St Raphael’s Church, Merrylands
People unclean to enter the Church
A few years ago, as I was walking to church, I had a vision. I was on my way to Sunday Mass at St Raphael’s in Merrylands. As I got closer to the church, a very handsome gentlemen, dressed in a fine suit, approached me.
He stopped me and asked me, “Where are you rushing to?”
The time was about quarter past nine and Mass was about to start at half past nine.
I replied to him, ” I’m rushing to church for Holy Mass.”
He said to me, “But you are not clean to enter the church.”
“But I’ve just had a shower”, I said.
He started to laugh and said, ” I don’t mean that kind of cleanliness. You should have already prepared yourself at home and examined your conscience.”
“You should have asked yourself, ‘Am I worthy to be in the presence of our Lord Jesus as a sinner?’ ”
He continued, “You should be very repentant and sorry for offences committed against our Lord.”
I then realised that the handsome gentleman dressed in a suit was actually an angel of God in disguise. In my heart I felt he was St Raphael, the Patron Saint of our Church.
Then, he pointed to all the people that were walking towards the church, on their way to Mass and said, “See those people, they are going into the church very coldly and casually, with no remorse or repentance in their hearts. They are all sinners.”
He said, “Some of them, haven’t forgiven each other for years. They keep hate in their hearts, and at the distribution of Holy Communion, they approach the Holy Altar, to receive our Lord, full of unconfessed sins.”
The angel said to me, “Our Lord is so offended and so sacrileged in all the churches. Priests do not speak openly to the people because they don’t want to offend anyone by telling them that they should be repentant and forgiving in their hearts.”
He then continued and said to me, “Now, as you are about to enter the church I want you to kneel down and ask our Lord to have mercy on sinners. I want you to do reparation for the atonement of sins committed against His Most Sacred Heart. I want you to tell Priests what I have just told you.”
As I got to the church door, the Angel disappeared.