Indications that the world has lost sight of spirituality are reflected in the fashionable apothegms such as “life is short” and “love yourself.” We hear them not only from celebrities on TV or the internet, but also in casual conversations.
They are sayings summarized thus: Enjoy life to the hilt because it lasts only for a few decades.
Gone are those days when, as Christians, we valued suffering as means of mortification for wrong done, as means to make up for our own sins and even those of others because the Way of the Cross is the narrow path to Heaven. Thomas a Kempis has become a buffoon, even among priests who, in their homilies, rarely talk about the value of suffering
This sad situation must have been one reason why Our Lord Jesus Christ, in a message to Archbishop Ottavio Michelini (14 August 1906-15 October 1979) lamented those who do not see the value of suffering.
Michelini was a mystic who, in the last four years of his life, had communicated with Jesus and the Blessed Mother, and compiled the messages he received from Them in a book titled “Confidences of Jesus to a Priest.”
In the book, Michelini quoted Our Lord Jesus as having told him: “Not to want to suffer is a most grave evil of materialist society, of which, unfortunately, the clergy and religious men and women have been contaminated. In consequence, this society has
smothered the true and authentic Christian life of faith, hope and charity; this society has made souls blind, has made the salt become insipid, and it has put out many lamps that should have radiated light and do not radiate it any more.”
Our Lord particularly addressed Himself to priests of our times, saying: “Blessed is he who knows his magnificent and sublime vocation and priestly mission, and who with docility submits before the infinite Love of God, who deigned to raise him up from the dunghill and from the dust of the earth, to lift him and to elevate him to the greatest and most sublime dignity that any creature could aspire to.
“Blessed is he who, conscious of having been made a vessel of election, makes an effort, with Me, to follow Me to Calvary, in order to fuse his sufferings with those of the divine Victim, in order to be afterwards three times holy with the Victim, a liberator of such a great number of souls, freeing them from the yoke and tyranny of Satan.
“Blessed is that priest who does not accept pacts nor compromises with the enemies of God, with the enemies of the Church, and with the enemies of his soul and his conscience.
“Blessed is that priest who rejects all collaboration with the obscure forces of hell, and who walks upon the path of perfection and of holiness, according to My precept: “Be ye holy;” for if this precept of holiness is for everyone, it is clear and evident that it is thus in a very particular way for My ministers, for they should be holy and saints, in order to sanctify the others.
“Then – what is to be said about formation imparted in seminaries of today?
“My son, what a frightful distortion, in the name of progress and of a subversive evolution, that is in clear contrast to my examples and teachings!
“O pastors, who have yielded and who do yield passively, to so much spiritual perversion, do not think that you will escape from your most grave responsibilities; your sophisms are of no value, to shut the eyes of God.
“Soon you will see with your own eyes, and soon you will pay out of your own pocket, for all the evil that you have not known how to prevent, nor desired to prevent, and for all the good that you have not realized.”
Our Lord Jesus also commanded Michelini to write further as follows:
“An evil priest, is equivalent to a demon that carries souls to perdition, deicide and homicide. A lukewarm priest, is equal to a thorny bush in dry and sterile soil. A good priest, is equal to a little good. A fervent priest, is equivalent to a flame that illumines, warms and purifies. A holy priest, is equal to many souls saved and sanctified.
“Son, many priests exert themselves and make efforts and build materially. If all these energies were only destined to the building of my Kingdom in souls, how much good... On the other hand, how these priests of mine are solicitous about their works; in reality they are like the fig tree of which the Gospel speaks: leaves,
leaves, leaves, and not even one fruit.
“You know that it is absurd to think of sanctifying others, without being holy first. Reflect on everything I did, so that my apostles could be holy, and in everything I did and I do, so that my priests may be holy.
“Just a little true faith would suffice to avoid the terrible consequences of the sterile dryness of a priestly soul. This sterility is originated by the lack of faith, of hope and of charity, that is to say, by the lack of divine life.” (End of quote.0
Meanwhile, Our Lord Jesus has another message via third degree Augustinian stigmatist Luz de Maria de Bonilla on June 24, 2023. The message follows.
“Beloved children of My Heart, you are clay in My Hands...Humility is a great virtue that I love in creatures...
“You are leaving through the moments prior to the great global devastation. Envy manages to crush even man’s thinking and makes him forget that he is going to destroy himself. The struggles and threats for supremacy continue...
“Humanity is prey to the tension generated by threats that turn into deeds.
“Pray, My children, pray, Cuba will be forcefully shaken; part of its territory will fall. Pray, My children, pray, Jamaica will suffer in its southern zone due to the shaking of its land.
Pray, children, pray, Haiti and the Dominican Republic will suffer due to the force of nature; they will be strongly shaken.Pray, children, pray, Puerto Rico will be struck by a tsunami. Pray, children, Aruba will suffer. Pray, My children, pray, Trinidad and Tobago will be shaken. Pray, My children, pray, small islands will be prey to a tsunami.
“My children: The human race believes what suits it, what it wants to hear, and this is a way of rebelling against the Divine Will.
“My People have such faith that they know that, as a people on the march, they will be delivered by Me from what is going to happen to humanity in the midst of the fulfillment of the Prophecies.
“The place to protect oneself from danger is a heart of flesh, (Ezek. 11,19) otherwise nothing will be sufficient.
“The firmament will seem to be in flames, this being the product of human evil.
“I will not tire of calling you to a change of life. In peace, but with assurance, what for the coming of the Angel of Peace.
“You are My children: be clear about this. I bless you.”