Cervantes: 'The world has power over you only if you surrender your free will'

IF THERE are things I would urge preachers, especially Catholic priests, to dwell upon, I’d point to the messages from Jesus and the Blessed Mother, especially from their modern-day Church-approved apparitions. Our Lord Jesus and the Blessed Mother did not appear in the recent decades for nothing. Their messages are timed for our days, our awry ways.

I have shared in this column many such messages, particularly from the 1917 Fatima apparitions and from still unapproved apparitions in Garabandal, Spain from 1961 to 1965 and Medjugorje since 1981 to the present.

Not to be missed are the apparitions of no less than Jesus to St. Faustina Kowa ls ka in the 1930s that led to the institution of the Divine Mercy devotion. It is a devotion designed to save the most sinful from eternal damnation, and it is surrounded by many comforting and enlightening messages from Jesus, much suited for our times.

I am sharing some of Jesus’ words as recorded by St. Faustina, as they impress me much. The following message tells us the need to pray for sinners and how God never fails to answer such prayers:

Jesus said: “The loss of each soul plunges Me into mortal sadness. You always console Me when you pray for sinners. The prayer most pleasing to Me is prayer for the conversion of sinners. Know, My daughter, that this prayer is always heard and answered.”

So there, the answer to problems with hard-headed kids, philandering husbands, misled wives, gossipy neighbors, cruel bosses, etc. Pray for them still, even if their change comes in their death beds.

And yes, even the materially impoverished can do much to help others, so said Jesus in His message to St. Faustina thus:

“Many souls...are often worried because they do not have the material means with which to carry out an act of mercy. Yet spiritual mercy, which requires neither permissions nor storehouses, is much more meritorious and is within the grasp of every soul.”

The teachings of the Catholic Church name the spiritual works of mercy as instruction of the ignorant, counseling the doubtful, admonishing sinners, and forgiving offenses. If any reader has a better idea of what “spiritual mercy” is in the context of the message to St. Faustina, please correct me via email.

There have been continuing descent of more messages from Heaven through events that are not (yet) approved by the Church. Yet, renowned Catholics, exercising prudence backed with prayers, give them importance for their perceived urgency and relevance to the times.

Some such messages are being received by Valentina Papagna who migrated to Sydney, Australia in 1955 from Slovenia. In 1988 two years after the sudden death of her husband, Valentina began to receive visions and messages from our Lord Jesus and the Blessed Mother. She continues to be guided by a priest, Father Valerian Jenko, OFM.

Only recently, she received this message from an angel: “I know you fear what is coming, what is happening now in the world, and you have been fretting a lot about this coronavirus and the injections. The government has put a lot of fear in the people.”

The angel continued, “Have faith, do not fear and continue to pray because our Lord has a plan. He made the plans all Himself. He will not allow the evil to win. Our Lord has many things in store for the world that He has prepared for the world to experience.”

The urgency of the times, as affirmed by mystics, is such that even living people, known for their piety, are given the gift of prophecy. Such is the case with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI whose words during a 1968 radio interview seem as prophetic as the messages now being received by modern Catholic mystics.

The website spiritdaily.org recalls his message, thus:

“The future of the Church can and will exude from those whose roots are deep and who live from the pure fullness of their faith...

“It will not exude from those who accommodate themselves merely to the passing moment, or from those who criticize others and assume that they themselves are infallible measuring rods.

“Nor will it exude from those who take the easier road, who sidestep the passion of faith, declaring false and obsolete tyrannies and legalistic all that makes demands upon them, that hurts them and compels them to sacrifice...

“We have no need of a Church that celebrates the cult of action in political prayers... It is utterly superfluous. Therefore, it will destroy itself...

“What will remain is the Church of Jesus Christ, the Church that believes in the God Who has become Man and promises us life beyond death.

“From the crisis of today, the Church of tomorrow will emerge — a Church that has lost much. She will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning...

“As the number of her adherents diminishes, so it will lose many of her social privileges. In contrast to an earlier age, it will be seen much more as a voluntary society, entered only by free decision. As a small society, it will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members.

“Undoubtedly it will discover new forms of ministry and will ordain to the priesthood approved Christians who pursue some profession. In many smaller congregations or in self-contained social groups, pastoral care will normally be provided in this fashion. Alongside this, the full-time ministry of the priesthood will be indispensable as formerly.” (End of quote.)

This, even as other mystics continue to receive messages of relevance as in the message of Our Lord Jesus to mystic Jennifer on August 26, 2021:

“My child, I come to tell the world that if you desire peace then begin to pray. If you desire love, then first you must come to know your Heavenly Father because I am the Source of all love. If you desire patience, then you must first pray for understanding. I tell My children that in order to imitate your Creator, you must come to know that My ways are not man’s ways.

“I am the Author of life. I am the Source that breathes the very first breath that you take and the last one as you leave this earth. You are formed by the very same hands that were nailed to the cross. You were created with a mission to fulfill on this earth. You were sent by Me and for Me.

“Do not surrender your free will over to kings who have no kingdom. The world has power over you only if you surrender your free will. Your voice was created with a purpose to love, to speak, to sing hymns of praise to your Father in heaven. If your voice is being silenced, it is because the enemy does not want to hear truth.

“There are many Herods’ roaming this earth that have silenced My little ones, but I tell you this: I am coming, I am coming and woe to those who have been authoring the death of My little ones. It is time to repent, My children, and come to the fountain of My mercy, for I am Jesus and My mercy and justice will prevail.”

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