Introductory sermon: The Lord is drawing nigh!

AUGUSTINIAN HOPE.

POPE Francis had placed the Jubilee Year 2025 under the sign of Hope. His successor, our Holy Father Leo XIV, continues his teaching by preaching every Wednesday at the general audience on the theme: Jesus our hope. And his first apostolic exhortation, Dilexi te, aims to offer today’s poor the hope of a better future.

But what exactly is hope?

A sermon by Saint Augustine, the great doctor of the Western Church, to whom our Holy Father constantly refers, a sermon that seems to have been written for today, helps us understand:

“My brethren, every day people murmur against God: ‘Times are bad, times are hard.’ Our futile amusements are castigated, and that is what made us say: ‘Times are bad, times are hard, times are painful’; and yet the Colosseum games are still being held! Times are bad, times are hard: let ourselves be corrected by the times. You say that times are hard? You are much harder, you who do not let yourself be corrected by the hardness of times! [...]

“Let us be healed, my brethren, let us be corrected: He Who came and was mocked will return, and He is still the object of mockery because He came; He will return, and there will be no room for laughter. My brethren, let us mend our ways; better times are coming, and they will be here soon. What do you hope for here below? Change your place, change your residence: turn your heart upwards! What do you hope for here below? The human race appeared, it reached youth, so to speak – the world experienced a flourishing period – it is declining and decaying in its old age, it is already almost decrepit.

“What do you hope for here on earth? Seek something else. Are you seeking rest? It is a good thing that you seek it: but seek it in the land where it is found. The place where the Lord descended to you is different from the place where He invites you to ascend. Do not hope for times other than those we read about in the Gospel [...]. It is necessary for times to be hard. Why? So that we do not love earthly happiness. It is absolutely necessary – this is the remedy – that this life be troubled, so that we may love another life.”●

Thus, the object of Christian hope is, of course, Heaven, “the only goal of all our works,” as Saint Thérèse said. Heaven, for each of us, “at the hour of our death” and, if possible, for all souls. As our Father explained, it is the “cornerstone of our faith: the present life is the painful birth of eternal life. We need this certainty in order to hope and to love. There is no moral law, no upright and generous conduct, except in the assurance of a Judgment that will mark the triumph of divine justice and the disappearance of the forces of Evil at work in the present world. Nor would there be any true mystical life if we were not promised the consummation of this incipient union, full of love, between the creature and his Creator in the eternal face-to-face encounter. Human efforts and divine graces have meaning only in view of Heaven.”●

IN EXPECTATION OF HIS RETURN.

However, he continued, “our greatest Christian hope, on which all others depend, is not, as one might imagine, that of our personal salvation after death. It is the hope of the Kingdom of God, of the Reign of Christ fully realised in Heaven, on earth and even in Hell [...]. Yes, that Evil may disappear, that Hell may be defeated, that Holiness may triumph, that the number of the elect may be reached so that the end of our unhappy history may finally come and a new world may appear to the glory of our God, such is our hope. But because it delights us, this divine certainty strengthens our desire to see this Day with our own eyes and leads us there even without us thinking about it.” 

Indeed, the coming of Christ is the only hope for the world, which is dying from its sin, as Saint Augustine explained:

“What would we do without the presence of such a Comforter? The human race was going to be seriously ill. Like a doctor taking care of a single seriously ill patient, from Adam to the end, that is, taking care of the whole wounded human race; for since our birth here below, since we were driven out of paradise, the disease has certainly been there, but it was bound to worsen at the end, and for some to approach healing, and for others death [...]. Our Physician therefore said: ‘In the last days, the patient will be more strongly and violently agitated; at that moment, I must come in person to ensure his treatment; I will give him strength, I will comfort him, I will encourage him, I will make him promises, I will heal him, if he has faith in Me.’ And so it was done. He came, He became man, He shared our mortal condition, so that we might share His immortality. And yet the sick man is still restless.”

For the Son of God made man in the womb of the Virgin Mary “did not come to bring peace, but the sword” (Mt 10:34). He came to “cast out the Prince of this world” (Jn 12:31), and the human race is the battleground of this terrible struggle. Our Father explained:

“Christmas, the first coming, was already a great Parousia, which must have seemed to those who witnessed it in awe to be the last, that would establish the Kingdom of God on earth forever. This was true in one sense. In one sense only. Jesus Himself would teach His own to distinguish His first Epiphany, full of gentleness and humility, from His last Parousia, in Power and Majesty, when He would return to judge the living and the dead. It was a wonderfully clear teaching, in its complexity. Yes, the Kingdom is already among us, the Son of Man has come, His glory has been revealed. But the Kingdom must still undergo a historical growth, as foretold in the parables, before the last Day comes, when Jesus will hand over His Kingdom to His Father and put all His enemies under His feet forever.”

THE HOPE OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH.

“The Apostolic Church had the courage to live the days following the Gospel because of this promise of the prompt return of her Lord, in this comforting thought of the coming Parousia, when the justice of their cause would be revealed and they would receive their reward.”

The Apostles had heard with their own ears Our Lord announce to them: “For the Son of man is to come with His angels in the glory of His Father, and then He will repay every man for what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of man coming in His Kingdom.” (Mt 16:27-28)

And on the very day of His Ascension, when they saw Him for the last time before His return to the Father’s bosom, they also saw two angels who said to them: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, Who was taken up from you into Heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into Heaven.” (Ac 1:11)

So they waited for this return, hoping to see their Master’s triumph soon. And, as Jesus had told them, they tried to prepare themselves for it, so that they might be found as faithful servants. Saint Peter wrote to his people: “The end of all things is at hand; therefore keep sane and sober for your prayers. Above all hold unfailing your love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins.” (1 P 4:7-8)

And the Roman Catholic Church, to which we belong, is still waiting for the return of Christ. Our Father wrote this in the first article of our Rule: “The brothers will live poor, in solitude and silence. Thus will they vigilantly await the return of the Lord that will not be long in coming.”

But “how can we live in this same hope, nearly two thousand years later, scrutinising the writings of the Apostolic Age with the same faith, the same fervour, how can we still believe, like them, that the End Times are nigh? This is what needs to be explained. It would be puerile to think that the Apostles were mistaken and that the Church slavishly followed them in this persistent error, always believing that the end of the world was near when in fact it is perpetually fleeing. It is more complicated, that is all. We must meditate on the venerable Scriptures with the Church, her Doctors and her scholars, embracing the mentality of their authors and experiencing the historical drama they were living through, in order to understand their prophecies properly. Then we will have to admit that the Apostles were not disappointed in their expectations and that they, like their successors, witnessed several Parousias, one after another, which were steps towards that final Parousia that we expecting in hope for the near future.”

In a masterful demonstration at the end of this article, our Father showed that the ruin of Jerusalem followed by the fall of the Roman Empire, were already fulfilments of Our Lord’s promises, through the expansion and triumph of His Church over the ruin of the unfaithful peoples, the first establishments of His Kingdom.

THE FINAL PAROUSIA.

“Saint Peter and his evangelist Saint Mark, Saint Matthew, Saint James and undoubtedly Saint Jude had their attention focused entirely on the Parousia of the Lord in Jerusalem, the punishment of the Jewish people followed by their mass conversion, which would itself be the prelude to the end of time. Saint Paul, Saint Luke and Saint John, on the other hand, were more attentive to considering the Parousia of Christ among the nations. They applied the same words of Jesus to this pagan world, which was also to experience a similar tragic conjuncture. For all of them, there would be an end of the world, a final Parousia of Christ for the whole earth [...]. We must conclude that, according to the Scriptures, the last Parousia will recapitulate on a grand scale all the components of the Parousias of punishment and victory predicted for Jewish Jerusalem and pagan Rome. Faith thus persuades us that there is nothing new to expect from human history except the repetition of these same tragedies already experienced, this time marking the end of time and the establishment of the eternal Reign of Christ.

“Therefore, nothing seems to me to be more damaging to our hope than this false interpretation of the Prophecies, according to which the thousand-year reign foretold in the Apocalypse is still to come and should be understood as an age of unheard-of happiness lived under the government of Christ Who has redescended to earth. The Apocalypse teaches nothing of the sort, on the contrary! Until the end of the world, we will know nothing of the Kingdom of God other than the present Church. It is she who is the millennial wonder prophesied by Saint John! And anyone who dreams of anything else misunderstands her and escapes from the reality of faith. We are currently living through the famous Thousand years that will finally lead to the last convulsions of the world, heralding the final Advent of the Saviour.”

Indeed, Our Lord announced very precisely the signs that must precede His return: “And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified; for the end will not be at once. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences; and there will be terrors and great signs from Heaven” (Lk 21:9-11), which will appear “in the sun, moon and stars” (Lk 21:25).

At that time, said Our Lord, “many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because wickedness is multiplied, most men’s love will grow cold. But he who endures to the end will be saved.” (Mt 24:11-13)

Saint Paul is even more specific about this announcement of apostasy: “The Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared.” (1 Tm 4:1-2)

And to the Thessalonians: “Before the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling to meet Him, the apostasy must come first, and the Man of lawlessness must be revealed, the Son of perdition, the Adversary, the one who exalts himself above all that is called God or is worshipped, even to the point of sitting in the sanctuary of God [...]. The coming of the lawless One will be marked by the influence of Satan, with all power and with pretended signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are to perish, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends upon them a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false, so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”(2 Th 2:3-12)

This is incredibly relevant today!

Our Father wondered: “How will the Church emerge from these two combined dangers, persecution from outside and internal apostasy? The eschatological discourses and the Apocalypse teach us a great lesson: she will emerge miraculously, through a manifest intervention of God, just as the apostolic community escaped the persecutions of Jerusalem and, shortly afterwards, those of the formidable Roman Empire. Let us guard ourselves against the ungodly world, adds the Epistle to the Hebrews, as does the Apocalypse of John, let us guard ourselves against its worshippers, for modern Babylon, the seat of the Antichrist and of all apostates, will suddenly be defeated and Christians delivered! By fire, foretells the Second Epistle of Saint Peter 2 P 3:7, by an invincible power from Heaven, according the Apocalypse (Ap 11:11-12; Ap 20:9). This victorious irruption of Christ and His Armies will also be accompanied by cosmic signs, calamities of all kinds, famines, and terrible disorders. We have not seen anything yet, but at least we have been warned and we can guess what it might be. Misfortune stands at the gates of an apostate world.”

Yet, in announcing these times of trial, Our Lord wants to reassure us: He tells His Apostles not to be afraid, not to be “frightened,” to “lift up their heads,” to have confidence in Him. And, amid all these catastrophes, He foretells “great signs from Heaven” (Lk 21:11). What are these signs?

THE “SIGN OF THE WOMAN”

Saint John had a revelation that he recorded in his Apocalypse. He first saw a deluge of evils: “there were flashes of lightning, voices, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.”

Then “a great portent appeared in Heaven: a Woman! She is clothed with the sun, with the moon under Her feet, and on Her head a crown of twelve stars” (Ap 11:19-12:1).

This, then, is what we must expect at the end of time: the appearance of a Woman. The sun, moon and stars are like a setting for Her. She is therefore set apart, far superior to all creation. An evident parallel can be drawn with the book of Proverbs in which divine Wisdom, personified and incarnated in a Woman mysteriously present with God, reveals the mystery of Her conception:

“Yahweh conceived Me at the beginning of His Way, before His works, from all time. From eternity I was consecrated, from the beginning, from the origins of the earth. When the deeps existed not, I was born. When He established the heavens, I was there.” (Pr 8:22-27)

In the Apocalypse of Saint John, another sign follows the appearance of the Woman:

“A huge red Dragon appeared in the sky, with seven heads and ten horns, each head crowned with a diadem. His tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky and threw them to the earth. Standing before the Woman in labour, the Dragon prepared to devour Her Child as soon as it was born.” (Ap 12:3-4)

This is a struggle between the Woman and the Dragon, which marks the fulfilment of the first promise of salvation made to Adam and Eve immediately after the original sin, in God’s sentence to the Serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the Woman, and between your seed and Her seed; She will crush your head while you shall lie in wait for Her heel.” (Gn 3:15)

So this antagonism, this battle between the Woman and “the Dragon, the ancient Serpent, the Devil or Satan” (Ap 12:9) is the thread running through the whole of history, from the first pages of the Bible, Genesis, to the conclusion of the New Testament, the Apocalypse. Saint John shows us this battle as “a sign in the sky,” the same expression used by Our Lord for the signs of the end times preceding His return.

Now the question is, can we know if this concerns the future, or if it has already happened and is being fulfilled?

To find out, we need only take our miraculous medal and look at the image engraved on it. What do we see?

A Woman. She is crushing the head of the Serpent, rays beam from Her hands as if the sun were enveloping Her, and twelve stars crown Her head.

The Good God wanted the Blessed Virgin to reveal Herself to the whole world in this way in 1830, through Saint Catherine Labouré. The thousands of miracles performed by means of this medal are irrefutable proof of the truth of these revelations.

Thus, the Immaculata is indeed that Woman mysteriously present with God from the origins, Who must defeat Satan by establishing the Reign of Her Son on earth, thus preparing His return, as Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort foretold. The Good God has chosen to reveal this in our modern age so that we may become aware of the apocalyptic battle that is unfolding, and so that we may have recourse to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, for Her glory and for our salvation.

During this camp (2025), we will therefore study the great modern apparitions, from those of the Sacred Heart in Paray-le-Monial to those of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Fatima, considering these apparitions “as extraordinary external aids, mysteriously linked to the combats and upheavals of the end times,” as our Father wrote. “The Virgin Mary is the herald of Christ’s return, just as She was of His coming. She is the ultimate sign of mercy, destined to bring back souls in distress and to strengthen the faithful.”●

More than ever, we need to take advantage of this heavenly succour in order to remain faithful.

APOSTASY IN THE CHURCH.

In the Book of the Apocalypse, when the Woman appears in Heaven, the Dragon goes into a rage to devour Her Child. We know that the end times must be marked by the coming of the Antichrist, as a triumph of the Devil, a great apostasy.

To gauge the extent of this diabolical disorientation, one must read the ‘Norms for Proceeding in the Discernment of Alleged Supernatural Phenomena,’ published by the Vatican on May 17, 2024. The general intention of this document is to break with the traditional practice of the Church, which consisted in discerning, in the case of an extraordinary event, whether it is a human invention or a true supernatural manifestation, and then, in the latter case, discerning further whether this supernatural manifestation comes from the Devil or from God. For all kinds of miracles, visions, and apparitions, the Church carried out this discernment according to well-known methods of investigation and interrogation, and then the bishop of the diocese where it took place had to decide whether this extraordinary phenomenon was supernatural or not, whether it came from Heaven or from the Devil.

Well, the Vatican no longer wants to deal with this. The Church will no longer rule on whether a phenomenon is supernatural or not, and as for the possibility that it could be a ruse of Satan, they do not even consider it. At most, they may authorise worship around a shrine, if the fruits for the faithful do not seem too bad!

So, if “false prophets” or “frightening apparitions” come, as Our Lord foretold, or even the Antichrist himself, with “all the deceitfulness of wickedness” as Saint Paul announced, there will be nothing to stand in their way! (2 Th 2:9-11)

And what if the Lord or His Holy Mother decide to come to earth to help Their children in this great apostasy? It is provided that no regard will be shown for Them!

In practical terms, these new norms have made it possible to grant a nihil obstat– which literally means “no obstacle”, we are not opposed – to the diabolical manifestations of Medjugorje, while the true apparitions are discredited and lose all authority. There is no question of imposing anything in the name of these recent revelations, especially not of establishing devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the world, as Our Lady of Fatima demanded, as God’s will! “God wants to establish devotion to My Immaculate Heart in the world.”

This is a very serious matter, because today it is the major obstacle to the fulfilment of God’s will and His reign in the world.

THE ECCLESIASTICAL OBSTACLE TO HEAVENLY INTERVENTIONS.

The infamy of these new norms is the consequence of an evil that has been rampant for a long time, and is becoming increasingly serious, in the Church.

Already, the judges of Saint Joan of Arc had claimed to judge the heavenly revelations to which she bore witness, and condemned her to the stake despite the miracles that proved her divine mission, in the name of their own supposed ecclesiastical authority.

The devotion to the Sacred Heart that Our Lord wanted to establish in the world in the 17^th century met with violent opposition within the Church herself, especially from Pope Benedict XIV. It was he who ordered that only human faith be accorded to ‘private revelations’. The deposit of Revelation made by Our Lord to His Apostles must be believed as the true Catholic Faith, because it is the perfect Revelation, but everything that came after, all other supernatural manifestations, are ‘private’ revelations: we are not obliged to believe them, we have no need of them! It is for theologians to examine whether or not it is ‘appropriate’ for them to be taken into account. This thesis was explicitly cited by Cardinal Fernandez to justify his new Norms: he no longer wants Pastoral Letters from the bishops to lead the faithful to think that “they are justified in believing that an apparition is indubitable and certain”, as was the case for La Salette and Lourdes.

This idea is now widespread throughout the Church, as a pretext for all those who do not want to take into account the messages from Heaven that disturb them. On last October 11 and 12, during the Jubilee of Marian Spirituality, our Holy Father Leo XIV gave two sermons in the presence of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima, which had been brought specially from the Capelinha for the occasion, without making the slightest reference to an apparition of the Blessed Virgin, quoting exclusively from Holy Scripture. He therefore disregards the messages and current will of the Virgin Mary.

Our Father explained● that the use of this distinction between public revelation and private revelations, to the detriment of the latter, “is a rationalist or intellectualist view of things. It is simply a matter of comparing the authority of revelations, in order to conclude that private revelations are so inferior, allegedly, to the revelation of the New Testament, that one is never obliged to believe in them. Poor Jesus, if He goes to the bother of coming again or sending his holy Mother in His stead only to be rejected in such a manner!

“Suddenly I ask a question,” he continued, “an obviously indiscreet and unusual question: does God still have the right, since the time that Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven and since the day of Pentecost, to enter into the life of the Church, of men and of nations, to govern them? Jesus Christ, does He or does He not still have the right to come down and speak to one saint or another, to tell us what we should do in this or that situation pertaining to that time?

“When Heaven exerts all Its authority and provides evidence, miracles that are absolutely compelling to our intelligence, are we – yes or no – obliged to consent to them, under the threat of temporal and eternal punishment and drawn by the mysterious promised rewards? It is true that Revelation ended with the death of the last Apostle, as all theologians know, but in addition, in continuity with it, what of the charge of the world and the Church? What of orthodromy? Has it been abandoned once and for all to men in positions of authority, or is God still free to act?

“Throughout the centuries before, during and after Christ, it seems that men appointed to hold a high office considered themselves to be veritable divine or ecclesiastical authorities, that they organised themselves into aristocratic or technocratic castes: ‘we bishops’, ‘we theologians’, and that they lost their docility to God. They never again appreciated God coming to them exceptionally and made a thousand difficulties and objections before recognising Him. From the moment it begins to go against their whims, their plans, their passions, their collaboration with the powers of the world or with enemies, they no longer engage in discernment, or, if they do, they have to violate all the rules established by the Church, to be able to say that Medjugorje is true and Fatima is false.”

OUR FATHER’S LIBERATING MYSTICAL RESPONSE.

“Here is what should be found in true theology textbooks: the Church must indeed judge private revelations. When there are apparitions, whether in Fatima, Medjugorje or Garabandal, it is the duty of the hierarchy, with its full and sovereign authority, to tell us whether they are true or false apparitions. In this sense, the Church dominates the visionaries and what the seers can do or say. There are two possibilities: either the Church will declare that these are false apparitions, false visions, that the whole thing is a lie, and in that case, the Church has a duty to punish those who believe in them, to do away with these superstitious and sorcerous things, so that we not be lead astray.

“If it is the truth, however, that alters the case. Whether it be Saint Bernadette, Saint Margaret Mary, the dreams of Don Bosco, these private revelations are within the competence of the teaching Church. Guided by the Holy Spirit, the Church says and must say that the facts are true, the messages and miracles come from Heaven, and Heaven is superior to Rome, to episcopal authority. It is Heaven that commands in this case, and what is said, shown and revealed is also the gospel truth. These revelations, although private, are equal in certainty to the apostolic revelation. They must be dealt with, spoken about, made known. Because if the Virgin Mary made the sun turn in the sky to convey a certain message, that message is a divine message that must be taken seriously,” concluded our Father.

It is a question of eternal salvation. If we are truly in the end times, and if the apparitions we are going to study are heavenly succour offered to the faithful of Christ for them to get through the turmoil, then the salvation of our souls, as well as the salvation of the Church and of Christianity, is at stake for each one of us.

During this camp, we will therefore seek to better understand God’s plan, how He has revealed it in recent apparitions, and how these revelations respond to world events, so that we ourselves may better enter into this “plan of mercy of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.”

Brother Bruno de Jesus-Mary