IN OCTOBER 1949, in the same month and year that the People’s Republic of China was founded by Chinese communists, the Blessed Virgin Mary was appearing to Filipino nun Teresita Castillo in a convent in Lipa, Batangas.
The specific date was October 17, 1949, when the Blessed Mother told Sister Teresing a “secret message” that was to be revealed only in 2017 by Ricardo Cardinal Vidal shortly before his death. Our Blessed Mother’s message (this was a subject of this column in the past): “Pray hard for China’s dream to invade the whole world. The Philippines is one of its favorites. Money is the evil force that will lead the people of the world to destruction.”
Noted Cardinal Vidal: “The Philippines cannot by any stretch of the imagination equal or overtake China in economic growth or prevail in a military confrontation. China can bring its huge financial, material, and human resources as well as its advanced military capability in any struggle with a smaller and poorer country like the Philippines with its ill-equipped armed forces. The first and only line of defense the Philippines has is the mantle of protection provided by the Blessed Virgin Mary.”
It is rather amusing that now that China has emerged as a global economic and military power, the Philippines is being led by an unusual president whose fondness for China is as unusual. How this would play up in the next few years--seen by a growing number of mystics as apocalyptic--would probably rest much on how prayerfully Filipinos respond to the warnings from Lipa.
Indeed, many popes have taught the doctrine and value of Marian mediation, of Mary as Mediatrix of All Grace. One prophecy is that this would be the last Marian dogma to be espoused by the Church before the great Chastisement.
In the Encyclical, Ubi primum dated February 2, 1894, Pope Pius IX said: “God has committed to the Blessed Virgin Mary the treasury of all good things in order that everyone may know that through her are obtained every hope, every grace and all salvation.”
Pope Leo XIII in the Encyclical, Octobri mense decreed on Sept. 22, 1891, noted: “Mary is this glorious intermediary... The plan of this most loving mercy, realized by God in Mary and confirmed by the testament of Christ, was understood with the utmost joy by the Holy Apostles and the earliest believers. It was the belief and teaching of the venerable Fathers of the Church. Christians of every generation received it with one mind.”
Indeed, in 1948 in Lipa, the Blessed Mother had identified herself to Sister Teresing saying: “I am Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace."
Cardinal Vidal said that “the last part of the message of Mary Mediatrix given on October 17, 1949, says: ‘Prayers, sacrifices, self-denials and the daily recitation of the Rosary will soften the heart of my Son as I said before.’”
Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace needs to be implored against Chinese aggression. In Lipa, the task of seeking her intercession was mostly likely bestowed on Filipinos, in a country dubbed as Asia’s only Catholic.
Before he passed on, Cardinal Vidal wrote this prayer, inspired by Lipa apparitions: “Remember O most gracious Virgin that the Philippines is your beloved ‘Pueblo Amante de Maria’ and that we belong to you absolutely, totally, always and forever. We are all yours and all that we have is yours, O most loving Jesus through Mary, Mediatrix of All-Grace. Amen.”
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MEANWHILE, I am encouraging pious readers to keep in their homes exorcised blessed salt and water for the hard times. Any priest, not necessarily an exorcist, can perform the blessing rites as contained in the Roman Ritual. The priest, of course, has to wear the surplice and purple stole.
Here is the Roman Ritual rite for the blessing:
Priest (P): Our help is in the name of the Lord.
Response (R): Who made heaven and earth.
P: O salt, creature of God, I exorcise you by the living (+) God, by the true (+) God, by the holy (+) God, by the God who ordered you to be poured into the water by Elisha the prophet, so that its life-giving powers might be restored. I exorcise you so that you may become a means of salvation for believers, that you may bring health of soul and body to all who make use of you, and that you may put to flight and drive away from the places where you are sprinkled; every apparition, villainy, turn of devilish deceit, and every unclean spirit; adjured by him who will come to judge the living and the dead and the world by fire.
R: Amen.
P: Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, we humbly implore you, in your immeasurable kindness and love, to bless (+) this salt which you created and gave to the use of mankind, so that it may become a source of health for the minds and bodies of all who make use of it. May it rid whatever it touches or sprinkles of all uncleanness, and protect it from every assault of evil spirits. Through Christ our Lord.
R: Amen.
Exorcism and Blessing of Water
P: O water, creature of God, I exorcise you in the name of God the Father (+) Almighty, and in the name of Jesus (+) Christ His Son, our Lord, and in the power of the Holy (+) Spirit. I exorcise you so that you may put to flight all the power of the enemy, and be able to root out and supplant that enemy with his apostate angels, through the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will come to judge the living and the dead and the world by fire.
R: Amen.
P: Let us pray. O God, for the salvation of mankind, you built your greatest mysteries on this substance, water. In your kindness, hear our prayers and pour down the power of your blessing (+) into this element, made ready for many kinds of purifications. May this, your creature, become an agent of divine grace in the service of your mysteries, to drive away evil spirits and dispel sickness, so that everything in the homes and other buildings of the faithful that is sprinkled with this water, may be rid of all uncleanness and freed from every harm. Let no breath of infection and no disease-bearing air remain in these places. May the wiles of the lurking enemy prove of no avail. Let whatever might menace the safety and peace of those who live here be put to flight by the sprinkling of this water, so that the health obtained by calling upon your holy name, may be made secure against all attack. Through Christ our Lord.
R: Amen.
(Priest pours exorcised salt into the water, in the form of a cross)
P: May a mixture of salt and water now be made, in the name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
R: Amen.
P: The Lord be with you.?R: And with your spirit.
P: Let us pray. O God, Creator unconquerable, invincible King, Victor ever-glorious, you hold in check the forces bent on dominating us. You overcome the cruelty of the raging enemy, and in your power you beat down the wicked foe. Humbly and fearfully do we pray to you, O Lord, and we ask you to look with favor on this salt and water which you created. Shine on it with the light of your kindness. Sanctify it by the dew of your love, so that, through the invocation of your holy name, wherever this water and salt is sprinkled, it may turn aside every attack of the unclean spirit, and dispel the terrors of the poisonous serpent. And wherever we may be, make the Holy Spirit present to us, who now implore your mercy. Through Christ our Lord.
R: Amen.