The Mercy of God - Another Way of Understanding It

The Mercy of God

Another Way of Understanding It

Dedicated to: Sister Faustina Kowalska

INTRODUCTION

I recently had an experience that God, in His infinite love and patience for His children, used, most graphically, to illustrate the reality and wondrous ways of His Infinite Mercy and how it can be seen amidst the most atrocious man inflicted sufferings in the world.

The event...

BACKGROUND

Geographical Location : West Palm Beach area in Florida, U.S.A.
Date : Fall 1992
Event : Monthly Marian Movement of Priests (MMP) Cenacle
Locale : Home of the coordinator and local center for distribution of MMP literature.

I arrived at a very well appointed and elegant home, enveloped in beautiful Florida flora, all the "right decorations" and a beautiful two-thirds life size statue of Our Lady of Fatima rightfully dominating the Family Room. The hostess, most cordial and gracious. The table in the kitchen area well set with cakes, cookies, refreshments and, on a side table, the coffee, with and without caffeine.

Amidst the refreshments was an ample supply of current MMP literature, including a very nice MMP Cenacle Program Booklet which carries a group, step by step, through a full Cenacle Program.

The Family Room had carefully laid out rows of chairs awaiting for the guests. These arrived at the appointed hour. A priest arrived shortly thereafter. The priest announced that he was going to offer Mass as part of the cenacle. Needless to say - we were all very happy and felt truly blessed.

DETAILS

The Priest: About late forties, a man that had been of the world (a tattoo on his arm testified to that), but now, truly a man of God and an unquestionable child of Mary. A real "Joy of a Priest". A rarity, nowadays.

The People: Fortyish pushing seventyish. Obviously quite affluent and definitely well versed in Marian apparitions, the Marian Movement of Priests, etc., etc.

As part of this Cenacle, which included a rosary, two readings from the MMP book and Mass, this very holy and practical priest gave THREE SERMONS. Two after each reading of the MMP book and one after the Gospel reading.

All three sermons were level headed, very factual and totally colored by the reality of the inevitable End Times.

He discussed the suffering that awaited the world, the importance on seeking refuge within the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the importance of turning away from the world and returning to the Gospel of Jesus and the urgency of all of achieving these objectives.

Actually, the best Apocalyptic sermons I have ever heard. Just facts. No scare tactics. "Either you do or you don't" type of practical approach.

After speeding through (in response to body language of the audience) the rosary, the two readings, the Mass and three sermons in one hour flat, he humbly apologized for having taken so long. [My heart bled for him. You could see that he, after a long day in his parish plus a Sunday Vigil Mass, would have spent gladly three hours conducting this Cenacle.]

With the last word of "Thanks Be To God" still ringing in the air, the audience made a run for the refreshments and began socializing, in a totally worldly sense. If someone had walked in at that time, they would have guessed that we were at the half-time break of a boring Super Bowl game or had just finished watching a mediocre foreign film.

I gulped my cup of coffee, excused myself and left with tears streaming down my face. I kept thinking... "Of all people, these people are better informed of what is going to take place, how bad it is going to be, how soon it is going to be and yet... it is not sinking in."

I felt defeat, hopelessness, anger, and most of all, a feeling of "what is the use of trying to even warn the rest of the world?... if these people who are in the inside are not catching on, who will?"

CONCLUSION

Somewhere in the thirty minute drive home, in one instant, our Lord Jesus made me understand the following:

1. If a soul is marked for an eventual entrance into Heaven some conditions have to be met. There are well and clearly listed in the Gospels. A key one, most especially for surviving the events to come, with some sense of sanity, being Matthew 6:24-34. (1)

2. If that soul has been given every advanced warning, instructions and the means to achieve the conditions necessary with a minimum of suffering and the soul is not responding yet, then...

3. The suffering that is to come (and for many it is already here) is the only avenue that God has left to help that soul to "make it to Heaven".

Immediately I had flash backs of the scenes in Miami after Hurricane Andrew...

I had helped unload supplies, group them and reload Army trucks in the midst of the devastated area. I clearly remembered - ALL WALKS OF LIFE working joyfully and harmoniously together in the face of tragedy.

People that would normally not acknowledge each other, even if there was no one else left to talk with in the world, were working together in perfect harmony. Love was everywhere.

My tears quickly dried up as I joyfully prayed another rosary in thanksgiving to God for His Unfathomable Mercy and for having revealed to me what was well hidden from me before.

EPILOGUE - I

Since this illuminating experience, as I see the destruction creep to every corner of the world, I am at peace for I see that truly ALL IS WELL and that Our Lord is indeed being Merciful to us.

All we need to do is pray, pray and pray so that the suffering is reduced as people respond. For you see, THE QUICKER WE RESPOND TO "TREATMENT", THE LESS OF THE "TREATMENT" WILL BE NEEDED.

Hasn't Mary been preaching that since the early 19th century?

EPILOGUE - II

As we read this document - 21 years later - I am amazed how far the world, and the Faithful, have fallen and how logical seems now to head straight to the chastisement bypassing the many other opportunities God was going to give humanity to minimize its suffering.

NOTES

(1) No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat: and the body more than the raiment?

Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they? And which of you by taking thought, can add to his stature by one cubit? And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labour not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these. And if the grass of the field, which is today, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe: how much more you, O ye of little faith?

Be not solicitous therefore, saying, What shall we eat: or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed? [32] For after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you. [34] Be not therefore solicitous for tomorrow; for the morrow will be solicitous for itself. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. [Matthew 6:24-34]