HAS the “time of mercy closed”, as said this past week in one of Heaven’s messages? If so, what does this mean?Continue reading
apparition
Warnings in the Wind
Our Lady of Sorrows, painting by Tianna (Mallett) Williams
The past three days, the winds here have been unceasing and strong. All day yesterday, we were under a “Wind Warning.” When I started to reread this post just now, I knew I had to republish it. The warning herein is crucial and must be heeded regarding those who are “playing in sin.” The followup to this writing is “Hell Unleashed“, which gives practical advice on closing the cracks in one’s spiritual life so that Satan cannot get a stronghold. These two writings are a serious warning about turning from sin… and going to confession while we still can. First published in 2012…Continue reading
Debunking the Sun Miracle Skeptics
Scene from The 13th Day
THE rain pelted the ground and drenched the crowds. It must have seemed like an exclamation point to the ridicule that filled the secular newspapers for months prior. Three shepherd children near Fatima, Portugal claimed that a miracle would occur in the Cova da Ira fields at high noon that day. It was October 13, 1917. As many as 30, 000 to 100, 000 people had gathered to witness it.
Their ranks included believers and non-believers, pious old ladies and scoffing young men. —Fr. John De Marchi, Italian priest and researcher; The Immaculate Heart, 1952
Sheathing the Sword
THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Friday of the Third Week of Lent, March 13th, 2015
Liturgical texts here
The Angel atop St. Angelo’s Castle in Parco Adriano, Rome, Italy
THERE is a legendary account of a pestilence that broke out in Rome in 590 A.D. due to a flood, and Pope Pelagius II was one of its numerous victims. His successor, Gregory the Great, ordered that a procession should go around the city for three consecutive days, imploring God’s help against the disease.
Prophecy Properly Understood
WE are living in a time when prophecy has perhaps never been so important, and yet, so misunderstood by the vast majority of Catholics. There are three harmful positions being taken today regarding prophetic or “private” revelations that, I believe, are doing at times great damage in many quarters of the Church. One is that “private revelations” never have to be heeded since all we are obligated to believe is the definitive Revelation of Christ in the “deposit of faith.” Another harm being done is by those who tend to not only put prophecy above the Magisterium, but give it the same authority as Sacred Scripture. And last, there is the position that most prophecy, unless uttered by saints or found without error, should be mostly shunned. Again, all these positions above carry unfortunate and even dangerous pitfalls.
The Great Antidote
Stand your ground…
HAVE we entered into those times of lawlessness that will culminate in the “lawless one,” as St. Paul described in 2 Thessalonians 2? [1]Some Church Fathers saw the Antichrist appearing before the “era of peace” while others toward the end of the world. If one follows St. John’s vision in Revelation, the answer seems to be that they are both right. See The Last Two Eclipses It is an important question, because our Lord himself commanded us to “watch and pray.” Even Pope St. Pius X raised the possibility that, given the spread of what he called “a terrible and deep-rooted malady” that is dragging society to destruction, that is, “apostasy”…
…there may be already in the world the “Son of Perdition” of whom the Apostle speaks. —POPE ST. PIUS X, E Supremi, Encyclical On the Restoration of All Things in Christ, n. 3, 5; October 4th, 1903
Footnotes
| ↑1 | Some Church Fathers saw the Antichrist appearing before the “era of peace” while others toward the end of the world. If one follows St. John’s vision in Revelation, the answer seems to be that they are both right. See The Last Two Eclipses |
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The Survivors
THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for December 2nd, 2013
Liturgical texts here
THERE are some texts in Scripture that, admittedly, are troubling to read. Today’s first reading contains one of them. It speaks of a coming time when the Lord will wash away “the filth of the daughters of Zion”, leaving behind a branch, a people, who are His “luster and glory.”
…the fruit of the earth will be honor and splendor for the survivors of Israel. He who remains in Zion and he who is left in Jerusalem will be called holy: every one marked down for life in Jerusalem. (Isaiah 4:3)
So Little Time Left
On the first Friday of this month, also the Feast day of St. Faustina, my wife’s mother, Margaret, passed away. We are preparing for the funeral now. Thanks to all for your prayers for Margaret and the family.
As we watch the explosion of evil all over the world, from the most shocking blasphemies against God in theaters, to the imminent collapse of economies, to the specter of nuclear war, the words of this writing below are rarely far from my heart. They were confirmed again today by my spiritual director. Another priest I know, a very prayerful and attentive soul, said just today that the Father is telling him, “Few know how very little time there really is.”
Our response? Do not delay your conversion. Do not delay going to Confession to begin again. Do not put off reconciling with God until tomorrow, for as St. Paul wrote, “Today is the day of salvation.“
First published November 13th, 2010
LATE this past summer of 2010, the Lord began to speak a word in my heart that carries a new urgency. It is has been steadily burning in my heart until I woke up this morning weeping, unable to contain it any longer. I spoke with my spiritual director who confirmed what has been weighing on my heart.
As my readers and viewers know, I have striven to speak to you through the words of the Magisterium. But underlying everything I’ve written and spoken of here, in my book, and in my webcasts, are the personal directions that I hear in prayer—that many of you are also hearing in prayer. I will not deviate from the course, except to underscore what has already been said with ‘urgency’ by the Holy Fathers, by sharing with you the private words I have been given. For they are really not meant, at this point, to be kept hidden.
Here is the “message” as it has been given since August in passages from my diary…
When Cedars Fall
Wail, you cypress trees, for the cedars are fallen,
the mighty have been despoiled. Wail, you oaks of Bashan,
for the impenetrable forest is cut down!
Hark! the wailing of the shepherds,
their glory has been ruined. (Zech 11:2-3)
THEY have fallen, one by one, bishop after bishop, priest after priest, ministry after ministry (not to mention, father after father and family after family). And not just little trees—major leaders in the Catholic Faith have fallen like great cedars in a forest.
In a glance over just the past three years, we have seen a stunning collapse of some of the tallest figures in the Church today. The answer for some Catholics has been to hang up their crosses and “quit” the Church; others have taken to the blogosphere to vigorously raze the fallen, while others have engaged in haughty and heated debates in the plethora of religious forums. And then there are those who are quietly weeping or merely sitting in stunned silence as they listen to the echo of these sorrows reverberating throughout the world.
For months now, the words of Our Lady of Akita—given official recognition by no less than the present Pope when he was still Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith—have been faintly repeating themselves in the back of my mind:
Why Are You Surprised?
FROM a reader:
Why are the parish priests so silent about these times? It seems to me that ours priests should be leading us… but 99% are silent… why are they silent…??? Why are so many, many people asleep? Why don’t they wake up? I can see what’s happening and I am not special… why can’t others? It’s like a mandate from Heaven has been sent out to wake up and see what time it is… but only a few are awake and even fewer are responding.
My answer is why are you surprised? If we are possibly living in the “end times” (not the end of the world, but an end “period”) as many of the popes seemed to think such as Pius X, Paul V, and John Paul II, if not our present Holy Father, then these days will be exactly as Scripture said they would be.