The  Battle  for  the  Soul  of  America

 
I Come to You, O Children of America, as a Last Resort

On September 27, 1956, Our Lady again appeared to me while I was at
prayer. She held the world in her hands. From her eyes tears were flowing upon it,
as though she longed to cleanse it from its guilt. It was then that I heard these
words filled with sorrow and longing.

“Behold, O my children, the tears of your Mother! Shall I weep in vain?
Assuage the sorrow of my Heart over the ingratitude of sinful men by the love and
chasteness of your lives. Will you do this for me, beloved children, or will you
allow your Mother to weep in vain? I come to you, O children of America, as a last
resort. I plead with you to listen to my voice. Cleanse your souls in the Precious
Blood of My Son. Live in His Heart, and take me in that I may teach you to live in
great purity of heart which is so pleasing to God. Be my army of chaste soldiers,
ready to fight to the death to preserve the purity of your souls. I am the
Immaculate One, Patroness of your land. Be my faithful children as I have been
your faithful Mother.”

(Sister Mildred (Mary Ephrem) Neuzil, Diary, OUR LADY OF AMERICA©, Fostoria,
Ohio, Pg. 12.)

It is now 2013. Our Lady spoke these words to Sister Mildred Neuzil in 1957, fifty-six
years ago, suggesting that the world has been in danger of God’s judgment for half a
century. We believe God is the Lord of Nature and nothing happens but by His ordaining or
permissive or conditional Will. Thus, the natural disasters, the political upheavals and the
global economic crisis are no accidents and may well be viewed by God fearing people as
part of the judgment of which Our Lady has warned us. At Fatima Our Lady stated that war
is a punishment for sin. What does Our Lady mean in this message when she says she
comes to her children in America as a last resort? Have other older, traditionally
Christian nations failed to live by and uphold God’s supreme authority over them? Is Our
Lady growing weary of America’s routine prayer for God to bless America when America,
having already been so blessed, attempts to remove God from all the places where He
belongs and from the hearts of our people? Sister Mildred was adamant that the sin of
abortion which we have legalized here in the United States, denying a whole class of
people, children in the womb, their God given unalienable human rights--the right to life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness--was calling down God’s judgment upon America.


Why would God’s judgment be looming over America? When we consider that
America has been blessed with a rich Christian heritage and legacy of freedom, faith and
godly hospitality to the poor of the world and has enjoyed that freedom without the
oppression of atheistic dictatorships that claim divine rights and usurp all God-given rights
from the people, must we not bend our knees in gratitude? Our unalienable rights define
our belief in the sacredness of life, the unfathomable dignity of the human person and the
right to worship God freely as beings dependent upon Him for our existence. The United
States of America has been privileged to be the first nation to proclaim Mary under the title
of her Immaculate Conception as our Patroness. The United States of America has now
been greatly favored with the appearance of Our Lady under the title of our Nation in this
new image as “Our Lady of America, the Immaculate Virgin®.” With America’s heritage
of welcoming the poor of all nations, this favor represents Our Lady’s universal spiritual
motherhood over her children who have come from all nations to America precisely to enjoy
religious and political freedom. Our Lady speaks unequivocally about Heaven’s mandate to
America, the United States of America in particular, to lead the world away from this
genocide of Holy Innocents that is abortion, and from its concomitant attacks upon life at
any stage and upon marriage and family life as God has ordained it. God has ordained
marriage to be between one man and one woman for the establishment of a stable family
that provides every child with a father and a mother as proper growth and development
demands. If we deny the very first unalienable right, the right to life itself, how can we
logically fight for any other rights, for they all flow from this first one? Society isn’t referred
to as a “culture of death” without cause. Sins against life necessarily involve disobedience
to God and man’s playing at being god and lord of life, as well as some form of impurity of
faith or life. If our hearts and minds and bodies and souls were truly chaste and pure, we
would not be able to tolerate our contemporary fascination with guns, violence, the vulgarity
of the tongue, the culture of the flesh and self indulgence, and even death itself.
 

History recognizes Adolph Hitler as an evil man who exterminated six million Jews,
a class of people he determined had no human rights--no right to life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness. He exterminated another five to six million non-Jews whose faith in God
demanded that they try to save these people from death. Hitler’s false exaltation of the Nazi
Aryan race led him to dehumanize the Jews as vermin, unworthy of life, so he could
rationalize his evil deeds in destroying them. So had Lucifer exalted his angelic nature as
too superior to worship a God who would embrace such unimaginable humility as to
assume a human nature so inferior to the Divine Nature and the nature of the angels. He,
too, rationalized his refusal to serve His God in the Sacred Humanity. Hurled from heaven
to earth, Satan and his cohorts prowl the world seeking souls to destroy; they wage
relentless revenge and war upon that Sacred Humanity and His Bride Who is one with Him,
the Church. These demons seduce thousands away from the house of their Father and the
arms of their Savior with lies that present sin so attractively through charismatic personages
under demonic influence that many cannot resist. Only the pure of heart can discern the
spirits. Satan cannot endure truth for he is a master liar; he cannot endure humility, for he
is bloated with pride, the root of all sin. Satan and the demons flee when the holy names of
Jesus and Mary are prayed. These holy names, God’s Word and humility are our surest
weapons to gain victory over the devil and his demons.

January 22, 2013, marked the 40th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade which legalized
abortion in the United States, exterminating over 54 million babies in America alone by,
like Hitler, dehumanizing them, claiming they are not persons in the womb when for
centuries we have known that they are. Hitler’s crimes pale in the light of these numbers.
Is Roe vs. Wade a valid civil law? God is Creator and therefore has supreme authority
over all creation and life itself. He is the author of the Laws of the Universe which keep all
things in balance. God is the author of the Natural and the Moral Law which ensures human
behavior will remain in perfect harmony in its relationship to God, to others and to itself.
God is perfection, infinite goodness and purity; He cannot will evil nor do anything that is not
good or is contrary to His own laws. He looked at all that He had made and saw that it was
good. Sin, as a result of free will, destroys that harmony and goodness. As Creator, God is
the source of all legitimate authority, civil and religious, and all authority is subject to His. So
we must ask again, can any civil law that is contrary to the Divine Law, the Natural Law
written into our very natures by the Creator, and the Moral Law revealed to us by God
Himself as the norm for human behavior as befits our nature as persons made in His image
and likeness and destined for union with Him, our true good, be valid civil law? Dare we
be so foolish as to think we are higher than or better than or more knowing and good than
God? If civil law is not valid law in the eyes of God, do we not have a duty to disobey
and oppose it and to do everything in our power to overturn it? Obviously, mankind
has decided, like Lucifer, to be its own god and to do its own will in defiance of God. Our
Lady addresses this hardheartedness in sinful man when she expresses her sorrow over
the darkness that is enveloping the world. Darkness is symbolic of evil and error. On
February 11, 1981, Our Lady led Sister Mildred to understand that “the Forces of Evil are
enveloping the world. Their hatred, however, is now particularly focused on the
United States because of the Divine Mandate given to it to lead the world to peace.”
(Diary, Pg. 39.)

The Immaculate One is also the Mother of Mercy. In 1956 she begged us to turn to
her and ask for that mercy with a sincere effort at amending our lives.
“The hour grows late. My Son’s patience will not last forever. Help me
hold back His anger which is about to descend on sinful and ungrateful men.
Suffering and anguish, such as never before experienced, is about to overtake
mankind. It is the darkest hour. But if men will come to me, my Immaculate Heart
will make it bright again with the mercy which my Son will rain down through my
hands. Help me save those who will not save themselves. Help me bring once
again the sunshine of God’s peace upon the world.” …

“Tell the Bishops of the United States, my loyal sons, of my desires and
how I wish them to be carried out. Through him who is head over you, make
known the longings of my Immaculate Heart to establish the reign of my Divine
Son in the hearts of men and thus save them from the scourge of heaven, both
now and hereafter.”


“My daughter, will my children in America listen to my pleadings and
console my Immaculate Heart? Will my loyal sons carry out my desires and thus
help me bring the peace of Christ once again to mankind?”

“Pray and do penance, my sweet child, that this may come to pass. Trust
me and love me; I so desire it. Do not forget your poor Mother, who weeps over
the loss of so many of her children.” (Diary, Pg. 15.)

Repeatedly Our Lady emphasizes the call to penance and reform of life through the
imitation of the humility and obedience to God’s Will of the Holy Family, simple virtues that
overcome those deadly vices of the world, the flesh and the devil. She calls us to live a
deeply interior life in union with the Divine Indwelling of the Most Holy Trinity made present
in our souls with sanctifying grace. St. Augustine reminds us that the God Who created us
without our consent cannot save us without our consent! The Church Fathers state that
Mary’s “fiat” was necessary to give consent on behalf of mankind for God’s plan of salvation
to take place, but each of us must speak our own personal “fiat” if the merits Jesus won for
us are to be efficacious for our own salvation. We must personally choose Jesus as our
Savior, for God never forces our free will.

In April of 1957, Our Lady gave this warning to us through Sister Mildred:
“My sweet child, unless my children reform their lives, they will suffer great
persecution. If man himself will not take upon himself the penance necessary to
atone for his sins and those of others, God in His justice will have to send upon
him the punishment necessary to atone for his transgressions.” (Diary, Pg. 17.)

“My beloved daughter, what I am about to tell you concerns in a particular
way my children in America. Unless they do penance by mortification and self-
denial and thus reform their lives, God will visit them with punishments hitherto
unknown to them.

My child, there will be peace, as has been promised, but not until my
children are purified and cleansed from defilement, and clothed thus with the white
garment of grace, are made ready to receive this peace, so long promised and so
long held back because of the sins of men. My dear children, either you will do as I
desire and reform your lives, or God Himself will need to cleanse you in the fires of
untold punishments. You must be prepared to receive His great gift of peace. If
you will not prepare yourselves, God will Himself be forced to do so in His justice
and mercy.” (Diary, Pg. 21.)

How many times Our Lady begs us to reform our lives so God’s grace can fill us with
true and lasting peace and happiness. Her voice is a prophetic one which always involves
warning as well as promise, calls for repentance while giving promises of grace and mercy
and hope! Scripture and the Christian life have shown us repeatedly that prayer, penance
and fasting can change the conditional will of God and reverse His judgment upon
us. How comforting to us are Our Lady’s words that there will be peace as promised, once
we are purified and made ready for it. Have we in America been purified? Are we ready for
peace? Our Lady, both by word and by the example of her own life, gives testimony to the
need for suffering in the process of total transformation into the image of Christ.


“My child, nothing is accomplished without pain. Prepare to suffer much.
You see the sword in the Heart of your Mother. Suffering completed the work of
divine grace in my soul. He who refuses to suffer will never abide in the Spirit of
Christ, will never be formed into His image.” (Diary, Pg. 23.)

It was on September 26, 1956, the pre-Vatican II feast of the North American
martyrs who were so devoted to the Immaculate One and suffered martyrdom for their Faith
in Jesus, that Our Lady first appeared to Sister Mildred as “Our Lady of America®” and
entrusted her with this message to make known to her children in America.

“My child, I entrust you with this message that you must make known to
my children in America. I wish it to be the country dedicated to my purity. The
wonders I will work will be the wonders of the soul. They must have faith and
believe firmly in my love for them. I desire that they be the children of my Pure
Heart. I desire, through my children in America, to further the cause of faith and
purity among peoples and nations. Let them come to me with confidence and
simplicity, and I, their Mother, will teach them to become pure like to my Heart that
their own hearts may be more pleasing to the Heart of my Son.” (Diary, Pg. 11.)

This is the favor and this is the mission! Our Lady calls on her children in
America to help her further the cause of faith and purity among all peoples and nations. We
must trust her unconditionally to work her wonders of grace in the souls of people
everywhere, especially here in America where we need her so dearly if we are to fulfill this
mission. Sister Mildred worried whether we in the United States of America were up to the
challenge of the mandate Our Lady has given us as a nation and as a people dedicated to
her Immaculate Conception and called to be the Nation dedicated to her Purity. On
November 22, 1980, Our Lady put Sister’s fears about America’s ability to lead in this
spiritual renewal, never before so urgent or so necessary, to rest with this promise.

“Beloved daughter, the United States is a small one among nations, yet has
it not been said that ‘a little child shall lead them’? It is the United States that is to
lead the world to peace, the peace of Christ, the peace that He brought with him
from heaven in His birth as man in the little town of Bethlehem. The Savior did not
come to enter this world in a big city but a small town, again, a little one among
many. Dear child, unless the United States accepts and carries out faithfully the
mandate given to it by heaven to lead the world to peace, there will come upon it
and all nations a great havoc of war and incredible suffering. If, however, the
United States is faithful to this mandate from heaven and yet fails in the pursuit of
peace because the rest of the world will not accept or co-operate then the United
States will not be burdened with the punishment about to fall.”

I was afraid that the burden of leadership would be too great for the United
States without some special help from heaven. Our Lady assured me that Michael
and the whole army of Blessed Spirits will give their assistance at all times. As the
Queen of Angels she has loving command over them and they accomplish
whatever she wishes. This made me feel better and the fears that I had left me.
(Diary, Pg. 38.)

Justice and mercy are both attributes of God which He possesses to perfection and
which are in constant interplay in our lives. Some of the Church Fathers preached that when
Mary gave her fiat to God’s plan of salvation, she spoke for all of us and at the same time
became co-redeemer with Christ. As Jesus and Mary were of one mind and heart on earth,
so are they of one mind and heart in heaven. The Fathers suggest that with Mary’s “fiat”
Christ divided His kingdom and took the half that had to do with justice for Himself and gave
Mary the half that had to do with mercy. God made the law to honor one’s parents, so
Jesus as Mary’s son dutifully honored and obeyed her on earth. As her Son, Jesus
continues to honor and obey her in heaven. Anything she asks for He will grant her,
especially on behalf of her spiritual children, us poor sinners. St. Bernadine of Siena claims
God did not destroy the world after the first sin because of His singular love for this holy
Virgin who was eventually to be born of Adam’s race.

This message bears warnings of judgment and promises of miracles, not of the body
but of the soul, miracles greater than those granted at Lourdes and Fatima, especially to us
in America if we fulfill Heaven’s mandate to us. We are reminded of the power of the Ark in
the Old Covenant. Wherever it was carried, victory was won for the chosen people. That
Ark was a figure of Mary who contained in her womb Christ, the living Bread Who came
down from heaven, as the Ark contained the manna that fell from the heavens. With the
mood of our culture growing darker and more godless, we are often tempted to lose hope in
the promise of victory over Satan and the world, but Mary is our Hope, our Star on the
tossed seas of confusion and corruption. She is our Ark and she is our Mother of Mercy,
longing to wrap us up in her mantle of mercy.

When Mary, the Ark of the New Testament, was raised to the dignity of
Queen of Heaven, hell’s influence over human beings was weakened and
scattered. It was revealed to St. Bridget that God made Mary so powerful against
the devils that, whenever they assail anyone who begs her help, with one glance
she terrifies them and they take to instant flight. They would rather have their
pains in hell redoubled than fall under her dominion.

God guided His chosen people from Egypt to the Promised Land by day in
a pillar of cloud, by night in a pillar of fire (Ex 13:21). This stupendous pillar was a
type of Mary fulfilling a double office: as a cloud, she shades us from the heat of
the sun of Justice; as fire, she protects us from the devil. As wax melts before fire,
the devils melt away before all who keep our Lady’s name in mind, devoutly invoke
her, and work at imitating her.

(St. Alphonsus Liguori, THE GLORIES OF MARY, Catholic Book Publishing Corp.,
NJ, Pgs. 89, 92-93.)

So let us carry this Ark, our Queen, our Patroness, our Mother of Mercy in our hearts
and minds and souls in this battle for the conversion and soul of America. Let us pray with
passion and devotion and complete confidence to Mary as we lay our concerns for our
Church, our Nation and our families at her feet. Let us beg her to intercede with her King
Son for a revolution of the Spirit, an awakening of conscience, a full knowledge of our sins
and a perfect contrition, so that this Nation of ours may return to its previous splendor as a
leader among nations in faith and purity and in respect for God’s authority and laws. Let us
pray for a renewed understanding of the sacredness of life, the dignity of the human person
from the first moment of conception to the point of natural death, and let us pursue true
peace and happiness and not the lies of Satan beguiling us in the pursuit of pleasure, self-
worship and self indulgence. Let us pray that Our Lady may gain for every person in
America and in the world the grace to break the chains of bondage to sin and darkness and
gain for us clarity of faith and vision in the Light of Christ which leads us most assuredly
toward glory with God in the Eternal City. Let us pray for those who have abortions and
those who give them or traffick in or profiteer off them, and for those who play god as they
pretend to be lords of life instead of the protectors of it. Let us pray for the conversion of
America! And the deeper conversion of each one of us!

O Mary, conceived without sin,
pray for us who have recourse to thee.

By thy holy and Immaculate Conception, O Mary, deliver us from evil.

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