Part 1 Countdown to the
Warning Father Joseph M. Esper
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COUNTDOWN TO THE WARNING: "The Spiritual X-Ray"
Rev. Joseph M. Esper
During the past year and a
half the Catholic Church in America has been rocked by revelations of
widespread clerical sexual misconduct with minors, made worse by
various attempted coverups by ecclesiastical authorities. Many
instances of abused trust and lost innocence have come to light,
resulting in grave harm to the Church’s overall reputation and
credibility. Catholics are being forced to confront some painful
questions and realities. Victims wonder if they can remain in a Church
so slow to hear their cries for justice, while perpetrators hope for
forgiveness and a way to atone for their sins; lay persons wonder if
they can trust their priests and bishops, while innocent clergy live
with a sense of bewilderment and the fear of false accusation. Parishes
who’ve had pastors removed due to misconduct struggle with a sense of
shock and loss, potential converts to Catholicism experience new doubts
and hesitations, and bishops second-guess their handling of some
admittedly very painful and difficult situations. This
agonizing process of honest reassessment, which is
both necessary and overdue, has the potential to make the Church
stronger and holier—and because it forces so many of us as Catholics to
confront some painful truths, we might say that in a certain sense,
it’s a foreshadowing of the Warning.
The Warning
The Warning, of course, refers
to a prophesied worldwide spiritual event, in which every person on
earth will simultaneously see the state of his or her soul; this
"spiritual x-ray" will tell us whether we are on the path to damnation,
or salvation. God will cause this unprecedented event to occur so that
vast numbers of sinners will repent. The Warning, or the "Illumination
of Conscience," was foretold to St. Catherine Laboure in 1830, to the
19th century stigmatist Marie-Julie Jahenny, to St. Faustina Kowalska
in the 1930s, and to the four young seers of Garabandal, to whom Our
Lady allegedly appeared a number of times from 1961-1965. Other
visionaries have since spoken of the Warning, and there’s general
agreement that, as a result of this happening, millions of sinners will
repent and be restored to grace; many others, however, will reject this
offer of Divine Mercy and become even more hardened in sin—and with the
battle lines between good and evil drawn more clearly than ever before,
the already-overwhelming pace of events will
accelerate as we approach, not the end of the world, but the end of
this age.
According to the seers of
Garabandal, within a year of the Warning, a great Miracle will occur in
the skies over Garabandal, involving something that can be seen,
televised, but not touched (perhaps a giant luminous Cross),
accompanied by the simultaneous healing of all ill and infirm persons
in and near the town. If these two events do not bring about sufficient
repentance on the part of humanity, then a great Chastisement or
punishment will occur (presumably the Three Days of Darkness foretold
by many past and contemporary visionaries); this chastisement will
cleanse the world of sin and usher in a promised Era of Peace, in which
God’s love and truth will reign in the hearts of everyone still on
earth. This most glorious age of human history will be a time of
religious unity, prosperity, and perfect harmony, and will last
anywhere from twenty-five to a hundred years or more. These events have
long been expected, but their timing is unknown. One of the Garabandal
visionaries, Mari Loli, is said to know the year of
the Warning, and another, Conchita, knows the date of
the Miracle (a Thursday in March, April, or May, on or between the 8th
and 16th of the month); moreover, Conchita is to announce the Miracle
eight days before it occurs (giving time for pilgrims and the ill to
gather in Garabandal, and allowing for it to be televised, thereby
increasing its impact).
While the Warning will be a
terrifying ordeal for everyone in a state of mortal sin, it will
nonetheless be a great act of mercy on God’s part; as Conchita once
said, "I think that those who do not despair will experience great good
from it for their sanctification." This experience, which is expected
to be very intense but of short duration (15 minutes or less—though it
will seem much longer), presumably ties-in with the secrets allegedly
given by Our Lady to the visionaries of Medjugorje. Mirjana, one of the
seers, said that her first secret does not involve a worldwide event,
but is something that will "shake us up" (possibly a catastrophic
happening or crisis involving war or terrorism, or a gigantic natural
disaster). There’s speculation that Mirjana’s second and third secrets
correspond to the Warning and the Miracle.
We don’t know when the Warning
will occur, but — to those attuned to the "signs of the times" — it
seems undeniable that a series of smaller warnings are already
happening all around us. The most obvious example, of course, is the
terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Every climactic event in
contemporary history has its defining images: the ruined warships
belching black smoke into the sky over Pearl Harbor on December 7,
1941, the Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima in World War II, the
mushroom cloud over Hiroshima after the dropping of the atomic bomb,
the open-topped limousine in Dallas carrying President and Mrs. Kennedy
on November 22, 1963, and so on. Images such as these have a way of
searing themselves into our collective memory. This will undoubtedly
prove true of one of the horrible pictures taken shortly after the
terrorist attacks: the image of the devil’s face in the smoke billowing
forth from the World Trade Center. This was surely more than a
coincidence, for the events of that day certainly had
a satanically-inspired element to them; deliberately
causing the deaths of thousands of innocent people, as the terrorists
did, is an unspeakably evil act. Heaven grieved with us on that day—but
even so, the events of September 11 can, with hindsight, be seen as
part of God’s ongoing warning to America. Attacks Foretold
A number of seers allegedly
received forewarnings of the attack, beginning with a 1990 prophecy to
an anonymous visionary which stated that within twelve years the pride
of New York would be broken, and that within four years an
unprecedented new evil would be introduced—with our response to this
evil determining the length and severity of the coming chastisements.
(It was in 1994, of course, that President Clinton—based on a
recommendation by the National Institute of Health—announced that the
federal government would allow, but not yet fund, human embryo
research). In 1998 the visionary Patricia Mundorf (now deceased) warned
the FBI that the World Trade Center and the White House or Pentagon
would be attacked, and on September 11, 1999—exactly two years before
the attack—the Irish mystic Christina Gallagher, while visiting the
United States, gestured toward the Twin Towers and declared, "If
Americans don’t turn back to God, all of this will be destroyed!" Maria
Esperanza, the visionary associated with the
Church-approved apparitions of Our Lady at Betania, Venezuala,
stated early in 2001 that something terrible would happen along the
Eastern seaboard as a result of human cloning, and on August 25
2001—based on a message she received from St. Peter—she warned, "A
great event will be happening in three weeks or three months."
September 11th – 33rd Day
The terrorist attack, of
course, happened in the third week after Maria Esperanza’s ominous
warning. September 11 also happened to be the 33rd day after President
Bush announced the beginning of very limited federal funding of
embryonic stem cell research. Even though the President honestly tried
to limit the impact of this decision, a fateful line had been crossed:
for the first time it was now legal to try to improve some human lives
at the expense of other human lives. Several visionaries have said that
following this decision, Our Lady’s mantle of protection was withdrawn
from our country. On December 6, 2001, an alleged visionary named
Judith (known to me personally) received this message from Mary: "Did
you not know that in thinking you could create life, you have lost your
soul? . . . Your nation, once strong and powerful (because she once
trusted in God), has now been warned many, many times—yet she still is
wayward. . . . You are a foolish and stubborn people. And by your
actions, you have caused your own destruction. You put
your foot upon the wrong path and your
path has led to perdition. . . . And so I say to you now: Turn to my
Son and ask for forgiveness, for there is one small grain of sand left
in the hourglass of time. . . . Use this one small grain with wisdom
and it will last a long time. Throw this small grain of sand away, and
your time is limited. Be careful, my children, how you choose."
America and the world are
being warned by Heaven, but unfortunately there’s no reason to believe
the message is being taken seriously or even being heard—and the
consequences could be disastrous. The war against terrorism, necessary
as it may be, carries with it the grave danger of escalation—possibly
involving the use of chemical, biological, or even nuclear weapons.
Tensions in the Middle East have rarely been higher, and because of
that region’s religious, strategic,
and historical importance, a
war between Israel and its enemies could quickly involve other nations.
Here in our own country church attendance increased considerably after
the World Trade Center disaster, but has since returned to
pre-September 11 levels. There’s little evidence of national repentance
or spiritual renewal. For instance, genetic research and
experimentation continues unabated, the abortion industry conducts
business as usual, corporate executives take advantage of stockholders
and investors, and athletes and entertainers demonstrate new levels of
greed and self-centeredness. America seems unable or unwilling to learn
from the past. One glaring example is provided by the homosexual
movement. For a time, the reality of AIDS imposed some limitations on
gay sexual behavior, but now, according to some news reports,
promiscuity and unprotected sex are once again becoming widespread
among homosexuals.
According to some visionaries
and locutionists, in addition to human cloning, the two sins today
which offend Heaven the most are abortion and homosexuality. In regard
to the latter, the above-mentioned visionary Judith was told by Our
Lady, "Nations fell that lived this kind of life and . . . your United
States will be no different. Once great and strong and protected by my
mother’s love for her children, she is now weak and unprotected. If she
continues to live this perverted life, she will be destroyed."
Jesus calls His followers to
be a light shining in the darkness, and with the morally disastrous
state of society today, the witness of Catholicism is more important
than ever—but the Church in America has herself become a source of
scandal. This terrible state of corruption was foretold long ago; the
prophecy of St. Nilus, given in 1651, states that toward the middle of
the 20th century, "Christian pastors, bishops, and priests will become
vile men, completely failing to distinguish the right-hand way from the
left. . . . Lust, adultery, homosexuality, secret deeds, and murder
will rule in society." More recently, a cloistered nun in Ohio, Sister
Mildred Mary Neuzil (who died in 2000), was warned by Our Lord of the
coming scandals.
Countdown to the Warning/Fr. Joseph
M. Esper/Part 2
More recently, a
cloistered
nun in Ohio, Sister Mildred Mary Neuzil (who died in 2000) was warned
by Our Lord of the coming scandals. In 1981 Jesus said to her, "Many
unnatural acts are being committed in the name of love. This evil
is
being disguised and tolerated as an intrinsic right like any other.
Even some of My priests and consecrated virgins are being caught up in
this web of evil -- not realizing the terrible consequences."
Another
contemporary prophet was given a vision of Churches being closed
because of a lack of priests; the Lord explained to her, "When I am
through purifying the Church, there will be very few priests left to
lead My children. When I am through, what will be left will be the ones
who remain close to My Mother."
America has lost her way,
and the Church is failing--in spite of the best efforts of thousands of
dedicated priests and bishops and millions of committed Christians--to
bring about a moral renewal in our society. Therefore creation itself
is seemingly protesting our rising level of immorality; the widespread
droughts and destructive fires experienced throughout much of the
country earlier this year are only the most recent examples of a long
series of unprecedented natural disasters coinciding with
American
society's fall from grace. Seven of the ten worst disasters in U.S.
history have occurred in the last thirteen years. As Michael Brown
demonstrates extensively in his book Sent To Earth, this is no
coincidence; throughout history societal wickedness and perversion have
triggered climatic upheavals. God's creation is good and orderly, and
we cannot rebel against it without eventually provoking an
unpleasant
and even disastrous response. Numerous signs of this harsh but
inescapable truth are being given. For instance, twelve days after the
September 11 attacks, an Aurora Borealis over Finland formed the
amazing image of what looked like an enormous angel in red, holding a
sword. The sword and the color red, of course, are traditional images
of war (cf. Rev. 6:3-4), and this event is reminiscent of the 1938
Aurora Borealis which cast a reddish glow in the night sky over
Europe--the "unknown light" Our Lady predicted at Fatima as a sign of
imminent war. Furthermore, a great Aurora Borealis covered most of the
continental United States on the evening of March 30, 2001; observers
from across the country reported green and red lights flashing
throughout the night sky.
PLANET X -- THE TENTH PLANET
The
color red also
figures in unconfirmed reports of a newly-discovered tenth planet
(Planet X), a dark star whose eccentric orbit (along with its mass,
magnetism, and density) will have increasingly deleterious effects on
earth's weather and volcanic and seismic activity. As it draws closer,
Planet X, viewed through earth's atmosphere, is expected to take
on
the appearance of a flaming red cross. Experts believe Planet X may
seriously affect our weather if it passes close by earth. (It should be
noted that so far it has disrupted the surface of every planet it's
orbited for seven years preceding its passage--and since 1996, weather
patterns here on earth have been changing, while instances of
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have set new records.)
Though Planed X will not
actually collide with earth, its magnetic effect is upsetting the
normal gravitational balance between the earth and the sun; when it
reaches its strongest magnetic pull on the earth, our planet is
expected to cease its rotation for two or three days--a situation which
could give rise to the prophesied Three Days of Darkness. (It's
said
that NASA and officials of other governments are deliberately
downplaying the existence of Planet X so as to avoid panicking the
world's population.) Many traditional prophecies have spoken of a comet
as an instrument of divine justice--and a revelation given to the
earlier-mentioned visionary named Judith is instructive in this regard.
Referring to a vision granted in 1998, God the Father said to her, "Did
you not see Michael the Archangel and I, your Lord God, playing with a
ball of fire? Did I not say to you at that time I will throw and toss
the ball to Michael twice? And, my daughter, when I toss this
ball the
third time, your world will be destroyed...That ball of fire was an
asteroid. Twice it has come close enough to your earth to do terrible
destruction. This destruction was explained away by your scientists,
and you believed in them rather than in your God."
This prophecy
seems to have been partially fulfilled. On June 14, 2000 an asteroid
the size of a soccer field missed hitting the earth by a mere 75,000
miles; if it had struck the earth, millions of people could have been
killed. On March 8, 2002 a sizable asteroid came within 288,000 miles
of earth; especially frightening was the fact that, since it came from
the direction of the sun (an astronomical blind spot), scientists did
not observe it until four days after its passing.
On
July 25, 2002
Christina Gallagher received a message from Our Lady, which said in
part, "You will be put to the test to choose between the evil one and
God. Storms will affect many in the world--storms such as the world has
not seen...Do not blame the evil one for what is your own weakness and
your own desires....Coming to the world are many calamities to purify
the stench of sin and evil." This message has a special relevance for
the United States, for on an earlier occasion Christina had told a
group of Americans, "God will never visit war upon your land because
American people have been so generous--but because of your sins, your
country will be punished by the elements and defeated by natural
disasters." These words echo the earlier prophecy of the famous German
stigmatist Therese Neumann, who stated in 1946 that the United States
would never be invaded or conquered, but would be economically ruined
by a series of natural disasters around the turn of the century
Countdown to the Warning/By
Fr. Esper/Part 3
These and other similar
prophecies are both timely and terrifying--but we always have reason
for hope. God is best understood not as an angry Judge, but as a loving
Father; because He desires our eternal salvation. He desires our
eternal salvation. He allows us to suffer the consequences of our sins
if He has no other way to get our attention, and even then He is happy
to restore us if we call out to Him in genuine sorrow. In a revelation
given in 1879, a French nun said, "Does not God Himself sometimes
seem
to change the order of His plans? For example, it may happen that God
wishes to chastise a kingdom, a province, or a person. That is the
intention He seems to manifest. But by prayers or other means taken by
that country, province or person to disarm God's anger, He may grant
full forgiveness or a partial remission of His designs according to His
infinite wisdom. Often He also allows events to be foretold, or He
gives knowledge of them to some souls so that they may warn others and
appease His vengeance. His mercy is so great that He only punishes in
the very last extremity."
THE WARNING: AN ACT OF MERCY
Why hasn't the
Warning already occurred? How long will the Lord wait? How much worse
can things get?
It's in this context that we should understand the Warning. It's
ultimately not an act of judgment, but of mercy; the Lord desires that
as many sinners repent and be saved as possible. A possible question or
objection might be raised: Why are we apparently on the verge of an
unprecedented act by God--a divine intervention of mercy not granted to
any other age? The answer is one parents might easily understand. If a
family has five children, and four of them are more-or-less
well-behaved, but the fifth is always getting into trouble and crying
out for attention and seeking reassurance, which one will receive the
most time and effort and love? Obviously the fifth child--the one who
challenges and worries and upsets the parents the most. Loving parents
will bend over backwards to help their troubled children; the intensity
of true love's response depends in part on how desperately it's needed.
That, I believe, is how God is responding to our generation; we are
more urgently in need of His mercy and grace than any other age in
human history, and so He will perform a spiritual miracle for us of a
type and on a scale never before seen.
This
being the case,
still another question or objection can be raised: Why hasn't the
Warning already occurred? How long will the Lord wait? How much worse
can things get? There's good reason to believe that the Warning and
other prophesied events were already to have taken place, but were
delayed by sufficient prayer and penance (in line with the above-quoted
revelation given to the French nun). I'd also like to suggest three
other possible reasons (which somewhat overlap) why the Warning hasn't
yet happened. First of all, God is infinitely more patient than we are.
The 2nd Letter of Peter says, "The Lord does not delay His promise, as
some regard 'delay,' but He is patient with you, not wishing that any
should perish but that all should come to repentance" (3:9). Peter was
writing of the Second Coming of Jesus, but his words may also apply
in
a secondary manner to the timing of the Warning; God is patiently
delaying it until the moment when it will do the most good. Secondly,
God sees the big picture, unlike us. We read the headlines about all
the violence and evil in the world, but He looks into human hearts and
finds the hidden goodness that we don't see or hear about or
suspect--and perhaps there's been enough of this goodness so far to
delay or mitigate the events to come.
Thirdly, God may very
well be saving the Warning for the point when human immorality has
peaked, when literally nothing further can be done by the Church to
convert sinners. The Lord prefers to work through us as much as
possible--so if the world hasn't yet reached the point where He must
intervene directly by means of the Warning, this means we still have
time to help convert sinners by means of our prayers, good example, and
acts of penance. In this regard, we should be like the faithful
servants whom the Master finds busy on His return (Lk 12:36-38); the
fact that we know the Warning is coming doesn't mean we can give up our
own efforts on behalf of sinners.
No
one knows the exact
course of future events, but a number of scenarios (based on private
revelations and informed speculation) have been suggested.
These include in no particular order~~
* stock market crash and/or the collapse of the economy,
* social unrest, increasing acts of terrorism and ever-widening
warfare,
* a loss of civil liberties and individual privacy,
* a schism in the Church and a possible religious persecution,
* widespread epidemics and the arrival of new and unknown
diseases,
* increasingly frightening and unpredictable weather patterns,
* numerous and ever-more destructive natural disasters.
All of these tragedies are unnecessary, and can be mitigated or
prevented by sufficient repentance, prayer and acts of penance. The
Warning (and also the Miracle), however is certain to take place,
and
could occur at any point in the above sequence. What little we know
about its timing suggests that it will somehow be associated with the
letter A (an asteroid?) and linked to a solar prodigy, with a Cross
visible in the sky throughout the world. One alleged visionary states
that three days before the Warning, there will be another Aurora
Borealis in the sky; the day before the Warning, all animals will fall
silent; and moments before the Warning occurs, everyone will see his or
her guardian angel as a form of spiritual strengthening and preparation.
When
might this happen?
No one knows for sure. the Warning could presumably occur any time
now--and in light of the state of today's world, it's hard to envision
it being delayed beyond another year or two at most.
Countdown to the Warning/ Fr. Esper/ Part 4/end of article
WHAT PREPARATION CAN WE MAKE FOR THE WARNING
What preparations can we make for the Warning? First of all, we must be
personally ready. This means in or being restored to a state of
grace---something we should already be doing. If we're aware of serous
sin, or
if it's been a while since our last Confession, now is the time to
receive the
Sacrament; this will make our experience of the Warning much easier. We
might
specially pray to be ready and open to God's personal message to us
during the
Warning, so as to see our faults and to understand and remember exactly
what we
need to do to overcome them. If we use it as such, the Warning can be a
major
boost or assist in our own personal quest for holiness.
We should also make plans to assist our family members, relatives and
friends, and fellow parishioners once the Warning has occurred. Many
people will
be in a state of "spiritual shock," trying to make sense of a very
frightening
and spiritually upsetting experience. They'll need our assistance and
support--so now is the time to begin stockpiling useful or necessary
items to
distribute: religious books, simple written descriptions of the Warning
and
reassurances of God's mercy, video and audio cassettes on religious
themes,
holy cards, rosaries, scapulars, medals, catechisms, prayer books, and
other
such materials and resources. (Some of these things might be ordered
through
this magazine, Signs & Wonders- www.sign.org -- or obtained from
Tan Books &
Publishers, the Mary Foundation, or available at your local religious
goods
store.)
A locutionist in Connecticut received a message in 1996 stating that
when
the Warning occurs, Mary's children will recover quickly from their
shock, and
must then go to their parishes to assist their pastors minister to the
large
crowds of people who, in their confusion and fear, will be seeking help
from the
Church. Therefore, when the time comes, immediately head for your
church and
begin ministering to people in whatever way you can. (It will probably
be
impossible to reach anyone at you parish office by phone immediately
after the
Warning--so simply go there directly and, if you get the chance, ask
how you
can help; if there's no one in authority to ask, let the Holy Spirit
guide you.)
You might distribute the religious items and materials you've acquired
in
advance, or offer words of greeting to those coming to the church, or
express
words of reassurance to those waiting in line for Confession'; you
might also
direct those who've just received the Sacrament to a sign-in sheet, for
having a
list of everyone who comes to church (especially all the inactive
Catholics, and
those who've never registered in the parish) will facilitate follow-up
efforts
in the weeks and months to come. Many people may fall back into their
religious
indifference unless the parish conducts some sort of outreach; this can
involve
study groups, adult catechism classes, sacramental preparation programs
for
children, prayer meetings, and other similar events. Start thinking now
about
how you might be involved in these efforts, and begin gathering the
necessary
resources; if possible, work together with a few friends or fellow
parishioners
who share your beliefs on this subject. Your pastor will be extremely
busy after
the Warning, and chances are he'll welcome your offer to help in
whatever way
you can--especially if you've done some advance planning and
preparation.
CONSECRATE OUR FAMILIES AND HOMES
In addition to preparing for the Warning, there are also things we
should be
doing for our own spiritual growth and protection, and in response to
Heaven's
many messages calling for prayer and penance. We should consecrate our
families
and homes to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, pray the Rosary every day,
go to
Confession regularly, attend Mass and receive Communion a least once a
week (and
more often than that, if possible); foster a devotion to the Blessed
Virgin Mary
and other saints; fast or perform some other act of penance at least
once a
week, for the conversion of sinners, for the salvation of the dying,
and for the
safety and well being of the Holy Father and of all members of the
Church.
Prayer changes things, and we may still have time to lessen or delay
some of the
minor chastisements expected before the Warning occurs.
A final note: Because we are God's children, we needn't fear anything;
as
St. Paul reminds us, nothing can separate us from Christ's love (cf.
Rom.
8:38-39) Therefore, we are able to look to the future in a trusting
spirit.
Through the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord announced, "I know well the
plans I have
in mind for you, says the Lord, for your welfare, not for woe! plans to
give you
a future full of hope" (29:11). According to St. Paul, "hope will not
leave
us disappointed, because the love of God has been poured out in our
hearts
through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us" (Rom. 5:5). Our
openness to
the Holy Spirit's guidance and protection will make all the
difference--whether
it's in regard to the scandals and difficulties the Church is
experiencing., the
shock of the Warning and other prophesied events, or our own daily
struggles and
disappointments. All things work for the good of those who love God
(cf. Rom.
8:28) --and so we know that all the events now unfolding can ultimately
lead us
to an everlasting experience of love and peace and joy.