| Return to Index |
Introduction.
When
reading this web site please begin with a prayer to the Holy Spirit such
as:
“Come
O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of
Thy love. Send forth Thy Spirit and they
shall be created and Thou shall renew the face of the earth. O God who by the
light of the Holy Spirit did instruct the hearts of thy faithful, grant that by
the light of that same Spirit we may be always truly wise and every rejoice in
His consolation through Christ Our Lord Amen.”.
1 Cor 12:7:
‘To each has been given the manifestation of the Spirit for
the common good.’
1 Thess 5:19:
‘Do not quench the Spirit but test everything, hold fast to
what is good.’
In sharing this inspiration we seek the good of souls and
the spread of the Faith as the Church teaches.
We wish to work in harmony with our Bishops and Priests and do not wish
to pre-empt the final decision of the Church, to which we will be humbly
submissive.
We have always sought the advice of eminent and respected
theologians as to the theological and doctrinal content of the inspiration and
will continue to do so for the guidance of those who respond to this message.
The Family of Divine Innocence began from the inspiration
of Divine Innocence given through the instrument, Patricia de Menezes, Surbiton,
Also, there is the request to the Catholic Church to
proclaim the martyrdom of all children killed before birth as companion martyrs
of the first Holy Innocents. We strive
to forward this cause in the Church and to make reparation for abortion and
other sins against holy innocence. We
study our Catholic faith and other fitting subjects at what Our Lord calls the
‘Eucharistic University’ and we endeavour to ‘sing the Song of Divine Love’ in
our daily lives. Our Community consists
of groups and individuals in
Our foundation house is at Surbiton,
We believe from the inspiration that the charism of Divine Innocence offers an appropriate answer to
great needs of our times, particularly in situations where innocence is so
crucified; abortion, marriage breakup, crucified
motherhood, crucified fatherhood, crucified childhood etc. In this charism,
Our Lord has described the action of this inspiration as "…A greater light
of the Holy Spirit on Public Revelation".*
The ‘Way of Divine Innocence’ is a prophetic message for these times.
* Sacred Scripture
states: “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them
now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he
will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own
authority…He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to
you.” (John 16:12-14)
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 66 states: “… even if Revelation is already complete, it
has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually
to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries.” Referring to
‘private’ revelation, the Catechism continues: ‘It is not their role to improve
or complete Christ’s definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it
in a certain period of history.’
See also The Message of
‘In every age the Church
has received the charism of prophecy, which must be
scrutinized but not scorned. On this
point, it should be kept in mind that prophecy in the biblical sense does not
mean to predict the future but to explain the will of God for the present, and
therefore show the right path to take for the future […..] The prophetic word
is a warning or a consolation, or both together. In this sense there is a link between the charism of prophecy and the category of “the signs of the
times”, which Vatican II brought to light anew: “You know how to interpret the
appearance of earth and sky; why then do you not know how to interpret the
present time?” (Lk 12:56).
The Catholic Church’s teaching regarding charisms:
Catechism of the
Catholic Church (
First-time Visitors.
You are very
welcome! Our Lord once said to his
disciples ‘Come and see where I live’ (Jn 1:39),
this invitation continues today. Here
is an early interview (Dec 1990) with Patricia de Menezes,
which might help you to understand what the Way of Divine Innocence is about.
In the interview below, Patricia talks about the messages she has received
through the charism to an English journalist.
Childlike and Divine Innocence
Q. Can you say something about how it all began?
P. About seven years ago, while I was at
home, Our Lady came and asked me to write down
all she told me and showed me. She
said she had come to give me a new robe of innocence. Our Lady said she was my heavenly Mother and
I was like an orphan. She knew me,
but I did not know her because
of my history and circumstances. It was these things which had orphaned me
from her. She was going to teach me
how to acquire this robe of innocence. I had recently become a member of
a prayer group started by a priest Fr X, in a neighboring parish, whom I
had been going to confession to. Fr.
X. was a member of the Marian movement of priests.
Q.
What
were his reactions, when you told him?
P. He told me to pay no attention and stop
taking the messages; that if I wanted to grow in holiness I must grow in
the virtues of Christ and I was to come back to him in three weeks. When I returned, I said Our Lord had asked
me to write the messages down and give them to him. Father replied that if I did he would throw
them away. I wrote the messages and
gave them to Father and he did throw them away. This
went on for nearly a year. But then
he began to feel uneasy. He showed
later messages to a priest friend who said he thought there was a ring of
truth about them. Father told the
Archbishop what was happening.
Q. I have heard it said that, although a
Catholic, you knew very little about the faith before you met Fr. X. Is that true?
P. Yes. I married a Catholic and promised
to bring the children up as Catholics, so I took instruction to find out
how to do this. I had no intention
of becoming a Catholic myself. Later
I felt an overwhelming desire to be baptised and
so I received the sacrament of baptism. The problem was that I did not understand the
instruction I received and was too frightened and embarrassed to ask for
an explanation. I thought, for instance, that the Eucharist, the Blessed
Sacrament and Holy Communion were three separate things. I
had no understanding of mortal sin. The
one time I went to Benediction, I left quickly because it reminded me of
things I had been told about Catholic worship as a child. I was taught to be afraid of Catholics. I was brought up in a form of extreme Protestantism. Father
said that when he first met me, he could not understand how someone who had
been a Catholic for 18 years could be so ignorant.
Q.
How did you meet Fr. X.?
P. I had gone into a Church dedicated to
Our Lady Immaculate and saw Fr. X. praying. Suddenly I felt a strong urge
to confess to Father, although I had not been thinking about it up to that
point and had never seen Father before. On
the way to the confessional I thought, why am I doing this? But by then it was too late. In confession I told Father that while most
Catholics seemed to have a devotion to Our Lady, I had none. Father told me to consecrate myself to Our
Lady and she would do the rest. Later
he suggested I join a local rosary group. I did not know how to say the rosary. Father taught me. It was as a member of this group that I made
the act of consecration. Our Lady
first appeared to me some time after this.
Q. It
was Our Lady, I understand, who asked for the messages to be made public. When the first collection of messages was printed,
did the Archbishop know?
P. Yes. He had told Father to communicate with one
of the area bishops, and the contents of the book were sent to him. By this time the original prayer group had
formed itself into a small community, the Divine Innocence Community. It is now what is technically called a private
pious association, which is acknowledged by the Archbishop. A separate trust took charge of the printing
and publishing.
Q. Has the Archbishop given an opinion in
private or public on the theological content of the messages?
P. The Archbishop set up a commission to
examine all the information. However
no one visited our community or interviewed any members. The Archbishop would not say who was on the
commission. We were told that the
dossier was sent to Rome. We are still
waiting for Rome's reply.
Q. And
the messages continue?
P.
Yes.
Q.
Certainly
your ignorance of the faith before you met Fr. X provides strong grounds for
thinking the messages are genuine. It
is difficult to see how they could have come from your subconscious, as could
possibly have been the case had you had a strongly Catholic childhood. Could you now say something about the content
of the messages? Was this new robe of
innocence Our Lady talked about for you or for everybody?
P. At first I thought it was just for myself. But
I was told by Our Lord that it was for everybody. Our
Lady said we regained our innocence through the sacraments and following
the teachings of the Holy Catholic Church. To
begin with she asked for prayer and amendment of life. About
this time I received messages and had visions of the crucified innocence. I
was shown a child nailed to the cross. Our
Lady asked me to have a cross like this made. Although
I needed Father's permission, he eventually left the decision to me. However the longer I delayed, each time I was
shown the child the more distressed it became. Eventually
it was screaming in agony.
Q. What
were Fr. X’s reactions to this?
P. He said he didn't know what it meant, but
I could have the cross made privately. So
I went to a metal worker and explained what I wanted. Meanwhile I prayed to Our Lady to guide the
artist's hand, and see that he made it the way she wanted, if the message
really was from her. When I went back
to the metal worker a few days later, he had given the child a halo and made
it chubby and happy. I was very upset
as it did not look like the crucified child I had been shown. I told him to remove the halo and remake the
figure as a suffering child. I took
the image of the happy child home. While
we were saying the rosary and asking for guidance, I saw a light coming down
on the happy child. It lasted all through the rosary. Later Our Lady came and told me to have the
halo put back on the happy child and said "Remember these words. This
is the triumphant crucified innocence." I now thought Our Lady wanted two crosses, one
with the suffering child, the other with the triumphant child. But she explained there was to be one cross
with the triumphant and suffering figures on opposite sides as you now see
it ,
Q. How are we to understand this? Our Lord wasn't crucified as a child.
P. That's what Father said. When
I asked Our Lord for an explanation, He said the crucified child did not
represent Him but us. Nevertheless
He is crucified in us by sin. The crucified figure represents first the innocent
victims of sin, like aborted babies, and
secondly, what
happens when we crucify the divine life of grace in ourselves and others
by sin. The messages see all of us
as to some extent victims of the sins of others, of circumstances and history,
as well as sinners ourselves. The
triumphant figure shows Christ triumphant in us through our repentance and
amendment of life. Of course we first
regain our innocence in baptism, but rarely does it come to full fruition. Our Lady said that bringing it to full fruition,
that is drawing triumphant innocence out of crucified innocence is the special
work of priests through preaching the Word of God, teaching the Church's
doctrine and spirituality, and administering the sacraments. We are eyangelised by
the Church.
But meditating
on the little cross helps this process by bringing home to us what
sin does to us and others and encouraging us to try and imitate the virtues
of the Child
Jesus, His humility, meekness, littleness, obedience and trust
in His Heavenly Father. This is the
essence of the spirituality of childlike and Divine Innocence.
Q. Why childlike as well as Divine Innocence? Are
they different?
P. Childlike
innocence is the natural innocence of children before the age of reason. Divine
Innocence is the supernatural innocence of sanctifying grace. Together
they make up the robe of innocence Our Lady wants to give all her children. To
obtain it, She
gave us this prayer to recite:
"0, Divine Innocence, be triumphant in our crucified
innocence in body mind and spirit. Bring
us health and healing, comfort and consolation. Place
in our soul the spirit of praise, adoration and thanksgiving. Bestow and renew the gifts of the Holy Spirit
and lead us to a life of holiness and joyful service. We ask this in the name of Jesus, Saviour of all mankind and through the intercession of the
Blessed Virgin Mother and all the angels and saints. We ask this in honour of
the Eucharistic Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and in praise and thanksgiving
to the Most Holy Trinity. Amen."
Q. So
this teaching about childlike and Divine Innocence, crucified or triumphant,
is the heart of the messages?
P. The
heart of the messages is Eucharistic devotion. The spirituality of Divine Innocence, based
on the Gospel with its emphasis on Divine lnnocence,
prepares us to love Christ in the Eucharist and live close to Him where He
is truly present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. Christ
continues His redemptive work in the world through the Church, and in the
Church first and foremost through the Eucharist and the preaching of the
Word of God, then through us, but only if our hearts are united to the love
of Christ in the Eucharist. People sometimes object that as laity they
can't spend hours before the Blessed Sacrament. But
Our Lord once explained that when we leave His Eucharistic presence to fulfill
our duties, we are not leaving Him, we are going to Him, and He is coming
with us to help us serve Him in the world and each other.
Q. This,
I take it, is why the messages ask for devotion to the Eucharistic Hearts
of Jesus and Mary. But how can we
speak of Our Lady having a Eucharistic Heart? She is not in the Blessed Sacrament.
P. Of
course not. When I asked Our Lord
about this, He said, "Do two hearts beat in one breast?" But Our
Lady loves Our Lord in His Eucharistic presence
on earth, just as much as she loved Him when He lived with her on earth. Her heart is “Eucharistic”
in its union and unity with Christ's Heart, drawing all people to that same
union and unity. When I was first
shown the Eucharistic Hearts, they looked like
the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts except that in each of their Hearts there
was a small gold sphere. The spheres were spinning and Our Lord asked me
if I knew what it meant. I had some
idea from my training as a jeweler, because if you apply an intense heat
on precious metals it burns off all the impurities and the gold or silver
rolls up into a perfect
spinning sphere. Likewise Our Lord said, “If you place your souls in the Eucharistic hearts of Jesus and Mary, they will be purified in the fires of Divine Love in a Fatherly and Motherly way." Our Lady is one of the expressions of Gods Motherly love for us. There was also a five pointed star on Our Lady's Heart representing the five wounds of Our Lord and Our Lady's five Mystical and Hidden wounds. All this is represented in the symbolism on the Eucharistic medal which Our Lady asked to have made and for people to wear openly in honour of the Blessed Sacrament. Our Lord said the medal would be like the blood on the door post of the soul of the person who wore it with true devotion to His Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament - the Blood of the Divine Lamb.
Q. What is meant by the Hidden and Mystical wounds?
P. To begin with, Our Lady appeared with shining
stars on her hands, feet and heart. At
other times they looked like Our Lord's wounds. Later
on I saw Our Lord in front of the tabernacle with Our Lady kneeling at His
feet. He asked her whether He might
reveal to the world her Hidden and Mystical wounds and how she had in a hidden
way appealed to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for all God’s children
through these Mystical wounds in union with Christ. Not that Christ's sacrifice was not sufficient. He
redeemed Our Blessed Lady like the rest of us. But
being the sinless Mother of God, she appealed through her wounded motherhood
in union with her Divine Son for the children Christ gave her at the crucifixion. This devotion is meant to help us understand
the extent of Our Lady's co-operation with her
Son in our redemption. Although her
sufferings are called mystical, she felt her Son's sufferings with an intensity
beyond our comprehension.
Q. The
messages also speak about a "Novitiate of the Holy Family". What exactly does this mean?
P. To begin with I was just given the words "novitiate
of the family" and left to think about them. Our Lord said "I can't tell you everything
at once, it would be too much for you.” But then Our Lord, Our Lady and St. Joseph
spoke of the Novitiate of the Holy
Family. What it basically means is
that we are to live our lives as members of the Holy Family recognizing that
the Church is intimately bound up with that first Christian Family. Our Lady
is Mother of the Church, St Joseph the Guardian
of the Church, and Christ its Head. In
making us members of the Church, baptism makes us members of the Holy Family
too. This is when our novitiate begins. What the messages about “The Novitiate of the
Holy Family” are really teaching us is to reflect on what our baptism means. If
we spiritually "step inside the Holy Family", as Our Lady asks
us to, we shall find ourselves never wanting to do anything that shame the
Holy Family or discredit the Church. At
baptism a child does not realise the full extent of its family obligations and duties
and has to learn them and eventually become truly committed to a wholesome
holy family life. It is the same for
us in the Holy Family. Our Lord and
Our Lady showed that all men like St Joseph were
called to be guardians of holy innocence in themselves and in others and
all women like Our Lady to mother holy innocence in themselves and in others. The spirit of the Holy Family will not only
transform their own families, but permeate all family situations; the family
of the parish, school, workplace, diocese, nation, mankind.
Q. So
the novitiate of the family is the school where we are to learn the way of
childlike and Divine Innocence?
~
P. Yes. But
it is important to realise that like everything
else in the messages it is not something apart from or added to the Church's
teaching and practice. It is meant
to draw us more and more deeply into the Church's life, to help us live that
life more fully by prayer, Mass, the sacraments, listening to and accepting
the Word of God in hearts, and the practice of the virtues of Jesus, Mary
and St. Joseph. Our Lady wants to
bring us up in the childhood of Christ by the grace of God coming through
the Church and within the original Holy Family itself. The Novitiate of the Holy Family is the fundamental
spirituality of the Church herself.
Q. In your community do you follow any particular
rule of prayer, which others could imitate?
P. Yes. Our
Lady gave us a structure based on daily Mass where possible, frequent confession,
the Divine Office of the Church, the rosary and the angelus. She also gave us two chaplets to say; the Eucharistic chaplet, and the Crucified Innocence chaplet. They
are explained in the community's literature.
Q. In addition to this beautiful teaching designed
to draw us deeper into the life of the Church, Our Lady also made some more
specific requests. One of these was
the building of a church.
P. That
is right. Early on, Our Lady asked
for the first church dedicated to the Triumphant Crucified Innocence to be
built in England on a particular spot near where I live. She appeared there under a pine tree. Formerly there was a convent on the site, but
it was pulled down in the early 1980’s. The
shrine is to be in reparation for all sins against Divine Innocence, but
particularly abortion, which is now on a mass scale worldwide and even Catholics
practice it. This is a great wound
in the Church. England, tragically,
was the first country to legalise abortion, and
London is known as the abortion capital of the world. A main object of our community is reparation
and adoration and amendment of life according to the Gospel and the teachings
of the Catholic Church.
Q. What about the days of reparation the messages
ask for?
P. Our
Lady asked for reparation to be made particularly on each First Friday and
the feasts of the Holy Innocents and the Archangels St Michael, St Gabiel and St Raphael - St Michael
for defense against evil, St Gabriel for purity and St Raphael for healing. She
wishes these days to include Masses of Reparation, Confession, Adoration
and processions in honour of the Blessed Sacrament,
walks of reparation (preferably between two Catholic Church’s) and the rosary
said.
Q. Are these days of reparation just for England
or for the whole Church?
P. For
the whole Church. Our Lord also asked
for a service for aborted children. This a
service of intercession expressing the desire of the Church, the people and
the repentant parents, joined to God's will that all souls including the
souls of these children should be saved. Very
important is the need for repentance and amendment of life of the parents. The service would include naming the child. Our
Lord said He had a name before He was born. So
did St. John the Baptist and Samson. "Before you were born, I called
you by name." On one occasion
Our Lord pointed to the passage where St. John the Baptist said that ‘God
could raise up children to Abraham from lifeless stones’. So
He can certainly raise up these children who have immortal souls. But according
to the messages, God wants the co-operation of
the Church. Our Lord requested that the Church proclaim all children killed
before birth for Christ and His Church, as ‘Companion Martyrs of the first
Holy Innocents’ killed by Herod in Bethlehem. The Church now has a Mass for the souls of unbaptised children so she obviously envisages the possibility
of their somehow being saved through the grace of Our Lord's Passion and
Death.
R.
The
messages also ask for the establishment of a religious order.
P. Our Lady has asked for a Community to teach the spirit of
childlike and divine Innocence to families. It
will Include priests and lay people engaged in the evangelisation of families. Some
of the lay members will live in the community houses, others in their own
homes. Another work will be looking
after priests. There will be two kinds of houses, Bethlehem houses and Nazareth
houses which will have lay, religious and priests working in holy co-operation. The
more active members will live in the Bethlehem houses, Bethlehem being where
Divine Innocence was born. The Nazareth
houses will be more contemplative, reflecting the hidden life at Nazareth,
during which Our Lord grew in wisdom and stature. The prayer life of the Nazareth houses will
help the Community as a whole to grow in wisdom and stature. The rule will be the rule of St. Benedict complemented
by the spirituality of Divine Innocence. The Community has to begin in families as Christ
came into a family.
Q. The
messages have now been going out for about six years. What has the response been like?
P. We've
been getting letters from all over the world - America, Poland, Ireland,
Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, Singapore, Malta, saying they have
given people great hope. People are
reciting the prayers and following the spirituality, and as a result living
their Catholic faith more fully. There
have been requests for thousands of Eucharistic medals. There
have also been many Masses of Reparation. And
parents of aborted children have found consolation in the possibility of
a service of naming and intercession for those children. But
what people seem specially to respond to is the idea of regaining their lost
innocence. They also see the need for some kind of community so that people
are not left on their own but feel part of a family where they can receive
the spirituality in an organised way.