Transcript
The experience was totally unexpected. I was giving a parish retreat at a church in Georgia. And as I arrived at the parish with my helper who was driving me, Dr. David, we got out of the car and started heading toward the church when my attention was drawn upwards. I looked up at the sky before I crossed the parking lot and I was startled, but pleasantly surprised, by a vision of the Virgin herself, the Virgin Mary high up in the sky. I saw the beautiful mother. And in my community, we are totally consecrated to Our Lady: all the priests and religious, the deacons and even the laity. We go through St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion, prepare for 33 days and make a total consecration of our lives. Our founder was a true son of Mary, Father Jim Flanagan. So, I’ve been in love with Our Lady for a long time: not just loving her, but in love with her.
She’s like the woman of my life, in particular. She’s unutterably beautiful, Our Lady. Mother Angelica once said that “When the angels look at Mary they swoon -- they gasp for breath at her beauty!” This is true actually. It’s true! I long for the day when everyone knows this reality of God’s Mona Lisa. Mary is God’s Mona Lisa, His finest creation.
I had the joy of seeing her in the air, way up in the air, over the church. She must have been quite large because I was way down on the ground and she was miles up in the air, but she was kind of big. And I basically saw Mary’s torso, from her waist to the top of her head. She’s quite beautiful. Our Lady was holding something in her hands.
Now I live in the presence of Our Lady every day, so it wasn’t that I was so startled because a true Catholic lives in the Heart of Mary. She’s the Ark of the New Covenant and we live in her as a sure refuge, so I was not that surprised. Like when I was a boy I’d go into the kitchen and my mom would be cooking. I wouldn’t be surprised to see my mom in the kitchen. And I wasn’t surprised to see Mama up there. She’s the Queen of the Universe. I just wasn’t that surprised -- but happy.
I saw her. She was holding something in her hand. It was black; it was dark. As I looked, I didn’t know what it was. It was something in her hand that seemed to be curved. She was holding what was like a roll of something in her hands.
As I looked at Mama, she made a motion and, whatever this was, it began to unroll. So, I realized at that moment it was a ream of material, a ream of cloth. And it began to roll out from her hand. She was still holding it, but it was rolling out and I see it come down and then turn around and circle around the globe.
As I was standing there, it is circling all the way around the earth and coming back to where we were in Georgia -- in seconds -- then it went around again a few degrees over, and again and again, to wrap the entire world in this black fabric.
And I saw the words spelled out in front of me. I saw the words in my spirit -- "blackout": b-l-a-c-k-o-u-t -- blackout. Then the whole thing disappeared.
So, it didn’t scare me in any way. I thought it was very interesting because the Lord told us to read the signs of the times. We have to be aware of what is happening because God is on the move. The devil has been on the move for a long time and he’s about to get his just reward -- his punishment -- soon! And God will work His victory through His Holy Mother. So, we need to be attuned to the Holy Spirit and to the Holy Virgin.
[The vision] disappeared. I wasn’t totally surprised because I know the prophecies of the Saints, the Blesseds and the Venerables about a great tribulation and a possible blackout and an "illumination of conscience: Three Days of Darkness. I did not know what this [vision] referred to but my first thought was the Three Days of Darkness because it was a total blackout of the world...
Well, the vision disappeared. I went in and gave the day of retreat. I left with my helper. And David brought me out to the car, I just looked up by just coincidence, and I saw it again. Some six hours later, there’s Mama up in the air, holding the black ream. And it unfolds in her hand, it rolls out, and covers the earth, spins all the way around until the whole earth is covered in a matter of a minute. And I saw the word “blackout” and then it disappeared.
Well! When God does a thing a second time, He’s putting like a punctuation mark, you might say. I took that and explained to David what I was seeing. David knows that these things happen [to me]. As the song says, “Great things happen when God mixes with man -- great things!” As the bible says, “Signs and wonders accompanied the apostles wherever they went.”
Well David now drives me to the home of one of the parishioners of this parish where they are having a dinner waiting for us. So, we go to this beautiful house and have dinner with this lovely Catholic family as a way of resting after a day of hard work.
As I get out of the car to walk into the house, there I see it a third time! Straight up in the air over their garage! Up in the air was Mother Mary! A little closer this time, but still with the big black material, which spins out over the whole world -- “blackout” -- so three times in one day the Lord gave me this vision and I think of that scripture verse that “a triple cord cannot be broken.”
So that was my interesting and unexpected experience. I believe that Our Lord and Our Holy Mother were giving me a warning, not so much personally, but as a priest, as a pastor of His people, to have His people get ready. That we are living in very unusual times -- very unusual times! You could quite honestly say apocalyptic times.
And God is on the move, and His chief instrument is Mary -- and then the angels, then His Holy Church. Some great things are going to be coming soon. I believe it will be a shake-up of the whole world, including the "illumination of conscience," so that the world can wake up and back away from darkness and begin, in repentance, to walk in the joy of the light of her Son, Jesus Christ.
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