DIVINE MERCY Sunday was last Sunday, yet more should be said about it if only to underscore appeals from Heaven to make Divine Mercy known to all…… soonest, immediately.
Now visualizes in my mind: that 50-foot statue of Jesus Divine Mercy atop a hill facing Macajalar Bay in El Salvador City in Misamis Oriental. There, thousands of people, usually on Divine Mercy Sunday, have seen the sun dance, the statue open its eyes, rainbows rise over it. Photos taken by pilgrims have revealed images of mysterious lights, angels and Jesus Himself.
Construction of the shrine was started by Divine Mercy prayer groups whose members had hesitated about the project for three years despite Divine calls, in various forms, to pursue the project that would cost at least P25 million. For when the group members pooled their resources, they had only P2,000.
But there was urgency in God’s tone. And He made sure the Divine Mercy shrine would rise on a mandate to finish it within a 10-yeardeadline: from 2003 to 2013. Members of the group were told of some urgency to finish their task in El Salvador. As in other supernatural apparitions all over the world in modern times, the tone of urgency.
One of the original devotees of the Divine Mercy shrine is Paqits Adaza who was quoted to have said “Time is short. We were given ten years by the Lord to complete this work. We started in 2003 and we shall end the work in 2012-2013.”
Now the Divine Mercy Shrine stands there in El Salvador as a call for repentance with mercy from God as sure response. The deadline for its construction sounded almost desperate. Something is surely afoot.
Where else to go for meaning of this but to the origin of the Divine Mercy devotion in Krakow, Poland? On 22 February 1931, Jesus appeared to Sr Faustina Kowalska (now a saint) a young Polish nun of the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy, while she was in her convent cell in Krakow. That started a series of apparitions that led to the Divine Mercy devotion that Jesus Himself wanted to be spread all over the world before the descent of Divine Justice.
In her diary, St. Faustina, quoted Jesus as having told her: “Before I come as a just judge, I am coming first as the King of Mercy. Before the day of justice arrives, there will be given to people a sign in the heavens of this sort: All light in the heavens will be extinguished, and there will be great darkness over the whole earth. Then the sign of the cross will be seen in the sky, and from the openings where the hands of feet of the Savior were nailed will come forth great lights which will light up the earth for a period of time. This will take place shortly before the last day.”
Could this also refer to the Warning, the first of three prophecies given by the Blessed Mother in Garabandal, Spain in the 1960’s?
I am convinced that this is so. Let me share some details on the Warning, based on an interview of Garanbandal visionary Conchita Gonzalez in 1968.
Q. We have heard that some say the Warning may be a natural phenomenon but will be used by God to speak to mankind. Is this true?
A. The Warning is something supernatural and will not be explained by science. It will be seen and felt.
Q. Conchita, can you explain the statement that during the Warning we will know ourselves and the sins we have committed?
A. The Warning will be a correction of the conscience of the world.
Q. What about the many people who do not know Christ; how will they understand the Warning?
A. For those who do not know Christ (non-Christian) they will believe it is a Warning from God. Then another interview in 1973, as follows.
Q. What will occur on the day of the Warning?
A. The most important thing about that day is that everyone in the whole world will see a sign, a grace, or a punishment within themselves — in other words a Warning. They will find themselves all alone in the world no matter where they are at the time, alone with their conscience right before God. They will then see all their sins and what their sins have caused.
Q. Will all feel it at the same time?
A. Yes, at the same time.
Q. How long will it last, a half hour, an hour?
A. I really don’t know. I think that five minutes would be an adequate time.
Q. How will we feel it?
A. We will all feel it differently because it will depend on our conscience. The Warning will be very personal; therefore, we will all react differently to it. The most important thing will be to recognize our own sins and the bad consequences of them. You will have a different view of the Warning than me because your sins are different from mine.
Q. Will something happen to me because of my sins? I mean will physical harm come upon me as a result of them?
A. No, unless it’s something that results from the shock, for example, a heart attack.
Q. So then it will bring no physical harm but will consist of facing God alone with my sins. How about the good things; will I see them also?
A. No. This will be only a Warning to see what you have done with your sins. It will be like a purification before the Miracle to see if with the Warning and Miracle we (meaning the whole world) will be converted.
Q. So this Warning can occur any day now?
A. Yes, but I don’t know the date when it will occur.
In Garabandal, the Blessed Mother also said that after the Warning, a Miracle would follow within one year. It could be televised, but not touched and would be understood as being supernatural.
And then, as also prophesied in Krakow, Divine Justice.
