Part One https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByGhhrcN0HcyRFpQb0ZfUWpQTEk/edit Part Two https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByGhhrcN0HcyZXFLQnIzcWRteUE/edit Part Three https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByGhhrcN0Hcyekh2S0xlMXZzTlE/edit
Just listened to all 3 video's. Interesting, somewhat boring at times, but all in all worth a listen. Interestingly, he mentioned that he felt MDM was not sound, over a year ago, because of her belief that the Church would colapse (2 1/2 minutes into the 3rd talk).
Charlie is a professional writer. I love his writing style, so clear and lucid. I also think his personality is very deceptive. He is a very,very clever man indeed while on the surface he seems wonderfully simple in a very good way. I enjoyed the videos quite a lot, he teaches things with his little stories. I hope to meet him someday. I wish his verbal presentation was a bit more systematic and did not wander about so much. But verbal presentation , it's true, is not his Forte. He is a very,very fine writer though. ...and clearly a saint. I am really going to devour all his output.
What I got most out of the video was his comments about MDM and those who think Pope Francis is the anti-pope. His affable demeanor changed and he became fierce defending Peter and the Church. This was his first talk, and first recording. I think his delivery was affected by internal guarding; wanting to share his message while trying to make sure he wouldn't be misunderstood or say more than he meant to.
He also states in another post that he feels he can tell the true voice of Mary in others messages and those which don't sound like the way she talks. He stated he feels that three ring true to him - Mirjana from Medjugorje, Mark Mallett (tho he doesn't state locutions etc) ,and Vassula Ryden. He also stated he feels Garabandal is true.
I agree Padraig- of the three she is the one I can't jump on board with- just a gut interior feeling I get from her and her messages that doesn't leave me peace-but that is only a personal opinion- I pray for all who are true speakers of Mary's messages-
Yes she makes me uneasy, I just can't help it. Also I am uneasy about a visionary who so actively defends herself. Then again you could argue, 'Well why not?' But since so many good and holy people support her all out... I have not studied up enough I must try and take the time, but there are so many people with messages, thousands and thousands. Who has the time? I am only really going on gut instinct, like yourself, we may well be wrong, but then again, Charity, we may both be right I am always a little nervous of throwing stones at a real prophet though. I honestly can't say for sure.
Hi folks. That video was of my first public talk on this subject - and yes, I did meander quite a bit. I am amused at the criticisms of my speaking style (with which I completely agree) - largely because doing politics I was one of the most popular speaker in the Midwest. I have never been comfortable speaking publicly about these things and my first effort showed it. That's good. Any of who visit with me will be pleasantly surprised (from the old days in politics, always good to lower expectations). I have to amend something I said. There were reasons I said it at the time, but it was a mistake. I think Vasula Ryden is a nice lady who means well, but I do NOT believe her messages are of Divine origin. I don't find them particularly harmful right now, but my assessment of Vasula changed after I read a book by her rather than just a pamphlet with some things she said.
I am glad to hear this Charlie. I tried to read as much as I could of her writings but got so uneasy I had to stop. I don't condemn, but neither do I encourage.
I don't know much of Vassula but I echo what Charlie felt about MDM. I started reading her messages last April which is the same time I found this message board. I read pretty much all of them because I had learned about the Garabandal and the Warning and did an internet search and found MDM and this board. It did not take long in reading, maybe a month tops and they just did not sit well with me and I was gone from them quickly. Thankfully I did not feel that way about this board and after I think 7 attempts to join and Padraig thinking I was spam ha ha, I finally got added to this wonderful little board last fall.
I have compassion and sympathy for misguided souls who mean well and get overexcited, though it worries me, for satan can use such for his purposes in time. I have NO patience for any who are obviously trying to delude the faithful and pull them away from the Church. I know I get visibly angry at such, but they are the serial killers of souls and are worthy of nothing but contempt. One of my priests sends me things from time to time to look at and get my take on. He sent me the first writings of MDM before I left on my pilgrimage, noting it seemed there was some good in them. They repulsed me from the start. I told him I thought she was trying to lay the groundwork to pull people away from the safety of the faith - and that I could feel the predator in her and that her writings smelled of sulfur. Satan is busy.
Hey Charlie... have been very interested in your writings. A few years back I took my whole family to to Colorado and we climbed the stairs of Mother Cabrini's shrine. I thought I was climbing to heaven with as many stairs as there were!! Beautiful place it is. Could you elaborate on a statement you made about the Christmas of 2013 being the 'last traditional Christmas'? Do you mean by this that you expect something global to take place before Christmas 2014? Thanks.
Hi, Charlie; So glad you've joined us. Your video reminded me of something that happened recently. I've given hundreds of talks to some very large audiences. But recently I was asked to tell my conversion story in a public setting. It stunned me how difficult this was - at one point I even made myself cry! Though I felt I performed very poorly, some ladies told me a few months later that my story stuck with them, and really touched them. So, I got a dose of humility, and the Lord got to use me. Win/win!
Funny you should say that, Kathy. Back when I was a radio talk show host, I also taught RCIA classes with a team at a large parish. I had a presentation to do on Mary and the saints. Well, not that I'm cocky or anything rolleyes, but I always approached my show from the standpoint that even with no guests or callers, I would compel listenership. (Yeah, it was cocky, but not unjustified. I had the highest ratings in the station by far - and in my last two years, in the hour I overlapped with Rush on a competing station, I beat him in our market). So I figured, I got this...I do it every day for a living. Well, when I began my presentation - which should have been an hour and a half - after ten minutes I (and everybody else) knew I was in the soup. It was a grind. I was sweating from my temples, just struggling. I persisted...you don't turn tail and run when you mess up: you endure. When it was over, I was as relieved as I had ever been - and ashamed and embarrassed. I decided right then and there I would make a planned 45-minute presentation for future years and leave the other 45 for questions and answers. I would never again leave the subject to chance. At the end of the year, we had given a survey to those who had been received at Easter on what was their favorite moment, what was their worst, how we could improve, you know the drill. My priest told me later, with a wicked grin, that my presentation had won by a wide margin for 'best' moment. I thought he was ribbing me, because it was terrible. Still grinning, he said no one disagreed - they all said it was terrible, but they were inspired that I pushed on even after it was clear that I was making a hash of it, particularly since it should have been in my wheelhouse. I learned then that, often, we do not inspire others nearly as much by our triumphs as we do by pressing on through our disasters with fortitude. I thought about it...we don't know if the centurion at the foot of the Cross knew much about how Jesus lived. It was seeing how He died that convinced the centurion that "Surely, this was the Son of God." So I pray that I always handle my disasters with fortitude - that they may serve to give another hope. It had one more fruit. Over the next few years, my presentation grew so popular by word of mouth in the parish that we had to move to a bigger room when I gave it and give a little extra time for Q & A because regular parishioners started coming. At the last, we had over 150. So within the seeds of my thoughtless, arrogant disaster, God produced an abundance of fruit. It was not the way I would have orchestrated it, but it is more evidence that man's ways truly are not God's ways. So you press on and endure - and at the resurrection you will be shown how many souls drew life from your fidelity and fortitude.
I gave my first talk to a large prayer group of I suppose about a hundred people I would say about 30 years. It went very well with many epole in tears and a very large round of applause. I offered to give another talk the next week but my Spiritual Director refused , pointing out quite rightly that I was getting abig head and enjoying it too much, which was of course exactly right. So more talks for the next about 26 years. My next againby request did not go well I got lost and my tlk lasted about six minutes with me gogling open mouthed at audience like a gold fish and they staring back. So no more talks. I am agreat believer in waiting on God giving the tap on the shoulder. I suspect He has had enough of my shoulder in this matter and I can't blame Him. But like everything else it is on God's Hands. I may be the exception, Charlie but I quite enyoed that talk you gave. I by passed the way you gave it and listened to what you were saying. I learnt from it.
Because we watch so much video, we can think it's an easy thing to do. It's not. Over 20 years ago I was interviewed on a local T.V. program in west Texas. I wasn't stressed about it because it aired at 6 a.m. right after the farm and ranch report, so I was pretty sure no one would even see it. On the set, my chair was too tall, and it was pointed at a weird angle, so I was uncomfortable from the start. Then, right before we went on air, I had a horrible thought. One of my patients, who happened to be in denial about his terminal illness, watched the farm and ranch report religiously. "Raymond is going to see this!" So I had to talk about care for the dying without giving him a heart attack! Do you know how hard it is to talk about care of the dying without saying the "D" word? For months, everywhere I went, people would say, "Saw you on T.V." Then they'd shuffle away, avoiding eye contact. It was so bad my co-workers threatened to show it in a continuous loop at the Christmas party. I'll only go on T.V. again if God makes me. Even then, I'll beg for a stunt double.
I wonder how Jesus and His Mother would have looked on a video or a TV interview? Mother Teresa never had any coaching but she comes across so well. I wonder if they coach the Pope? I am sure they do. I think like Kathy I would try and avoid it. Or any publicity whatsoever.
Hello Charlie - have enjoyed getting to know your blog a little and am very glad that you're here on this Forum. Regarding the question of the authenticity of individual alleged visionaries such as Vassula Ryden (concerning whom the controversy will probably run and run, with opinions about her divided even within the Magisterium), my feeling is that we're now so deep into the 'endgame' in terms of world events long prophesied that we have to concentrate on the big picture. There is clearly a 'prophetic consensus' out there as to the broad outlines of what is upon us. At the time of the Warning/Illumination of Conscience, it won't matter very much whether folks started to prepare spiritually for it because of Garabandal/True Life in God/Sulema/Mark Mallett/La Fille du Oui/Luz de Maria Bonilla/Javier Viesca/Fr Adam Skwarczynski...[name your source]. As long as they're not all wrong, which I can't believe, we know what we have to do...
