Our Lady of America The Immaculate Virgin Part II

In case you had not read this next item on the Our Lady of America website, these next three days will continue to be devoted to presenting what we feel is one of the most thorough explanations of the Our Lady of America apparitions and messages that has been presented so far.

It is the homily given by Father Peter Damian Mary Fehlner, F.I. on August 5, 2006 at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Our Lady of The Angels Monastery in Hanceville, AL. You can download the complete document at www.ourladyofamerica.com.

Text of Homily
Presented by Father Peter Damian Mary Fehlner, F.I.
Feast of The Dedication of The Basilica of Saint Mary Major
August 5th, 2006
Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament,
Our Lady of The Angels Monastery
Hanceville, AL – USA

Part II

The revelations, locutions, messages fall naturally into three groups: those between 1938 and 1954; those from 1954 through 1959; and those thereafter to 1984, in particular between 1980 and early 1984, when the final message was given. During the first period from 1938 to 1954 it was chiefly Our Lord who spoke to Sr. Mary Ephrem. The content of his messages concerned primarily the personal life of Sister, her growth in holiness and especially in relation to the mystery of the indwelling Trinity above all in the soul of the Virgin Mother. All this, however, was her preparation for a special task for which Our Lord had chosen her. Sister tells us that “in the early 1940’s it was made known to me interiorly that my mission was to converge towards the sanctification of the family. I was not further enlightened at that time as to how this was
to be accomplished.”

What this mission would be and how it would be carried out, is the subject of many revelations and messages between May 22, 1954 and the end of 1959. These messages involve principally the active intervention of Our Lord, Our Lady and St. Joseph, with secondary apparitions of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, that is to say, those who make up the Holy Family, and those who in a particular way are assigned in heaven to serve that Family. The messages are many, but seen in this context they constitute a logical whole, whose central point of reference is the maternal mediation of Mary and the role which particular nations are to play in this for the eternal and temporal well-being of the entire human family.

Logically, Sr. Mary Ephrem tells us, Our Lord appeared first in 1954 to define the frame of reference for the key message of Our Lady concerning the spiritual renewal of souls and the establishment of true peace in the world with an attendant liberation from the threat of nuclear holocaust and the destruction of entire nations.

Our Lord’s first point is crucial: neither the source of life and peace nor the source of war and destruction is to be located in material or temporal things. If life is not sought in Him who is the Resurrection and the Life, then only terror, war and destruction will be found. A second consideration is intimately linked to the first. Men “fear man-made destroyer of life, yet destruction is within themselves. Man destroys himself through the evil that is in himself.” Further, unless man comes into the light that is Christ, he remains in darkness forever. To come into the Light, one must listen to the voice of Christ which is the voice of mercy: “The voice of my heart is the voice of mercy.” If men will not believe and walk in the Light, there is nothing that can be done to escape destruction, though Christ’s heart beats with compassion for the sorrows of man and the weight of a contemporary cross, for the most part fashioned by man’s own guilt. That faith may once again find entrance into the hearts of men, prayer and sacrifice are necessary and indispensable. Later in 1954 the Angel of peace, or St. Michael, appeared to Sister offering her the palm of victory, viz., the Cross, with the request: “will you accept this?” Only the cross can secure the victory of faith. The request of St. Michael, prince of the heavenly host, is addressed to every American.

Our Lord’s second point is this: faith can only gain entrance into the hearts of men, if it gains entrance into the home. Every home must be modeled on the Holy Family, because every home is primarily a house of prayer, and only if it is a house of prayer will God dwell there. Where this is not the case, where parents have no time to teach their children to love Jesus, there they never learn to listen, not even to the voice of the Mother of Jesus. The breakdown of family life, indeed, the attempt at a radical redefinition of marriage not based on monogamy and purity, appears as a refusal to love Jesus and listen to his voice. Jesus calls this breakdown a conversion of the temple of God into a den of thieves. This is the root of the tragic nuclear holocaust threatening to overtake the entire world. Or in the simple, profound words of Jesus: the refusal to love Jesus in this way is the reason for the Father’s anger. Only with the return of God to his first home, the family, can the terrible destruction threatening the world be averted. Only through love of the heart of Jesus will this be accomplished.

Toward the end of 1954 (Nov. 20) Our Lady appeared to ask Sister’s help in bringing peace to the world, precisely by restoring the family as a dwelling place of the divine Trinity. Our Lady told Sr. Mary Ephrem it was Our Lord’s desire that “fathers and mothers strive to imitate me and my chaste spouse in our holy life at Nazareth. We practiced the simple virtues of family life, Jesus our Son being the center of our love and activity. The Holy Trinity dwelt with us in a manner far surpassing anything that can ever be imagined. For ours was the earthly paradise where once again God walked among men.” Characteristic of the Holy Family was the total absence of sin. So too must every family strive to be: holy and immaculate in the sight of God. Then peace will come.

Nearly two years later, on the eve of the feast of the North American Martyrs, 25 Sept., 1956, did what Sister calls the “official” visits of the Virgin Mother begin: official because they define quite precisely what is meant by the title Our Lady of America and what in assuming this title Our Lady asks of the American nation. According to Sister Our Lady came as Our Lady of Lourdes and promised to work more miracles in America, particularly in the United States, than worked either at Lourdes or Fatima, if Americans would do what she asked:

I am pleased my child, with the love and honor my children in America give to me, especially through my glorious and unique privilege of the Immaculate Conception. I promise to reward their love by working through the power of my Son’s Heart and my Immaculate Heart miracles of grace among them. I do not promise miracles of the body, but of the soul. [The emphasis here, according to Sister, is that of the Immaculate who is anxiously concerned about our inner life.] For it is mainly through these miracles of grace that the Holy Trinity is glorified among men and nations. Let America continue and grow in its love for me, and I in return, in union with the Heart of my Son, promise to work wonders in her. My child, I desire that this be known.

And the next morning, in a stupendous vision of the Immaculate during which Sister saw the heart of Mary appear “encircled with red roses, the symbol of suffering as it was revealed to me, and sending forth flames of fire,” Our Lady said: “I am Our Lady of America. I desire that my children honor me, especially by the purity of their lives.”

Later, on the same day, Our Lady of America said:
My child, I entrust you with this message that you must make known to my children in America. I wish it to be the country dedicated to my purity. The wonders I will work will be the wonders of the soul. They must have faith and believe firmly in my love for them. I desire that they be the children of my Pure Heart. I desire, through my children of America, to further the cause of faith and purity among peoples and nations. Let them come to me with confidence and simplicity, and I, their Mother, will teach peoples and nations. Let them come to me with confidence and simplicity, and I, their Mother, will teach them to become like to my Heart that their own hearts may be more pleasing to the Heart of my Son.

Sisters adds, that though Mary came in this manner as a token of her love for Americans, nevertheless Our Lady of America welcomes her children of all nations to her feet, for there will be found true peace. Our Lady of America is such because she is Lady of all nations, the Queen of men and angels.

To be continued...