Quite frequently I get questions on dates. Is it true that something is going to happen on such and such date? Is there going to be a warning? A disaster? An 'illumination'?

Especially now we get the question about the year 2004, which has been mentioned, in a certain way, by Venezuelan seer Maria Esperanza. I'm not sure what she has told others, but I know what she has told me: that 2004 will be the beginning of a "new light" from Heaven.

What that implies is anyone's guess, perhaps even Maria's.

I took it to mean that God is sending new insights to us and that these will arrive both supernaturally and through various events that in future years will lead to introspection.

Will it be something visible? There are visible and invisible aspects to what will "begin" next year, she says, but I would seriously caution against reading too much into that -- or expecting it to tie into other apocalyptic prophecies. If we accept this prophecy, major things are about to occur in the heavenlies, but we should not immediately take this to imply something more than it does. Maria often sees things in a non-material dimension that escapes ready verbal transmission.

But let's hear it from her. When asked for a revised version of the book, Bridge to Heaven, if it was something that would occur in the spiritual realm or here on earth, she told me, "In both. Like parallel. The spiritual and material realms. It's something that cannot be avoided. It cannot be stopped. It is the beginning of something." Added her husband Geo: "Maria feels there will be a change in people. We will achieve new innocence, a new spiritual state."

Does that mean that everything prophesied as major and even apocalyptic will all occur by the end of 2004?  (Asian tsunami Dec 26 2004)

No. Maria herself foresees a major coming manifestation of Christ, but has speculated that it will happen in the next ten to twenty years -- not any particular year. She is not even sure she will live to see it.

It could be tomorrow. It could be in twenty years. Like anyone else, Esperanza has to form her own interpretations.

Although she has mentioned 2004 as a year of special grace, she presents no specific frame of time for other events in the larger picture. She does say that after such events -- after tribulation -- there will be a renewal and that whenever it comes, this renewal will be both physical and spiritual.

There will be a new time. There will be a "new light." And that, she says, will pave the way to what she describes mysteriously as "a new dawn of Jesus."  

The supernatural influx -- the event that may largely occur out of view, in Heaven, she says -- will involve "rivers of light." Much of what she sees is symbolic, ethereal. The world is entering a "new stage," she says -- yes, a dramatic stage -- and there will be greater light from heaven. She sees this enlightenment beginning around 2004.

Again: what that could be is anyone's guess, but it's noteworthy that not long after Maria mentioned 2004, there was word that the Pope was declaring 2004 a year of special Eucharistic devotion. He even mentioned “rivers of light”! He also declared it as a year for more in-depth study of the Blessed Mother (who has appeared to Maria and others at the Church-approved site of Betania near Caracas)

Clearly, the coming years will all bear significance, building up, we believe, to the secrets of Medjugorje. Major events could happen tomorrow. Or they could wait for years. But odds are that every year for the rest of our lives will grow increasingly interesting. We believe that there will be an eruption of miracles. We believe that what we have seen thus far (with exuding statues and healings and visions) is only a precursor.

Exciting times! Times of grace! Times too of danger. The 'warning'? The 'illumination'?

At Medjugorje (which Esperanza fervently supports) the seers mention not a single warning, but warnings, plural. What we are seeing now in terms of storms, quakes, epidemics, strange weather, miracles, healings, special manifestations, apparitions, and wars are the forerunners.

Yes, we must be cautious. Don't you remember all the prophecies about the year 2000? Don't you remember in grammar school when there were predictions about the world ending at noon on such and such date?

God doesn't usually operate according to our calendar -- but He does send prophets, and we'll be reviewing more of them shortly.

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