Mar. 29, 2019

THE LAST DAYS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

One day I saw Mary in the little temple of Saint John, looking very thin and very poor. In the company of Jesus and a multitude of Angels, I heard the plaintive words of the Holy Virgin:

“O my Son! Why have you left me groaning on this earth? You do not seem to hear the desires of those who would like to be united to You in Heaven.”

--My Mother, if I leave you upon the earth, it is only so that you serve as an example to the souls who desire to see Me and to unite themselves forever to Me. I will prolong their martyrdom. I leave them your sighs, as an example of submission: they must also wait for the time when the earthly link will break, the time when the sky will open to welcome them.

The Flame says that, after these ardent sighs, the Holy Virgin could not leave her little house. She could not go to the temple of Saint John, for love had nailed her to a kind of death bed. The Apostle brought her Divine Son to her every day.

She remained as if asleep in the love of her Beloved and had only one thought:

“I will go to see Him whom I have nourished and brought up for the salvation of souls. I will go, languidly, to lean on Him. I will go, the heart laden with fruit, and I will sing the Canticle of Canticles; I will be with Him eternally.”

The Canticle of Canticles was the divine refrain that she repeated, after her Holy Communions, in the last days of her life.

(25 April 1882)

[Source: pp. 46-7, Le ciel en colloque avec Marie-Julie Jahenny, by Fr. Pierre Roberdel].

Reflection on this vision :

This week’s vision is a lesson on what true loneliness feels like.

If anyone has ever felt lonely and panicked in the sense of the loneliness of their existence, they should pray to the Virgin Mary for help, for she has known true, deep loneliness.

Consider this: for all of you women who have borne children, feeling them grow inside your womb for nine months, you can well imagine Our Lady’s loneliness after the baby Jesus’ Divine Presence left her womb at His miraculous birth.

The feeling inside of her would have been a huge feeling of loss, despite holding her blessed Baby Jesus in her arms and embracing Him.

Although revelations do not show us her feelings of loss after the death of her parents, or of Saint Joseph, her holy spouse, she surely would have felt these losses just as we do in our own earthly lives.

These earthly companionships and friendships can be a joyful treasure which we do not realize we had until we are left without them.

Such an absence can change our day-to-day life in a drastic way, and leave us searching for meaning.

In this vision, Marie-Julie sees our Lady completely lonely for our Lord after His death and resurrection into Heaven.

Although Saint John has taken her into his home, she is seen alone and pining for Our Lord.

The Blessed Mother’s sense of loss is so keen, so crippling to her, that she seems barely able to maintain the desire to eat, “looking very thin and very poor” in Marie-Julie Jahenny’s eyes.

Yet despite her own greatest of griefs, the loss of not having Christ our Lord with her on earth, she continues to connect our pleas to her own, saying:

“O my Son! Why have you left me groaning on this earth? You do not seem to hear the desires of those who would like to be united to You in Heaven.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ tells His Mother: “if I leave you upon the earth, it is only so that you serve as an example to the souls who desire to see Me and to unite themselves forever to Me.”

And now it is our turn to be brave, for here is the Truth of why we may have to endure long lives in this Valley of Tears:

“I will prolong their [our] martyrdom. I leave them [us] your sighs, as an example of submission: they [we] must also wait for the time when the earthly link will break, the time when the sky will open to welcome them [us].”

But the Virgin Mary has known Christ’s presence so deeply that her love for Him has “nailed her to a kind of death bed. The Apostle [brings] her Divine Son [the Blessed Sacrament] to her every day.”

Our holy Mother’s last ties to this earth have been cut away and she waits on her death, repeating to herself:

When we are lonely, sad, and feeling lost, let us go to our Lady of Sorrows to console us.

Virgin most Sorrowful, pray for us!

LINKS: Pope Gregory XVII The Great Crisis The See of the Cross

"We declare, say, define and proclaim to every human creature that they by necessity for salvation are entirely subject to the Roman Pontiff ." - Decree of Pope Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam,Nov. 18, 1302,ex cathedra