20.01.2016
Saint Agnes: I have told you much about priests and about their supernatural grace. Now I would like to continue this topic in order to reveal it in an even broader light. The priest, seen through the eyes of the earth, is still small in relation to how Heaven sees him. Heaven sees him together with all the graces that he receives and that he grants to the souls. People become the most aware of the power of the priesthood when suffering and death approach them and they are helpless. Jesus heals and saves souls, but it is the priest who presents them to God and obtains for them the necessary graces.
Many times I saw death. I saw the death of the soul brought to God by the priest and the death of a lonely soul, calling the priest in vain. How different were these deaths. There is such a sacrament that opens Heaven for the soul, and this sacrament is the exclusive privilege of the priest. The prayer of the faithful strengthens the suffering and fighting soul in the moment of her passage from this world, but the prayer and the sacrament administered by the priest are a quite different matter. It is not only the grace requested for the peace of the soul and the strength to fight temptations. This is quite different. The sacrament of the unction of the sick or the last sacrament is Christ Himself coming to the soul and the body of man with the provender necessary for the path to Heaven. It happens many times that this sacrament restores strength and health, but I would like to tell you about it in this second context, about the role that it fulfills for the strengthening of the soul, not the body. Since I myself was witness to sad deaths, deaths full of fear and loneliness, I know what great strength is in this sacrament. When our community suffered from the lack of a priest, then death was for us far more terrible, sins were overwhelming us and no one wanted to die during that time. How great is the fear of the soul who knows that she is departing, but there is no priest who would take away her sins. She knows that she must stand before God together with them. There is no price that this soul would not pay then for seeing a priest for the last time. I have also seen souls departing to God in priestly hands, calm and confident.
The priest, by administering the last unction, distances evil spirits that lie in wait for the soul in the last moment, and as if dresses the soul in a festive clothe in which she will enter before the Face of God. This priest, who anoints the soul, stands in a spiritual way besides the departing soul and presents her to God as His child. The signs, which he has made upon her by anointing her, are the signs of Christ who has marked her for eternal life. Standing in front of the Face of God, the soul brings upon her the seal of Christ the Lord, which means that this soul is destined for Salvation, because Christ has decided so by the hands of His plenipotentiary on Earth. Through this sacrament, the priest stands in an invisible way besides the soul in the hour of her death and, by the power of the administered sacrament, intercedes for her with the entire priestly dignity. He testifies for her by virtue of the authority given to him and he rules upon her on the basis of the rights granted to him for that matter. The priest earmarks her for Salvation by forgiving her sins and obtaining the mercy of God for her sins. It is he who accepts the penance, which this soul will no longer manage to perform. This penance is inscribed in the priesthood as the sacrifice of the cross of Jesus Himself. The priest disposes of the grace flowing from the universal reparation of the sacrifice of the cross of Lord Jesus; he grants the soul this grace and frees the soul from her due penance on Earth. That is why the soul dies at peace and for her suffers Lord Jesus Himself, who offered and united His dying with the dying of all souls, and yet this grace is granted only through the priest to chosen souls.
It is necessary to pray for a good death, because death without the priest and the last sacrament is different. It is lonely, even if it would be a death among the most loving persons; the soul dying without sacraments is lonely and frightened. The sacrament about which I am speaking can be administered earlier, not at the very moment of dying, for the priest, by anointing the soul, stands beside her in the hour of death and in this hour defends her with the power of the signs of our Lord made upon her. Pursue the frequent participation in other sacraments, and then you will also receive the grace of receiving this blessed sacrament of passage to the other world. The more you value the sacraments and believe in their power, the more likely you will be to receive them in your last hour. Do not set off to Heaven without the help of the priest, for if you stand before the throne of God without his bailment, you will be defenseless and overwhelmed by sins. If you go to the judgment with the priest, he will be your defender through the power of this sacrament, because Lord Jesus recognizes the decrees of the priest as His own and saves the soul destined by the priest for Salvation. Such is the mystery of this great sacrament, which the dying souls desire. Today already start praying for a good death, because it is the most important moment in the life of man: a birthday for eternity, a birthday for God. May the Almighty God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, bless you and all those who read those words. Amen.
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Translated from: Życie sakramentalne pierwotnego Kościoła według św. Agnieszki, na podstawie Orędzi na Czasy Ostateczne które własnie nadeszły, Grzechynia 2017, p. 54-59
Christus Regnat 