Signs of the Times  

    "...You are living under an urgent request made by your heavenly Mother who is inviting you to walk along the road of conversion and of return to God.  Beloved children, share in my anxious motherly concern as I see that this call of mine is neither welcomed nor followed.  And yet I see that the only possibility of your salvation is bound up uniquely with the return of humanity to the Lord, with a strong commitment to folow his law.
       Be converted and walk along the road of grace of God and of love.  Be converted and build up days of serenity and peace.  Be converted and take part in the plan of divine mercy.
      With how many signs has the Lord manifested to you his will to at last put a fitting halt to the flood of impiety; incurable diseases which are spreading, violence and hatred which are exploding, misfortunes which are occurring, wars and threats which are spreading.  Know how to read the signs which God is sending you through the events which are taking place and accept his strong admonitions to change your life and to return along the road which leads you to Him.
       You are living under your Heavenly Mother's concerned and constant request to remain in the true faith.  And yet I see, with angiush, that errors continue to be spread, taught, and propagated.  The danger of losing the precious gift of faith in Jesus and in the truth which He revealed to you is thus becoming ever greater among my children.  Even among my chosen ones, how great is the number of those who doubt or who no longer believe.
      If you only saw with my eyes, how vast this spiritual epidemic is which has struck the entire Church; it brings its apostolic action to a halt, wounds it and paralyzes its vitality, often even making its effort at evangelization empty and ineffective.
      You are living under my very painful anxiety as I see that you are still victims of widespread sin.  I observe how, by the means of social communications, experiences of life contrary to those indicated by God's holy law are being proposed to my poor children everywhere.  Everyday you are being fed with the poisoned bread of evil and given to drink at the polluted spring of impurity.  Evil is being proposed to you as something good, sin as a value and transgression of the law of God as a way of exercising your autonomy and your personal freedom.
      And so you arrive at losing even the consciousness of sin as an evil, and injustice, hatred and impiety cover the earth and make of it an immense desert, deprived of life and love.  The obstinate rejection of God and of return to Him, the loss of the true faith and the iniquity which is spreading and leading to the definition of evil and sin:  these are the signs of the evil time through which you are living.
      But at the same time see in how many ways I am intervening to lead you along the road of conversion, of goodness and of faith.  With extraordinary signs which I am giving in every part of the world, through my messages and through my so frequent apparitions, I am pointing out to everyone the approaching of the great Day of the Lord.
       But how much sorrow my Immaculate Heart feels in seeing that these admonitions of mine are not heeded and are frequently and openly rejected and opposed, even by those who have the duty of being the first to accept them.  For this reason, I am revealing myself today only to the little ones, to the poor, to the simple, to all my children who still know how to listen to me and follow me.
       Now as never before, I have need of a great force of supplication and reparation...."
                                                                                  --excerpt from "To the Priests"
                                                                                  (messages from Our Lady to Fr. S. Gobbi)


      THE CHURCH IS BOTH DIVINE AND HUMAN AND, IN ITS HUMAN DIMENSION, IT IS FRAGILE AND SINFUL AND THUS HAS GREAT NEED TO DO PENANCE.  THE CHURCH IS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD, "LUMEN gENTIUM", BUT OFTEN THE EVILS OF THE WORLD IN WHICH IT LIVES BECOME THE MALADIES WHICH ATTACK THE HUMAN DIMENSION OF THE CHURCH.  THIS HAS BEEN PROVEN BY NEARLY 2000 YEARS OF ITS HISTORY.

      TODAY THE CHURCH IS LIVING IN A WORLD WHICH HAS BUILT UP A NEW SECULAR CIVILIZATION.  THE SPIRIT OF THIS WORLD, OR SECULARISM, WHICH HAS ENTERED INTO ITS INTERIOR, HAS CAUSE THE GREAT SUFFERING AND OF CRISIS IN WHICH THE CHURCH FINDS ITSELF.  THIS IS THE FAMOUS "SMOKE OF SATAN" SPOKEN OF BY POPE PAUL VI OF VENERABLE MEMORY.

     SECULARISM, AT THE INTELLECTUAL LEVEL, BECOMES RATIONALISM, AND AT THE LEVEL OF LIFE, IT BECOMES NATURALISM.

      BECAUSE OF RATIONALISM, THERE IS TODAY THE TENDENCY TO INTERPRET THE WHOLE MYSTERY OF GOD AND THE DEPOSIT OF REVEALED TRUTH IN A PURELY HUMAN WAY, AND THUS OFTEN THE FUNDAMENTAL DOGMAS OF THE FAITH ARE DENIED AND MOST SERIOUS ERRORS ARE SPREAD ABOUT IN A HIDDEN AND AMBIGUOUS WAY.  sOMETIMES THESE ERRORS BECOME TAUGHT EVEN IN CATHOLIC SCHOOLS AND LITTLE OR NOTHING SURVIVES OF DIVINE SCRIPTURE OR EVEN THE GOSPEL OF JESUS....