I speak first to my Church, born when the heart of Jesus was pierced by a sword and filled with the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. I was there at your beginnings and I will be present at the grand culmination when the angels gather all the elect.

What a history you have had, filled with sinners and saints, moments of divine greatness and moments of the most shameful behavior. Yet, you are mine, the child of my womb and I will always clasp you to my breasts and give you life.

Now, I must speak my mind in words only a mother could say, “You must repent and turn back to reclaim your former glory, the glory of serving the world by being its light. Once you were small, persecuted, trodden under foot by the power of the world but I loved you for your fervor and your fidelity.

I say to you what Jesus said to the Church of Ephesus, ‘I hold this against you. You have lost the love that you had at first’” (Rev.2:4). That is where we must begin. Like Israel, I must lead you back into the desert where you can again recover your first love.

“What about my worldly power?” you ask. I say, “What good is your worldly power? Soon, you will see all the power of the world collapse. Will you be caught up in that destruction or will you have escaped with me into the desert of your first love?”

God prepared a place for me in the desert (Rev.12:6). That is where I will take you. Do not delay in the city where you think you are so needed. If you come into the desert with me, I will prepare you. In the moment of the world’s great darkness, you will be its light. This is my message of hope?