Donna Silveira

I don’t know that my experience as a tech professional or rancher really made much of an impact….. I think it goes back to my heritage, and my immediate family. My grandmother was a type of person who would help anyone who needed it, and my grandfather was much the same. My grandfather owned a bakery in Massachusetts just before the depression hit. He would go deliver the bread each morning, collecting the money left on the table where he’d leave the bread. After the depression hit, and people were out of work, there was no money left on the table, as people had none to leave. He still left the bread, knowing that people might not eat at all if he didn’t.

Likewise, my brother, not being obligated to go, but out of a sense of responsibility for others, boarded the Alaska Ranger on its final voyage in 2008. Of the 47 persons on board, he was one of five that did not survive. One of the survivors wrote my mother soon after, telling her that she credits the large number of survivors to my brother’s actions. My father - well, the stories are numerous…. I come from a Portuguese fishing family – the heritage, the culture, and my Catholic faith are deeply ingrained in me. Portuguese tend to be one of two things – fishermen or farmers. Since women don’t go fishing…. Well…. That’s sort of how I wound up on a farm/ranch. The tech background was just a means of providing for my family. Honestly, it’s my family, culture, and faith that forms the bedrock of my life.

No experience is ever wasted. Honestly, the computer science background provided enough of an income for me to spend some time delving deeper into my faith, and spending some money on things like creating the MyCatholicChat website & discord server. It also gave me a perspective of being highly logical in my approach to things, and the patience to carefully examine evidence and doing deep research. It was the research that wound up driving “This Is Your Last Warning” to become a book. It started out as a personal research project.

Originally, I wanted to make a shift to life coaching – I have a wealth of experience behind me, making major transitions in my life. From living near my family to moving far away from them, changing from a fishing lifestyle to a farm & ranch lifestyle in Texas, being a single parent, to a parent of a blended family….. So I can relate to most people in most situations. Coaching is really about allowing others to find their own way, and helping a person collect their thoughts enough to find their own path. Sometimes it’s about being an accountability partner, and Catholicism is all about accountability. I do not see myself as, or claim to be, a spiritual director. What I can do is give my perspective on things, do research as to what the Church says on a given question, and provide a “friendly ear” or a “shoulder to cry on” as needed. I am still a life coach, although in today’s climate, people would rather have a psychologist that their insurance can pay for. I may wind up moving in that direction as well.

One of Catholicism’s core tenants is the unity between “faith & reason”. So although something like the resurrection would make no logical sense, there is enough evidentiary support to be able to argue that it did in fact happen, even though we can’t understand exactly how it happened. There are artifacts like the Shroud of Turin that, although the Church doesn’t claim it as the actual burial shroud of Christ, that provide a pretty good argument. There are eucharistic miracles that have been scientifically examined, there is testimony from Scripture, and there is even the testimony of the enemies of Christ – those who grudgingly admit that Christ’s body went missing on Easter morning, and people were paid to claim it was stolen. I try to pull in as much fact as is reasonable, although it is not my intent to convince those who don’t believe. I’m writing to support the faith of those who already do, and those who are open to seeing things from a different perspective. In this book, I spent and inordinate amount of time examining a couple of concepts that I kept hearing in some of the more traditionalist Catholic circles. Catholicism is about Christ, who IS the Truth, so the pursuit of truth is first and foremost in my spiritual efforts. Hearing these concepts about the “great monarch” and the “illumination of conscience”, I was compelled to find the truth and figure out their origins. I could not believe in these things unless I knew that there was some valid basis for believing in them. That’s pretty much my approach to everything.

Well, from this book, I’m really hoping that my readers walk away with a bit more skepticism when presented with new information. “Trust me” just doesn’t work for me, since I’ve found too much information being passed on the internet as being patently false. Oddly enough, this is a truly Catholic attitude, as the Church is extremely skeptical about everything! Any supposed apparition, to be considered valid, needs to pass numerous “qualifiers”, and is a rather long process, taking much time. The Church doesn’t approve every hysterical “seer” who sees the Virgin Mary in their morning toast, the water stain on their wall, or in the clouds. Even if an apparition is supernatural, the source might not be heaven. Scripture itself mentions that the devil can appear as an angel of light – (or Jesus, or Mary, or whomever he wants). So discernment is key. I don’t follow so-called prophets on the internet. I’m old enough to have heard many people “prophecy” the end of the world. I’m not into the whole fear-mongering thing, and as I point out in the book, the more likely scenario for each of us is that we will die before the world does. If I get run over by a bus tomorrow, it’s the end of MY world. At that point, the end of THE world is pretty insignificant for me, personally, as I’ll be standing before God right then. But having heard the multitude of so-called prophets on the internet, or these supposed bible-scholars claiming to see the “signs of the times” every five minutes talking about Christ’s imminent return and the end of the world, I just wanted to bring some sanity back to the issue.

The Church has given us some clues to look for, and Church-sanctioned apparitions can be trusted. Now there’s a fair number of apparitions, so going through the messages can be a bit messy, when you’re trying to piece certain information together. Likewise, there are mystics that the church recognizes, but no Catholic is obligated to believe in any apparition or mystic, as these messages are “private revelation”. Just because a person is considered a saint, they’re not necessarily infallible, and their visions are not necessarily accurate. The Gospel is infallible, but as anyone can see today, there are as many interpretations of that as there are Christian denominations in the world.

So, I’ve approached this with a high degree of skepticism, chasing down the origins of the messages that I’d run across, trying to get to the original source of the supposed “mystic vision”. Some are better documented than others. I give my reasons for disregarding any supposed prophecy or in come cases, disregarding a seer entirely.

Without discerning, a person can be led down into all kinds of strange teachings. Scripture itself warns against this, and the Church is a good guide to that which is true and good.

I’m glad you asked this. [MyCatholicChat.com](http://MyCatholicChat.com "‌") actually came before any of the writing I’ve done. I suppose you could call it a “launching point”. In my return to the faith, I had done a significant amount of reading and listening to various Catholic Speakers. Scott Hahn and Brant Pitre are among my favorites. The lectures I have linked from YouTube on the site are lectures I have watched. They are faithful to Church teaching. I know that sometimes people don’t have an infinite amount of time to dedicate to watching lectures. Furthermore, as the two aforementioned speakers are university professors, sometimes the material can get a bit “heady”, although Scott Hahn is really good about making things simple. Sometimes, listening to Dr. Pitre is like being in a college class!

The discord server is a companion to that, and I do tend to get a fair number of people asking questions, which I’m more than happy to answer to the best of my ability. If I don’t know an answer, I’ll research what the Church has to say on the subject. So far, I’ve had a fairly positive response.

I’m supposed to be blogging on a regular basis, but that never seems to happen. At least the books happen!

Looking back on it, I suppose it does sound a little “fatalistic” although that wasn’t really the point. As a parent, I’ve used that phrase when trying to correct my children. I was trying to drive home the point that God is the perfect parent. He is basically giving us that same warning, that if we don’t straighten up and fly right, then things will not go well for us. It’s the same message that the Gospel gives us – God loves us, is our parent, and will chastise us when we get out of line. That is the reason for the numerous apparitions of Mary. Each time, she tells us that we are getting more and more off-track, and that we need to amend our lives and come back to Christ. If we do what she asks, some tragic event will be diverted. If not, then we get what we get. (Unfortunately, that’s the more frequent choice that gets made.)

The title was also inspired by the fact that we are getting close enough to a time of chastisement, that I don’t believe there will be many more (if any) apparitions of Mary warning us to get right with God. That time is coming to a close, as best as I can tell. Not that the world is ending, but we can expect times to be difficult.

I once heard it said that if we paid attention to God when times were GOOD, then we wouldn’t experience as many bad times. When we forget God during the prosperous and good times in our lives, God will allow bad times to happen in our lives so that we can once again humble ourselves, and be drawn back to relying on Him.

Not to disparage any other faith groups, but when examining other religions and religious philosophies, I always seemed to find something lacking in each. I wanted to know if I was Catholic simply because my parents were – if this was just a matter of “chance”. Well, now I’m a Catholic by choice, rather than chance. Eastern religions focus on finding the truth within oneself. Now as a Christian, we have the Holy Spirit within us, but we recognize that the Holy Spirit is also the third person in the Trinity, and not constrained to being “within us”. Same with trying to connect with a “collective consciousness”. That sort of puts man, and his intellect, as god. To think that man, or even all of mankind is god, that’s edging into delusions of grandeur. And please don’t get hung up on my lack of gender-neutral terms – I’m old, so I still habitually say “mankind”. But we are creatures – a creation of God. Various Christian denominations, while having positive aspects, again were still lacking in one area or another. I’m referring to their doctrinal beliefs, as opposed to the church members. I know some non-Catholic Christians who are far better Christians than a fair number of Catholics. Some things still gnawed at me, though, like the apparition at Fatima. Again, being Portuguese, I was raised hearing the story of Fatima since birth. In fact, my grandmother left Portugal to come to America a couple of years prior to the apparitions. I remember her complaining that she could have seen them herself had she stayed in Portugal just one or two more years. If I’m not mistaken, there were people in my family who saw it, and wrote my grandmother about it. So when people say that the saints or Mary aren’t able to hear us, or see us, or that we can’t ask them for prayer…. well… I know better.

The only faith that lined up with everything I found to be true was the Catholic faith. So once I got to that point, there was really no choice but to follow. If you put the truth first and foremost, there winds up being only one answer in the end.

Ha. Yes, that IS a challenge at times. Coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. There are some days that I’m not sure there are enough beans in all of Columbia to provide enough coffee….. My kids are grown (not that they don’t still need help and support from time to time…) I think it’s a matter of not demanding too much of yourself, and not being too hard on yourself when some things just don’t get done. I don’t really watch TV, so there’s a fair bit of time that I have for doing something like writing. I guess my laptop and research really is my “TV”. When I’m doing research, like I did for this book, I’m taking notes and getting the information organized – my memory isn’t THAT good. So as I was taking notes, and writing them down, the notes just kept growing – until it became a full-fledged book! I honestly hadn’t started out trying to write a book! It just sort of happened.

Like I said, there was enough truth and evidentiary support to quell my doubts about most things. I suppose God took care of the rest. Whenever I encounter a skeptic with regard to the faith – such as an atheist – I’ve made peace with the fact that I’m not Jesus. I’ll let God convert them. I’ve discovered that if a person is not ready to hear it, they won’t, much like dealing with an alcoholic. If an alcoholic hasn’t hit “rock bottom”, they’re not going to acknowledge that there’s even a problem. So no amount of “evidence” will ever be enough for some people. It’s just that simple. That’s why Jesus had told the apostles that if a town didn’t accept them, they were to shake the dust from their sandals and move on. He didn’t say “keep trying to convince them until you win them over”. He knew that some people just won’t be convinced. If you read scripture, you’ll notice that Christ Himself didn’t really try to “convince” the pharisees. He knew that nothing would be enough for them. He even told them that it’s an “evil and adulterous generation that seeks signs”, and “no sign would be given except the sign of Jonah” (referring to His Resurrection). He didn’t try to “logic” them to His way of thinking. Jesus was amazing when it came to not wasting time, energy, and effort.

I suppose I view the world as a grand symphony. That’s particularly true of the East-Texas woods where I now live. I can see all of nature praising God in its mere existence. You can also see God’s attention to detail when you stop to consider how every animal is fed and housed, and how the vegetation feeds the animals, and the animals ultimately feed the vegetation. Everything works in concert together. Mozart’s greatest works don’t even come close! If you’ve ever listened to the “Sounds of Silence”, consider the following:

People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence

That perfectly describes our current day. How much inane babble do we hear on TikTok, YouTube, or even most television shows? When we talk with people, do we really HEAR them? Do we listen to what they’re not saying overtly, through the tone of their voice, or the subtleties of the words they do choose to speak? Can we pick up on what they’re not saying? Do we care enough to even try? Or are we just comfortable with all the “noise” (the sound of silence)?

So I guess “yes”, music has created opportunities for introspection, but maybe that’s also force of habit. Catholicism does that as well.

Well, I was raped when I was 15. It was at this point that I thought that “If there is a God, it seems He hates me.” This is the point I pretty well abandoned all of Christianity, not being able to reconcile a “loving God” with my experience. I was filled with hatred – for the person who did that and for myself. I suppose there was a fair bit of hatred toward God as well…. There was hatred enough for everyone at that point. It took literally twenty years for me to be able to forgive that person, and it was only through God’s intervention that I was able to do so at all. Oddly enough, it was when I challenged God with something like “I’m supposed to forgive. Well, I’ve tried. I can’t forgive. What do you want from me?” It was at that point that I had an “illumination of conscience”, I suppose – a revelation of all of my own faults to that point. It was horrible. I also heard an interior voice say “I can forgive you of all of that…. But who are you not to forgive that other person for that one offense?”

I had offended God (and a good number of other people) way more than just once. I had no moral “high ground” to stand on. And I shut up. There was nothing I could say in response. (And if you get to know me, you quickly discover I ALWAYS have something to say! LOL)

Needless to say, forgiveness came quite easily to me after that. I’ve toyed with the idea of writing a book about forgiveness, but really it just boils down to that….having no moral “high ground” to stand on. Or like the old saying goes, “Those in glass houses should not throw stones.” I had never understood that saying before. I did then. The problem is, most of us can’t really be that honest with ourselves. We want to excuse our own faults while condemning everyone and everything around us.

If we all just started with the person staring back at us in the mirror, we’d all be a lot better off.

But I must say that my life was deeply affected by that one lesson. I’m not nearly as quick to form opinions about others now. I can understand how a person can get to a point of being self-destructive, being judgmental, and just plain operating out of their own pain.

When I hear things, I start from the position, “There are TWO sides to this story….” I also try to see things from the opposing perspective. I also try to be brutally honest with myself first, and then honest about any situation I encounter. I don’t really have a dog in any fight. There are no “sides to pick”. There’s only one side – God’s side. As long as I’m staying right with God, the rest doesn’t really matter.

Once you find the absolute Truth, and immerse yourself in Him, the rest of the world starts becoming somewhat inconsequential. Military battles were won by virtue of praying the Rosary and dedication to Our Lady. Disasters were averted by the Eucharist. Wars and “natural disasters” are more a matter of our relationship to God than political action or “carbon emissions”.

There are so many writings – particularly those of the Church Fathers, that are simply brilliant. I don’t even pretend to have the eloquence or the spiritual depth of those masters of theology. Even Saint Therese, who is a Doctor of the Church, was absolutely amazing in her writing, despite her passing at a very young age. But then again, she was being instructed directly by God. And Saint Faustina’s diary of Divine Mercy is one of my favorites! When you’re talking about what actual saints have written, my reaction would be “forget about what I’ve written – read their stuff”. I’m tempted to say my writing is for those taking their “baby steps” in the faith. That’s not exactly a true statement, though. There is some depth there – but it’s not going to compare to what saints and popes have written. Saint Pope John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body” is a must read…. Particularly in our current gender-confused age. Sometimes, however, those writings can be a bit too deep for some to comprehend. Not to say that any given person is unintelligent, but rather, they are not at that spiritual depth. There’s much that I still can’t connect with in some saints’ writings, which is simply demonstrative of my own lack of spiritual depth. I’m obviously not a saint yet!

I just finished a book examining what God is telling us about Himself through various Eucharistic miracles, and some visions from a couple of mystics where He instructed them on the Eucharist. That was a deeply moving project, and I hope it inspires people. It’s still going through final edits but should be released well before summer.

I also published a book “A Mother’s Walk Through Scripture”, which basically goes through the mysteries of the Rosary. The Rosary is supposed to be a meditation on the Gospel, looking at the life of Christ from Mary’s perspective. I didn’t really learn this until I was an adult. Once I learned that, however, it took my prayer life to new heights.

At the moment, I suppose I’m waiting for my next assignment. When the time is right, God will lead me to the next project.

It’s been amazing! I had joined a number of author groups before I found AllAuthor. This is hands down the best site!!!! I love the mockup banners. This is a site that is totally dedicated to the authors, and y’all go way “above and beyond” in your efforts to support us! I love reading about the other authors in their interviews as well. I was really surprised when you asked ME! I love being able to feature my book, and the other various tools you provide. You guys are just awesome-sauce!