Sunday, January 11, 2009

As the apostasy spreads, Churches across the Northeast continue to close...


"The great trial has arrived for your Church. How great is your responsibility, O Pastors of the Holy Church of God! You continue along the path of division from the Pope and of the rejection of his Magisterium; indeed, in a hidden way, there is in preparation a true schism which could soon become open and proclaimed...And then, there will remain only a small faithful remnant, over which I will keep watch in the garden of my Immaculate Heart.The great trial has arrived for all humanity. The chastisement, predicted by me at Fatima and contained in that part of the secret which has not yet been revealed, is about to take place. The great moment of divine justice and of mercy has come upon the world."

- Our Lady to Fr. Gobbi, Malvern Pennsylvania, 1990.

While I have struggled (to no avail, see here) in the past to get The Catholic Free Press to list a Marian Movement of Priests Cenacle in the Diocesan Calendar of Events (which to me, is odd), a Professor continues to teach at the College of the Holy Cross even though he is supportive of homosexuality and claims to be "married" to another man! *

Who is welcome and who is not? The MMP is fully loyal to the Magisterium of the Church. Members consecrate themselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and pledge full obedience and loyalty to the Magisterium.

* See here.
Our Lord Jesus to St. Faustina:

You will prepare the world for My final coming. (Diary 429)

Speak to the world about My mercy ... It is a sign for the end times. After it will come the Day of Justice. While there is still time, let them have recourse to the fountain of My mercy. (Diary 848)

Tell souls about this great mercy of Mine, because the awful day, the day of My justice, is near. (Diary 965).

I am prolonging the time of mercy for the sake of sinners. But woe to them if they do not recognize this time of My visitation. (Diary 1160)

Before the Day of Justice, I am sending the Day of Mercy. (Diary 1588)

He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice. (Diary 1146).

In addition to these words of Our Lord Sr. Faustina gives us the Words of the Mother of Mercy, the Blessed Virgin:

You have to speak to the world about His great mercy and prepare the world for the Second Coming of Him who will come, not as a merciful Savior, but as a just Judge. Oh how terrible is that day! Determined is the day of justice, the day of divine wrath. The angels tremble before it. Speak to souls about this great mercy while it is still the time for granting mercy. (Diary 635).

8 comments:

Michael Cole said...

The MMP has been blessed by Pope John Paul II and the book of messages has several Imprimaturs. The movement includes numerous priests, Bishops, Archbishops and Cardinals from around the world. Fr. Gobbi concelebrated Holy Mass with Pope John Paul II on many occasions. But even if you don't personally believe in the messages from Our Lady to Fathe Stefano Gobbi, one must recall the words of Pope Urban VIII:

"In cases which concern private revelations, it is better to believe than not to believe, for, if you believe, and it is proven true, you will be happy that you have believed, because our Holy Mother asked it. If you believe, and it should be proven false, you will receive all blessings as if it had been true, because you believed it to be true."(Pope Urban VIII, 1623-44)

We have seen prophecies from Our Lady to Father Gobbi being fulfilled. For example, Our Lady told this holy priest about America succumbing to poverty and weakness. Back in 1990, that may have seemed unrealistic to most. How about now?

Our Lady warned of apostasy and people leaving the Church. Again, we are seeing the fulfillment of this prophecy.

While we are not required to accept private revelations such as Fatima, still, it is often foolish not to. Especially when they have been approved by the Church or if they still haven't received official approval we see positive fruits and fulfilled prophecies.

To me it's utterly strange how some Catholics find it hard to accept private revelations ike those to Father Gobbi but have no problem with professors like Nickoloff promoting homosexuality and same-sex "marriage."

Anonymous said...

Another sign of the times:

Beyond the veil: Debate continues on why number of nuns is declining


By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Statistics leave no doubt that the number of women religious has dropped sharply over the last 50 years, but there is an ongoing debate over the reasons for the decline.

The question surfaced recently when L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, asked one priest to review another priest's book about the phenomenon.

Italian Claretian Father Angelo Pardilla, author of "Religious Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow," said the principal cause for the decline was that many religious misunderstood the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and lost a sense of their identity.

He cited as proof the fact that the number of vowed religious -- both men and women -- has dropped sharply since Vatican II, except in the contemplative orders that still wear habits and live with a regimented community life.

But Father Giancarlo Rocca, a scholar of the history of religious orders, questioned Father Pardilla's thesis in the review he wrote for the Vatican newspaper.

Father Rocca agreed with Father Pardilla that factors contributing to the decline include materialism, secularism, the anti-authority movement of the late 1960s and declining family size.

But he said a misreading of the Second Vatican Council could not be the prime culprit, because in many places the numbers began to drop in the 1930s, long before the council opened in 1962.

For Father Rocca, the key is the emancipation of women.

Previously, he said, the socially approved options for women were either to marry and have children or join a religious order. He said it was no surprise that the orders hardest hit were those founded to teach or to nurse -- two professions previously open only to unmarried women.

Sister Carol Regan, the superior general of the Holy Union of the Sacred Hearts and a member of the executive council of the International Union of Superiors General, said, "It is too facile to attribute it (falling numbers) solely to a misreading of Vatican II."

For the Holy Union, which was particularly strong in France and Belgium, "the drop-off of new entrants began in the 1950s, perhaps even the late 1940s, in other words, after World War II with all the horror that brought to continental Europe," she said. The women's movement and the broader choices it gave women also obviously contributed to changed attitudes about religious life, she said.

Sister Regan said her order has about half the members it had in 1965, but is growing in Africa, especially in Cameroon and Tanzania.

"Our congregation leadership will come soon, very soon, from the Southern Hemisphere and all of us have to be prepared to welcome that," she said.

The shift also poses financial challenges, Sister Regan said, because the growth is taking place in parts of the world where resources are lacking.

"Naturally, there is sadness where diminishment is sharpest, excitement where growth is clear and evident," she said.

Sister Christine Anderson, a Scottish member of the Faithful Companions of Jesus, runs a leadership program in Rome for religious superiors and members of general councils, and has facilitated dozens of meetings of religious orders of men and women.

She described as "rubbish" the idea that religious do not know who they are today.

"I think those who hung in there in religious life know why they are there," she said. "The doors are wide open and they can walk out. Either you say they hung in because they are too scared to move -- and that could be true in a few cases -- but the majority have hung in because they are on this love quest," a quest to find God and give themselves completely to him by serving the church and the poor.

The sisters may not be wearing a habit, but things have not changed as much as many people think, Sister Anderson said.

"People joined religious life because they were caught by God; they were grasped by God; they were seeking God in their own lives," she said.

The seeking continues through hours of solitary prayer, reciting the Liturgy of the Hours together, going to daily Mass, making an annual retreat and carrying out their work as a service to God and to others, she said.

If there is any confusion over the identity of religious, it exists among laypeople, Sister Anderson said, admitting that religious have had a difficult time explaining who they are in a language people today understand.

From her work with the leaders of religious orders grappling with the future, Sister Anderson said the most common attitude she sees is "outrageous hope."

"They have an ability to live with uncertainty. Like Abraham, they have set out and they do not know exactly where they are going, but there is this sense of faith and hope that God is with us and God will be faithful," she said.

Anonymous said...

Right Michael. And if you have trouble accepting the validity of Our Lady's messages to Fr. Gobbi, you definitely shouldn't have a problem with the Divine Mercy private revelations. Those have been formally approved by the Church. And the core message is the same.

Anonymous said...

"Tell souls about this great mercy of Mine, because the awful day, the day of My justice, is near." Those words are sobering. It is unwise to ignore them. Unfortunately, so many souls are doing just that. Shopping malls are packed while churches empty. People will stand in line for movie tickets or tickets to a sporting event or concert. What they refuse to do is stand in line for Confession.

The Hour of Mercy is fading. Enter into His Mercy now. Don't put it off. It's too important.

Anonymous said...

A marian Catholic can always expect even other Catholics" to hate him or her. They hate us because they have no devotion to Our Lady or very little real love for her.

Sanctus Belle said...

Think about this - if angels tremble before the Judgement of the Lord, the day of Divine Wrath, how much more ought we to tremble and wail, we who have sin and continue to sin. Angels who have no sin tremble....and we just laugh and go out to eat, fill our faces with chips while we watch TV on Sunday instead of going to Mass or sleep in. How we should tremble!

Anonymous said...

When i read revelations and messages about the end times all my dream and plan vanishes. Our time is strange, the global crisis and especially the unpredictable weather. I am always afraid of bad weather.I could imagine the dark days are getting nearer. The great darkness that will come upon the world. The time for the cleansing of all humanity.

Paul Anthony Melanson said...

As I wrote in a previous post several years ago:


When Jesus began His public ministry, He did so with the word "repent" (Matthew 4:17). And He advised the woman caught in adultery to "sin no more" (John 8:11). Likewise, in the case of the man cured at the Pool of Bethesda, Jesus advised him to "sin no more lest something worse befall thee" (John 5:14).When queried on the subject of how many would be saved, Jesus replied "few" because the "gate" to Heaven is "narrow" (Matthew 7:13-14). And while no one can pinpoint the precise meaning of the word "few," still, it is sobering that Jesus chose the image of a narrow gate.

Jesus is likened in the gospel to a stern master who has lazy servants flogged and murderous ones put to death (Matthew 21:41; Luke 12:47). And while it is true that Jesus is Mercy, He is also Justice. And for every parable illustrative of His mercy, there are three or four threatening divine retribution.

The Judgment Day is always described as a day of wrath and never as a day of rejoicing (Proverbs 11:4; Zephaniah 1:15; Sirach 5:10; Romans 2:5; Revelation 6:17). Why is this? If everyone (or even a large segment of mankind) is headed for Heaven, why does Sacred Scripture refer to the Judgment Day as a day of wrath?

The smug, self-satisfied "we-are-all-saved-already" attitude found in so many Catholic parishes is the result of the sin of presumption. Because there are priests who are betraying Jesus by refusing to preach on the reality of sin and the reality of Hell, a spiritual dry-rot has infected much of the Church. This is why nearly everyone receives Holy Communion at Mass but nearly no one goes to Confession.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church has this to say about presumption: "There are two kinds of presumption. Either man presumes upon his own capacities, (hoping to be able to save himself without help from on high), or he presumes upon God's almighty power or his mercy (hoping to obtain his forgiveness without conversion and glory without merit)." (CCC, 2092).

The words of Sacred Scripture remind us that such an attitude is very, very wrong: "Of forgiveness be not overconfident, adding sin upon sin. Say not:' Great is his mercy; my many sins he will forgive.' For mercy and anger alike are with him; upon the wicked alights his wrath." (Sirach 5:5-7).

If we are living a sacramental life, confessing our sins and receiving Jesus in the Eucharist as often as possible (at the very least on Sundays and Holy Days, which is our obligation) while praying each day for His grace and mercy, we have nothing to worry about. This isn't presumption. This is confidence in God's mercy as we strive every day to conform our will to His divine will. But God will not be mocked. He can neither deceive nor be deceived.

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