REVELATION OF FEBRUARY 2, 1844

FEAST OF THE PURIFICATION

Our Lord offers a promise of pardon in view of the efforts made to spread the Reparation. He further designates St. Michael, St. Martin and St. Louis, as the special patrons of the Work, and asks that the members wear a cross, and band themselves together as "Defenders of God's Holy Name."

DURING the past several weeks I have not experienced anything extraordinary regarding the Work of Reparation, except that our Lord continued to unite Himself to me in order to make reparation and to glorify His Eternal Father.

Today, however, being the Feast of the Purification, it was my turn to receive Communion in fulfillment of the vow made by our prioress, for the intention that the designs of the Sacred Heart of Jesus be accomplished. After receiving Communion, the good Saviour had the kindness to speak to me.

Now although in the previous revelation, our Lord told me about His anger which was aroused on account of the crimes committed against His Father, which communication had left me in a frightful state of worry, and had caused me to weep, today He filled my soul with joy by making known to me the satisfaction His Divine Heart experiences at seeing the zeal and the desires of His children for this growing Association. He told me that just as His holy Mother has adopted the Arch-Confraternity of the Heart of Mary, to obtain the conversion of sinners, so will He adopt the Arch-Confraternity of Reparation. Both must go hand in hand, the one making reparation for crimes committed against God, and the other to obtain pardon, and the former would belong especially to Jesus while the other would belong especially to Mary.

Then our Lord told me that the Confraternity of Reparation which He desired to have established was to have a two-fold purpose, the first being Reparation for blasphemy, and the second being Reparation for the profanation of Sunday, since these were the two principal sins which in modern times were provoking the anger of God.

Therefore the new Association was to differ from that in Rome in that besides striving for the extirpation of blasphemy, the Rules would oblige members to refrain from all Sunday work themselves, and to do what lay in their power to see that others stop all unnecessary servile works on the holy days of the Lord.

Our Saviour also desires that this Association be placed under the patronage of St. Michael, St. Martin, and of St. Louis, asking that each member should say daily one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory be, together with the Act of Praise, called the Golden Arrow, which the Saviour had previously dictated to me. But on Sunday and on feast days, all the Prayers of Reparation are to be recited, in order to make fitting reparation for the crimes committed against God's Majesty on these days of the Lord in order to obtain mercy for the guilty.

Our Lord showed me this Association as an army of brave soldiers, uniting themselves to Him as to their Commander-in-Chief, to defend the glory of His Father. It is His Will that this militia be called "The Defenders of the Holy Name of God," so that this noble title should give evidence of the high calling of those enrolled.

Finally, our Lord told me that He desired each member of the Association to wear a special cross, and that on one side of this cross should be engraved the words, "Blessed be the Name of God," and on the reverse side should be the words, "Begone, Satan!" To all those wearing this holy cross our Lord promised a special resourcefulness to conquer the demon of blasphemy, adding that every time one hears a curse, he should repeat the two short inscriptions written on each side of the cross, and he will thus overcome the evil one and render glory to God.

At the end our Lord warned me, saying that the demon would do everything in his power to crush this Work which springs from the Sacred Heart. I then felt that I would willingly shed the last drop of my blood for such a holy association.

Our Lord also made me understand that He had not spoken to me regarding this Work for a long time because there was no need for Him to do so, and since He never does anything superfluous, He had kept silence. On this day, however, He felt it necessary to speak to me in order to show me the difference between the Confraternity of Reparation stemming from Italy, and the new Confraternity which He now demanded be formed in France, whose additional feature embodied reparation for the profanation of Sunday.