lady is saying and also that was reportedly said in Medjugorje just a few days ago and that is to be joyful.
If we have given our lives to Jesus and if we are following Him every day and doing our best then Our Lady is telling us not to be afraid but to be joyful. Those that should be afraid are those that refuse to pray, refuse to convert and those who are lukewarm with their spiritual lives.
And so let us be honest with ourselves and ask ourselves where we are at, which group we are in and let us resolve once again to give our lives to God and to prayer and to joyfully shield ourselves in His mercy under the mantle of Mary while the darkness continues to envelope our world.
Have a wonderful day and may everything we do be pleasing to our most beautiful mother, Our Lady.
Michael