THESE are the days when Jesus is asking us to have total and absolute trust. It may sound like a cliché, but I hear this with all seriousness in my heart. We must totally and absolutely trust Jesus, because the days are coming when He is all we will have to lean on.
FEAST OF OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE
POPE John Paul II called her the Star of the New Evangelization. Indeed, Our Lady of Guadalupe is the Morning Star of the New Evangelization which precedes the Day of the Lord.
A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth. (Rev 12:1-2)
I hear the words,
There is coming a powerful release of the Holy Spirit.
I rose at 3:30 am on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception this past December 8th. I had to catch an early flight on my way to New Hampshire in the U.S. to give two parish missions.
Yes, another border crossing into the States. As many of you know, these crossings have been difficult for us lately and nothing short of a spiritual battle.
“The Pill”
Man cannot attain that true happiness for which he yearns with all the strength of his spirit, unless he keeps the laws which the Most High God has engraved in his very nature. —POPE PAUL VI, Humanae Vitae, Encyclical, n. 31; July 25th, 1968
IT was nearly forty years ago on July 25th, 1968, that Pope Paul VI issued the controversial encyclical Humanae Vitae. It is a document in which the Holy Father, exercising his role as chief shepherd and guardian of the faith, decreed that artificial birth control is contrary to the laws of God and nature.
DOES this Scripture have anything to do with the sense of urgency which I am hearing in letters from around the world:
Forty years I endured that generation. I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray and they do not know My ways.” So I swore in My anger, “They shall not enter into My rest.” (Psalm 95)
PEOPLE have been predicting the day of Christ’s return for as long as Jesus said that He would. As a result, people get cynical—to the point where any discussion of the signs of the times is considered "fundamentalist" and fringe.
Did Jesus say we would not know when He was returning? This has to be answered carefully. Because within the answer lies another answer to the question: How I am to respond to the signs of the times?
EARLIER this week, I thought I heard the Lord say,
Listen very carefully to the Advent readings!
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.
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.
AFTER I wrote A Circle yesterday, the image of a spiral came to mind. Yes, of course, as Scripture circles through each age being fulfilled on more and more dimensions, it is like a spiral.
But there is something more to this… Lately, several of us have been talking about how time seems to be accelerating rapidly, that time to do even the basic duty of the moment seems elusive. I wrote about this in The Shortening of Days. A friend in the south also addressed this recently (see Michael Brown’s article here.)
IT may seem that to apply the words of the Old Testament prophets as well as the book of Revelation to our day is perhaps presumptuous or even fundamentalist. I have often wondered this myself as I have written about coming events in light of the Sacred Scriptures. Yet, there is something about the words of prophets such as Ezekiel, Isaiah, Malachi and St. John, to name but a few, that is now burning in my heart in a way they did not in the past.
THE past few days, my spirit has felt as if an anchor is tied around it… as if I am looking up towards the surface of the ocean at fading Sunlight, as I sink deeper and deeper into weariness.
At the same time, I hear a voice in my heart saying,
Don’t give up! Stay awake… these are the temptations of the Garden, of the ten Virgins who fell asleep before their Bridegroom’s return…
I HAD this feeling we were not going to be admitted to the United States.
THE LONG NIGHT
Last Thursday, we pulled up to the Canadian/U.S. border crossing and presented our papers to enter the country for some ministry engagements. "Hello, I’m a missionary from Canada…" After asking a few questions, the border agent told me to pull over and ordered our family to stand outside the bus. As the near freezing wind gripped the children, mostly dressed in shorts and short sleeves, the customs agents searched the bus from end to end (looking for what, I don’t know). After re-boarding, I was asked to enter the customs building.
Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, by Tommy Canning
Then he led me to the gate which faces the east, and there I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. I heard a sound like the roaring of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory. (Ezekiel 43:1-2)
MARY is calling us to the Bastion, to a place of readiness and listening, away from the distractions of the world. She is preparing us for the Great Battle for souls.
Now, I hear her saying,
Look to the East!
Exiles of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans
FIRST published September 7th, 2006, this word has grown in strength in my heart just recently. The call is to prepare both physically and spiritually for exile. Since I wrote this last year, we have witnessed the exodus of millions of people, particularly in Asia and Africa, due to natural disasters and war. The main message is one of exhortation: Christ reminding us that we are citizens of Heaven, pilgrims on our way home, and that our spiritual and natural environment around us should reflect that.
EXILE
The word “exile” keeps swimming through my mind, as well as this:
New Orleans was a microcosm of what is to come… you are now in the calm before the storm.
When Hurricane Katrina struck, many residents found themselves in exile. It did not matter if you were rich or poor, white or black, clergy or layman—if you were in its path, you had to move now. There is a global “shake up” coming, and it will produce in certain regions exiles.
LIKE the dawning of the Sun, is the rebirth of the Latin Mass.
FIRST SIGNS
The first signs of morning are like a dim halo on the horizon which grows brighter and brighter until the horizon is engulfed in light. And then the Sun comes.
So too, this Latin Mass signals the dawning of a new era (see The Breaking of the Seals). At first, its effects will be barely noticed. But they will grow brighter and brighter until the horizon of humanity is engulfed in the Light of Christ.
FROM a reader:
While I enjoy your writings, you need to get a life with regard to Harry Potter. It’s called fantasy for a reason.
And from another reader on this “harmless fantasy”:
Thank you so much for speaking out on this issue. I was one who found the books and movies to be “harmless”… until I went with my teenage son to see the latest movie this summer.
FOR several months, I have been hearing the words of Jesus roll through my heart:
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law… why do you not know how to interpret the present time? (Luke 12:51-56)
Plain and simple, we are seeing this divide occur before our very eyes on a global scale.
Mary, presenting Jesus, a Mural in Conception Abbey, Conception, Missouri
From a reader:
If we must enter into the ark of protection provided by our Mother, what will happen to Protestants and Jews? I know many Catholics, priests as well, who reject the whole idea of entering the “ark of protection” Mary is offering us—but we don’t reject her out of hand as other denominations do. If her pleas are falling on deaf ears in the Catholic hierarchy and much of the laity, what about those that don’t know her at all?
The Garden of Gethsemane, Jerusalem
FEAST OF THE BIRTH OF MARY
AS I wrote in The Time of Transition, I sensed a quickening in that God is going to speak very plain and direct to us through His prophets as His plans reach fulfillment. This is the time to listen carefully—that is, to pray, pray, pray! Then you will have the grace to understand what God is saying to you in these times. Only in prayer will you be given the grace to hear and comprehend, to see and to perceive.
BEFORE I lay out the map of these writings below as they have unfolded this past year, the question is, where do we begin?
MODERN mystics and seers tell us that after the so-called "illumination of conscience," in which everyone on the face of the earth will see the condition of his or her soul (see The Eye of the Storm), an extraordinary and permanent sign will be given at one or many apparitions sites.
ONCE again, I wish that the trumpets being blown by God’s angels would be heard more clearly in our hearts!
The time is very short!
MEMORIAL OF THE QUEENSHIP OF MARY
DEAR friends,
Forgive me, but I wish to speak for a brief moment about my particular mission. In doing so, I think you will have a better understanding of the writings which have unfolded on this site since last August of 2006.
POPULAR among many Evangelicals and even some Catholics is the expectation that Jesus is about to return in glory, commencing the Final Judgment, and bringing about the New Heavens and New Earth. So when we speak of a coming “era of peace,” does this not conflict with the popular notion of Christ’s imminent return?
Note: There is a certain man name Ron Conte who claims to be a “theologian,” has declared himself an authority on private revelation, and has written an article claiming that this website is “full of errors and falsehoods.” He specifically points to this article. There are so many fundamental problems with Mr. Conte’s charges, not to mention his own credibility, that I addressed them in a separate article. Read: A Response.
IF the Church follows the Lord through His Transfiguration, Passion, Resurrection and Ascension, does she not participate also in the tomb?
ONCE again, the image of a smoldering candle has come to mind, barely any wax left upon the burned down Candle (see The Smoldering Candle to understand the symbolism).
And this is what I sensed with this image:
Jesus holding an aborted baby—Artist Unknown
FROM the Daily Roman Missal:
The catechetical tradition recalls that there are ‘sins that cry to heaven’: the blood of Abel; the sin of the Sodomites; ignoring the cry of the people oppressed in Egypt and that of the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan; injustice to the wage earner." —Sixth Edition, Midwest Theological Forum Inc., 2004, p. 2165
Mark & Lea Mallett
OVER the past several days, since we publicly appealed to you for financial help in our ministry of evangelization, there has been a touching outpouring of love, affection, and help from so many. We simply want to say how blessed and moved we are by your support on so many levels. From the ones who gave five dollars to those who gave five hundred or more, we are deeply grateful—you are helping to keep the wolf from the door. And to all of you who took a moment to send words of encouragement and who are praying for us, we cannot thank you enough.
BIG changes lie on the horizon for this ministry of evangelization which began nearly 13 years ago (if you are not familiar with my evangelization outreach, go to my official website: www.markmallett.com).
Our Lady of Combermere, Ontario, Canada
Tell me what agreement there is
between the temple of God and idols.
You are the temple of the living God,
just as God has said:
Elijah and Elisha, Michael D. O’Brien
IN our day, I believe God has placed the “mantle” of the prophet of Elijah on many shoulders throughout the world. This “spirit of Elijah” will come, according to Scripture, before a great judgment of the earth:
Lo, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the day of the LORD comes, the great and terrible day, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with doom. Lo, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the day of the LORD comes, the great and terrible day. (Mal 3:23-24)
MY soul is bogged.
Desire has fled.
I wade through a mud pond, waist deep… prayers, sinking like lead.
I trudge. I collapse.
I fall.
Fall.
Falling.
"Apocalypse", Michael D. O’Brien
TODAY, the Holy Father has released a long anticipated document, bridging the gap between the current Eucharistic Rite (Novus Ordo) and largely forgotten pre-Conciliar Tridentine rite. This continues, and perhaps makes "whole," the work of John Paul II in re-highlighting the Eucharist as the "source and summit" of Christian faith.
NO SIN, not even mortal sin, can separate us from the love of God. But mortal sin does separate us from God’s "sanctifying grace"—that gift of salvation pouring forth from the side of Jesus. This grace is necessary to gain entrance into eternal life, and it comes by repentance from sin.
IT is as though the scales are falling from many eyes. Christians around the world are beginning to see and understand the times around them, as though they were waking from a long, deep sleep. As I pondered this, the Scripture came to mind:
Surely the Lord God does nothing, without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. (Amos 3:7)
Today, the prophets are speaking words which in turn are putting flesh on the inner stirrings of many hearts, the hearts of God’s servants—His little children. Suddenly, things are making sense, and what people could not put into words before, is now coming into focus before their very eyes.
The other day, I seemed to hear the Lord speak with authority and love:
Come out of the closet!
MARK Mallett will begin a new Conference and Concert Tour across Canada and the United States, Saturday, June 9th.
Mark hopes for your prayers and intercession for each event, and of course, to be with those of you who can attend. Mark will continue to write meditations while on the road as the Spirit leads, though they may be more infrequent.
OVER the past couple of weeks in particular, the meditations here have likely been difficult for you to read—and truthfully, for me to write. While pondering this in my heart, I heard:
I am giving these words so as to warn and move hearts to repentance.
IT seems much more than a cliché these days: just about everybody says that time is “flying by.” Friday is here before we know it. Spring is almost over—already—and I’m writing you again in the wee hours of the morning (where did the day go??)
Time seems to literally fly by. Is it possible that time is speeding up? Or rather, is time being compressed?
