“Worthy are you, Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power” for you created all things; because of your will they came to be and were created.” Rev 4:11
Before I post everything I want to say here, I want to clarify a few things. I was born post Vatican II. I do not know what it was like back then so everything I am about to state is filtered from a perspective of not having lived through what others have lived through. Second, my purpose in posting this is NOT to judge people, either those in authority, or the rest of us, God explicitly tells me not to judge because that is for Him to do. The purpose of this post is also not to degenerate into “Liturgy Wars.” There are good and holy things happening at Mass, whether it’s a Novus Ordo or the Extraordinary Form. We are meant to be united, not divided, judging what we do as “better” is like the Gospel from Sunday, Lording ourselves over another. Jesus specifically asks us not to do this. Conversion is in the heart and is an act of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can, and WILL act anywhere. I also have agonized about whether to print this or not. I sometimes tend to be impulsive and in hindsight regret my swift action. I know I will be held to account for every word I speak, so I have learned to be much more careful with what I say and do. If my interpretation of what God is telling me is wrong, I apologize to God and to all of you. But in reading today’s Gospel I felt I was called to print this. In my limited understanding I can only write what I feel God tell me and relay it as best as possible. This post is meant as a call to prayer, not as a call to shoot poison arrows at one another. I will not comment on Vatican II, the implementation or the documents, I am not knowledgeable enough. I also understand that I am out on a limb here so if I get told to take this down I will. Any comments that shoot poison arrows or claim that “my way is better” I will delete. With all of this said, I want to relay what happened to me on Saturday, October 13, 2018 at my first High Latin Mass in 26 years.
I went to my first Latin Mass since 1992 on Saturday, October 13, 2018. I remembered the Latin Mass being beautiful, but this experience was very surreal. In 1992 the Basilica in DC had permission to do them in their Crypt church, but I was too young and dumb to spiritually grasp what was going on. I was ignorant back then, and even today, of the history surrounding the Mass changes and the fight of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. For me, we just have different forms of Liturgy that have all been deemed acceptable by the church. I still feel this way, but I have a new perspective.
Anyway, now we have Latin Mass in my Diocese and in a twist of what I would classify as a fluke, but God probably would not, I found myself at one on that Saturday. The Mass was a High Latin Mass and was probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life, seriously. Which then made me mad because none of us in the pews knew what we were doing and I was angry at the church authority for ever having taken this form away in the first place, so I mentioned that to God.
I observed a couple of things at the Mass. Every movement that the Priest made, every movement of his BODY was a movement toward God (not toward the people). You could clearly see that the Priest was the Guardian, and the Keeper of the Kingdom of Heaven. It was happening there on the altar. His mind, his body and his soul, aligned with God’s will as he gestured what was actually something that was handed to Adam in the Garden. He had Dominion to bring Heaven to us. Bring Divinity to us.
For me it was like witnessing the Theological Virtues in Action. Faith, Hope and Charity in alignment with the will of God, those virtues a grace gifted by God. Everything a movement towards those virtues. I actually found it to be quite charismatic, though it is probably opposite of what most others think of as charismatic.
So in my anger about the loss of this form of Mass for so long, I said a prayer to God about it. This Mass had several things our Mass now doesn’t, including the bodily movement of the Priest, the Latin which is a unifying language and the devil hates unity. By going to the colloquial language we separated people. We constantly have separate Masses for separate languages. That’s why the devil hates Latin so much. It unifies the whole church. It also had all movement directed towards heaven, instead of towards the people. The choir was in the back so you couldn’t see them, but only hear their voices which were projected towards the altar. The Procession was silent, which was very awe inspiring, you could see the reverence. There were just so many things. In my spiritual progression I could just see things in a way I had never seen them prior. God was at the center of this.
After communion I came back and was praying, and I got VERY OVERCOME AND OVERHWELMED. I felt as though God showed me the timeline of Salvation History, which has happened to me before. And that when the catechism speaks of the Passion of the Church (CCC 675, 677), that this Passion of the church actually began right after Christ’s Resurrection. The walk of the timeline of the history of the church is the walk of Christ’s Life, Death and Resurrection. The Mystical Body will do the same as Christ. For example, I was shown the early church persecutions and death were parallel to the slaughter of the innocents. Pentecost was the Nativity. The Ascension was the Annunciation. The public ministry of Christ parallel to Constantine legalizing Christianity. There was so much I was shown, I cannot remember it all. The rise of Christendom is like when Jesus was out healing publicly and people were in love with him. We have entered the time period of the corruption of the leadership, in much the same way as the Pharisees were corrupt. And we have Judases inside the church who are shiny and smiley and “tolerant” on the outside but empty and devoid on the inside. Jesus has become about being nice. All the while, demons have trained us how to think. Watching all of this was like a movie playing in my head. And time, it is just different for God, so different than what we know.
Then God turned me towards His mother. Just as Mary appeared sporadically throughout the Gospels, so too she appears to the Mystical Body throughout the timeline of history. At his Passion, she was there the whole time, just like she is continually appearing at Medjugorje right now. I understand that Medjugorje is not an approved apparition and I have spoken about that and about how I will accept whatever the church rules. I am just speaking about what I feel I was shown, that she is here now, as she was back then. Her purpose to show us what faith looks like when faith seems impossible. Hope in the hopeless. Love for the unlovable. A human with no divinity doing God’s will.
The stripping down of the Mass, the disunification, this is part of the scourging. I believe we will enter a time period where the Mass won’t be recognizable and perhaps the Eucharist is gone, in the name of ecumenism.…. We should be ecumenical but not at the expense of truth. I feel like what I was shown was that the church will take on all the worlds sins inside of her. The way Christ took on our sins inside of Him on the Cross. It looks like being forsaken. Almost every Catholic will walk away from the faith.
On Sunday, the day after attending Latin Mass, I went to my regular Novus Ordo Mass. I felt sad. We, have humanized the Liturgy so much it becomes about us and how we feel, instead of about the Divine. Not that it isn’t valid, or even beautiful, God impressed upon me that it is valid and said, “these are my broken people, pray for them”. What I see is all of us so broken and wounded and hungry that the Mass is about that and about validation of that that it seems like we are not resting in the love of God and being secure in it. People don’t really believe they’re loved and forgiven, so they’re looking to feel better.
I think the best way to explain it is, the Mass we have now seems to be about emotion and feeling. The Latin Mass went much deeper and was actually about the Spiritual World being brought to the human world and us receiving it, instead of the reverse. The key for each of us, no matter the Mass we attend, is to interiorly know who it is we are receiving, and as an act of our will, to ask for union with the will of our Creator. I am not judging the souls of the people at a Novus Ordo, just making an observation. I know these souls and they are beautiful, and God loves them and the effort to bring glory to Him. And we are all following the path the authority set out for us.
And God basically said, this is just the path you’re on and I am walking with you to Calvary. The last stop— Physical pain. Just like anything that starts in the spiritual world and takes root in our emotions it moves to our physical body. And that old Mass which aligned all 3, spiritual, emotional and physical with God…this new one doesn’t, though for an individual it can since it’s an interior disposition too. I will pause here and say too, that even a Protestant can have the interior disposition, but it is much much harder without the physical Eucharist, but because Protestants have relationship with Christ, they can actually be sanctuaries of God (Luke 9:50). We are all supposed to be living sanctuaries. What I felt is that God, not people, is supposed to be the center of everything. If we put God at the center, we actually treat people better, we love like God does because He is the source. But God also told me he has this, and it is part of His plan. What I felt God showed me, just left me with a feeling of resignation to His plan, knowing it is better for us, but seeing that it will be extremely painful. He kept telling me to watch for the removal of the Eucharist.
I am not a Liturgist so speaking about this makes me feel ignorant. I also am not a sedevacantist, the Pope is our authority, needs our prayer, and none of us can know his interior. What I see is all part of God’s much larger plan to actually have us embrace what Jesus came to teach us… so we can, like Him and through Him put the devil under our feet. He is the means to that end. He wants us to have our dominion back, but he is allowing our total breakdown in order to do it because it will be the way we completely surrender.
This is not for me an Old Rite vs. New One. For me, it just is. I am told not to judge the souls of the people on this path. But to pray for them.
When I had this experience it was also clear about obedience to authority. This is something I struggled with. It’s like Marcel Lefebvre (who I really know very little about, but am trying to relay what God showed me) was correct about not changing the Liturgy, but totally wrong to disobey. I have a hard time grasping that. That for something so HUGE, I would have felt the need to fight like he did, but it seems to me God was letting me know he was wrong to do so. He kept showing me Padre Pio as the example and saying Marcel Lefebvre was right and wrong all at the same time. It’s about waiting for God, which most of us don’t do. We take it into our own hands and we try to manipulate God when God has a larger plan at play.
It’s easy to obey a good and holy leader, but when the leader is in open rebellion against God (at least from your perspective)… it’s just very hard to comprehend. This is not a judgment on Vatican II, again, I cannot know the interior disposition or what was going on at the time. It’s also why I believe Gods view of blessings and curses are very different from our own. This is something reading the book of Job taught me.
So to be clear, this is not a condemnation of the current Mass. God gave the church the authority. What it binds on earth is bound in heaven. The question becomes, what are we binding? And for me, this just is the path… the same walk Christ made… and our prayer and sacrifice unite us ever closer to Christ.
It was here when he was talking to me I kept seeing a Fulton Sheen quote, “who is going to save our Church? Not our Bishops, not our Priests and religious. It is up to you the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your Bishops act like Bishops, and your religious act like religious.” So there is something the laity is supposed to be doing, as God wills it, which includes ardently praying, but I couldn’t quite grasp what else. Our role is different on this walk than that of the clergy. I am not clear yet on exactly our role besides praying, but there is another role.
With each stripping down of the Mass we have scourged the Mystical Body. Doctrine will be nailed to the Cross…
You see, God Himself DOES NOT ACTUALLY NEED THE LITURGY. HE IS PERFECT. We need the Liturgy to unite us to Divinity. His humanity and divinity brought to us. When we stripped the Divinity out of the Mass by “making it easier for us” we humanized everything so much (except at the consecration which brings us both the full humanity and full divinity of God) and became more and more distant from the Creator. We take on the sins of the world, and eventually we will breathe our last, looking totally dead. Only a few remaining standing at the foot of the cross.
It was interesting to note that as I was experiencing this, I also learned that April 3, 2019 is 50 years since the institution of the new Mass. April 3, 33 AD is the date given in the documentary, Star of Bethlehem, as the day of the Cross, the first Good Friday.
God told me that if we really want to know the “signs of the times”, we needn’t look any further than the Mass. The church is the center of the world. The way she goes is then echoed out to the world. Look for changes to the Mass and Scripture if you want to know what happens next. Scripture is already being changed. Just after I had this experience I read that China removed all bibles for sale because they are writing one that will conform with the state.
The one thing I feel about Mary, is that back then she stood with her son and will now be standing with us, the Mystical Body to grace us with those theological virtues, which are a gift of grace. That is why she is the key. This is the triumph of her Immaculate Heart, she stands with us to see us through to Resurrection. I have ideas of what this could look like, but I am usually wrong when I try to interpret things on my own.
Know too I feel dumb saying all of this because I am not do not possess the knowledge of history or of liturgy in these areas. This is all just what I feel I have been told. And I try to interpret as best as I can.
And it’s very overwhelming to look at from my small perspective.
About a week later after writing all of this down about the Latin Mass, I was walking and God kept repeating, “whose sins you forgive are forgiven them.” and “what you bind on earth is bound in heaven.”
Let me see if I can explain how that was shown to me.
Some of the things people are doing are objectively mortal sin.
BUT because demons have trained people how to think, many do not know it. And the church has not taught it for the better part of 50 years.
So when a person is “welcomed” into the church, sitting in that sin, and the authority does nothing to correct it, and tells them they’re forgiven without need of change, they actually are granted the mercy of purgatory based on the authority the church has and their lack of knowledge and understanding.
But there are those in authority do know better (though I suspect there are some who are poorly formed who for one reason or another may not know better). What they “bind on earth, is bound in heaven.” They are actually binding curses on the church itself because they’re violating covenant with God. Which is why we are on a Passion walk. Many faithful who know and recognize truth will break away from the authority as the church continues on a trajectory against Doctrine and against Christ. But this isn’t right either. Christ allowed the authority to take him all the way to death. And we are supposed to be like Christ. In the current world scenario this is what I see, I believe the “Herod and Pilate” who are the secular leaders who crucified Christ, is China. The Judases are the ones who are betraying Christ from the inside by denying His teachings. But there will be many who will break away from the walk to Calvary in an effort to save themselves, but not others. Christ wants us all in this together. The people of God are a communion.
At the core of the church the Holy Spirit is the head, so even if the authority is blind and deaf the ship will be directed the way the Spirit wants and we need to remain on the ship even when we can’t see through the storm. She will get safely anchored, after this giant storm, between the two pillars of Mary and the Eucharist.
Pray without ceasing for the unity of the church. Not a false unity, but for unity in TRUTH.
Veil of Veronica 
Let us continue to pray without ceasing 🙏🏻!
Amen
Wow Susan what a lot to take in.
I agree with a lot of what you have written, especially the part about the laity saving the Churchor fighting for the church.
Thankyou so much for sharing your powerful and at the same time beautiful post.
May God give us the courage and wisdom to fight the good fight.
Peace and Blessings
Steve
God Bless you Steve. Keep praying!
AMEN AMEN AMEN !!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU !!!
How can I thank you properly , dear sister , sufficiently, or appropriately for having POSTED these Truths with such Charity???? Indeed, we are to be united through the Communion of Minds in Truth, AND through the Communion of Hearts in Charity ….through HIM and with HIM and in Him !!!
Susan, I am so grateful for every word of this. It is all spot on. And so gently expressed. I am certain your words are Truth, having received every drop of this myself over the past 18 years or so. Albeit with slightly different words…. given to me under the title of ” the Sign of Jonah” . I have written a book , never published as of yet, explaining this process for the Church. It is based on the Theology of the Pascal Mystery, quite simply and fundamentally.
Where to begin with my own comments , as an extension or explanation of your words ? Perhaps there is no need for that…but IF God so desires it, I will pray and fast over the next days. God willing, I will fill in certain gaps in your post here and there…If and when Our Lady indicates it is time. Or if and when you discern the need to post my comments.
Just as Jesus told His Disciples : THERE IS MUCH MORE I WISH TO TELL YOU, BUT AT THIS PRESENT TIME, YOU CANNOT HEAR IT… It is still , yet, too early to comprehend many of these Saving Mysteries the Church must endure in order to be Re-Born, Restored and Resurrected !
1. The role of Obedience. And the FIAT (YES LORD ! ) of remaining Obedient.
Saint Faustina wrote about the Theology of Obedience much in her journal. Obedience outweighs our own sense of Justice. No matter what. God will always honor obedience, because Original Sin is the sin of DISobedience. Our job is to focus upon Mercy and Obedience. God will take care of the rest. Not our problem. Our job is Fidelity in the Covenant and Obedience to the Divine Will. Period. Really simple. Very difficult…to always say YES LORD ! I COME TO DO YOUR WILL….
2. The prophetic role of the Laity: Our job is to BE THE DOMESTIC CHURCH. There can be no LIFE without parents. Without FAMILY. As goes the Family,so goes the Church, the Nation and the World. We were given a visual Sign of this during the Apparition of Knock in Ireland. It is the Icon for the role of the laity in the birthing and preservation of the Church. The Diocesan Church structure, as we know it , WILL CEASE TO EXIST. Just as the Holy Family was the ROOT and FOUNDATION of the SUBSTANCE of the FIRST CHURCH… in a mirror of the Divine Life of the Blessed Trinity… so will be the Domestic Church . God will preserve the Church THERE. All of us should read Acts of the Apostles to grasp clearly where and how the First Church was born, was nurtured and lived its early days. This model is ours to embrace over the coming years of trial and purification: the Church will be FULLY PRESERVED in and by and through the Laity in the Domestic Church itself. Our Protestant brothers and sisters will be of great help to us during this time, when the Mass is indeed OUTLAWED (see: Daniel and Revelation). There will still be THE WORD (what passages of Scripture have we learned by memory???!!!) and THE PRESENCE of GOD (prayer of the heart is prayer of union) , no matter what. NO ONE can take these GIFTS from us. We can all learn to make a Spiritual Communion in the very brief Time of Absence of the Eucharist. Even Pope Benedict was given to Providential opportunity to teach this method of Eucharistic Communion to those at the WYD in Spain …
SO IT WILL BE as the Church is REBORN FROM ABOVE… in the coming years.
3. Ego Sum Resurrectio et Vita ! There must be death, a dying of the present Bride of Christ (Church) so that she can be Resurrected in a more perfect form , the One that GOD WILLS… It is all a massive PROCESS , one that is totally and perfectly ORGANIC : SUPERNATURAL birthing fully mirrors the Pattern of Natural Birthing !!! YES , in Cosmic Time, we are seeing the stages of the Betrayal from Within by Judas. Yes we are already sensing the beginning contours of the Betrayal from Without by the Pharisees. Yes we, the Mystical Body of Christ MUST go through the SAME STAGES in order to be REBORN FROM ABOVE. We are witnessing a SCOURGING of the FLESH. But these very scourges are ALSO THE SOURCE OF OUR HEALING !!! And yes, there will be a False Church of the AntiChrist , for a brief time. It will be broader than Ecumenical. It will be full-out Synchretic, embracing all religions and spiritualities in the generic name of Peace and Good Will. The backbone of this Church already exists….And is already visible today.
4. Why Our Lady? Why now, at this hour, more than ever? Simply because any time there is a birthing, there is necessarily a MOTHER…OUR MOTHER…the MOST BLESSED VIRGIN MARY !!!
We will continue to notice and see the direct correlation of ALL EVENTS according to a Marian Calendar , so to speak. Every one of Her Feast Days has been , is and will be a clear time of Watershed events for the Church. This is the SIGN or Signal Grace that we call the TRIUMPH OF THE IMMACULATE HEART, as indicated at Fatima. Our Lady will walk with us, step by step , through our ‘birthing”… with both Blood and Tears (water), which are THE TWO quintessential SIGNS of the Pascal Mystery at work.
YES ! we moms are fearful/concerned/anxious almost every time we give birth, because an experienced MOTHER knows that birthing is PAINFUl..YET …she also knows that the pain produces LIFE! and I cannot imagine a mother on this good earth who would EVER regret the pain she experienced in exchange for the arrival of NEW LIFE ! AMEN?
5. Why the Latin Mass? Indeed, there is a Supernatural Mystery present in this form of Liturgy that far surpasses the Novus Ordo. There is a Mystery that is present when we more closely UNITE something (actions/gestures/ritual/postures/attitudes that are Natural (visible, temporal) in form with something that is Supernatural (invisible, spiritual). The “ancient” form of the Mass expresses more perfectly the UNION of the Natural and Supernatural realms. PERIOD. Hence , its Liturgical “superiority” ! Yet…if you wish to see even more accurately the Future Form of Liturgy that God the Father desires…then you will read about it very closely in the Book of Exodus. Reverence. Beauty. Glory.Praise.Adoration. These are all highly magnified in what is called Spirit and Truth. John 4. verse 22. The FATHER desires worship in both Spirit and Truth. The Liturgy that embodies both Spirit and Truth will be the Perfect Liturgy…. whose Type is found in Exodus.
***** THANK YOU , Susan, for launching this essential discussion here. I am certain that the Holy Spirit has revealed these Mysteries to many , many of His Children. And that even if many do not post comments, they nevertheless are like my, and will read your words and respond : AMEN. AMEN.AMEN. BLESS YOU….
Thank you. And thank you for the explanations. God Bless you. I would love to read your book.
and please feel free to comment further Lucy. I may want to post your comment on my blog…your comment about the Domestic Church explains to me why Our Lady told me she wanted to be Our Lady Healer of Families – https://veilofveronica.blog/2018/08/15/our-lady-healer-of-families-part-ii/
And why God talks to me about the Fiat of Mary and the Divine Will – it is all about obedience. Please feel free to email me at susancgskinner@gmail.com
Susan, I find the last two postings and Lucy’s comments interesting but I find the concept of the ‘Domestic Church’ questionable. Doesn’t it contradict the concept of being obedient to and trusting in the authority of the Church. We can simply be distracted from God, making an idol out of working to support the concept of a ‘Domestic Church’! The Church will not be defeated but will prevail so the whole concept of expecting a ‘Domestic Church’ to save the day seems to lack hope.
The bible tells us their will much discontent in families, because Jesus came to bring the sword not peace, so where does that leave the ‘Domestic Church’?
Jesus asked “who is my family?”
I also find the belief that we will all lose the Eucharist quite simplistic and also lacks hope.
You don’t have to go far to already see the loss of the Eucharist (e.g. in mosques, Protestant Churches and in various temples). Many people in Catholic Masses are possibly already not receiving the Eucharist because they receive it in sin or don’t believe in the real presence. It does not mean that the Eucharist will be banned the world over or not available at all!
Additionally I would like to add that either form of the Mass can be turned into an idol. Any form of the Mass is useless to people who have no interest in serving God and only serving themselves or making an idol of their worship!
Better to be obedient to the Church in hope and forget about trying to ‘predict’ or even push for the type of Church that we will have! Sounds more like an idol than a prophecy!
Stephen you’re correct that we shouldn’t make an idol out of anything. Mark 10:18 tells us God alone is good. I read this more as we should make ourselves and our families living sanctuaries of God no matter what the world throws at us. I agree that Liturgy can become an idol and that’s why I said I wouldn’t tolerate arguing over it. I am not sure why you came away thinking anyone was making an idol of anything. As to the loss of the Eucharist, it’s just what I feel I was told…but I am just interpreting and can totally be wrong. I have no problem admitting that. Although I will say I just recently came across an article that was speaking about an Ecumenical Mass where instead of a consecration we have silence. The Vatican denies this. I think from my perspective, the Cross, and Jesus death on it looked pretty hopeless, and if the church is going through a Passion, it could look much the same way…. but Gods plan is bigger and we have hope always in knowing that. And my whole post was about being obedient to the church, I don’t really know why you came away thinking otherwise, from my post or Lucy’s….both of us stressed obedience more than anything. I find it strange that you didn’t come away thinking that’s what we said when it was so clearly stated. I feel like you didn’t really read what I said. I am not at all interested in my type of church, nor am I trying to predict anything. I am stressing that God’swill be done, whatever that may be, and that the church should look the way God wants.
Susan, thanks for your response!
I value your views concerning the Church and obedience and most of what Lucy had to say, especially regarding worship in spirit and truth.
Susan you responded to my comment about the ‘domestic church’ by saying “I read this more as we should make ourselves and our families living sanctuaries of God no matter what the world throws at us.” Yes that is wonderful!
However, my concern is that Lucy goes much further by saying “This model is ours to embrace over the coming years of trial and purification: the Church will be FULLY PRESERVED in and by and through the Laity in the Domestic Church itself.”
Lucy also says “The Diocesan Church structure, as we know it , WILL CEASE TO EXIST.”
This is a prophecy with no time line. When 10 years or 1000 years? It is a self-fulfilling prophecy and attracts the fearful and the prideful. Susan, as you say we must aim to stand at the foot of the ‘Cross of the Church’. I am not rejecting all the good said by you and Lucy, I am just focusing on the part of Lucy’s comment that I have great reservations about, as I see no value in accepting it.
Okay. Thanks. I am sure Lucy does have a Spiritual Director who has spoken to her regarding all of this. No one is ever obligated to accept private revelation. I don’t actually see it the same way you do. But thanks for commenting. God Bless.
Bless you , brother Stephen, for your response and frank words concerning my inadequate posts. Alas, I am a feeble human instrument who very imperfectly receives and expresses what she understands to be the motions of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, they come with such power of conviction and Divine Life that it requires many days, weeks, months and sometimes years to distill, to discern and to articulate them, God-willing. And thanks be to God for the Wisdom of Holy Mother Church and for the willingness of her priests and religious to offer adequate Spiritual Direction, which I have gratefully received for almost 20 years. These thoughts are fully in the domain of personal revelation. No one is asked to believe anything found in personal revelation, but rather to simply “test” it where necessary, and to “retain” what is fruitful . You are most welcome to email me directly with any questions, in the hopes that I might be given an opportunity to explain more fully or clarify what I have articulated here only briefly, expressed with great vigor and intensity of language, on this blog. Susan has my personal email , should you feel the desire to write me. There is also the tremendous resource of the Catechism of the Catholic Church …
We are family Stephen, according to the definition found in the Gospel according to Saint Mark, Chapter 3, verse 31-35: those who hear the Word of God and put it into practice are bothers and sisters, mothers and fathers in Christ Jesus. May the love and light of Our Lady rest upon you and draw you ever more deeply into the flame of love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus….
The Domestic Church is a phrase long used by the Church and was used in Lumen Gentium. Saint John Paul II actually expressed similar thoughts about how the “as the Domestic Church goes the nation goes.” He expounded on this in the Apostolic Exhortation, FAMILIARIS CONSORTIO. I also see how the Federal Government is already going after Dioceses and their documents on sex abuse. I don’t think you have to be prophetic to conclude this will most likely change the current Diocesan structure. And it doesn’t make me afraid. The House needs cleaning. God Bless both of you and thanks for respectfully commenting.
I like your style. It reminds me of the writings from the City of God by Mary of Agreda.
Some here may not be knowledgeable about these wrightings but they are exhaustive and she was given an account , both mystically and physically, about the life of Our Lady from Our Lady herself.
You mention being held responsible when you write down what you understand the Lord has revealed to you. Self interpretation is a tricky thing unlike a locution where direct wisdom is revealed. Still, these things pass through and are effected by the personality of the receiver.
Our Lady told Agreda not to worry too much about not being able to “accurately” describe all she understood or on fretting that she could not write about what she saw with the same impact she saw it. Of course she could not. Can a picture of Niagra Falls do the Falls real justice? Can a mere creature reflect the whole of its Creator? But as we “wrestle not against flesh and blood” we also wrestle not WITH flesh and blood alone but along side the spiritual forces of heaven too. Our Lady told Agreda that what she wrote, as weak and flawed as it was, would still bear fruit through the action of the Holy Spirit upon those that read her words and that she had a duty to obey these prompting to write and that the sin was in NOT writing them as the enemy wanted to sow doubt in her mind as to whether these visions were real or demonic/delusions. It was her obedience to her spiritual director to write them down that held her to a higher standard than what she was shown as all authority is from God. Our Lady, according to herself, made this abundantly clear in this book as she deferred to the authority of the Apostles over herself when speaking directly to them about their commission and she gently encouraged them when they asked for her wisdom in certain matters- but she never took the lead.
Thank you. The day I posted this the Gospel said “the servant who knew the masters will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall be severely beaten.” I felt as though the Lord said to me, if you don’t write it you’re not helping my Kingdom. Like if posting it helped just one single person not leave the Barque of Peter, then it would be worth any grief I may receive. Thanks for your words on Mary of Agreda. I know of her writings but have not read but small excerpts of the City of God. I will have to take another look at her stuff.
Susan, I would like to talk to you about this article. You truly grasp where we are as a church at this time. So few see it. Thank you for being courageous enough to post it.
Gladys Reehil
(Fr Dan’s mom)
Thank you so much. God Bless you!
and feel free to call me anytime.
Regular updates to the countdown to the Day of the Lord by the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven at :
http://risen-from-the-dead.forumotion.com/
Sue,
This is very heartfelt, and you are not the first to have had this experience. I just attended a requiem mass on All Souls for the first time n seven years – absolutely beautiful. In fact, today, I spoke to a high school girlfriend’s father, and he told me that a great part of his falling away from the church was the change in the mass – and he was a rather bohemian guy! Now that I am Ukrainian Greek Catholic, and having served all three liturgies (the ever mutating Novus Ordo, the old Latin Mass and the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom) I can tell you that the old Latin mass and the Byzantine liturgy have more common than the Byzantine liturgy does with the Novus Ordo. For example, in the offertory of the Old Latin Mass is an explicit refence to the angel at the right side of the altar with the incense – and that is the direction from which the subdeacon or acting subdeacon brings the incense to the priest in the Byzantine liturgy.
As for Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, he is not a Father Martin Luther nor an Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. But I have understood that if the Church’s minister’s issue an unjust sentence, it does not bind in heaven, similar to what Bishop Pierre Cauchon did to St. Joan of Arc. In time the Lord will reveal this through the Church.
You and yours are in my prayer, Sue!
Thanks James.
Dear Susan,
Thank you SO much for your thoughts. They are EXTREMELY relevant, timely and full of what I believe are legitimate Spiritual insights. I rarely leave comments on any web site-perhaps its laziness-but I was so deeply moved by two items in the article in particular that I am moved to confirm from my own extensive study of history.
Unlike you, I am deeply and widely schooled in western history. My formal education includes a graduate degree in history and I spent my career in the classroom. Long before I engaged in the formal study of history, I had come to see my love for it in terms of a vocational calling. It became more and more evident as the years passed that Our Lord had given me a window through which to view not only our world but ourselves when he endowed my soul with a hunger and love for the people and events of the past.
The first item that prompts this reply was your claim concerning the contemporary usefulness of Church history in guiding and informing our understanding our world. Indeed, as you suggest, Church History is really a template through which the wider Western experience since Our Lord’s birth can be accurately measured is, in my considered opinion, SPOT ON correct. The parallels between the Church’s journey through real time and those of the Western experience are simply too numerous to discount. I also believe that the Church has, and continues to live the ‘life’ of it’s Founder in much the same way. This was the central shock of your writing, at least to me. I simply love the Eucharist. On Golgotha, Jesus of Nazareth REALLY died. The world was without its Savior until He Rose. Since the Resurrection, our world has NEVER been without the physical and spiritual Eucharistic presence of Our Savior for one single, solitary moment. If your logic is correct, then at some point in the future, we will again experience the REAL absence of Our Lord again. Personally, this insight has left me as barren and sad as any I can imagine, yet reason demands possible (and likely) eventuality be entertained by sober, prayerful hearts BEFORE it comes to pass because afterwards, it will be too late to do anything except die-by-inches when we understand the true cost of our neglect of the Most Blessed Sacrament when we had the opportunity to do so.
It has also become clear that the history of the Jewish people since they AD 72 serves as a perfect template for Western History as well. I believe this is one of the more important reasons for Our Lady’s ceaseless call through Medjugorje for us to become reacquainted with the Bible Holy Scripture is far deeper and more sublime than any human being can imagine. Within its pages can be found ultimate, eternal truths that are otherwise quite beyond the realm and reach of human thought. Amongst its numberless lessons, it is a superb tool that offers and incredibly rich approach to the study of and understanding of history.
There is so much more I would like to say to you, but suffice it here to repeat, in closing, how moved I remain from your article and how important I believe its insights are.
God Bless you.
Patrick Rowley
Thank you Patrick. Thank you for providing more insight. God Bless you. May you become a living Tabernacle to help light the world in its darkness.
We have entered into the “age to come” foretold by Jesus in Mark 10:30.
http://risen-from-the-dead.forumotion.com/
As I’ve come to understand this, you have resurrected saints in your midst.
Pingback: The Veil was Torn in Two – The Liturgy | Veil of Veronica
Pingback: The Mystical Body and the Liturgy | Veil of Veronica
Pingback: The Spirit of Elijah | Veil of Veronica
Pingback: The Breath of God And The Desecration of God | Veil of Veronica
Pingback: On returning to Mass | Veil of Veronica
Pingback: It’s all about the Eucharist | Veil of Veronica
Wonderful article, Susan. I feel confused and adrift a little. Then I should just follow the NO Mass that is only one available and our Pope even though I do not feel confident in him? And of course our Holy Eucharist has been taken away from us for months. I want to stay firmly within the Catholic Church forever. Advice?
Jesus followed the path He was on, even in obedience to the earthly authority. We should do the same as long as it isn’t compelling us to sin. NO Mass is still Mass. Jesus is still present in the Eucharist. The only thing you can control is you and your love and reverence.
Pingback: 3 Days of Darkness | Veil of Veronica
Pingback: Mother of God, Mother of the Church | Veil of Veronica
Pingback: Strange Fire | Veil of Veronica
Pingback: Who will Save the Church? | Veil of Veronica
Pingback: The Body Politic | Veil of Veronica
Pingback: fredag 13/1 /2023 – Site Title
Pingback: Every Knee Shall Bow | Veil of Veronica