The following Timeline is based on the Early Church Fathers' interpretation of the Book of Revelation as it was handed on to them, and thus, their straight reading of Chapters 19-21. This is complimented by the magisterial teachings of the popes, the approved apparitions of Fatima, and supplemented by the "prophetic consensus" of various credible seers throughout the world.

Jesus gave a beautiful analogy that applies wonderfully to our times:

When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. (John 16:21-22)

It is easy for a laboring mother to get caught up in the pain of the moment, the agonizing contractions that immediately precede the birth. Likewise, it is easy for "Mother Church" to become pre-occupied with the hard labor of present and coming cataclysms, persecution, and uncertainty. While we won't water down here what Our Lord himself warned was coming (because He wanted us to be prepared, not afraid), neither do we want the reader to ever lose focus upon where we are headed. Ultimately, that is Heaven; but before then, Scripture and Heaven's Messages, through chosen seers and visionaries, speak of a coming Era of Peace, the "birth" of the entire People of God when swords shall be beat into ploughshares, the wolf shall lie down with the lamb... and a "period of peace" will reign over the entire earth, from coast to coast. As Cardinal Mario Luigi Ciappi, papal theologian for Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, and St. John Paul II said:

Yes, a miracle was promised at Fatima, the greatest miracle in the history of the world, second only to the Resurrection. And that miracle will be an era of peace, which has never really been granted before to the world. —October 9th, 1994, The Apostolate’s Family Catechism, p. 35

This Timeline is filled with the reality of many sorrows but also victories, joys, and ultimately, peace. That is because, what you are about to read, is the Passion of the Church that finds its end, not in death, but a new resurrection. Since it is the mother of the Church, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the "Woman clothed in the sun who labors to give birth,"^[1]Rev 12:1 let us take her hand and ask her to walk with us through this Timeline: to teach, console, and prepare us, not as mere observers, but as holy combatants in the greatest battle in human history.

Then the legion of little souls, victims of merciful Love, will become as numerous ‘as the stars of heaven and the sands of the seashore’. It will be terrible to Satan; it will help the Blessed Virgin to crush his proud head completely. —St. Thérése of Lisieux, The Legion of Mary Handbook, p. 256-257

The Great Storm

The essential thing to understand is that this phase of human history is man "reaping what he has sown."

When they sow the wind, they shall reap the whirlwind. (Hos 8:7)

Several mystics have spoken of this time of great tribulation that is coming over the earth and compared it to a storm like a hurricane. 

…you are entering into the decisive times, times for which I have been preparing you for many years. How many will be swept away by the terrible hurricane which has already hurled itself upon humanity. This is the time of the great trial; this is my time, O children consecrated to my Immaculate Heart. —Our Lady to Fr. Stefano Gobbi, Feb. 2nd, 1994; with Imprimatur Bishop Donald Montrose

You know, my little one, the elect will have to fight against the Prince of Darkness. It will be a terrible storm. Rather, it will be a hurricane which will want to destroy the faith and confidence of even the elect. In this terrible turmoil currently brewing up, you will see the brightness of my Flame of Love illuminating Heaven and earth by the effusion of its effect of grace I am passing on to souls in this dark night. —Our Lady to Elizabeth Kindelmann, The Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary: The Spiritual Diary (Kindle Locations 2994-2997); Imprimatur by Cardinal Péter Erdö

Indeed, even Scripture uses this metaphor to describe a coming purification of the earth through a Great Storm:

…a mighty wind will rise against them, and like a tempest, it will winnow them away. Lawlessness will lay waste the whole earth, and evil-doing will overturn the thrones of rulers. (Wis 5:23)

Look, the Lord’s hurricane, his wrath, bursts out, a fearsome hurricane, to burst on the heads of the wicked. The Lord’s wrath will not turn back until he has done and achieved his purpose. In the final days, you will understand this clearly. (Jeremiah 23:19-20; The Revised New Jerusalem Bible, Study Edition [Henry Wansbrough, Random House])

Another analogy that both Jesus and St. Paul use are “labor pains.” Jesus described them as such:

Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky… all this is but the beginning of the birth-pangs… And then many will fall away, and betray one another, and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. (Luke 21:10-11, Matt 24:8, 10-11)

Thus, the first half of this Storm, while permitted as God's loving "discipline" in this Time of Mercy, is not the same as direct chastisements from Heaven, per se, but man essentially "doing it to himself" (in the same way a loving parent will allow a persistent child to "touch the stove" briefly to warn them of the danger):

God will send two punishments: one will be in the form of wars, revolutions, and other evils; it shall originate on earth. The other will be sent from Heaven. —Blessed Anna Maria Taigi, Catholic Prophecy, P. 76

This was predicted also in the approved apparitions at Fatima:

[Russia] will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. —from the Third Secret of Fatima, The Message of Fatima, vatican.va

From the papacy's perspective, these are not mere clashes of the human will, but a long diabolical plan rooted in "secret societies" to overthrow the present order:

At this period, however, the partisans of evil seems to be combining together, and to be struggling with united vehemence, led on or assisted by that strongly organized and widespread association called the Freemasons. No longer making any secret of their purposes, they are now boldly rising up against God Himself …that which is their ultimate purpose forces itself into view—namely, the utter overthrow of that whole religious and political order of the world which the Christian teaching has produced, and the substitution of a new state of things in accordance with their ideas, of which the foundations and laws shall be drawn from mere naturalism. —POPE LEO XIII, Humanum Genus, Encyclical on Freemasonry, n.10, April 20th, 1884

It is...

…the spirit of revolutionary change which has long been disturbing the nations of the world… —POPE LEO XIII, Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum: loc. cit., 97.

Finally, St. John refers to these upheavals as being contained in “seals” to be opened by the “Lamb who was slain”...

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The labour pains begin with the First Seal:

Then I watched while the Lamb broke open the first of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures cry out in a voice like thunder, “Come forward.” I looked, and there was a white horse, and its rider had a bow. He was given a crown, and he rode forth victorious to further his victories. (6:1-2)

This Rider, according to Sacred Tradition, is the Lord Himself.

He is Jesus Christ. The inspired evangelist [St. John] not only saw the devastation brought about by sin, war, hunger and death; he also saw, in the first place, the victory of Christ.—POPE PIUS XII, Address, November 15, 1946; footnote of The Navarre Bible, “Revelation”, p.70

In the Haydock Catholic Bible Commentary (1859) following the Douay-Rheims Latin-English translation, it says:

A white horse, such as conquerors used to ride upon at a solemn triumph. This is commonly understood as our Saviour, Christ, who, by himself and by his apostles, preachers, martyrs, and other saints, triumphed over all the adversaries of His Church. He had a bow in his hand, the doctrine of the gospel, piercing like an arrow the hearts of the hearers; and the crown given him, was a token of the victory of him who went forth conquering, that he might conquer... The other horses that follow represent the judgments and punishment, that were to fall on the enemies of Christ and his Church...

In 1917 at Fatima, the three children saw an angel with a “flaming sword” about to strike the earth… but then our Blessed Mother appeared, and the light emanating from her (that is, her intercession) stopped the angel, who then cried out “Penance, penance, penance!” With that, the world entered into a definitive "time of mercy." St. Faustina writes several years later:

I saw the Lord Jesus, like a king in great majesty, looking down upon our earth with great severity; but because of His Mother’s intercession He prolonged the time of His mercy… [Jesus said:] I have eternity for punishing [these], and so I am prolonging the time of mercy for the sake of [sinners]. But woe to them if they do not recognize this time of My visitation... Let the greatest sinners place their trust in My Mercy… Write: before I come as a just Judge, I first open wide the door of My mercy. He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice... —Divine Mercy in My Soul, Diary of St. Faustina, n. 1160, 1261, 1146

…hear the voice of the Spirit speaking to the whole Church of our time, which is the time of mercy. —POPE FRANCIS, Vatican City, March 6th, 2014, vatican.va

Hence, the most significant "victories" are those through the outpouring of Divine Mercy as the Lord seeks to gather as many souls as possible through the door of Mercy. Moreover, we have seen the spread of Marian devotion and Our Lady’s continued presence in her apparitions, the fruits of the Charismatic Renewal, which has been blessed by four popes, the birth of thousands of lay apostolates, the new apologetics movement led in large part by Mother Angelica’s world-wide EWTN, the powerful pontificate of John Paul II that gave us the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the “Theology of the Body” and, most notably, an army of young authentic witnesses through his World Youth Days.

The first seal being opened, [St. John] says that he saw a white horse, and a crowned horseman having a bow… He sent the Holy Spirit, whose words the preachers sent forth as arrows reaching to the human heart, that they might overcome unbelief. —St. Victorinus, Commentary on the Apocalypse, Ch. 6:1-2

However, in these “end times,” there is another notable revelation closely related to Divine Mercy that ties into St. John’s imagery of this rider wearing a crown (see The Divine Footnotes). And that is the message of the "gift of living in the Divine Will" —the "the crown and completion of all the other sanctities" — imparted by Jesus to Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta. As the Navarre Bible Commentary says of this rider upon the white horse:

The colour white is symbolic of belonging to the heavenly sphere and of having won victory with God's help. The crown he is given... would refer to the victory of good over evil; and the bow indicates the connection between this horse and the other three: these latter will be, as it were, arrows loosed from a distance to implement God's plans. —The Book of Revelation, p. 70

In other words, the victories of the Divine Mercy and Divine Will come from a long way off and are ultimately brought to fruition through the "labor pains" of the following seals. Jesus's revelations to Luisa also relate to the King and the coming of His "Kingdom of the Divine Will," which will reign “on earth as it is in heaven.” She frequently refers to the knowledge of the Divine Will as the "darts" and "arrows" of Christ, such as in this beautiful appeal for His reign to come:

O Holy Will, may your luminous rays unleash the arrows of your knowledge! Reveal to all your desire to come and make us happy—not with a purely human happiness, but with a divine one—to give us the self-mastery we once possessed, but that we had lost, and the interior light that reveals to us the true blessing we receive in possessing your Will, as it renders us stable and strong with a divine strength and stability, and the true evil that comes from rejecting it... Wherefore I beseech you to write through my hand all the knowledge you have revealed to me on your Divine Will. May every word, expression, effect and knowledge that derives from it, be to those who read, loving darts and arrows that, wounding them, may make them fall at your feet to receive you with open arms and allow you to reign in their hearts. —Servant of God Luisa Piccaretta from The Daughter's Appeal

Your game is to form loving arrows, darts and javelins and, with these, pierce their hearts, which causes You to rejoice. —from Divine Will Prayer Book, 24 Hours of the Passion, p. 325-326

However, for those who are unrepentant, God's darts of love become arrows of justice:

If one does not repent, God sharpens his sword, strings and readies the bow, prepares his deadly shafts, makes arrows blazing thunderbolts. (Psalm 7:13-14)

In that light, it is the Lord at the head of the Storm through the breaking of the First Seal, claiming ”victories” for the formation and preparation of a remnant to pass through to the other side of purification, as did Noah and his family.

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When he broke open the second seal, I heard the second living creature cry out, “Come forward.” Another horse came out, a red one. Its rider was given power to take peace away from the earth, so that people would slaughter one another. And he was given a huge sword. (Rev 6:3-4)

The Second Seal is an event or series of events that, according to St. John, “take peace away from the earth, so that people would slaughter one another.” Consider the events of 911 and what followed. Pope John Paul II strongly warned that America should not resort to war, as did the U.S. Bishop's Conference:

With the Holy See and bishops from the Middle East and around the world, we fear that resort to war, under present circumstances and in light of current public information, would not meet the strict conditions in Catholic teaching for overriding the strong presumption against the use of military force. —Statement on Iraq, November 13th, 2002, USCCB

That war is estimated to have killed over a million people.^[1]per the 2007 Opinion Research Business (ORB) survey In the vacuum of the aftermath, the terrorist groups al Qaeda and eventually ISIS rose to power producing an endless "war on terrorism." This has likewise generated countless deaths worldwide as various countries, especially in the Middle East, have been plunged into war, terrorist cells and attacks have multiplied, Christians have been driven out of their homes and lands and their churches burned, millions of refugees have flooded and destabilized Western nations, while basic freedoms are increasingly being infringed upon in the name of "security." In other words, it plunged the entire world into war:

What has struck me recently—and I think a lot about it—is that up until now, in schools we are taught about the two world wars. But the one that has just now broken out, I believe, should also be described as a ‘world war,’ because its impact really touches the whole world. —Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, POPE JOHN PAUL II’s envoy to Iraq; Catholic News, March 24rd, 2003

War is madness… even today, after the second failure of another world war, perhaps one can speak of a Third War, one fought piecemeal, with crimes, massacres, destruction… Humanity needs to weep, and this is the time to weep. —POPE FRANCIS, September 13th, 2015; BBC.com

[Footnote: If the Second Seal is a sword to take peace from the earth, one cannot help but reflect on the origins of Covid-19, the "coronavirus." While some scientists in the UK assert that Covid-19 came from natural origins,^[2]nature.com a new paper from South China’s University of Technology claims ‘the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan.'^[3]Feb. 16th, 2020; dailymail.co.uk In early February 2020, Dr. Francis Boyle, who drafted the U.S. “Biological Weapons Act”, gave a detailed statement admitting that the 2019 Wuhan Coronavirus is an offensive Biological Warfare Weapon and that the World Health Organization (WHO) already knows about it.^[4]zerohedge.com An Israeli biological warfare analyst said much the same.^[5]Jan. 26th, 2020; washingtontimes.com Professor Luc Montagnier, 2008 Nobel Prize winner for Medicine and the man who discovered the HIV virus in 1983, claims that SARS-CoV-2 is a manipulated virus that was accidentally released from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.^[6]gilmorehealth.com Whether Covid-19 is a bio-weapon or natural in origin, a valid question arises: was this virus released from a laboratory as a planned event to bring down the world economy? And why does the Denver, Colorado airport, of all places (known for its apocalyptic art), feature a soldier with a sword killing the "peace dove" while the dead lay around him—and he is in a respirator mask?]

That said, according to several seers, there is yet a large-scale war to come. These preceding events, though they have “unsheathed” the sword, may only be precursors to an all out Third World War.

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When he broke open the third seal, I heard the third living creature cry out, “Come forward.” I looked, and there was a black horse, and its rider held a scale in his hand. I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures. It said, “A ration of wheat costs a day’s pay, and three rations of barley cost a day’s pay. But do not damage the olive oil or the wine.” (Rev 6:5-6)

Very simply, this seal speaks of hyper-inflation due to a collapse of the currency — and that collapse has arguably begun. What we are seeing unfold around the world is inflation as a result of the enormous damage to the global supply chains due to lockdowns and "vaccine" mandates that are destroying careers and businesses. The end result is that fuel, supplies, and food are beginning to skyrocket in prices...

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When he broke open the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature cry out, “Come forward.” I looked, and there was a pale green horse. Its rider was named Death, and Hades accompanied him. They were given authority over a quarter of the earth, to kill with sword, famine, and plague, and by means of the beasts of the earth. (Rev 6:7-8)

The global revolution set off by violence, economic collapse, and chaos leads to massive deaths by the “sword, famine, and plague.” More than one virus, whether it’s Ebola, Avian Flu, the Black Plague, H1NI, Covid-19 or “superbugs” emerging at the end of this antibiotic era, are poised to spread worldwide as global pandemics have been expected for some time now. Pope John Paul II seemed to anticipate this hour in 2003:

I have been personally struck by the feeling of fear which often dwells in the hearts of our contemporaries. An insidious terrorism capable of striking at any time and anywhere; the unresolved problem of the Middle East, with the Holy Land and Iraq; the turmoil disrupting South America, particularly Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela; the conflicts preventing numerous African countries from focusing on their development; the diseases spreading contagion and death; the grave problem of famine, especially in Africa [and now locusts!]; the irresponsible behaviour contributing to the depletion of the planet’s resources: all these are so many plagues threatening the survival of humanity, the peace of individuals and the security of societies. —Address to the Diplomatic Corp, January 13th, 2003; vatican.va

Famine is the result of economic collapse and the collapse of the food supply chain. This is only compounded by the "sword"—violence between individuals and nations—that facilitates the rapid spread of disease.

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There have been major “before” and “after” events in biblical history that have changed the course of human life on Earth. The first came with the fall, when the paradisaical garden of Eden faded into a world of struggle and shame. After many generations, the deluge washed away the Earth’s sin, leaving only one righteous family and pairs of animals to repopulate the land. Then the long-awaited and greatest of all events occurred, the Incarnation, markedly changing the course of mankind. God became human to save His people, and through His death and Resurrection, broke open the gates of heaven, giving to all who choose it a future even more glorious than the Eden they lost.

Today, another momentous change may be upon us in the near future, and the vast majority of people know nothing of it. This event has been given many titles by saints and holy people, including the Mother of God. They have called it the Warning, the Illumination of Conscience, the Illumination of All Souls, the Illumination of All Consciences, the Second Pentecost, the New Pentecost, the Minor Judgment, the Merciful Pre-judgment, and the Great Day of Light.

What is this event? It is a watershed moment in time when all light from the sun will be extinguished and a thick darkness will blanket the entire world. Then a brilliant light, much like two stars colliding, will appear in the sky, leaving behind it a sign of Jesus Christ, triumphant on the cross, visible to all in His glory. From the holes of the wounds in His body, bright rays will shine forth, lighting up the Earth—and at the same time, pierce every soul, illuminating everyone’s conscience. All will see their past sins and the consequences of those sins, whether or not they believe in the existence of God.

The Warning will be the greatest act of mercy for mankind since Jesus came to Earth. It will be both global and intimately personal. It will be a correction of conscience for a world gone astray. (Taken from the Introduction of the book: The Warning: Testimonies and Prophecies of the Illumination of Conscience.)

The Warning

The first five seals bring the Church and the world to a point of both preparation and anarchy. For the closer one gets to the eye of a hurricane, the more fierce and violent the winds become, until one reaches their climax at the eye wall.

The Sixth Seal:

Then I watched while he broke open the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; the sun turned as black as dark sackcloth and the whole moon became like blood. The stars in the sky fell to the earth like unripe figs shaken loose from the tree in a strong wind. Then the sky was divided like a torn scroll curling up, and every mountain and island was moved from its place. The kings of the earth, the nobles, the military officers, the rich, the powerful, and every slave and free person hid themselves in caves and among mountain crags. They cried out to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of their wrath has come and who can withstand it?” (Rev 6:12-17)

The Sixth Seal is broken—a global earthquake, a Great Shaking occurs as the heavens are peeled back, and the judgment of God is perceived in everyone’s soul, whether kings or generals, rich or poor. What did they see that caused them to cry out to the mountains and rocks?

Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand before it? (Rev 6:15-17)

If you go back one chapter, you’ll find St. John’s description of this Lamb:

I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain… (Rev 5:6)

That is, it is Christ crucified. This incredible sight accompanied by an interior light will cause the earth's inhabitants to collectively feel as if they have entered their own particular judgment (hence the sense of "wrath"). It’s a warning that the world has arrived at the threshold of the Day of the Lord.

Before I come as the 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 and the 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. —Jesus to St. Faustina, Diary of Divine Mercy, Diary, n. 83

Here it would be fitting to include the vision of the Warning by American seer Jennifer to whom Jesus allegedly said, “My child, you are the extension of My message of Divine Mercy":

The sky is dark and it seems as though it is night but my heart tells me it is sometime in the afternoon. I see the sky opening up and I can hear long, drawn out claps of thunder. When I look up I see Jesus bleeding on the cross and people are falling to their knees. Jesus then tells me, “They will see their soul as I see it.” I can see the wounds so clearly on Jesus and then He says, “They will see each wound they have added to My Most Sacred Heart.” To the left, I see the Blessed Mother weeping and then Jesus speaks to me again and says, “Prepare, prepare now for the time is soon approaching. My child, pray for the many souls who will perish because of their selfish and sinful ways.” As I look up, I see the drops of blood falling from Jesus and hitting the earth. I see millions of people from nations from all lands. Many seemed confused as they were looking up toward the sky. Jesus says, “They are in search of light for it should not be a time of darkness, yet it is the darkness of sin that covers this earth and the only light will be that of which I come with, for mankind does not realize the awakening that is about to be bestowed upon him. This will be the greatest purification since the beginning of creation."

Other prophets have foretold of the Warning. As early as the 1500s, St. Edmund Campion declared:

I pronounced a great day… wherein the terrible  Judge should reveal all men’s consciences and try every man of each kind of religion. This is the day of change, this is the Great Day which I threatened, comfortable to the well-being, and terrible to all heretics. —Cobett’s Complete Collection of State Trials, Vol. I, p. 1063

His words were echoed in what Servant of God Maria Esperanza would later say:

The consciences of these beloved people must be violently shaken so that they may “put their house in order”… A great moment is approaching, a great day of light… it is the hour of decision for mankind. —Antichrist and the End Times, Fr. Joseph Iannuzzi, P. 37

It is the moment when many prodigal sons and daughters, seeing themselves up to their knees in the "pig-slop of sin," will have the opportunity to return to the Father's house and pass through the "door of mercy" before it begins to close. God the Father will give even the most hardened sinner the best opportunity possible to repent so that He kiss them, wrap His arms around them in love and clothe them in dignity.

For a short time after the Warning, Satan will be kept at bay so that people can make a completely free choice, unencumbered by temptation—a choice for or against God. It is a grace merited through the intercession of the Blessed Mother who, having united her own suffering to Christ's, brings to fulfillment St. Luke's prophecy:

...you yourself a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. (Luke 2:35)

St. Faustina Kowalska, and many other souls, have experienced such a personal illumination of their conscience—people who were suddenly swept into seeing a life review and the state of their souls against their will (see The Warning: Testimonies and Prophecies of the Illumination of Conscience). In her Diary, St. Faustina wrote:

Suddenly I saw the complete condition of my soul as God sees it. I could clearly see all that is displeasing to God. I did not know that even the smallest transgressions will have to be accounted for. What a moment! Who can describe it? To stand before the Thrice-Holy-God! —Divine Mercy in My Soul, Diary, n.36

As such, this collective, universal Illumination is an opportunity for individual souls, suddenly immersed in the light of truth, to either choose God and follow His Divine Will—or to reject it. Hence, immediately after the Warning, the final seal is broken...

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With the breaking of the Sixth Seal and the universal Illumination of Conscience, mankind will have come to the Eye of the Storm: a pause in the chaos; a cease of the destructive winds, and a flood of divine light in the midst of great darkness. Of the Seventh Seal, St. John writes:

When he broke open the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. (Rev 8:1)

It is the hour of decision. According to mystics, God will grant a Reprieve—some mystics say only weeks—when the devil will be restrained or "blinded", and people will have complete freedom to choose or reject God.

To overcome the tremendous effects of generations of sin, I must send the power to break through and transform the world. But this surge of power will be uncomfortable, even painful for some. This will cause the contrast between darkness and light to become even greater. —God the Father allegedly to Barbara Rose Centilli, February 16th, 1998, The Miracle of the Illumination of Conscience by Dr. Thomas W. Petrisko, p. 53

According to mystic and exorcist, Fr. Michel Rodgrigue, this grace will result in a powerful time of healing and deliverance:

After the Illumination of Conscience, another unparalleled gift will be granted to humanity: a period of repentance lasting about six and a half weeks, when the devil will not have the power to act. This means that everyone will have their complete free will to make a decision for or against the Lord. The devil will not bind a person’s will and fight against him or her. The Lord will calm everyone’s passions and appease their desires. He will heal everyone from the distortion of their senses, so after this Pentecost, all will feel that their entire bodies are in harmony with Him.

This "unparalleled gift," according to the approved revelations to Elizabeth Kindelmann, is the "Flame of Love" of Our Lady's Immaculate Heart.

The Lord Jesus... spoke to me at length about the time of grace and the Spirit of Love quite comparable to the first Pentecost, flooding the earth with its power. That will be the great miracle drawing the attention of all humanity. All that is the effusion of the effect of grace of the Blessed Virgin’s Flame of Love. The earth has been covered in darkness because of the lack of faith in the soul of humanity and therefore will experience a great jolt. Following that, people will believe... "nothing like it has happened ever since the Word became Flesh.” —Elizabeth Kindelmann, The Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary: The Spiritual Diary (Kindle Edition, Loc. 2898-2899); approved in 2009 by Cardinal Péter Erdö Cardinal, Primate and Archbishop. Note: Pope Francis gave his Apostolic Blessing upon the Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Movement on June 19th, 2013

It is a light which will blind Satan:

The soft light of my Flame of Love will light up spreading fire over the entire surface of the earth, humiliating Satan rendering him powerless, completely disabled. Do not contribute to prolong the pains of childbirth. —Our Lady to Elizabeth Kindelmann, Ibid., p. 177

This "exorcism of the dragon" is what the Church has been praying for since Pope Leo XIII composed his prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, which is still recited after Mass in a few places. We see this scene in Revelation 12 as Satan attacks the Woman clothed in the sun who is labouring for this birthing of her Son in souls:

War broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. The dragon and its angels fought back, but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it. (Rev 12:7-9)

"Heaven" here can be understood as both the "spiritual domain" over the earth (as in heavens) but especially the Church. As St. Gregory writes:

Heaven is the Church, which in the night of this present life, the while it possesses in itself the countless virtues of the saints, shines like the radiant heavenly stars; but the dragon's tail sweeps the stars down to the earth (Rev 12:4).... The stars which fall from heaven are those who have lost hope in heavenly things and covet, under the devil's guidance, the sphere of earthly glory. —Moralia, 32, 13; The Navarre Bible; see also When the Stars Fall by Mark Mallett

Hence, this is a purification and "exorcism" of Satan primarily from the Church. This spiritual clash takes place shortly before the rise of the Antichrist. It brings to particular fruition the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart as it establishes, at first, the reign of the Kingdom of the Divine Will within the hearts of the faithful.

The Holy Spirit will come to establish the glorious reign of Christ and it will be a reign of grace, of holiness, of love, of justice and of peace. With His divine love, He will open the doors of hearts and illuminate all consciences. Every person will see himself in the burning fire of divine truth. It will be like a judgment in miniature. And then Jesus Christ will bring His glorious reign in the world. —Fr. Stefano Gobbi, To the Priests, Our Lady’s Beloved Sons, May 22nd, 1988 (with Imprimatur)

Hence, St. John writes that the faithful exclaim:

Now have salvation and power come, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Anointed. For the accuser of our brothers is cast out, who accuses them before our God day and night. They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; love for life did not deter them from death. Therefore, rejoice, you heavens, and you who dwell in them. But woe to you, earth and sea, for the Devil has come down to you in great fury, for he knows he has but a short time. (Rev 12:10-12)

In other words, the Reprieve is short; the Eye of the Storm is passing over and the last half of the Great Storm comes quickly.

Then I saw another angel ascend from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, “Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” (Revelation 7:2)

The angel ascends from "the rising of the sun", a biblical foreshadowing that the pre-dawn of the Day of the Lord has arrived, rising like the "morning star" in the hearts of the faithful. According to Fr. Michel, the first two and a half weeks after the Warning, in particular, will be extremely important because the devil will not return at that time, but people’s habits will, and they will then be harder to convert. All who have received the desire for the Lord, the sense that they need His salvation, will be marked on their forehead with a luminous cross (invisible to the human eye) by their guardian angel.” ^[1]From The Warning, p. 283 This is why Our Lady has been pleading with the faithful remnant to prepare for this time by their prayers and fasting so that they may be "apostles of love" in this momentous hour, welcoming the prodigals back into God's fold.

But before the eyewall of the Storm hits again, God is going to make one "last effort" to convince the unrepentant before the Door of Justice opens... it is a visible sign that God exists.

The Miracles

It has been prophesied that sometimes after the Warning, great miracles, likely very similar in nature, will appear in three Marian apparition sites, perhaps more. The ones revealed to us at least will be in Garabandal, Spain; Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina; and in Mexico City on the tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

In Garabandal:

Many details have been given to the visionaries of Garabandal regarding the exact nature of the miracle there. They say it will come directly from God and leave no doubt of its divine nature. It will appear where Our Lady’s apparitions began, at “the pines,” and be visible to all in the village of Garabandal and the surrounding mountains. The miracle will be able to be televised, photographed, and touched, but not felt. In its presence, the sick will be cured, the incredulous will believe, and many sinners will be converted. It will occur on a Thursday evening at 8:30 p.m. (in Spain’s time zone) on the Feast Day of a young male martyr of the Eucharist who is not Spanish, between the 8th and 16th of the months of March, April, or May, within a year of the Warning, and coincide with a great and rare event in the Church. The visionary, Conchita, will reveal news of the sign to the world eight days in advance of its appearance, and it will remain until the end of time.

In Mexico City:

In a message of September 25, 2017, Jesus said to the visionary, Luz de Maria de Bonilla: “Pray, My children, pray for Mexico, land of My Mother, where she is alive and palpitating, where at her feet, men of peace and goodwill must grow. My Mother, in the invocation of Guadalupe, is the Woman Clothed with the Sun. She is the Mother of these last days. She contains the balm for the culmination of humanity's purification. The tilma, on which My Mother is to be found, will be a sign for humanity, with a great manifestation that My people are not expecting and which will surprise the whole of humanity. It will be visible to all and corroborated by science.

In Medjugorje:

The third secret of Medjugorje (out of ten secrets to be revealed) will be a permanent, beautiful and indestructible sign, and all who come to Medjugorje will be able to see it on Apparition Hill, where Our Lady first appeared there. Our Lady said of the miracle, “Hurry and convert yourselves. When the promised sign on the hill will be given, it will be too late.” Another time, she also said, “And even after I’ve left this sign on the hill, which I have promised to you, many will not believe. They will come to the hill, they will kneel, but they won’t believe.” (Medjugorje message of July 19, 1981) After the permanent sign, there will be little time for conversion. The Medjugorje visionary, Vicka, who was shown the sign in a vision, said in an interview with Padre Livio on January 2, 2008 on Radio Maria, “It is given, above all, for those people who are still far away from God. The Madonna wishes to give these people who will see the sign a chance to believe in God.”

After the Miracles, the light begins to fade, the Eye of the Storm passes, and the winds begin to violently blow again, at first, spiritually in a powerful deception that will gather those who refused the grace of the Illumination into the Kingdom of darkness, of the Antichrist:

...the one whose coming springs from the power of Satan in every mighty deed and in pretended signs and wonders, and in every wicked deceit for those who are perishing because they have not accepted the love of truth so that they may be saved. Therefore, God is sending them a deceiving power so that they may believe the lie, that all who have not believed the truth but have approved wrongdoing may be condemned. (2 Thess 2:9-11)

Watch:

Listen:

In the Divine Liturgy of the Eastern rites, there is a moment when the deacon cries out, "The doors, the doors! In Wisdom, let us be attentive!" In ancient times, those who were not baptized were made to leave the sanctuary, and the doors of the church were closed and locked. The Creed and the Eucharist to follow both represented Communion and the communion of restored humanity.^[1]cf. "In Wisdom Be Attentive" by Henry Karlson, June 18, 2009

This is a powerful symbol of the divine doors that hover over the Eye of the Storm...

The Door of Mercy

Our Timeline starts with the "time of mercy" that Jesus announced to St. Faustina:

Before I come as a just Judge, I first open wide the door of My mercy. He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice... I am prolonging the time of mercy for the sake of [sinners]. —Divine Mercy in My Soul, Diary, Jesus to St. Faustina, n. 1146

This opening of the "door of mercy" before the breaking of the seals is seen in St. John's Revelation when he is taken up to Heaven through an open door:

After this I had a vision of an open door to heaven, and I heard the trumpet-like voice that had spoken to me before, saying, “Come up here and I will show you what must happen afterwards.” (Rev 4:1)

It is the Door of Mercy, for within it, St. John sees "a Lamb that seemed to have been slain" (Rev 5:6). That is, Jesus Christ risen, yet bearing His sacred wounds—this Lamb who will manifest himself in the Sixth Seal when...

...every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. All the peoples of the earth will lament him. (Rev 1:7)

"From the wounds in Jesus’ hands, feet, and side, bright rays of love and mercy will fall onto the entire Earth, and everything will stop," says mystic Fr. Michel Rodrigue . "The shining rays from Jesus’ wounds will pierce every heart, like tongues of fire, and we will see ourselves as if in a mirror in front of us." That which causes the "lament," Jesus revealed to the seer Jennifer , is not the sight of His wounds, "it is the depth of the soul knowing that he has placed them there. It is not the sight of My wounds bleeding that causes their suffering; it is knowing that man’s rejection of Me has caused My wounds to bleed.” ^[2]see Jennifer - Vision of the Warning

While God's "mercy endures forever" (Ps 107:1), the "time" of mercy does not. This Warning is God's final gift to mankind before He, the Creator of the universe, exercises His divine right to bring the plan of salvation to fulfillment and His creation to the purpose for which it was brought into being—and to judge those who oppose that.

But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard “delay,” but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief... (2 Peter 2:8-10)

What comes "like a thief" is the Warning. It heralds the arrival of the "day of the Lord". St. John records the lament that echoes through the world:

They cried out to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of their wrath has come and who can withstand it?” (Rev 6:16-17)

With that, the Door of Justice opens... and the Door of Mercy begins to close. According to Fr. Michel Rodrigue , mankind will be given only weeks before the Eye of the Storm passes over. "It is the hour of decision for mankind," declared Servant of God Maria Esperanza.^[3]Antichrist and the End Times, Rev. Joseph Iannuzzi, p. 37 It is the "Great Day", said St. Edmund Campion...

...wherein the terrible Judge should reveal all men’s consciences and try every man of each kind of religion. This is the day of change, this is the Great Day which I threatened, comfortable to the well-being, and terrible to all heretics.  —Cobett’s Complete Collection of State Trials…, Vol. I,  p. 1063.

Foreshadowing this "opening wide" of the Door of Mercy that is "more spacious at the end of a millennium," and the choice that must be made to pass through it or not, was St. John Paul II's Great Jubilee solemnity. He pushed open St. Peter's massive doors, prophetically pointing to "the wellspring of life and hope for the coming Third Millennium":

There is only one way that opens wide the entrance into the life of communion with God: this is Jesus, the one and absolute way to salvation. To him alone can the words of the Psalmist be applied in full truth: “This is the door of the Lord where the just may enter” (Ps 118:20). —Incarnationus Mysterium, Bull of Indiction of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, n. 8

Moreover, St. John Paul passed through the doors on Christmas Eve, the night that Christ was born.

For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night. (1 Thessalonians 5:2)

Those who have prepared for the Warning, like the wise virgins (and those who repent and come back to the Father's House), will receive the Gift of the Flame of Love, "which is Jesus Christ himself." ^[4]Jesus to Elizabeth Kindelmann, The Flame of Love, p. 38; from Elizabeth Kindelmann’s diary; 1962; Imprimatur Archbishop Charles Chaput As for the rest who remain unrepentant, "He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice."

The Threshold of Hope

Now, one can see why the words we began with are so important: "Wisdom, let us be attentive!" Let us be attentive to the "signs of the times"! Let us be attentive to the state of our souls! Let us be attentive to the words of prophecy unfolding before our eyes! Let us be like the wise virgins and prepare.^[5]see Our Lady: Prepare - Part I In Wisdom, let us be attentive!

In the revelations to Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta , Jesus said that, in order to prepare for the Kingdom of the Divine Will, one must be "Be faithful and attentive." ^[6]Vol. 15, February 13th, 1923 For just as those who are "unbaptized" cannot remain in the sanctuary for the rest of the Divine Liturgy, so too, those who refuse Christ's Mercy cannot enter into the Eucharistic reign and "the communion of restored humanity" that will come about in the Era of Peace.

Then the door was locked. Afterwards the other [unwise] virgins came and said, ‘Lord, Lord, open the door for us!’ But he said in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.’ (Matt 25:11-12)

To focus upon the door is to recall the responsibility of every believer to cross its threshold. To pass through that door means to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord; it is to strengthen faith in him in order to live the new life which he has given us. It is a decision which presumes freedom to choose and also the courage to leave something behind, in the knowledge that what is gained is divine life (cf. Mt 13:44-46). —POPE ST. JOHN PAUL II, Incarnationus Mysterium, Bull of Indiction of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, n. 8

Read The Doors of St. Faustina by Mark Mallett at "The Now Word".

I saw the Lord Jesus, like a king in great majesty, looking down upon our earth with great severity; but because of His Mother’s intercession, He prolonged the time of His mercy… I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart. I use punishment when they themselves force Me to do so; My hand is reluctant to take hold of the sword of justice. Before the Day of Justice, I am sending the Day of Mercy… I am prolonging the time of mercy for the sake of [sinners]. But woe to them if they do not recognize this time of My visitation… —Jesus to St. Faustina, Divine Mercy in My Soul, Diary, n. 126I, 1588, 1160

The day of the Lord approaches. All must be prepared. Ready yourselves in body, mind, and soul. Purify yourselves. —God the Father to Barbara Rose Centill, The Miracle of the Illumination of Conscience by Dr. Thomas W. Petrisko, p. 53, February 16th, 1998

The Time of Mercy Ends, the Door of Justice Opens

If we are presently living in a “time of mercy," it implies that this “time” will come to an end. If we are living in a “Day of Mercy,” then it will have its vigil before the dawning of the “Day of Justice.” The fact that so many in the Church wish to ignore this aspect of Christ’s message through St. Faustina is a disservice to billions of souls (see Can You Ignore Private Revelation?).

Just as the Saturday evening vigil Mass precedes Sunday—the “day of the Lord”—so too, the facts strongly suggest that we have entered into the evening vigil of the Day of Mercy, the last twilight of this era. As we watch the night of deception spread over the entire earth and the works of darkness multiply—abortion, genocide, beheadings, mass shootings, terrorist bombings, pornography, human trading, child sex rings, gender ideology, sexually transmitted diseases, weapons of mass destruction, technological tyranny, clerical abuse, liturgical abuses, unfettered capitalism, the “return” of Communism, the death of freedom of speech, brutal persecutions, Jihad, climbing suicide rates, pandemic and the destruction of nature and the planet… is it not clear that it is we, not God, who are creating a planet of sorrows?

The Lord’s question: “What have you done?”, which Cain cannot escape, is addressed also to the people of today, to make them realize the extent and gravity of the attacks against life which continue to mark human history… Whoever attacks human life, in some way attacks God himself. —POPE ST. JOHN PAUL II, Evangelium Vitae; n. 10

It is a night of our own making. However, just as the "labour pains" are led by the "rider on a white horse", so too, the culmination of events is finished by a Rider on a White Horse, Jesus Christ, King of All Nations.

Today, everything is dark, difficult, but whatever the difficulties we are going through, there is only one Person who can come to our rescue. —Cardinal Robert Sarah, interview with Valeurs Actuelles, March 27th, 2019; cited in Inside the Vatican, April 2019, p. 11

Determined is the day of justice, the day of divine wrath. The angels tremble before it. Speak to souls about this great mercy while it is still the time for [granting] mercy.  —Mother of God to St. Faustina, Divine Mercy in My Soul, Diary, n. 635

But even God's justice is mercy, for it is precisely this present "shaking" that is necessary to call the "prodigal" sons and daughters of this generation back to God before the purification of the world. Hence, Jesus said with urgency to St. Faustina:

Speak to the world about My mercy; let all mankind recognize My unfathomable mercy. It is a sign for the end times; after it will come the Day of Justice. —Ibid., n. 848

The Day of the Lord

In the context of the “end times”, the Day of Justice is the same as what Tradition calls “the day of the Lord.” This is understood as the “day” when Jesus comes to “judge the living and the dead”, as we recite in our Creed. While Evangelical Christians speak of this as a twenty-four day—literally, the last day on earth—the Early Church Fathers taught something entirely different based on the oral and written Tradition passed onto them:

Behold, the Day of the Lord shall be a thousand years. —Letter of Barnabas, The Fathers of the Church, Ch. 15

And again,

…this day of ours, which is bounded by the rising and the setting of the sun, is a representation of that great day to which the circuit of a thousand years affixes its limits. —Lactantius, Fathers of the Church: The Divine Institutes, Book VII, Chapter 14, Catholic Encyclopedia; newadvent.org

The “thousand years” they are referring to is in Chapter 20 of the Book of Revelation and also spoken of by St. Peter in his discourse on the day of judgment:

…with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. (2 Pet 3:8)

Essentially, the “thousand years” symbolizes an extended “period of peace” or what the Church Fathers called a “sabbath rest.” They saw the first four thousand years of human history before Christ, and then the two thousand years after, leading up to the present day, as paralleling the “six days” of creation. On the seventh day, God rested. Thus, drawing upon St. Peter’s analogy, the Fathers saw…

…as if it were a fit thing that the saints should thus enjoy a kind of Sabbath-rest during that period, 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 Press

And that is precisely what God has in store for the Church: a “spiritual” gift consequent upon a new outpouring of the Spirit to “renew the face of the earth.” It is the "gift of Living in the Divine Will." However, this rest will be impossible unless the world is first purified. As Jesus conveyed to Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta:

…the chastisements are necessary; this will serve to prepare the ground so that the Kingdom of the Supreme Fiat [the Divine Will] may form in the midst of the human family. So, many lives, which will be an obstacle to the triumph of my Kingdom, will disappear from the face of the earth… —Diary, September 12th, 1926; The Crown of Sanctity On the Revelations of Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta, Daniel O’Connor, p. 459

First, Christ must come to put to an end to the ungodly global system of control and governance that is quickly corralling the entire world into its power (see The Great Corralling). This system is what St. John called “the beast.” Just as Our Lady, the “woman clothed in the sun and crowned with twelve stars” is a personification of the Church, the “beast” will find its personification in the “son of perdition” or “Antichrist.” It is this “new world order” and “lawless one” whom Christ must destroy in order to inaugurate an “era of peace.”

The beast that rises up is the epitome of evil and falsehood, so that the full force of apostasy which it embodies can be cast into the fiery furnace.  —St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Church Father (140–202 A.D.); Adversus Haereses, 5, 29

If the Day of the Lord begins in the vigil of darkness, this destruction of Antichrist inaugurates the dawn of the “seventh day” (to be followed later by the “eighth” and eternal day, which is the end of the world).

…His Son will come and destroy the time of the lawless one and judge the godless, and change the sun and the moon and the stars—then He shall indeed rest on the seventh day… after giving rest to all things, I will make the beginning of the eighth day, that is, the beginning of another world. —Letter of Barnabas (70-79 A.D.), written by a second century Apostolic Father

Let us understand then what both the presence of Our Lady and the call of her "watchmen" constitutes:

Dear young people, it is up to you to be the watchmen of the morning who announce the coming of the sun who is the Risen Christ! —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Message of the Holy Father to the Youth of the World, XVII World Youth Day, n. 3; (cf. Is 21:11-12)

It is Mary’s prerogative to be the Morning Star, which heralds in the sun… When she appears in the darkness, we know that He is close at hand. He is Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Behold He comes quickly, and His reward is with Him, to render to everyone according to his works. “Surely I come quickly. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.” —St. Cardinal John Henry Newman, Letter to the Rev. E. B. Pusey; “Difficulties of Anglicans”, Volume II

Thus, the judgment of the Antichrist and those who take his "mark" compromises the judgment “of the living”, described as follows:

And then the lawless one will be revealed, and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by his appearing and his coming. (2 Thessalonians 2:8)

Yes, with a puff of His lips and the brightness of the dawn of His justice, Jesus will put an end to the arrogance of the world’s billionaires, banksters, and bosses who are unreservedly refashioning creation in their own image:

Fear God and give him glory, for his time has come to sit in judgment [upon]… Babylon the great [and]… anyone who worships the beast or its image, or accepts its mark on forehead or hand… Then I saw the heavens opened, and there was a white horse; its rider was called “Faithful and True.” He judges and wages war in righteousness… The beast was caught and with it the false prophet… The rest were killed by the sword that came out of the mouth of the one riding the horse… (Rev 14:7-10, 19:11, 20-21)

This was also prophesied by Isaiah who likewise foretold, in strikingly parallel language, a coming judgment followed by a period of peace.

He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips. Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb… the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD, as water covers the sea…. On that day, The Lord shall again take it in hand to reclaim the remnant of his people that is left… When your judgment dawns upon the earth, the world’s inhabitants learn justice. (Isaiah 11:4-11; 26:9)

This effectively ushers in, not the end of the world nor the "Second Coming" at the very end of the world, but the dawn of the Day of the Lord when Christ will reign in His saints after Satan is chained in the abyss for the rest of the Day or “thousand years” (cf. Rev 20:1-6 and The Resurrection of the Church).

St. Thomas and St. John Chrysostom explain the words quem Dominus Jesus destruet illustratione adventus sui (“whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the brightness of His coming”) in the sense that Christ will strike the Antichrist by dazzling him with a brightness that will be like an omen and sign of His Second Coming… The most authoritative view, and the one that appears to be most in harmony with Holy Scripture, is that, after the fall of the Antichrist, the Catholic Church will once again enter upon a period of prosperity and triumph. —Fr. Charles Arminjon (1824-1885), The End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life, p. 56-57; Sophia Institute Press

The Day of Vindication

It would be incorrect to reduce the Day of the Lord to mere chastisement; it is far, far more! It is also a day of vindication of God’s Word. Indeed, Our Lady’s tears are not only sorrow for the unrepentant, but joy for the “triumph” that is coming.

Is it really credible that the day when all people will be united in this long-sought harmony will be the one when the heavens shall pass away with great violence—that the period when the Church Militant enters her fullness will coincide with that of the final catastrophe? Would Christ cause the Church to be born again, in all her glory and all the splendor of her beauty, only to dry up forthwith the springs of her youth and her inexhaustible fecundity?… The most authoritative view, and the one that appears to be most in harmony with Holy Scripture, is that, after the fall of the Antichrist, the Catholic Church will once again enter upon a period of prosperity and triumph. —Fr. Charles Arminjon, Ibid., p. 58, 57

Says the great Marian saint Louis de Montfort:

Is it not true that your will must be done on earth as it is in heaven? Is it not true that your kingdom must come? Did you not give to some souls, dear to you, a vision of the future renewal of the Church? —St. Louis de Montfort, Prayer for Missionaries, n. 5

But let us hear it from the popes too! (see The Popes and the Dawning Era):

And they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.” [John 10:16] 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

Both Isaiah and St. John testify that, after a severe judgment, there is coming a new glory and beauty that God wishes to bestow upon the Church in the final stage of her earthly pilgrimage:

Nations shall behold your vindication, and all kings your glory; You shall be called by a new name pronounced by the mouth of the LORD… To the victor I shall give some of the hidden manna; I shall also give a white amulet upon which is inscribed a new name, which no one knows except the one who receives it. (Isaiah 62:1-2; Rev 2:17)

What is coming is essentially the fulfillment of the Pater Noster, the “Our Father” that we pray each day: “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The coming of Christ’s Kingdom is synonymous with His will being done “as it is in heaven.” As Daniel O’Connor’s exclaims:

Two Thousand Years Later, the Greatest Prayer Will Not Go Unanswered!

What Adam and Eve lost in the Garden—that is, the union of their wills with the Divine Will, which enabled their cooperation in the holy prodigies of creation—will be restored in the Church.

The gift of Living in the Divine Will restores to the redeemed the gift that prelapsarian Adam possessed and that generated divine light, life and sanctity in creation… —Rev. Joseph Iannuzzi, The Gift of Living in the Divine Will in the Writings of Luisa Piccarreta

Jesus revealed to Servant of God Luisa Piccaretta His plan for the next era, this “seventh day”, this “sabbath rest” or “noon” of the Day of the Lord:

I desire, therefore, that My children enter My Humanity and copy what the Soul of My Humanity did in the Divine Will… Rising above every creature, they will restore the rights of Creation— My own as well as those of creatures. They will bring all things to the prime origin of Creation and to the purpose for which Creation came to be… —Rev. Joseph. Iannuzzi, The Splendor of Creation: The Triumph of the Divine Will on Earth and the Era of Peace in the Writings of the Church Fathers, Doctors and Mystics (Kindle Location 240)

In essence, Jesus wishes that His own interior life become that of His Bride in order to make her “without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish" (Eph 5:27). Thus, the "day" of the Lord is essentially the brightness of interior perfection in the Bride of Christ:

The Church, which comprises the elect, is fittingly styled daybreak or dawn… It will be fully day for her when she shines with the perfect brilliance of interior light. —St. Gregory the Great, Pope; Liturgy of the Hours, Vol III, p. 308

While the fullness of perfection body, soul, and spirit is reserved for Heaven and the beatific vision, there is a certain liberation of creation, starting with man, that is also part of God’s plan for the Era of Peace:

Thus is the full action of the original plan of the Creator delineated: a creation in which God and man, man and woman, humanity and nature are in harmony, in dialogue, in communion. This plan, upset by sin, was taken up in a more wondrous way by Christ, Who is carrying it out mysteriously but effectively in the present reality, in the expectation of bringing it to fulfillment…  —POPE JOHN PAUL II, General Audience, February 14, 2001

So, when we speak of Christ coming at the dawn of the Day of the Lord for a purification and renewal of the earth, we are speaking of an interior coming of Christ’s Kingdom within individual souls that will manifest literally in a "civilization of love" that, for a time (a “thousand years”), will bring the witness and full scope of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Indeed, Jesus said, “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14) Here, the magisterial teaching could not be clearer:

It would not be inconsistent with the truth to understand the words,“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” to mean: “in the Church as in our Lord Jesus Christ himself”; or “in the Bride who has been betrothed, just as in the Bridegroom who has accomplished the will of the Father.” —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2827

The Catholic Church, which is the kingdom of Christ on earth, [is] destined to be spread among all men and all nations… —POPE PIUS XI, Quas Primas, Encyclical, n. 12, Dec. 11th, 1925

The Twighlight of the Day of the Lord

Jesus said to St. Faustina…

You will prepare the world for My final coming. —Jesus to St. Faustina, Divine Mercy in My Soul, Diary, n. 429

Pope Benedict clarified that this statement does not imply the imminent end of the world when Jesus will return to “judge the dead” (the twilight of the Day of the Lord) and establish a literal “new heavens and a new earth”, the “eighth day”—what is traditionally known as the “Second Coming.”

If one took this statement in a chronological sense, as an injunction to get ready, as it were, immediately for the Second Coming, it would be false. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Light of the World, A Conversation with Peter Seewald, p. 180-181

The more noteworthy of the prophecies bearing upon “latter times” seem to have one common end, to announce great calamities impending over mankind, the triumph of the Church, and the renovation of the world. —Catholic Encyclopedia, Prophecy, www.newadvent.org

The Day of the Lord, then, reaches its zenith in our Timeline when, near the end of the world, Satan has one last reprisal against the saints of Christ before the Second and "final" coming of Christ...

See also The Last Judgments, The Doors of Faustina, How the Era was Lost, and Millenarianism—What it is and Isn't by Mark Mallett at "The Now Word".

The Physical Refuges

The Church will be reduced in its dimensions, it will be necessary to start again. However, from this test a Church would emerge that will have been strengthened by the process of simplification it experienced, by its renewed capacity to look within itself… the Church will be numerically reduced. —Cardinal Ratzinger (POPE BENEDICT XVI), God and the World, 2001; interview with Peter Seewald

The truth is that, were it not for God's providence, the Church would be decimated were the Antichrist to have his way. But God will protect His people, not only spiritually, but physically—and this according to Scripture, Tradition and prophetic revelations. Indeed, said Paul VI:

It is necessary that a small flock subsist, no matter how small it might be. —POPE PAUL VI, The Secret Paul VI, Jean Guitton, p. 152-153, Reference (7), p. ix.

Early Church Father, Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius (250-317 A.D), foresaw with great precision what this future period would look like… and when the faithful would eventually flee to sacred refuges:

That will be the time in which righteousness shall be cast out, and innocence be hated; in which the wicked shall prey upon the good as enemies; neither law, nor order, nor military discipline shall be preserved… all things shall be confounded and mixed together against right, and against the laws of nature. Thus the earth shall be laid waste, as though by one common robbery. When these things shall so happen, then the righteous and the followers of truth shall separate themselves from the wicked, and flee into solitudes. —The Divine Institutes, Book VII, Ch. 17

After the Warning, there will form two camps: those who accept the grace to repent, thus passing through "the door of Mercy"… and those who will harden their hearts in their sin, and thus, be destined to pass through "the door of Justice." The latter will form that camp of the wicked who, for “forty-two months”, will be “allowed to wage war against the holy ones and conquer them” (Rev 13:7). But according to Scripture and Tradition, a remant will be safeguarded:

…the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle, so that she could fly to her place in the desert, where, far from the serpent, she was taken care of for a year, two years, and a half-year. (Rev 12:14)

The precedent for this physical protection is in the Gospel of Matthew:

And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, [the magi] departed for their country by another way. When they had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.” Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. (Matt 2:12-14)

The Book of Maccabees, which many believe is a "template" for the coming persecution and Passion of the Church, notes the Jews flight into refuges:

The king sent messengers… to prohibit holocausts, sacrifices, and libations in the sanctuary, to profane the sabbaths and feast days, to desecrate the sanctuary and the sacred ministers, to build pagan altars and temples and shrines… Whoever refused to act according to the command of the king should be put to death… Many of the people, those who abandoned the law, joined them and committed evil in the land. Israel was driven into hiding, wherever places of refuge could be found. (1 Macc 1:44-53)

Bear the standard to Zion, seek refuge without delay! Evil I bring from the north, and great destruction. (Jeremiah 4:6)

The pinnacle of destruction is at the hands of Antichrist. But even then, God will preserve a remnant:

The revolt and separation must come…the Sacrifice shall cease and…the Son of Man shall hardly find faith on earth… All these passages are understood of the affliction which Antichrist shall cause in the Church… But the Church… shall not fail, and shall be fed and preserved amidst the deserts and solitudes to which She shall retire, as the Scripture says (Rev. Ch. 12:14). —St. Francis de Sales

The Spiritual Refuges

Yet, these are temporal places, that in and of themselves, cannot save the soul. The only refuge that is truly safe is the Heart of Jesus. What the Blessed Mother is doing today is leading souls to this Safe Harbour of Mercy by drawing them into Her own Immaculate Heart, and sailing them safely to her Son.

My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God. —Second apparition at Fatima, June 13, 1917

In revelations to Fr. Michel Rodrigue, the Eternal Father promises:

I have given Saint Joseph, My representative on earth as protector of the Holy Family, the authority to protect the Church, that is the Body of Christ. He will be the protector during the trials of this time. The Immaculate Heart of My daughter, Mary, and the Sacred Heart of My Beloved Son, Jesus, with the Chaste and Pure Heart of Saint Joseph, will be the shield for your homes and for your family, and your refuge during the events to come. —from the Father, October 30, 2018

Most importantly, our Mother Church is and always will be our refuge from the gates of Hell. For she is built by Christ upon the rock of Peter's faith and safeguarded by Our Lord's promise to remain with His Church until the end of time.

The Church is thy hope, the Church is thy salvation, the Church is thy refuge. —St. John Chrysostom, Hom. de capto Euthropio, n. 6.; cf. E Supremi, n. 9

Last, pray Psalm 91, the psalm of refuge!

Read The Refuge for Our Times by Mark Mallett to understand the centrality of the spiritual refuge as opposed to physical refuges, and how survivalism is not the mindset of the Christian, but Heaven.

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With the Warning and Miracle now behind humanity, those who refused to pass through the "door of Mercy" must now pass through the "door of justice."

Many people have a difficult time reconciling the "God of love" with a "God of chastisements." However, no one seems to complain when a dangerous murderer is locked behind bars or a cruel dictator is brought to trial. "It is just," we say. If we who are made in God's image feel the reasonableness of justice, then surely the Creator of the universe has an infinitely more keen sense of justice. But His is also a perfectly ordered justice rooted in love. Human justice tends toward vengeance; but God's justice is always toward restoration.

My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges. (Heb 12:5-6)

If you want to know how God really feels about having to resort to chastisement, hear Jesus' words to St. Faustina:

The flames of mercy are burning Me—clamouring to be spent; I want to keep pouring them out upon souls; souls just don’t want to believe in My goodness.  —Jesus to St. Faustina, Divine Mercy in My Soul, Diary, n. 177

In the Old Covenant I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart. I use punishment when they themselves force Me to do so; My hand is reluctant to take hold of the sword of justice. Before the Day of Justice I am sending the Day of Mercy. —Ibid. n. 1588

And again, to Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta:

My Justice can bear no more; My will wants to Triumph, and would want to Triumph by means of Love in order to Establish Its Kingdom. But man does not want to come to meet this Love, therefore, it is necessary to use Justice. —Jesus to Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta; Nov. 16th, 1926

The Door of Justice

The sifting of the Warning has taken place—the weeds from the wheat...

The world at the approach of a new millennium, for which the whole Church is preparing, is like a field ready for the harvest. —ST. POPE JOHN PAUL II, World Youth Day, homily, August 15th, 1993

...and only the wheat can remain.

…when the trial of this sifting is past, a great power will flow from a more spiritualized and simplified Church... she will enjoy a fresh blossoming and be seen as man’s home, where he will find life and hope beyond death. —Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (POPE BENEDICT XVI), Faith and Future, Ignatius Press, 2009

But this is not possible unless Satan is chained, the wicked cleansed from the earth, and a universal outpouring of the Holy Spirit renews the face of the earth. As Jesus said to Luisa:

…the chastisements are necessary; this will serve to prepare the ground so that the Kingdom of the Supreme Fiat [the Divine Will] may form in the midst of the human family. So, many lives, which will be an obstacle to the triumph of my Kingdom, will disappear from the face of the earth… —Diary, September 12th, 1926; The Crown of Sanctity On the Revelations of Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta, Daniel O’Connor, p. 459

"The meek shall inherit the earth," said Christ. And they will sing the Magnificat:

He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty. (Luke 1:50-55)

But not before great chastisements befall the earth. Perhaps chief among them is the scourge of Antichrist who comes at first as a "prince of peace," but ends with a reign of terror. Yet, said Aquinas:

Even the demons are checked by good angels lest they harm as much as they would. In like manner, Antichrist will not do as much harm as he would wish. —St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part I, Q.113, Art. 4

Indeed, many of the remnant will already be in refuges, hidden and sustained by Divine Providence.

“God will purge the earth with chastisements, and a great part of the current generation will be destroyed”, but [Jesus] also affirms that “chastisements do not approach those individuals who receive the great Gift of Living in the Divine Will”, for God “protects them and the places where they reside”. —Rev. Joseph Iannuzzi, The Gift of Living in the Divine Will in the Writings of Luisa Piccarreta

The Chastisements

The Book of Revelation, while filled with many symbols, gives an idea of the chastisements that follow the Warning. As we heard after the Seventh Seal was broken:

Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God. (Revelation 7:2)

If the first half of the Storm was primarily man's doing, the last half is God's:

God will send two punishments: one will be in the form of wars, revolutions, and other evils; it shall originate on earth. The other will be sent from Heaven. —Blessed Anna Maria Taigi, Catholic Prophecy, P. 76

Before the Comet comes, many nations, the good excepted, will be scoured with want and famine [consequences]... The Comet by its tremendous pressure, will force much out of the ocean and flood many countries, causing much want and many plagues [cleansing]. —St. Hildegard, Catholic Prophecy, p. 79 (1098-1179 A.D.)

One of the most famous prophecies in our times is that of Our Lady of Akita to Sr. Agnes Sasagawa:

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 a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never 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. —October 13, 1973, ewtn.com

Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta also describes such a sorrowful scene:

I was outside of myself and I could see nothing but fire. It seemed that the earth would open and threaten to swallow cities, mountains and men. It seemed that the Lord would want to destroy the earth, but in a special way three different places, distant from one another, and some of them also in Italy. They seemed to be three mouths of volcanoes—some were sending out fire which flooded the cities, and in some places the earth was opening and horrible quakes would occur. I could not understand very well whether these things were happening or will have to happen. How many ruins! Yet, the cause of this is only sin, and man does not want to surrender; it seems that man has placed himself against God, and God will arm the elements against man—water, fire, wind and many other things, which will cause many upon many to die. —The Crown of Sanctity: On the Revelations of Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta by Daniel O’Connor, p. 108,  Kindle Edition

At the end of it all, writes the prophet Zechariah:

...two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive. And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.'” (Zech 13:8-9)

As the earth tremors and the Church in places undergoes her own Passion under the persecution of Antichrist, the faithful may echo the cry of St. Louis de Montfort:

Your divine commandments are broken, your Gospel is thrown aside, torrents of iniquity flood the whole earth carrying away even your servants… Will everything come to the same end as Sodom and Gomorrah? Will you never break your silence? Will you tolerate all this for ever? Is it not true that your will must be done on earth as it is in heaven? Is it not true that your kingdom must come? Did you not give to some souls, dear to you, a vision of the future renewal of the Church? —St. Louis de Montfort, Prayer for Missionaries, n. 5

And they will hear a voice in the Heavens cry out "it is done"^[1]Rev 16:17 followed by the hoof beats of a Rider Upon a White Horse whose coming will destroy the Antichrist and cleanse the earth after Three Days of Darkness...

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The Antichrist in Scripture

Sacred Tradition affirms that, near the end of time, a certain man whom St. Paul calls “the lawless one” is expected to rise as a false Christ in the world, setting himself as an object of worship. His timing was revealed to Paul as before the “day of the Lord”:

Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come, unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition. (2 Thess 2:3)

Some Church Fathers saw in the prophet Daniel's vision a foretelling of this blasphemous figure who emerges from the kingdom of a "beast":

I was considering the ten horns it had, when suddenly another, a little horn, sprang out of their midst, and three of the previous horns were torn away to make room for it. This horn had eyes like human eyes, and a mouth that spoke arrogantly. (Daniel 7:8)

This finds its echo in St. John's Apocalypse:

The beast was given a mouth uttering proud boasts and blasphemies, and it was given authority to act for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling and those who dwell in heaven. It was also allowed to wage war against the holy ones and conquer them, and it was granted authority over every tribe, people, tongue, and nation. (Rev 13:5-7)

Thus, the Early Church Fathers unanimously confirmed that the “son of perdition” is a person and not just a "system" or kingdom. However, Benedict XVI made the important point:

As far as the antichrist is concerned, we have seen that in the New Testament he always assumes the lineaments of contemporary history. He cannot be restricted to any single individual. One and the same he wears many masks in each generation. —Cardinal Ratzinger (POPE BENEDICT XVI), Dogmatic Theology, Eschatology 9, Johann Auer and Joseph Ratzinger, 1988, p. 199-200

That is a viewpoint consonant with Sacred Scripture:

Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. Thus we know this is the last hour… Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist. (1 John 2:18, 22)

Still, Benedict affirmed the constant teaching of the Church that the Antichrist is also a future individual, part of this beast that will rule the earth for "forty-two months."^[1]Rev 13:5 That is simply to say that there are many antichrists throughout human history. Yet, Scripture points especially to one, chief among many, who accompanies a great rebellion or apostasy toward the end of time. The Church Fathers refer to him as the “son of perdition”, the “lawless one”, a “king”, an “apostate and robber” whose origin is likely from the Middle East, possibly of Jewish heritage.

…before the Lord’s arrival there will be apostasy, and one well described as the “man of lawlessness”, “the son of perdition” must be revealed, who tradition would come to call the Antichrist. —General Audience, “Whether at the end of time or during a tragic lack of peace: Come Lord Jesus!”, L’Osservatore Romano, Nov. 12th, 2008

But when will he arrive?

…if we study but a moment the signs of the present time, the menacing symptoms of our political situation and revolutions, as well as the progress of civilization and the increasing advance of evil, corresponding to the progress of civiliation and the discoveries in the material order, we cannot fail to foresee the proximity of the coming of the man of sin, and of the days of desolation foretold by Christ.  —Fr. Charles Arminjon (1824-1885), The End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life, p. 58; Sophia Institute Press

The Chronology of the Deceiver

There are essentially two camps on this, but as I will point out, they are not necessarily in opposition to one another.

The first camp, and the most prevalent one today, is that the Antichrist appears at the very end of time, immediately before the final return of Jesus in glory, the judgment of the dead, and end of the world.^[2]Rev 20:11-21:1

The other camp is the one that most prevalent among the Early Church Fathers and which, notably, simply follows the chronology of St. John the Apostle in Revelation. And that is that the coming of the lawless one is followed by a “thousand years”, what the Church Fathers called a “sabbath rest”, the “seventh day”, “the times of the kingdom” or “the Day of the Lord.” This "period of peace," as Our Lady of Fatima called it, is not the heresy of Millenarianism (see Millenarianism—What it is, and What it isn't) whose adherents believed that Jesus would come to reign in the flesh for a literal thousand years. What the Church has never condemned, however, is the idea of a spiritual triumph of the Church after a time of tribulation. Summarizing the collective thought of the Magisterium, Fr. Charles Arminjon wrote:

The most authoritative view, and the one that appears to be most in harmony with Holy Scripture, is that, after the fall of the Antichrist, the Catholic Church will once again enter upon a period of prosperity and triumph. —The End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life, Fr. Charles Arminjon (1824-1885), p. 56-57; Sophia Institute Press

This is simply consistent with the straightforward reading of Revelation. Clearly, Chapter 19 speaks of a manifestation of Jesus' power, in fact, His "breath" or "brightness" to slay the "beast" and "false prophet" who are then cast into the lake of fire. But it's not the end of the world. What follows is a reign of Christ with his saints.

St. Thomas and St. John Chrysostom explain the words quem Dominus Jesus destruet illustratione adventus sui (“whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the brightness of His coming”) in the sense that Christ will strike the Antichrist by dazzling him with a brightness that will be like an omen and sign of His Second Coming… —Fr. Charles Arminjon, Ibid., p. 56-57

What follows, according to the Early Church Fathers, is a time of peace and justice, the times of the kingdom when Christ reigns, not in the flesh, but in His saints in an all new manner. In modern Catholic mysticism, this is referred to as the "Kingdom of the Divine Will", the "Eucharistic Reign", the "Era of Peace", the "Era of Celestial Love"etc.

But when The Antichrist shall have devastated all things in this world, he will reign for three years and six months, and sit in the temple at Jerusalem; and then the Lord will come from Heaven in the clouds… sending this man and those who follow him into the lake of fire; but bringing in for the righteous the times of the kingdom, that is, the rest, the hallowed seventh day… These are to take place in the times of the kingdom, that is, upon the seventh day… the true Sabbath of the righteous. —St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Church Father (140–202 A.D.); Adversus Haereses, Irenaeus of Lyons, V.33.3.4, The Fathers of the Church, CIMA Publishing Co.

Thus, the "seventh day" is a rest for the Church as God rested on the seventh day of creation. What follows is the "eighth" day, that is, eternity.

…when His Son will come and destroy the time of the lawless one and judge the godless, and change the sun and the moon and the stars—then He shall indeed rest on the seventh day… after giving rest to all things, I will make the beginning of the eighth day, that is, the beginning of another world. —Letter of Barnabas (70-79 A.D.), written by a second century Apostolic Father

We shall indeed be able to interpret the words, “The priest of God and of Christ shall reign with Him a thousand years; and when the thousand years shall be finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison;” for thus they signify that the reign of the saints and the bondage of the devil shall cease simultaneously… —St. Augustine, The Anti-Nicene Fathers, City of God, Book XX, Chap. 13, 19

The Popes and the Antichrist Today

It is noteworthy that Pope St. Pius X already thought the Antichrist was on earth:

Who can fail to see that society is at the present time, more than in any past age, suffering from a terrible and deep-rooted malady which, developing every day and eating into its inmost being, is dragging it to destruction? You understand, Venerable Brethren, what this disease is—apostasy from God… When all this is considered there is good reason to fear lest this great perversity may be as it were a foretaste, and perhaps the beginning of those evils which are reserved for the last days; and that there may be already in the world the “Son of Perdition” of whom the Apostle speaks. —E Supremi, Encyclical On the Restoration of All Things in Christ, n. 3, 5; October 4th, 1903

Noting the outbreak of contempt toward Christianity throughout the world, his successor concurred:

…the whole Christian people, sadly disheartened and disrupted, are continually in danger of falling away from the faith, or of suffering the most cruel death. These things in truth are so sad that you might say that such events foreshadow and portend the “beginning of sorrows,” that is to say of those that shall be brought by the man of sin, “who is lifted up above all that is called God or is worshipped” (2 Thess 2:4). —POPE PIUS XI, Miserentissimus Redemptor, Encyclical Letter on Reparation to the Sacred Heart, n. 15, May 8th, 1928

While still a Cardinal, Benedict XVI made an astonishing allusion to the "mark of the beast" as it relates to computer technology:

The Apocalypse speaks about God’s antagonist, the beast. This animal does not have a name, but a number. In [the horror of the concentration camps], they cancel faces and history, transforming man into a number, reducing him to a cog in an enormous machine. Man is no more than a function. In our days, we should not forget that they prefigured the destiny of a world that runs the risk of adopting the same structure of the concentration camps, if the universal law of the machine is accepted. The machines that have been constructed impose the same law. According to this logic, man must be interpreted by a computer and this is only possible if translated into numbers. The beast is a number and transforms into numbers. God, however, has a name and calls by name. He is a person and looks for the person. —Cardinal Ratzinger, (POPE BENEDICT XVI) Palermo, March 15th, 2000

Then in 1976, two years before being elected Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Wojtyla addressed the bishops of America. These were his words, recorded in the Washington Post, and confirmed by Deacon Keith Fournier who was in attendance:

We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has ever experienced. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-church, between the Gospel and the anti-gospel, between Christ and the antichrist. —Eucharistic Congress for the bicentennial celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Philadelphia, PA, 1976; cf. Catholic Online

In closing, we want to remind the reader that this website is to prepare you, not for the Antichrist, but for the coming of Jesus Christ to put an end to the tears of the past millennium. It is to prepare you for the coming of the Kingdom of the Divine Will. As such, the wisdom of the saints provide much for reflection:

Blessed shall they be who overcome the tyrant then. For they shall be set forth as more illustrious and loftier than the first witnesses; for the former witnesses overcame his minions only, but these overthrow and conquer the accuser himself, the son of perdition. With what eulogies and crowns, therefore, will they not be adorned by our King, Jesus Christ!… You see in what manner of fasting and prayer the saints will exercise themselves at that time. —St. Hippolytus, On the End of the World, n. 30, 33, newadvent.org

The Church now charges you before the Living God; she declares to you the things concerning Antichrist before they arrive. Whether they will happen in your time we know not, or whether they will happen after you we know not; but it is well that, knowing these things, you should make yourself secure beforehand. —St. Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 315-386) Doctor of the Church, Catechetical Lectures, Lecture XV, n.9

For an extensive treatment of the "end times" according to the Church Fathers, the Magisterium, and approved prophetic revelations, read Rethinking the End Times, How the Era was Lost, and The Day of Justice by Mark Mallett. Also see Antichrist in Our Times , Dear Holy Father... He is Coming! and Why Aren't the Popes Shouting?

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We must be frank: spiritually and morally speaking, the world is in a state far worse than it has ever experienced before in history. Common sense testifies to this. The consensus of private revelation indicates this. Even Papal Magisterium teaches this. Pope Francis, himself, has said that we are “no better today than they were during the Great Flood” (February 19, 2019 homily at Santa Marta).

Thus, the Era of Peace cannot be ushered into the world as it now stands. A total renovation is necessary; one that, as it were, strips the house down to its beams and bricks, if not its very foundation. This purification will be achieved in many ways in the upcoming years, but perhaps above all through the long-prophesied Three Days of Darkness, which will definitively cast out evil from this earth (particularly the Antichrist, those who follow him, and the demons who inspire him) and leave it ready for the flourishing of God’s Kingdom.

Unfortunately, most people alive today do not want God’s Kingdom. They would much prefer to continue committing their favorite sins, believing their favorite errors, and relishing their favorite grotesquerie. They will be given every chance to change their ways and choose to place themselves on the right side of the coming Era—especially through The Warning (which will precede the period of the Chastisements and certainly the Three Days of Darkness, which concludes it and ushers in the Era of Peace). But if those who reject God’s Kingdom continue to refuse to repent, there simply will be no room for them on this earth during the Era, and if no other Chastisements do the job before the time comes, the Three Days of Darkness will.

(Nota Bene: We must never lose hope for the salvation of anyone alive; no matter what. We should even hope for and pray for the salvation of those who ultimately will need to be purged from the earth in the Three Days of Darkness—for even if their failure to repent before that time required their being purged from the earth, this does not mean that they cannot repent in their life’s last moment. See Mark Mallett's Mercy in Chaos)

The Purification

The Three Days of Darkness, in brief, will consist in all of hell being unleashed upon earth in order to allow the demons to devour their own who are upon earth—for, with great irony, not even the demons can resist God’s will (although they receive its justice, while the blessed receive its mercy). When God unleashes the evil spirits to purge the earth, they will not be able to do one iota more than He has ordained before they are cast back again into the abyss.

Even the demons are checked by good angels lest they harm as much as they would. In like manner, Antichrist will not do as much harm as he would wish. —St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part I, Q.113, Art. 4

So the faithful must not fear the Three Days of Darkness; although its enormity would boggle anyone’s mind, it will be undertaken with the precision of an expert surgeon due to God’s providential oversight. Moreover, as God protected the Israelites, so too will He safeguard His remnant.

Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and there was dense darkness throughout the land of Egypt for three days. Men could not see one another, nor could they move from where they were, for three days. But all the Israelites had light where they dwelt. (10:22-23)

Although all of this may sound surprising to those who are learning of it for the first time, we should recall that this paradigm is by no means unprecedented in salvation history and the history of the Church; indeed, one sees throughout both the very enemies of God sometimes being the very ones God uses to bring about His ultimate aims. This happened most clearly in the crucifixion of Our Lord; but one also sees, in Scripture, ancient Israel being purified by the godless peoples surrounding them. In the Three Days of Darkness, God will “make use of” the demons in a more universal way than ever before. They will swallow up not only those on earth who are avowed enemies of God, but even physical places and things that have no place in the Era (for example, Fr. Michel Rodrigue was shown demons swallowing up entire foundations of buildings during the Three Days).

As the Three Days of Darkness will follow the Warning and the Time of Refuges and culminate the Divine Chastisements, we would personally advise against getting too caught up in the details of this event, and would likewise caution against fretting about the physical preparations. Unfortunately, the Three Days of Darkness, beyond any other prophecy, has generated undue fear and wild speculation. On the other hand, we should even now know the gist of what is coming; for if it were not God’s will that we know this, then heaven (which can only do His will) would not have revealed the nature of this event to us.

I have told you this so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you. (John 16:4)

We turn, now, to a mere few of these revelations.

God will send two punishments: one will be in the form of wars, revolutions, and other evils; it shall originate of earth. The other will be sent from heaven. There shall come over the whole earth an intense darkness lasting three days and three nights. Nothing can be seen, and the air will be laden with pestilence which will claim mainly, but not only, the enemies of religion. It will be impossible to use any man-made lighting during this darkness, except blessed candles... All the enemies of the Church, whether known or unknown, will perish over the whole earth during that universal darkness, with the exception of a few whom God will soon convert. —Blessed Anna Maria Taigi (d. 1837)

Quoting particulars, Rev. R. Gerald Culleton writes in The Prophets and Our Times:

There shall be a three days darkness, during which the atmosphere will be infected by innumerable devils, who shall cause the death of large multitudes of incredulous and wicked men. Blessed candles alone shall be able to give light and preserve the faithful Catholics from this impending dreadful scourge. Supernatural prodigies shall appear in the heavens. There is to be a short but furious war, during which the enemies of religion and of mankind shall be universally destroyed. A general pacification of the world and the universal triumph of the Church are to follow. —Palma Maria d'Oria (d. 1863); p. 200

All states will be shaken by war and civil conflict. During a darkness lasting three days, the people given to evil ways will perish so that only one-fourth of mankind will survive. The clergy, too, will be greatly reduced in number, as most of them will die in defence of the faith or of their country. —Sister Mary of Jesus Crucified (d. 1878); p. 206

Summarizing many prophet’s takes on the event, Rev. R. Gerald Culleton writes:

When everything seems hopeless for the Christian forces God will work a "wonderful miracle," or as some prophets refer to it," a great event" or "a terrible event," in favor of His own. During this phenomenon, the truly holy will not be harmed, and terrible though it will be. yet we may take consolation in the fact that it will mark the end of God's chastisements. It would seem that the event mentioned vaguely by so many seers, is that specified by others as three days of darkness with the sun and the moon, as it were. turning to blood. The air will be poisoned, thus killing off most of the enemies of Christ's Church. During these three days, the only light available to men will be blessed candles, and one candle will burn the entire period. However, even blessed candles will not light in the houses of the godless. Yet once the candle is lit by one in the state of grace, it will not burn out until the three day's darkness is over. This "great event" will usher in peace to the troubled world. It would be a sort of reenactment of the three hours of darkness "over the whole earth" at Christ's crucifixion, and a preview of that which will mark the end of the reign of Anti-Christ. —p. 45

For further words and references to the Three Days of Darkness in Scripture, click here to read Mark Mallett’s post from “The Now Word.”

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This world will soon experience the most glorious golden era it has ever seen since Paradise itself. It is the Coming of the Kingdom of God, wherein His Will shall be accomplished on earth as in Heaven. Our plea in the Lord’s prayer, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done,” will be answered in the most beautiful way. It is the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It is the New Pentecost. It is the Era of Peace. But before sharing some details of what it will be like, an important task must be completed.

We must settle what the Era is not:

• It is not Heaven; glorious as the Era will be, it is a mere nothing compared to Heaven, and during the Era, we will long for Heaven even more fervently than we do now, and look forward to Heaven with more excitement than we currently harbor!
• It is not the Beatific Vision; we will still need Faith.
• It is not the Eternal Resurrection; we will still die, and we will still be able to suffer.
• It is not absolute confirmation in grace; sin will remain an ontological possibility.
• It is not the definitive perfection of the Church (that is found only in the Heavenly Wedding Feast); we shall remain the Church Militant, not yet the Church Triumphant.
• It is not a passing away of the age of the Church for the sake of an Age of the Spirit, rather, it will be the Triumph of the Church and concomitant new outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
• It is not the physical, visible reign of Jesus on earth (that would be the heresy of Millenarianism or Modified Millenarianism); it will arrive by way of a Coming of Christ in grace, and He shall reign during the Era Sacramentally, not visibly in the flesh.

(Note: Although none of the trustworthy private revelations -- especially those included on this site -- assert any of the errors above, there are unfortunately still some authors today who accuse these prophecies on the Era of being merely a form of modified Millenarianism. These authors are contradicting not only the prophetic consensus, but also the Magisterium itself. More details may be found on pages 352-396 of the free eBook, The Crown of Sanctity.)

Before we go into detail, here is a summary of what the Era is:

Whenever the Church Fathers speak of a Sabbath rest or era of peace, they do not foretell a return of Jesus in the flesh nor the end of human history, rather they accentuate the Holy Spirit’s transforming power in the sacraments that perfects the Church, so that Christ may present her to himself as an immaculate bride upon his final return. —Rev. J. L. Iannuzzi, Ph.B., STB, M.Div., STL, STD, Ph.D., theologian, The Splendor of Creation, p. 79

In "The Second Coming" of this Timeline, we go into more detail about the "Sabbath rest" as a preparation for the return of Christ in the flesh at the end of the world. But now, let us see just a small preview of what Jesus has revealed to Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta about what we can expect in this imminent, glorious Era of Universal Peace (more of these revelations can be found in this post):

Creation will be renewed

I anxiously await that My Will may be known and that the creatures may Live in It. Then, I will show off so much opulence that every soul will be like a new creation—beautiful but distinct from all the others. I will amuse Myself; I will be her Insuperable Architect; I will display all My creative art ... O, how I long for this; how I want it; how I yearn for it! Creation is not finished. I have yet to do My most beautiful works. (February 7, 1938)

Faith will still be needed, but will be made clear

My daughter, when my Will has its kingdom upon earth and souls live in it, faith will no longer have any shadow, no more enigmas, but everything will be clarity and certainty. The light of my Volition will bring in the very created things the clear vision of their Creator; creatures will touch Him with their own hands in everything He has done for love of them. … And while He was saying this, Jesus made a wave of joy and of light come out of His Heart, which will give more life to creatures; and with emphasis of love, He added: “How I long for the Kingdom of my Will. It will put an end to the troubles of creatures, and to Our sorrows. Heaven and Earth will smile together; Our feasts and theirs will reacquire the order of the beginning of Creation; We will place a veil over everything, so that the feasts may never again be interrupted.” (June 29, 1928)

The human body will again be always beautiful, strong, and healthy

We should know that this Era is not merely a matter of holy people thinking, saying, and doing holy things. Although the holiness of the Era is far and away its most important aspect, it would be foolish to ignore that there will be many glorious physical manifestations of these spiritual realities. Jesus tells Luisa:

…[after the fall] the body also lost its freshness, its beauty. It became debilitated and remained subject to all evils, sharing in the evils of the human will, just as it had shared in the good. So, if the human will is healed by giving it again the life of my Divine Will, as though by magic, all the evils of the human nature will have life no more. (July 7, 1928)

Too often we forget that all degradation—including physical—is the result of sin (even if indirect). Jesus even revealed this reality to St. Gertrude the Great. As we read in The Life and Revelations of Saint Gertrude, Jesus told this saint that:

You can never understand all the reciprocal sweetness which My Divinity feels towards you… this movement of grace glorifies you, as My Body was glorified on Mount Thabor in presence of My three beloved disciples; so that I can say of you, in the sweetness of my charity: 'This is My beloved daughter, in whom I am well pleased.' For it is the property of this grace to communicate to the body as well as to the mind a marvelous glory and brightness. ^[1]The Life and Revelations of Saint Gertrude. “By a religious of the order of Poor Clares.” 1865. Page 150.

This property of grace, though usually largely veiled on this side of the Era, will freely flow between the physical and the spiritual upon the dawn of the same. Obviously, there is no “magic” happening here; Jesus says that these physical transformations will occur “as if by” magic because of how rapid and substantial they will be, and because it will be difficult for us at first to see how they transpired, until we grow in our understanding that it is not normal or natural for such glorious spiritual goods to fail to have the physical realm correspond to them.

Death will happen, but smoothly and beautifully, and all bodies will remain incorrupt

Because life in the Era is so close to Heaven (as is life for one who even now lives in the Divine Will), it is scarcely even an exile, but more of a happy pilgrimage; and the return to the Heavenly Fatherland—that is, death—is a smooth and glorious thing. Jesus tells Luisa:

Death will no longer have power in the soul; and if it will have it over the body, it will not be death, ^[2]That is, the smoothness of it will be so different from how most deaths today occur that it can scarcely be called “death” when compared – even though it still technically will entail the same result: the soul departing from the body. Luisa’s own death is no doubt the example par excellence here, where there was perfect peace, and for days they could not tell if she had even died (see www.SunOfMyWill.com) but transit. Without the nourishment of sin and a degraded human will that produced corruption in the bodies, and with the preserving nourishment of My Will, the bodies also will not be subject to decomposing and becoming so horribly corrupted as to strike fear even into the strongest ones, as it happens now; but they will remain composed in their sepulchers, waiting for the day of the resurrection of all ... The Kingdom of the Divine Fiat will make the great miracle of banishing all evils, all miseries, all fears, because it will not perform a miracle at time and circumstance, but will keep the children of its Kingdom with itself with an act of continuous miracle, to preserve them from any evil, and let them be distinguished as the children of its Kingdom. This, in the souls; but also in the body there will be many modifications, because it is always sin that is the nourishment of all evils. Once sin is removed, there will be no nourishment for evil; more so, since My Will and sin cannot exist together, therefore the human nature also will have its beneficial effects. (October 22, 1926)

All Catholics know that many saints are perfectly incorrupt; their bodies lie in their tombs without showing the slightest hint of decay and giving off nothing but a pleasant aroma. This is how all death will transpire during the Era.

There will be a superabundance even of natural goods, and all will be happy

Jesus tells Luisa:

… poverty, unhappiness, needs and evils will be banished from the children of my Will. It would not be decorous for my Will, so immensely rich and happy, to have children who would lack something, and would not enjoy all the opulence of Its goods which arise continuously.

My daughter, look at how beautiful is the order of the heavens. In the same way, when the Kingdom of the Divine Will will have Its dominion on earth in the midst of creatures, also on earth there will be perfect and beautiful order…Just as all created things, so will all the children of the Kingdom of the Supreme Fiat have their place of honor, of decorum and of dominion; and while possessing the order of heaven and, more than celestial spheres, being in perfect harmony among themselves, the abundance of goods which each one will possess will be such and so great, that one will never have need of the other—each one will have within himself the source of the goods of his Creator and of His perennial happiness.

Therefore, each one will possess the fullness of goods and full happiness in the place in which the Supreme Will has placed him; whatever the condition and the office they will occupy, all will be happy of their destiny. (January 28, 1927)

Jesus also tells Luisa that the “elements are all in waiting” in order to “deliver from their womb all the goods and effects which they contain.” The sun, the plants, the air, the water; all will deliver exponentially more good to us than we currently receive from each.

Isaiah Chapter 11, 6-9 will be fulfilled:

Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,

and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat;

The calf and the young lion shall browse together,

with a little child to guide them.

The cow and the bear shall graze,

together their young shall lie down;

the lion shall eat hay like the ox.

The baby shall play by the viper’s den,

and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.

They shall not harm or destroy on all my holy mountain;

for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD,

as water covers the sea.

 

The Sacraments will be received not merely as medicine for the sick, but as food for the healthy

Contrary to the various Dispensationalist and Joachimist heresies, ^[3]Those eschatologies that proceed from the “spiritual legacy of Joachim of Fiore,” which the CDF has rejected. Jesus makes it clear to Luisa that this Era entails the Triumph of the Church, not its passing away—the Sacraments being received finally with all their power realized, not the Sacraments ending or no longer being received. Jesus tells Luisa:

The Kingdom of my Will will be the true echo of the Celestial Fatherland, in which, while the Blessed possess their God as their own life, they receive Him into themselves also from the outside. So, inside and outside of themselves, Divine Life they possess, and Divine Life they receive. What will not be my happiness in giving Myself sacramentally to the children of the Eternal Fiat, and in finding my own Life in them? Then will my Sacramental Life have Its complete fruit; and as the species are consumed, I will no longer have the sorrow of leaving my children without the food of my continuous Life, because my Will, more than sacramental accidents, will maintain Its Divine Life always with Its full possession. In the Kingdom of my Will there will be neither foods nor communions that are interrupted—but perennial; and everything I did in Redemption will serve no longer as remedy, but as delight, as joy, as happiness, and as beauty ever growing. So, the triumph of the Supreme Fiat will give complete fruit to the Kingdom of Redemption. (November 2, 1926)

Through Luisa, Jesus is begging us to hasten this Reign!

The Coming of the Kingdom is a guarantee; nothing and no one can stop it. But when exactly it arrives depends upon our response! Jesus tells Luisa:

The first indispensable necessity in order to obtain the Kingdom of the Divine Will is to ask for It with Incessant prayers… [the] second necessity, more indispensable than the first, in order to obtain this Kingdom: it is necessary to know that one can have It. … The third necessary means is to know that God wants to give this Kingdom. (March 20, 1932) Although I burn with the desire of seeing My Divine Will Reign, yet I cannot give this Gift before I have manifested the Truths… I await with Divine and delirious patience that My Truths will make their way…More than father We yearn to give the Great Gift of Our Will to Our children, but We want that they know what they are receiving…(May 15, 1932)

Now that you have been introduced to just how utterly astonishing this Era will be, I hope that you are filled with holy desire to hasten its arrival. Do you know why it hasn’t arrived yet?

Because not enough people are proclaiming this.

Jesus tells Luisa, “All that is needed are those who would offer themselves to be the criers-and with courage, without fearing anything, facing sacrifices in order to make it [Jesus’ revelations on the Divine Will] known.” (August 25, 1929) Obviously this does not preclude responding to any of the urgent messages Heaven has given us regarding our call in these latter times: conversion, prayer (especially the Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet), frequenting the Sacraments, reading Scripture, fasting, sacrifice, works of mercy, consecration to the Holy Family, etc. The point is, when people finally realize that these labors are guaranteed to soon bear their fruit; not only in Heaven, but also on earth, then they will engage in this sacred calling with all the more vigor, and the Kingdom will come very soon. But what is needed in order for this realization itself to arrive? That you proclaim the Kingdom!

You might very well be the one additional proclaimer needed to enable the Kingdom to Come. Do not delay. No excuses. Make it happen. Whatever it takes.

Jesus promises Luisa that He will reward “superabundantly” those who promote the Divine Will; so superabundantly, in fact, that it will “astonish Heaven and earth” (February 28, 1928)

“Therefore, you—pray, and let your cry be continuous: ‘May the Kingdom of your Fiat come, and your Will be done on earth as It is in Heaven.’” (May 31, 1935)

Daniel O’Connor, author of The Crown of Sanctity has posted some ideas and resources for how to go about proclaiming it on www.DSDOConnor.com

Regarding the Era of Peace, also see blog posts by Mark Mallett on “The Now Word”:

Dear Holy Father… He is Coming!

Rethinking the End Times

How the Era was Lost

The Era of Peace Throughout Private Revelation

While the revelations of Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta may just be the most replete with references to and descriptions of the coming Era, they are far from alone in these prophecies. In fact, prophecies regarding the coming Era are so unanimous in private revelation that they have doubtless arisen to the stature of the very Sensus Fidelium itself! Click here for just brief snippets of a few examples, and be sure to continue browsing this website for greater depth! Even more importantly, we should remember that prophecies of the Era are not merely found in private revelation, but rather permeate Scripture, the Fathers of the Church, and the Papal Magisterium as well.

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The Church teaches that Jesus, indeed, will return in glory and that this world, as we know it, will come to a screeching halt.  Yet this will not occur before a fierce, cosmic battle in which the enemy will make his final bid for world domination (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 675-677). Bringing the Era of Peace to an end, evil will once again find its way into human hearts, much in the mysterious way that Lucifer, once God’s powerful angel in heaven, His “Lightbearer,” somehow moved from great heights of holiness to an evil so dark that he convinced a third of the angels to join him in a doomed endeavor, which led them to everlasting hellfire. 

The word, “Armageddon” is symbolic of this final of final confrontations, the last great battle of the ages between good and evil that will take place before the end of the world (Revelation 16:16). “Har” in Hebrew means mountain, and in Old Testament history, “Megiddo” was a place of numerous decisive battles because of the broad plain that stood before it. Deborah and Barak defeated Sisera and his Canaanite army there (Judges 4-5), Gideon drove off the Midianites and Amalekites (Judges 6), Saul and the army of Israel were defeated because of their failure to trust in God (1 Sam 31), and the Egyptian army under Pharaoh Neco killed Josiah, king of Judah (2 Kings 23:29). 

We see hints of this final war in Revelation 16:14 and in Revelation 20:7-9, where Satan is unleashed through Revelation’s mysterious “God and Magog” and he gathers enemies from the four corners of the earth (in essence, everywhere).

Before the end of the thousand years the devil shall be loosed afresh and shall assemble all the pagan nations to make war against the holy city… “Then the last anger of God shall come upon the nations, and shall utterly destroy them” and the world shall go down in a great conflagration. —4th century Ecclesiastical writer, Lactantius, “The Divine Institutes”, The ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol 7, p. 211

They will surround the camp of the Christians, but fire from heaven will consume them:

When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison. He will go out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. They invaded the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the holy ones and the beloved city. But fire came down from heaven and consumed them. The Devil who had led them astray was thrown into the pool of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were. There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. (Revelation 20: 7-9)

Then, the Catechism says: 

The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven. God's triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world. —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 677

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Jesus said to St. Faustina:

You will prepare the world for My final coming. —Divine Mercy in My Soul, Diary, n. 429

If one took this statement in a chronological sense, as an injunction to get ready, as it were, immediately for the Second Coming, it would be false. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Light of the World, A Conversation with Peter Seewald, p. 180-181

All is Ready Now

Look for a moment at the Timeline image above. See how we are progressing toward the eventual, literal rising of the Sun, who is Jesus Christ Our Lord. But, you've also heard us speak here of Jesus coming for the Era of Peace. What is this seeming "middle coming?" According to the Early Church Fathers, the popes, and a vast body of mystical revelation, it is not the coming of Jesus in the flesh (the heresy of millenarianism) but His indwelling presence in an all new manner. The Era of Peace is the fulfillment of the "Our Father" when His Kingdom will come and will be done "on earth as it is in heaven." In the words of St. Bernard:

We know that there are three comings of the Lord. The third lies between the other two. It is invisible, while the other two are visible. In the first coming, he was seen on earth, dwelling among men… In the final coming all flesh will see the salvation of our God, and they will look on him whom they pierced. The intermediate coming is a hidden one; in it only the elect see the Lord within their own selves, and they are saved. In his first coming Our Lord came in our flesh and in our weakness; in this middle coming he comes in spirit and power; in the final coming he will be seen in glory and majesty… In case someone should think that what we say about this middle coming is sheer invention, listen to what our Lord himself says: If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him. —St. Bernard, Liturgy of the Hours, Vol I, p. 169

This idea of a "middle coming" before Christ's final coming in the flesh is no novelty, says Benedict XVI:

Whereas people had previously spoken only of a twofold coming of Christ—once in Bethlehem and again at the end of time—Saint Bernard of Clairvaux spoke of an adventus medius, an intermediate coming, thanks to which he periodically renews His intervention in history. I believe that Bernard’s distinction strikes just the right note… —Light of the World, p.182-183, A Conversation With Peter Seewald

It is the coming of Christ to dwell in His saints; to repeat in them His own interior life in the hypostatic union of His human will with the Divine Will.

…in Christ is realized the right order of all things, the union of heaven and earth, as God the Father intended from the beginning. It is the obedience of God the Son Incarnate which reestablishes, restores, the original communion of man with God and, therefore, peace in the world. His obedience unites once again all things, ‘things in heaven and things on earth.’ —Cardinal Raymond Burke, speech in Rome; May 18th, 2018

And thus, all who "live in the Divine Will" in the Era of Peace will enjoy Christ's indwelling presence in an all new manner as the "Sanctity of sanctities" because He will live His divine life in them.

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… —Blessed Conchita (María Concepción Cabrera Arias de Armida), cited in The Crown and Completion of All Sanctities, by Daniel O’Connor, p. 11-12; nb. Ronda Chervin, Walk with Me, Jesus

It is this "gift of living in the Divine Will" that prepares the Bride of Christ for the Final or "Second Coming" of Jesus, as it is called in Tradition. As St. Paul wrote:

He chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him… 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. (Eph 1:4, 5:27)

It is the coming of the Kingdom within that makes the Church like the Immaculata, a suitable and beautiful Bride for the Bridegroom, for...

…[Mary] is the most perfect image of freedom and of the liberation of humanity and of the universe. It is to her as Mother and Model that the Church must look in order to understand in its completeness the meaning of her own mission.  —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Redemptoris Mater, n. 37

He chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him… 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. (Eph 1:4, 5:27)

Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. For the wedding day of the Lamb has come, his bride has made herself ready. She was allowed to wear a bright, clean linen garment. (Rev 19:7-8)

During the Era of Peace, the divine rights of the children of God are returned; the harmony between man and creation is re-established; and the prayer of Jesus for "one flock" is fulfilled.

"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

The glorious Messiah’s coming is suspended at every moment of history until his recognition by “all Israel”, for “a hardening has come upon part of Israel” in their “unbelief” toward Jesus. —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 674

This "pacification" is what the Church Father's called a "sabbath rest" for the Church. Or as St. Irenaeus stated:

…the times of the kingdom, that is, the rest, the hallowed seventh day… These are to take place in the times of the kingdom, that is, upon the seventh day… the true Sabbath of the righteous. —Adversus Haereses, Irenaeus of Lyons, V.33.3.4, The Fathers of the Church, CIMA Publishing Co.

It is the last stage of the Church before the Final Coming of the Lord:

Because this [middle] coming lies between the other two, it is like a road on which we travel from the first coming to the last. In the first, Christ was our redemption; in the last, he will appear as our life; in this middle coming, he is our rest and consolation.…. In his first coming Our Lord came in our flesh and in our weakness; in this middle coming he comes in spirit and power; in the final coming he will be seen in glory and majesty… —St. Bernard, Liturgy of the Hours, Vol I, p. 169

Our Lady, the Great Key

So, in that light, consider the Timeline image above one last time. If the Era of Peace is the "seventh day", then the "eighth day" is eternity, according to Early Church Father, Lactantius:

He shall indeed rest on the seventh day… after giving rest to all things, I will make the beginning of the eighth day, that is, the beginning of another world. —Letter of Barnabas (70-79 A.D.), written by a second century Apostolic Father

So, like any day, it is preceded by a "morning star." In our time, that "morning star" is Our Lady:

Mary, the shining star that announces the Sun. —POPE ST. JOHN PAUL II, Meeting with Young People at Air Base of Cuatro Vientos, Madrid, Spain; May 3rd, 2003; vatican.va

Yet, in the Book of Revelation, Jesus describes himself as the "morning star."^[1]Rev 22:16 And He promises this:

To the victor, who keeps to my ways until the end, I will give authority over the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. Like clay vessels will they be smashed, just as I received authority from my Father. And to him I will give the morning star. (Rev 2:26-28)

The victory, then, for those who faithfully pass through the Great Storm, is the gift of Jesus himself, realized interiorly in what St. John Paul II called a "New and Divine Holiness” or what other mystics refer to as 'the continuous participation in the Trinity’s one eternal operation; the full actualization of the soul’s powers; the sharing in God’s prime motion; the Divine and Eternal Mode of holiness; the greatest sanctity; and the Real Life of Jesus in the soul, etc.' ^[2]cf. The Crown of Sanctity: On the Revelations of Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta [[pp. 110-111]

Thus comes into full view the "key" and hermeneutic to salvation history: The Virgin Mary is the prototype. She precedes the Church, not only as her mother, but as the image of what the Church is to become: immaculate, holy, one with the Divine Will.

Holy Mary… you became the image of the Church to come… —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Spe Salvi, n.50

What we say of Mary is mirrored in the Church; what we say of the Church is reflected in Mary.

When either is spoken of, the meaning can be understood of both, almost without qualification. —Blessed Isaac of Stella, Liturgy of the Hours, Vol. I, pg. 252

Hence, it is only when the Church herself becomes the Morning Star through a mystical incarnation of her Lord that He will return in the flesh in glory:

The Church, which comprises the elect, is fittingly styled daybreak or dawn… It will be fully day for her when she shines with the perfect brilliance of interior light. —St. Gregory the Great, Pope; Liturgy of the Hours, Vol III, p. 308

The Final Coming

When Jesus comes again, it will be as Bernard said, "in glory and majesty." And it will, this time, be in the flesh:

He comes to judge the living and the dead in the same flesh in which He ascended. —St. Leo the Great, Sermon 74

Christ was last seen on earth in the flesh at His Ascension into Heaven. And the Apostles there present, incapable of removing their gaze from the spot, were instructed by the angels afterward,

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. (Acts 1:11)

St. Thomas Aquinas explains,

Although through being sentenced unjustly Christ merited His judiciary power, He will not judge with the appearance of infirmity wherein He was judged unjustly, but under the appearance of glory wherein He ascended to the Father. Hence the place of His ascension is more suitable to the judgment. —Summa Theologica, Supplement to the Third Part. Q 88. Article 4

We must remember that no one knows "that day or hour" (Matthew 24:36).  Consequently, the duration of the Era itself that precedes this Final Coming is mysterious. Although one can find a small handful of alleged prophecies regarding the length of the Era in the writings of a few mystics, we are inclined to say that it is safe to consider these predictions as perhaps the pious imaginings of the mystic being confused with an authentic revelation. For, if Heaven were to have revealed the length of the Era, then all the citizens of the Era would be deprived of that overwhelming joy that they will experience each morning, gazing upon the rising of the sun, as they think to themselves "Perhaps tomorrow I shall see not the rising of the sun, but the Coming of the Son Himself whom I so long to see face to face."

When it comes to the events that immediately precede the Final Coming, we are admittedly dealing with enigma. Although a few recent authors—who have put great effort into generating their own attempts at a comprehensive eschatological-speculative system (and in some cases have written lengthy books on the same)—insist that the Final Coming is immediately after the Antichrist (and, if they posit an Era of Peace, they place it before the Antichrist), it has become clear, from the reliable teachings of the Early Church Fathers and the unanimous consensus of the entire modern era of trustworthy private revelation, that this speculation is mistaken.

For this aforementioned consensus that we have laid out above has simply vindicated the clear reading of the Book of Revelation, which too many modern scholars have tried to obscure by insisting on merely symbolic readings of almost its entirety—an approach doomed to fail when applied to any book of Scripture. Thus, to summarize our Timeline: The Warning, Chastisements and the arrival of the Antichrist is imminent. After his reign (and defeat) comes the symbolic "thousand year" reign of Christ, on earth in His Church, in grace. Following is the mysterious explosion of "Gog and Magog" at the end of this reign in what brings the world to an end and ushers in the physical, Final Coming of Christ.

The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God’s victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven. God’s triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world. —Catechism of the Catholic Church, 677

The old Catholic Encyclopedia summarizes all of its teachings with the following concise statements:

With the fulfilment of the sentence pronounced in the last judgment, the relations and the dealings of the Creator with the creature find their culmination, are explained and justified. The Divine purpose being accomplished, the human race will, as a consequence, attain its final destiny.

Or as Jesus said to Luisa Piccarreta, "Heaven is man's destiny." And with that, Our Lord will call the dead to life so that all those who "died in Him" may experience the glory and transfiguration of their bodies, as our Queen and Mother is in Heaven.

The Last Judgment

If you love Him, you have nothing to fear.

Although everything will be laid bare on Judgment Day—there will be absolutely no more secrets—this is nothing for the just to fear. For, as we know, “All have sinned” (Romans 3:23), and there is no shame in forgiven sin, thus no shame will be felt by the elect when even their darkest hidden sins are revealed; for they will be glad that all souls can rejoice with them in seeing this superabundant exposition of the Divine Mercy.

We conclude this section with a series of quotations from a wonderful book—one which St. Therese of Lisieux herself said was among the “greatest graces of her life”—entitled The End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life. This book consists in the text of a series of retreats given by Fr. Charles Arminjon in the 19th century, and it shares beautiful teachings on the Final Coming of Christ and the events that go along with His arrival, most especially, God's ultimate glory bestowed upon the body, soul, and spirt, made in His image.

Both St. Athanasius, in his creed, and the Fourth Lateran Council express this truth in terms no  less precise and even more explicit: “All men,” they say, “must rise again with the same bodies with which they were united in the present life.”… Such was the unshakable hope of Job. As he sat on his dung-hill, wasted away by putrefaction but with an unruffled countenance and shining eyes, the whole span of the ages flashed through his mind. In an ecstasy of joy he contemplated, in the brightness of the prophetic light, the days when he would shake off the dust of his coffin, and exclaimed, ‘I know that my Redeemer lives… whom I myself shall see; my own eyes, not another’s, shall behold Him.”

This doctrine of the resurrection is the keystone, the pillar, of the whole Christian edifice, the focal point and center of our Faith. Without it there is no redemption, our beliefs and our preaching are futile, and all religion crumbles at the base…

Rationalist writers have declared that this belief in the resurrection was not contained in the Old Testament, and that it dates only from the Gospel. Nothing could be more erroneous… all [the patriarchs and prophets] tremble with joy and hope at the prospect of the promised immortality, and celebrate this new life, which will become theirs beyond the grave, and will have no end. …

The human body, made by His own hands and enlivened by His breath, is the epitome of His marvels, the masterpiece of His wisdom and divine goodness. By the beauty and elegance of its construction, the nobility of its bearing and the splendors that shine through it, the body of man is infinitely superior to all the material beings that have come from the hands of God. It is through the body that the mind reveals its power and exercises its kingship. It is the body, Tertullian says, that is the organ of the divine life and the sacraments. It is the body that is washed by the water of Baptism, so that the soul may obtain its purity and clarity… It is the body that receives the Eucharist and quenches its thirst with divine Blood, so that man, become one with Christ and sharing with Him the same life, may live eternally… Could the body of man… be like the grass in the fields, bursting forth into life for a moment, only to become the prey of worms and the guest of death forever? That would be a blasphemy against Providence and an affront to His infinite goodness…

If you ask why God saw fit to unite, in one and the same creature, two principles so disparate, so different in their essence and properties, as mind and body; why He did not wish man to be, like the angels, a pure spirit, I will reply that God so acted in order that man might be truly the king and epitome of all His works; so that he might, after the manner of Christ, recapitulate in his personality the totality of created elements and beings, so that he might be the center of all things and, by bringing together mind and body, the visible and invisible order, serve as interpreter of both, and offer them simultaneously to the Most High, in his homage and adoration…

…the resurrection will be instantaneous: it will be accomplished in the twinkling of an eye, says St. Paul, in an imperceptible instant, in a flash. The dead, asleep in the slumber of many centuries, will hear the voice of the Creator, and will obey Him as promptly as the elements obeyed Him during the six days [of Creation]. They will shake off the binding-clothes of their age-long night and free themselves from the grip of death, with greater nimbleness than a sleeping man awakening with a start. Just as, of old, Christ came forth from His tomb with the speed of lightning, cast off His shroud in an instant, had the sealed stone of His sepulcher lifted aside by an angel, and hurled the guards, half-dead with fright, to the ground, so, says Isaiah, in an equally imperceptible space of time, death will be cast forth…

Ocean and land will open up their depths to eject their victims, just as the whale that had swallowed up Jonah opened its jaws to throw him out on the shore of Tharsis. Then human beings, free, like Lazarus, of the bonds of death, will rush transfigured into a new life, and will insult the cruel enemy that had felt sure it would keep them fettered in endless captivity. They will say, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”…

The resurrection will be a grand, imposing spectacle that will surpass all those ever seen on earth, and eclipsing even the solemnity of the first creation…

With the resurrection accomplished, the immediate consequence is the judgment, which will take place without delay… The general judgment is a certain fact, announced by the prophets; it is a truth that Jesus Christ constantly stresses, a truth ratified by reason and consonant with the law of conscience and every idea of equity….

This judgment is rightly called universal because it will be exercised over all members of the human race, because it will cover every crime, every misdemeanor, and because it will be definitive and irrevocable… there will be no more distinction of wealth, birth, or rank… the victories of great captains, the works conceived by genius, the enterprises and great discoveries will be deemed mere shams and child’s play…

What He has said, He will fulfill; what He has done, He will confirm. What He once desired will remain eternally fixed, for heaven and earth will pass away, but the Word of God will not be subject to any error or change…

If God is silent and seems at this moment to be asleep, He will unfailingly awaken in His own time… If the most solemn hearing of all has been adjourned, it is for a short period only…

… all wicked men, the pamphleteers of free-thought, the instigators of unjust laws, those who violate the honor and liberty of the family, and the rights and virtue of children; but that those men who defy God and deride His threats will one day have a minute and rigorous account to render to His justice… is an absolutely certain truth… and, sooner or later, they will settle that account. On the day of solemn reparation, the wicked who called the just fools, who glutted themselves on their tortures and tears, like starving men devour bread, will learn to their cost that God does not suffer Himself to be mocked… —taken from portions of pages 78-106

The end. Or, rather, the beginning… of eternity.

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