These are difficult, very difficult times. It looks like they are setting to get a lot more difficult. There is an old saying that, 'When the going gets tough the tough get going'. Well now is the time for us to get going. The Lord tests our minds, our hearts our souls ..as he did Job of yore. We must stick to the Lord and Our Blessed Mother thorugh these grim days with our gaze fixed on heaven. God always goes before us. He is in our waking and in our rising. Do not for a single second loose heart. He is our Dear God the cause of joy. People may come to the forum and go from the forum . A blessing in their coming and in their going. Please go or come as the Spirit of God moves you. But for what it is worth encourage folks to stay for I believe it will be firm shelter of hope in all that lies ahead. But for what it is worth I love and bless you in both your coming and going . May all the roads you take lead you home to heaven. I watched ; 'Sergeant York', tonight , it brought me great joy and hope: Joshua 1:5 5"No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.
I just keep waking up every night at the moment at the foot of the Cross. I feel useless of ocurse but I still stand there . One great hymn I love to hear thear is the one below. Jesu said one thing that cheered me up and this is true, He is never far from my heart t, thoguh my heart be made of stne. I am always with Him. Always praying, though my heart seems so cold and sinful I do dearly love this hymn which I hear in my heart as I stand beneath the Cross.....these long, long, long nights...
Life is just so hard right now. But let us try to stay positive as we wait in joyful hope for His arrival at Christmas.
Christmas for me is more and more thinking and praying for the Second Coming of Christ. Come Lord Jesus Come!
You know although the devil is hugely powerful at the moment because God gave him a century to do his work and make his play and that time is coming to a close, no it is not the devil as such that scares me, it is people who have given the devil their souls. Now these do cause me to take notice...and there are loads of them walking the face of the Earth. Loads and loads , many, many of them Cardinals
So true. This is why approved and alleged prophecy, one after another, continue to say "Pray for the Church". This has been on my heart for some time now. The message of Akita 35 years ago is speaking to our moment. These Cardinals, Bishops and Priests who have given their soul over to the devil are being unmasked. Pope Benedict knew this and he did not have the strength to fight against it. We must pray that Pope Francis sees where the real evil is in the Church. It is at his door, it is within his house.
Though there is a lot to cheer the heart too, I notice so many young priests coming out from the seminary now are so very holy. Very, very holy indeed. It delights me. I pray for them, I notice one who is very holy who seems to be struggling with something. The devil must hate them with a vengeance
The dogs cheer me up too. I sold a pup last night so just one left. Here she is with her mother this morning.
Seems to me we are now deeply embedded into the 'prophecy' of Pope Benedict. Be prepared. 1969 When Father Joseph Ratzinger Predicted the Future of the Church "From the crisis of today the Church of tomorrow will emerge—a Church that has lost much. She will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning. She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes, so will she lose many of her social privileges. In contrast to an earlier age, she will be seen much more as a voluntary society, entered only by free decision. As a small society, she will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members. Undoubtedly she will discover new forms of ministry and will ordain to the priesthood approved Christians who pursue some profession. In many smaller congregations or in self-contained social groups, pastoral care will normally be provided in this fashion. Alongside this, the full-time ministry of the priesthood will be indispensable as formerly. But in all of the changes at which one might guess, the Church will find her essence afresh and with full conviction in that which was always at her center: faith in the triune God, in Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, in the presence of the Spirit until the end of the world. In faith and prayer she will again recognize her true center and experience the sacraments again as the worship of God and not as a subject for liturgical scholarship. The Church will be a more spiritual Church, not presuming upon a political mandate, flirting as little with the Left as with the Right. It will be hard going for the Church, for the process of crystalization and clarification will cost her much valuable energy. It will make her poor and cause her to become the Church of the meek. The process will be all the more arduous, for sectarian narrow-mindedness as well as pompous self-will will have to be shed. One may predict that all of this will take time. The process will be long and wearisome as was the road from the false progressivism of the eve of the French Revolution—when a bishop might be thought smart if he made fun of dogmas and even insinuated that the existence of God was by no means certain—to the renewal of the nineteenth century. But when the trial of this sifting is past, a great power will flow from a more spiritualized and simplified Church. Men in a totally planned world will find themselves unspeakably lonely. If they have completely lost sight of God, they will feel the whole horror of their poverty. Then they will discover the little flock of believers as something wholly new. They will discover it as a hope that is meant for them, an answer for which they have always been searching in secret. And so it seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrific upheavals. But I am equally certain about what will remain at the end: not the Church of the political cult, which is dead already with Gobel, but the Church of faith. She may well no longer be the dominant social power to the extent that she was until recently; but she will enjoy a fresh blossoming and be seen as man’s home, where he will find life and hope beyond death". —Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (POPE BENEDICT XVI), Faith and Future, Ignatius Press, 2009
Yes, the last 6 weeks have been especially difficult for me. My mother in- law passed away, I was hospitalized with a kidney stone and then involved in an auto accident which resulted in my car being totaled. It felt like a bad dream. But you know what? All is okay. Why? Because we have such a wonderful, faithful God! My mother in-law prayed 8 rosaries a day, and Our Lord rewarded her with a beautiful funeral on October 8th, the month of the Rosary. Passing a kidney stone is no picnic, but the intermittent pain experienced this past year is now completely gone. And even though our car was totaled, my son and I walked away with minor bumps and bruises. Thank you Lord. Everyone I know seems to be affected by these very difficult times, and things may become much worse, but hang in there all of you, our God is an Awesome God and along with our Blessed Mother, we know that her Immaculate Heart will Triumph!
These things are all grace as they (pain, anxiety, sorrow, etc.) can all be offered up for the salvation of souls! My sister keeps telling me, "everything is grace"... I believe it was St. Therese that coined that phrase! Yes, everything is grace if you offer it up united with Christ on the cross and all He suffered while on earth. This is something that must be continuously on our minds as we pass through all these sufferings God weighs, measures, and sends us to for the good of our souls and our salvation. I am offering all for the souls of my children as well as the holy souls in purgatory. Merry Christmas!
Don’t Give in to Discouragement: Finding Hope in the Trials of Life http://catholicexchange.com/dont-gi...843674d62654e0d&at_ab=per-2&at_pos=0&at_tot=1
You have a wonderful positive Catholic spirit , Monica, you are an inspiration. My Spiritual Director was never much of a one for praise but I think now and again it is a good thing.
The problem is I'm not sure people are really fully absorbing what Fr Ratzinger said in his 1969 prophetic words. The Church will be a more spiritual Church, not presuming upon a political mandate, flirting as little with the Left as with the Right. It will be hard going for the Church, for the process of crystalization and clarification will cost her much valuable energy. It will make her poor and cause her to become the Church of the meek. The process will be all the more arduous, for sectarian narrow-mindedness as well as pompous self-will will have to be shed.
Pope Benedict was a wonder. THis article of his has stayed imprinted on my heart for so many years. I tell you one thing that causes me great concern in recent years. I don;t get to meet that many people in the usual run of events as I live alone and keep m,yself very much to myself. But at work I do meet people and since I have been in the same place for ten years now I get to know them quite well and consider them friends rather than simply fellow workers. But the thing I foten worry about themas I pray for them is this; how many of you folks are destined to go to hell? Well you may well think that is pretty well dismal thing to think? Do you ever wonder this? Our LAdy gave us the Faitma prayer, 'Oh my Jesus save us from the fires of hell, save all souls from the fires of hell especially those in most need of your mercy' She also showed the children hell and souls falling into the great fires down there like little fiery embers. The Cathechism of the Catholic Church is quite frank on thos and teaches us, 'Those who pray will most certianly be saved; those who do not pray are most certainly damned' . Well this si the teaching of the Cahtolic Church and it is most certainly true, who can argue with it? But the thing is my fellow workers, the vast majortiy of them do not I beleive pray , in fact for the vast majority of them , especially the younger ones God is the very furthest thing from thier minds. I may be worng in this but I think it is true. SO my inescabable conclusion is..well....to be quite honest .. that they are not so much walking to hell as running towards it. You might say to me then , how can I know such a thing, for who can read men's hearts. Yet you know if I love something I wil lalways end up speaking about it. You know that I, for instance, have a great love for dogs and so I foten post pistures of them and talk about them, because I love them. Well then if you love God how could it be He is not not always on men's lips, their heart so full of the love within that it pours out in songs of praise? But this just is not happening. So... There was one woman a grandmother , Eileen who retired lately. Eileen's husband left her ,m she becamse bitter and elft he CHurhc many years ago. But Eileen looked at me sadly on a few occasions an said to be with great firmness 'Padriag I am going to hell'. You know this made the hairs on the back of my neck rise. Why? Well because unless she changes her direction she is quite right. EIleen will be going to hell and many, many, many others too. When EIleen left I bought her a lovely silver miraculous silver medal and chain which I hear she wears and I pray for her. But stilll howmany souls have no one , no one at all to pray for them. Even the mothers and fathers now, the grand parents who should be praying have turned away. So who now is to save souls from hell? Does anyone else worry about such things? It fills my heart with sadness.
Yes, I think we all do pray for the people who don't know Jesus, or have left Jesus. Just like you noticed this woman had no one to pray for her, we all know people like that in the neighborhood and at work. I think God gives everyone a territory and whether they know it or not, these people are prayed for. I think if we don't pray for people in our "territory", God brings them to our attention. If we don't take notice, perhaps these people become ones who annoy us, so we are made to notice whether we like it or not!
