Saint James

April 14, 1998

Carolyn’s Description:

The Blessed Mother is wearing a rose colored dress and a long white veil. She has her arms extended out and raised up, her palms upward. Her eyes are lifted and she is praying. St. James is standing beside her.

St. James is much taller than the Blessed Mother. He has medium brown hair and a beard. He is wearing a gray-brown robe with a brown sash around his shoulders and he has sandals on his feet. St. James has a candle in one hand that is lit. In the other, a staff, but it has no crook. It’s like a walking stick. He is looking downward. He is also praying.

The Blessed Mother’s Words:

My dear children, it is good to be among you again. I am overjoyed that you have responded to me in such great numbers. I thank you for coming to me in this way, for accepting the gift that the Father has given for His love of you. My dear ones, do pray. Do stay near to our Lord. This is a time of great celebration. It is the time of the Easter renewal, the very resurrection of our Lord. Pray, dear children, that all might know the great joy that I do know and the hope that my son Jesus brings to the world.

Today I have brought to you a faithful servant of the Father, he who was a leader of your early church, he who is now with the Father in glory. I thank you, my little ones, for accepting this grace, for your prayers and your sacrifices. They are most dear to my Immaculate Heart. Do continue in your good works and keep your hearts open for the voice of God. He is with you, as I your mother am with you.

St. James’ Words:

My Christian friends, I greet you in the name of Christ, He who was, who is, and who is to come. Let His peace fill you this day and always. Know always His will. Live always in His love, in the shadow of His mercy, and may your heart be filled with His graces. Brothers and sisters . . . friends of God . . . I walked with our Christ and I knew Him. Let me tell you about the early days, the days of trial and persecution, the days of great darkness.

Our Lord, after His ministries, He was taken and He was crucified, and so began the darkest day of all time. And I and my brothers, we fled. We ran far. Such fear was within us! We knew not what to do. We abandoned our Lord. And there He suffered and He died and He was laid in a tomb. Together with Peter, John, Matthew . . . I wept. I was so very afraid. We hid. We spoke only to those who we could trust, to those who belonged to the Christian Way, the followers of Christ. We feared for our very lives, for if they had killed our master, what would become of us? None of us were brave. We did not yet have the courage that the Holy Spirit brings. And so we stayed there locked up together, hidden away and afraid.

My sisters and brothers, we did not have hope. This is the gift of the resurrection: the gift of salvation, the gift of hope, the gift of joy. At this time you do celebrate these things as you reflect on the great mystery of the resurrection of our Lord, but we had no hope in that time knowing that we would be scattered, be broken, be killed. And so we waited. There were some among us who remembered our Lord’s words. There were some who remembered that He had said that the Son of Man would be led away to death, only to rise again and be glorified. Let me tell you, this was not what was in our hearts on that day, but only angst and despair and hopelessness.

Time passed and a knock! And a woman approached. “I have seen the Lord,” said she. Impossible! How could this be? We all saw our master bleed. We watched on as cowards in the distance as He died with only His beloved and His mother beside Him. How could this be? Jesus, we ate with Him. We taught with Him. We knew Him. We knew He was the Lord and yet the very idea that He lived was beyond us. And then He came among us showing us the wounds in His hands and in His feet and in His side, proclaiming the good news of the resurrection. This is the great gift that you now celebrate. You share in the joy and the hope of the resurrection and are assured of your salvation in it.

Oh, on that day how afraid we were! To think we feared when He was not among us, but what greater fear did we know when He appeared within the room with the doors barred and windows closed. I shuddered and fell to the ground, falling to my knees, my face to the dirt, “Lord, Lord I am not worthy!” And He lifted us up and He took my hands. “James,” He spoke. “James, rise up.” And He looked deep into my eyes . . . placed His hands on my shoulders. I feared no more then, but I knew great joy. I share this with you so you can hear the story as I saw it, as I know it to be, of our Lord’s greatest gift. For three years He taught and ministered and healed, and this was good, but His greatest gift for all time was accomplished in but three hours on a tree on Calvary.

Still today that sacrifice is renewed in your churches on your altars. Daily your priests offer mass, the greatest of prayers, and again the sacrifice of the Christ is renewed. You have within your midst the full person of Jesus, His body, His blood, His soul and divinity. Within your tabernacles is the same Christ that I fell down before. “I am not worthy!” did I cry. It is most important to give this same homage to the Eucharistic Christ, for truly Jesus loves you so very much that He renews His sacrifice, gives His life to you, each day. How humbling it is to think that the Lord of all creation would come to this earth and hide Himself in bread and wine only to be with you. What a testament to love!

In the days after the Christ returned and was among us, we had much joy and much anxiety. And He gifted us with the Holy Spirit and sent us out to minister to all nations. The time came when He left us and ascended to the Father. We, His disciples, began the mission of preaching, of teaching our brothers and sisters, Jews and Gentiles, the word, the truth. Many of my brothers went out . . . Peter . . . John. They taught. They evangelized. I remained in Jerusalem where I kept watch over the infant church. What a difficult task this was for me, for in that day the church was weak and suffered much.

There are many now who say terrible, blasphemous things about the true church of God. How often have you heard that the church is corrupt, or evil, or wicked and oppressive? Brothers and sisters, you must not say such things. For the church, it is not made up of buildings, nor of particular priests, nor of the ways of prayer or rituals. The church is the bride of Christ, the very being of Christ. To blaspheme her is to speak evil against Christ Himself. The church is Christ’s hands and feet, His rule on this earth. You . . . each of you . . . are members of the body of Christ. You continue His work this day as I and my brothers did in that early time. You do teach and evangelize and give hope to those who are hopeless, as we once were. In doing so, you continue the work that Jesus gave to us. “Go out and make disciples of all nations.”

In your vocations . . . in your lives . . . you are all called to bring Christ, to be bearers of Christ. By your very name of “Christian” you are called to His ministry. There are many, many vocations. Some are called to priesthood and this is holy and good. Others to married life. Yet others remain single to devote their time completely to the Lord. There are those who work as teachers, as healers, as listeners. Whatever you have been called to do, do it well and do it for the Lord. For you must understand that all that you are able to do is possible only because of the graces and the gifts that He has given to you. For when He created you, when you were but a thought in His mind, He made you just as you are. He placed within you all of the gifts and the joys, the beauty that you possess, the dignity that you have as His children, that dignity that you received at your baptism.

You are the children of God. The hands and feet of Christ. This is an indelible mark, one that cannot be erased. Not even death can take away your life in God. You must persevere and do well to serve Him, to devote yourselves to Him, to devote all of your actions to Him. For what you do in the Lord, it will be good as He is good.

My sisters and my brothers, the days in which I lived were difficult and there were many arduous tasks. And it is the same now. It is difficult to be a Christian. The way that Christ called us to is not easy. For even He Himself understood that the road to heaven is small and narrow and for most it is the path not traveled. It is not easy, but it is not impossible as I once believed. Nothing is impossible with God. For me to limit the Lord, for me to doubt the resurrection, what an injustice! What a terrible limitation!

Our God is a God of love and mercy, and a God whose very existence is devoted to loving His children. Would our Father in heaven not provide for us all good things? Would He not send His own son to be sacrificed as the Eternal Lamb, the sacrifice that can never be erased . . . outdone, the sacrifice that would bring about the salvation of all of us? Would He not provide for you? Would He not give to you the strength and the courage that you need to be disciples of Christ? Let me tell you, as one who has experienced the love of God in His kingdom, you cannot comprehend how much He does love you!

One day, if you choose to walk His road, you will stand before Him and see Him in all His glory. And He will embrace you and draw you near to Him and you will know what only those who now reign with Him can understand. But until that time, I assure you, you are most precious! Do nothing in vain. Avoid sin, for it robs you of the very life that Christ has won for you. It is an insult to your own dignity and to the gift of life that the Father gave to you in His son. Live in holiness and with prayer and with peace. Most especially, let peace be between you.

There is much evil in the world and the light of Christ . . . it is all that can bring hope to the many. You must be able to bear that light. You must be able to bear that joy to those yet lost in the darkness. As the hands and feet and the body of Christ, you must be able to emulate Him, to bring Him to the sick and the ailing, to the lost and the lonely, to those who are far from Him. This cannot be accomplished if you cannot be at peace within yourselves. This problem of division and strife, it was a problem that we faced in our early church. For as you know, there were many who wished to impose the Jewish law on the Christian gentiles and others who said it should not be so. Division is never of God. Division is caused by the evil one who seeks to destroy all that God gives.

Peace can be found through prayer. Peace is sorely needed in this day. There is much division in the church of God and this cannot be so. How can the hand of Christ be divided from the feet? How can the body be divided from the soul? Christ is indivisible as the church is indivisible. Be united with one another. Be at peace with one another. Do not allow strife or anger to divide you, but embrace the virtues of forgiveness, mercy, love, and tolerance. Be patient. Be kind. Serve one another as you would serve Christ Himself, for within you . . . within each of you . . . dwells the Lord in the Eucharistic form so beautiful! When you take Him into yourselves, truly He resides then in your soul always, so you must treat one another with great dignity and respect and have great respect for all life.

These things are good and they are practical and they are things that all Christians should strive to do. But most importantly, you must always, always listen to the silence of your hearts. The voice of God . . . it is there. His Holy Spirit whispers to you His will, His way. Abandon yourselves completely to Him. Trust completely in Him. You will not be left alone nor led out astray, but you will be lifted up . . . raised up. And by serving one another and those who do not yet know the Lord, you share in the mysterious salvation of Christ, and will with Him one day share in His glory.

My dear brothers and sisters, I thank you for listening to me this day, for allowing me to come to you in this way. Lift grateful hearts up to the Father, for it is through Him that all graces are made possible. Finally, I do say to you, of all things in life . . . your families, your friends, your work . . . there is but one thing that is eternal and that is the love that God has placed in each of your hearts to give to one another and to Him. Remember this as you go about your daily duties, for many are lost in the trivialness of life, the things that are passing, possessions, desires. All these things are for naught. Only love . . . only love will transcend even death.

I do hope that this was an encouragement for you. I do wish for you to know how near you are to God. And though we all are faulted and walk away from Him at times, our Lord is one of such love that He does not let us go, but pursues us, embraces us, forgives us. Look forward with great anticipation to seeing Him as I do now, in your heavenly home. Let that be a prize, a reward, that you seek and do so by loving one another.

The Blessed Mother’s Words:

My dear children, I give to you this day my motherly blessing. I ask you to continue in your prayers. Do pray especially for my priests who struggle . . . for those who have gone before you and are in purgatory. Pray that God might continue to allow great graces to pour forth upon this earth that all might know my son as their redeemer and their Lord. I bless you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Spirit who dwells within you. May the peace of Christ be with you.