"All...Shall Come, Bringing Gold and Frankincense..."
Dear Friends of Our Lord and Our Lady,
The Gradual for the Feast of the Epiphany reads:
[Is. 60, 1] "All they from Saba shall come, bringing gold and frankincense, and showing forth praise to the Lord. Arise and be enlightened O Jerusalem, for the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee... Alleluia Alleluia [ Matt. 2,2 ] We have seen His star in the East and are come with gifts to adore the Lord. Alleluia"
The Twelve Days of Christmas ends with the great feast of the Epiphany! However, in the West, we have not really ever celebrated this feast as we should. Many cultures of old waited until this day to exchange gifts as a remembrance of the 3 Kings giving the Infant Jesus the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Imagine being one of the Kings or traveling in their entourage? Could you ponder what it would be like to gaze on that beautifully pure and innocent yet Godly countenance of the Babe? Would we not imagine that our life would be changed forever just with His gaze?
If we were to imitate the Three Kings, what could we give Our Infant King in gratitude for His presence, for His sacrifice, for the return of grace to our souls? Do we have anything prepared for Our little Sovereign Lord? Hopefully, we can all think of something...in our hearts, in our souls, in our family, in our homes etc.
During the days between Christmas and the Holy Name of Jesus, I have been seriously thinking of going further with spreading the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus even more than what we have been doing. The Holy Name and the Holy Face of Jesus are intertwined for Sr. Marie St. Peter said [taken from the book: "The Life of Sr. Marie St. Peter by Abbe Janvier -taken from all of her writings 1884]:
"In presenting anew the mystery of his Holy Face, Our Lord enlightened her with a conception which, as she expressed it, disclosed a "beautiful horizon" on Reparation for Blasphemy, by manifesting the affinity existing between his most Holy Name and his most Holy Face." said she, "by the aid of a comparison as simple as just, permitted me to comprehend how the wicked by their blasphemy attack his adorable Face, and how the faithful glorify it by the homage of praise rendered His Name and His person.
The merit of an individual lies in his character, but the glory of his reputation rests on his name.
The Holy Name of God expresses the Divinity, and contains all the perfections of the Creator ; it follows, therefore, that the blasphemers of this Sacred Name insult God directly....Our Lord has manifested to me, that there is something mysterious on the face of an honorable man, who has suffered contumely ; his name and his face are particularly allied. Observe a man distinguished by his name and by his merits, in the presence of his enemies ; these raise not the hand against him, but overwhelm him with injurious epithets, instead of the honorable titles which are his due, scoffing at him and mocking him.
Again, notice the expression of his face, would you not suppose that all the derisive language of his enemies was imprinted thereon, causing him to suffer a martyrdom ? Behold that countenance covered with shame and confusion; he could support the most cruel pains, the most excruciating tortures without flinching; but the loss of his reputation, of his good name, this is unsupportable, he can no longer control his emotions, which are soon depicted on his countenance. Such is a feeble portrait of the Divine Face of Our Lord, condemned by blasphemers.
Now let us represent to ourselves this man once more, but in the presence of his friends, who being apprised of the insults he has received, eagerly present themselves to sympathize with him, offering the respect due to the greatness of his name. Shall we not then read in his countenance the consolation which these sympathies afford him? His brow again bespeaks peace, and his features become radiant with joy; happiness beams, from his eyes, and the smile of gladness is on his lips; his loving friends have soothed that face outraged by enemies ; opprobrium is forgotten, peace and happiness reign supreme. We can see in this feeble image, that which the friends of Jesus perform in the Work of Reparation. The glory which they render his Name encircles his august brow, and is portrayed on his most Holy Face in the adorable Sacrament of the altar."
Let us recall that Our Lord expressed what was necessary to disarm the Justice of God via the Devotion to His Holy Face.
He said that only Reparation could disarm the Justice of God because the guilt of men had provoked His anger.
On October 4, 1846, Our Lord explained to Sr. Marie what chastisements of God’s Justice would be felt because of the profanation of Sunday. There had been a terrible flood caused by the overflowing of the River Loire that had been unprecedented for many centuries. Sr. Marie was told that God “wielded the elements” because of the profanation of Sunday. On this day, Sr. Marie was given to know that in the future (perhaps because He was largely ignored) “God’s Justice would use as the instrument of punishment, not the elements, but the ‘malice of revolutionary men—that is the Communists.’” (This was the first revelation from Heaven concerning Communism. Our Lord said that this devotion would defeat it. It is, therefore, the sister-devotion to the Fatima devotion--necessary to save the world. It is interesting to note that Communism was at its very beginning stages, as Karl Marx, the father of Communism, had not even published his “Communist Manifesto” until 1848.) Our Lord then ordered Sr. Marie to wage war against the enemies of the Church, the Communists, through her prayers and the instruments of His Passion which would be her only weapons against them and the devil himself.
Since we have seen the rapid demise of freedom in the world with this pandemic, I really felt we need this devotion more than ever....
Sadly, it seems that every time Heaven allowed messages to be delivered to earth via Her messengers, we, as a collective entity, have largely ignored them!
Besides ignoring the Holy Face Devotion, another such example of disregard and indifference is that of the grave neglect in following the instructions of Our Lady of Fatima when she asked for the consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart in a specific manner, by specific men and at a specific time. Mere human men were the ones to decide that Heaven had to be wrong about "the specifics" and they didn't have to follow the instructions - actually they also thought they could change the rules even by consecrating the "World" instead of Russia...
Interestingly, these two devotions focus on the "malice of evil men" and "Russia." These two terms are one and the same and used to describe the Communists!
On July 15, 1946 the author of Our Lady of Fatima, William Thomas Walsh wrote about his meeting with Sr. Lucia on page 226:
"Lucia made it plain that Out Lady did not ask for consecration of the world to Her Immaculate Heart. What she demanded specifically was the consecration of Russia. She did not comment, of course. on the fact that Pope Pius XII had
consecrated the world, not Russia, to the Immaculate Heart in 1942. Lucia said more than once, and with deliberate emphasis:
'What Our Lady wants is that the Pope and all the bishops in the world shall consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart on one specific day. If this is done, she will convert Russia and there will be peace. If it is not done, the errors of Russia will spread through every country in the world.'
'Does this mean, in your opinion, that every country, without
exception, will be overcome by Communism?'
'Yes.'
It was plain that she felt that Our Lady's wishes had not yet
been carried out. People must pray the Rosary. perform sacrifices,
make: the five first Saturday Communions, pray for the Holy
Father.
'Did Our Lady ever say anything to you about the: United
States?'... 'No.' she said gently... 'She never did...' "
IT is intersting that she said this phrase in such a way that ALL NATIONS WERE PUT ON THE SAME LEVEL!
Therefore at this moment in time- This is where we are at: EVERY COUNTRY WITHOUT EXCEPTION WILL BE OVERCOME BY COMMUNISM!!!
Is it too late????
I believe we could now be universally in the same predicament that France found herself before the French Revolution when despite the fact that King Louis XVI discovered while imprisoned that his predecessors should have consecrated France to the Sacred Heart, he attempted to consecrate France to the Sacred Heart while in his prison, but Heaven deemed it too late! For all practical purposes, this consecration of France to the Sacred Heart was a failure! After all, they had 100 yrs!!! I am certain though that poor King Louis must have merited much grace for himself and his country for having attempted this good act. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why Our Lady promised that a future monarch will one day restore Christendom? I don't know....
And just as we have also ignored the warnings of Our Lady of La Salette and other Heavenly instructions given to other seers of approved apparitions for over 200 years..., we are now at the precipice of disaster...the infernal abyss awaits so many millions of souls! They only need one last little push...
Why in the world are we, Catholics, so pridefully blind to see that we have continued to ignore Heaven and now the world merits a terrible chastisement? Have we not realized that Heaven had asked Catholics to do penance not just for themselves or their families but FOR THE WHOLE WORLD! In essence, she has been calling on her little Catholic souls to be victims souls of every day life to help world. And we failed!!!
What can then can we do? I don't think it is too late for us, at least not personally.
Now is the time for New Year's Resolutions! Let us make our New Year's Resolutions at the Crib with the Magi! Let us bring our own gifts of ourselves- our resolution to sanctity, and leading a virtuous life, our own prayers and penances and even our own talents - -to aid the Church on earth- for now we are not only the Church Militant, but unfortunately, I believe most of the Catholic world should be considered the Church Persecuted just as those in other Communist countries!
We, here at the Apostolate, will continue to work here as always for as long as we can.
So along with the gifts we can bring to the Babe in Bethlehem, our Apostolate will bring this short list of what we would like to do for Him, and His Church in 2021. The little we can do reads as follows. (However, we will need your help to do so):
-
Fundraiser for the Sisters in Quito and our Apostolate- we are in somewhat serious straits without your help!
-
Promoting the Holy Face Devotion on a more prominent level-using public advertisement and printed material.
-
Printing "The Three Days of Darkness Special Edition" of Chiesa viva so that people will have this as a reference guide to prepare.
-
Having Blessed 100% Beeswax Candles available for a small donation.
Please consider a donation to our apostolate as a gift as the Magi gave to Our King! If ever He needs help, it is now! Please let us hope and pray that we are not too late like King Louis to make a difference!
In Jesus and Mary,
Kathleen Heckenkamp
The Apostolate of Our Lady of Good Success
262-567-0920