THE MESSAGE OF OUR LADY OF AMERICA

02 The Indwelling Trinity: Source of All Holiness.

04 The Sacred Humanity: God’s Love Affair with All Mankind.
10 Of Shepherds and Kings: God’s Bias for the Poor and the Humble of Heart.
17 The Holy Family: Model for Every Family on Earth.
24 The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
28 Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God: She Whose Heart Beat Next to His.
32 Our Lady of America and Our Lady of Guadalupe: Distinct but Complementary.
38 St. Joseph, Virgin-Father of Jesus: Model of Humility and Obedience.
40 The Angels: Those Marvelous Beings Who Protect and Guide Us.
42 The Youth of America: Special Torchbearers of the Queen.
44 Archbishop Paul F. Leibold.
47 The Year of Bernadette.
52 My Little White Dove: The Rich Biblical Symbolism of This Name.
62 My Son is in Love with Your Lowliness.

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 The Indwelling Trinity: Source of All Holiness

The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of

Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in Himself. It is
therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that
enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in
the “hierarchy of the truths of faith.” The whole history of salvation is
identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true
God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men and “reconciles
and unites with himself those who turn away from sin.”

The message of Our Lady of America® is totally focused on this

awesome mystery that reveals to us the very inner nature of God and
defines our own nature in terms of God’s definition of Himself as Love, as
Life. In the overabundance of the Father’s love we were created. Through
the unconditional and supremely sacrificial love of the Son we were
redeemed. And through the mysteriously transforming and sanctifying love
of the Holy Spirit we are invited into the inner glory of the Eternal and
Trinitarian God Who is Holiness itself. We are called to be holy as He is.
We come to understand this call and this happiness through the great gift
of the Indwelling of the Most Holy Trinity in our souls, first initiated in
Baptism and increased each moment we surrender more deeply to its
infinite grace.

Our Lady conveyed this reality to Sister Mildred Mary Neuzil in these
words:
The Holy Trinity dwelt with us in a manner far surpassing anything
that can ever be imagined. For ours was the earthly paradise where once
again God walked among men.

The Divine Trinity will dwell in your midst only if you are faithful in
practicing the virtues of our life at Nazareth. Then, you also, my children,
you also will become another paradise. God will then walk among you and
you will have peace.

(Diary, Our Lady of America®, Sr. Mildred Mary Neuzil, pg. 8.)

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 In November of 1957 Our Lady showed herself to Sister Mildred as
the “Immaculate Tabernacle of the Indwelling God,” stating “all the glory of
the King’s daughter is within.” She called herself “Our Lady of the Divine
Indwelling, handmaid of Him Who dwells within.” Sister Mildred describes
her appearance as being “suffused in a soft glow of light that appeared to
come from within her. It seemed to permeate and, as it were, saturate her
whole being, even her apparel and the roses.

All true holiness comes from within. It is this Divine Presence in our
souls that sanctifies us. It is God’s action of grace, not ours, that makes us
holy and carries us into the realm of His glorious kingdom. Holiness is in
direct measure to the surrender of our wills to God’s and of our ways to His.
This message from Our Lady stresses this fact over and over; it stresses
the primacy of prayer over our own activity. God is always First Love and
Giver and Gift. We have nothing to give Him that He has not first given to
us. It is the pure cry of the heart that bids our eternal God to enter into the
humble tabernacle of our own beings and to make their His dwelling place,
His throne room, a holy of holies, His bridal chamber for His most intimate
union with every soul. Through His action in our souls, we, too, will be
suffused and saturated with the glory of God. This is why we were made
and this is what we have been called to know. It is the destiny of all those
who love Him and do not resist the very love that cannot contain itself but
seeks its expression in us. God the Trinity is a magnificent love story and
we are the characters in that story who allow Him to be God—
unfathomable Love to us.

O dear God, we dare to bid you have your way with us. Glorify
yourself in our lowliness! May your Holy Name be forever praised, Father ,
Son and Holy Spirit!

Copyright © Contemplative Sisters of the Indwelling Trinity, March, 2009

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 The Sacred Humanity:
God’s Love Affair with All Mankind

“I am the Mother of the sacred humanity, and it is my special work

as co-redemptrix of the human race to help souls reach
the sanctity of the Father in eternal union by showing them how
to put on Christ, to imbibe His Spirit,
and thus become one with Him.”
(Diary, Our Lady of America,® Sr. Mildred Mary Neuzil, pg. 24)

This liturgical season of Christmas impels us to focus

on the Sacred Humanity, that awesome mystery of God’s
Incarnation into our world through Jesus, His only Begotten
Son, who assumed a human nature from the Virgin Mary so
He might walk among us and reveal His Father to us. Jesus
is the Word, the Logos, who was in the beginning with God
and through Whom all things have been made. He is
Emmanuel, the God Who loves us so much He wanted to
completely identify with us, be with us on our journey home
to the Father from whose bosom we were all born. Jesus
comes to share with us the very life of God Himself so that
we might be holy as God is holy and live with His life, not
merely our own. Since human knowledge comes by way of
the senses, Jesus in our flesh is our means of taking hold of
the hand of God and caressing His Face, calling Him Abba.
Our Christian religion is the only religion that teaches
the doctrine of the Divine Indwelling. It is the only religion
that professes a God who so tenderly and so completely

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identifies Himself with us, uniting His utter Greatness and
Otherness with our wretchedness and our littleness. Look at
a newborn baby and think of it!-- the All Holy, Eternal God
becoming one of us, small, helpless, dependent and poor,
crying for His milk as the Babe in Bethlehem. For the Jewish
people who waited so long for the Promised Redeemer to
come, this was a stumbling block, -- that the Almighty, the
great I Am Who Am whose name is so sacred that only their
high priest could utter it once a year at the feast of the
Atonement, should be born so poor as one of us! Yes, they
expected a Messiah, a “son of God,” but the term was one
they used for those rare men anointed by God for some very
special purpose; they expected the return of King David in all
his glory, or one like him, to deliver them from their enemies
and restore their previous greatness upon the earth. No
other religion can boast such intimacy with God as this
Sacred Humanity! Any religion that does not know Jesus
cannot know the abundance of the Father’s love, for all
salvation must come through Jesus, the only Mediator with
the Father. He is the only way to return to our homeland in
the Father’s house, the Father’s heart.
“Belief in the true Incarnation of the Son of God is the
distinctive sign of Christian Faith.”
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 463.)

All sin is an offense against God and can only be

forgiven by God. Original sin, passed on to all human
posterity, needed the God-man, someone divine to satisfy
the divine justice adequately, and someone fully human to
represent man fully. It is Jesus Who makes that adequate
atonement for our sin, reconciles us to God, manifests so

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clearly the love of the Eternal Father who willed our
salvation, who is Himself the model to show us the way to
God, and Who shares God’s very life with us, for He is one
with God as He is one with us, fully God and fully man. This
is God’s magnificent plan for our salvation made manifest
today in the crib. Jesus saves us in and through His Sacred
Humanity. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 456-478)
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that
whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
(John 3:16)

This awesome historical and spiritual truth of the Sacred

Humanity of Jesus is God’s Christmas present to us, His
very Divine Indwelling Presence, for not only does He walk
beside us, but He deigns to dwell within us, pressing our
hearts to His and lifting us up to the Father’s eternal
embrace. He begins this love affair with us when we are first
created in Love, but seals it through that gift of self-emptying
Love that pours itself out on the cross of our salvation and
gives itself to us as sanctifying grace in Baptism whereby He
takes up His abode within us. This is mystery, and like all the
mysteries of our Faith, is beyond human comprehension and
can only be understood with the wisdom of supernatural
Faith. In the 1954 locutions with Sr. Mildred Mary Neuzil
recorded in the Diary of Our Lady of America®, Jesus calls
Himself a “Beggar for love” and pleads with us to satisfy His
divine hunger. God so humbled Himself to become man so
that man might become god, as St. Augustine said so long
ago. God longs for our love in return.
Theologians speak of this mystery of the Sacred
Humanity in terms of the Hypostatic Union, that union of

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both the divine and the human natures in the one divine
person of Jesus. Jesus is always divine for He existed in the
beginning with the Father; he does not cease to be a divine
person when he assumes our human nature. He takes His
humanity from the flesh and blood of Mary, making Him fully
human, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, who
supplies what the man would in any other conception, is
conceived miraculously in her womb, there to grow and be
like us in all things but sin. He has no human father by way
of natural generation, for God is His Father.
God, the Trinity, is a community of three persons in one
godhead. The Father’s perfect self-knowledge generates that
perfect image of Himself, His only Begotten Son. The Holy
Spirit is the perfect love between Father and Son, that sigh of
love, that breath of life spirated forth from their perfect self-
knowledge and self-giving. Our God created man in this
same image, to procreate himself in a similar trinitarian
activity of knowing and loving and giving wherein a man will
know his wife and their love will impel the self-giving that
brings forth new life.
For God to take flesh among us, He would have to be
born into a human family with a mother and a father as
established in the laws of our nature which God created on
this trinitarian model of life. Mary, in giving her flesh,
becomes the mother of Jesus. Joseph, however, contributes
nothing to the humanity of Jesus, but becomes Jesus’ legal
father by Jewish law when he names this blessed Babe
“Jesus,” which means “God saves,” the name given Him by
the angel Gabriel, for He was destined to save His people
from their sins. Joseph thus becomes, by pre-destination

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and singular privilege, not merely a foster-father but the
Virgin-Father of Jesus, His earthly father, standing in the
place of the heavenly Father, to protect the Child and His
Mother until the time ordained by God for Jesus’ public
mission of man’s redemption and salvation to begin. (Diary,
pg. 27)
Thus, Mary and Joseph are intimately and inextricably
bound up with the Sacred Humanity, and together the three
of them form the “hypostatic order.” (Edward Healy
Thompson, M.A., The Life and Glories of St. Joseph, pgs. 5-
13) Mary and Joseph are necessary to the plan of salvation
because the Father willed that Jesus would save us in and
through the family. God could have saved us by any method
He chose. Mary and Joseph, precisely as the Holy Family,
share in Jesus’ redemptive mission in singular and unique
ways as no other human beings do.
Hence, in 1956, St. Joseph spoke to Sr. Mildred Mary
Neuzil:
I became, in union with my holy spouse, co-redemptor of
the human race. Through compassion for the sufferings of
Jesus and Mary, I co-operated, as no other, in the salvation of
the world. (Diary, pg. 13)

As the Holy Family most closely mirrors the inner life of

the heavenly Trinity, they become the earthly trinity and
model for every family on earth. In 1954, Mary says:
The Holy Trinity dwelt with us in a manner far surpassing
anything that can ever be imagined. For ours was the earthly
paradise where once again God walked among men.
(Diary, pg. 8)

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 To all this mystery of grace handed on to us in and
through the Sacred Humanity and the Holy Family, all we can
say is, “Wow!” How awesome is our God! As we gaze at the
nativity crèches in our churches and in our homes, let us fall
on our knees in awe and pray, with the utmost reverence,
those holy names so necessary to our salvation --
Jesus! Mary! And Joseph!
Copyright © Contemplative Sisters of the Indwelling Trinity, Christmas, 2008

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 Of Shepherds and Kings:
God’s Bias for the Poor and the Humble of Heart

Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many

were powerful, not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose
the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the
weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly
and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to
reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human
being might boast before God.
(New American Bible, 1Cor 1:26-30)

How many times have we heard the Christmas story of

the angels appearing to the shepherds in the fields
announcing that this day a Savior was born to them, and that
they would find the newborn Babe wrapped in swaddling
clothes and lying in a manger? How many times have we
questioned why were shepherds the first to hear this Good
News?
To answer that question we must ponder the pattern of
God’s behavior throughout the Old Testament and into the
New, noting His extraordinary bias toward the poor, the
lowly, the powerless and the humble. How He loved to
confound the “wise” and powerful of this world with little
ones whose humility and openness to His Will and His grace
allowed Him to work His wonders through them in the sight
of the people, for He knew they would give the glory rightly
to Him and not to themselves. Oh how He loved the
Anawim, the little ones! When Jesus came He would declare,

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“unless you become as little children, you shall not enter the
kingdom of heaven.” As creatures we are always children,
owing our existence to the Creator. As those reborn in
grace, we are children adopted into God’s profound
Trinitarian life out of the sheer goodness of His Redeeming
Heart; we could never earn, nor deserve, life-- either on the
natural or on the supernatural level. We are always
subservient to and dependent on God for everything. All life
is pure Gift from the Author and Father of Life Itself, and the
little ones are the first to gratefully and humbly acknowledge
this Truth and live by it.
We see God’s choice in the child Moses, saved from the
River Nile, who would lead God’s people out of slavery in
Egypt to the Promised Land, a man with a speech
impediment who needed his brother Aaron to speak for him.
And again in the prophet Jeremiah, called by God in his
youth, who protested, “Ah, Lord God! I know not how to
speak; I am too young,” but God assured Jeremiah that He
would provide the words for him to speak and he should
have no fear. And then there was the orphan girl Esther, who
would be chosen to wed the great King Ahasuerus, and
through her wise and bold intercession would save God’s
people from their enemies. Who can forget the mere woman,
Judith, who would slay the dreaded Holofernes whom no
man would stand against. But the darling of them all was the
little shepherd boy, David, who killed the giant Goliath, whom
the whole Israelite army feared, with a simple sling shot and
a small stone guided by the hand of God in the fatal blow to
the brow of the enemy. He would become the beloved
Shepherd-King, anointed King in Israel’s glory days, from
whose heirs a Messiah-King would come to shepherd God’s

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people forever, and He would be called “The Good
Shepherd,” for He would lay down His life for His sheep
God’s favor to the humble is even more wondrously
displayed when He did not hesitate to cast aside His glory
and come to earth as a little Child, born in the little town of
Bethlehem, to a humble Jewish girl from an insignificant
place called Nazareth. Oh how God loves the poor and the
humble! He chose to become one of them to save them from
all harm. And how He loves to exalt them and humble the
proud who oppress them. Is it any wonder then that He
should first reveal Himself to the simple, humble shepherds
in the fields, those always so ready to hear good news and
get up and follow it? Surely the shepherds were first to hear
the Good News because they were real, simply themselves,
unpretentious, free of the lust for power or glory. They
remind us of the childlike purity of heart that must be ours if
we are to see and hear God. They take us to that King of
Kings who fulfills the promise to King David of old; that
Good Shepherd Who would not only call each sheep by
name but would literally become the “Paschal Lamb” slain to
save all God’s sheep from eternal death. So, while the
shepherds speak to God’s bias for the poor, they also
challenge us to have the heart and mind of a child, always
ready to be surprised and amazed at what God can and will
do for us, always ready to follow His call. The heart of a child
is pure and addicted to wonder! And the heart of a child will
always cling to the Heart that calls its name and protects it
from all evil.
In our own day, August 14, 1980, Our Lady of America®
spoke from the heart of Heaven’s Shepherd-King to another
little one, Sr. Mildred Mary Neuzil, hidden away in her

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cloister, with a message desperately calling God’s people
back into His fold, to Faith and Purity and obedient love to
Christ’s Vicar on earth, while this Good Shepherd tries to
protect them from wandering away from His Truth into the
abyss of destruction.
Sweet child, beloved of my Son and cherished by me, my
message has not been heeded nor have I yet found one to
further the cause of renewal from within. The Presence of the
Trinity within every human being is the focal point, the basis of
interior holiness. From this will spring a deep life of prayer and
a love for penance as the discipline needed to convert all
peoples to a serious preparation for the coming of my Son and
His Kingdom.

Dear child, there are those of my children who are faithful,

among these are my priests and religious who live a life of
prayer and dedication to the work of my Son. What a
consolation they are to me, with what joy I watch them furthering
the Kingdom. But there must be more of such self-sacrificing
souls, many, many more. Until this comes to pass, peace will
not come, rather much more of suffering will encompass the
world. I wish to spare my children from this, but I cannot do it
without their help.

You must try to make my people understand that the life of

God within them is the source of their peace and happiness.
There is no other way. This is what my Son came to teach and
bring and it was for this He lived and died. Unless this mystery
of God’s Presence within is accepted and lived, peace will not
come. It is the only way, believe me, my daughter.

Beloved daughter, you are not being accepted because you

are a small one. But in the end all will come as I desire. Those
who oppose you will receive light to understand. These good
people mean well and if they are in authority it is for you to listen
respectfully and obey. I will speak to them in their hearts and
the Divine Spirit who makes all things clear will give them

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 wisdom and understanding. In the end they will do as I wish.
So, have patience, dear one, it will happen as I have said and
those who have opposed me will become my most ardent and
courageous supporters. Until this comes to pass, wait in trust,
knowing that I never fail those who place their confidence in me.
My Son blesses you, be at peace.
(Diary, Our Lady of America,® Sr. Mildred Mary Neuzil, pg. 37)

On November 22, 1980, Our Lady spoke to Sr. Mildred of

a heavenly mandate being given to our small nation of the
United States in these words:
Beloved daughter, the United States is a small one among
nations, yet has it not been said that “a little child shall lead
them?” It is the United States that is to lead the world to peace,
the peace of Christ, the peace that He brought with Him from
heaven in His birth as man in the little town of Bethlehem. The
Savior did not come to enter this world in a big city but a small
town, again, a little one among many. Dear child, unless the
United States accepts and carries out faithfully the mandate
given to it by heaven to lead the world to peace, there will come
upon it and all nations a great havoc of war and incredible
suffering. If, however, the United States is faithful to this
mandate from heaven and yet fails in the pursuit of peace
because the rest of the world will not accept or co-operate then
the United States will not be burdened with the punishment
about to fall.

I was afraid that the burden of leadership would be too

great for the United States without some special help from
heaven. Our Lady assured me that Michael and the whole army
of Blessed Spirits will give their assistance at all times. As
the Queen of Angels she has loving command over them and
they accomplish whatever she wishes. This made me feel better
and the fears that I had left me. (Diary, pg. 38)

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 And so we are led to the Wise Men who left all behind to
seek the King whose star appeared in the heavens. Most
writers confirm they were of a priestly cult, astrologers more
than kings for they studied the heavens. Perhaps they came
to be called wise because they were learned, and are
sometimes called kings because the gifts they brought to the
Child were gifts that would be offered to a king. They had
heeded a prophecy that even the heavens would give witness
to the birth of a great king born to a virgin and they waited
and watched for Him. In them we see natural wisdom give
way to the Wisdom of God, for not only did they seek the One
promised, but on finding Him, radiant as the Son that rises in
the East, ablaze with the glory of God all around Him, they
were enabled to quickly discern the truth from lies, the evil
spirits from the Spirit of God. They then left that place filled
with the Light and Presence of the living God, considering all
else as rubbish, as St. Paul would later say, when he, too,
encountered the one true God in Jesus.
We see this Wisdom of God in Our Lady’s warning to
Sister, for us, about discernment of spirits:
Dear child, evil is so insidious that it often passes for good.
The simple and pure of heart alone can detect the difference.
Many good works and many a good person or persons are
thwarted and destroyed by apparently good people who are
manipulated by the powers of evil because they do not possess
that finer sense of being able to detect a false spirit from a true
one. (Diary, pg. 40)

It has been said that the greatest evil is the one closest
to the truth. The following words of Our Lord to Sister
Mildred on July 13, 1981, teach us to find protection from the
insidiousness of evil, to find true Wisdom, in Him alone.

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 Many unnatural acts are being committed in the name of
love. This evil is being disguised and tolerated as an intrinsic
right like any other. Even some of My priests and consecrated
virgins are being caught up into this web of evil, not realizing its
terrible consequences.

My dearest one, many false doctrines are being taught and

for many the true Christ is never made known. The false
prophets and self-proclaimed Messiahs are drawing many away
from Me, the Way, the Truth and the Life. I am the true Messiah
who was sent and the only one proclaimed as such by My
Father. (Diary, pg. 40)

Seek Me for I only am truth, I only am the Christ.

Here, and here only, is the Star that we must follow, the
only light that leads us straight home!
Copyright ©Contemplative Sisters of the Indwelling Trinity, 2009.

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 The Holy Family:
Model for Every Family on Earth
 
We see that at the beginning of the New Testament, as at the
beginning of the Old, there is a married couple. Whereas Adam and
Eve were the source of evil which was unleashed on the world,
Joseph and Mary are the summit from which holiness spreads
all over the earth. The Savior began the work of salvation
by this virginal and holy union, wherein is manifested His all-powerful
will to purify and sanctify the family—
that sanctuary of love and cradle of life.

(Pope John Paul II, encyclical Redemptor Custos)

What a beautiful description of the family—a sanctuary

of love and cradle of life. That beautiful sanctuary designed
by a loving Creator was desecrated when the First Family in
the order of nature, Adam and Eve, surrendered to the
seduction and snares of the Fallen Angel and, in pride,
wanting to be god, disobeyed God. Thus, they were driven
out of that paradise of perfect harmony and intimacy with
God into a world of darkness and separation from God, a
world of discord with the earth and with one another. They
lost for themselves, and us, the reward of obedient love,
entrance into the Everlasting Paradise of the beatific vision
and full communion with the unending glory of the Holy
Triune God, the glory God intended for them and their
posterity from the very beginning of time. In the fullness of

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time, however, God kept His promise to send a Savior, the
Sacred Humanity, who through His humility and obedience
would reverse the deprivations of Adam and Eve’s sin of
pride and disobedience, and would engage us in a new
covenant that would open the doors of the Father’s house to
us, and would adopt us into God’s own family, through
grace. All human history is measured by this sacred event,
the Word-Made-Flesh in Jesus, the Sacred Humanity Who
brings us salvation from all sin. As Jesus is the center of
time and of the human family into which He was born, so
must He be the center of every life called to be the extension
of His humanity in our world. Christ’s physical birth
happened but once, but its purpose is to be reborn every day
in every heart until we are so immersed in that Sacred
Humanity it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in
us. Thus, when we enter into the Father’s house, He will look
upon us and see only His Son and will call us by His Son’s
own Name, dearly Beloved of God. And we will respond,
“Abba, Father!”
The feast of the Holy Family was established in 1893 by
Pope Leo XIII to show the necessity and the importance of
the unique and complete cooperation of this Family in the
work of redemption, and to remind us that all life and all
salvation comes by way of the family. The traditional family
is under great attack in our contemporary society. We have a
generation more influenced by media than by the home,
often in conflict with authority, particularly of parents. The
drug and alcohol abuse and suicides on college campuses
no longer shock us. The anti-life movement seems to have an
upper hand, at the moment, with its endless promotion of

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birth control, in-vitro fertilization, embryonic stem cell
research, cloning, pre-marital and extra-marital sexual
relationships, abortion and homosexuality that so directly
attack both the sanctity of marriage and family and the
sanctity of life itself. The Catholic Church, to be true to its
Head, must continue to teach the sanctity of marriage
between one man and one woman, bound in permanent
commitment and covenantal love modeled on the
unconditional and enduring love of God Himself for us, and
the outpouring of that love in new life.
It is no surprise that the Lord saw fit, already in the early
1940’s, to speak to Sister Mildred Mary Neuzil, visionary of
the Our Lady of America® devotion, of the great need in our
time to focus on the renewal of the Christian family. She
stated: “it was made known to me interiorly that my mission
was to converge towards the sanctification of the family.”
(Diary, pg. 4) It was later made known to Sister that this was
to be accomplished specifically through the imitation of the
virtues of the Holy Family, that perfect model on earth of the
Most Holy Trinity’s own interior “family life” of knowing and
loving and giving, one person to another. One cannot love
what one does not know, and one cannot know truly what
one does not love. God’s love is First Love, Agape Love, that
totally unconditional and self-emptying Love that always
takes the initiative and endlessly gives itself away. He does
so through His works of creation and re-creation, redemption
and sanctification. A popular song expressed it so well in
secular terms: “Love aint love until you give it away.” Love
needs a giver, a receiver, and the gift of love itself. That

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trinitarian exchange of love is redeeming and is best seen in
the life of the family.
On November 8, 1954, Our Lady spoke interiorly to
Sister in the following beautiful but challenging exhortation
and promise:
It is the wish of my Son that fathers and mothers strive to
imitate me and my chaste spouse in our holy life at Nazareth.
We practiced the simple virtues of family life, Jesus our Son
being the center of all our love and activity. The Holy Trinity
dwelt with us in a manner far surpassing anything that can ever
be imagined. For ours was the earthly paradise where once
again God walked among men.

As in our little home no sin was to be found, so it is the

wish of the Heart of my Son and my Immaculate Heart that sin
should, as far as possible, be unheard of in the homes of our
children.

The Divine Trinity will dwell in your midst only if you are
faithful in practicing the virtues of our life at Nazareth. Then,
you also, my children, you also will become another paradise.
God will then walk among you and you will have peace.

In his encyclical on the family, Familiaris Consortio,

Pope John Paul II confirmed so well what Our Lady says in
her message.                                              
…the family, reflection of the Trinitarian communion, has
as its model the family of Nazareth. Through God’s mysterious
design, it was in that family that the Son of God spent long years
of a hidden life. It is the prototype and example for all human
families. It was unique in the world… it will not fail to help
Christian families to fulfill with joy the plan of God in their
regard.

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 In one of her personal letters to Fr. Paul Leibold (later
Archbishop Leibold), who would be her spiritual director for
32 years, Sister Mildred wrote about the family’s role in
saving the nation and the world, and in bringing peace to our
world.
As the family is formed by individuals, the result of each
member striving to live in the Divine Presence, in this way the
family itself will be sanctified. The Father sent His Son to be a
member of a family as an example to all families. The life of
Jesus, Mary and Joseph was not an easy one. There were no
miracles to make their living more bearable. They were no
different than the families around them except in the depth of
their love for the Divine Presence within them. It is holy families
that will save the Nation, save the world and bring about the
peace so long desired. It is indeed late but there is still time to
save our world. Believe that God loves you, believe with all your
heart and see what He will do for you and what you will be able
to do for Him and those about you. This is a divine partnership
and nothing save our lack of faith can ever break it. Believe in
Him Who lives in you and nothing will be impossible of
attainment. What you cannot do, He will do, only believe.
(Letter. Sr. Mildred Mary Neuzil)

“It is holy families that will save the Nation, save the
world and bring about the peace so long desired.” What a
challenge for our families! Not weapons, but holy families
will save the world! And holiness can only be achieved
through union with the Sacred Humanity and the Divine
Indwelling Triune God.
If Jesus saw fit to speak the following strong warnings
in locution with Sister Mildred already in the early 1940’s, He
must have deemed them necessary to address the increasing

21
breakdown of the spiritual dimension and role of the family in
society and within the Church.
Woe to parents who set a bad example to their children!
Terrible will be their judgment. I will demand a strict account of
every soul entrusted to their care. Woe to parents who teach
their children how to gain materially in this world and neglect to
prepare them for the next!

Woe to children who disobey and show disrespect towards

their parents! “ Honor thy father and thy mother.” On this shall
they be judged most severely.

Jesus then utters blessings on those who strive to make

their families like unto His Holy Family, a place where God is
at home with us. An old custom was to leave an empty place
at every table as a reminder that Jesus is the unseen guest at
every meal, even as He is, or should be, the true head of
every home. And as the head of the house, it is He Who
imparts the Father’s blessings, so rich a tradition in the Faith
of our ancestors, on the members of the household.
Blessed are the homes that honor My Name and the Name of My
Father. Blessed are the homes where I am loved, for there the
Holy Trinity dwells. Blessed are the parents and children who
have made a home for God in their hearts.

On the eve of February 11, 1958, Our Lady spoke to

Sister Mildred with these powerful words on the only true
path to holiness for ourselves as individuals and for our
families.
Beloved daughter, you wonder at the sword and the deep
wound it has made in my Heart. It is the sword of grief plunged
therein by my children who refuse to let me teach them the true

22
 way. There is only one true way to the Father, my child, only
one way to eternal union. It is the way of the divine humanity. It
is through my Son, the Only-begotten of the Father, that souls
attain perfect union with the Divinity, as perfect as human nature
is capable of, aided by divine grace.

But my children will not heed; they will not listen. Every
other way they will take, but not this one. (Diary, pg. 23)

How much longer will we refuse to listen to our Mother?

Who is the master of our homes, and our lives? Is there a
place of headship reserved for the Lord, for He is knocking,
always knocking! Have we welcomed Him in?
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!
Copyright © Contemplative Sisters of the Indwelling Trinity, 2008

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 The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin
Mary:
God’s Preparation for the Divine Humanity

Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in thee!
(Canticle of Canticles 4:7)

This Scripture passage describes so beautifully God’s masterpiece of creation,

that chosen vessel, the Virgin Mary, destined from eternity to bear God into our world.
Mary’s vocation as Theotokos, God-bearer of the Redeemer, Mother of the Divine
Humanity, is a mission that by its very purpose necessitated her singular privilege of the
Immaculate Conception. She who was to give her very flesh and blood to the Son of
the living God, the All-Holy One in Whose presence not the slightest impurity can stand,
must herself be untouched by any impurity in order to be a fitting dwelling place for
Him. She is conceived in God’s eternal mind, the firstborn creature from the bosom of
the Father’s unfathomable love. She is the first fruits of her own divine Son’s work of
redemption. She is sanctified in the womb of her mother, Anna, by the power of God’s
Holy Spirit. She is the epitome of God’s marvelous deeds and of the extravagance of
His Love.

Pope Pius IX defined this dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary in

his Constitution Ineffabilis Deus on December 8, 1854 in these words:

The Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by

a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of
Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved exempt from
all stain of original sin.

Being a descendant of Adam and Eve, Mary, like us, needed redemption. Unlike
us who are cleansed from original sin in Baptism, Mary was redeemed in a more
exalted fashion, preserved from original sin in anticipation of Christ’s saving death.
No sin, original or personal, ever touched her soul. Favored with the fullness of grace
befitting her divine maternity, she who is most like the All-Holy One exceeds all men
and angels in purity. Though the angels exceed her in the order of nature, Mary far
surpasses them in the order of grace. She is the Queen-Mother whom the King never
refuses. She is the woman expected from the beginning of the world, already revealed
by God in the Garden of Paradise when He announced the victory of the Messiah, her
offspring, over Satan, as He cursed the ancient serpent.

I will put enmity between thee and the woman and thy seed and
her seed; she shall crush thy head and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.
(Genesis 3:15)

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 Mary and her role in God’s plan of salvation can only be understood in the light of
the Divine Humanity and in that awesome mystery that is the beginning and end of all
things, the Most Holy Trinity, our Creator, our Redeemer and our Sanctifier. The
mystery of our Triune God is the central doctrine of our Christian Faith.

The first Eve, mother of all the living, succumbed to the wiles of Satan and in
pride and disobedience enticed the first Adam to likewise disobey. Adam’s disobedience
effected man’s separation from God and passed on to all their posterity the effects of
their sin—a darkening of the mind and spiritual blindness; a hardening of the heart and
self-absorption; a stubborn bending of the human will inward toward self-worship
instead of outward toward the worship of God. Sin brought suffering and death and the
closing of the gates of heaven to man.

Mary, as the new Eve, reversed the effects of the first Eve’s sin precisely by her
humility and her obedience to the will of God. While God created us without our
consent, He cannot save us without our consent. Why? Having made us in His
image which is Love and by definition free, He made us free, knowing full well we might
choose to reject Him. And so man, in Adam and Eve, did reject God, but God always
takes the initiative. Although He will never force our free will, He will always woo us into
the desert, that sacred space deep within us that is His alone, where everything else
fails us and He alone remains, where He can speak to our hearts. He spoke to Mary’s
heart and she said “yes,” “yes” on behalf of all the living, and God hastened to be born
amongst us in Jesus who is like us in all things but sin. Mary gives us Jesus, and in His
Divine Humanity the divine and the human are intimately and irreversibly wed. While
the Israelites believed that no one could see the face of God and live, in Jesus all
humanity does see the Face of God and does live, ever more fully in His abundant
life.
Mary is indeed the new Ark of the new Covenant, not made of wood or in stone,
but made of grace and written in the hearts of men. She is the Immaculate Tabernacle
of the Indwelling God, for in her the Presence of the Living God comes to dwell in our
midst, snuggled up to our hearts and commingled with our everyday lives. She is the
living temple of the Living God and in her lowliness there is more splendor than in the
temple Solomon built. She is the woman clothed with the sun, with the moon at her feet
and a crown of twelve starts upon her head. Sacred Scripture begins and ends
boasting her immeasurable grace and God’s fidelity to His promise throughout the ages,
manifested and fulfilled in and through her and their Beloved Son.

This Immaculate Virgin, Our Lady of America®, appeared to Sr. Mildred (Mary
Ephrem) Neuzil on November 22 and 23, 1957 under this magnificent image that
combines the Mary of Genesis with the Mary of Revelation and identified herself as “I
am Our Lady of the Divine Indwelling, handmaid of Him Who dwells within.”

Our Lady was standing on a globe, her right foot resting on a

crescent or quarter moon, the left on the snout of a rather small and very
ugly looking dragon. I saw fire come out of his huge jaws, but not very
much, as he could not open them wide enough because of Our Lady’s

25
 foot. At times he seemed to be somewhat black, again of a shade of
green. Our Lady was all in white. Her veil was so long that it seemed to
envelop the globe halfway. Sometimes the veil appeared so transparent
that Our Lady’s hair could be seen through it, and the hair seemed to be
sparkling with the light of many glittering stars. At times the edges of
the veil, sleeves, and garments seemed to be outlined in light. The veil
was held about her head by a wreath of white roses. Her feet were bare.

The previous day Our Lady had appeared with her hands out-
stretched. At this second visit she slowly raised them, then crossed
them on her breast rather close to her waist. While doing so, she bent
her head slightly forward, and it seemed that her eyes were closed, not
just lowered. On her breast, as though through a veil, the Triangle and
the eye, which is often depicted as the symbol of the Divine Indwelling,
could be visibly seen. I said that Our Lady’s feet were bare, that is,
devoid of any kind of footwear, but on each foot was a large white rose.
The roses, both on the feet and on the crown, were of such dazzling
whiteness that the outlines of the petals could barely be seen, some-
times not at all. It seemed that a strong beam of light streamed from the
Divine Presence within Our Lady onto the globe at her feet. Then half-
way around the figure of Our Lady above her head appeared a scroll on
which were written in letters of gold the words: “All the glory of the
King’s daughter is within.”

(Sister Mildred (Mary Ephrem) Neuzil, Diary, OUR LADY OF AMERICA©, Fostoria,
Ohio, Pgs. 22-23.)

The mission of Mary is the mission of all of us, to be living tabernacles

where the Presence of God might dwell and make itself manifest in our world. As we
learn to share in her grace, may we learn to share in her prayer of praise to the Almighty
God who dwells within.

My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my

Savior, for He Who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is
His name! (Luke 1: 46-47)

There are those who say we give too much honor to Mary. The simple truth
is, no one can give Mary as much honor as God Himself has.

So we entrust to your intercession, O Immaculate Mother, Queen of our country,

our lives, our families, our Church, our Nation, indeed the whole world which is in such
need of your favor and Christ’s redeeming grace. Protect us, O heavenly Lady, so pure
and so bright with the radiance of God’s light shining in and about you. Protect us from
that deep abyss of evil that is life without God and without your loving maternal care, the
evil enveloping our contemporary world. Use us, your children of America, in bringing
peace among men and nations. Work untold miracles of the soul in us, as promised, in
anticipation of your enthronement in our National Shrine so we may be a glory, as you
are, to the Most Holy Trinity who desires to dwell so intimately within us and within our
aching world. We thank you, dear Mother, as only your children can!

26
Copyright © Contemplative Sisters of the Indwelling Trinity,
Fostoria, Ohio. December 8, 2008.
All rights reserved.
Revised December 2010.

27
 Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God:
She Whose Heart Beat Next to His

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, she became the virgin
mother of your only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is forever the light
of the world. Mary represents, as it were, the maternal aspect of God,
not only because her Son is also the Son of the Father, but because the
Holy Spirit, through whose power she conceived, took up his dwelling in
the Word made flesh. This mysterious relationship between Mary and
the Holy Spirit, who made her virginity fruitful, manifests another
maternal aspect of the Father, namely, his merciful love. The maternity
of Mary is not therefore something purely functional; she is an authentic
icon of the mystery of the Trinity. As the Father from all eternity
generates the Son in the love of the Holy Spirit, so Mary, in the flesh,
generated the same eternal Word by the power of the Holy Spirit.

(EWTN.com/library/MARY/SOLMARY.HTM)

What amazing grace we have just celebrated with this feast, but do we
understand what Mary’s divine maternity means for our daily lives?
Mary’s Immaculate Conception in the womb of St. Anne paved the way for her
Divine Maternity, and our salvation! The God Who created us out of the overflowing
abundance of His love, with free will, responded to the sin of Adam and Eve with an
even greater love, His mercy, His plan for our salvation and restoration of the human
family to a much higher life, utter communion with Him by way of adoption into His own
Trinitarian Love-Life. The Father ordained that there would be a new Adam and a new
Eve who would never fail us. The new Adam would be His own Son who would enter
our world to open wide the very heart of God and lay it bare upon the straw of our need,
offering Himself to every hunger in our being, begging only to be received and loved in
return so the circle of life could be complete. And beside the Son would be the new
Eve, His Mother, on whom He would bestow every gift His Love could fathom that was
worthy of Him, and from every fiber of her being she would feed us the sweet milk and
honey, the True Manna of divine life that she carried so dearly within her, that Bread of
Life that would lie on our altars waiting to be devoured, lovingly, so It might consume us
into Himself and His Triune glory even more than we consume Him.
The Scriptures put these words in the mouth of God: “Even if a mother should
forget her child, I will not forget you.” But in Mary God has fashioned a Woman after
His own heart, a Mother who will never forget us. She is the feminine side, the maternal
aspect of the Father’s love. She whose heart would beat next to His in Emmanuel, the
God made flesh in her womb, would know His secrets and would plead for us with her

28
Son as no other can. So delighted was He in her that He had granted her power
greater than any other Queen in any other kingdom. She would be the Queen of
Queens who sits at the right hand of the King of Kings in the eternal kingdom, the
Queen whose every plea before the King would be granted, so great is her favor with
Him.
This unique vocation to divine motherhood is a singular privilege given to Mary
alone and sets her apart from all other women, all other creatures. She is the icon of
the Trinity because in her is made manifest the same love exchange that is the inner life
of the Triune God Himself. As the Father begot the Son in the love of the Spirit between
them, so in Mary that same Son would be generated, at the will of the Father, by the
power of that same Spirit who would unite Mary to their Triune selves in an intimacy no
other creature can imagine or share. Mary brings the love of the Trinity to flesh on our
earth and in our hearts as she shares the Indwelling Lord of Creation and Redemption
with us for our sanctification, a glory from within, from that Divine indwelling Presence.
In the message of “Our Lady of America®” given to Sr. Mildred Mary Ephrem
Neuzil, Our Lady calls herself the “Mother of the Sacred Humanity” which speaks to
this wedding feast of heaven and earth, the Divine wed to the human that has taken
place in her womb in the person of Emmanuel Who gives us entry into that Trinitarian
flow of life and of love.
I am the Mother of the sacred humanity, and it is my special work
as co-redemptrix of the human race to help souls reach the sanctity of
the Father in eternal union by showing them how to put on Christ, to
imbibe His Spirit, and thus become one with Him. (Sister Mildred Mary
Ephrem Neuzil, Diary, “Our Lady of America®”, pg. 24.

When Mary said “fiat” to God’s plan for man’s salvation, she opened for us this
New Covenant of God’s love and mercy, identity and union with Him and His tender-
ness, doing away with the Old Covenant of law and justice. By God’s choice she has a
key to His Heart and so often opens doors into His kingdom that might otherwise never
be opened.
Although Mary is the Mother of God because she gave flesh to the Son of God,
she is not mother of the Father. She is a daughter of the Father, chosen from all
eternity for this role of motherhood of the Son so the invisible God might reveal Himself
to us in visible form. Mary is not mother of the Holy Spirit, but Spouse of the Spirit for it
is He, not man, who conceived the Word of God within her. In this divine espousal Mary
mirrors for us the new supernatural order of grace, for Jesus is born of her, not by way
of human generation in the natural order, but by way of supernatural generation in the
power of the Holy Spirit. We, too, are called to this holiness of union with the Three
Divine Persons, as adopted children of the Father through the grace the Son won for us,

29
transformed into His image by the power of the Holy Spirit which lifts us into God’s own
glorious way of living.
The feast of the Maternity of Mary, Theotokos, the God-bearer, had been
celebrated in the early Roman Church on January 1st to replace the pagan feast of New
Years which was dedicated to the god Janus. The feast shifted and for some time was
celebrated on October 11th. With the liturgical reform after Vatican II, Pope Paul VI
restored it to January 1st as the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. It is most fitting that
the New Year should begin honoring the Mother of God, she who brought us the very
Author of Life itself, our Savior. It is most fitting the year should begin as the Scriptures
do, with the promise of a Redeemer born of a woman who would crush the head of the
ancient serpent, and end with the woman of Revelation who brings forth her Son who
will save His people from the seven headed dragon of evil. It is most fitting likewise that
Pope Paul VI should make this first day of the New Year, that honors Mary’s divine
motherhood and the beginning of our redemption, also a world day of peace, for it is she
who gave us the Prince of Peace, the only One who can bring us lasting peace, the
peace that is the fruit of union with the Indwelling God.
(Notes taken from Wikipedia.org/wiki/Solemnity_of_Mary, 12/10/2008)

Dogmas are defined when there is heresy and false teaching within the Church
and the world. The dogma of the Divine Maternity of Mary and her spiritual motherhood
of the Church was defined by the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D. to refute the Nestorian
heresy which denied the divinity of Jesus and his true humanity, which would also then
deny Mary’s true motherhood of the man Jesus and of the divine person of Jesus as the
Son of God, Second Person of the Holy Trinity. The Council stated:
If anyone does not confess that the Emmanuel (Christ--God with
us) in truth is God and that on this accord the Holy Virgin is the Mother
of God (Theotokos- -God-bearer) since according to the flesh she
brought forth the Word of God made flesh – let him be anathema.
(Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, Dr. Ludwig Ott, pgs. 196-199) and
(Cathechism of the Catholic Church, pg. 125)

Having born the Second Person of the Trinity in her very flesh, Mary is nearest
the Triune God than any other creature and sits at the right hand of the Son of God
upon His heavenly throne. She is truly the Queen-Mother who intercedes for her people
and whom the King of Kings will not refuse, but she is always more Mother than Queen.
She was given to us, through Jesus, precisely to be our mother, to show us God’s
tender side, a wound He Himself placed in His Sacred Heart that He will not heal for He
wishes to leave it exposed to our need. This wound in His side is Mary, Mother of Divine
Mercy Himself who comes to hide us beneath her mantle and press us near her heart
so close to His, and sometimes sneak us in through the back door of His kingdom.

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 In a May 5, 1957 letter, Sr. Mildred Mary Neuzil speaks of “Our Lady of
America’s®” appearance to her as “Mother of Mercy.”
Our Lady showed herself to me today as the Mother of Mercy.
With her arms extended, her blue mantle affording a safe refuge for the
sinner, she said, “I am the Mother of Mercy. Under my mantle I will hide
my children. The justice of God will not reach them if they seek refuge
„neath the protection of my mercy. My Son gives to me all those souls
who come to me with confidence, calling upon my aid. Their salvation is
in my hands. I will obtain for them the necessary graces to save their
souls.
Come to me, poor suffering and frightened ones. I am your
Mother. Never will I forsake you. Only come to me with a wholehearted
and loving trust. Place your souls into my keeping. I am that faithful
Mother who never forsakes her children. Honor me by your confidence
and love. This I desire and ask of you, my poor children. Do not deny
the wishes of your Mother.”
Who can hear such words and not run, run to such a Mother and bid her
hide us under her mantle and be our refuge from every evil that besets us?
O Mother of Mercy, we come to you. We know you will never forsake us.
We place all our confidence and all our trust in you, O Mother.
Mother of Mercy!

Copyright © Contemplative Sisters of the Indwelling Trinity,

Feast of Solemnity of Mary, January 1, 2009

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 Our Lady of America® and Our Lady
of Guadalupe:
Distinct but Complementary

When one speaks of “Our Lady of America®” many

confuse her with Our Lady of Guadalupe for good reason.
In 1910 Pope Saint Pius X declared the Virgin of Guadalupe
the “Patroness of Latin America.” In 1935 Pius XI extended
her patronage to the Philippines. In 1945 Pope Pius XII
called the Virgin of Guadalupe the “Queen of Mexico” and
“Empress of the Americas,” and in the following year he
referred to her as the “Patroness of the Americas.” Then
in 1961 Pope John XXIII prayed to the Virgin of Guadalupe
as the “Mother of the Americas.” Note in all these titles the
plural of Americas, meaning North, Central and South
America, the entire Western Hemisphere.

When asked about this seeming confusion, Sr. Mildred

Mary Neuzil, the visionary in the 1956 apparitions entitled
“Our Lady of America®” wrote the following explanation.

I have known for many years that the United States and
America are two different things, but the United States does
belong to America. Our Lady, it is true, asks all of America to
be the first to take up the cause of renewal, but it is the United
States that is to lead the world in this. So Our Lady has stated
and made known to me. Therefore, it is for the United States
to humbly accept Mary’s choice and to do all that it can to
fulfill its mission among the peoples of the earth.

Our Lady of Guadalupe never called herself Our Lady of

America®. I do not know who gave her that title, although I
have heard her called and also read that she was proclaimed
“Empress of the Americas” by certain Bishops, I believe. I’m

32
 not too certain about this last. Anyway, Empress of the
Americas and Our Lady of America® are two different titles
and therefore could be held by the same person. Our Lady did
proclaim the message of renewal worldwide. If you read and
re-read the message carefully, you will see that for yourself.
The United States has simply been asked to be the first to take
the initial steps towards this renewal.
(Letter of Sr. Mildred Mary Neuzil)

In this apparition Our Lady of America® is speaking

especially to her children in the United States of America.
Her appearance is a favor to us precisely because Our
Lady is giving us an important mandate from heaven -- that
of helping her lead the world back to Faith and Purity. The
Church has always believed that when one is given a
mission, one is first given a gift, a favor-- the grace to carry
out that mission. The gift precedes the call. While the
message itself in this apparition is for all the world, the
leadership in the mission is the responsibility of Mary’s
children in the United States of America. With so great a
mission comes so great a favor; hence, her apparitions
here and her promises of untold grace in particular to her
children in America corresponds with the mission she has
given us. The ultimate mandate is the enthronement of a
statue of Our Lady under this new image and under the title
“Our Lady of America®, the Immaculate Virgin” in a place
of honor in our Basilica of the National Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC where we honor
Mary as the Patroness of our beloved land. This
enthronement is to be preceded by a solemn procession
according to Our Lady’s words.

Our Lady spoke clearly in regard to this favor and this

responsibility. On the eve of the feast of the North
American martyrs, September 25, 1956, Our Lady told Sr.
Mildred that “greater miracles than those granted at
Lourdes and Fatima would be granted here in America, the

33
United States in particular, if we would do as she desires.”
Can we imagine such grace? Must we not hasten to claim
that promise and fulfill her desire?
(Diary, Sr. Mildred Mary Neuzil, pg. 9.)

Our Lady further stated that her promise would focus

more on healings of the soul than of the body for she was
anxiously concerned about our inner lives. Note, anxiously
concerned!

I am pleased, my child, with the love and honor my

children in America give to me, especially through my
glorious and unique privilege of the Immaculate Conception.
I promise to reward their love by working through the power of
my Son’s Heart and my Immaculate Heart miracles of grace
among them. I do not promise miracles of the body, but of
the soul.
(Diary, pg. 10.)

Our Lady continued:

For it is mainly through these miracles of grace that the
Holy Trinity is glorified among men and nations. Let America
continue and grow in its love for me, and I in return, in union
with the Heart of my Son, promise to work wonders in her. My
child, I desire that this be known.
(Diary, pg. 10.)

On the feast of the martyrs itself, Our Lady distinctly

identifies herself and states more clearly the mission she
has placed in our care.
I am Our Lady of America.® I desire that my children
honor me, especially by the purity of their lives….My child, I
entrust you with this message that you must make known to
my children in America. I wish it to be the country dedicated
to my purity. The wonders I will work will be the wonders of
the soul. They must have faith and believe firmly in my love
for them. I desire that they be the children of my Pure Heart. I
desire, through my children of America, to further the cause of

34
 faith and purity among people and nations. Let them come to
me with confidence and simplicity, and I, their Mother, will
teach them to become pure like to my Heart that their own
hearts may be more pleasing to the Heart of my Son.
(Diary, pgs. 10-11.)

And note here Our Lady’s favor and gratitude for our
devotion to her.
Our Blessed Mother called herself Our Lady of America®
in response to the love and desire that reached out for this
special title in the hearts of her children in America. This title
was the sign of her pleasure at the confidence our land places
in her and as a reward for its staunch and childlike devotion to
her. Her children longed for this personal visit of Our Lady,
whether consciously or otherwise, and in her kindness and
mercy she responded far beyond all expectation.
(Diary, Our Lady of America,® pg. 11.)

Theologians tell us that Mary assumes a prophetic role

of calling us back to Faith in God and in her Divine Son
when there is great heresy or false teaching within the
Church and the world. With the Aztecs Our Lady’s
appearance as a PREGNANT WOMAN in front of the sun
and stepping on the moon spoke to them immediately as to
the fallacy of their human sacrifices to pagan gods who
were so inferior to her, though Mary is not a goddess. Our
Lady identified herself to them so magnificently as “I am
the ever-Virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the True God for
whom we live, of the Creator of all things, Lord of heaven
and the earth.” Conversion was the only possible
response in the light of such clear revelation of truth. The
Pregnant Woman is a symbol of life, hope, joy, expectation
and renewal. She is a symbol that our definition of
ourselves is bigger than ourselves, that all creatures carry
some unique expression of the overflowing love of God
within themselves. Our call to holiness is a call to live life
as mystery, always ready for a miracle to happen!

35
 Our Lady identified herself to Sister Mildred Mary Neuzil
as “Our Lady of America,® the Immaculate Virgin.” And
again in a later vision as “I am Our Lady of the Divine
Indwelling, handmaid of Him Who dwells within.” The
message from Our Lady of America®, like that of Our Lady
of Guadalupe, speaks to the same fallacy of idolatry,
atheism and contemporary human sacrifice, not on the
blood altars of pagan gods, but on the altars of pregnant
women’s wombs; on the altars of the sick and the elderly’s
beds; on the board tables of personal and corporate greed;
in the courtroom gavels pounding out laws that mock the
higher, Divine Law that alone ensures lasting peace and
harmony.

Sister Mildred was adamant in her speech to those

closest to her that abortion was calling down God’s
chastisement upon America and the whole world. It is THE
sin against the dignity of the human person made in God’s
image, the ultimate and most despicable human rights
violation because of the utmost innocence and
vulnerability of the victim owed the fullest care and
protection of its parent and of society; THE sin against life
itself at its very beginning carried out in the cruelest form.
The sheer numbers of abortions alone can only be referred
to as a holocaust of the unborn, holy innocents echoing
the cry of Rachel of old for her children who are no more.
When a nation destroys its own infants in the womb, it is
destroying itself as well. Death breeds more death; there is
no future. Life around us is being suffocated more each
day. The culture of death and the anti-life movement widen
and widen. Why? Does not the message of Our Lady of
America® identify the cause as the lack of Purity and
Faith? Only the pure of heart can see God and know and
love His ways! Only the pure of heart truly live!

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But Mary is calling us back! Will we heed her 9-1-1 call?
My beloved daughter, what I am about to tell you
concerns in a particular way my children in America. Unless
they do penance by mortification and self-denial and thus
reform their lives, God will visit them with punishments
hitherto unknown to them…“What I ask, have asked, and will
continue to ask is reformation of life. There must be
sanctification from within.” (Diary, pg. 21)

Perhaps some of those punishments are known to us now!

As we celebrate this season of Advent, the season of

THE PREGNANT WOMAN and the time of waiting for the
Wonder of God to be revealed through her, --the Beloved
Son of the Almighty God humbling Himself to our small
size to fit within Mary’s womb and grow there for nine
whole months, rocked to the sweet music of her beating
heart --must we not marvel at the awesome dignity and
grace God has bestowed on her! In sanctifying Mary’s
womb by dwelling within her, He has sanctified the womb
of every woman, making it a holy place where life begins,
again and again, intimately identified with the Divine
Humanity Who was born one of us. The highest angels
cannot boast a privilege as grand as that of Mary who bore
God in her very flesh, nor of us who give His Love a chance
to be born again, in flesh, in every human birth, but--the
angels sing in heaven every time a child is born!

O Woman! Woman! Do you know, do you know how God

has exalted you?
Copyright© Contemplative Sisters of the Indwelling Trinity, Advent 2008.

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 St. Joseph, Virgin-Father of Jesus:
Model of Humility and Obedience

I am the protector of the Church and the home, as I was the protector
of Christ and His Mother while I lived upon earth. Jesus and Mary desire
that my pure heart, so long hidden and unknown, be now honored in a
special way. Let my children honor my most pure heart in a special
manner on the First Wednesday of the month by reciting the Joyful
Mysteries of the rosary in memory of my life with Jesus and Mary and the
love I bore them, the sorrow I suffered with them. Let them receive Holy
Communion in union with the love with which I received the Savior for the
first time and each time I held Him in my arms.

(Diary, Our Lady of America,® Sister Mildred Mary Neuzil, pg. 34.)

St. Joseph is often referred to as the “forgotten saint,” but it was not
always so. The early Church greatly revered him and the early traditions of
the Church did indeed honor him on the first Wednesdays of the month.
The promotion of devotion to him was interrupted by the need to refute
heresy which preoccupied the Church for some time. St. Teresa of Avila
proclaimed St. Joseph never failed her. She recognized that the authority
he had over Jesus on earth continued even in heaven and his power of
intercession with Jesus and Mary is beyond comprehension. Our Lady
herself told Venerable Mary of Agreda that her holy spouse, St. Joseph,
had the greatest intimacy with her and Jesus in heaven, and that St.
Joseph has been granted great power to avert the punishment of
divine justice from sinners. The 16th century prophet Isidore of Isolanis
proclaimed the “sound of victory” will be heard in the Church Militant “when
the faithful recognize the sanctity of St. Joseph.” Fr. Paul of Moll, in the
1800’s, had an ecstasy in which he saw the body of St. Joseph preserved
intact in a tomb, the site of which is yet unknown. He stated that the more
the glorious spouse of the most Blessed Virgin is honored, the sooner will
the finding of his body take place, which will be a day of great joy for the
Church.
(Notes from Favorite Prayers to St. Joseph, Tan Books, 1997.)

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 It is no surprise that Our Lady of America® should focus on the role
St. Joseph shared so intensely with Jesus and her in the work of our
redemption. It was precisely through his humility and obedience that, like
Jesus and Mary, they reversed the power of sin brought into our world by
pride and disobedience. In the 1958 apparitions to Sister Mildred Mary
Neuzil, St. Joseph himself states:
I bring to souls the purity of my life and the obedience that crowned
it….My spiritual fatherhood extends to all God’s children, and together with
my Virgin Spouse I watch over them with great love and solicitude. Fathers
must come to me, small one, to learn obedience to authority: to the Church
always, as the mouthpiece of God, to the laws of the country in which they
live, insofar as these do not go against God and their neighbor. Mine was
perfect obedience to the Divine Will, as it was shown and made known to
me by the Jewish law and religion. To be careless in this is most
displeasing to God and will be severely punished in the next world.

The Holy Trinity desires thus to honor me that in my unique

fatherhood all fatherhood might be blessed….In honoring in a special way
my fatherhood, you also honor Jesus and Mary. The Divine Trinity has
placed into our keeping the peace of the world…I desire souls to come to
my heart that they may learn true union with the Divine Will.

What great favor has been given to the Church and to us in the heart
of Joseph. Like the wise ones of the past, let us “Go to Joseph” with all
our needs, together with Mary, and enter the inmost chambers of the Heart
of Jesus to plead for peace in our homes and in our world. St. Joseph,
Virgin-Father of Jesus, Virgin-Spouse of Mary, pray for us!

Copyright © Contemplative Sisters of the Indwelling Trinity, March, 2009.

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 The Angels:
Those Marvelous Beings Who Protect and Guide Us

The existence of angels, spiritual, non-corporeal beings, is a truth of

our Faith supported by both Sacred Scripture and Tradition. According to
St. Augustine, the term “angel” refers to the office of these spirit-beings as
servants or messengers of God. They always behold the Face of God and
give Him worship and praise. As spirit-beings they have intelligence and
will and are personal and immortal creatures “surpassing in perfection all
visible creatures as the splendor of their glory bears witness.”

Christ is the center of the angelic world, as they were created through
Him and for Him and are the messengers of His saving plan. We have
seen evidence of them throughout salvation history and in the lives of holy
men and women. We are most familiar with St. Michael, the Archangel,
noted as the Champion against the Evil One and his cohorts. Gabriel is
dear to our hearts as the one who brings good news from heaven, as to
Our Lady at the Annunciation and to the shepherds at the birth of Our Lord.
It is part of our belief also that each baptized person has his or her own
personal angel to guard and guide him or her on the way back to our
homeland in the heart of God our Father, along the way that is Jesus,
under the direction of His Spirit of light and truth and love.

These two angels, Michael and Gabriel, appeared to Sister Mildred

Mary Neuzil prior to the apparitions of Our Lady of America® to prepare
Sister for the great spiritual battle before her and to pledge their support
and sustenance against the forces of evil that would attempt to destroy this
devotion and its great wealth of grace promised from heaven. These evil
forces have not been able to destroy this holy mandate to America from
heaven, but have managed to delay, divide and confuse some people who
have meant well but lack the purity of heart to discern the evil spirits and to
relinquish their own wills to the Will of the Father.
I am Michael, Angel Captain of the Lord God of Hosts. I come to
announce the coming of the kingdom, the kingdom of peace. The time is at

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 hand. Repent, bestir yourselves, O sons of men, repent and make ready
your hearts that the King may establish His Kingdom within you. Do not
delay, or the time of grace will pass and with it the peace you seek.

Behold, the Queen of angels and of men comes beforehand to make

all things ready for her King-Son. My little sister, the message is a clear
one, there is no doubt. Make it known, do not hesitate. I, Michael, have
spoken.
(Diary, Our Lady of America®, Sr. Mildred Mary Neuzil, pg. 17.)

On November 20, 1955 Sister had another encounter, this time

with the angel Gabriel who said, “I have come to tell you that Our Lord is
pleased with your effort to do good. He asks that you go to His Mother and
learn great purity of heart.”

It is this purity of heart that we can only learn from Mary that is key to
this message and upon which purity in all other forms depends. Purity of
heart, that attitude of utter “fiat” to the Will of God, utter humility and
surrender to the work of the Spirit within, that ability to see God and to
discern the spirits so that our lives themselves might be a song of pure
praise to our Triune God. May the angels ever be with us to guard and
guide us through this valley of tears until we are safely home with God.
Copyright © Contemplative Sisters of the Indwelling Trinity, March, 2009.

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 The Youth of America:
Special Torchbearers of the Queen

Our Lady made known to me that she is particularly interested in the

youth of our nation. It is they who are to be the leaders of this movement
of renewal on the face of the earth. Their ranks will be swelled by the
youths of other nations whom Our Lady also calls to help in the
accomplishment of this great renewal.

But the youth must be prepared, and this must be done by instilling
into them, not only the knowledge of the Divine Indwelling, but a serious
study of It, a living in such a way that the Divine Presence becomes, as it
were, an intimate and necessary part of their life and daily living. From this
will flow a great love, a conflagration that will envelop the world in the
flames of Divine Charity. This is what Our Lady is working for, because
this is the great desire of her Divine Son, and it is to the youth of America
that she is holding out this challenge.

(Diary, Our Lady of America®, Sr. Mildred Mary Neuzil, pgs. 24-25.)

Sister Mildred further stated that it was made known to her

interiorly that Our Lady wished to honor those, particularly the youth,
who would wholeheartedly follow her in the great battle against evil with
the title “Torchbearers of the Queen.” She identified the “torch” as
Divine Love, for it is love alone that will conquer hate and the evil hate
brings with it. Our Lady likewise offered her medal, worn with great
devotion, as their shield against evil.

Our Youth are the future of the Church and of the world. Their
generation is the first to truly suffer from the long term effects of the
Industrial Revolution and its dehumanizing effects--its consuming
nature and high pitch marketing that squeezes out the very life of the
soul and fills it with the world’s idols. We are reminded by Jesus of the
original innocence of man, seen in the simplicity of a child untouched by
the world outside God’s grace, and that it is such as these who guard
themselves against the world’s contamination who enter into His

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kingdom. “Whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child
will never enter it.” (Lk 18:17)

Our Lady assured Sister Mildred Mary Neuzil of God’s favor to

the small ones of this world and equally assured her that God works His
wonders through small things. Our Lady was speaking here especially
in regard to the medal and with respect to Sister Mildred’s own mission
and the non-acceptance afforded her for so many years.
My child, God works often through little and humble things and
such instruments should never be despised but accepted and used with
love and gratitude…

Beloved daughter, you are not being accepted because you are
a small one. But in the end, all will come as I desire. Those who
oppose you will receive light to understand.
(Diary, pgs. 35,37.)

Sister Mildred, the first true Torchbearer of the Queen, is the

model of humility, simplicity and complete trust in the power of God to
turn all things to good for those who love Him, and in His grace and will
to overcome all evil with love and goodness. May we imitate her
childlike trust and simplicity and enter the kingdom of heaven that was
so natural to her. God grant us all the grace to be as little children in
God’s sight, scooped up in the Father’s arms where we may rest close
to the Heart of Jesus that is the enfleshment of the very Love of God.
Copyright © Contemplative Sisters of the Indwelling Trinity, March, 2009

43
 Archbishop Paul F. Leibold:

A Champion for Our Lady of America and

for Sister Mildred Mary Ephrem Neuzil

Archbishop Paul F. Leibold is important to

this message as the spiritual director for
visionary, Sister Mildred Mary Ephrem
Neuzil. Sister and he met sometime in the
late 1930's. We recall Paul Leibold was
born and raised in the Dayton, Ohio area,
went to school at the Marianist Chaminade
High School and the University of Dayton,
then entered the seminary in Cincinnati,
Ohio. Both his life and Sister Mildred's are
centered in Ohio. Sister Mildred, although born in Brooklyn, NY,
moved with her family to Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in
Cleveland, Ohio shortly after birth. It is no accident that one of Sister
Mildred's first assignments was to Washington, DC at the National
Shrine, and another to the chancery in Cincinnati, Ohio where she
would meet up with Father Leibold.

This man was destined by God, precisely because of his

humility and his holiness, to guide God's other humble, lowly soul,
Sister Mildred, in this powerful and urgent work for the salvation of
our nation and our world in this time of human history. From 1940
until his sudden death in 1972, Father, later Archbishop Paul Leibold
of the Cincinnati diocese, directed Sister Mildred in this work from
heaven. Although he died before its fulfillment, he did appear to Sister
in her final year on earth and assured her he would finish from heaven
the work he had begun with her on earth. By God's ordination, neither
would Sister Mildred finish her mission on earth. Its completion was
handed on to her remaining religious sister, Sister Joseph Therese
Patricia Ann Fuller, to be guarded against all contamination and
impurity to the message, to promote an understanding of the
message, and to bring to realization Our Lady's ultimate request-- to

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have a statue of her under this new image as "Our Lady of America,
the Immaculate Virgin" placed in a position of honor in our National
Shrine, after being carried in a solemn procession, after which she
has promised to be a safeguard for our Nation and to work miracles of
the soul from this place of wonders and special pilgrimage. This is the
part of Our Lady's request that is now in the hands of her beloved
sons, our bishops, to complete, and Our Lady begs them not to delay
as our Nation is increasingly becoming an abyss without God and
without her loving maternal care.

It was Father Leibold who compiled the handwritten Diary

with Sister Mary Eprhem and wrote the foreword. It was he himself
who placed the imprimatur on Sister's sketch of the medal on August
1, 1961, just five years after the first apparition of Our Lady of
America. It was he who put the imprimatur on the prayer to the Most
Holy Trinity in 1963 and arranged the prayer leaflet with the prayer to
Our Lady of America, the explanation of the medal, and the prayer to
the Most Holy Trinity all included. It was Father Leibold, working with
the Toledo diocese, who had the medal, as sketched by Sister
Mildred, struck, and it was he who paid for all medals made prior to
his death. It was he who had wood plaques of the image of Our Lady
of America engraved with the Weberding Wood Carvers in Indiana
and had several small statuettes made, one of which went to the papal
nuncio. Every letter of Archbishop Leibold's indicates his complete
approval of this message, though it was not in his authority to issue a
formal public document saying so. He was well aware of the previous
bishop's request for a sign from heaven to confirm the authenticity of
this message; many more than requested were received. Had he had
more time, he would have taken the necessary steps to complete the
last stage of approval for this message with the bishop of Toledo.
God's reasons for this delay have not yet been made known to us, but
the hour is indeed late, as Our Lady herself repeatedly warned, as she
begs us to embrace the necessary reform of life so necessary for the
good of our souls and the soul of this Nation.

This awesome message, with its spiritual wealth, in such

simple and so few words, is totally compatible with the doctrinal and
sacramental life of the Church, and will forever connect this holy
priest, Archbishop Paul Leibold, with this humble nun, Sister Mildred
Mary Ephrem Neuzil. Their lives are a remarkable testimony to the

45
mystery of God at work in humble souls who surrender to the
amazing grace of His love and do not count the cost to be identified
with the passion and cross of Jesus, our Way, our Truth and our Life.

We pray one day both will be raised to the level of saints

within the Church. We owe them our debt of gratitude for the example
of their simple and holy lives. May God be forever praised in them and
continue to work His wonders through them for all the world.

Copyright © Contemplative Sisters of the Indwelling Trinity, 2009.

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 “The Year of Bernadette”
Sr. Mildred Mary Neuzil and St. Bernadette Soubirous:
How Heaven Connected Them
__________________________________________

February 25th I had another of those “experiences” of which you

had already heard, Father, many times. Though I had not at that time
been thinking of her, she suddenly appeared at my side. This person
was none other than St. Bernadette. She did not come as a Sister, but
as the little peasant girl who saw “the Lady.”

I was transported somehow with her to the Lourdes Grotto in

France. We stood a short distance away from it looking up into the
niche, which was filled with light. In the midst of the brilliant light I saw
“the Lady” so beautiful, so glowing as it were, in light that I could
scarcely see the outline of her figure. It was brighter than any light I
have ever seen. It was a light all heavenly and full of glory. I was
transfixed.

Then suddenly the figure of Our Lady seemed to dissolve in the

light but the brilliant light itself remained. Then I saw a path; at times it
seemed to take the form of steps leading upwards from the niche where
“the Lady” had been standing. Ever so often as I gazed at this luminous
pathway, I caught a glimpse of angels.

I was anxious to follow the path of light and as I eagerly

endeavored to do so, Bernadette held me back. Then I exclaimed, “But I
want to go there.” The Saint answered, “No, my sister, it is not yet time
for you, but it will be soon.” (Letter, Sr. Mildred Mary Neuzil to Father Paul
Leibold, April 12, 1958.)

Last year, 2008, was the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady to
Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France. This year, 2009, has been declared “the
year of Bernadette” by Bishop Jacques Perrier, bishop of Tarbes-Lourdes, a year
dedicated to Youth, inviting them to learn the message of Bernadette’s simple but holy
life. It is interesting to note that in this vision of Bernadette and this transport to
Lourdes, Sr. Mildred sees her, not as a sister, but as a young peasant girl, young, and
poor!

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 Bernadette was born January 7, 1844, one of nine children, five of whom died at
birth or shortly after. One brother died at age 10. Mr. Soubirous was a miller who
ground wheat into flour for bread. Bernadette was born in his mill to the sound of
the grindstones crushing wheat. How symbolically rich an image for this victim
soul who suffered much, like grain crushed for flour and mixed with Him Who is
the Bread of Life. Shortly after her birth the family fell upon hard times and a cousin
offered them the lowest, filthiest room in his home, called the “dungeon,” a former prison
considered unfit for prisoners because of its dampness. No wonder Bernadette was
afflicted with such childhood illnesses: stomach and spleen problems, cholera that left
her asthmatic. She was a quiet, docile girl who had difficulty learning because of
missed classes due to illness; she was often in class with younger children and was
sometimes humiliated and called “stupid.” With respect to the apparitions, many
rejected her, at first, and tried to call her feebleminded or fanatic or even insane.

She confided to a friend the secret of her resignation: “When we think God
permits this, we don’t complain.” “When we wish for nothing, we always have
what we need.” She appeared to be a normal girl, no different than others but pious.
Hers was a voluntary and often difficult obedience. She is sometimes referred to as
“the most secretive of all the saints” because of her few words and great silence,
yet hers was the secret of transparency. Our Lady had given three secrets to
Bernadette, asking her to tell them to no one, not even her confessor or the Pope,
as they were meant only for her. Many wanted to know them, but she told no one.

She was 14 when the apparitions began February 11th, 1858. There were 18 in
all, that ended July of that year. We know the story of repeated questions and attempts
from people in position to trick her and to diagnose her as mentally unbalanced, or
conniving-- an experience of rejection and suffering so common to other visionaries.
Bernadette never changed her story and responded with remarkable candor and
sincerity to the endless questions, even with surprising wit. On the 16th visit, March
25, feast of the Annunciation, Our Lady finally identified herself, saying, “I am the
Immaculate Conception,” a term Bernadette could not have known or understood,
for it was only four years earlier that Pope Pius IX had proclaimed the dogma of
the Immaculate Conception. At an earlier apparition, a miraculous spring rose up in
the grotto of Massabielle where Our Lady appeared and had asked for a chapel to be
built and that processions be allowed there. Lourdes has become the first significant
Marian apparition of the Modern era, followed by the well known Fatima visions,
lesser known appearances, and now Our Lady of America.

The similarities between Bernadette and Sr. Mildred are obvious. Sister Mildred
was born to immigrant parents who came to New York for a better life and freedom of
religion. While the Church in France was suffering from atheism in Bernadette’s time, in
Sr. Mildred’s time our whole world is being enveloped in the errors of atheism which Our
Lady predicted at Fatima would reach even into high places within the Church if there

48
was not enough reform in the world. Sr. Mildred, like Bernadette, was an amiable,
docile soul drawn to silence and the religious life. On the outside she was as normal as
any other sister, but her interior life was a life of special communion with the Lord which
she thought was the norm for all sisters. While Sister Mildred entered the convent at
age 14, Bernadette entered the convent at age 22 and remained there until her death at
age 35. Sister Mildred died at age 83. Both lives, however, seem to focus on a call
to the young.

Bernadette, too frail for Carmel, settled for the convent in Nevers, France
instead. She was seen as a humble, simple soul of childlike demeanor but pleasant.
Sr. Mildred, too, was a humble, simple soul, a domestic nun in a community that
specialized in teaching and missionary work. She, too, left her family behind to enter
the convent and give herself more completely to God. When her apparitions were made
known, Sr. Mildred, like Bernadette, was not believed and was termed “crazy” by some
who thought such interventions from heaven no longer happen in our sophisticated and
enlightened age. Those in authority over Bernadette did not want to believe her at first,
and neither did those in authority over Sr. Mildred, because, as Our Lady said, “you are
a little one.” While Bernadette was given the outward and visible signs of Our
Lady’s favor in the healing and miraculous spring water, Sr. Mildred was told,
other than the signs given to the bishop for his confirmation of the message’s
authenticity, that Our Lady would grant, “not miracles of the body, but miracles of
the soul.” “Our Lady of America®” was much more interested in our interior lives
than our physical lives. Just as Bernadette was a victim soul, so was Sr. Mildred.
Recall that beautiful description of Our Lord’s appearance to her with the crown
of thorns and a cross, asking her if she would suffer to bring Him to souls. Of
course, like Bernadette with Our Lady, Sister Mildred refused Jesus nothing. Our
Lord often called Sr. Mildred “the little white dove,” a symbol of innocence and
sacrifice. He told her He “was placing her on the altar of sacrifice.” Our Lady
told Bernadette she could not “promise her happiness in this life, but only in the
next.” Both of these simple but holy women endured a great deal of physical,
emotional and spiritual suffering and were joined to the passion of the Lord in intensely
personal ways, a sign not only of God’s favor but of their holiness in surrender to His
grace.

To Bernadette Our Lady identified herself as “I am the Immaculate

Conception.” To Sr. Mildred she is “Our Lady of America, the Immaculate
Virgin®,” focusing on both of her singular privileges, her Immaculate Conception and
her Perpetual Virginity. While at Lourdes Our Lady asked for a chapel to be built,
with Sr. Mildred Our Lady asked only that we finish the National Shrine in
Washington, DC, which we were already building to honor her under her unique
privilege of the Immaculate Conception, our patronal church which she promised
to make a place of special pilgrimage once a statue of her image is enthroned
there in a place of honor, after being carried in solemn procession. Each was

49
given a message to convey to the Church and the world at large, the need for prayer
and penance, for a reform of life for our own conversion and for the salvation of souls.
Sr. Mildred’s was an even more intense message on the doctrine of the Indwelling
Trinity as our source of holiness from within, the most fundamental doctrine of
our Faith that is mirrored in the family, in imitation of the simple life of the Holy
Family that is paradise on earth.

While Bernadette’s life and mission was of great import to France, the message
of Sr. Mildred from “Our Lady of America®” is of equal import to America, the United
States in particular. Bernadette’s story closes the 19th century; Sr. Mildred’s closes the
20th century, a century Pope John Paul II referred to as the most evil in human history
with its two world wars, the industrial revolution and the dehumanizing of man, the
sexual revolution and the breakdown of Christian marriage and the Christian family, the
increasing spread of the errors of communism and all the other “isms” with their false
teachings and heresies, the attacks upon the Church from without and from
disobedience within, and worst of all, the attacks upon the very sanctity of life itself.

Like Elizabeth of the Trinity and the Little Flower, young when they died,
Bernadette died young, too, at age 35. The fact that Sr. Mildred saw Bernadette in this
vision as a young peasant girl, not as an adult, speaks especially to young people. It is
interesting that the bishop of Lourdes has seen fit to declare 2009 a year for Youth.
“Our Lady of America®’s” message to Sr. Mildred also spoke loudly and clearly
to Youth, too, especially in America, to take a leadership role in a much needed
reform of life and a return to Faith and Purity in our world. Our Lady even gave
Youth a special title, “Torchbearers of the Queen.” Our Youth are the future of the
world and of the Church. Pope John Paul II, so loved by our young people, called on
them never to think they are too young to do God’s work on earth.

The Lady Sr. Mildred saw at Lourdes, like in her own vision, was a Lady bathed
in the light and glory of God Who dwells within. The pathway marked with angels Sister
Mildred saw at Lourdes is reminiscent of the angels her companions often saw filling the
room she was in, as they hovered over her for her protection. Just as Bernadette had to
trust Our Lady with obedient faith, so Sr. Mildred had to trust that Our Lady would be
faithful in her promise to realize the return to Faith and Purity in our world and the
eventual triumph of her Immaculate Heart, revealed as the Immaculate Conception at
Lourdes, first promised at Fatima, a triumph confirmed again by the Immaculate Virgin
in America.

Bernadette’s body was exhumed in 1909, then reburied; exhumed in 1919

and reburied; and exhumed in 1925, incorruptible still. It was then given a place of
honor in the convent where she had died. She was canonized, fittingly, in 1933 on
December 8, feast of the Immaculate Conception, by Pope Pius XI. While
Bernadette’s mission has been fulfilled and she is called the “patron saint of the

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poor, the sick and the family,” Sr. Mildred’s is far from over. We know Sister
Mildred’s mission was to converge on the renewal of the Christian family
and on a return to the interior life through union with the Divine Indwelling
Trinity, and to reform our lives and return to Faith and Purity. For Sr. Mildred
the beatification process is just beginning. When her body is exhumed-- as we
expect it will be one day-- we believe it, too, will be uncorrupted, perhaps even
bearing the signs of the interior stigmata which many suspected she endured
during her lifetime. When asked if she would be canonized one day, Sister
Mildred humbly replied, “Yes, but not because of me but because of the
importance of this message.” Sister often spoke of Our Lady’s words that all
her apparitions were converging in this one because of that great mystery of
the Divine Indwelling. Throughout the Diary and Sister’s letters, Our Lady
appears on her established feast days.

The rest of Sr. Mildred’s mission is up to us. Our Lady’s own words,
begging us to heed her and to act, says it well.

Tell the Bishops of the United States, my loyal sons, of my desires

and how I wish them to be carried out. Through him who is head over
you, make known the longings of my Immaculate Heart to establish the
reign of my Divine Son in the hearts of men and thus save them from the
scourge of heaven, both now and hereafter.

My daughter, will my children in America listen to my pleadings

and console my Immaculate Heart? Will my loyal sons carry out my
desires and thus help me bring the peace of Christ once again to
mankind? (Sr. Mildred Mary Neuzil, Diary, pg. 15.)

(Notes on the life of Bernadette from Bernadette Speaks, Fr. Rene

Laurentin, English translation, Daughters of St. Paul, 2000)

Copyright © Contemplative Sisters of the Indwelling Trinity, 2009

All rights reserved.

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 My Little White Dove:
The Rich Biblical Symbolism of This Name

The Lenten season begins with the baptism of Jesus in

the River Jordan by his cousin, John the Baptist, who
insisted he needed to be baptized by Jesus, not Jesus by
him. So why did Jesus seek out John and his baptism? And
what is the significance of the “dove” at His baptism? And
why does Jesus use the symbolism of the dove when
speaking to Sr. Mildred (Mary Ephrem) Neuzil, visionary for
the Our Lady of America® devotion, in locutions with her in
the 1950’s?

John’s baptism was a baptism of water and repentance

which Jesus did not need, as He was sinless. Jesus
participated in John’s baptism to show his identity with
sinners, for it was for these He had come to die and for these
He would be led into the desert to overcome the evil one,
definitively! It was for these He had come to bring true
forgiveness of sin and a greater baptism, the baptism of fire
and the Holy Spirit. Jesus submitted to John’s baptism out
of humility and to show the end of the Old Order of law and
justice and the beginning of the New Order of grace and
mercy in Himself. His baptism was a manifestation to the
Jewish world of His divinity through the simultaneous
manifestation of the Trinity. He would thereafter clearly
reveal Himself as the Son of God in His public mission,
inaugurated with this baptism, through His teaching with the
very authority of God Himself; through His miracles
performed with the power of God; and through His
forgiveness of sins which no one but God can forgive.

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 Jesus’ baptism was a confirmation of the “epiphany,”
the manifestation of His divinity revealed through the Magi
who presented Him at birth with gifts of gold, frankincense
and myrrh, gifts suitable even for a divine King, the newborn
King of the Jews, confessed in the heavens with a star that
led them to Bethlehem and the Shepherd-King of David’s
line, the long promised Savior of God’s people. This King
would be the King of all Kings, the Eternal High Priest, the
Greatest Prophet to speak for God, for He would be God’s
very Word, made flesh, fulfilling every prophecy ever told,
here in the Heart of the Suffering Servant of Yahweh.

Jesus’ baptism was also a “theophany,” a revelation of

the Most Holy Trinity, for all three persons of the Trinity were
manifested to our senses, our human way of knowing, at this
event. See how the heavens opened and the voice of the
Father confirmed His divine Fatherhood of Jesus, His dearly
beloved Son in Whom He is well pleased, thus confirming the
divinity of Jesus. Then a dove came to rest upon Jesus, (Mt
3:16) the dove Holy Mother Church has always understood to
be the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does
not manifest Himself in human form like Jesus, the perfect
image of the Father, but in the form of a small dove. Catholic
Scriptural teaching has always seen the dove as the emblem
of the Holy Spirit, understood as Love personified in the
inner life of the Trinity itself, and, in its smallness of form, as
Humility when it comes to the way in which the Spirit works
in us and in the world, for our sanctification. His way is
hidden, interior, gentle, quiet, meant not to be seen but to be
experienced deep within the soul, like a gentle breeze, not in
the roar of thunder.

After His baptism, Jesus was led by that same Spirit into
the desert to bind up Satan, the Strong One, the Deceiver, the
Master Liar, and to chain up his power over God’s people.

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Satan wages endless and vicious war against Christ and His
disciples, seeking to rob humanity of its soul and us of our
salvation. In our Catholic tradition the dove is always a sign
of the Spirit and is connected to Noah and the flood and to
baptism, with their cleansing and purifying waters and the
new life that follows as the work of the Spirit in both baptism
of water and baptism of fire. While Satan continues to wage
his battle against us, Our Lady of America® comes, offering
us “miracles, not of the body but of the soul” if we would
embrace the reform of life she asks for, and turn to her to
learn the true way of love and purity of heart that is the work
of her Divine Spouse, God’s Holy Spirit.

Since Jesus, in locutions to Sr. Mildred Mary Neuzil,

called her “my little white dove,” it is necessary to
understand the rich biblical symbolism of the dove and its
manifestation of the Holy Spirit in order to understand why
Our Lord would use this symbol in addressing Sister in a
message that calls for purification of our lives if we are to
enter into new life in Him.
My little white dove, if the world is dying, it is because it
will not let Me give it life. My little white dove, do you know what
I find most lacking in the world today? It is FAITH. There are
so few souls that believe in Me and My love. They profess their
belief and their love, but they do not live this belief. Their hearts
are cold, for without faith there can be no love. Pray and
sacrifice yourself, My child, that faith may once again find
entrance into the hearts of men.

(Sister Mildred Mary Neuzil, Diary, Our Lady of America®, pgs. 4-5, and
locutions with Our Lord, May 22, 1954)

The dove is regarded as the most important bird in

Scripture. It is first mentioned per se in the story of the great
flood in Genesis 8. The dove is also the sacrificial offering of
the poor which ensures the participation of everyone in the

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required sacrificial purification rituals outlined in the priestly
codes of Leviticus. In the story of the flood, Noah sends the
gentle dove out three times to see if the waters had receded.
The first time it returned immediately for it had no place to
rest. The second time it returned with an olive branch for the
waters had receded enough for the trees to rise above them.
The third time it did not return because it had found
something on which to feed and a place to rest. Just as the
flood waters cleansed the earth in Noah’s time, then brought
new life, so the waters of the River Jordan symbolized a
cleansing from sin and a rising to new life for those John
baptized. The return of the dove, so often used with the olive
branch as a symbol or harbinger of peace, is the sign that the
purification is over and new life and peace can reign once
more over the earth. In both these purifying waters we see
our own baptism and the peace of Christ it brings and His
new life it gives us as He takes His rest within us.

But the world is not at peace, for we are not at peace

within ourselves. Our Lord spoke to Sister in May and July
of 1954 of a necessary purification of this sinful generation,
much like the flood of old, before real peace can come into
our world.
My Father is angry. If my children will not listen to My
Heart, which is a Voice of mercy and instruction, punishment will
come swiftly and none shall be able to stay it. The pleadings of
my Heart have held back the divine justice aboutto descend on
an ungrateful and sinful generation. (Diary, pg. 6)

I am the resurrection and the life, and unless souls seek

their life in Me, they will find only death and destruction. They
fear man-made destroyers of life, yet destruction is in
themselves. Man destroys himself through the evil that is in
himself. Implements of war kill only that which is without. Man
kills that within himself which none but he can kill. God is light,

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 man is darkness, and unless he comes into the light, he will be
forever darkness. (Diary, pg. 4)

On February 3, 1957, Our Lady, always a Mother,

focused on peace, telling Sister that real peace can only
come when there is true love of her Son and of one’s
neighbor. Our Lady begged us to come to her to learn the
way of true love.
My son asks of souls love, that true love willing to sacrifice
itself for the One loved. Man fears to sacrifice himself because
he is selfish. If souls would place themselves into my keeping, I
would teach them the way of true love. If men truly loved my
Son, they would not quarrel with each other and they would
have peace in their hearts. Peace is from within, not without. If
mankind were at peace with itself, there would be peace in the
world. Man will only have peace if he has in his heart that true
love of neighbor that springs from a whole-hearted love for
my Son.

My sweet child, if love does not have its roots implanted

deeply within the soul, it will die out or be rooted up by the first
storm that besets it. O child of my Pure Heart, tell my children to
come to me and learn this true love of my Son, which is so
necessary for their peace of soul. (Diary, pgs. 15-16)

Besides being a symbol of peace and new life after

purification, the dove is a symbol of purity. Solomon in his
Song of Songs speaks of the dove undefiled. Scholars
explain that this love song between the Lover and the
Beloved represents the espousal relationship of God with His
Chosen People in the Old Testament, and the relationship of
Christ with His Bride, the Church, His Mystical Body in the
New Testament. “My love, my dove, my undefiled…” (Song
of Songs 5:2) The dove here is the white dove of purity, one
free of defilement, held firm in the pure, unconditional love of
the Other. We are familiar with the Church’s use of the dove
as the sign of purity and love for the Holy Spirit, for the Spirit

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is the “ruah,” the very breath of life of God Himself, Who is
Love, the All Holy, All Pure One. This song not only speaks
to Christ’s espousal with His Bride, the Church, but also to
the espousal relationship He has with each of us when we
are baptized into His Body through the sanctifying grace of
His pure Spirit of Love.

The dove is not a city dweller for it prefers a more

peaceful deserted area where it can hide away in the clefts of
rock. It becomes a symbol of the pursuit of a hidden life,
solitude and quiet, a symbol of the humble soul reflecting the
humility of the Spirit. Considering that Archbishop Paul
Leibold, Sr. Mildred’s spiritual director of 32 years, advised
her to enter the cloister and to remain hidden from the world,
the “little white dove” is a fitting symbol for Sister’s life of
contemplation and solitude, religious espousal with her
Divine Lord. She models for us our own call to holiness, to
solitude and prayer, to baptismal espousal to our Lord, the
Lover of all lovers Who seeks intimacy with us through His
Divine Indwelling Presence that makes us pure and holy as
He is pure and holy.

Now hear the psalmist David cry: “Oh that I had wings
like a dove! For then would I fly away, and be at rest.”
(Psalm 55:7) While Catholic Tradition views the dove in flight
as a symbol of the Ascension of Our Lord, it can also
symbolize the soul’s ascent to the mountain of prayer and
rest in the Lord. The little docile dove was a quiet and
unassuming bird that loved to seek shelter away from the
noise. What a fitting image for one seeking a life of
contemplation and union with the Lord. Jeremiah prays: “O
ye that dwelleth in Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the
rock, and be like the dove that maketh her nest in the sides
of the hole’s mouth {in the sides of caves.} (Jeremiah 48:28)
Surely Our Lord wished to affirm Sister’s docile, humble

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nature, her desire for solitude with Him, never seeking glory
for herself, by calling her my “little white dove,” for who
could know this rich symbolism better than He whose Spirit
inspired its sacred use? Our Lord also called Sister “little
secretary of My Heart,” again recognizing her littleness and
her humility. The angels, too, addressed Sister as “my little
sister.” And Mother Mary constantly addressed Sister as
“my sweet child” or as “my daughter,” and on August 14,
1980, said, “Beloved daughter, you are not being accepted
because you are a small one.“ (Diary, pg. 37) Over and over
we are reminded of Jesus’ own words about the little ones:
“Unless you become as little children, you shall not enter
into the kingdom of heaven.” And again of those words on
living in union with the Indwelling Trinity: “the kingdom is
within you.”

Hosea saw the dove as a symbol of innocence. He said,

“Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart:…” (Hosea
7:11) But his understanding of “silly” as used here was that
of innocence. Hosea had seen a dove ensnared because of
its innocence, totally oblivious of the entrapment set for it.
Hence, he said “Ephraim is just like that.” How interesting
that Sr. Mildred’s religious name was “Ephrem.” She, too,
was an innocent one, trusting and unsuspecting of those
who would ensnare her for their own purposes, causing
much suffering to herself and her cloistered companions.
But alas, the dove is also a sign of hope, as David alluded to
when he wished he could fly away “on the wings of a dove”
to a higher, safer place. Sister Mildred Marie’s higher, safer
place was her trust and hope in Our Lady’s promise to her
that the message of Our Lady of America® would come to
fruition, in time, as She desired. “But in the end all will come
as I desire. Those who oppose you will receive light to
understand.” (Diary, pg. 37) How often Sister was heard to
say, “Our Lady will take care of it” when ugly things

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appeared on her horizon. Sooner or later, Our Lady always
did, and still does, take care of them all.

In Matthew 10:16 Jesus speaks in a similar vein:

“Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye
therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” Here Jesus
bids us be wise about the things of God and innocent concerning
things that are evil. Sr. Mildred Mary was wise about the things of
God because she had a pure heart and lacked knowledge of all kinds
of evil that raged about her. No wonder our dear Lord so lovingly
referred to her as His “little white dove.” She certainly was His love,
His dove, His beautiful innocent one! He took delight in her!

But the symbol of the dove as the pure sacrificial

offering of the poor is the most vital of all. We see poor Mary
and Joseph offer a pair of doves at the Presentation of Jesus
in the temple for His circumcision and Mary’s purification
after childbirth. Though Mary was sinless and had no need
of purification, she humbly submitted to the requirements of
her Jewish Faith. The dove, the pure victim of sacrifice! It is
this dimension that is the most important in understanding
Sr. Mildred’s endearment to Our Lord as His “little white
dove.” She became the “pure little white dove of sacrifice” in
imitation of our Lord’s own sacrifice for our salvation,
sharing in His passion in an extraordinarily personal way.
Nothing could speak to this dimension of her sacrifice better
than the following passage from Sr. Mildred’s letter to Father
Paul Leibold, her spiritual director and later bishop of the
Cincinnati, Ohio archdiocese.
________________________________________________

J.M.J.
August 16, 1956

Sisters of the Precious Blood

Our Lady of the Nativity Convent Cloister
New Riegel, Ohio

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Rev. and Dear Father,

This being the eve of the First Friday I am reminded of some

things that should have been mentioned before this. I was as you
know, still out West in June. Well, June 8th , Feast of the Sacred Heart,
we were allowed to make a night hour, those who wished to. During
this time Jesus made known to me the sorrow of His Heart over the
ingratitude and indifference shown to Him in the Sacrament of His
Love. When I went back to bed, Jesus came to me holding a large
cross and a crown of thorns. He said to me smiling, as though He
knew what the answer would be (He did of course).

“I come with My cross and My crown of thorns, will you accept

Me My spouse?”

You know the only answer I could give Father. Who could refuse
Jesus anything? During the night I awoke and Jesus said to me, and
He said it with a profound emphasis: “I have placed you upon the
Altar of Sacrifice.”

On June 14th, anniversary of my perpetual union with Jesus, He

asked me again:
“Bride of My Heart, do you still wish to suffer all things to give
Me to souls?”

I answered:
“Yes, yes dear Lord, I am poor and wretched, and unworthy, but
you know what is in my heart.”

He said,
“My little white dove, will you then continue to wear the Crown
of Thorns, and permit yourself to be nailed to the Cross?”
I told him in the best way I could, how much I desired Him to do
with me just as He desired. So in this way my desires are wholly
united to His.

When I received my last Obedience, Father, it was a bit of a let-

down, as you can guess. Yet I tried to rise above my feelings realizing
that God works all things for our good and His Glory. I am glad that
Our Lord is not afraid to use me in any way that He pleases. There are

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times when pain blurs my vision a bit, but it is not long before His
enlightening Grace makes me see again with that clear light God
reserves for the lowly and pure of heart. At this time, Father, Our Lord
assured me of His continued help.

He said to me that evening after I had received the Obedience:

“I will be with you wherever you are, spouse of my Heart. You
have nothing to fear.”
This was after I had said to Him:
“Dear Lord, what are You doing to me?”

Here are some words spoken to me since. Sometimes He

repeats or uses similar expressions to emphasize the special lesson
He wishes to impart. Pride must be the great sin of our times, or at
least one of the great ones, for Our Lord speaks so often about
humility.

“My Heart speaks to the humble. It is they who hear My Voice.”

“ Be humble My children, be humble and pure of heart. Then will
I come and dwell with you.”

“My little white dove, how humility and simplicity are despised
by the proud of this world. Oh what a loss they suffer. For despising
the humble, Christ will judge them.”

“By my humility and simplicity of Heart I glorify My Father more

than all the Angels and Saints together. So it is that the humble soul
glorifies God more than all the great of the world.”

Surely it is obvious why our dear Lord called Sr. Mildred

His “little white dove!”

“I have placed you upon the Altar of Sacrifice!” He said.

Copyright © Contemplative Sisters of the Indwelling Trinity, 2009.

All rights reserved.

*(Some aspects of the dove symbolism are taken from the Catholic
Encyclopedia: Dove, www.newadvent.org/cathen)

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 My Son is in Love with Your Lowliness
The Passion and Mission of Sister Mildred Mary Ephrem's Life

To see things from God's perspective

is how Elizabeth Anne Stewart defines the role of the prophet.
She says:

…their main function is to comment on the present and help

others see things from God's perspective. While most of us are
preoccupied with our own concerns, ... prophets always focus
on the larger picture. Never satisfied with the majority way of
thinking, they measure the values of the status quo against what
they perceive to be divine values. In anguish, they cry out on
God's behalf, urging the people to turn their lives around; at the
same time they speak for the people, begging God to spare
those who have wandered from the path of life.

Sister Mildred Mary Ephrem Neuzil's life is rather ordinary, apart from her passion
and her mission. It is for the latter that she will be endeared to all our hearts. Her
humble life is best defined in terms of the prophetic mission spoken to her by Our
Lady of America, a message for all the world, but especially for the United States
of America, which is mandated from heaven to lead the world in a reform of life,
heart-rending conversion from deep within the soul, back to Faith and Purity. It is
a voice challenging the sinfulness of our generation and calling God's children
back to Him as the Supreme Authority and Lord over all life, as the Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and end of all things, as the only true and lasting peace
and happiness for all mankind. It is a clear and decisive call to genuine and
profound holiness of life from within, through communion with the Divine
Indwelling Presence of the Most Holy Trinity. It is a call to a new martyrdom of
spiritual leadership within the Church hierarchy and within the domestic church,
the Christian family. Our Lady is forming an army of chaste soldiers ready to fight
to the death to preserve the purity of their souls, a generation of Torchbearers
who will set the world on fire with the torch of Divine Truth and Divine Love.
Sister Mildred is the model for this formation, for she is the first Torchbearer of
the Queen, the first martyr of this urgent message and mission for the conversion
of sinners and the salvation of souls, in America and in all the world. In Our
Lady's words:

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 I come to you, O children of America, as a last resort. I plead
with you to listen to my voice. Cleanse your souls in the
Precious Blood of My Son. Live in His Heart, and take me in that I
may teach you to live in great purity of heart which is so
pleasing to God. Be my army of chaste soldiers, ready to fight to
the death to preserve the purity of your souls. ... What am I to do,
child of my heart, when my children turn from me? ...They think
they have done enough in consecrating themselves to my
Immaculate Heart. It is not enough. That which I ask for and is
most important many have not given me. What I ask, have asked,
and will continue to ask is reformation of life. There must be
sanctification from within.

(Diary, Our Lady of America, pgs. 12,18.)

Sister's mission centered on this return to the interior life, the primacy of
prayer, the acknowledgement of God's action over man's, the sanctification of
souls. It is a challenge to stand strong against the "culture of death" and heresy
and false teachings of our day in protecting the sanctity of life and of Christian
marriage and family life. It is a challenge to humanism without God, to science
without ethics, to the tyranny of power, position, and material things; to the
oppression of the poor by those with wealth. It is a call to abandon worldly
wisdom that leads to self-destruction and to embrace the Wisdom of God that
comes with humble and obedient surrender to God's ways, to Christ's Vicar and
Church on earth, and to the teachings of our Church so guided and protected by
the power of God's Holy Spirit. It is a call to prayer and penance, for our own sins
and the sins of the world, so we might share in the redemptive mission of Our
Lord as Mary and Joseph did, as Sister did so dearly, placing herself upon His
cross and placing His crown of thorns upon her brow.

In 1957, Our Lady confirmed God's behavior throughout salvation history,

his preference for the humble and pure of heart, the unlikely ones by the world's
standards.

Your mission is vast, my child. It reaches to the ends of the

earth. It will continue until time is no more, because there will
always be the need for the sanctification of the family and of
souls. Fear not, small one, for it is through the most unlikely of
instruments that God works His wonders. He chooses where the
world would not. He makes that possible which the world deems
impossible ...God has no need of anyone, yet He chooses the
smallest of the small for His glory. Sweet child, let your humble
heart be filled with a great confidence, for my Son is in love with
your lowliness and simplicity of heart. Make known to souls the
preference my Son has for humility.

(Letters, Sr. Mildred Mary Neuzil)

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 He chooses the smallest of the small for His glory!

My Son is in love with your lowliness and simplicity of heart. Make known to
souls the preference my Son has for humility.

Copyright © Contemplative Sisters of the Indwelling Trinity, 2009.

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