The Significance of the 3 Swords and 3 Roses for Today
For the last several decades we have witnessed the way the laity view the clergy. The Blessed Mother has addressed this issue at many apparition sites throughout the world. Based on the significant decline in Church attendance and donations going into the Sunday basket, all is not well. People are voting with their wallets, and it is noticed in chancery’s throughout the Western world.
Our Lady of Good Success in Quito Ecuador in the early eighteenth century said there would be a crisis of faith starting in the middle of the twentieth century. The apparitions of Akita Japan in the early 1970’s spoke of a serious rift among clergy having strong differences of opinion, and what doctrine is taught in the Church. Akita has come alive before our very eyes. The Blessed Mother said at Fatima that apostasy (loss of faith) would engulf the Church. The Church is in great turmoil and there is confusion amidst dense darkness. Attorney Generals (AGs) throughout the country are suing dioceses for sexual improprieties of clergy. The laity would be more forgiving of past transgressions if they saw leading hierarchy willing to deal with the issue. It should not be forgotten the overwhelming majority of clergy are outstanding individuals. Unfortunately, it only takes one rotten apple to spoil a bushel basket. In addition, Catholic clergy do not have a monopoly on abuse. It is widespread in every denomination, and nearly every profession.
One apparition has largely gone unnoticed in which heaven tells us that clergy need great prayer to sustain them in their mission to promote the Gospel and live in fidelity to the truth. It is the apparition of Mary the Mystical Rose of Montichiari, Italy. Montichiari means “clear mountains” in English. It was in Montichiari the Blessed Mother appeared to a humble and obscure woman by the name of Pierina Gilli over a twenty-year period beginning in 1947 to 1966. Pierina was born in the Brescia province of Italy (in the area of Lombardy) on August 3, 1911 and died at the age of 79 in the year 1991.
The young Pierina Gilli had many difficulties in her life. Her father was a contract daily farm worker who died when she was seven years old. As the oldest of three children, she was then placed in an orphanage for four years. Due to the inability of her mother to support her, she was then hired out as a housekeeper to the blind mother of a friendly priest. Her mother remarried and Pierina moved back into a home that now had a total of eight siblings. She said that her step-father had been inappropriate with her, however she remained silent to keep peace in the home. She only confided this to her mother years later. Nothing was easy for Pierina materially, financially, or relationally. It was a life of hardship from the very beginning that continued throughout her life.
Always keeping a diary, she developed a deep spirituality, and at 32 years old she entered the Consecrated Life in an order called the Handmaids of Charity in Montichiari. Accepted as a postulant she studied nursing, yet became very sick with an intestinal occlusion which precluded her from further study. On November 23, 1946, the mystical began to take over that altered her life forever. The Blessed Mother appeared to her and she wrote in her diary, “Then I see the most beautiful Lady, as if transparent, dressed in purple with a white veil that descends from her head to her feet; she held her arms open, and I saw three swords piercing her heart.” The Blessed Mother did not speak. At different times it was the Blessed Mother and Blessed Sister Mary Crucified as former head of the Handmaids of Charity who appeared to her.
Several months later on March 12, 1947 she was admitted to the local hospital and nearly died of heart failure. In July of 1947 she had another vision of the Blessed Mother identical to the first with three swords piercing her Immaculate Heart. In her diary she wrote, “At 3:15am on June 1, 1947 the Madonna said only three words to her, “Prayer, Sacrifice, Penance.”
In what is called the First Grand apparition, Pierina wrote in her diary,” I am the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of all of you. Our Lord sends me to bring a new Marian devotion for all male and female institutes, religious orders, and secular priests. I promise those religious institutes, orders and secular priests who venerate me in this special way my special protection, and increase in spiritual vocations, few betrayed vocations, and great sanctity among the servants of God. I wish the 13th day of each month to be celebrated as the day of Mary. On the 12 preceding days, special prayers of preparation should be said. She came with a white dress and with a white cape around her head that reached to the floor, and on the chest of the Virgin were three roses: one red, one white, one gold.”
The Three Swords And The Three Roses
Pierina would explain the meaning of the three swords and three roses. “The first sword means the loss of the vocation as priest or a monk. The second sword means priest, monks, and the nuns who live in deadly sin. The third sword means the priests and monks who commit the treason of Judas. While giving up their vocation, they often lose also their faith, their eternal beatitude, and become enemies of the Church.
The White Rose means the spirit of prayer. The Red Rose means the spirit of expiation and sacrifice. The Golden Rose (Yellow) means the spirit of penitence.”
The Blessed Mother is asking for a devotion that protects the clergy and its institutions from evil. She also asked for the Catholic practices of Holy Hours of Adoration, Mass, the Eucharist, and the Rosary.
The Blessed Mother would say to Pierina on her final visitation on the premises of the Handmaids of Charity, “For the last time I come to request the devotion already recommended at other times. My Divine Son wanted to leave proof by His most Precious Blood in order to witness how great is His love for all humanity, from which is returned great offenses. Get the purification cloth, and show it to all here present. Behold the drops of blood of the Lord. Let it be covered by a white cloth, and then let it be exposed for three days in this chapel, together alongside the statue of Sister Mary Crucified of the Rose that will become miraculous for the sake of the devotion of the faithful. Have the coming factual test be referred to the Bishop, and say to him that conversions of revival of faith will verify it.
I interpose myself as Mediatrix between all human beings and particularly for religious souls and my divine Son who tired of the continuously offenses, wanted to exercise his justice. I vitally desire that this Institute of the Handmaids of Charity may be the first to honor me with the title Mystical Rose. By such am I, as the protectress of all religious institutes, assuring my protection for a lively re-awakening in the Faith so that these elect souls may return to the primal spirit of their founders. Before departing, the Blessed Mothershowed the three roses on her chest and said to Pierina, “Live for the sake of love.”
On November 22, 1947, Pierina was told by the Blessed Mother to go the Montichiari Church at 4:00pm. It was at this time Pierina was told about the Hour of Grace that would be given to the world. The Blessed Mother said, “I have come down to this place because here will be great conversions.” The Blessed Mother said that she would appear at this Church on December 8th, which is the feast day of the Immaculate Conception when she would officially request the Hour of Grace.
Then at noon Mass with one thousand people in attendance for the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the Blessed Mother said to Pierina, “I am the Immaculate Conception, I am Mary of Grace, the Mother of my Divine Son Jesus Christ. By my coming to the Clear Mountains (Montichiari), I desire to be called the Mystical Rose.
Furthermore my desire is to see instituted the Hour of Grace for the whole world, by celebrating it on December 8th every year, in order to obtain graces and conversions; and to request the construction of railings for the custody of these cited four floor tiles, together with a statue that replicates the Mystical Rose. “ At that moment two people were instantaneously cured. One was a young six-year old boy from polio, and a twenty six year old woman who had been mute for nine years who instantaneously burst into joyous praise. Heaven requested Pierina tell the people that each year at 12 noon on December 8th people celebrate the Feast of Rosa Mystica.
In the turmoil of our day with the scandals in the Church, this feast is now more important than ever. Jesus Himself had Judas as betrayer. Judas has always lived in the Church and walks among us. There have always been those that are operating in stealth and those more open who spread false doctrine with intent to harm from the interior of the Church from within. This has always been the case, and it will continue due to Original Sin. That is why heaven is asking for the Hour of Grace for the sins of clergy. It is precisely for this reason people should not be leaving the faith, but more strident in their prayer, fasting and penance for the sins of clergy.
JESUS, I TRUST IN YOU