THE past several months have been a time for me of listening, waiting, of interior and exterior battle. I have questioned my calling, my direction, my purpose. Only in the stillness before the Blessed Sacrament did the Lord finally answer my appeals: He is not done with me yet. Continue reading
THERE is a startling passage in the Book of Revelation, one that could easily be missed. It speaks of “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth” (Rev 17:5). Of her sins, for which she is judged “in an hour,” (18:10) is that her “markets” trade not only in gold and silver but in humans. Continue reading
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a Pride Parade, photo: The Globe and Mail
PRIDE parades around the globe have exploded with explicit nudity in the streets in front of families and children. How is this even legal?Continue reading
THESE are the days of preparing for the coming of Jesus, what St. Bernard referred to as a “middle coming” of Christ between Bethlehem and the end of time. Continue reading
“We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through… We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel, of Christ versus the anti-Christ… It is a trial… of 2,000 years of culture and Christian civilization, with all of its consequences for human dignity, individual rights, human rights and the rights of nations.” —Cardinal Karol Wojtyla (JOHN PAUL II ), at the Eucharistic Congress, Philadelphia, PA; August 13, 1976; cf. Catholic Online (confirmed by Deacon Keith Fournier who was in attendance) “We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through… We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel, of Christ versus the anti-Christ… It is a trial… of 2,000 years of culture and Christian civilization, with all of its consequences for human dignity, individual rights, human rights and the rights of nations.” —Cardinal Karol Wojtyla (JOHN PAUL II ), at the Eucharistic Congress, Philadelphia, PA; August 13, 1976; cf. Catholic Online (confirmed by Deacon Keith Fournier who was in attendance)
We are now facing the final confrontation
between the Church and the anti-Church,
of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel,
of Christ versus the anti-Christ…
It is a trial… of 2,000 years of culture
and Christian civilization,
with all of its consequences for human dignity,
individual rights, human rights
and the rights of nations.
—Cardinal Karol Wojtyla (JOHN PAUL II ), Eucharistic Congress, Philadelphia, PA,
August 13, 1976; cf. Catholic Online
WE are living in an hour where nearly the entire Catholic culture of 2000 years is being rejected, not only by the world (which is to be somewhat expected), but by Catholics themselves: bishops, cardinals, and laity who believe the Church needs to “updated”; or that we need a “synod on synodality” in order to rediscover the truth; or that we need to agree with the ideologies of the world in order to “accompany” them.Continue reading
IT has been a real privilege to have journeyed with you these past two weeks of the Healing Retreat. There are many beautiful testimonies I want to share with you below. At the very end is a song in thanksgiving to Our Blessed Mother for her intercession and love for each of you during this retreat.Continue reading
YOU’VE made it! The end of our retreat — but not the end of God’s gifts, and never the end of His love. In fact, today is very special because the Lord has a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit to bestow upon you. Our Lady has been praying for you and anticipating this moment as well, as she joins you in the upper room of your heart to pray for a “new Pentecost” in your soul. Continue reading
SOMETIMES we can get stuck in our spiritual lives due to our wounds, judgments, and unforgiveness. This retreat, thus far, has been a means to help you see the truths about both yourself and your Creator, so that “the truth will set you free.” But it is necessary that we live and have our being in the whole truth, in the very center of the Father’s heart of love…Continue reading
I would love to share your testimony with others of how the Lord has touched your life and brought healing to you through this retreat. You can simply reply to the email you received if you’re on my mailing list or go here. Just write a few sentences or a short paragraph. It can be anonymous if you choose.
WE are not abandoned. We are not orphaned… Continue reading
IN Day 3, we talked about God’s image of us, but what about our image of God? Since the Fall of Adam and Eve, our image of the Father has become distorted. We view Him through the lens of our fallen natures and human relationships… and that too needs to be healed.Continue reading
EVEN though we may have forgiven others, and even ourselves, there is still a subtle but dangerous deception that we need to be sure is rooted out of our lives — one that can still divide, wound, and destroy. And that is the power of wrongful judgments. Continue reading
IT says in First John:
We love, because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)
This retreat is happening because God loves you. The sometimes hard truths you are facing are because God loves you. The healing and liberation you’re beginning to experience is because God loves you. He loved you first. He will not stop loving you.Continue reading
LET us begin Day 9 of our Healing Retreat in prayer: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Continue reading
WE are now crossing the halfway point of our retreat. God is not finished, there is more work to do. The Divine Surgeon is beginning to reach the deepest places of our woundedness, not to trouble and disturb us, but to heal us. It can be painful to face these memories. This is the moment of perseverance; this is the moment of walking by faith and not sight, trusting in the process that the Holy Spirit has begun in your heart. Standing beside you is the Blessed Mother and your brothers and sisters, the Saints, all interceding for you. They are closer to you now than they were in this life, because they are fully united to the Holy Trinity in eternity, who dwells within you by virtue of your Baptism.
Yet, you may feel alone, even abandoned as you struggle to answer questions or to hear the Lord speaking to you. But as the Psalmist says, “Where can I go from your Spirit? From your presence, where can I flee?”[1]Psalm 139:7 Jesus promised: “I am with you always, until the end of the age.”[2]Matt 28:20Continue reading
WHY do we compare ourselves to others? It is one of the greatest sources of both our unhappiness and a font of lies… Continue reading
LET us begin this new day, these new beginnings: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
Heavenly Father, thank you for Your unconditional love, lavished upon me when I least deserve it. Thank You for giving me the life of Your Son so that I may truly live. Come now Holy Spirit, and enter into the darkest corners of my heart where there still lingers painful memories, bitterness, and unforgiveness. Shine the light of truth that I may truly see; speak the words of truth that I may truly hear, and be freed from the chains of my past. I ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.Continue reading
AS we surrender ourselves more and more to the truths of God, let us pray that they will transform us. Let us begin: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Continue reading
NOW that you are resolved to finish this retreat and not give up… God has one of the most important healings in store for you… the healing of your self-image. Many of us have no problem loving others… but when it comes to ourselves?Continue reading
ARE you tempted to give up? Is the retreat painful? Do you just want to run? Here is a word of encouragement to not give up. The Father is calling you by name to rescue you…
LET us begin in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
LET’S begin this time with the Lord by inviting again the Holy Spirit — In the name of the Father, and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Click play below and pray along…Continue reading
WELCOME to The Now Word Healing Retreat! There is no cost, no fee, just your commitment. And so, we begin with readers from all over the world who have come to experience healing and renewal. If you did not read Healing Preparations, please take a moment to review that important information on how to have a successful and blessed retreat, and then come back here.Continue reading
THERE are a few things to go over before we begin this retreat (which will start on Sunday, May 14th, 2023 and end on Pentecost Sunday, May 28th) — things like where to find the washrooms, mealtimes, etc. Okay, kidding. This is an online retreat. I’ll leave it up to you find the washrooms and plan your meals. But there are a few things that are crucial if this is to be a blessed time for you.Continue reading
I HAVE tried to write about some other things the past few days, particularly of those things forming in the Great Storm that is now overhead. But when I do, I am completely drawing a blank. I was even frustrated with the Lord because time has been a commodity lately. But I believe there are two reasons for this “writer’s block”…
Continue reading
READING the words of Jesus to Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta, you begin to understand that the coming of the Kingdom of the Divine Will, as we pray each day in the Our Father, is the single greatest objective of Heaven. “I want to raise the creature back to her origin,” Jesus said to Luisa, “…that my Will be known, loved, and done on earth as It is in Heaven.” [1]Vol. 19, June 6, 1926 Jesus even says that the glory of the Angels and Saints in Heaven “will not be complete if my Will does not have Its complete triumph on earth.”
Continue readingFootnotes
| ↑1 | Vol. 19, June 6, 1926 |
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A different kind of storm blew in upon our ministry and family last month. We suddenly received a letter from a wind energy company that has plans to install massive industrial wind turbines in our rural residential area. The news was stunning, because I had already been studying the adverse effects of “wind farms” on human and animal health. And the research is horrifying. Essentially, many people have been forced to leave their homes and lose everything due to adverse health effects and the absolute demise of property values.
Continue reading
JESUS wants to heal us, He wants us to “have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). We may seemingly do everything right: go to Mass, Confession, pray every day, say the Rosary, have devotions, etc. And yet, if we have not dealt with our wounds, they can get in the way. They can, in fact, stop that “life” from flowing in us…Continue reading
IT was one of the most powerful lessons in my life. I want to share with you what happened to me on my recent silent retreat… Continue reading
HAVE you ever wondered what good it is to pray and “live in the Divine Will”?[1]cf. How to Live in the Divine Will How does it affect others, if at all?Continue reading
Footnotes
| ↑1 | cf. How to Live in the Divine Will |
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THIS morning, I dreamt I was in a church sitting off to the side, next to my wife. The music being played were songs I had written, though I’d never heard them until this dream. The entire church was quiet, no one was singing. Suddenly, I began to quietly sing along spontaneously, raising up the name of Jesus. As I did, others began to sing and praise, and the power of the Holy Spirit began to descend. It was beautiful. After the song ended, I heard a word in my heart: Revival.
And I woke up. Continue reading
First published March 20th, 2011.
WHENEVER I write of “chastisements” or “divine justice,” I always cringe, because so often these terms are misunderstood. Because of our own woundedness, and thus distorted views of “justice”, we project our misconceptions on God. We see justice as “hitting back” or others getting “what they deserve.” But what we often don’t understand is that the “chastisements” of God, the “punishments” of the Father, are rooted always, always, always, in love.Continue reading
May God grant each of you and your families a blessed Lent…
HOW is the Lord going to safeguard His people, the Barque of His Church, through the rough waters ahead? How — if the entire world is being forced into a godless global system of control — is the Church possibly going to survive?Continue reading
You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shade of the Almighty,
Say to the LORD, “My refuge and fortress,
my God in whom I trust.”
WELCOME to the hundreds of new subscribers that have joined The Now Word this past month! This is just a reminder to all my readers that I am occasionally posting Scriptural meditations on my sister site Countdown to the Kingdom. This week has been a flurry of inspirations:Continue reading
Our seventh grandchild: Maximilian Michael Williams
I HOPE you don’t mind if I take a brief moment to share a few personal things. It has been an emotional week that has taken us from the tip of ecstasy to the edge of the abyss…Continue reading
God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them:
“Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth… Be fertile, then, and multiply;
abound on earth and subdue it.”
(Today’s Mass reading for February 16, 2023)
After God cleansed the world by Flood, He once again turned to man and wife and repeated what He had commanded at the very beginning to Adam and Eve:Continue reading
WHAT is God’s antidote to the spectre of Antichrist in our days? What is the Lord’s “solution” to safeguard His people, the Barque of His Church, through the rough waters ahead? Those are crucial questions, particularly in light of Christ’s own, sobering question:
When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? (Luke 18:8)Continue reading
WHAT little children claimed to have heard from the Blessed Virgin Mary, back in the 1960’s in Garabandal, Spain, is coming true before our eyes!Continue reading
The world at the approach of a new millennium,
for which the whole Church is preparing,
is like a field ready for the harvest.
—ST. POPE JOHN PAUL II, World Youth Day, homily, August 15th, 1993
THE Catholic world has been abuzz recently with the release of a letter written by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI essentially stating that the Antichrist is alive. The letter was sent in 2015 to Vladimir Palko, a retired Bratislava statesman who lived through the Cold War. The late pope wrote:Continue reading
Then I saw an angel come down from heaven,
holding in his hand the key to the abyss and a heavy chain.
He seized the dragon, the ancient serpent, which is the Devil or Satan,
and tied it up for a thousand years and threw it into the abyss,
which he locked over it and sealed, so that it could no longer
lead the nations astray until the thousand years are completed.
After this, it is to be released for a short time.
Then I saw thrones; those who sat on them were entrusted with judgment.
I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded
for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God,
and who had not worshiped the beast or its image
nor had accepted its mark on their foreheads or hands.
They came to life and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
(Rev 20:1-4, Friday’s first Mass reading)
THERE is, perhaps, no Scripture more widely interpreted, more eagerly contested and even divisive, than this passage from the Book of Revelation. In the early Church, Jewish converts believed that the “thousand years” referred to Jesus coming again to literally reign on earth and establish a political kingdom amidst carnal banquets and festivity.[1]“…who then rise again shall enjoy the leisure of immoderate carnal banquets, furnished with an amount of meat and drink such as not only to shock the feeling of the temperate, but even to surpass the measure of credulity itself.” (St. Augustine, City of God, Bk. XX, Ch. 7) However, the Church Fathers quickly kiboshed that expectation, declaring it a heresy — what we call today millenarianism [2]see Millenarianism — What it is and is Not and How the Era was Lost.Continue reading
Footnotes
| ↑1 | “…who then rise again shall enjoy the leisure of immoderate carnal banquets, furnished with an amount of meat and drink such as not only to shock the feeling of the temperate, but even to surpass the measure of credulity itself.” (St. Augustine, City of God, Bk. XX, Ch. 7) |
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| ↑2 | see Millenarianism — What it is and is Not and How the Era was Lost |
RECENT messages from seers around the world warn that the Catholic Church is in grave danger… but Our Lady also tells us what to do about it.Continue reading
Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, today, and forever.
(Hebrews 13:8)
GIVEN that I am now entering my eighteenth year in this apostolate of The Now Word, I carry a certain perspective. And that is that things are not dragging on as some claim, or that prophecy is not being fulfilled, as others say. On the contrary, I cannot keep up with all that is coming to pass — much of it, what I have written over these years. While I have not known the details of how exactly things would come to fruition, for example, how Communism would return (as Our Lady allegedly warned the seers of Garabandal — see When Communism Returns), we now see it returning in the most astonishing, clever, and ubiquitous manner.[1]cf. The Final Revolution It is so subtle, in fact, that many still do not realize what is unfolding all around them. “Whoever has ears ought to hear.”[2]cf. Matthew 13:9Continue reading
Footnotes
| ↑1 | cf. The Final Revolution |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | cf. Matthew 13:9 |
IN the wake of the outgoing, affectionate, and even revolutionary pontificate of St. John Paul II, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was cast under a long shadow when he assumed the throne of Peter. But what would soon mark the pontificate of Benedict XVI would not be his charisma or humor, his personality or vigor — indeed, he was quiet, serene, almost awkward in public. Rather, it would be his unswerving and pragmatic theology at a time when the Barque of Peter was being assailed from both within and without. It would be his lucid and prophetic perception of our times that seemed to clear the fog before the bow of this Great Ship; and it would be an orthodoxy that proved time and again, after 2000 years of often stormy waters, that the words of Jesus are an unshakeable promise:
I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. (Matt 16:18)
ON this eve, Love itself descends to earth. All fear and cold is dispelled, for how could one be afraid of a baby? The perennial message of Christmas, repeated each morning through every sunrise, is that you are loved.Continue reading
Do not fear what may happen tomorrow.
The same loving Father who cares for you today will
care for you tomorrow and everyday.
Either he will shield you from suffering
or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it.
Be at peace then and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginings.
—St. Francis de Sales, 17th century bishop,
Letter to a Lady (LXXI), January 16th, 1619,
from the Spiritual Letters of S. Francis de Sales,
Rivingtons, 1871, p 185
Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us.”
(Matt 1:23)
LAST week’s content, I’m sure, has been as difficult for my faithful readers as it has been for me. The subject matter is heavy; I am aware of the ever-lingering temptation to despair at the seemingly unstoppable spectre that is spreading across the globe. In truth, I am longing for those days of ministry when I would sit in the sanctuary and just lead people into God’s presence through music. I find myself frequently crying out in the words of Jeremiah:Continue reading