The Messages of Our Heavenly Mother, When Will We Ever Listen?

June 12, 1973, a month after 42 year old convert from Buddhism, and totally incurably deaf, Sr. Agnes Sasagawa arrived at the Institute of the Handmaids of the Holy Eucharist in Yuzawadai just outside of Akita (less than 90 miles from the March 11, 2011 tsunami)¹ and when she opened the tabernacle for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, a very strong light came from it and filled the entire chapel as she knelt in prayer. This happened again over the next two days and was often accompanied by something resembling smoke which hung around the altar.²

On June 28, 1973, a cross-shaped wound appeared on the inside left hand of Sr. Agnes. It bled profusely and caused her immense pain. On July 5, 1973, a small opening appeared in the center from which blood began to flow. Later, the pain would ease during most of the week except for Thursday nights and all day Friday, when the pain became almost unbearable.²On July 6, Sr. Agnes was praying in the chapel and heard a voice coming from a three feet tall statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a Japanese face that was carved from a single block of wood from a Katsura tree. It is a figure of Our Lady standing before a cross, her arms at her side with the palms of her hands facing forward. Beneath her feet is a globe representing the world.^1,2

The Three Messages

June 12, 1973, When Sr. Agnes approached the statue, she said, "I suddenly felt that the wooden statue came to life and was about to speak to me . . . She was bathed in a brilliant light . . . and at the same moment a voice of indescribable beauty struck my totally deaf ears." According to Bishop Ito’s Letter of Approval, Our Lady told her:

“My daughter, my novice, you have obeyed me well, abandoning all to follow me. Do you suffer much because of the handicap which deafness causes you? You will be assuredly healed. Be patient, it is the last trial. Does the wound in your hand give you pain? Pray in reparation for the sins of humanity. Each person in this community is my irreplaceable daughter.
Do you say well the prayer of the Handmaids of the Eucharist? Then, let us pray it together.

‘Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, truly present in the Holy Eucharist, I consecrate my body and soul to be entirely one with Your Heart being sacrificed at every instant on all the altars of the world and giving praise to the Father, pleading for the coming of His Kingdom."

Please receive My humble offering of myself. Use me as You will for the glory of the Father and the salvation of souls.

‘Most Holy Mother of God, never let me be separated from from your Divine Son. Please defend and protect me as Your special child. Amen.’

Pray very much for the pope, bishops, and priests. Since your baptism you have always prayed faithfully for them. Continue to pray very much... very much. Tell your superior all that passed today and obey him in everything that he will tell you. Your superior is wholeheartedly seeking prayers now.” ³

The promise of healing in this message was kept nine years after the beginning of the sickness.³

The following morning on June 29th, a few of the sisters noticed drops of blood flowing from the statue's right hand. On four occasions, this act of blood flow repeated itself. The wound in the statue's hand remained until September 29, when it disappeared. On September 29, the day the wound on the statue disappeared, the sisters noticed the statue had now begun to "sweat", especially on the forehead and neck.¹

On the Vigil of the Feast of the Sacred Heart that same year, Sr. Sasagawa's guardian angel appeared to her and asked her to pray the Fatima decade prayer (O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who have the most need of Thy mercy. Amen.) after each decade of the Rosary. In 1973 this prayer was not well known in Japan and Sister had trouble understanding it, but the Sisters began to recite the prayer and it has now spread throughout Japan. ²

The second message, August 3, 1973, Our Lady's requests were similar to those made at Fatima: prayer, penance and sacrifices to soften the Father's anger.

“My daughter, my novice, do you love the Lord? If you love the Lord, listen to what I have to say to you.
It is very important. Convey it to your superior.

Many men in this world grieve the Lord. I seek souls to console Him. In order to appease the anger of the Heavenly Father, I wish, with my Son, for souls who will make reparation for sinners and the ungrateful by offering up their sufferings and poverty to God on their behalf:

In order that the world might know the wrath of the Heavenly Father toward today's world, He is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind. With my Son, many times I have tried to appease the wrath of the Heavenly Father. I have prevented the coming of the chastisement by offering Him the sufferings of His Son on the Cross, His Precious Blood, and the compassionate souls who console the Heavenly Father... a cohort of victim souls overflowing with love.

Prayer, penance, honest poverty, and courageous acts of sacrifices can soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I desire this also from your community: please make much of poverty, deepen repentance, and pray amid your poverty in reparation for the ingratitude and insults toward the Lord by so many men. Recite the prayer of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist with awareness of its meaning; put it into practice; offer your life to God in reparation for sins. Let each one endeavor, by making much of one's ability and position, to offer oneself entirely to the Lord.

Even in a secular community, prayer is necessary. Already souls who wish to pray are on the way to being gathered in this community. Without attaching too much attention to the form, pray fervently and steadfastly to console the Lord.

After a moment of silence She continued:

Is what you think in your heart true? Are you truly prepared to become the rejected stone: My novice, you who wish to become the pure bride of the Lord. In order that you, the bride, become the spouse worthy of the Holy Bridegroom, make your vows with the hearty readiness to be fastened to the Cross with three nails. These three nails are honest poverty, chastity and obedience. Of the three, obedience is the foundation. With total obedience follow your superior. Your superior will understand you well and guide you.”³

Sr. Sasagawa received the third message On October 13, 1973, the anniversary of the final visions and miracle of Fatima:

My dear daughter, listen well to what I have to say to you. And relay my messages to your superior.
After a moment's silence:
As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Heavenly Father will inflict a great punishment on all humanity. It will definitely be a punishment greater than the Deluge, such as has never been seen before.

Fire will plunge from the sky and a large part of humanity will perish... The good as well as the bad will perish, sparing neither priests nor the faithful. The survivors will find themselves plunged into such terrible hardships that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the sign left by My Son (Eucharist).

Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary pray for the bishops and priests. The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church. One will see cardinals opposing other cardinals... and bishops confronting other bishops.

The priests who venerate me will be scorned and condemned by their confreres; churches and altars will be sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will tempt many priests and religious to leave the service of the Lord.

The demon is trying hard to influence souls consecrated to God. The thought of the perdition of so many souls is the cause of My sadness. If sins continue to be committed further, there will no longer be pardon for them.

With courage, convey these messages to your superior. He will tell each one of you to continue prayers and acts of reparations for sins steadfastly, while ordering all of you to pray fervently. Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able still to help you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their total confidence in Me will be given necessary help.³

Scientific Tests

“Two years later on January 4, 1975, the statue of the Blessed Virgin began to weep. It continued to weep at intervals for the next 6 years and eight months. It wept on 101 occasions at irregular intervals until September 15, 1981, the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows.”⁵

“The sculptor of the statue, Saburo Wakasa, a non-Catholic and a citizen of Akita, was asked his reaction to the occurrences relating to the statue. He answered:

‘The statue of Mary was my first work connected with Christianity. Of my various statues, it is only with the statue of Mary at Yuzawadai that mysterious events occurred . . . I sculptured the whole statue of Mary, globe, and the Cross from the same piece of wood, so there are no joints . . . The wood from which I carved the statue of Mary was very dry and rather hard …²

Bishop Ito arranged for Professor Sagisaka, M.D., a non-Christian specialist in forensic medicine, to make a rigorous scientific examination of the three fluids, although the Bishop did not reveal their source. The results were: "The matter adhering on the gauze is human blood. The sweat and the tears absorbed in the two pieces of cotton are of human origin." The blood was found to belong to group B and the sweat and tears to group AB. Sr. Agnes belongs to group B. ²

Another examination of the fluids was conducted by Dr. Sagisaka of the Department of Forensic Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Akita. The results were given on November 30, 1981 and revealed that:

‘The object examined has adhering to it human liquids which belong to the blood group O." Since the first analysis revealed that the blood belonged to group B and the sweat and tears to group AB, it has been established that the fluids belong to three different blood groups.

It is a medical fact that the blood, tears and sweat of an individual all belong to the same blood group. One fluid cannot differ in type from the other fluids of the same body. Since Sr. Agnes belonged to group B she could not have "ejected and transferred" blood or fluids belonging to group AB or O.’” ²

Miracles

The events of Akita have been confirmed by definite miracles, two of which are cited by the Bishop in his pastoral letter.⁴

According to Bishop Ito:

“One is the sudden cure of a South Korean woman, Mrs. Teresa Chun Sun Ho. Following cancer of the brain, she was reduced to a vegetative existence from July, 1981. The Virgin of Akita appeared to her and told her to get up. Almost at once she was able to get up, having entirely recovered her health. This healing took place while priests and Korean women prayed to the Virgin of Akita for her cure and asked for a miracle in view of the canonization of the Korean martyrs. There are X-ray photographs of this person taken during the sickness and after the complete cure. The X-ray photographs show her cure even to the eyes of nonprofessionals. The authenticity of the X-rays is attested to by Dr. M.D. Tong-Woo-Kim, of the Hospital of Saint Paul in Seoul who took these X-rays, and also by Father Roman Theisen, STD, president of the ecclesiastical tribunal of the archdiocese of Seoul.

All of the records have been sent to Rome. I went myself to Seoul (South Korea) last year and was able to interview the cured woman involved; I could thus assure myself of the truth of the facts of her miraculous cure. For her part the person came to Akita to thank Our Holy Mother.
.
The second case is the complete cure of the total deafness of Sr. Agnes Sasagawa….Effectively on the last Sunday of the month of Mary, the 30th of May, 1982, Feast of Pentecost, at the moment of Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament her ears were cured completely and instantly.
That same evening she telephoned me and we conversed normally. On the following 14 of June, I visited Doctor Arai of the Eye and Ear Division of the Hospital of the Red Cross of Akita who had verified the complete deafness of Sr. Agnes Sasagawa at the moment she arrived in Akita nine years before. I asked his impression. He expressed his amazement at this complete cure. Doctor Sawada of the Rosai Hospital of Joetsu who had been the first to examine her when she became deaf, has now issued a medical certificate dated June 3rd, 1982, attesting that following minute examinations of her auditive capacities, he certifies that there is no further anomaly in the two ears of Sr. Agnes Sasagawa.”³

Ecclesiastical Approval

“February 27, 1978 — Pope Paul VI approves the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's Norms of the Congregation for Proceeding in Judging Alleged Apparitions and Revelations. These norms provide the criteria for evaluating such phenomenon and establish the local Ordinary as the competent authority to do so.” ⁵

“April 22, 1984 — After eight years of investigations, Rev. John Shojiro Ito, Bishop of Niigata, Japan, declares the events of Akita, Japan to be of supernatural origin, and authorizes throughout the entire diocese the veneration of the Holy Mother of Akita.”³

Bishop Ito states in his Letter of Approval:

“The series of events relative to the statue of the Virgin Mary include the flowing of blood from the right hand of the statue, also a perspiration spreading a sweet perfume, perspiration so abundant that it was necessary to wipe it away from the statue. However, the most remarkable fact, in our opinion, and the most evident, is the overflowing of an aqueous liquid, similar to human tears, from the eyes of the statue of Our Holy Mother.

This began on the 4th of January, 1975 (Holy Year) and some tears flowed 101 times, until the 15th of September, 1981, Feast of Our Lady of the Seven Dolors. I was able myself to witness four lacrimations. About 500 persons have also been eyewitnesses. I twice tasted this liquid. It was salty and seemed to me truly human tears. The scientific examination of Professor Sagisaka, specialist in legal medicine in the faculty of medicine at the University of Akita, has proved that this liquid is indeed identical to human tears. “

Signs of the Times

It is not easy these days to find many people who are repenting and trying to better themselves and “sins continue to be committed further” even to the point of legalization and penalties for those who profess their faith against them as in mandated contraception⁶ and since 1973 Roe v Wade decision there have been 57,903,515 abortions and 1,335,103,060 abortions worldwide and counting.⁷ Emergency contraception is now available over the counter to children as easily as picking up a pack of chewing gum.

And we certainly have seen enough of how the demon has been “trying hard to influence souls consecrated to God” on many levels, such as described in the John Jay Report, The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010 where “less than 5 percent of the priests with allegations of abuse exhibited behavior consistent with a diagnosis of pedophilia.” The report states “it is worth noting that while the media has consistently referred to priest-abusers as “pedophile priests, pedophilia is defined as the sexual attraction to prepubescent children”, however 78% of the victims were actually pubescent and postpubescent, and the majority of victims were males. Similarly reported was “More than three-quarters of the acts of sexual abuse of youths by Catholic priests, as shown in the Nature and Scope study [2004], were same-sex acts (priests abusing male victims).” The John Jay report further states, “Sexual behavior in violation of the commitment to celibacy was reported by 80 percent of the priests who participated in residential psychological treatment, but most sexual behavior was with adults” and “40 percent of the priests aged thirty-six to fifty-five, who would have been seminarians in the 1980s and 1990s, reported that there was a clear homosexual subculture in the seminaries they had attended,” which leads to an understanding of the expansiveness of homosexual behavior. ⁸ The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “ Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity,¹⁴⁰ tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered."¹⁴¹ They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under nocircumstances can they be approved.”⁹

It is even more unnerving to consider “the work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church. One will see cardinals opposing other cardinals... and bishops confronting other bishops.” Such recent controversy was publicized worldwide: “The official midterm report from the Synod of Bishops, which uses strikingly conciliatory language toward divorced and remarried Catholics, cohabitating couples and same-sex unions, has proven highly controversial inside and outside the synod hall, with some synod fathers saying it does not accurately reflect the assembly's views.”¹⁰

When a CNS news reporter asked Cardinal Raymond Burke "Given that it was Jesus Christ Himself who taught us what marriage is, can any priest or bishop overrule or change what Jesus declared about marriage?"

"No, absolutely not," said Cardinal Burke. "The priests and bishops are called to be faithful to the truth. Our office is to teach this truth and to assist the faithful to live it, but we can never — even under some supposed pastoral approach — either alter or deny the truth about marriage."

I asked: "Can the pope himself change the nature of marriage given what Christ said?"

"No, it's not within his power," said Cardinal Burke, "and this is very clear in the teaching of the church, that if a marriage has been validly celebrated and consummated it cannot be separated. It cannot be ended by anything except death itself."¹¹

Was the past October 2014 synod of bishops meeting in Rome that Pope Francis called to discuss the family an example of shades to come for the next one, as Our Lady warns “the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will tempt many priests and religious to leave the service of the Lord” ? Others are asking the same question.¹² And if the U.S. Supreme Court rules against marriage as between one man and one woman, will we see “The priests who venerate me will be scorned and condemned by their confreres; churches and altars will be sacked”? [Editor's Note: June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court made same-sex marriage the law of the land. See http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/26/politics/scotus-opinion-document-obergefell-hodges/index.html]

For a couple of generations who've grown accustomed to no consequences for their actions, a wrath of God is unimaginable to them, as is the concept that God would be so outraged by the number and gravity of their sins to send “a punishment greater than the Deluge, such as has never been seen before. Fire will plunge from the sky and a large part of humanity will perish.” Nor do they really recognize “the perdition of so many souls” equates with an eternity in Hell. As Our Lady, in her most concerned motherly warning to all her children pleads, “If sins continue to be committed further, there will no longer be pardon for them.”

Many have heard ”the quote from Baudelaire that, “the devil's best trick is to persuade you that he doesn't exist.” What the phrase really means is that you will more often choose to do wrong if you don't believe there are consequences for your actions…. Jesus Christ, affirmed the existence of Hell. In fact, He mentioned Hell ninety times in Scripture; more than He talked about Heaven.”¹³

Little three shepherd children at Fatima were given a glimpse of Hell as described by Sr. Lucia:

“ She opened Her hands once more, as She had done the two previous months. The rays [of light] appeared to penetrate the earth, and we saw, as it were, a vast sea of fire. Plunged in this fire, we saw the demons and the souls [of the damned]. The latter were like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, having human forms. They were floating about in that conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames which issued from within themselves, together with great clouds of smoke. Now they fell back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fright (it must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me). The demons were distinguished [from the souls of the damned] by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals. That vision only lasted for a moment, thanks to our good Heavenly Mother, Who at the first apparition had promised to take us to Heaven. Without that, I think that we would have died of terror and fear.”¹⁴

Even if you do not believe in Hell now, as the man in the story "who said to Padre Pio, ‘I don't go to confession because I don't believe in Hell.’ Padre Pio is said to have responded, ‘You'll believe it when you get there.’ ”¹³

Our Heavenly Mother Mary has been asking for the similar remedies (prayer, conversion, confession/penance, honest poverty, and courageous acts of sacrifices, acts of reparations for sins, prayers for the pope, bishops and priests, Mass/Eucharist, and especially praying the powerful Rosary daily) during her many appearances throughout history (1531 Mexico¹⁵, 1830 Paris^,France¹⁶, 1846 LaSalette, France ¹⁷, 1858 Lourdes France¹⁸, 1917 Fatima, Portugal¹⁹, 1932 Beauraing, Belgium²⁰, 1933 Banneux, Belgium²¹, 1945 Amsterdam, Holland²², 1953 Syracuse, Italy ²³, 1968 Zeitun, Egypt²⁴, 1973 Akita, Japan, 1976 Betania, Venezuela²⁵, 1981 Kibèho, Rwanda²⁶, 1982 Edfu, Egypt²⁷, 1983 San Nicholas, Argentina²⁸, 1986 Shoubra, Egypt²⁹, 2000 Assiut, Egypt³⁰, 2009 Warraq el-Haddar, Egypt³¹). For a listing of other Marian Apparations of the 20^th Century go here.32