THE Blessed Mother’s message on September 8, which we mark as her birthday, through mystic and stigmatist Gisella Cardia was so dreadful that I decided to first share the continuation of my series on the Manuscript from Purgatory.
This is because the Manuscript should serve to revitalize our faith in that phrase we recite so casually when praying the Credo: life everlasting. It is a faith that can trivialize pain in the temporary and fleeting earthly life. There's an incredibly happy future with no ending, but this rests on our choice here and now where there is always a chance to make up for wrongs already done or, after a remorseful death, some reparation in a spiritual location called Purgatory.
So let me go on sharing excerpts from the Manuscript which has full Church approval. The information about the next life was from the deceased Sister Mary Gabriel who was permitted by God to communicate with living Sister Mary of the Cross until her deliverance from Purgatory.
In answer to the question of whether the departed sister was aware of what was happening on earth:
“I only know what happens in so far as God wills it. My knowledge is very limited. I have known a little about the community, but that is all. I know nothing about what goes on in the souls of other people, except in your case. That is because God allows this for your perfection. What I have sometimes told you about certain persons and what I will tell you, I only know from God at the moment. For example, I do not know what is God's will in regard to your father's parents. Perhaps later on I may know. I will pray to God for them and recommend them to St. Michael.”
And then Sister Mary Gabriel dwelt on the levels of Purgatory:
“ I can tell you about the different degrees of Purgatory because I have passed through them. In the great Purgatory there are several stages. In the lowest and most painful, like a temporary hell, are the sinners who have committed terrible crimes during life and whose death surprised them in that state. It was almost a miracle that they were saved, and often by the prayers of holy parents or other pious persons. Sometimes they did not even have time to confess their sins and the world thought them lost, but God, whose mercy is infinite, gave them at the moment of death the contrition necessary for their salvation on account of one or more good actions which they performed during life.
“For such souls, Purgatory is terrible. It is a real hell with this difference, that in hell they curse God, whereas we bless Him and thank Him for having saved us. Next to these come the souls, who though they did not commit great crimes like the others, were indifferent to God. They did not fulfill their Easter duties and were also converted at the point of death. Perhaps they were unable to receive Holy Communion. They are in Purgatory for the long years of indifference. They suffer unheard of pains and are abandoned either without prayers or if they are said for them, they are not allowed to profit by them.
“There are in this stage of Purgatory religious of both sexes, who were tepid, neglectful of their duties, indifferent towards Jesus, also priests who did not exercise their sacred ministry with the reverence due to the Sovereign Majesty and who did not instill the love of God sufficiently into the souls confided to their care. I was in this stage of Purgatory.
“In the second Purgatory are the souls of those who died with venial sins not fully expiated before death, or with mortal sins that have been forgiven but for which they have not made entire satisfaction to the Divine Justice. In this part of Purgatory, there are also different degrees according to the merits of each soul. Thus the Purgatory of the consecrated souls or of those who have received more abundant graces, is longer and far more painful than that of ordinary people of the world.
“Lastly, there is the Purgatory of desire which is called the Threshold. Very few escape this. To avoid it altogether, one must ardently desire Heaven and the vision of God. That is rare, rarer than people think, because even pious people are afraid of God and have not, therefore, a sufficiently strong desire of going to Heaven. This Purgatory has its very painful martyrdom like the others. The deprivation of the sight of our loving Jesus adds to the intense suffering.”
NOW FOR THE MESSAGE of the Blessed Mother to mystic Gisella Cardia last Sept. 8. It seems a part of it applies only to a region:
“Dear children, thank you for being here in prayer and for having responded to my call in your hearts. My children, I see that you fear the famine that will soon arrive, but I invite you to prepare yourselves for eternal life because that is more important. Dear children, everything will fall, the sky will be tinged with red, the earth will shake as it has never done before.
“Children, it is useless thinking about a career and accumulating material goods because all this will no longer make any sense. Children, the seas and hailstones will enter into towns and destroy crops; this is a land of sin and nature is rebelling — all this will happen so that all might kneel before God, acknowledging Him as the Only God. My children, Jesus weeps because sin and abomination have entered the Church; He weeps because He loves His Church and in spite of profanation He is always there, in pain and weeping.
“The time is nearly over; please, children, there is no more time, convert. Look often to the heavens: at this moment my angels are fighting against the fallen angels, but pray, pray, pray, and fight on earth for the truth. Do not give in to changes because they do not come from God. Children, my remnant will have nothing to fear because my angels and archangels will protect you. Pray for America, which will soon drink the bitter cup. Now I leave you with my Holy Blessing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.”