We all stopped in shock last Friday, as Japan went through historic devastation. I, like many others, found time to pray for the Japanese people whose nobility surfaced to the level of the sublime as they lined up with so much patience and dignity for water and food in the areas almost totally flattened by the earthquakes and tsunami.
Amid this, I, like Catholic writer Michael Brown, was puzzled: What to make of alleged visionary Pedro Regis of Anguera, Brazil? The young man has purportedly been receiving prophetical messages from the Blessed Virgin, many of which have spread via Internet even before the prophesied events transpired.
Regis correctly foretold (he claims it was the Blessed Virgin Mary who did) the flood in Madeira, Portugal, the calamity in Haiti, and the huge temblor in Chile.
On March 20 last year, he also quoted the Blessed Mother to have said: “A megaquake will shake Japan and my poor children will weep and lament. Greater pain never existed."
And then again, last Feb. 15, he mentioned last Friday’s incredible calamity in Japan. Web surfers came across his prophecies even before the tragic events.
Regis then quoted the Blessed Virgin as having said: " Akita (Japan) will drink the bitter cup of pain. Bend your knees in prayer. Your victory is in the Lord. Open your hearts and accept my appeals. Now is the time of grace for all of you."
Akita is in the northern region of Japan near the off- shore epicenter of the magnitude 9 earthquake. Although the town itself was not as severely destroyed as other areas, the allusion was clear.
Akita is the same place where the Blessed Virgin appeared to Sister Sasagawa in the 1970’s. The apparition is one of the more recent ones approved by the Vatican as worthy of belief.
There in a chapel in Akita, a wooden statue of the Blessed Mother wept at least 101 times. Samples of the tears were brought to the most sophisticated laboratories in Japan and were found to be authentic human tears. Yet, scientists found no deception in the tears emanating from the wooden statue.
It is important to cite the Akita apparitions amid the breathtaking devastation in northern Japan, for they remind us of the warnings the Blessed Mother issued then. Alas, the warnings pertain to possible events whose tragic magnitude could make last Friday’s devastation in Japan insignificant.
The warnings in Church-approved Akita is so shocking that I feel a foreword must be said: Church authorities stress that legitimate prophecies can be preempted by prayers and a return to God.
That said, let us repeat the words of the Blessed Mother in Akita as relayed to Sister Sasagawa on Oct. 13, 1973, anniversary of the famouns sun miracle in Fatima, Portugal apparitions in 1917:
"My dear daughter, listen well to what I have to say to you. You will inform your superior. As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms that will remain for you will be the Rosary and Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the pope, the bishops, and the priests."
Now it’s up to us.
Amid this, I, like Catholic writer Michael Brown, was puzzled: What to make of alleged visionary Pedro Regis of Anguera, Brazil? The young man has purportedly been receiving prophetical messages from the Blessed Virgin, many of which have spread via Internet even before the prophesied events transpired.
Regis correctly foretold (he claims it was the Blessed Virgin Mary who did) the flood in Madeira, Portugal, the calamity in Haiti, and the huge temblor in Chile.
On March 20 last year, he also quoted the Blessed Mother to have said: “A megaquake will shake Japan and my poor children will weep and lament. Greater pain never existed."
And then again, last Feb. 15, he mentioned last Friday’s incredible calamity in Japan. Web surfers came across his prophecies even before the tragic events.
Regis then quoted the Blessed Virgin as having said: " Akita (Japan) will drink the bitter cup of pain. Bend your knees in prayer. Your victory is in the Lord. Open your hearts and accept my appeals. Now is the time of grace for all of you."
Akita is in the northern region of Japan near the off- shore epicenter of the magnitude 9 earthquake. Although the town itself was not as severely destroyed as other areas, the allusion was clear.
Akita is the same place where the Blessed Virgin appeared to Sister Sasagawa in the 1970’s. The apparition is one of the more recent ones approved by the Vatican as worthy of belief.
There in a chapel in Akita, a wooden statue of the Blessed Mother wept at least 101 times. Samples of the tears were brought to the most sophisticated laboratories in Japan and were found to be authentic human tears. Yet, scientists found no deception in the tears emanating from the wooden statue.
It is important to cite the Akita apparitions amid the breathtaking devastation in northern Japan, for they remind us of the warnings the Blessed Mother issued then. Alas, the warnings pertain to possible events whose tragic magnitude could make last Friday’s devastation in Japan insignificant.
The warnings in Church-approved Akita is so shocking that I feel a foreword must be said: Church authorities stress that legitimate prophecies can be preempted by prayers and a return to God.
That said, let us repeat the words of the Blessed Mother in Akita as relayed to Sister Sasagawa on Oct. 13, 1973, anniversary of the famouns sun miracle in Fatima, Portugal apparitions in 1917:
"My dear daughter, listen well to what I have to say to you. You will inform your superior. As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms that will remain for you will be the Rosary and Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the pope, the bishops, and the priests."
Now it’s up to us.
