In 2007, we're told by a new book, Our Lord and the Blessed Mother began to speak to the heart of a Benedictine monk -- a priest -- who at the time was greatly in need of their intervention.
The priest, in an Irish monastery, was "prompted" to write down what he heard -- words of knowledge and insight and encouragement meant not only for him but, it seems, for us all.
The priest, who received much of it during Adoration -- and whose revelations pertain in large part precisely to Adoration -- suffered his share of doubts over the authenticity of what he was "hearing." Not to worry for long: his spiritual director, closely following the events, identified what was occurring as gratia gratis data (real Grace), and his book, In Sinu Jesu: The Journal of a Priest At Prayer, includes an imprimatur from a bishop, Michael Smith, in Meath Mullingar, Ireland along with a Nihil Obstat.
"Here is the text as I have transcribed it over the years from the notebooks that I started to keep in 2007," writes the Benedictine religious, who has chosen to remain anonymous. "The vocabulary and the style are mine, but the substance of what I wrote came during prayer, without any effort or reflection on my part.
"There would be an inner movement to write, and I would write until the inspiration stopped.
"After writing, there would be a grace of quiet union with Our Lord or with Our Lady. On a few occasions, there were 'words' from saints or from holy people."
These are called allocutions, of course -- interior (mental), as opposed to auricular (through the ear) -- and they certainly ring of authenticity, in two important regards:
The way they arrived, without the expenditure of his own thought and energy, is what Saint Teresa of Avila said was a hallmark of real communication (as opposed to those who have to reach for words). Also, in the effects: these locutions draw you powerfully into deeper appreciation and devotion of the Blessed Sacrament -- bring Adoration more alive than we have ever seen in a book. "It was precisely in His Eucharistic Presence that these conversations with Our Lord unfolded," he emphasizes, "drawing me more and more into the light of His Face and the fire of His Heart."
They do the same to the reader.
A great book to take, in fact, to Adoration -- as one reads Christ explaining how to best benefit from the devotion: what hidden treasures are there.
As the book says, "there is more time in a day than what is measured by hours and minutes. I am the Lord of all time, and time given in tribute to Me is of greater worth than time invested in the most wearying labors. I do not ask that you stop doing the tasks that are before you, but only that you put Me before all else, giving the best of your time and the greater portion to Me alone."
It has the hallmarks of legitimate locution and is a book especially crucial for priests -- aimed at them in a special way; every cleric should have one, especially in rectories that suffer sterility -- but inspiring to anyone meditating on the words, for one feels the Lord speaking. One touches Grace.
That there is a crisis with aridity, devotions, and lack of the mystical in the Church is beyond serious question. But says the revelation:
"I am about to renew the priesthood of My Church in holiness," Jesus presumably infused into the monk's mind on Maundy Thursday night, March 20, 2008.
"I am very close to cleansing My priests of the impurities that defile them. Soon, very soon, I will pour out graces of spiritual healing upon all My priests. I will separate those who will accept the gift of My Divine friendship from those who will harden their hearts against Me. To the first I will give radiant holiness like that of John and of My apostles in the beginning. From the others I will take away even what they think they have. It must be so. I want the priests of My Church clean in heart and faithful in responding to to the immense love with which I have loved each one of them and chosen each one for Myself and for the realization of the designs of My Heart."
Fascinating words, there. At one point, in 2010, the Lord, in language reminiscent of Italian locutionist Stefano Gobbi, is quoted as stating that "the attack on My priesthood that appears to be spreading and growing is in fact in its final stages. It is a satanic and diabolical onslaught against My Bride the Church, an attempt to destroy her by attacking the most wounded of her ministers in their carnal weaknesses; but I will undo the destruction they have wrought and I will cause My priests and My Spouse the Church to recover a glorious holiness."
A new era is coming, it's claimed, of saint, martyrs, and prophets.
The renewal of His priests, according to these revelations, "will begin from the fire of love that blazes in the Sacrament of My Body and Blood."
What a meditation for Lent.
"A chastened priesthood will shine with chastity in the face of a world darkened by every fleshly vice and sinful excess," said a revelation on June 18, 2009. "A meek and humble priesthood will astonish a world obsessed with power, and influence and exploitation of the poor. An obedient priesthood will stand in contradiction to a world that, following its master, says, 'I will not serve.'"
On January 27, 2012:
"Who among My priests will survive the tribulation that is coming. Only those who will have listened to My plea for priest adorers, for priest reparators, for priests who will allow Me to befriend them, and who will give Me their time, their minds, and their hearts in the essential work of Adoration.
"I call this work essential because the right order of things has been subverted and because a great disorder and confusion has overtaken the hearts and minds of My beloved priests.
"Adoration will be for them and for you the restoration of the only right order: the order of Divine love poured into the hearts of men by the Holy Spirit Who is Love."
[resources: his book and Lenten bookstore]
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