CMO 57: Silence and Obscurity

 

Dear Friend:

According to an email I received from the Catholic Store (support@catholic.store), titled: The World of Marian Apparitions: New Messages From Heaven, the following quote is listed:

"As you know, Satan is attacking the family and the priesthood, as they are the holiest vocations. It is through these vocations that the majority of my children come to me in heaven."

Mary, United States of America, 1987

The email continues ...

Did Mary warn us about COVID-19? Or the current turmoil we see playing out within the Church hierarchy? More importantly, did Mary have advice for the family - particularly advice to Americans?

In 1987, Mary appeared to a young mother in the United States with advice for families: "Silence and obscurity. This is what I ask of you. May the Lord's light shine through you in your daily duties...A silent, hidden life counts, like the one I lived in Bethlehem and Nazareth." She also told us how to verify a message from her: "You will know they come from me by the truth that is contained in them."

Silence and obscurity ... the mother of God has my attention.

In an article written in The Catholic Gentleman, July 14, 2016, titled The Practice of Silence for Laypeople, by Sam Guzman, Mr. Guzman writes...

"Communion with God our Creator once came naturally and easily, much like seeing or hearing does now. We were constantly aware of His presence. But now, sin has disrupted this communion and damaged our ability to know God at the deepest level of our being."

Upon further research, I found additional articles related to silence and why it is important, if not necessary to our spiritual communion with God.

Silence and obscurity... are what Our Lady said.

Obscure: it means the state of being unknown, inconspicuous, or unimportant. According to vocabularly.com in response to the following question, "What is the meaning of obscure in the Bible?" the response is the state of being humble and unimportant. Nowhere.

While I cannot explain it, I can see why silence and obscurity are important and why Our Lady would challenge us to live this way in a world that is full of noise.

I believe since childhood I have always wanted to live as Mary lived even though I knew her not until that day at Queen of the Valley hospital. All I wanted was to love God, be in His service through my neighbors, and live a quiet obscure life of prayer and service. That is until sin entered my life and I was introduced to pride, vanity, gluttony, and disordered sexual idiocy!

And still, the mercy of Christ through His beloved Mother touched my soul time and time again. Each time rescuing me from the brink of eternal damnation.

2017 was the benchmark year for me. It was on the eve of the 100th anniversary of Our Lady's apparition at Fatima that the Holy Spirit touched my heart during Holy Week and invited me back to Christ through His Mother and His Church.

I responded, but did I do so correctly?

How much of my life has changed [for the better] and what of this world have I renounced for the good of my relationship with God and neighbor?

Not enough!

Recently, in the stillness of my heart, I asked the Lord through Mary to send me His Holy Spirit and to show me the way. "I want to do better," I said. "I want to live better!" I muttered. "I truly desire to repent and serve seeking nothing for myself except to find my way home to eternity with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That is my ultimate goal. I also wish to spend the remainder of my life praying for the conversion of sinners, asking the mercy of Christ upon the world, and loving Him daily through His Most Holy Mother and His Church."

I believe today that prayer has been answered through the email I read this morning.

It is my prayer and desire to move forward in silence, service, and prayer trusting in Jesus that He will grant me the graces necessary through the Holy Spirit and His Mother to reject the temporary allurements and pleasures of this world focusing instead on living a life of silence and obscurity just as Our Lady did in the service of others and in the spirit of prayer, trust, and love.

My first duty is to repent. My second duty is the Sacrament of Reconciliation. My third duty is prayer, especially for the conversion of all sinners and the Church. My fourth duty is service to Christ through my neighbors in silence and obscurity.

Jesus said to His disciples, "When you pray, go into your room where only the Father sees you." Who am I to argue with the Son of God? He's right. 

I am ready to renounce this world and all that I have been a slave to and to repent, pray, and serve.

Are you?

Always in God's friendship and love,

Carlos