"'And a great sign appeared in heaven,' wrote St. John in the twelfth chapter of his Apocalypse. 'A woman clothed in the sun, and the moon under her feet, having on her head a crown of twelve stars...and I heard a voice in heaven saying: Now is come salvation and strength and the kingdom of God and the power of His Christ.....And another sign was seen in the heaven, and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his head seven diadems. And his tail was dragging along the third part of the stars of heaven and he dashed them to the earth.'
Most Scripture scholars agree that the sign of the Woman in heaven has a double symbolism, referring to Mary and to the Church. The sign of the red dragon and the beast, who comes up from the abyss to wage war against the camp of the saints, refers to Satan and the Antichrist. Earlier in chapter nine, St. John depicts the confusion and division, through heresy and schism, that these two agents of evil will bring upon the Church and the whole world in the last days.
Once again it is profitable to apply St. John's vision of falling stars, but this time with special application to the relationship between Mary and her priests. In her many apparitions Mary constantly requests prayers, reparation and compensation for the sins of priests. As the most valiant of all women, indeed, of all saints, she wants to bestow on all who have been ordained into the holy priesthood of her Son a high degree of her own heroic faith, fidelity and zeal. For she knows how necessary these virtues are for priests if they are to dedicate their lives wholeheartedly to attaining the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Mary knows, too, that priests are the special target of Satan's malice who would destroy her Son's Church through the corruption of His priests. St. John, using striking dramatic metaphors, reveals the destructive tactics of Satan and the Antichrist.
'And I saw a star which had fallen from heaven to the earth, and there was given to him the key of the bottomless pit, and there went up from the pit a smoke like that of a furnace; and the sun was darkened and the air, by reason of the smoke of the pit. And out of the smoke locusts went forth upon the earth and they were told...to harm only such men as have not the seal of God upon their forehead.'
Now in prophetic symbolism falling stars almost always refer to tepid, weak or apostate bishops and priests who are harbingers of grief and disaster to the whole world. The key to the shaft of the abyss is an emblem of their apostasy. Such traitorous religious leaders and teachers ally themselves with the rebellious angels. Instead of using the keys of the kingdom of God, which they have received from the Church through their priesthood and the mission of teaching the Gospel so as to suppress and defeat the satanic forces incarnate in wicked men while advancing the holiness of the faithful, they rather abuse their powers to foster and propagate error and evil. They opt to open the abyss and let loose upon the earth the plagues of darkness and wickedness.
Today too many fallen stars - rebellious bishops, priests, theologians, philosophers, nuns and Catholic intellectuals - are abusing their sacerdotal powers and intellectual gifts to seduce, enslave and precipitate into hell vast numbers of wayward sheep. Out of the darkness of the pit they have loosed the forces of error, evil and scandal. The smoke streaming from the pit darkens the sun of Christ's truth and obliterates the splendour of His holiness; it infects the air with decadent, immoral odors. Everything is cast into confusion; gloom infests the world of religion and reason; grace, the life-giving oxygen of the soul and body, is strangled out of the supernatural organisms of the children of God. Moreover, the darkening sun and sky betoken the eclipse of the Teaching Authority of the Church, the lowering of men's respect and love for her, their loss of reverence for her Master and the demeaning of both Christ and His Church to the level of being mere natural, defective organs of society lusting after domination over men's souls and bodies through the accumulation of material riches and political power.." (Fr. Vincent P. Miceli, S.J., The Antichrist: Has he lauched his final campaign against the Savior?", pp. 260-261).
More than ever today, we need to pray for Christ's priests. This is not a time to engage in anti-clericalism. Faithful priests need our support. They need our prayers. We are now facing the final confrontation between two camps: the one belonging to Our Lord Jesus and His Mother and the other to Satan and the Antichrist.
Pray and offer reparation. Offer your Holy Mass and your Holy Rosary every day not only for your own spiritual needs but for priests.
Related reading here.
14 comments:
A sobering warning from a priest I greatly admire:
"A moral degradation precedes social and political degradation… The social crisis happens when we elect people to rule over us who are immoral. That is not an isolated incident anymore. We have immoral activists at every branch of government and everywhere we turn around the pagans are in charge of our institutions… We’ve got a serious crisis on the horizon. I’m not a prophet of doom but I don’t see this going any other way but a serious political crisis that’s going to affect the globe." - Fr. Thomas Euteneuer, Interview in Rome, January 6th, 2010, LifeSiteNews.com.
I've been saying this for some 20 years now.
Pray.
More and more signs are manifesting in the weather and with various natural disasters. Earthquakes especially are increasing. And, after a brutal winter, another huge storm is blasting the Northeast:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100314/ap_on_re_us/us_stormy_weather_10
The time of mercy is coming to an end people. Our Lord said this would happen. It has been prophesied. We have to stop pretending that it's not happening and avail ourselves of the sacraments. We need to step up our prayers.
Expect the Church to enter her period of Calvary. The persecution will turn violent as people turn on Christ and His followers.
The world wants to be seduced.
Bishop McManus told the Sentinel & Enterprise that "people's social attitudes may put astrain on their desire to be active in a church that continues to take a conservative stance on hot-button issues." He was referring to same-sex "marriage," abortion and contraception. See here:
http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/tablehome/ci_14674158
In other words, churches are emptying because the Church remains faithful to the mind of Christ.
Why would the Bishop refer to the Church's teaching as a "conservative stance"? Does the Bishop view the Church as merely a political organization defending a "stance"?
Are political labels appropriate within the Church?
The Church isn't defending a "conservative stance." She defends the truth handed down by God in both Revelation and Tradition.
Shame on Bishop McManus. Small wonder there is so much confusion in Worcester.
The rush is on to attack the Pope and undermine his authority. The forces of masonry desire to use the recent scandals as a vehicle for destroying the Church's credibility and welcoming the Man of Sin.
Go here:
http://the-american-catholic.com/2010/03/13/our-german-shepherd-under-attack/
Betty, I submitted a letter to the editor of the Sentinel & Enterprise via email on Monday, March 8th at 10:18 AM which included my name, address and phone number. Three days later, on March 11th at 10:40 AM, I received an email from Mr. Jeff McMenemy in which he asked, "Could you put your name, address and contact information in here." That same day, I once again sent the paper my contact information.
The letter still has not been published - six days after I submitted it. I have the emails to corroborate all of this.
Why is it that the Sentinel & Enterprise will quickly publish certain views while others apparently will not see the light of day?
What do you think?
In The Charitable Anathema, Dr. Hildebrand explains that "..there are prelates who have not only lost their faith but who remain in the Church in order to destroy it...to lose the faith and remain in the Church, there must be some reason for that. They use the slogan 'progress' as a means to camouflage their diabolical work of destruction and to fool the faithful, in order to draw them away from Christ and His Holy Church. They are real servants of the anti-Christ."
And so we have a diocesan newspaper which promotes the idea that moral opposition to homosexuality constitutes "homophobia"; a women's commission which promotes a New Age ideology and a "Catholic" Religious who exhorts others to stretch themselves beyond their heterosexuality; and we have a bishop who tolerates dissent while referring to the Church's authoritative moral teaching as a "conservative stance."
The Bishop and area priests have failed the faithful. That's why there's a "Mass Exodus." Bishop McManus blamed this exodus on a "crisis of spirituality." But this is to put the cart before the horse. The crisis in spirituality, as your Blog post explains so well, originates with fallen priests.
But don't expect any of them to acknowledge this. Their pride won't stand for it. It's far easier to blame the people themselves.
Many of these fallen priests also have an agenda to destroy the Church from within.
The Blessed Mother gave the answer. In her APPROVED APPARITION WHICH HAPPENED IN FOSTORIA OHIO, under the title of Our Lady Of America, she asked that her statue be processed into the Washington Basilica and the youth of the Country be dedicated to HER PURITY.
Unfortunately, it appears some people are ashamed to ask for SUPERNATURAL help. Will they continue to spurn the Blessed Mother's intercession and offer of GRACES?
HAS THE BLESSED MOTHER APPEARED EVERYWHERE BUT THE U.S.A.?
C'mon people, there is no more time to waste...ON FEBRUARY 25TH THERE WAS AN EARTHQUAKE IN FOSTORIA, OHIO-perhaps a reminder...
I left the Catholic church because I could not hold onto my faith surrounded by faithless clergy and nuns in the 70's.
I am not sorry I abandoned this church "leadership" for my relationship to Jesus has been unaltered and my faith has grown stronger. I feel for all the abused children and pray their faith and relationship to Jesus has been protected from the ravishing wolves.
American Catholics are now and have been conditioned to having our bishops hunker down and hide behind their "collective" body as anonymous individuals. It would be nice if one bishop had the spine to stand up and speak up for righteousness. There is an absence of leadership in the American Catholic church and that void has by and large cascaded down to the local parishes where our priests are afraid to make any waves. Just as Jesus was indignant with the Jewish leaders at that time, so, too, will our church leaders pay a price for their failed leadership from top to bottom.
To anonymous who has left the Church: Please come back my friend. Recall what Lumen Gentium No. 14 of the Second Vatican Council has to say about those who know the Church to be necessary for salvation but who refuse to enter or remain in her - they cannot be saved. This is the proper understanding of "Outside the Church there is no salvation."
I know you have been let down by certain priests. But we don't go to Holy Mass for the priest. We go for Jesus truly present in the Eucharist; Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.
Remember this exchange between Our Lord Jesus and our first Pope Peter: "It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe." Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him. And he said, "For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father." As a result of this, many (of) his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?" Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God." Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you twelve? Yet is not one of you a devil?" (John 6: 63-70).
You obviously yearn for truth or you wouldn't be visiting Michael Brown's website Spirit Daily (I'm assuming that's what led you to this humble Blog). Jesus is the Truth. He is present in the Holy Eucharist and tells us that unless we eat His Flesh and drink His Blood, we will have no life in us.
Don't punish yourself because you have encountered bad priests. I beg you to come back. Permit me to pray for this intention.
It is Interesting that you quote from Father Miceli's book -- I have begun reading it a second time just this week, and was reading it at breakfast this morning.
Fr. Vincent Miceli's book was very good. What I found most amazing reading it was that even though it was written in the early 1980s, the problems he identified have all become worse. His assessment of the state of both the clergy and the culture has become even more manifest.
To anonymous who left the Catholic Church,
I too urge you to return, but have a different view. Your faith is something that you need to work and polish your whole life in order to present a jewel to our Savior at the end. Our faith journey is not supposed to be an easy ride, like one at an amusement park.
If you believe as I do, in the great spiritual war being waged around us, then consider the attack on the Catholic church as a part of this great war. Naturally the biggest faction will come under the most intense attack. As in a real war, we should rally to support our side and not abandon ranks when things get very bad.
Please come back and join what will be a smaller and more holy church to resist the Evil one. We must endure to the end. The Catholic church has to go through a shedding of the dead limbs.
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