Thanks for all these discussions. They are enlightening. Thanks to mother Superior for sharing her home.That is true unselfishness.
Never offended Rosebud--always enlightened. Your faith inspires me. Let us all not sucumb to fear. I WISH I could not have to prepare physically and spiritually. I wish I were always ready! God help me--I want to be always ready for his coming. I however am in the spot I am and I also live with Mr. Safety--my husband. Who having been an Airborne Ranger and Infantryman, and having lived through Chernobyl with me in Germany with the cloud passing over us and the nodules on my thyroid say it all....and having lived through earthquakes, flooding, landslides and death AND Mount St. Helens; well, its the 'DON'T BE SCARED --BE PREPARED' motto for us. It is what it is. I have to laugh because I talk to God all the time about that indoor --outdoor carpet that I REALLY want for that cave that someday I might be sent to...gulp. I truly trust in His Mercy. My life is his to do what His will is with it. I just hope he keeps my sense of humor, because those that have to live with me will NEED IT!!
Oh how I would love to write a small novel here in this discussion! Its up my alley, isn't it Padraig? But I am exhausted and I can't stay up as late as I used to. This is a great thread though. As for Mark Mallett, I also have been on the fence with him and I still am. But I think he is doing what he thinks he should be, and I also think I agree with MS7, though I have never really thought about it quite that way before, that sometimes we are not "Supposed" to listen to this one or that one, but that others ARE! If you really think about that deeply, it solves some of the problems with the whole modern prophecy-thing. My new friend Melanie is from a baptist background, is now a "deconess" at a non-denominational church, I would call her an evangelical, her church exorcises demons at special services, she participates and beleives completely that she has seen these demons go and has seen what they do to people. She calls things demons that we don't. We fascinate each other when we get going in conversation but she also makes me uncomfortable with what she says. But then I tell her about the people who scream at the apparitions in Medejugorje, and she says, "exactly!" I had her worried about how we believe and worship, but then God gave her a vision that set her right (explained on the Prayer requests thread). It also set me right, as it spoke of everyone. Is she a prophet - am I? She listens to very different people than I do, yet we meet at the same place and somehow we now agree with each other...because God has told us we are all ok. Rosebud, your Yuck factor is quite interesting. I know exactly what you are trying to say. I think we all have these feelings about people or writings, or books, etc. However, one thing this forum and the last 5 years or so has taught me is this...when you have an aversion to something, or especially to some"one", I need to look as what is really causing my discomfort. Is it something in them, or is it something in me? Sometimes, I realize after a long time of running away from a bad feeling, that I was the one doing the wrong thing. Other times I should run. But sometimes, what makes us uncomfortable is actually what we should be moving toward, not away from. Something I learned in a class just recently was that before a person can learn, they must feel discomfort. It is hard to learn. It doesn't just drape over us like a silk scarf. It forces through our barriers of resistance...if you don't feel discomfort, if there is no effort, no feeling of change, then you are not learning. Maybe this can be applied to taking in what the prophets say. YES WE MUST KEEP DOING what God called us to do. We must not stop living and start waiting. Absolutely not. People who hide in their bunkers are wasting their lives. BUT, at the same time, we should not ignore what we are being told or shown. We must not pick and choose what is easy for us, and leave behind what isn't so easy. These days I am being shown that in a HUGE way. And the more I face the hard stuff, the more hard stuff HE puts in my path! Whew!
The readings at mass this last couple of weeks have been from the Prophets Amos and Isaiah. It just seemed to me that you could transcribe the Lords word from either of these great prophets to our present day exactly...and what our prophets but those who read the Sings of the Ties exactly for our benefit? One of the visions of Isaiah touched me especially. Isaiah 6 New International Version (NIV) Isaiah’s Commission 6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy , holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. Notice here that Isaiah on being commissioned as a prophet has to be purified by a firey coal. However when Mary is Commissioned as Mother of God, there is no such fire, no such need of purification for she is already the Immaculate Conception: For me the link between Isaiah in the temple of Jerusalem as Prophet ,reading the Sings of the Ties to his generration and the apparition of the Immaculate Conception to Bernadette as a Sign to Modern times could not be clearer....
Good morning! I am trying to read what everyone has written, but I can't since my IPad takes me to the beginnings of the discussions even when I get to where I want to be and start reading. I caught a blurb about discomfort. I wasn't able to read it all because this device is acting up today. When I boot up my laptop I'll go back and read, so if I miss tings, and I am, please forgive me for not addressing them, When I talk about my yuck factor, this "inspiration" applies to people not things. For example, I was on a plane in June. I sat between two gentlemen. I didn't speak to either of them. They were both well dressed, seemed fine and not offensive. However, the gentleman to the right of me, yuck! The gentleman to the left of me, nothing, This just happens. It puts me on alert. Back to the topic at hand. Two things occurred to me last night as I thought of this discussion: 1) by their fruitsyou shall know them and 2) this came from reading a book called An Unpublished Manuscript on Purgatory) our indifference to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. This is an offshoot of the fruits. When we are distracted by fruits such as fear, how can we give our all to the One who pursues us with His Love? We can't. For years, I truly believed that God did not love me. That is a living hell, trust me. Then, I received a spiritual healing, and now everything is different. I KNOW God loves ME! I still have the same problems and sufferings, but, now, I KNOW that God loves me! He pursued me, but I didn't see it. The breakthrough was such that the part of me that was blocked is now open and full. The sad part is that I am still indifferent to His Most Sacred Heart. I still choose play time over prayer time. I choose to wallow in sadness at times rather than to joyfully praise Him and His Loce for me at times. I am still fragile, but I am growing stronger through His great Love and His Sacred Heart. Distractions such as the end of times are not healthy for me. I choose to move beyond that because they don't matter. What matters is what Padraig says: Love. That's it. love. In the meantime we must pray and fast. We need to confess and go to adoration, we need to hide in Our Lady's Mantle because she is the Mother of God and she is the greatest prophet of our day or any other time. In spite of what she knows and has shared with the visionaries, she still says that we should not worry. She reminds us that we can be proactive: pray, fast, confess, adore. Her job is to bring us to her Son. Why should we listen to anyone else?
Yes very down to Earth regular guys. hey said as we all say at Mass, 'Lord I am not worth that you should enter under my roof'. I find it very touching. Like St Bernadette, or Faustina of Margaret Mary. I always find this very touching.
Here are some of my favorite quotes from this discussion: We can't prepare for the end, even if one can truly read the "signs of the times," because we might die long before anything happens. So then, what good did all of that negativity do anyone? Life is too fragile. We need to celebrate life, not look for the end of it. As to the Early Christians who were wrong but right in their wrongness expected Christ to appear they were right in their wrongness . An expectation of the iminent return of Jesus was right, for He is coming and is coming shortly, He was/is always coming shortly. The devil knows he has lost the one who contemplates Christ love for us on the Cross and The Sacrifice of Mary and The Blessed Trinity for the sake of mankind. I've been forced to live my life in the present. It's not a gift I always appreciate, but it is a gift. I have to choose to live without the fear of the future. What is God's Will is God's Will. I will not succumb to fear. Even Jesus said, again paraphrasing, "don't worry about tomorrow, there are enough problems today." I agree. Safe in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary!
Back in post #24 Padraig said: The readings at mass this last couple of weeks have been from the Prophets Amos and Isaiah. It just seemed to me that you could transcribe the Lords word from either of these great prophets to our present day exactly... I was actually moved to begin reading the whole Book of Amos and two passages impressed me deeply on how we might understand apparitions today. Here is the first from Chapter 7: 1 Thus the Lord GOD showed me: behold, he was forming locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and lo, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings. 2 When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said, "O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech thee! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!" 3 The LORD repented concerning this; "It shall not be," said the LORD. 4 Thus the Lord GOD showed me: behold, the Lord GOD was calling for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. 5 Then I said, "O Lord GOD, cease, I beseech thee! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!" 6 The LORD repented concerning this; "This also shall not be," said the Lord GOD. 7 He showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 And the LORD said to me, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said, "Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass by them; 9 the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jerobo'am with the sword." Notice how the Lord was attentive to Amos' petitions! Two judgments were curtailed because Amos stood in the gap for Israel. How attentive Our Father is to us when we approach Him as little children crying out on behalf of our loved ones and the world! The Lord will relent on His judgments if we ask in humble confidence! Yet mankind is free and if they remain obstinate in sin then judgment will ultimately come. I must be sure not to assume if and when that time will come, but leave it in God's hands! Confidence! Let us never cease to intercede unless the Lord tells us otherwise! Mercy, Lord, mercy! Safe in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary!
Yes Terry , the readings from the Prophets have me listening close at the moment. They seem to jump right out of the pages and bite. Today's reading from the prophet Micah, pointing towards coming famine is a case in point: Micah, chapter 6 « previous chapter | next chapter » 1* Hear, then, what the LORD says: Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice!a 2Hear, O mountains, the LORD’s case, pay attention, O foundations of the earth! For the LORD has a case against his people; he enters into trial with Israel. 3My people, what have I done to you? how have I wearied you? Answer me!b 4I brought you up from the land of Egypt, from the place of slavery I ransomed you; And I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.c 5* My people, remember what Moab’s King Balak planned, and how Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him. Recall the passage from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the just deeds of the LORD.d 6* With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow before God most high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?e 7Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with myriad streams of oil? * Shall I give my firstborn for my crime, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8* You have been told, O mortal, what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.f 9* The LORD cries aloud to the city (It is prudent to fear your name!): Hear, O tribe and city assembly, 10Am I to bear criminal hoarding and the accursed short ephah?* 11Shall I acquit crooked scales, bags of false weights? 12You whose wealthy are full of violence, whose inhabitants speak falsehood with deceitful tongues in their mouths! 13I have begun to strike you with devastation because of your sins. 14You shall eat, without being satisfied, food that will leave you empty; What you acquire, you cannot save; what you do save, I will deliver up to the sword.g 15You shall sow, yet not reap, tread out the olive, yet pour no oil, crush the grapes, yet drink no wine.h 16You have kept the decrees of Omri, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and you have walked in their counsels; Therefore I will deliver you up to ruin, and your citizens to derision; and you shall bear the reproach of the nations.
This thread has me so interested I went up to pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament for an hour yesterday..and promptly fell asleep for an hour.! Anyway the accumulated wisdom of my dozing is this. If we find musing on the Signs of the Times disrupts our spiritual lives causing us to loose peace then avoid them. So long as we fulfill all righteousness by converting, deepening in our prayer lives, attending the sacraments and fasting we are doing what Mary wants anyway. This particular Catholic internet site was set up by Our Blessed Lady with a particular spirituality that tends to centre on the Signs of the Times. This was because it is basically aimed at our sisters and brothers at a fture date when there will be great suffering and persecution to give them comfort and solace at that dark period. For myself reading the Signs of the Times does not produce any real lose of Peace. I am fascinated by prophecy and the supernatural. But if you do find some of the posts here causing you to loose peace a lot then I would really encourage you to think of going to one of the hundreds, thousands of other good Catholic sites on the web that leave the Signs of the Times well alone. I know this particular site is not for everyone.
I have been following this facinating discussion and I can agree with Rosebud in that it is very important to live in the now and leave tomorrow in the hands of God however I cannot ignore the tears of Our lady shed so much over this generation. I suppose the key is in the prophetic writings of Amos just quoted there by Mario. reading the signs of the times puts a grave responsibility on us to pray and intercede for our brothers and sisters who are in darkness that they will not be lost. We each have a mission as priest prophet and king and this is how we can excercise it by prayer, fasting and intercession. I think all Our ladys messages are calling us to take up this challenge and if we do then God will be merciful and many of the feared events being wrought by man on himself may be mitigated. Fear is always a waste of time and if we respond with prayer then fear is driven out. I think though so many people walking in darkness need to be shocked out of their complacency else they arrive a tthe gates of hell and wonder how they got there. Biblical revelation and prophesy in a way is fulfilled at a certain level for each generation.The early christians expected the return of Jesus and they experienced the fall of Babalyon when Jerusalem was laid waste in 70 ad. You could say the same revelations applied to the fall of the Roman empire and the sacking of Rome. I am sure those who directly experienced the 1st and 2nd world wars and the evil Nazi regime also felt this was the fall of babalyon. In a sence the prophesies are fulfilled to a degree for each generation. Evil grows in strength fed by the ever growing sinfulness of man. Grace is being poured out in greather strength also as we progress through history. Nobody knows when the final climax between good and evil will happen. We have to fight th good fight in our time here and we have been specially chosen and equipped to do so. Our lady is Queen of prophets and when you hear so much from her then you only conclude that we must be getting close to great climactic events. God bless mary
I often feel the amount of time we give to prophecies / warnings etc are a reflection of where we are at ourselves on our own spiritual journey. Jesus tells us not to be afraid, only trust in Him. At the end of the day that is what we will have to do, and the more time we occupy our minds with what may or may not happen, the less time we give to further development of our relationship with Jesus. " For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (mt 6:21) God Bless BC
I agree with that Border. Whatever today brings, i just have to get through it. I might not even be here tomorrow. Whatever comes God will get me through it. It is not for me to worry about the signs of the times though I know they are there. My mission is to help people to see God as He truly is. All love, All Mercy, All Compassion and All Truth. Our Loving Father, Our Loving Brother, and The Holy Spirit, our greatest friend who loves us like a Father and a Brother. Truly Amazing... So many bad things have happened in this world, there is so much brokenness, that it is hard for people to see God as He is anymore. They see Him as the Punisher, the Avenger. My mission is to help those people see Him as He really is. And to know if they are beaten, crushed, etc.. This was NOT His will. How do I know this? Because the ones that do these things to us are living outside His will. We each have a different mission, I am very careful to avoid talking about the times, the chastisement, etc. Broken people need to know of God's love. This (chastisements, warnings, etc) scares them away .. Others need to be warned, but that is where we need the gift of discernment.
Exactly why I joined Padraig because not everyone is interested in Biblical eschatology. The first time I held a Bible [a Gideon's New Teatament] in school as a teenager, I immediately turned to the last book - the Book of Revelation or Apocalypse I was hooked
I don't have a problem with the sign of the times, from as soon as i could read i dragged the family bible all around the house to read it, I could barely carry it, it was almost as big as me! My bible has become a part of me. I will talk about the sign of the times here, no problem, and to certain others that I know. But i don't discuss it everywhere. Mother Mary is very careful not to instill fear into people. She focuses so much on God's love and mercy today, as His love and Mercy and the love and mercy from one to another is greatly missing and very much needed. That isn't to say that the warnings etc aren't there. They are... Just our generation has had to deal with the fall out of the previous generations. At a time when the warnings were given, at Garabandal, free love was just beginning to take hold. Some "free love".. look where it has lead us to.
January 25th 2001 "Dear children! Today I call you to renew prayer and fasting with even greater enthusiasm until prayer becomes a joy for you. Little children, the one who prays is not afraid of the future and the one who fasts is not afraid of evil. Once again, I repeat to you: only through prayer and fasting also wars can be stopped -- wars of your unbelief and fear for the future. I am with you and am teaching you little children: your peace and hope are in God. That is why draw closer to God and put Him in the first place in your life. Thank you for having responded to my call."
