Retrospective

I have been 'reverted' for almost ten years. As I navigated the internet in the early days searching for every morsel of information I could glean about the Catholic Church sometimes I would stumble upon this or that saint's prophecies. I'd read them with some interest--- probably more akin to curiosity--- and being unable to make any pertinent sense out of them I just left them floating in the far reaches of my mind.

Every once in awhile a particular one would resurface in relation to a current event but mostly they seemed like cryptic messages about things to come at some vague distant time in the future.

There are many similar themes---- warnings, tribulations, persecution, fire from the sky, darkness, rampant apostasy, heresy, terrible crises in the Church--- and of course finally renewal and triumph as the Church rises from the ruins--- smaller, more humble and radiant ----drawing many converts ----then a time of peace before the final battle with the anti-Christ and then the end of the world when Jesus returns in glory. 

While straightening out my book shelves recently I ran across Trial, Tribulation and Triumph by Desmond Birch. I read it years ago and most of it just flew past me. Just five or six years ago I found it interesting but not relatable to the times I was living in--- funny how that has changed in just those few short years. I have now reread most of it-- and this time I found myself thinking --- we seem to be living through many of these things right now--- or at the very least it is obvious the stage is being set for them.

For example--- back in the 1990's it still seemed implausible that the Church would suffer persection at the hands of our American government (religious freedom was what we were founded on---right?)--- I couldn't imagine the scenario leading up to it--- today it is obvious--- atheistic secularism and homosexual activism are feeding the anti-Catholic bigotry that has always remained just below the radar--- since the the days of "Knownothingism" when churches, convents and Catholic schools were burned. Just read the news--- Catholic charities and adoption, Catholic hospitals and abortion, Political leaders publicly threatening Church leaders to stay out of politics or else lose the tax exempt status--- Christianity and Catholicism particulary are slandered, misrepresented and shown in the most unflattering way possible in mainstream media and entertainment venues (Madonna for instance), celebrities attack the Church publicly--- like Elton John's recent (and completely ludicrous) statement that the Church, due to her teaching on contraception was responsible for the AIDS deaths of sixty of his friends---  (they were such good Catholics they apparently listened to the Pope's teaching in regards to contraception and condoms but somehow forgot the part about extramarital and homosexual relations!). We are even at war among ourselves in many places ("bishops against bishops---cardinals against cardinals")

I don't know about anyone else out there but each day that goes by I cannot help but see that we are living in very extrordinary times---dare I say prophetic times... I know one question that keeps nagging at me lately is IF these are the times Jesus spoke of (see Matthew 24) and prophets have warned about why did God want me here now at this particular time...

----that's a lot to think and pray about....

April 20, 1823

"I had another vision of the great tribulation. It seems to me that a concession was demanded from the clergy which could not be granted. I saw many older priests, especially one, who wept bitterly. A few younger ones were also weeping. But others, and the lukewarm among them, readily did what was demanded. It was as if people were splitting into two camps."

April 22, 1823

"I saw that many pastors allowed themselves to be taken up with ideas that were dangerous to the Church. They were building a great, strange, and extravagant Church. Everyone was to be admitted in it in order to be united and have equal rights.'

I saw the Holy Father surrounded by traitors and in great. distress about the Church. He had visions and apparitions in his hour of greatest need. I saw many good pious Bishops; but they were weak and wavering, their cowardice often got the upper hand... Then I saw darkness spreading around and people no longer seeking the true Church.".

April 23 1823

"I saw the fatal consequences of this counterfeit church: I saw it increase; I saw heretics of all kinds flocking to the city. I saw the. ever-increasing tepidity of the clergy, the circle of darkness ever widening. And now the vision became more extended. I saw in all places Catholics oppressed, annoyed, restricted, and deprived of liberty, churches were closed.

...."I saw deplorable things: they were gambling, drinking, and talking in church.... All sorts of abominations were perpetrated there. Priests allowed everything and said Mass with much irreverence. I saw that few of them were still godly...

...the Catholic religion fell into complete decadence. Most priests were lured by the glittering but false knowledge of young school-teachers, and they all contributed to the work of destruction. In those days, Faith will fall very low, and it will be preserved in some places only..."

"But I saw also that help was coming when distress had reached its peak. I saw again the Blessed Virgin ascend on the Church and spread her mantle [over it]. I saw a Pope who was at once gentle, and very firm....  I saw a great renewal, and the Church rode high in the sky. 

Anne Catherine Emmerich 18th century

Comments

[Another Trad]

So who is the Pope in white, gentle and firm. I can't see that being John Paul II. Pope BenedictXVI? A future one?

[Miss B.]

It always amazes me how "reverts" end up coming back to the Chuch when they realize that they never really know their Faith at all in the first place and/or that what they THOUGHT they knew was actually a negative distortion or just plain error. Once they find out what the Faith really teaches, and how to apply these teachings to their daily lives, then it's like they have this great "Eureka!" moment. I love that. I'm a convert myself and I truly believe that if ex/fallen away/former/lapsed-Catholics KNEW what they had, they would never have thrown it away.

[St. Jimbob of the Apokalypse]

Our times are no more chaotic than in the first few centuries of the Church. Nestorius, Arius, Marcion, Donatus, and Photius were all Catholic bishops, and look at the trouble they caused in the early Church. In the middle ages, the decadence and indifference of some clergy and bishops drove many to the apostasy of the Reformation. Even the halcyon days of the 1962 Roman Missal, there were fissures that exploded into view upon the publication of Humanae Vitae, promulgation of Vatican II documents, and the Novus Ordo Mass.
Time, and the sense of history, are completely human perceptions. The battle against sin is ever raging, and fallen human nature has not changed. But, Christ is with us, and in the Eucharist we are united with Him and all the saints, as if the entire Church past and future are gathered around Christ during the Last Supper. For it is the very same Body and Blood we receive in the Eucharist, that He held in His sacred Hands and gave to the Apostles. In the Eucharist, the Church Triumphant and Church Militant are united around our Lord.
There is no then, there is no when, there is only the Blessed Trinity and this moment. Sr. Emmerich's vision is an ongoing present, neither a history nor a future event. It is right now.