The Third Renewal

 

JESUS tells Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta that humanity is about to enter into a “third renewal” (see An Apostolic Timeline). But what does He mean? What is the purpose?

 

A New and Divine Holiness

St. Annibale Maria Di Francia (1851-1927) was the spiritual director of Luisa.^[1]cf. On Luisa Piccarreta and Her Writings In a message to his order, Pope St. John Paul II said:

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

In other words, God wishes to bestow upon His Bride a new sanctity, one He tells Luisa and other mystics that is unlike anything the Church has ever experienced on earth.

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… —Jesus to Venerable Conchita, cited in The Crown and Completion of All Sanctities, by Daniel O’Connor, p. 11-12; nb. Ronda Chervin, Walk with Me, Jesus

To Luisa, Jesus says it is the crown of all sanctities, analogous to the consecration that takes place at Mass:

Throughout her writings Luisa presents the gift of Living in the Divine Will as a new and divine indwelling in the soul, which she refers to as the “Real Life” of Christ. The Real Life of Christ consists primarily of the soul’s continuous participation in the life of Jesus in the Eucharist. While God may become substantially present in an inanimate host, Luisa affirms that the same may be said of an animate subject, i.e., the human soul. —The Gift of Living in the Divine Will, theologian Rev. J. Iannuzzi, n. 4.1.21, p. 119

Have you seen what living in My Will is?… It is to enjoy, while remaining on earth, all the Divine qualities… It is the Sanctity not yet known, and which I will make known, which will set in place the last ornament, the most beautiful and most brilliant among all the other sanctities, and that will be the crown and completion of all other sanctities. —Jesus to Servant of God Luisa Picarretta, The Gift of Living in the Divine Will, n. 4.1.2.1.1 A

In case anyone thinks this is a novel idea or an addendum to Public Revelation, they would be mistaken. Jesus himself prayed to the Father that we “may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent Me,” ^[2]John 17:21-23 so 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.” ^[3]Eph 1:4, 5:27 St. Paul called this unity in perfection “mature manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ.” ^[4]Eph 4:13 And St. John in his visions saw that, for the “wedding day” of the Lamb:

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

 

A Magisterial Prophecy

This “third renewal” is ultimately the fulfillment of the “Our Father.” It is the coming of His Kingdom “on earth as it is in Heaven” — an interior reign of Christ in the Church that is at once to be a “restoration of all things in Christ”^[5]cf. POPE PIUS X, E Supremi, Encyclical “On the Restoration of All Things”; see also The Resurrection of the Church and also a “witness to the nations, and then the end will come.” ^[6]cf. Matt 24:14

“And they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.” May God… shortly bring to fulfillment His prophecy for transforming this consoling vision of the future into a present reality… It is God’s task to bring about this happy hour and to make it known to all… When it does arrive, it will turn out to be a solemn hour, one big with consequences not only for the restoration of the Kingdom of Christ, but for the pacification of… the world…. We pray most fervently, and ask others likewise to pray for this much-desired pacification of society. —POPE PIUS XI, Ubi Arcani dei Consilioi “On the Peace of Christ in his Kingdom”, December 23, 1922

Again, the root of this apostolic prophecy comes from the Early Church Fathers who foresaw this “pacification of society” as taking place during a “sabbath rest,” that symbolic “thousand years” spoken of by St. John in Revelation 20 when “justice and peace shall kiss.” ^[7]Psalm 85:11 The early apostolic writing, the Epistle of Barnabas, taught that this “rest” was intrinsic to the sanctification of the Church:

Therefore, my children, in six days, that is, in six thousand years, all things will be finished. “And He rested on the seventh day.”  This means: when His Son, coming [again], shall destroy the time of the wicked man, and judge the ungodly, and change the sun, and the moon, and the stars, then shall He truly rest on the seventh day. Moreover, He says, “You shall sanctify it with pure hands and a pure heart.” If, therefore, any one can now sanctify the day which God has sanctified, except he is pure in heart in all things, we are deceived. Behold, therefore: certainly then one properly resting sanctifies it, when we ourselves, having received the promise, wickedness no longer existing, and all things having been made new by the Lord, shall be able to work righteousness. Then we shall be able to sanctify it, having been first sanctified ourselves. —Epistle of Barnabas (70-79 A.D.), Ch. 15, written by a second century Apostolic Father

Again, the Fathers are not speaking of eternity but of a period of peace toward the end of human history when the Word of God will be vindicated. The “day of the Lord” is both a purification of the wicked from the face of the earth and a reward to the faithful: the “meek shall inherit the earth” ^[8]Matt 5:5 and His “tabernacle may be rebuilt in you with joy.” ^[9]Tobit 13:10 St. Augustine warned that this teaching was acceptable so long as it is understood, not in millenarianist false hope, but as a period of spiritual resurrection for the Church:

…as if it were a fit thing that the saints should thus enjoy a kind of Sabbath-rest during that period [of a “thousand years”], a holy leisure after the labors of six thousand years since man was created… [and] there should follow on the completion of six thousand years, as of six days, a kind of seventh-day Sabbath in the succeeding thousand years… And this opinion would not be objectionable, if it were believed that the joys of the saints, in that Sabbath, shall be spiritual, and consequent on the presence of God… —St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.; Church Doctor), De Civitate Dei, Bk. XX, Ch. 7, Catholic University of America Presss

So when the Epistle of Barnabas says that wickedness will no longer exist, this must be understood in the full context of Scripture and magisterial teaching. It does not mean the end of free will but, rather, the end of the night of the human will that produces darkness — at least, for a time.^[10]ie. until Satan is released from the abyss in which he is chained during his period; cf. Rev 20:1-10

But even this night in the world shows clear signs of a dawn that will come, of a new day receiving the kiss of a new and more resplendent sun… A new resurrection of Jesus is necessary: a true resurrection, which admits no more lordship of death… In individuals, Christ must destroy the night of mortal sin with the dawn of grace regained. In families, the night of indifference and coolness must give way to the sun of love. In factories, in cities, in nations, in lands of misunderstanding and hatred the night must grow bright as the day, nox sicut dies illuminabitur, and strife will cease and there will be peace. —POPE PIUX XII, Urbi et Orbi address,March 2nd, 1957; vatican.va

Unless there are going to be smoke-belching factories in heaven, Pope Piux XII is speaking of a dawn of grace within human history.

The Kingdom of the Divine Fiat will make the great miracle of banishing all evils, all miseries, all fears… —Jesus to Luisa, October 22, 1926, Vol. 20

 

Our Preparation

It should become more evident, then, why we are witnessing this present period of tumult and general confusion, what Sr. Lucia of Fatima rightly called a “diabolical disorientation.” For as Christ prepares His Bride for the coming of the Kingdom of the Divine Will, Satan is simultaneously elevating the kingdom of the human will, which will find its penultimate expression in the Antichrist — that “wicked man”^[11]“…that Antichrist is one individual man, not a power — not a mere ethical spirit, or a political system, not a dynasty, or succession of rulers — was the universal tradition of the early Church.” (St. John Henry Newman, “The Times of Antichrist”, Lecture 1) who “opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god and object of worship, so as to seat himself in the temple of God, claiming that he is a god.” ^[12]2 Thess 2:4 We are living through the final Clash of the Kingdoms. It is literally the competing vision of mankind sharing in Christ’s divinity, according to Scripture,^[13]cf. 1 Pt 1:4 versus the “deification” of man according to the transhumanist vision of what is being called the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”:^[14]cf. The Final Revolution

The West refuses to receive, and will accept only what it constructs for itself. Transhumanism is the ultimate avatar of this movement. Because it is a gift from God, human nature itself becomes unbearable for western man. This revolt is spiritual at root. —Cardinal Robert Sarah, —Catholic Herald, April 5th, 2019

It is the fusion of these technologies and their interaction across the physical, digital and biological domains that make the fourth industrial revolution fundamentally different from previous revolutions. —Prof. Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, “The Fourth Industrial Revolution”, p. 12

Most grievously, we see this attempt to subvert the Kingdom of Christ happening within the Church herself — the Judases of an antichurch. It is an apostasy fueled by an attempt to elevate one’s conscience, one’s ego, above the commandments of Christ.^[15]cf. Church On A Precipice – Part II

Where are we now in an eschatological sense? It is arguable that we are in the midst of the rebellion [apostasy] and that in fact a strong delusion has come upon many, many people. It is this delusion and rebellion that foreshadows what will happen next: “and the man of lawlessness will be revealed.” —Msgr. Charles Pope, “Are These the Outer Bands of a Coming Judgment?”, November 11th, 2014; blog

Dear brothers and sisters, the warnings of St. Paul in this week’s Mass readings could not be more imperative to “stay alert” and “be sober.” This doesn’t mean being joyless and gloomy but awake and deliberate about your faith! If Jesus is preparing for Himself a Bride who is to be spotless, should we not be fleeing sin? Are we still flirting with darkness when Jesus is calling us to become pure light? For even now, we are called to “live in the Divine Will.” ^[16]cf. How to Live in the Divine Will What silliness, what sadness if the upcoming “Synod on Synodality” is about listening to compromise and not the Word of God! But such are the days…

This is the hour to withdraw from Babylon — it is going to collapse. It is the hour for us to remain always in a “state of grace.” It is the hour to recommit ourselves to daily prayer. It is the hour to seek out the Bread of Life. It is the hour to no longer despise prophecy but listen to Our Blessed Mother’s directives that show us the way forward in the darkness. It is the hour to raise our heads toward Heaven and fix our eyes on Jesus, who will remain with us always.

And it is the hour to shed the old garments and begin putting on the new. Jesus is calling you to be His Bride — and what a beautiful bride she shall be.

 

Related Reading

The Coming New and Divine Holiness

New Holiness… or Heresy?

The Resurrection of the Church

Millenarianism – What it is and is Not

 

 

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