Our Lady’s Warnings
“I make an urgent appeal to the earth. I call on the true disciples of the living God who reigns in Heaven; I call on the true followers of Christ made Man, the only true Savior of men; I call on my children, the true faithful, those who have given themselves to me so that I may lead them to my Divine Son…fight, children of light, you, the few who can see. For now is the time of all times, the end of all ends.”
-Our Lady of La Salette
Dear Friends of Carmel,
Our recent newsletters have focused on the privileges and the goodness of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This one will follow the pattern, but it must be said that whenever Our Lady’s favors are praised, so the more is Almighty God honored and glorified. He it is Who loves her above all and has bestowed those favors. He also has bestowed tasks upon her – in His ongoing work for our salvation through her loving hands.
This brings us then to the recent feast of Our Lady of La Salette (September 19th). The story of the holy Virgin’s appearance to two children on a mountain in France is full of charm and interest. But as with all her visits to earth, God sent her to stir the souls of her children to repentance and conversion.
The messages of motherly warning, which Our Lady gave on the mountain in 1846, concerned the sins particularly offending the good God in the world at that time, sins of direct insult against Him: 1 – Blasphemy; 2 – Profanation of Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation. This should sound familiar to our regular readers.
Melanie and Maximin were two children shepherding sheep together in the French Alps when Our Lady appeared.
Recall Devotion to the Holy Face – these same offenses brought the complaint and warning of Heaven – to Sister St. Peter of the Carmel, in Tours, France during the years 1845-1847. Note that God was trying to save His people from danger and harm through these compassionate messages – through prayer and the work of reparation. The call to conversion is never-ending. Who can deny that these sins plague the world to a far greater degree in our own time? Some of the words of Our Lady to the children at La Salette:
Large statues mark the exact posture and position of the Virgin Mary at the sanctuary
Come near, my children, be not afraid; I am here to tell you great news. If my people will not submit, I shall be forced to let fall the arm of my Son. It is so strong, so heavy, that I can no longer withhold it. For how long a time do I suffer for you! If I would not have my Son abandon you, I am compelled to pray to him without ceasing; and as to you, you take no heed of it.
However much you pray, however much you do, you will never recompense the pains I have taken for you. Six days I have given you to labor, the seventh I had kept for myself; and they will not give it to me. It is this which makes the arm of my Son so heavy. Those who drive the carts cannot swear without introducing the name of my Son. These are the two things which makes the arm of my Son so heavy.
In the midst of her dire warnings of God’s punishment through famine, sickness, death of young children, etc., Our Lady paused to ask the little shepherds, Melanie and Maximin, “Are you very particular in saying your prayers, my children?” They admitted humbly that they were not. She answered, “You must be very particular, both morning and evening: when you can do no more, say a Pater and an Ave; and when you have time say more.” Like the messages to Sister St. Peter, the cautions of Heaven offered a solution and answer: Prayer. Sacrifice. Reparation. Sorrow for sin. Faith.
Our Lady’s threats of God’s vengeance if the people did not repent did bear good fruit in the nearby towns and villages of La Salette. The people recognized their own sins in their Mother’s warnings; they believed; they prayed and did penance; wondrous conversions abounded. People returned to church and the practice of the Faith, they saw the dreadful failure of crops come to an end. However, throughout France, all of Europe and beyond, the prophesies became reality.
In the months following the apparition, the Great Potato Famine of 1846 devastated Europe, especially in Ireland, where more than a million people died. Throughout France, crops failed, wheat and corn became scarce, and a mysterious blight attacked the vineyards, causing the grapes to rot just as Our Lady had foretold.
Her prophecy about children being “seized with trembling and dying in their parents’ arms” also came to pass. In the years afterward, scarlet fever swept across Europe, claiming the lives of many children, mostly between ages one and seven. Historians later observed that the epidemic exceeded diphtheria and measles as the leading cause of death among young people.
Sanctuary at the site of the apparitions in the French Alps.
But Our Lady’s prophecies did not stop with the immediate punishments soon to befall France. In two “secrets” revealed to the seers, one to Melanie and one to Maximin, Our Mother gave us fore-warnings about what was to happen to the world from that day until the end of time. Like the prophecies given to Mother Mariana by Our Lady of Good Success in Quito, Peru, which foretold the events of 150 years later, our own time (see our May, 2026 newsletter); and as she would predict again at Fatima in 1917, at La Salette Our Lady forewarned a general chastisement of the world – and particularly, of the Church. The prophecy is long, and we encourage you to read it in its entirety, since it deals with matters dear to the hearts of every faithful Catholic. But we present here a few excerpts:
The priests, ministers of my Son – the priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures – the priests have become cesspools of impurity. Woe to the priests and those consecrated to God who by their infidelity and their wicked lives are crucifying my Son again! …The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish. God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign, in every society and in every family. Physical and moral agonies will be suffered.
In the year __64 (in the Vatican archive the first two numbers of the year have been redacted) Lucifer together with a large number of demons will be unloosed from hell; they will put an end to faith little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that, unless they are blessed with a special grace, these people will take on the spirit of these angels of hell; several religious institutions will lose all faith and will lose many souls.
As the holy Faith of God is forgotten, every individual will wish to be his own guide and be superior to his fellowmen. Civil and Ecclesiastical authority will be abolished. All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot. Nothing will be seen but murder, hatred, jealousy, falsehood and discord without love for the mother country or for the family … All civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism, and vice of all kinds … A general war will follow which will be appalling. For a time, God will cease to remember France and Italy because the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been forgotten. The wicked will make use of all their evil ways. Men will kill each other, massacre each other, even in their homes.
At the first blow of His thundering sword, the mountains and all Nature will tremble in terror, for the disorders and crimes of men have pierced the vault of Heaven. Paris will burn and Marseilles will be engulfed. Several cities will be shaken down and swallowed up by earthquakes. People will believe that all is lost. Nothing will be seen but murder – nothing will be heard but the clash of arms and blasphemy.
As we mentioned in our newsletter about Our Lady of Good Success, one must approach apparitions and other supernatural phenomena with extreme caution. Private revelations undergo a good deal of dogmatic scrutiny by the Church before approval and approbation; usually it is several years before there is a declaration that the revelations are free of error and worthy of belief, as are the apparitions of Quito and Fatima. La Salette received the formal approval of the Catholic Church in 1851. Many Saints have prophesied about an impending time of chastisement for the world: examples in modern times are Padre Pio, Blessed Anna Maria Taigi, St. John Bosco, and St. Gaspar del Bufalo. These prophecies often include counsels about something called “the three days of darkness”. They tell that after a period of great turmoil in the world and the Church, there will be a Divine intervention, an imposed period of darkness and divine punishment, which will wipe away all of the evil influences on earth. They predict that the Church will triumph, and that there will be a period of peace, before the final battle with Antichrist and the end of the world. While there is no official approbation of this privately-held belief, as we said, the private revelations of numerous Saints point to such a chastisement. Our Lady of Fatima also promised that her “Immaculate Heart would triumph” though “it would be late,” and that there would be a “period of peace.”
Our Lady of La Salette also points to such a chastisement and such a period of peace before the rise of Antichrist and the end of the world. After she spoke of the wars and corruption in the Church, but before she speaks of the forerunner to the Antichrist, she says:
The righteous will suffer greatly. Their prayers, their penance, and their tears will rise up to Heaven and all of God’s people will beg for forgiveness and mercy and will plead for my help and intercession. And then Jesus Christ, in an act of His justice and His great mercy, will command His angels to have all His enemies put to death. Suddenly, the persecutors of the Church of Jesus Christ and all those given over to sin, will perish, and the earth will become desert-like. And then peace will be made, and man will be reconciled with God. Jesus Christ will be served, worshiped, and glorified. Charity will flourish everywhere. The new rulers will be the right arm of the Holy Church, which will be strong, humble, pious, poor but fervent in the imitation of the virtues of Jesus Christ. The Gospel will be preached everywhere, and mankind will make great progress in its Faith, for there will be unity among the workers of Jesus Christ, and man will live in fear of God.
At all three apparitions (Good Success, La Salette, Fatima), Our Lady’s message was the same for faithful Catholics in the face of such dire warnings: prayer, penance, conversion, reparation. However, we no longer need prophecies and warnings to be informed: Our Blessed Mother’s words ring true as we watch them meticulously fulfilled in the world around us. Society seems to be teetering on the brink of a great chaos – a chaos that only God, through a Divine intervention, will be able to set right. We must turn to Him as the only salvation and beg that He heal the aching hearts of wayward mankind! The Virgin’s tears at La Salette remind us that Heaven sees all and cares deeply for us. God hears the sighs of every heart, watches over every soul, and patiently waits for His children to return to Him. Let us confide in this Mother of Sorrows – this Mother of our sorrows – and find God’s grace through her Heart and through her hands.
Further Reading
This short volume gives an account of the visions of the apparitions as told by the children as well as some of the astounding miracles that happened afterwards.
The original text of the message and secret of La Salette, approved by the Catholic Church, is published in this booklet in their entirety.
A summary of all the prophetic modern Marian apparitions with the messages and warnings given by Our Lady – Our Lady of Good Success, La Salette, Lourdes, and Fatima.
*Website News*
The Purple Scapular
We have had many requests over the past few years to offer the Purple Scapular, and we finally have one available.
For those not familiar with the origin of this scapular, it came from the many visions of the French mystic Marie Julie Jahenny. She was born in the years following the apparitions of Our Lady of La Salette and lived until 1941. Her life and prophecies have never received formal Church approval, although the Bishop of her diocese did give local approval, and many other clergy had high regard for her and believed her mystical experiences to be genuine. She made many prophecies about her country of France and the coming chastisements. In a vision on August 23, 1878 Our Lady said to Marie Julie:
“Let me now, dear child, give you the explanation of this scapular. This scapular, my children, is modeled on My Heart, because my Heart is the emblem of simplicity and humility, which explains the color violet… I desire that the background of the scapular should be violet, but I ask that the nails, the chalice, and the sponge and crown should be on a dark red piece of flannel. This first appearance of this scapular will be a new protection for the times of chastisements, the calamities and the famines.”
The Purple Scapular comes with a leaflet that gives a full description of the vision, as well as the prayers and invocations to be said by those who use it.
Holy Souls Mass Remembrance
It is that time of year once again! November is only a month away, and we are now accepting submissions for the Holy Souls Mass Remembrance. If you are unfamiliar with this custom at our chapel you can read more about it on our website. We have a new submission form this year to make the process easier! Please do not wait until the last minute.
The Carmelite Liturgical Calendar
Not only is the standard 2027 Liturgical Calendar ready to ship, but now our special edition Carmelite Calendar is ready as well. What was once a sheet with a list of Carmelite Saints for our use, transformed over the years into an established Carmelite Liturgical Calendar. As with all Religious Orders in the Church, the Carmelite Order observes the feasts of her Saints and Blesseds, celebrating the glory of God in the men and women He favored in exceptional ways with His grace and favors. Nearly 50 individuals of the Carmelite Order are honored in this calendar, either with a unique feast or a commemoration. Often, the Carmelite Saint supersedes the regular Roman calendar feasts, as in the case of St. Brocard on September 2nd, for example, an early important Carmelite prior of the Monastery on Mount Carmel in Palestine in the 13th century. Through him, the Order obtained the formal Rule (the “primitive rule”), upon which Carmelites base their religious life. In the Carmelite Ordo, St. Brocard’s feast supersedes the feast of the glorious King-Saint Stephen of Hungary, who is thus only commemorated.
Among the Saints of Carmel are Old Testament Prophets, Martyrs, Confessors and Virgins; some had been soldiers, others ambitious lawyers; scientists, discoverers; priests, bishops, humble lay Sisters. Like all good Christians, they strove for God and holiness – only harder. And they did it through Carmel – Carmel’s Rule and life of prayer and sacrifice.
Our Carmelite Calendar assists us to keep the liturgical honor given these holy people by Mother Church. You may wish to share in our daily prayer through having this calendar on hand, praying with us and honoring God’s glory in their lives of grace and virtue.
The mini versions of both the standard Liturgical Calendar and the Carmelite edition are also now available.
Small individual pages are perfect for slipping into a missal or Breviary to keep track of the Feast days
“The loving grace of Christ has exalted the Saints whom the Virgin’s Order produced.
By their merits we ask to be helped, and by their prayers commended to God.”
Two of our new holy cards not only have some of our favorite images, but also some of our favorite prayers. The St. Elias holy card shows him battling the antichrist at the end of time, and the prayer asks his help and protection and for the restoration of the Church. The Guardian Angel Holy card shows an angel escorting a soul to Heaven from Purgatory. St. Michael, the Patron of a Happy death is pictured as is Our Lady of Mount Carmel. On the back of this picture we printed St. Charles Borromeo’s prayer to his angel to speak on his behalf at the hour of death.
St. Michael and the Angels
We have other great patrons in our fight against the evil spirits alongside Our Blessed Mother. The Feast of St. Michael, the general of the armies of God, is celebrated next week on September 29th. See our past newsletter all about the angels and their extraordinary role in salvation history from the beginning of time until now, as they intervene in both world events as well as innumerable times daily in our own individual lives.
The vision of Pope Leo XIII in which he saw the demons unleashed upon the earth doing untold damage to souls (more details in the newsletter) inspired not only the famous St. Michael prayer, but this personal prayer of exorcism, which we encourage you to use for yourselves and families.
*Community News*
Our Community News has been scanty our past few newsletters, we admit. The “full-to-the-brim” days continue apace. Liturgy, prayer, work, Community meetings, etc. keep us in the daily rhythm and regular schedule of Carmel – living with joy in God’s presence.
But there are also happenings that just come up “out of the blue” in unexpected ways, at unexpected times. These we comically nickname “known unknowns”. They consist of unforeseen problems and varied projects that are always bound to come up in order to keep everything in the Monastery running smoothly! A recent example is when all but one of our freezers just stopped working. Kitchen Sister, with cheerful aplomb, sorted and shifted foodstuffs from freezer to freezer/fridge, shelf to storage cart, cupboard to freezer, according to need. She knew just what she was doing, enlisting help when needed, and awing us with her calm assurance. She even figured out how to fix the problems and get things right again.
This year the gardens were plentiful! We had enough beets to make a big batch of Borscht (a favorite around here) and a gallon of beet kvass, and do some canning of numerous quarts of pickled beets using our honey. Our carrots have been delicious, but time got away from us with one section of the bed of carrots that never got thinned out; we’ll do better next year! Several large beefsteak tomatoes actually ripened on the vine, due to our long summer here – and more are coming. Our rhubarb patch went wild; we must have harvested it three times.
Green beans and cucumbers, all manner of herbs, okra, kohlrabi and other varieties of tomatoes contribute to our meals. Needless to say, absurd sizes and numbers of zucchini have been growing, as they do for every gardener. They hide beneath huge leaves, suddenly revealing themselves when they are 2’+ long and weigh 3+ pounds.
Some of you heard about the deep pot dedicated to a dahlia tuber that accidentally received a zucchini seed. The two different Sisters who planted these scrutinized the pot each day of June to see which would “win” – hoping that both would at least do okay. Lo and behold, both thrived: they grew to an enormous size and produced admirably, the dahlia showing off its colossal yellow flowers, shocking even the Sister who planted it.
We give partial thanks for the bounteous harvest to our three beehives. It was a rough summer for them, with some late cold snaps that froze most of the early blossoms, but they seemed to find the challenge all the more reason to work hard and be productive.
We are looking forward to harvesting some of the honey in the coming weeks! Alas, one of the hives, it seems, had some disputes about royal ascendancy. We aren’t entirely sure what the internal disputes were (doesn’t that mirror our own world?), but after several failed queens, the bees found themselves “queenless” for just too long, and we discovered that robber bees had taken over the hive. So Sister Beekeeper closed it down, and we’re back to two. But we are going into winter with those two strong hives and will split the hives once again in spring.
A pair of goldfinches decided to build their nest at eye level right next to the path we take between our buildings. We had the delight of watching the two chicks develop day by day from eggs into beautiful adult birds. One of the Sisters even witnessed them leaving the nest!
Our work for the sanctuary always presses forward, with new altar linens, a new gold antependium, and flower arrangements for the main and side altars. Over in “the website department” we are already looking towards and organizing for the busy Christmas season, always struggling to keep on top of technological updates that move way too fast for us cloistered Carmelites! There is constantly some update or other to understand and implement, from website technology to international shipping, and we plunge in like we know what we’re doing… Thank Goodness we have able “tech” people who DO know what they’re doing – usually wonderful computer nerds (their word, not ours) – who generously help us figure out the bumps in the road.
New gold antipendium (altar frontal). This piece now holds the record for one of our most complicated embroidery patterns to date!
Summertime is when many of the Sisters take the time for their annual retreat. According to the Carmelite Constitutions, each Sister must take an 8-day retreat. She prays with the Community at Mass and the Divine Office, but she takes her meals alone and does not attend recreation. It is a time of special union with God, of extra reading, prayer, and rest. On September 14th, we renewed our vows in a simple, but formal ceremony. As we once again dedicated ourselves, our lives, and all of our actions to God, please know that we remembered all of you in our prayers. These troubled days may be days of struggle, but they are also days for merit and grace…love is tested by fire. And so in the great things in life, as well as in the small (such as picking carrots and beets), let us love God by “doing our daily duties” (to quote Our Lady of Fatima).
In Our Lady,
Your Carmelite Sisters
“The Lord doesn’t look so much at the greatness of our works as at the love with which they are done. And if we do what we can, His Majesty will enable us each day to do more and more, provided that we do not quickly tire. But during the little while this life lasts – and perhaps it will last a shorter time than each one thinks- let us offer the Lord interiorly and exteriorly the sacrifice we can. His Majesty will join it with that which He offered on the cross to the Father for us. Thus even though our works are small they will have the value our love for Him would have merited had they been great.”
– St. Terersa of Avila