Elijah in the Desert, Michael D. O’Brien
Artist Commentary: Elijah the Prophet is exhausted and in flight from the queen, who seeks to take his life. He is discouraged, convinced that his mission from God has come to an end. He wishes to die in the desert. The greater part of his work is about to begin.
COME FORTH
IN that place of quiet before falling asleep, I heard what I felt was Our Lady, saying,
Prophets come forth!
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But who will endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like the refiner’s fire… (Mal 3:2)
I BELIEVE we are drawing nearer and nearer to the dawning of The Day of the Lord. As a sign of this, we are beginning to feel the heat of the approaching Sun of Justice. That is, there seems to be a growing intensity in purifying trials as we near the Refiner’s Fire… just as one does not need to touch the flames to feel the fire’s heat.
MY recent article called Dead End probably elicited the most email responses from anything I’ve ever written.
On your return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have put in your power. I will make him obstinate, however, so that he will not let the people go. (Ex 4:21)
I COULD feel it in my soul as we drove up to the U.S. border last night. I looked over at my wife and said, "It feels like we’re approaching East Germany." Just a feeling.
The Conversion of Saint Paul, by Caravaggio, c.1600/01,
THERE are three words which I feel describe the current battle many of us are going through: Distraction, Discouragement, and Distress. I will write about these shortly. But first, I want to share with you some confirmations I have received.
THE evening that I wrote Signs From the Sky (but had not yet published it), a reader had a dream and relayed it to me the next morning. That is, she had not read Signs From the Sky. Coincidence, or a powerful confirmation? For your discernment…
The young have shown themselves to be for Rome and for the Church a special gift of the Spirit of God… I did not hesitate to ask them to make a radical choice of faith and life and present them with a stupendous task: to become “morning watchmen” at the dawn of the new millennium. —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Novo Millennio Inuente, n.9; (cf. Is 21:11-12)
AS one of these “young”, one of the “children of John Paul II,” I have tried to respond to this overwhelming task asked of us by the Holy Father.
I will stand at my guard post, and station myself upon the rampart, and keep watch to see what he will say to me… Then the LORD answered me and said: Write down the vision clearly upon the tablets, so that one can read it readily.(Habb 2:1-2)
And so I wish to speak what I hear, and write what I see:
We are approaching the dawn and are crossing the threshold of hope into the The Day of the Lord.
Keep in mind, however, that the “morning” begins at midnight—the darkest part of the day. The night preceeds the dawn.
