The Tiger in the Cage

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The following meditation is based on today’s second Mass reading of the first day of Advent 2016. In order to be an effective player in the Counter-Revolution, we must first have a real revolution of the heart… 

 

I am like a tiger in a cage.

Through Baptism, Jesus has thrown open the door of my prison and set me free… and yet, I find myself pacing back and forth in the same rut of sin. The door is open, but I do not run headlong into the Wilderness of Freedom… the plains of joy, the mountains of wisdom, the waters of refreshment… I can see them in the distance, and yet I remain a prisoner of my own accord. Why? Why don’t I run? Why am I hesitating? Why do I stay in this shallow rut of sin, of dirt, bones, and waste, pacing back and forth, back and forth?

Why?

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The Counter-Revolution

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St. Maximillian Kolbe

 

I concluded Trajectory saying that we are being prepared for a new evangelization. This is what we must pre-occupy ourselves with—not building bunkers and storing food. There is a “restoration” coming. Our Lady speaks of it, as well as the popes (see The Popes, and the Dawning Era). So do not dwell on the labour pains, but the birth to come. The purification of the world is but a small part of the masterplan unfolding, even if it is to emerge from the blood of martyrs…

 

IT is the hour of the Counter-Revolution to begin. The hour when each of us, according to the graces, faith, and gifts accorded us by the Holy Spirit are being called forth into this present darkness as flames of love and light. For, as Pope Benedict once said:

We cannot calmly accept the rest of humanity falling back again into paganism. —Cardinal Ratzinger (POPE BENEDICT XVI), The New Evangelization, Building the Civilization of Love; Address to Catechists and Religion Teachers, December 12, 2000

…you shall not stand by idly when your neighbor’s life is at stake. (cf. Lev 19:16)

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Trajectory

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DO you have plans, dreams, and desires for the future unfolding before you? And yet, do you sense that “something” is near? That the signs of the times point toward great changes in the world, and that to move forward with your plans would be a contradiction?

 

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Is It Too Late for Me?

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pfcloses2Pope Francis Closes the “Door of Mercy”, Rome, Nov. 20th, 2016,
Photo by Tiziana Fabi/ AFP POOL / AFP

 

THE “Door of Mercy” has closed. All across the world, the special plenary indulgence offered at cathedrals, basilicas and other designated places, has expired. But what about the mercy of God in this “time of mercy” in which we are living? Is it too late? A reader put it this way:

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Powerful Notes and Letters

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mailbag

 

SOME powerful and moving notes and letters from readers over the past couple of days. We want to thank everyone who has responded to our appeal with your generosity and prayers. So far, about 1% of our readers have responded… so if you are able, please pray about supporting this full-time ministry dedicated to listening and proclaiming the “now word” to the Church at this hour. Know, brothers and sisters, that when you donate to this ministry, you are essentially donating to readers like Andrea…

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The Great Dance

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Friday, November 18th, 2016
Memorial of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne

Liturgical texts here

ballet

 

I want to tell you a secret. But it’s really not a secret at all because it’s in the wide open. And it is this: the source and wellspring of your happiness is the will of God. Would you agree that, if God’s Kingdom reigned in your home and your heart, you would be happy, that there would be peace and harmony? The coming of God’s Kingdom, dear reader, is synonymous with the welcoming of His will. In truth, we pray for it every day:

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Toward 2017

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markleaWith my wife Léa outside the “Door of Mercy” at St. Joseph’s Cathedral Basilica in San Jose, CA, October 2016, on our 25th Wedding Anniversary

 

THERE’s been a whole lot of thinkin’, a whole lot of prayin’ goin’ on these past couple of months. I have had a sense of anticipation followed by a curious “unknowing” as to what my role will be in these times. I have really been living day to day not knowing what God wants of me as we enter into winter. But the past couple of days, I sensed Our Lord simply saying, “Stay where you are and be My voice crying out in the wilderness…”

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Come Down Quickly!

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Tuesday, November 15th, 2016
Memorial of St. Albert the Great

Liturgical texts here

 

WHEN Jesus passes by Zacchaeus, He not only tells him to come down from his tree, but Jesus says: Come down quickly! Patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, one that few of us exercise perfectly. But when it comes to pursuing God, we should be impatient! We should never hesitate to follow Him, to run toward Him, to assail Him with a thousand tears and prayers. After all, this is what lovers do…

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Unless the Lord Build It

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fallingdown

 

I received a number of letters and comments over the weekend from my American friends, nearly all of them cordial and hopeful. I get the sense that some feel I am a bit of a “wet rag” in suggesting that the revolutionary spirit afoot in our world today has not nearly run its course, and that America is still facing a great upheaval, as is every nation in the world. This, at least, is the “prophetic consensus” spanning centuries, and frankly, a simple viewing of the “signs of the times”, if not the headlines. But I will also say that, beyond the hard labor pains, a new era of true justice and peace awaits us. There is always hope… but God help me should I offer you a false hope.

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This Revolutionary Spirit

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revolutionspirit1

trump-protestPhoto by John Blanding courtesy of The Boston Globe/Getty Images

 

This wasn’t an election. It was a revolution… Midnight has passed. A new day has come. And everything is about to change.
—Daniel Greenfield from “America Rising”, November 9th, 2016; Israelrisiing.com

 

OR is it about to change, and for the better?

Many Christians in the United States are celebrating today, celebrating as if the “midnight has passed” and a new day has come. I pray with all my heart that, in America at least, this would be true. That the Christian roots of that nation would have a chance to flourish once again. That all women will be respected, including those in the womb. That religious freedom will be restored, and that peace will fill her borders.

But without Jesus Christ and His Gospel as the source of the country’s liberty, it will be but a false peace and a false security.

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In This Vigil

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vigil3a

 

A word that has given me strength for many years now came from Our Lady in the famed apparitions of Medjugorje. Mirroring the urging of Vatican II and the contemporary popes, she also called us to look at the “signs of the times”, as she implored in 2006:

My children, do you not recognize the signs of the times? Do you not speak of them? —April 2nd, 2006, quoted in My Heart Will Triumph by Mirjana Soldo, p. 299

It was in this same year that the Lord called me in a powerful experience to begin speaking of the signs of the times. [1]see Words and Warnings I was terrified because, at that time, I was being awakened to the possibility that the Church was entering the “end times”—not the end of the world, but that period that would eventually usher in the final things. To speak of the “end times”, though, immediately opens one to rejection, misunderstanding, and ridicule. However, the Lord was asking me to be nailed to this cross.

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Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 see Words and Warnings

The Fate of the World is Teetering

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earthdark33

 

“THE fate of the world is teetering,” claimed U.S. President Barack Obama,  as he actively campaigned recently for presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. [1]cf. Business Insider, Nov. 2nd, 2016  He was referring to the possible election of Donald Trump—an anti-establishment candidate—and suggested that the world’s fate is hanging in the balance, were the real estate magnate to be elected.

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Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 cf. Business Insider, Nov. 2nd, 2016

The Last Grace

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purgatoryangelAn Angel, Freeing the Souls from Purgatory by Ludovico Carracci, c1612

 

ALL SOULS’ DAY

 

Having been away from home for most of the past two months, I am still catching up on many things, and so am out of a rhythm with my writing. I hope to be on a better track by next week.

I am watching and praying with all of you, especially my American friends as a painful election looms…

 

HEAVEN is only for the perfect. It is true!

But then one might ask, “How can I get to Heaven, then, for I am far from perfect?” Another might answer saying, “The Blood of Jesus will wash you clean!” And this too is true whenever we sincerely ask forgiveness: Jesus’ Blood takes away our sins. But does that suddenly make me perfectly selfless, humble, and charitable—ie. fully restored to the image of God in whom I am created? The honest person knows that this is rarely the case. Usually, even after Confession, there are still remnants of the “old self”—a need for deeper healing of sinful wounds and cleansing of intention and desires. In a word, few of us truly love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and strength, as we are commanded to.

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