Periods of light and darkness in the Life of the Church

(CEV) “The Notebooks 1943”, p. 563
Jesus says: “My Church has already known periods of obscurantism due to a number of different things. It should not be forgotten that, if the Church, taken as an entity, is a work as perfect as her Founder -taken as a group of men, she presents the imperfections proper to what comes from men.

Periods in the Life of [the] Church

When the Church —and I am now referring to the gathering of her high dignitaries— acted according to the dictates of my Law and my Gospel, she experienced radiant times of splendor.

But woe when, placing earthly interests before those of Heaven, she contaminated herself with human passions!

Woe three times over when she worshiped the Beast John speaks of —that is, political Power— and made herself its slave.

The light then darkened, necessarily, into more or less obscure twilights either because of the deficiency proper to the Heads who rose to that throne by human arts or through their weakness in the face of human pressures.

These are the times in which there are ‘idol shepherds,’ about whom I have already spoken -the consequence, at root, of the errors of all. For if Christians were as they should be, whether powerful or humble, abuses and intrusions would not take place, and the punishment of God, who withdraws his light from those who have rejected it, would not be provoked.

In past centuries, the antipopes and schisms came from those errors, and both the former and the latter divided consciences into two opposing camps, provoking incalculable ruins in souls. In future centuries those same errors will manage to provoke Error -that is, the Abomination in God’s house, the sign preceding the end of the world.

What will it consist of? When will it occur? It is not necessary for you to know this.

I tell you only that from a clergy cultivating rationalism excessively and serving political power excessively there can only come, fatally, a very dark period for the Church.

But do not fear. The prophecy of Zechariah is joined, like one ring to another, to John’s. After this period of painful travail in which, persecuted by the forces of hell, the Church, like the mystical Woman John speaks of, after having fled to save herself by taking refuge in the best and losing the unworthy members in the mystical (I say mystical) flight, will give birth to the saints destined to lead her into the hour preceding the last times.

Those who will have to gather the races around the Cross to prepare Christ’s assembly will have the hand of a father and a king. Nor will any race fail to respond to the appeal, with its best children.

I will then come, and over against all the snares and stratagems, attempts and crimes of Satan directed towards my earthly Jerusalem -the militant Church- I will set my power for her defense.

I will pour my spirit upon all the redeemed of the earth. And even those who now suffer, expiating the sins of their fathers, and who are unable to find salvation because they do not dare to turn to Me will encounter peace, for, beating their breasts, they will call down -in a way quite different from that of their fathers- upon themselves that Blood already shed, which drips inexhaustibly from the members their fathers pierced. Like a fountain I will stand in the midst of my flock, entirely reassembled, and will wash in Myself all the base actions of the past which repentance will already have begun to cancel out.

Then, as the King of Justice and Wisdom, I will disperse the idols of the false doctrines; I will purge the Earth of the false prophets who have drawn you into so many errors. I will take the place of all the doctors, all the prophets, more or less holy or more or less wicked, for the final teaching must be cleansed of imperfection, for it must prepare those who have no time for purgation and who are to be called quickly to the tremendous review for the Last Judgment.

Christ the Redeemer, whose goal is to redeem you and who leaves no stone unturned to do so and who is already beginning and accelerating his second teaching to counter the cultural, social, and spiritual heresies which have arisen everywhere with his voice of truth, will speak with the signs of his Torment. Rivers of light and grace shall emerge from my Wounds, wounds which killed the Son of God, but heal the children of man.

These living rubies of my wounds shall be a sword for the impenitent, the obstinate, and those sold to Satan and a caress for the ‘little ones’ who love Me as a loving father. This caress of Christ shall descend upon their weakness to fortify them, and my hand shall carry them towards the trial in which only those who love Me with a true love withstand. A third. But this portion shall be worthy of possessing the City of Heaven, the Kingdom of God.

Then I will come, no longer as the Teacher, but as the King, to take possession of my militant Church, now rendered One and Universal, as my Will made it.

The centuries -long travail shall be over for her. The Enemy shall be defeated forever. The Earth shall be cleansed by the rivers of Grace descending one last time upon it to make it as it was in the beginning, when Sin had not corrupted the altar of this planet, destined to sing the praises of God with the other planets, which, because of man’s sin, became the base for the scaffold of its Lord, made flesh to save the Earth. With all the seducers overcome, all the persecutors who, at an insistent pace, have disturbed the Church, my bride, She shall know tranquility and glory.

We will rise together for a final ascension, my saints and I, to take possession of the City without contamination, where my throne is prepared and where everything shall be new and without pain. Immersed in my light, you shall reign with Me forever and ever.

This is obtained for you by Him who, for your sakes, became incarnate in Mary’s womb and was born in Bethlehem of Judah to die on Golgotha.”

Maria Valtorta: The Notebooks

“These Notebooks belong to a category of mystical literature which the Catholic Church has long been familiar with: that of so-called “private revelations.” A private revelation is not binding for the faith of Christians, but its value is to be measured by its capacity to instruct and inflame souls, spurring them to love God more and apply divine teachings to their everyday lives. In the confidence—and the conviction—that this work superabounds in these inspired qualities, we offer it for the spiritual nourishment of readers. —David Murray

Content taken from the works of Maria Valtorta with the permission of the “Centro Editoriale Valtortiano Srl”- Viale Piscicelli, 89/91 – 03036 Isola del Liri, (FR – Italy), www.mariavaltorta.com, which has all the rights upon Valtorta’s Works.