Novum

 

See, I am doing something new!
Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
In the wilderness I make a way,
in the wasteland, rivers.
(Isaiah 43:19)

 

I HAVE pondered a lot of late about the trajectory of certain elements of the hierarchy toward a false mercy, or what I wrote about a few years ago: an Anti-Mercy. It is the same false compassion of so-called wokism, where in order to “accept others”, everything is to be accepted. The lines of the Gospel are blurred, the message of repentance is ignored, and the liberating demands of Jesus are dismissed for the saccharine compromises of Satan. It seems as if we are finding ways to excuse sin rather than repent of it.

 
The Five Corrections

I recall a powerful “now word” back in November of 2018. As the Synod on the Family was beginning to wrap up, I sensed the Lord say that we are living the seven letters in the first three chapters of the Book of Revelation — a period of warning to the Church before tribulations would assail the world.

For it is time for the judgment to begin with the household of God; if it begins with us, how will it end for those who fail to obey the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17)

When Pope Francis finally spoke at the end of the synod, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing: just as Jesus chastised five of the seven churches in those letters, so too, Pope Francis offered five rebukes to the universal Church, including an important caveat for himself.^[1]see The Five Corrections Two of the rebukes were regarding…

The temptation to a destructive tendency to goodness, that in the name of a deceptive mercy binds the wounds without first curing them and treating them; that treats the symptoms and not the causes and the roots. It is the temptation of the “do-gooders,” of the fearful, and also of the so-called “progressives and liberals.”

And the second,

The temptation to neglect the “depositum fidei” [the deposit of faith], not thinking of themselves as guardians but as owners or masters [of it]; or, on the other hand, the temptation to neglect reality, making use of meticulous language and a language of smoothing to say so many things and to say nothing!

Consider those words in light of the controversies that have unfolded these past few weeks, all centred on words! At the end of Francis’ speech, he concluded — to a long, thunderous standing ovation:

The Pope… [is] the guarantor of the obedience and the conformity of the Church to the will of God, to the Gospel of Christ, and to the Tradition of the Church, putting aside every personal whim... —(emphasis mine), Catholic News Agency, October 18th, 2014

Which is why many are befuddled in the wake of his latest words and actions…^[2]cf. Have We Turned a Corner and The Great Fissure

 

The Trajectory of Christ

Contrast these temptations to the direction that Christ is now taking His Bride in this final stage of her journey, which is not toward the lenience of sin but a purification from it. Jesus, who is the “spotless unblemished lamb”^[3]1 Pet 1:19 wants to make His Bride like Himself…

…that he might present to himself the Church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:27)

And yet… some in the hierarchy are proposing how to “bless couples” who remain in objectively grave sin without offering them the liberating message of the Gospel calling them to the freedom of repentance. It is so far from the trajectory of Christ! It is so distant from authentic mercy that seeks to free the lost sheep caught in the brambles of sin, not leave them entangled!

No, the Divine Programme in our times is that Jesus wants to place the “Crown of all sanctities” — what St. John Paul II called a “new and divine holiness” — upon the head of His Bride.

God himself had provided to bring about that “new and divine” holiness with which the Holy Spirit wishes to enrich Christians at the dawn of the third millennium, in order to “make Christ the heart of the world.” —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Address to the Rogationist Fathers, n. 6, www.vatican.va; cf. The Coming New and Divine Holiness

For Jesus “chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before Him.”^[4]Ephesians 1:4 In the Book of Revelation, Our Lord promises to the one who perseveres through the Great Storm that “The victor will thus be dressed in white.“^[5]Rev 3:5 That is, after the faithful remnant has followed her Lord through her own passion, death and resurrection,^[6]“Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers… The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection. —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 672, 677 that…

…His bride has made herself ready. She was allowed to wear a bright, clean linen garment. (Rev 19:7-8)

According to many Catholic mystics, this will result in an “era of peace” and the fulfillment of the Our Father’s petition that His Will may reign on earth “as it is in Heaven.”

I am preparing for you an era of love… these writings will be for My Church like a new sun which will rise in her midst… as the Church will be renewed, they will tranform the face of the earth… the Church will receive this celestial food, which will strengthen Her and make Her rise again in her full triumph… the generations will not end until my Will reigns upon earth. —Jesus to Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta, February 8, 1921, February 10, 1924, February 22, 1921; see the status of Luisa’s writings here

It is really the coming of Jesus to reign in His Bride in an all-new manner.

…the prodigy of living in my Will is the prodigy of God Himself. — Jesus to Luisa, Vol. 19, May 27, 1926

It is the grace of incarnating Me, of living and growing in your soul, never to leave it, to possess you and to be possessed by you as in one and the same substance. It is I who communicate it to your soul in a compenetration which cannot be comprehended: it is the grace of graces… It is a union of the same nature as that of the union of heaven, except that in paradise the veil which conceals the Divinity disappears… —Blessed Conchita (María Concepción Cabrera Arias de Armida), cited in The Crown and Completion of All Sanctities, Daniel O’Connor, p. 11-12; nb. Ronda Chervin, Walk with Me, Jesus

 

Novum

Isn’t it just like our loving God to accomplish all of this in the darkest of moments — when His People are wandering in the wilderness and wastelands? 

…the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:5)

For the past year and a half, the Lord has put on my heart to begin a new ministry of leading people before the Holy Eucharist so that He can heal and call them to Himself, and prepare them for this new work of the Holy Spirit. I have taken my time to discern this, reflecting with my spiritual director and discussing it with my bishop. With his blessing then, this coming January 21st, 2024, I will be launching Novum, which means “new.” To be honest, I don’t know what to expect… except that God is doing something new in our midst.

I will be recording my talks at these events and sharing them with you, my readers. For you, too, are part of this journey into the Heart of holiness for which you were created. For those of you who live in Alberta, Canada, you are invited to come to this event (see the poster below for more details).

Finally, with the beginning of a new year, I must once again beg for your financial support for the growing costs of this full-time ministry. I simply could not continue the demands of The Now Word, Countdown to the Kingdom, the long hours of research and now this new ministry, without your support. I am so blessed and grateful for your gifts and prayers, which are always an encouragement to me. Those who are able can donate here. Thank you so much!

Let us pray that God will hasten the novum thing He is doing in our midst!

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