Dives in Misericordia...

Pope John Paul II...on the mercy of God....

"Let us appeal to the love which has maternal characteristics and which, like a mother, follows each of her children, each lost sheep, even if they should number millions, even if in the world evil should prevail over goodness, even if contemporary humanity should deserve a new 'flood' on account of its sins...and if any of our contemporaries do not share the faith and hope which leads me, as servant of Christ and steward of the mysteries of God, to implore God's mercy for humanity in this hour of history, let them at least try to understand the reason for my concern. It is dictated by love for man, for all that is human and which, according to the intuitions of many of our contemporaries, is threatened by immense danger."
--Pope John Paul II, Dives in Misericordia (1980).

December 31, 1993 Milan, Italy [Last night of the year]

Great is My Concern

"Beloved children, spend with me, in recollection and prayer, the last hours of this year which is about to end. Do not let yourselves be taken up with dissipation, clamor, and amusements, in which the majority of my poor children spend these hours. Read, in silence, the signs of your time, and join in my great concern for what awaits you.
--Great is my concern because this humanity, so ailing, is continuing in its obstinate rejection of God and of His law of love. In many ways and with numerous signs and extraordinary interventions, I have intervened in the course of this year, to urge it to conversion, and to its return to the Lord.
But I have not been listened to. The name of the Lord is scorned, and His day is more and more profaned. Egoism is suffocating the hearts of men, become cold and closed due to a great incapacity to love. Life is considered of little value; violence and homicides are increasing; all kinds of means are being used to prevent the birth of more children; willful abortions, this terrible crime which day and night cries to your God for vengeance, are increasing everywhere; impurity is spreading like a great tide of filth which is sweeping everything before it.
The cup of divine justice is full to overflowing. I see the chastisements by which the mercy of God wishes to purify and save this poor sinful humanity. How numerous and great are the sufferings which await you, my poor children, so enticed and ensnared by Satan, the spirit of falsehood, who is seducing you and leading you to your death!
--Great is my concern because my Church is at the mercy of the forces of evil which are threatening it and attempting to destroy it from within. Masonry, with its diabolical power, has set up its center in the very heart of the Church, where the Vicar of my Son Jesus resides, and from there is spreading its evil influence to every part of the world. And now the Church will once again be betrayed by its own; it will be cruelly persecuted and led to the gibbet.
I see that the bloody persecution is now at the doors, and many of you will be scattered by the violent wind of this frightful hurricane.
During these hours, share in my great concern, and unite yourselves, each and all, to my prayer of intercession and reparation . Multiply everywhere the cenacles of prayer which I have asked of you, as safe places, as refuges in which you take shelter in the tremendous storm which awaits you.
In the cenacles, you will be aware of my extraordinary presence.
In the cenacles, you will experience the security and peace which your heavenly Mother gives you.
In the cenacles, you will be preserved from evil and defended from the great dangers which threaten you.
In the cenacles, you will be formed by me in confidence and in a great hope because the cenacle is the place of your salvation, which the heavenly Mother has prepared for you, in these last times in which the great trial has now come for all."
--To the Priests--Our Lady's Beloved Sons, MMP (2009); Interior locutions to Fr. Stefano Gobbi, MMP (1973-97); #509, pp.795-96