I love this insight Bernadette, and I am reminded of Gideon's defeat of Midian in Judges 7. His army started with tens of thousands and God told him to reduce it to a mere 300. "You have too many soldiers with you for me to deliver Midian into their power, lest Israel vaunt itself against me and say, “My own power saved me.” I am beginning to feel like that in my own personal life. I am feeling the crushing weight of my own spiritual poverty more and more, lest my prayers, fastings and vigils give me the sense that it is my own spiritual strength which will buoy me up in the days ahead, instead of the hand of God and the two hearts. Of course the practices are essential but it is God who saves, it is the Immaculate Heart who is our ark, not our firm grip on a daily horarium! Christ's peace to all- Mark
I'm preparing to teach a class in Catholic Eschatology at my parish this fall. In preparing for this class I've run into so many links that I never suspected before. Most recently, after following a link trail down the rabbit hole, I emerged with an explanation of something that always confused me: Daniel 11:37 -- He will show no regard for the gods of his ancestors or for the one desired by women, nor will he regard any god, but will exalt himself above them all. I could never understand the reference to "the god desired by women", then came across this link to Ezekiel 8:14 -- "He brought me to the north gate of the LORD's Temple, and some women were sitting there, weeping for the god Tammuz." Long story short, Tammuz was Babylonian agricultural and FERTILITY god, who would go to the underworld every 6 months as part of a deal to trade places with his wife for that period. The women desired the blessing of Tammuz and the women are weeping for the loss of fertility his death symbolizes. They are partaking in a pagan ritual inside the Lord's Temple. Per the US CDC, "(A)bout 12% of women 15–44 years of age in the United States have difficulty getting pregnant or carrying a pregnancy to term, regardless of marital status." Due to complications in various forms of birth control and the increase in STDs in women, this number has increased greatly in the past 10 years. I can't help but wonder if this is a warning for our generation, of women who instead of turning to the Lord and repenting their actions that caused the infertility, instead turn to different occult or magikal (i.e., demonic) methods to fix their infertility. Ba'al/Moloch/Astoreth (in the female form) were all Canaanite gods that were fertility gods who required the sacrifice of children to ensure the fertility of the land and thus the people. (Canaanites regarded rain as Ba'al's ejaculate, showing his pleasure with the sacrifices.) In California, I'm surprised we haven't seen the rise and growth of "Astoreth Women's Health Clinics" providing free or low-cost abortion services. Since the aborted children are considered medical waste, the remnants are to be burned. Thus we have the sacrifice and burning of the sacrifice. All we need is a priest or priestess to offer the right prayers while working at the incinerator and we have the re-institution of human sacrifices. We now return you to your regularly scheduled nightmares.
'Fraid so. I'm in Iowa, right where the Mississippi River meets the border of Wisconsin and Illinois. My mind unfortunately is a bit focused on the coming chastisement of the USA.
Muzhik, were in Iowa did you find a Church that would support you in any discussion of end-times or orthodox teachings of any sort? I lived in NW Iowa, Muscatine and Iowa City and have been to the Dubuque and Davenport dioceses and found very little support in the bishops or priests for orthodoxy.
Actually, I'm in Dubuque, having moved up here from Iowa City. When I was in Iowa City, I went to the Catholic Student Center and went to St. Mary's down the street for confession. Confession would start at 9AM Saturday morning and continue until 10:30, or whenever the line ended. Sometimes both confessionals were being used. If I couldn't make it then, I'd go across town to St. Wenceslaus from 3 until 3:40, when father had to get ready for 4PM Mass. If I didn't get there by 2:30 I couldn't be guaranteed I'd get in to see the priest. Imagine my dismay when I moved to the seat of the diocese and found that in some places I had to ask where the confessional was, because it wasn't marked and there was no line, and when I started with my current church priests frequently wouldn't be there at the scheduled times because no one ever showed up. That has changed somewhat, but I'm dismayed that no one seems to be bringing their kids to confession. I think the difference is that there was a fairly strong anti-Catholic sentiment in Iowa City. Fidelity was the way to fight back. The priests serving the Catholic Student Center also seemed open to End-Times stuff, as well as charismatic gifts. I was able to get permission at my current church (or will be as soon as I get the syllabus done and approved) because a) the deacon who alway pooh-poohed my eschatology stuff is sick and will be leaving soon, and b) we got a new priest fresh from the seminary who is open to this type of stuff. BTW, I grew up in NW Iowa. Can't speak for what's going on now, but my parish was fairly orthodox.
I'm afraid not. I wasn't "into" Perpetual Adoration at the time. Are you talking about before or after St. Pats was destroyed in the tornado?
Before the Church was destroyed by the tornado, I was active in the Apostolate for Family C0nsecration. One of the video's we discussed was a priest who started perpetual adoration chapels around the world. His name is Father Martin Lucia. I asked our priest if I could bring him to St. Patrick's to start a perpetual adoration chapel in the basement of the rectory. I remodeled and area in the 'walk in' basement and on January 14th, 1986 we had Father Martin speak to all the Masses about 24/7/365 Eucharistic adoration and it began. When the Church was destroyed (about 10 or so years later) a new one was built on the NE side of town and they built a beautiful chapel in the back of the altar to continue this devotion. I moved out of Iowa City in October of 1989, but am so happy to see this devotion still taking place in the heart of liberalism at the University of Iowa.
I think you're getting your churches mixed up. St. Thomas More moved to a location north of the interstate, almost to the border between North Liberty and Coralville. I did attend that church once before it was completed. I don't know why, but it just didn't feel right, and I never went there again. St. Pats moved to a new location on the SE side of town, and it looks very nice (although I never had the opportunity to attend Mass there.) I suppose with your remodelling we have you to thank for saving all those lives.
In 1990 a friend went into the Perpetual Adoration Chapel (about a 12' x 15' room) for a visit with his wife. Upon entering the chapel Augie went and knelt down in front of our Eucharistic Lord (about 3' away from the monstrance). His wife sat in the back next to the lady who's holy hour it was. After several minutes Augie got up and mentioned to his wife he would wait for her in the car. After he left the lady turned to his wife and said, "did you see what just happened"? His wife, Barb said, "what"? Did you see what happened to that man? Then she told his wife that the moment he knelt down, golden rays came out of the Eucharist and upon his shoulder and down his back and remained there for the time he knelt. When he got up the golden rays went back into the Eucharist. Augie had been diagnosed at the University of Iowa Hospital to have cancer in his shoulder, which had already entered his bone marrow. When Barb had heard what this lady told her, she told Augie the story and convinced him to have it x-rayed again, as he was do for surgery in a few days. He did so and it was confirmed again that the cancer was still present. Upon going into surgery a week later, the surgeon opened up his shoulder and found no cancer.
1/3 sided with God 1/3 sided with satan 1/3 sat on the fence. The 1/3 that sat on the fence, waiting to see the victor, were expelled to hell along with the 1/3 that sided with satan. So 2/3 of the angels are in hell. We do have the best odds as we are with God. The Blessed Mother is our refuge and our hope. The Holy Spirit is our Strength.
Josephite, I have never heard this interpretation. Could you cite where you are finding this information. I have never heard of angels "sitting on the fence" during the rebellion of the angels.
I have never heard of this either.....about 1/3 on the fence. I think they made an immediate choice knowing the consequences.
I have been searching to find the source of this information but have not been able to find it. I’ve also questioned my mum. As I cannot find a reliable source I believe I am wrong. I have been praying asking God to direct me to where this information came from. The only thing that comes to my mind and to mums mind is attending a retreat many years ago at the star of the sea convent in Yamba Australia the nuns had invited a very Holy man, ‘A Marist Brother I believe’, to give talks on the mission of lay Catholics in the world. This may or may not be where this information came from. At one part of his discourse the Brother stated that if we truly love God than we are to truly stand for God and for our faith and that we are not to be lukewarm, or in a state of neither here nor there, sitting on the fence so to speak as this is an affront to God. I believe he compared it to the 1/3 of the Angels that did not follow satan, and the third that did not follow God, but rather the other third of angels that decided to wait out the battle, to see whether good or evil won in the end. However he said that these angels are also condemned as they are neither hot nor cold, neither here nor there and are only looking after their own interests. I suspect now that he was using this as, a fictitious analogy to stress the point that indifference to God and being lukewarm is despicable to God for He would prefer that we be either hot or cold. Revelation 3:15-16 “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. I will however keep searching for this information as it made sense to me at the time.
