HOW TO BRIDGE OUR DIVISIONS AND BRING PEACE TO THE WORLD?
Fr. Teófilo Rodríguez
Founder and Director of the Fraternity of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary’s Divine Mercy
Peace and joy!
In Jesus and Mary
Dearest brothers and sisters in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
We have been asked to bring forward some proposals on how to bridge our divisions and bring peace to the world.
I would summarize it in five key points based on Jesus’ answer to St. Judas Thaddaeus, recounted by John the Evangelist in chapter 14: 22-31.
“If anyone loves me, he will keep my Word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.The one who doesn’t love me will not keep my words. The word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me.
“I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.
“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful. You have heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens so that when it does happen you may believe. I will not talk with you much longer, because the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me. On the contrary, so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do as the Father commanded me.
“Get up; let’s leave this place.” (John 14: 22-31).
In my opinion, this passage contains the 5 key points to overcome the divisions and bring peace to the world:
- To love and keep the Word of God
- God wants to make his home in you, in me, in us.
- The Holy Spirit will teach and remind Christ’s promises.
- True peace will only come from Christ.
- The prince of this world has not hold on Jesus Christ.
Let us develop briefly each one of these points and let this Pilgrimage, here, in Russia, be the pre-announcement of the great unity coming to us as children of the same Father, apostles of the foretold end of times and witnesses of the Holy Spirit, of the triumph of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
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TO LOVE AND TO KEEP THE WORD OF GOD
In our Lord’s mind, to love implies to keep, and also to obey. It is not enough to tell God: “I love you”. Love will prove itself by obeying, by accomplishing his Word with our heart.
Now that we are celebrating a 100th year anniversary after Fatima´s apparitions in 2017, we should all say a “Mea Culpa” because, if we had just obeyed Our Lady’s message, neither World War II would have happened, nor the arising of the communist ideology. Not even the gender ideology, which is diabolical as Pope Francis puts it, would have shown up today.
In each of her apparitions the Holy Virgin asked the little shepherds to pray the Rosary for peace and salvation of the world. And she repeated it with such insistence that is really impressing.
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GOD WANTS TO MAKE HIS HOME IN YOU, IN ME, IN US.
All Scriptures are full of references of God manifesting his wish to stay and live with us. The words may vary, but their meaning is the same: house, mansion, palace, temple, room and betrothal.
Song of Songs 1: 4
“Take me away with you – let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers. We rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine. How right they are to adore you!”
Isaiah 32, 18
“Then my people will dwell in a peaceful place, in safe and secure dwellings.”
Hosea 2,19
“I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord.”
Pope Francis declared, on October 2, 2016, in an inter-religious meeting in Azerbaijan: “Religions, on the contrary, which help to discern the good and put it into practice through deeds, prayer and diligent cultivation of the inner life, are called to build a culture of encounter and peace, based on patience, understanding, and humble, tangible steps. This is the way a humane society is best served. For its part, society must always overcome the temptation to take advantage of religious factors: religions must never be instrumentalised, nor can they ever lend support to, or approve of, conflicts and disagreements.”
I don’t want to put an end to this section, without recalling some prophetic words from God’s Spirit, on April 3, 1995: “The new Heavens…. will be when My Holy Spirit will be poured out to you all from above, from the highest heaven…to make a heaven out of your soul, so that in this New Heaven I may be glorified…” (“True Life in God”)
On June 13th, 1929, Our Lady requested Lucia, at her convent in Tuy (Spain), the world’s consecration to her Immaculate Heart, with special mention of Russia. His Holiness the Pope did it, in union with all the Bishops of the world.
Fátima opened its doors to a new era: that of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Disobedience to God is an offspring of pride and is promoted by the devil himself, because he doesn’t know how to be humble.
On June 2, 1987, Vassula received from the Lord a mission that has caused her many sufferings, but it is Jesus’ deepest wish and it appears in St. John’s Gospel, 17:21:
“May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be one in us, so that the world may believe you sent me”.
The vision of the three perpendicular iron bars, close to each other, represents the Roman Catholic Church, the Protestant Church and the Orthodox Church. The three branches of Christianity that are reluctant to obey and bend through the Holy Spirit’s fire to reach unity.
The Lord stated: “To unite we must all bend and we must all be willing to bend by softening. How could their heads (the authorities of the churches) meet unless they all bend?” (“Heaven is real but so is Hell”, page79).
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THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL TEACH AND REMIND CHRIST’S PROMISES
The third part of Fatima’s secret was revealed by St. John Paul II, on May 23, 2000.
Sister Lucia wrote this message, in obedience, on January 3, 1944, in these words:
“After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendour that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!’. And we saw in an immense light that is God: ‘something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it’ a Bishop dressed in White ‘we had the impression that it was the Holy Father’. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God. “
Last May 13th, 2017, during his visit to Fatima, Pope Francis pronounced a prayer in front of the image Our Lady. These were some of his words:
“In this place where, a hundred years ago you made known to all the purposes of God’s mercy, I gaze at your robe of light and, as a bishop robed in white, I call to mind all those who, robed in the splendour of their baptism, desire to live in God and tell the mysteries of Christ in order to obtain peace.”
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TRUE PEACE WILL ONLY COME FROM CHRIST
“I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.” (John 16:33)
Lucia of Fatima wrote in his memories about the Third Apparition, speaking of hell:
“You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.
“The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the Pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is a great sign given to you by God that He is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.
“To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church.” We must renew our vote of remaining faithful, so peace will prevail.
On September 17, 1992, Our Lord said:
“I am gentle and humble of heart and I know everything in your hearts, so ask My Spirit and My Spirit will come to your help; the Spirit now asks you to pray often this prayer:
Jesus, neither death, nor life, no angel, no prince, nothing that exists, nothing still to come, not any power or height or depth, nor any created thing, will ever come to separate me from You;
I vow to remain faithful to You, this is my solemn vow; help me keep this vow forever and ever. Amen. (“True Life in God”)
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THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD HAS NOT HOLD ON JESUS CHRIST
“If I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you”. (Luke 11:20)
The last part of Fatima’s secret, already released, is a most solemn assertion of God’s victory over the Devil . “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph”.
The Church, from the beginning of her existence, has had a constant series of persecutions, martyrdoms, external and internal attacks, but our Lord’s words prevail: “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
(Matthew 16:18).
May we proclaim, on Fatima’s Century anniversary, from our beloved Russia, the triumph of peace and unity for all peoples through the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Amen. Amen.
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N.T. The Biblical quotations are taken from the English original Christian Standard Bible or New International Version. The Pope’s quotations as well as Sister Lucia’s are taken from English public versions of the different texts.
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