ark

The Hour to Shine

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THERE is much chatter these days among the Catholic remnant about “refuges” — physical places of divine protection. It is understandable, as it is within the natural law for us to want to survive, to avoid pain and suffering. The nerve endings in our body reveal these truths. And still, there is a higher truth yet: that our salvation passes through the Cross. As such, pain and suffering now take on a redemptive value, not only for our own souls but for that of others as we fill up “what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the Church” (Col 1:24).Continue reading →

The Great Stripping

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IN April of this year when churches began to close, the “now word” was loud and clear: The Labor Pains are Real. I compared it to when a mother’s water breaks and she begins labor. Even though the first contractions may be tolerable, her body has now begun a process that cannot be stopped. The following months were akin to the mother packing her bag, driving to the hospital, and entering the birthing room to go through, at last, the coming birth.Continue reading →

The Great Ark

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Look Up by Michael D. O’Brien

 

If there is a Storm in our times, will God provide an “ark”? The answer is “Yes!” But perhaps never before have Christians doubted this provision so much as in our times as controversy over Pope Francis rages, and the rational minds of our post-modern era must grapple with the mystical. Nonetheless, here is the Ark Jesus is providing for us at this hour. I will also address “what to do” in the Ark in the days ahead. First published May 11th, 2011. 

 

JESUS said that the period before His eventual return would be “as it was in the days of Noah…” That is, many would be oblivious to the Storm gathering around them: “They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away.” [1]Matt 24:37-29 St. Paul indicated that the coming of the “Day of the Lord” would be “like a thief in the night.” [2]1 These 5:2 This Storm, as the Church teaches, contains the Passion of the Church, who will follow her Head in her own passage through a corporate “death” and resurrection. [3]Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 675 Just as many of the “leaders” of the temple and even the Apostles themselves seemed unaware, even to the last moment, that Jesus had to truly suffer and die, so too many in the Church seem oblivious to the consistent prophetic warnings of the popes and the Blessed Mother—warnings that announce and signal a…

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Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 Matt 24:37-29
↑2 1 These 5:2
↑3 Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 675

The Ark for All Nations

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THE Ark God has provided to ride out not only the storms of past centuries, but most especially the Storm at the end of this age, is not a barque of self-preservation, but a ship of salvation intended for the world. That is, our mentality must not be “saving our own behinds” while the rest of the world drifts away into a sea of destruction.

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

It’s not about “me an’ Jesus,” but Jesus, me, and my neighbour.

How could the idea have developed that Jesus’ message is narrowly individualistic and aimed only at each person singly? How did we arrive at this interpretation of the “salvation of the soul” as a flight from responsibility for the whole, and how did we come to conceive the Christian project as a selfish search for salvation which rejects the idea of serving others? —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Spe Salvi (Saved In Hope), n. 16

So too, we have to avoid the temptation to run and hide somewhere in the wilderness until the Storm passes (unless the Lord is saying one should do so). This is “the time of mercy,” and more than ever, souls need to “taste and see” in us the life and presence of Jesus. We need to become signs of hope to others. In a word, each of our hearts needs to become an “ark” for our neighbour.

 

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