Today's Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112625.cfm
As we reach the final days of the liturgical year, the Church invites us to lift our eyes toward the ultimate realities: Christ’s return, the purification of the world, and God’s unshakeable plan for His people. Fr. Chris reminds us that the Scriptures, the Catechism, and the Church-approved Marian apparitions all speak with one voice: we are already living in the “last hour” (CCC 670), and yet God’s mercy remains our refuge and our hope.
From Akita to La Salette, Fatima to Quito, Heaven has warned of chastisements—but always with a mother’s plea: If you pray, if you repent, if you return to God, the course of history can change. The future is not fixed. Divine Mercy is God’s final outreach before His justice, as Jesus told St. Faustina: “Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy” (Diary, 300). These messages are not meant to terrify but to awaken, calling each of us to deeper prayer, conversion, and fidelity to the sacraments.
Fr. Chris breaks open what Heaven asks of us in these times: trust in Divine Mercy; a Eucharistic life; confession; consecration to Jesus through Mary; the Rosary and Chaplet; fasting; accepting our daily crosses; and leading others to Christ through Mary’s maternal guidance. These are not extraordinary tasks—they are the ordinary path to holiness, given with extraordinary urgency. The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart and the Era of Peace will come, but God invites us to participate in their arrival through our own response.
Now is the time to turn back to the Lord. Now is the time to pray. Now is the time to choose trust over fear. Heaven has spoken—and its message is mercy.
Blessed Carlo Acutis will be the first millennial saint – and, at age 15, one of the youngest – when he is canonized in 2025.
The Role of Mary is a gift from God to help us, not distract us. Hear Fr. Chris Alar explain actual Church teaching on Mary, especially the Assumption and the Coronation.
Jesus said, “Where two or three gather together in my name, there I am in their midst.” The Mass is the only perfect form of prayer because only at the Mass are our prayers, which are stained with sin, united to the perfect prayers of Jesus to the Father. Join Fr. Chris Alar, MIC, for this first of three episodes as he walks us through the different parts of the Catholic Mass, learning why we say what we say and do what we do.