#endtimes #catholic #ourlady

• Today is the last Sunday of the liturgical year and it represents the end of time. That is why the Church gives us a Gospel passage of Our Lord speaking about the Last Judgment.
• Whenever Our Lord speaks of the Last Judgment, He wants to give us certain means by which we may identify it, while at the same time He does not want to tell us when it will happen. Rather, He wants us to always watch and be ready for His coming.
• Today, I would like to speak about some other general information about the Last Judgment and the End Times. We do not have this information from the Gospels but from a saint.
• This information comes from St. Louis de Montfort and it concerns the role of Our Lady in the End Times.
• We have to understand St. Louis’ perspective on the Providence of God. It is that God the Trinity desired to make use of Our Lady in every aspect of the work of the Redemption and salvation of mankind.
• This was a free choice on the part of God because of the fact that He is almighty and does not need anyone. It is not that He needs to make use of Our Lady; it is that He wills to do so out of His goodness.
• Think of a situation in the home where the father is fixing a door. He is the most capable member of the family to do it and he does not need anyone’s help. But he chooses to ask his daughter to help him, for her sake. He wants to spend time with her, he wants her to learn, and he wants her to be a part of the upkeep of the house.
• Something similar goes on with our salvation. It’s like the door into Heaven was broken and could not be used any more. The heavenly Father is going to fix it. He does not need anyone to help Him to do so. But He chooses to ask one of the members of the human race, the ones who broke the door, to help Him in fixing the door.
• He asks Our Lady for her help and she consents. By her consent, one of the members of the human race that is being redeemed and saved participates in the work to save us.
• We all know what this meant for Our Lady during her lifetime. She consented to become the Mother of Our Lord. She took care of Him during His hidden life. She requested Him to perform His first miracle. She accompanied Him during His public life and was with Him at the foot of the Cross.
• During the first centuries of the Church, Marian devotion was present but was not very strong. As the centuries go by, Our Lady becomes more and more known. She becomes more honored. Catholics understand better the role that God gave her. They start to make more use of devotions to her, like the Office of Our Lady and the Rosary that she revealed to St. Dominic.
• Our Lady herself begins to reveal herself more through apparitions: her apparitions to St. Dominic, St. Simon Stock, the founders of the Servite Order—all these in the Middle Ages.
• Then, the more modern apparitions to St. Bernadette in Lourdes, to St. Catherine Laboure in Paris, and to the three children of Fatima.
• St. Louis de Montfort notices these two things and he applies them to the end times: a) God wants to make use of Our Lady in the whole of the work of our Redemption and salvation; b) God wants Our Lady to become more and more known over time.
• From the realization of this plan of divine Providence, he draws a conclusion: “It was through Mary that the salvation of the world was begun, and it is through Mary that it must be consummated… In the second coming of Jesus Christ, Mary has to be made known and revealed by the Holy Ghost in order that, through her, Jesus Christ may be known, loved and served… God wishes to reveal and make known Mary, the masterpiece of His hands, in these latter times” (True Devotion, par. 49-50).