God is Love.
The words from God and His saints in this book were meant for you. I believe they are a gift from the Holy Spirit that reveals the love that is God. His love for you is greater than any love you have ever known. The love that He has for you at this very moment, wherever you are in your life and whatever you’ve done, is total, perfect, and unconditional. There is nothing you can do to lose His love. God exists, and He loves you absolutely.
That message is the heart of this book which records almost thirty years of grace that impacted every aspect of my life. In 1996, something unusual happened to me. Sometimes when I was in quiet prayer, I would hear the melodic voice of Mary, the mother of Jesus, speaking to me internally. My prayer life improved and I was growing in my Catholic faith as her wisdom led me closer to Jesus. I never expected or wanted my experiences to be more than that. Yet after several months of this private guidance, Mary asked me to begin a journal. “I would like for you to spend several minutes each day in quiet meditation,” she requested. “Because the Lord has allowed it to be so, I will give you each day a teaching for the good of the world.” Every day after that, she gave me a lesson to write down. These daily teachings were simple and concise. They invite us to live the joy of the Gospel. They speak of peace, patience, mercy, love, and forgiveness. Mary illuminated a way of living in union with God that will bring us true joy.
Mary’s daily lessons continued until May 1997. That summer was a time of spiritual rest for me. In August, I was given an interior vision of Mary. The light that exuded from her is the whitest, purest light. It is the same light that I have seen coming forth from everything in Heaven. This light shines in a way that is the opposite of the light on earth. Here, we see objects because a light shines on them and reflects off them, making them visible to us. The things of Heaven produce their own radiant light because they exist perfectly and solely for the glory of God. Glory gleams through them!
I was told by Mary that God would send her once per month, each time with a saint. Her daily lessons had reminded us of the scriptural truths we had forgotten and implored us to live them out. The messages of the saints of Heaven would demonstrate that with God’s help, this was possible for us. I saw these saints the same way I saw Mary. I discovered that I was able to describe them to others who were present in the room. Each time they spoke, their words came through me to family and friends who were praying with me and listening. We began to audio record the messages so those who were not present could hear them. By the end of the year, a group of people were meeting each month to pray together, learn from Heaven, and support one another in faith. This was the beginning of the Heavenly Grace Prayer Group that Mary has guided to the present day.
We learned that saints are not the ancient, stoic, and unrelatable people that we presumed they are. They are gloriously different and so wonderfully human! They had their natural talents and their weaknesses as we do. They struggled and failed at times in their mission. By trusting God and following Him, they were transformed into beautiful examples of holiness. The hopeful possibility in their stories is that we can choose to become more by living in friendship with God.
I received the last message from a saint in August 1998. Mary asked that our prayer group continue to meet each month. She would teach, encourage, and admonish us when necessary. Occasionally, Jesus chose to speak. In one such message, the Lord explained his purpose for sending Mary,
“My children, she goes to you as a messenger. I have sent her that you would know that I Am with you, that I shall never leave My people, that My hand works in your lives, that I lead you, that I call you, that I reach into you to bless you, to purify you, to fill you with My Spirit, that you might be filled with love, and joy, and mercy, for it is these gifts that I extend to you. It is these gifts that pour forth from My heart as blood and water, to purify and renew you, as I shall renew the face of the earth.”
Encounters with Jesus are astonishingly different than with Mary and the saints. When I see Him, I know I am in the presence of absolute truth and supreme authority, but I am not afraid. I am certain that I am entirely known and perfectly loved. A life lived in intimacy with Jesus is His desire for all of us. His love destroys fear. Being with Jesus helps me understand why sin is so damaging. In the presence of perfect holiness, I want to run from sin which looks so ugly in comparison. I want to be like Jesus! Sin is so much less than the splendor God created us for.
In November 2004, Mary announced that she would no longer impart a message each month. She would return once per year, on the 24th of October. This pattern continues as the words from Heaven still come. In recent years, Jesus has chosen to address the prayer group, and all those across the world who will hear his voice and respond. I see consistency in the messages, but also increased urgency. Our Lord pleaded,
“I have given this grace to the world because My church, My people, are in need of conversion. They have forgotten My love. They do not know their value, their tremendous worth! The Adversary has sown seeds of division and despair where I desire unity and hope. He has sown seeds of hatred and anger where I desire love and forgiveness. He has told you every deceit about who you are. Why can you not hear the Word of your Lord crying out to you from the silence of your own hearts, speaking to you, ‘You are loved for all ages?’”
Most of the time I received this grace from God, I was walking in a deep valley. Many difficulties befell my family in a brief time. I was shrouded in grief, confusion, questioning desperation, and even anger at times. There were times when I felt close to God and other times that I did not. My faith was challenged. Yet precisely in the misery, I have met God. He has painstakingly mended my wounds. He helped me emerge with greater wisdom and more resilient faith. I understand that God is present with me at every moment, just as he is even now with you. He sees your suffering. He will respond to your need. You are never left alone. I pray this book offers you hope, comfort, and peace as I close with the words of God,
“Every heart I see is a broken heart. How much pain have you endured? How much sorrow? How many injuries? How weak have you become under the weight of your own sin? Do you look for reprieve? Do you look for rest? Are you weary of the burdens of this life? Do you cry out for something else? Do you sense in the depths of your soul that this is not as it was always meant to be? That is the image of My love there, for there is no heart that has not been impressed with My love.
If you lived in the misery of this world without the image of My love in your soul, you would not know that you were in misery. You would not seek to look up to find something greater. You would not raise your eyes to Heaven to say, “Father, where have you gone?” It is a mark of your fidelity that you seek me, that you cry out for something else and rebel against the present darkness in which you live, the present misery that oppresses you, for you were created to be so much more! You were each created to be sons and daughters of the King of Heaven! That is the gift I offer you, that is the truth I speak to you. You are loved beyond your wildest imaginings with a passionate, intimate, love!
Does this surprise you? Do you look to your own failings, and faults, and sins, and think, “How, Lord, could I possibly do your will or accept your love, as weak as I am?” Do you not yet know that My power is perfected in weakness, for where you are weak, I Am strong. Where you are broken, I will heal. Where you are lost, I will find you. Where you grieve, I will give you joy. Where you sorrow, I will bring peace. Where you despair, I will bring hope. Where you die, I will bring life eternal.
Therefore, little ones, step toward Me. Make a motion. Move toward Me. Think of Me. Breathe a sigh of desire toward Me. All that I need to work in you is one moment when you give your will to Me. That is the depth, and the breadth, and the width, and the height of the love and the mercy I extend to you. Reach out to Me, then. Permit Me to save you. Permit Me to love you, to bring you out of the misery and brokenness in which you live and create a new life in you, a new heart, a new soul, a beautiful and infinitely precious creation of My Own heart. Each of you is infinitely precious. For each of you, I give My all. Respond to Me in love and let Me hold you fast to My heart.”
—Carolyn S. Heckman
Fr. Bill Ashbaugh, Spiritual Director
“The past century has been the bloodiest in human history. Even as I write this, the slaughter of innocent children in their mother’s womb continues all over the world. Yet the past century has also witnessed strong movements of grace that have washed away the anguish and sorrow of many human hearts. As St. Paul said, “Where sin increased, graced overflowed all the more” (Rm 5:20).
One wonderful gift of this past century is that God allowed Mary, the Mother of our Lord Jesus, to visit us. She came to three shepherd children at Fatima, Portugal in 1917, and to many other places. She came as the “Woman Clothed with the Sun” (Rev. 12) to stand with her children during their time of trial. She came as a mother.
Mary was destined ever since our fall under the power of sin and death to be the one who would stand against the devil. God said to the serpent in the book of Genesis, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers”. Her offspring would crush the ancient serpent’s head (Gn 3:15). Those Scriptures found their fulfillment when Mary gave birth to God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ (Lk 2; Mt 1:16; Gal. 4:4). But Scripture also includes others as offspring of the woman, “Those who keep God’s commandments and bear witness to Jesus” (Rev. 12:17). Her offspring continue to stand with her in their battle against evil, and she continues to stand with us. She is a mother to everyone and intercedes with God for us. One of the last things Jesus did as He was dying on the cross was to give His own mother to us. He said to the beloved disciple standing next to the cross, “Behold your mother” (Jn 19:27). And Scripture records that the disciple from that hour onward took Mary into his home. That reveals to all of us the close relationship God wants us to have with Mary. He wants us to take her into our homes.
Some Christians do not understand this very well. They feel that any love or veneration that we show Mary or the saints takes away from our worship of God. Yet the opposite is true. We only venerate the saints and especially Mary because of what God has done in their lives. We venerate them because Jesus is more clearly seen in their lives. We venerate them and give God our love because the work of salvation is a work of God, not of man. Mary above all the saints opened herself up to the grace of God and said, “Let it be done unto me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). She helps all of us say the same thing to God in our lives. She tells us to follow her Son, to “Do whatever He tells you” (Jn 2:5).
Many of the misguided ideologies that were present last century have taken deep root in our modern world and continue to threaten humanity. Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, has pointed out that these godless ideologies in both eastern and western cultures have formed a world-wide culture of death. And so, the battle continues.
Our Mother of Life is with us in this struggle. What we need right now as Christians is a reminder of the victory and power that is in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. He overcame sin and death. He came so that we might have life and have it in abundance. He is the answer to the troubles of this world. His is the power and glory forever.
Always we are called to a deeper union with Jesus and the life of grace He freely offers. God has been pouring out special graces on the Church at this time to revive it. We call these graces charisms — gifts of the Holy Spirit. They build up the Church in every age. These gifts need to be discerned and if truly from the Lord, need to be cultivated in the life of the Church. A good seed in good soil will bear good fruit.
For a number of years, a young woman named Carolyn (Belprez) Heckman has been sharing with her prayer group the words that flow from her inner soul. She believes that they are from Mary, the Mother of our Lord, and on a few occasions from some saints. These spiritual experiences are nothing new in the Church and always are approached with caution. The emphasis for followers of Jesus needs to be on His public revelation that has been made available to one and all in the Sacred Scriptures and the Sacred Tradition that is taught by His Body the Church. It is this revelation that saves us because it allows us all to be united to Christ. The Holy Father and the bishops have been called by our Lord as successors of the apostles to proclaim the Gospel to the world in its fullness. It is that public revelation that we are called upon to believe. But that does not mean that God refrains from using other means to reach us. God is constantly finding ways to speak to His children that He loves so much. Sometimes God graces a person or prayer group with special spiritual gifts that are meant to strengthen the faith of the prayer group. These gifts point us back to the public revelation of Jesus. I believe such a thing has happened to Carolyn.
Many have asked for the words that Carolyn has shared at her prayer group. Carolyn was tape recorded and transcripts of her words were made available to those interested. When the prayer group began to grow, Carolyn became concerned. She did not want to mislead anyone and so she asked for the help of the Church to discern the messages she was receiving.
Her messages were given to a priest in the Diocese of Lansing who has been charged by the bishop to review books and materials for proper theological content. According to his best judgement, Carolyn’s messages are free from theological error and are in harmony with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are simple, and encouraging.
In evaluating the messages, there was no intention of making a judgement on the supernatural origins of Carolyn’s experiences or her messages. No one is bound to believe with the same assent of faith we owe to the Gospel in private revelation, nor in the messages and prophecies that result from prayer groups. We are called to believe the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is in this context that these messages are being made available to those who wish to benefit from them. They are not to be seen as a substitute for the Scriptures nor the sound doctrine of the Church.
It is the prayer group’s hope that those who read these messages will find encouragement as they strive to lead a better Christian life. We pray in thanksgiving to God for sending us His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus, and also in giving us His own mother Mary to be with us in this valley of exile. We ask Mary to help us love and follow her Son Jesus as she did.
Fr. Kenneth F. Coughlin, Pastor St. Mary’s Catholic Church
“The second joyful mystery of the most holy rosary is The Visitation. According to Sacred Scripture and Tradition, this is when the Blessed Mother, being pregnant with the divine savior of the world, travels in haste to a town of Judah to assist her cousin Elizabeth, also pregnant. This joyful encounter between the two cousins and expectant mothers would forever change the course of history. Upon seeing Mary and hearing her voice, Elizabeth cries in a loud voice, “Most blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” (Lk: 1:42)
Mary, being pregnant with The Way, The Truth, and The Life, offers this gift to the world. She is the first disciple and the first evangelizer. Mary joyfully brings the Good News to all. Elizabeth, knowing the significance of this encounter with her cousin, appropriately proclaims, “How does this happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk: 1:43) For Elizabeth was honored and extremely touched that Mary would come to her to be of assistance in the last few months of her pregnancy. She felt that it should have been her coming to help Mary.
However, God’s divine plan was exactly the way He willed it. His chosen daughter, this obedient young maiden, would be an example for all the world. She would not only bring the Messiah into the world, but she would also bring the rest of her children, you and I included, to the Messiah. Mary always surrenders her own will to the holy will of God the Father, thus showing all of humanity the way to her divine son. The Blessed Mother faithfully leads us closer to Christ so that our lives may be more rooted in our savior. Our love and devotion to Mary, just like Elizabeth’s salutation, never ends with her, but culminate in her son. Mary always guides us to her son.
With that in mind, Mary’s service to God is ongoing. She works for the kingdom and will conclude only when her son returns in all His glory. God has allowed Mary, the Mother of our Lord Jesus, to visit us – Lourdes, Fatima, Knock, Guadalupe, etc. Although these are considered private revelations, they have been approved by Holy Mother Church. The graces from these visits can, and often do, strengthen the faith of the believers. This is manifested in the good works or fruits of the benefactors of the heavenly grace. Keep in mind, however, that private revelation can never become more important or replace public revelation (Sacred Scripture and Tradition). Its primary purpose is to point back to the public revelations of Jesus Christ.
God continues to pour out His heavenly graces even today in many places around the world using His chosen daughter Mary, the Mother of God, as an instrument. I believe one of those ways is through a young lady, wife, and mother, named Carolyn Belprez Kwiecinski. Since December of 1996, the Holy Mother of God has spoken through Carolyn, giving messages to her prayer group. As this prayer group grew in number, it was moved into St. Mary Catholic Church with the permission of the Bishop of the Diocese of Lansing, with extreme caution. The bishop wanted to make sure that the messages were free from theological error and in harmony with Church doctrine. As the pastor of St. Mary Parish, I have very carefully observed and listened to their content, and have not found any wrong doing. They are simple messages calling us to holiness and to the sacramental life of the Church.
At this point, I do want to say that I do not want to make any judgement on the supernatural origins of Carolyn’s experiences or her messages. I remain obedient to the Magisterium and the wisdom of Holy Mother Church. The final decision on the messages’ origins is in the hands of the Church hierarchy.
Personally, however, these messages have had, and continue to have, an awesome impact on the lives of those in attendance. On the fourth Tuesday of every month, Carolyn has been sharing a message from the Blessed Mother and, at times, our Lord has spoken through her. The messages to the prayer group have been challenging and uplifting. They are encouraging us to truly become the children of faith that God desires for each and every one of us. Mary, the Mother of God, reminds us how precious the gift of faith is and we are to always grow in that faith by surrendering our lives to the will of the Father. On each visit, she reveals the light of God on the prism of the gift of faith, showing to us the many spectrums of color in our relationship to God. As Christians, sons and daughters of God, we are called to a more complete conversion and a richer and more personal relationship with Jesus.
As St. John states, “For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (Jn 3:17-18) The choice is ours and our choice will shape our eternal destiny. To accept Jesus is to choose for salvation. To reject Jesus is to bring upon ourselves condemnation. Mary, sent by God, comes to help us choose life in Christ, her son.
Yes, like any loving mother, she wants the best for her children. She desires for us to completely fall in love, and remain united in love, with the Triune God. Since her visitation to St. Mary Parish, the members of the prayer group, like St. Elizabeth, have often said, “Who are we that the Mother of our Lord should come to us?” What a tremendous blessing upon our parish and the prayer group. I have witnessed many great fruits from her visits – a deeper love for the Holy Eucharist, an increase in prayer, greater use of the sacraments, stronger marriages, more penances and sacrifices, etc. I am aware of many souls drawn to Christ and the sacraments since Carolyn’s arrival in August of 1999.
In closing, I give thanks to Almighty God, for He is truly kind and merciful. We must always thank Him with grateful hearts. May we follow the example of Mary, who is the perfect model of discipleship. We pray to her to always help us love and commit our lives to her son as she did.
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