Faithful priests are going to be battered horribly in the coming months I fear--faithful bishops and Cardinals too. The laity are in for no picnic either.
I keep hearing in my heart, the psalm from Mass the other day. The Lord is slow to anger, rich in mercy. I have a feeling we may be near the end of mercy, now is the time to totally surrender to God and to get into deep prayer with God. Pray, pray, pray and then pray some more. Deep in the merciful heart of Jesus!
Yes Sam. I think so too. I think you are right. More Holy Hours more Rosaries more daily Masses. And just trying every minute to live in the presence of God.
If you think that's accurate, take a look at this prophecy attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. It's uncannily accurate, right down to some pastors keeping silent and other denying the truth and trampling it underfoot:
Yikes. Point by point everything is presented here. Like reading today's headlines. So many things struck me. "Testing the elect" really got my attention. And "the Destroyer". Chilling.
"The entire Church will undergo a tremendous trial, to clean up the mass of rotten flesh that has infiltrated into Her ministers, in particular among the Orders of poverty: a moral trial, a spiritual trial. For the time indicated in the heavenly books, priests and faithful will be placed at a perilous turning-point in the world of the lost, which will rush to the assault with whichever means: false ideologies and theologies! Supplication from both parts, the faithful and the unfaithful, will be made according to the trials. I, among you the elect, with Christ as Our Captain, will fight for you […] The wrath of Satan is no longer restrained; the Spirit of God is withdrawn from the earth, the Church will be left a widow, behold the funeral drape, She will be left to the mercy of the world. Children, become saints and sanctify yourselves more, always love each other. […] Marshal yourselves under the banner of Christ. Working in this way, you will see the fruits of victory in the awakening of consciences to the good; despite being in evil, you will see, through your cooperative and efficacious help, sinners converted and the Fold filled up with saved souls." (The Virgin of the Revelation to Bruno Cornacchiola, the 12th of April at the Tre Fontane. Trans. by Francesca Romana at Rorate Caeli, here. Originally found in Gaeta, S. Il Veggente: Il Segreto della Tre Fontane, pp81-86)
All these prophecies line up. Marie Julie Jahenny and St Francis and the prophecies given to Bruno. We see it playing out in real time. We could add the Blessed Mother's words to Mother Maria de Jesus des Torres from Ecuador and we know exactly what to expect.
I was out butchering chickens this afternoon and it went form nearly 80 degrees to 65 degrees F in a matter of minutes and rain came with it.
Dolours, I remember we had a discussion over the Pope being the Destroyer of St. Francis of Assisi's prophecy and I think that we were uncertain because of the non-canonically elected piece of the prophecy. I realize that things don't look good but this prophecy makes me so nervous. Can we be 100% certain? Does it make a difference if we fit him into this prophecy or not? Maybe so long as we are careful about how we approach what is happening currently then we can remain mindful of the whole prophecy. "The devils will have unusual power, the immaculate purity of our Order, and of others, will be so much obscured that there will be very few Christians who will obey the true Sovereign Pontiff and the Roman Church with loyal hearts and perfect charity. At the time of this tribulation a man, not canonically elected, will be raised to the Pontificate, who, by his cunning, will endeavour to draw many into error and death."
That's good. BUT... While many of us have issues with PF (me included) he was elected and is the legal and rightful Pope. So this, if true, is still in the future some time.
Carol there is some question about the pedigree of this prophecy attributed to St. Francis. I am not saying it is either true or false. I don't know. The first sign of it appears in a book entitled "Works Of The Seraphic Father", published in the early 1800's if memory serves. As far as I know there is no knowledge of it anywhere before that. I don't think the Franciscans have an original anywhere in their archives. That doesn't necessarily mean it is a fraud. Things get lost through time, but it does mean there is at least some question as to its authenticity.
Yes, I remember that. I also remember reading speculation that either the prophecy didn't come from St. Francis or that it had already been fulfilled at a time when the papacy was contested between a pope and an anti-Pope. If authentic, it seems to fit our time better than any period since the death of St. Francis. I think that the "immaculate purity" of most religious orders has been obscured for decades and very few Christians obeyed Popes St. John Paul and Benedict. As to whether Pope Francis was canonically elected, it's above our pay grade to make such a determination but there's no denying that the rest of the prophecy could have been written at any time towards the end of St. John Paul's papacy and throughout Benedict's papacy. Among other things, his collusion with the St. Gallen group suggests that the present Pope was among those who didn't obey St. John Paul or Benedict with a loyal heart and perfect charity. Neither is there any denying that the wording of parts of Amoris Laetitia is deliberately ambiguous to enable pastoral practice contrary to the Doctrine of the faith. I would call that cunning but others may disagree. All we can do is live the faith passed down to us and pray. Weren't the Fatima children told that many souls go to hell because nobody prays for them? Not a great one for kneeling down and spending long periods in prayer, I find myself almost instinctively saying the Fatima prayer on and off throughout the day. My heart goes out to parents trying to raise their children in the faith amidst all this confusion and turmoil.
In the absence of evidence to the contrary, he was canonically elected. As Brian said on another thread, only the St. Gallen group knows the details of those shenanigans and they only leak enough to boost their own egos. I think that he is the legal and rightful Pope as long as all the Bishops accept him as such. That said, the prophecy could well be in the future but given the Pope's age it could be the not too distant future. Divisions in the Church run so deep, the gloves are off and the run-up to the next conclave could be a real dogfight. We would be foolish to believe that contested papacies/elections couldn't happen in our lifetime.
Prophesy, like history, tends to repeat itself, and can have multiple fulfillments. The prophesy may or may not have come from St. Francis, I have no idea. Maybe it was from one of his early followers or came even later. In any case, the words remain the same and it seems to be a truly prophetic statement being fulfilled in our times.
I have come to the realization that we who are forced through circumstances to survive in a “liberal wasteland” - as I am too - either fall for it or rise and become stronger, more fervent because of it. My brother on the other hand lives in the area of a vibrant, beautiful parish with faithful priests and reverent masses. However because of this he is in complete denial of the realities of what is going on in the Church and scoffs at any article I send him, insisting that anything showing the atrocities happening must be “fake news.” At this point, I wonder who is the more blessed - to live in a wasteland but “awake” to the reality of the Church, or in an amazing parish but “asleep” because of it
Heidi--other than having the ocean for our eastern boundary Maine and Minnesota geographically and climate wise are a lot alike. We have good friends in Minnesota and are impressed with how much northern Minnesota reminds us of Maine.
