I just had my ancestry DNA done....It came back 99.9 percent Northern European and that being mostly Celtic/Briton.... I have a sharp tongue and have worked to bite on it for the past 15 years....my new question to myself is, what is my part in this conflict? That is always helpful as I always have an MO.....Charlie has a great new piece on his blog today....so much to ponder. God Bless my friends!
Charlie's new piece is truly amazing- we really have accepted at least in the US a "new normal"- sometimes I feel such cognitive dissonance between what I know to be true and what our culture and news is telling us. I experience this even in my own family with my children as they have bought into many secular beliefs. I will be sharing Charlie's piece with my husband.
I too am working on putting a guard on my mouth- even if what I say is not sin all the time, I talk way too much about myself and express my opinions way too often! I need to be like Mary and just keep pondering- my Magnificat moments should be few and targeted and should be for praising God and encouraging others. Part of the problem is I work as a consultant and am paid for my opinions- working on keeping the talents God gave me in the work arena from spilling over into my having to talk to everyone about everything!
"I have refrained from writing of late largely because I am trying to figure out how to convey the urgency that is already upon us. I’m stupid in many ways. It frankly surprised me that anyone would argue that this Christmas was culturally traditional in any sense. I am working to try to convey better what these things mean…but for heaven’s sake, if you have to have a smoldering meteor in your living room to think anything is really wrong at all, I don’t know how to get the message across. It truly is the last hour. And if somebody notes, an hour after this is posted, that we are all still here, I am going to scream. May we all get up on our hind legs and behave like men and women of the Most High God, men and women who were chosen to be the signs of hope that would reclaim His people in these times. Remember that God chose you to live in these historic times. Stand your post and justify His confidence in you." C.J.
When Charlie wrote on the 2013 'last normal Christmas' blog, I must have said something to my 28 year old daughter. She reminded me this Christmas of Charlie's words. What could I say? Had Charlie, said all of what he said in his latest blog a year ago to qualify his statement, (using detail after detail of what went or was to go wrong in 2014), there would not be a discussion. However, he did not. Any one of us could have gone back to any year in the past 10 years and found a whole bunch of bad things that happened in the world, but it would not have changed how we celebrate Christmas. Yes it has gotten progressively worse each year over the past decade or more. Thing is, I don't think anyone who read his original 'prophetic' statement that 'this would be the last normal Christmas' concluded then that what he really meant was that there would mearly be an increase of worldly evil. Anyone who studies prophecy kows this to be true already. I am not a prophet. I have not had locutions, messages, visions etc.., But when someone who has makes a fairly prophetic prounouncement like he did about last Christmas, it sticks. I like Charlie and his blogs. He's a good man. I am not sure why he used the word 'last normal Christmas' when describing the year 2014 leading up to Christmas. At least for myself and my oldest daughter, we took it at face value and felt he was saying that the next Christmas would be a sort of 'underground Christmas' or a Christmas in the shadows, perhaps because of political and/or social uprising against Christianity. Guess I read it completly wrong over a year ago.
I'm thinking that the prophecy we hear, if it's true, and what actually plays out, are often very different from our expectations. Perhaps we speculate too much and are disappointed when what we imagined doesn't happen.
Things are falling apart before our very eyes. I will give you 2 local examples and I could cite many, many more: these little signs are everywhere. The government here in the north of Ireland cannot afford to replace broken bulbs in the street lights - there are currently 20,000 street lights not working and these will not be replaced anytime soon. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-30721498 Our health care system is near virtual collapse 'pressures like never' before says one trust director. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-30707064 The West is getting weaker by the minute - the foundations are undermined and it will not take much to collapse a lot of the systems we take for granted. We are living on borrowed time!
I also believe the Muslim attacks (as we saw in Paris yesterday) will increase worldwide and cause mayhem and fear.
Yes fear will embolden the enemy to act more. Any fighter knows the smell of blood makes the enemy more vicious for the kill. Yet, here in the USA most are as clueless as they were at birth, especially the youth. They are so into their cell phones and selfies that they can't even smell evil, unless it was someone who sent a nasty gramm on their i-phone. Yes, many will be taken by complete suprise when their electronic world evaporates around them. Then what to they have...what do they do.... to whom do they go? Pray, pray, pray.
Most have read Ralph Martin's prophecy at Rome, but it is coming to frutition very quickly: PROPHECIES GIVEN AT ST. PETER’S BASILICA DURING THE CLOSING EUCHARIST ON PENTECOST MONDAY—MAY 1975 "Because I love you, I want to show you what I am doing in the world today. I want to prepare you for what is to come. Days of darkness are coming on the world, days of tribulation….Buildings that are now standing will not be standing. Supports that are there for my people now will not be there. I want you to be prepared, my people, to know only me and to cleave to me and to have me in a way deeper than ever before. I will lead you into the desert…I will strip you of everything that you are depending on now, so you depend just on me. A time of darkness is coming on the world, but a time of glory is coming for my church, a time of glory is coming for my people. I will pour out on you all the gifts of my spirit. I will prepare you for spiritual combat; I will prepare you for a time of evangelism that the world has never seen…. And when you have nothing but me, you will have everything: land, fields, homes, and brothers and sisters and love and joy and peace more than ever before. Be ready, my people, I want to prepare you…" (given by Ralph Martin) "I speak to you of the dawn of a ‘new age’ for my church. I speak to you of a day that has not been seen before….Prepare yourselves for the action that I begin now, because things that you see around you will change; the combat that you must enter now is different; it is new. You need wisdom from me that you do not yet have. You need the power of my Holy Spirit in a way that you nave not possessed it; you need an understanding of my will and of the ways that I work that you do not yet have. Open your eyes, open your hearts to prepare yourselves for me and for the day that I have now begun. My church will be different; my people will be different; difficulties and trials will come upon you. The comfort that you know now will be far from you, but the comfort that you will have is the comfort of my Holy Spirit. They will send for you, to take your life, but I will support you. Come to me. Band yourselves together, around me. Prepare, for I proclaim a new day, a day of victory and of triumph for your God. Behold, it is begun." (given by Bruce Yocum) "…I will renew my church. I will renew my people. I will make my people one. I am calling you to turn away from the pleasures of the world. I am calling you to turn away from the desires of the world. I am calling you to turn away from seeking the approval of the world in your lives. I want to transform your lives….I have a word for my church. I am sounding my call. I am forming a mighty army….My power is upon them. They will follow my chosen shepherd(s)…. Be the shepherds I have called you to be….I am renewing my people. I will renew my church. I will free the world."
As it is -1F today with the wind chill of -24F in Cinccinnati all I can think of is this: [16] Then they that are in Judea, let them flee to the mountains: [17] And he that is on the housetop, let him not come down to take any thing out of his house: [18] And he that is in the field, let him not go back to take his coat. [19] And woe to them that are with child, and that give suck in those days. [20] But pray that your flight be not in the winter, or on the sabbath.
I'm like you. I'm such a literal person. I'm expecting one event that changes the entire world. Or at least that's how I took it. I'm glad in a way that I read it wrong and got to appreciate another Christmas with loved ones going to Mass and being still greatful that I'm here. But maybe it's more like the analogy of "if you put a frog in boiling water he'll jump out" but "if you put him in the pot and slowly boil him he won't move and will just boil to death". We're the frogs in a pot that's on the verge of boiling but we've been sitting there a long time so we don't notice it so much. God Bless!
Just a thought everyone...perhaps the climate encyclical will pave the way for Truth to be proclaimed on how God wants us to be good stewards of the earth's resources- a sort of guideline, if you will. As the evil one's agenda may include having people worship mother nature in one form or another to bring souls closer to worshipping him, I would not think it a stretch that Pope Francis will illuminate how we as christians should view climate change, etc. to "pre-empt" the satan's coming deceptive in-gathering. I also know that Pope Benedict prophecies a smaller, simpler yet more spiritual church http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/e...nedetto-xvi-benedict-xvi-benedicto-xvi-22434/ so I am thinking that we should expect and not be surprised at the restructuring going on, sad as it seems, Our Lord may say it is necessary because all these materialistic trappings have been part of why His bride, the Church has been lured away from Him. It is afterall, His Church and He knows what is best, painful as it is for us, just as outside His church must also be cleansed- purified. So sorry, CrewDog, I commiserate with you, I just see it from a slightly different perspective.
I totally agree, Lifesong, that now is the time to immerse ourselves in God's Word, praising Him and giving thanks for Everything! I feel that when tribulation is at our own doors that finding those people, things, or events in which we can give praise & thanks to will be critical for us to be able to maintain hope(along with a healthy dose of supernatural hope as needed).
I love that mental picture of choking down a dirt sandwich!!!Too funny because for a lot of us it is so true! Although I am not particularly witty or clever, I do have a temper, and whatever I am thinking will slip right out of my mouth. I just bought a little book on my way out of town for the HolyDays called Taming Your Tongue by Deborah Smith Pegues. Haven't started on it yet because I know it will involve HOMEWORK! But it is the new year, resolutions and all, so I will bite the bullet soon and begin practicing
