Apr. 5, 2019
THE ARK OF SALVATION
Our Lady of Victory was Pope Gregory XVII's favourite Marian devotion. Let us pray to Our Lady of Victory, the Ark of Salvation, for the Papal Restoration.
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From the eyes of the soul, I see the Holy Virgin Mary cover, with her love, the entire universe, and extend it there as a powerful bulwark, outside of which none of His [faithful] remain.
She knows the moment when all is going to be decided for the triumph of evil and grief. She throws this last rampart of her power [her love] on the earth to serve as a shelter for her people.
She has supplicated her Son with so much love, that He answered her with only a word:
--“My Mother, the moment is decided. I cannot keep back the hour determined by My Father, I obey His orders.”
The Holy Virgin affirms that she is the Ark of Salvation, and that at the decisive moment it will be necessary for all to enter, and that not one of them will perish… She is like a powerful and vast sea: the waves of her love will carry all hearts into the refuge of the wound of her Son. This will be the shelter of the poor people of France, this country so dear to her heart.
By the right which her Son has given her, she draws out, without measure, from the source of all graces and pours these graces on the earth with abundance. Not for one moment is even the most hardened heart deprived of these graces. She knocks at the door of this heart, and asks for a small place there, in order to snatch it from hell. As soon as she has the smallest hold, she spreads so many graces into this heart, that she seems to be exhausting the source. But Heaven is inexhaustible in its graces.
In her love, the Holy Virgin employs herself in every way to bring back the guilty; her goodness, her tenderness, everything agrees with her voice to bring them back to salvation. If she sees that she does not succeed, she makes her pain and her tears speak… She exhausts the last resources, before the great danger and the great grief.
She proposes to train us on her model of virtue and charity. As a Good Mother, she responds to our weakest sighs with a kindness which cannot be sufficiently admired. No one, on earth, will be able to give back to her what, often in secret, she has done and obtained for humanity.
(23 May 1882)
[Source: pp. 98-99, Le ciel en colloque avec Marie-Julie Jahenny, by Fr. Pierre Roberdel].
Reflections on this vision :
In this time of suffering amidst demonic influences all around us, it is most important for we Catholics, those who are in communion with His Holiness, Pope Gregory XVIII, to understand what a great power the Queen of Heaven yields for the Pope and for the Church in Her exile, both now and in the future.
Saint John Bosco refers to the Blessed Mother of God as “the exceeding great fortress of the Church.”
Before we go into the particulars of Marie-Julie’s vision (above), let us first look at how our Blessed Mother protects the Papacy and the Church during these times of great trial.
The source is an excerpt from St. John Bosco’s famous Papal prophecy, The Venerable Old Man:
“Now Heaven’s voice is addressed to the Shepherd of the shepherds. You are now in conference with your advisors. The enemy of the good does not stand idle for one moment. He studies and practices all his arts against you. He will sow discord among your consultors; He will raise up enemies amongst my children. The powers of the world will belch forth fire, and they would that the words be suffocated in the throats of the custodians of My Law. That will not happen. They will do harm—harm to themselves. You must hurry. If you cannot untie the knots, cut them. If you find yourself hard pressed, do not give up but continue until the head of the hydra of error is cut off. This stroke will make the world and hell beneath it tremble, but the world will be safe and all the good will rejoice. Keep your consultors always with you, even if only two. Wherever you go, continue to bring to an end the work entrusted to you. The days fly by, your years will reach the destined number; but the great Queen (Mary) will ever be your help, and in time past so in the future She will always be the exceeding great fortress of the Church.”
[Source: pp.208-209, The Prophets and Our Times, by Rev. R. Gerald Culleton, imprimatur 1941].
And now let us connect the vision of the Queen of Heaven as the great fortress of the Church with the particulars given to Marie-Julie Jahenny about the power of our Blessed Mother as we fight this earthly battle, our day-to-day life:
First, we are shown that the Blessed Virgin’s power is more than enough to protect all who have the Faith:
Our Lady’s love covers all of the faithful. There is not one of us who is without the protection of Her Immaculate Heart.
As a “powerful bulwark,” she provides protection and support.
But even more precious than mere bodily protection, Our Blessed Mother affirms that She is the “Ark of Salvation.”
And here, the vision begins to refer to the 3 Days of Darkness.
What we need to realize about this great Chastisement is that:
“[A]t the decisive moment it will be necessary for all to enter, and that not one of [us] will perish…”
Our Blessed Mother even pleads for the delay of the great Chastisement, as we can determine from what Jesus Christ says:
“My Mother, the moment is decided. I cannot keep back the hour determined by My Father, I obey His orders.”
And so, She works unceasingly to “carry all [our] hearts into the refuge of the wound of her Son,” like a wave which pulls things off the sand and into the sea.
“She pours her graces upon us…[and]…spreads graces into our hearts.”
Our Blessed Mother actively seeks each sinner:“She knocks at the door of this heart, and asks for a small place there, in order to snatch it from hell.”
Sinners who accept her love receive “so many graces… [because] Heaven is inexhaustible in its graces.”
The Holy Virgin even works “to bring back the guilty;” that is, believers who have fallen into sin.
We who know her as the Sorrowful Mother will know that She wants her Son’s Holy Sacrifice on the Cross not to be in vain, for “[S]he makes her pain and her tears speak.”
Who can resist such loving pleas?
Until the hour of our death, the Blessed Virgin Mary never gives up on our salvation: “She exhausts the last resources, before the great danger and the great grief.”
Always, always, our Blessed Mother wants to instruct us to greater holiness: “She proposes to train us on her model of virtue and charity.”
May we always receive the graces to lovingly hear our Holy Mother who speaks so persistently to our hearts!
Mary, Help of Christians, pray for us!
LINKS: LA SALETTE St. Michael Prayer The Sun The Warnings 3 Days of Darkness After the 3 Days Hawthorn Leaves Diseases
"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