Portraits of the Virgin Mary painted by renowned artist Hector Garrido for the Bradford Exchange
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Preface by Fr. Bradley Pierce

Father Bradley Pierce is the Director of Field Education at the Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut.  Father Brad has been Louise D'Angelo's spirtual director and confessor since 1984.  Here is his insightful preface to the book, "The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary".

This book is about much more than visions. This book is about the second most important event in salvation history: The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It is also about the extraordinary mission that God gave the author, Louise D'Angelo, a mission that Jesus called The Devil's Challenge, and how fighting and winning that challenge has made the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary possible. Most of all, this book is about love, the tremendous love God and Mary have for their children. Jesus said to Louise on May 7, 1946, "Know My Child of Love that what I have said to you and done through you is truly amazing the like of which the world has not seen since The Crucifixion."

Events associated with Louise's mission began in 1893 when Pope Leo XIII saw a vision of Satan speaking with Jesus telling Him if he were given the time and power he would destroy Christ's Church and establish his kingdom in the world. Pope Leo XIII was so disturbed by this experience that he composed a prayer to St. Michael and had it included at the end of the Latin Mass.

The effects of The Devil's Challenge are all too apparent to those of us living in the world today. Satan has not made good on his promise to destroy the Church although he has been successful in promoting confusion about Church teaching and disobedience to that teaching among many of the clergy, religious and lay people. Satan has been more successful in establishing his kingdom in the world. Everyone who has lived more than fifty years has witnessed the terrible moral decay that has taken place in our country and the world. Since the 1950s we have seen God more and more pushed out of our public and private lives, out of our government, our legal system, our schools, the media and our homes. Satan has filled this vacuum promoting greed, sexual immorality, abortion and all kinds of violence.

Satan's Challenge could not go unanswered by God. God would choose someone to answer this challenge. That someone would be a simple nothing with whom everyone could identify. Not someone like St. Theresa who was very religious from childhood, entered a convent at fifteen and had parents who may be canonized. No, God wanted someone that we could all identify with no matter what the circumstances of our lives.

God placed Louise in just such an ordinary life. She was born into a dysfunctional family. Her father was an alcoholic who died in an automobile accident when Louise was ten years old.  Her mother, who seemed more interested in her career than her children, placed her children in foster homes after their father's death. During these years Louise cried herself to sleep but in spite of her great sadness she never became bitter. One could see the effect of grace already at work in her soul. At this early age she had a great concern for her world. She thought of the many sad people in the world and wondered what she could do when she grew up to bring them happiness. She decided to become an ice skater because Sonja Henie, the great figure skater, had made her happy when she saw her movies.

Even though writing would be an important part of Louise's mission, she would never receive more than a high school education. After the visions began Louise gave up her career and became more involved with her spiritual life because at that time Louise had a very poor knowledge of her Catholic faith. She wanted to enter the convent but Jesus told her that her life was to be in the world where the devil is. When Louise married, the Lord told her she would have no children, but that the world would be her children (June 27, 1960). That prediction came true.

In Louise God had chosen someone whose life was so lacking in privilege that one could identify with her no matter what their misfortune or shortcomings. Mary called Louise on May 5, 1946 "a simple stupid child with many, many faults, a child who was once lured away by earthly pleasures (and yet) has been chosen to do a great job for God." Our Lord never protested when Louise called herself "a nothing." Jesus simply replied. "Yes, but can't I make something out of nothing?" (May 2, 1946)

In asking Louise to accept The Devil's Challenge God is telling all of us that we, too, have a devil's challenge. Through her battles with Satan and her final victory recorded in her writings, which now number more than 175 yet to be published works, God is able to show us the power of His grace and all the weapons we can use to fight and win our devil's challenge and find the peace, joy and happiness that Gods Child of Love has found.

The weapons Louise used are ours to use. Her love for God and his holy will, her faith and trust in Jesus and Mary, her love for the Church and all that the Church teaches, her prayer life and the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Confession, and the graces she used to fight temptation and grow in holiness. Her greatest weapon was her desire to do whatever Jesus and Mary asked no matter what the cost which enabled her to accept all the suffering that was a part of her job for God.

In the second volume of this book, where Louise describes in detail the battles she had with Satan and the demons, we get some idea of how much suffering she endured. At the beginning of The Devil's Challenge, Satan told her that the pains and torments she would suffer would be greater than the pains of Purgatory and the torments of Hell. During her battle with Satan and the demons, she was dragged into Purgatory and into Hell to suffer their pains and torments. In spite of this, Louise refused to give up because of her love for God and His holy will and her love for her world.

The greatest test of our love for God and neighbor is how much we are willing to sacrifice and suffer for them. One thing canonized saints have in common is that they were so concerned to do God's will, they were willing to deny themselves anything and to suffer whatever it would take to do God's will. There is no stronger testimony to the authenticity of a visionary than this kind of love for God and His holy will. In reading Louise's writings and in coming to know her soul through spiritual direction, nothing has impressed me more than Louise's love for God and His holy will and how much she was willing to suffer to accomplish Gods will for her.

Our Lord and Our Lady have given Louise the tide of God's Child of Love because in Louise and in her writings, one finds such a powerful expression of God's love and Marys, that this love will lift up this fallen world. On January 17, 1946 Jesus said to Louise, "I promise that if My children turn to you, their prayers will be answered so fast that they will be surprised. For I bring to the world, through you, the love of God for His children and the ways of a loving Father. And your hands and your heart will cause, not only people, but nations to return to My Church and you alone shall be their guide. Through you and your angels, much sin will vanish from the earth."

In 1945, the Blessed Virgin had told Louise about a terrible destruction that could come upon the world because such a sinful world deserves Gods justice but, on May 7, 1946, God the Father said, "Dear Child of Love, now I can give My children a promise, a promise that means great happiness. The message your Lady gave on January 26, 1945 will not come about because you so willingly took upon yourself the task of fighting the devil and suffering. If you had refused The Devil's Challenge then no other Child of Love could I have had. But you accepted so that the world will not suffer what Mary said it could. For you shall cause thousands to return to Mary's heart never to leave. And Mary's heart will be planted deep in the hearts of her children never to be blotted out by any force or power." On May 8, 1946 the Father said "I the Almighty God, stood above the earth, as a weight ready to fall. Yes, I was ready to destroy for My anger was great. But you, My dear one, and your love took Me away from this position and no longer am I ready to destroy for you have so won My Heart as to ease My anger and this great destruction will not take place before the Last Day."

On December 20, 1946 Jesus said, "Dear Child of Love, oh beloved of My Heart, never before did I tell one of My  children of such great love that is theirs alone. Never before and yes, little one, never again will such words of praise and love fall to the ears of a child of God.

But I made you special. So receive such love and praise for of all of My children. I saw only you who would accept the Devil's Challenge. Dear one, because you will be so wounded hundreds of times on the battlefields I not only promise you great glory and praise for all eternity, but I promise you unending honor and love from My angels and saints who will sing your name throughout the heavens for all eternity as the special princess, the chosen daughter of the King and Queen...

There are in heaven now great saints who have great glory, but who refused the Devil's Challenge. So great a sacrifice and so heroic was the acceptance of the Devil's Challenge that when they refused they did not lose their glory or place in heaven. They are still My beloved children and so very close to My Heart."

The triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, through the writings of Louise, reveals Mary in all her glory as Queen and the importance of Mary as the Mother of each one of us. On May 1, 1948, Mary said, "My appearance here (in Meriden) is the end of a circle that began at LaSalette. All the times I have appeared on earth, I was building up to this glorious climax that has come about because of you and the shrine called The Shrine of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I started to draw a circle at LaSalette. I continued the circle at several places including Lourdes and Fatima. Now, I draw this circle to a close for now I stand upon this rock as The Golden Lady of Happiness. Tell my children that I have come in all my glory to bring peace, joy and happiness to the world."

In the following apparitions Louise received from God the Father and Jesus they both express the responsibility we have to honor Mary as our Mother and our Queen. On January 25, 1945, God the Father said, "If the world turns against the Mother of My Son then I will turn against the world and once again the darkness of a horror night shall descend upon the people of this world and a more bloody fight was never before seen." Jesus said, "The world cannot rejoice until it rejoices with My Mother and Me." Mary said on January 26, 1945, "Heed well the call of my Son for you to return to my heart: the heart that is the gateway to the Hearts of my Son and His Father."

We all need to honor and love Mary as our Mother because no one could love and honor Mary as much as her Son has in choosing her to be His Mother.  No one can make us better disciples of Christ than Mary because she is Christ's greatest disciple.  We need Mary to intercede for us because, like any Mother, she will go to our Father and obtain mercy when justice is due.  On January 26, 1945, Mary talked about her role as Mother of Mercy, "My children of the world, I stood before the throne of God to defend the children of the fallen world  and out of His great love for me, He will allow my heart to bring back the peace that is not in the world today.:

In the more than fifty years that Louise has been receiving visions from God the Father, Jesus, Mary, the saints and many souls in Purgatory, she has never talked about these visions publicly.  She has guarded them as precious secrets of her soul and never wanted people to think she was special.

I have told Louise to make these visions public now because our Lady has asked her to do so when she said, "Spread your writings all over the world. Do not delay. Souls will be saved, hearts will be filled with joy. Your writings will light up the world and my light and your light will light up every dark comer of the world. Upon the pages of your writings will be the rays of light which will radiate out from Meriden to touch hearts and souls until the end of time."

On May 17, 1946, when Louise had just begun to write, Jesus said to her, "Know My little one, that for all time your writings will be read as you wrote them. Not one single word will be lost by any force or power. Your writings and My messages will be spread over the whole world, yes, even as the Bible is spread over the whole world. For all time I will preserve all you have written so that all My children for all time will know of My Child of Love. They shall read not only the messages from Heaven but the love you wrote in your articles and writings."

While visiting the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, Portugal on the 24th. of July, 1997, Mary said to Louise, "There were numerous saints who fed the hungry, who clothed the naked, who taught children and adults, who took care of the sick and injured, all to their glory; and gaining numerous merits. However, you, my most beloved Child of Love, have the whole world.

You, my Child of Love, shall feed the hungry of the whole world with spiritual knowledge. You shall clothe the people of the world with garments of love and grace. You shall teach, not in small schools in one limited area, for your writings will be spread over the entire world. You shall bring the medicine of grace and spiritual knowledge to those who are spiritually ill and in danger of being lost for all eternity. You will light up the whole world with your love and grace, and not just a small corner of the world. There is no place on earth where your light will not shine. This is your world, the world you saved by and through your Devil's Challenge."

At Fatima, Portugal on the l3th. of July, 1917, the Blessed Virgin Man, appeared to three children over a holmoak tree dressed all in white calling herself the Lady of the Rosary and said, "In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph." At Meriden, Connecticut on May 1st. 1948 Mary appeared to Louise D'Angelo standing on a rock dressed all in gold calling herself the Golden Lady of Happiness and announced to the world: "My Immaculate Heart has triumphed." Fatima is the first chapter in the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  In this book, and in Louise's other writings, can be found the rest of this incredible story of love and hope that will lift up this fallen world.

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