Friday, February 22, 2008

Paving the way for Antichrist....


The Church cannot be broken by external persecution and she will never be defeated. It was Our Lord, speaking of His Church, Who said, "..the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). Tertullian was correct when he said that the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christianity [sanguis martyrum semen Christianorum]. External persecution only strengthens the Church.

But we know from Sacred Scripture that in the last days a great apostasy will shake the Church and that many [in fact most] will succumb to a great religious deception: "Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 675).

Have we already entered the period of the great Apostasy foretold by Sacred Scripture? Is the way being prepared for the very entrance of the Man of Sin onto the world stage? While many "intellectuals" both within and without the Church would scoff at the very idea, the signs are emerging. For example, the signs of internal betrayal and infidelity have left their mark on England: http://www.religionandspirituality.com/currentEvents/view.php?StoryID=20080222-081044-9420r. As for the United States, the statistics have also been grim:http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=22821

It was Romano Guardini [in his classic The Lord, p. 513] who reminded us that:

"One day the Antichrist will come: a human being who introduces an order of things in which rebellion against God will attain its ultimate power. He will be filled with enlightenment and strength. The ultimate aim of all aims will be to prove that existence witout Christ is possible - nay rather, that Christ is the enemy of existence, which can be fully realized only when all Christian values have been destroyed. His arguments will be so impressive, supported by means of such tremendous power - violent and diplomatic, material and intellectual - that to reject them will result in almost insurmountable scandal, and everyone whose eyes are not opened by grace will be lost. Then it will be clear what the Christian essence really is: that which stems not from the world, but from the heart of God; victory of grace over the world; redemption of the world, for her true essence is not to be found in herself, but in God, from whom she has received it. When God becomes all in all, the world will finally burst into flower."

Our Lady told Fr. Stefano Gobbi of the Marian Movement of Priests:

"I am weeping because the Church is continuing along the road of division, of loss of the true faith, of apostasy and of errors which are being spread more and more without anyone offering opposition to them. Even now, that which I predicted at Fatima and that which I have revealed here in the third message confided to a little daughter of mine (i.e. Sister Lucia) is in the process of being accomplished. And so, even for the Church the moment of its great trial has come, because the man of iniquity will establish himself within it and the abomination of desolation will enter into the holy temple of God." (To the Priests, Our Lady's Beloved Sons, No. 362, September 15, 1987, p. 572.)

And again:"The black beast like a leopard indicates Freemasonry; the beast with the two horns like a lamb indicates Freemasonry infiltrated into the interior of the Church, that is to say, ecclesiastical Masonry, which has spread especially among the members of the hierarchy. This Masonic infiltration, in the interior of the Church, was already foretold to you by me at Fatima, when I announced to you that Satan would enter in even to the summit of the Church. If the task of Masonry is to lead souls to perdition, bringing them to the worship of false divinities, the task of ecclesiastical Masonry on the other hand is that of destroying Christ and his Church, building a new idol, namely a false christ and a false church." (To the Priests, Our Lady's Beloved Sons, No. 406, June 13, 1989, p. 649)

The false church Our Lady refers to was also foretold by Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824), a German Augustinian nun, stigmatist, and miracle-worker, who subsisted entirely on water and Holy Communion for many years. Venerable Emmerich received numerous visions of the future crisis in the Church and the infiltration of the Masons. In her visions, she describes men in aprons destroying the Church with a trowel, The Masons wear aprons and their symbol is the Mason's trowel. The following excerpts are from page 565 of the Life of Anne Catherine Emmerich, Vol. 1, by Rev. K.E. Schmöger, Tan Books, 1976:


"I saw St. Peter's. A great crowd of men was trying to pull it down whilst others constantly built it up again. Lines connected these men one with another and with others throughout the whole world. I was amazed at their perfect understanding." The demolishers, mostly apostates and members of different sects, broke off whole pieces and worked according to rules and instructions. They wore WHITE APRONS bound with blue riband. In them were pockets and they had TROWELS stuck in their belts. The costumes of the others were various."There were among the demolishers distinguished men wearing uniforms and crosses. They did not work themselves but they marked out on the wall with a TROWEL where and how it should be torn down. To my horror, I saw among them Catholic Priests. Whenever the workmen did not know how to go on, they went to a certain one in their party. He had a large book which seemed to contain the whole plan of the building and the way to destroy it. They marked out exactly with a TROWEL the parts to be attacked, and they soon came down. They worked quietly and confidently, but slyly, furtively and warily. I saw the Pope praying, surrounded by false friends who often did the very opposite to what he had ordered..."


We have witnessed the gradual emergence of this false church within Christ's Church. And that which this false church proposes is a new religion in which man, and not God, is the object of worship. And all will be accomplished in the name of humanitarianism. Through one of his characters in his prophetic book The Lord of the World, Fr. Robert Hugh Benson describes this humanitarian religion:


"Humanitarianism...is becoming an actual religion itself, though anti-supernatural. It is a pantheism. Pantheism deifies all nature, God is the world, but naturally, man above all is God since he is the highest expression of nature. It is a religion devoid of the 'super' natural, because since God is nature itself, there is no longer a distinction between Creator and creature. The creature is God* and hence arbitrator of his own destiny and establishes the moral law for himself. Nature, and man is its highest expression, has all the divine attributes. Humanitarianism is a religion devoid of the supernatural. It is developing a ritual under Freemasonry; it has a creed, 'God is man'; and the rest. It has, therefore, a real food of a sort to offer religious cravings: it idealizes, and yet makes no demands upon the spiritual faculties. Then, they have the use of all the churches except ours, and of all the Cathedrals; and they are beginning at last to encourage sentiment. Then they may display their symbols and we may not: I think they will be established legally in another ten years" (Introduction, p. xvii).


*Genesis 3:5.
We must watch and pray. Prayer [and especially Holy Mass and the Rosary] is the most fundamental weapon for the great battle of the end times. In the words of Fr. Livio Fanzaga, "When man will glorify himself and proclaim the Antichrist as God made man, the supernatural principle will be preserved only by those who cling to the divine presence in prayer....In the time of Antichrist, the power of suggestion will cloud reason. Only those who intimately experience the supernatural in prayer will have the strength to acknowledge God's existence, despite the apparent evidence to the contrary."

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are right Mr. Melanson. It is only with the eyes of faith (enlightened by God's grace), that we can perceive the times we are living in. So many cannot see how dire things really are because they are spiritually blind. As the darkness spreads and people become ever-more blind, people will become more and more atheistic and more and more angry, the Mass will be suppressed and the faithful remnant will have to go underground because of violent persecution.

Anonymous said...

Things are getting worse. Visit this link to read a very troubling article:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23251693/

Anonymous said...

http://www.unionleader
.com/article.aspx?headline=Ex-priest%27s+suit+makes+porn+
claim&articleId=5514a159-6963-
43a2-a2a0-2548080489ff

The above link takes you to an article published by The Union Leader which is nothing short of disturbing. If these allegations are true, they will spell disaster for an already troubled Diocese of Manchester.

Anonymous said...

The United Nations is calling for "the disestablishment of the Church of England." In the near future, we will see even more pressure on the Christian Churches
to conform to the zeitgeist or face punitive measures. If Christian Churches refuse to embrace abortion, contraception, sodomy, fornication etc, they will probably face the prospect of losing their tax exemption status. Many more Churches will close. And all of this will be done because the Man of Sin wants to abolish the Mass. Sound far-fetched? If you think so, you're ignorant of his designs. It was St. Alphonsus de Liguori, a Doctor of the Church, who said, "The devil has always managed to get rid of the Mass by means of heretics, making them the precursors of the Antichrist who, above all else, will manage to abolish, and in fact will succeed in abolishing, AS A PUNISHMENT FOR THE SINS OF MEN, the Holy Sacrifice of the altar, precisely as Daniel had predicted."

If you think there will be no real Antichrist who will abolish the Holy Sacrifice of the altar, this is because you have lost your supernatural faith and rely too heavily on the use of reason alone.

Faith and reason must go hand in hand. I applaud Paul for having the courage to address the supernatural reality of Antichrist and his (I believe based upon the signs) iminent entrance into world affairs.

Paul Anthony Melanson said...

Marie, well put. Well put. A relevant Catholic Prophecy of Fr. Nectou, S.J. (18th century):


"The confusion will be so general that men will not be able to think aright, as if God had withheld His Providence from mankind, and that, during the worst crisis, the best that can be done would be to remain where God has placed us, and persevere in fervent prayers....At that time there will be such a terrible crisis that people will believe that the end of the world has come. Blood will flow in many large cities. The very elements will be convulsed. It will be like a little General Judgement." - "A great multitude of people will lose their lives in those calamitous times, but the wicked will not prevail. They will indeed attempt to destroy the whole Church, but not enough time will be allowed them, because the frightful crisis will be of short duration. When all is considered lost, all will be found safe. This disaster will come to pass shortly after the power of England begins to wane. This will be the sign. As when the fig tree begins to sprout and produce leaves, it is a sure sign that summer is near. England in her turn will experience a more frightful revolution than that of France. It will continue long enough for France to recover her strength; then she will help England to restore peace and order." - "During this revolution, which will very likely be general and not confined to France. Paris will be destroyed so completely that twenty years afterwards fathers walking over its ruins with their children will be asked by them what kind of place that was; to whom they will answer: 'My child, this was a great city which God has destroyed on account of her crimes.'"

Anonymous said...

Do you mean to suggest that we all just give up our hopes and dreams to build a better world, run away into caves, and wait for Doomsday? Shall we stop trying to spread peace and love and beauty and truth? Shall we just abandon our lives and futures? Shall we just throw away the so-called Culture of Life and just gather as many souls possible until Doomsday? Shall we stop hoping for a Eucharistic Reign? Please help.

Paul Anthony Melanson said...

Brian, I don't know where you would get the idea that I advocate giving up our "hopes and dreams" for a better world or for the Eucharistic Reign. Perhaps the Saint I was named after ca best answer your concerns. In 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17, we read:

"We ask you, brothers, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling with him,not to be shaken out of your minds suddenly, or to be alarmed either by a "spirit," or by an oral statement, or by a letter allegedly from us to the effect that the day of the Lord is at hand. Let no one deceive you in any way. For unless the apostasy comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one doomed to perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god and object of worship, so as to seat himself in the temple of God, claiming that he is a god--do you not recall that while I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. But the one who restrains is to do so only for the present, until he is removed from the scene. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord (Jesus) will kill with the breath of his mouth and render powerless by the manifestation of his coming, the one whose coming springs from the power of Satan in every mighty deed and in signs and wonders that lie, and in every wicked deceit for those who are perishing because they have not accepted the love of truth so that they may be saved. Therefore, God is sending them a deceiving power so that they may believe the lie,that all who have not believed the truth but have approved wrongdoing may be condemned. But we ought to give thanks to God for you always, brothers loved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in truth. To this end he has (also) called you through our gospel to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word."

Brian, the Sacred Scriptures speak of Antichrist as being a particular person or individual. The "Man of Sin," "Son of Perdition" for example. The "lawless one" will be revealed at some point after the Apostasy begins. Do you accept the Word of God on this matter? How about the Church Fathers?

No, I am not advocating despair but rather hope. For it is the Lord Jesus Who will destroy the Man of Sin with the sword which proceeds from His mouth. In the end, the Church will be triumphant. But first, like her Master, she must pass through Calvary (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 677).

Please read and reflect (prayerfully) this paragraph of the Catechism.

God love you,
Paul.

Anonymous said...

I think we need to be aware spiritually. And that's the whole point Paul is trying to make. In a posting a couple of years back:http://lasalettejourney.
blogspot.com/2006/05/battle-against-devil-which-is.html, Paul cited Pope John Paul II's warning which was largely ignored by many throughout the Church.

This is most likely because too many people have given into pride and rely on themselves rather than God. We think too highly of ourselves and our own "abilities." But pride (and especially spiritual pride) always leads to a fall.

Isn't that the lesson of human history? Santayana said that those who ignored history were doomed to repeat it. Amen.

Anonymous said...

It is necessary that the economy first collapse so that the Man of Sin can "solve" our economic problems at the price of apostasy:
http://torontosun.com/Money/2008/02/24/4872237-sun.html

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