Years ago, when there was an eruption of proclaimed apparitions and locutions in Ohio -- the hotspot of such paroxysms back then -- one of the quieter and yet more interesting and profound ones was known as the "Apostolate of Holy Motherhood." The alleged locutions, to a young mother whose messages from Jesus and Mary were often interrupted by her crying infant, were received, in vision, from February through August 1987. The recipient has always remained anonymous -- known only as "Mariamante" (we tried to get in touch with her, to no avail). For our purposes, the interesting part is that her book of messages, under the same "Apostolate" title, was granted a nihil obstat by Monsignor Joseph P. Malara, censor liborum of her diocese (Steubenville), and an imprimatur from the bishop, Most Reverend Albert H. Ottwenwller. It's interesting not only because most such "messages" do not bear an imprimatur, but also because of certain things Mariamante quoted the Blessed Mother and Jesus as saying, which fall into the realm of prophecy. While the vast majority of the locutions had to do with holiness and devotion (and while an imprimatur doesn't mean the bishop believes they are coming directly from the Blessed Mother, only that they are fruitful meditations that do not contradict the Church) -- while for the most part they were guides to prayer and better living, especially in the raising of a family -- there were, as in other supposed messages, warnings about the future. Perhaps the most stark one came on February 14 of that year, when Mariamante quoted the Virgin as telling her, "The world is facing a grave cataclysm beyond known proportion due to impiety and impurity. I have come to rescue the world from this fate. God has given me this mission." "You will know by the sign in the heavens which is I myself that the time is at hand for the instantaneous conversion of the multitude," she said Mary told her a week later, on February 22, at 10:30 a.m., in 1987. "This I will accomplish through a tremendous outpouring of Grace upon earth given at the hands of God to me for this purpose." It would be her triumph. But before that, purification. "Heaven is most distressed with the state the world is in," was one message from Mary. "It is very bad right now. Only prayer and penance can change this. Be attentive to your children. They are most important. They will live during the reign of my Immaculate Heart. This is a prelude to the ushering in of the reign of the Sacred Heart... Do not be afraid. You have nothing to fear. I love you and will protect you always from the public eye." Humility, said Mary, was especially urgent. Faith had to be put into personal change and action. While distressed with the world, said the Blessed Mother, Heaven was pleased with devout families. One's salvation and sanctification can occur through simple family duties. As elsewhere she requested recitation of the Rosary as well as the First Friday and First Saturday devotions. (This recalls Fatima.) Mariamante quoted Jesus as the Christ Child as saying: "Listen to what she has told you at Fatima and other major apparitions. These will help you to follow My Gospel. Her intercession is a blessing to the world. Only God could conceive of such mercy, to give you such a tender mother to intercede on your behalf. She makes recompense for your sins by her intercessions; but it is true that you must still atone for them. My Father is too offended. This cannot go on." That was back in the 1980s! "I will bless the world again," Jesus reportedly said, "as I did at Fatima. Each will have a chance to repent." But there would be major events, said the alleged locutions. While a warning of such constituted a small fraction of the locutions, they were there and in interesting language. "You have been given many indications in the past of that which is about to occur," said Mary on June 24, perhaps referring to something personal in the seer's life. "But you will be surprised when it occurs. I have prepared your soul as an advocate for many and wish to endow you with extraordinary graces so that all may be accomplished through the children whom I love in a most tender way." In the little ways of daily living, she said, do we prepare our souls. She called television an "intrusion" into the home and urged unselfishness. Everyone working for her triumph would receive harassment, said the Blessed Mother, but there was too much preoccupation with the evil one. One needed to fear nothing when one invoked "the protection of the Precious Blood," she allegedly said. The devil was best battled not through detailed knowledge of him, she said Jesus told her, but through prayer and penance. The Blessed Mother said she needed followers to spend hours in prayer for the world! How much time she has bought us! "Oh, pray for the world especially now when it is so urgent!" the Christ Child allegedly said -- this before the grand flurry of similar warnings in the late 1980s and early 1990s see: The Final Hour). "The cries of the innocent call out to Me. So much injustice cannot continue for long. It must be changed and very soon or a grave chastisement will come to the world; this is the way it must be. Heaven can tolerate no more. My Father and I have determined it so. Either change or this will have to come about." And so went the messages. How many have been listened to? How many ones that were heard have been forgotten? How many requests from Jesus have we not followed because we are caught up in the worldly version of Catholicism?
