On Twitter, I came across a comment saying that the Covid 19 scenario facing Filipinos is somewhat like being in the horror movie Train to Busan. There's a virus population that kills and surrounds us closer and closer yet there seems to be no help coming.
On YouTube, more raw videos of unprecedented disasters and other unusual events are being posted from all over the world, mostly, rather strangely, relegated to the back burner by mainstream media, even as credible Catholic mystics warn of times of more serious tribulations.
Are we indeed helpless? Not so.
I am reminded of the message of our Blessed Mother to Gisella Cardia on July 25, 2020:
"Dear children, thank you for being gathered here in prayer and for having listened to my call in your hearts. Beloved children, continue every day in prayer, especially in the recitation of the Holy Rosary as the sole protection that you will have against evil. Children, look around you: earthquakes, tsunamis, devastating storms will not stop – only prayer recited with the heart can change things, but everything must be fulfilled because that is how it has been written. Abandon your will and always be in the will of God. You are accustomed to living a mechanical life: abandon the things of earth and have more consideration for the things of heaven, because only thus will you be able to walk along the more difficult but more correct path. Pay attention, children, do not fall into the devil’s trap: I love you and I want you to be saved. I would like my army of light to be able to unite in one voice. Now I leave you with my holy blessing in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen."
In its November 2017 issue, the National Catholic Register noted: "This should not be taken as implying that other forms of prayer have no value, but as emphasizing the special role of the Rosary as a spiritual weapon — a role underscored in the writings of many mystics past and present and additionally confirmed by the testimonies of many exorcists. The time is coming and is already here again for many when public Masses will no longer be available. In that regard, recourse to Jesus through this efficacious prayer will be crucial. Servant of God Sr. Lucia of Fatima alluded to this as well:
Further, the publication said: "Now if God, through Our Lady, had asked us to go to Mass and receive Holy Communion every day, there would undoubtedly have been a great many people who would have said, quite rightly, that this was not possible. Some, on account of the distance separating them from the nearest Church where Mass was celebrated; others on account of the circumstances of their lives, their state in life, their job, the state of their health, etc. Yet, on the other hand to pray the Rosary is something everybody can do, rich and poor, wise and ignorant, great and small. All people of goodwill can, and must say the Rosary every day..."
The Rosarium Virginis Mariae publication also noted that "the Church has always attributed particular efficacy to this prayer, entrusting to the Rosary, to its choral recitation and to its constant practice, the most difficult problems. At times when Christianity itself seemed under threat, its deliverance was attributed to the power of this prayer, and Our Lady of the Rosary was acclaimed as the one whose intercession brought salvation."
In Medjugorje on July 25, 2000, the Blessed Mother also advised us to think more of everlasting life, that Credo phrase the devil wants obliterated with the saying "Life is short" with the implication it should thus be lived to hedonistic abandon. Thus, the Blessed Mother said:
“Dear children! Do not forget that you are here on earth on the way to eternity and that your home is in heaven. That is why, little children, be open to God’s love and leave egoism and sin. May your joy be only in discovering God in daily prayer. That is why make good use of this time and pray, pray, pray; and God is near to you in prayer and through prayer. Thank you for having responded to my call."
The undoubtedly apocalyptic times we are in were foretold by Jesus Christ in His commnication with mystic Maria Valtorta (whose work Padre Pio had recommended) on April 9, 1944. Our Lord Jesus said:
"Maria, I told you in late May 1943:
"... It is the hour of the power of darkness. And people have wanted it of their own free wills. The feeling of fear and helpless Kingdom of Evil is already set up. Whatever I did would be nullified by people’s free wills. Whatever Good would be destroyed by Evil.
"Powerless, I witness this rush of mankind into spiritual death. There is no gift of Mine, no kindness of Mine, no rebuke of Mine, no punishment of Mine, to use to stop mankind, redeemed by Me, to voluntarily ruining itself in Satan. Like an enraged bull, mankind runs over everything - reason, morals, faith - and goes and crashes against what is killing it. People’s desecrating hands are being raised for a new crime, which does not deserve forgiveness. And the Father does not want to forgive. He lets you perish as you wanted.
"The only thing I can do, and am doing, is to hold back My Father’s wrath - and I am doing it out of compassion for the saints who, rare like flowers in the desert, still pray, pray and do not make protestations of custom and hypocrisy. Weary of the crimes of a brood for which My blood was shed uselessly, the Father wants, really wants, to wield His Justice on you. And justice - since you are guilty - would mean tremendous punishment which My Mercy does not want to be meted out, in addition to those which you already mete out to yourselves."
Regarding our times, the Blessed Mother also told Fr. Estafano Gobbi on Nov. 9, 1984:
“In these messages, I also reveal to you my plan in its silent preparation, in its painful realization, and in its victorious fulfillment. You are already about to reach the most painful and bloody conclusion of the purification which will take place in these years, before the great triumph of my Immaculate Heart in the coming to you of the glorious reign of Jesus. This is the plan which embraces this century: In 1917 at Fatima, I anticipated it, as in a prophetic announcement, at the moment when the great struggle between the Woman clothed with the sun and the Red Dragon became evident, a struggle which was to last throughout the whole century, as a proud challenge to God on the part of my Adversary, who was certain that he would succeed in destroying the Church and in bringing all humanity to a universal rejection of God."
Let us fight with the rosary.