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Just as the Ark, in the story about Noah, provided a safe, warm place of safety not just for animals but for a human family, the Holy Virgin Mary was like an 'ark' for Jesus; she was a sinless, warm place of shelter for the Son of God, holding Him in her womb joyfully, and in her love.

As the Son of God looked down from Heaven towards the filth and darkness which He would enter, far below, when He came into our sinful world, He saw the Blessed Virgin Mary, who had been prepared, at her consent, as a safe place for Him who is all purity and goodness. She was like an 'ark', to hold and protect Him for a while.

We can be helped to bear painful memories if we notice the spiritual growth that was the result of accepting and offering up those trials in union with Christ - even those caused by our own foolishness. All seems disastrous when a flower bud splits open; but only by that 'injury' can a beautiful flower emerge.

Some people want intimate friendship with Christ, but refuse to keep His Commandments. In refusing, it is as though they insist on walking a different road from His Way to Heaven. They end up on dangerous side-roads or cul-de-sacs.

Christ said that many Catholics who should pray every day cannot be bothered to do so: cannot be bothered to turn in regular conversation to the one Who created them, died to save them, sustains them in being, and will one day judge them.

Mary, the Immaculate Virgin Mother of Christ, has a purity which is extraordinary; and we, who are not so pure, need to do penance for our sins, as well as to pray for help and forgiveness.

The Lord asked me to look at all the people who were standing beside the balustrade at Lourdes, watching the Rosary Procession. He said: A great deal more prayer and penance would rise up to Heaven from this place if they all joined in, instead of just watching.

The nuns who have offered their whole lives to God in contemplation and penance effect powerful changes in the lives of sinners. The penances of ordinary people, too, are effective, pouring into the world, by God's grace, a stream of living water rather than the 'puss' which oozes from sinful deeds and conversations.

Each priest should be 'another Christ' for us; yet we should not be surprised if we are treated unjustly by a priest. Christ Himself was hustled towards the edge of a cliff by men who were pillars of the local synagogue. Christ escaped, then; but until we die, we are in danger of treating others unjustly, and must resist temptation.

People who like to engage in malicious gossip, or scandalous or salacious conversations, are like people choosing to stand in a filthy alley which is befouled underfoot, instead of in a beautiful meeting place in fresh air and sunlight.

A sinful soul, damaged by a seriously sinful way of life, is like a bombed-out shop in a war-zone. Rubbish is strewn all over the street, from the blast: and no trading can take place until the premises have been cleaned, mended, painted, furnished and re-stocked. As kind people can make a place habitable, so the prayers of our Blessed Lady are powerfully effective in restoring souls to their earlier beauty.

When people want to be good but have not yet made firm resolutions or adopted firm principles, they are like climbers on a mountain on which there are large patches of loose shale - small stones. It is only too easy to take a few steps up, and then to slide down again.

Our Lady lives in Heaven, close to Jesus Christ her Divine Son. She longs for us to reach Heaven. When she sees sincere people who do good and try to honour their Creator but who do not know Christ or His Way, it is as though she leans over to pull those people onto the right trajectory for Heaven, at the last moment.

I 'saw' falling straight into Hell, at death, an unrepentant soul who had kidnapped and abused a child, for his own pleasure, and with no charity towards all involved who would suffer from his actions.

I 'saw' a man falling into Hell, it seemed, as he shouted at the Lord: "How dare You do this to me!" But that angry soul had spurned the Lord's friendship and forgiveness and by his own choices had chosen to be separated from God.

The Lord showed me how brief is earthly life, compared with Eternity. He asked me to tell everyone: This glory is what you are called to. What will you do to attain it? - In other words, are we sincerely preparing to receive the free gift of Eternal Life, and are we worthy to enter Heaven?

As God looks upon the world, He sees how few of us believe in His goodness, how few of us expect answers to prayer, how few of us have prayed with faith in the merits of His Son Jesus, Who died for us. Our faith has not developed because we have not really given our whole lives to God, in regular prayer and works of charity.

The sick have great work to do for God! Christ asked me to speak the truth to the other sick and handicapped people I meet: I should say that we are all called to be Saints. We can accept our unavoidable sufferings and offer them up in union with Christ on the Cross, and pray with Him for sinners to repent and find forgiveness and peace.

God has permitted capital punishment at certain times, for grave crimes. Yet the human race has been in such a dire state of sinfulness, since the Original Sin, that in whatever era of history Christ might have come to earth to speak the truth about sin and salvation, He would have been persecuted, and then killed by whatever method was usual at the time, despite His innocence.

We know that sin is like a chain round the ankle that prevents us from serving God. But a little weakness such as fear of public opinion - or our own family - can be like a 'thread' holding us back from valiant work for God, unless with His help we break it.