Trumpets of Warning!

DURING the course of the past year, I have been asked by several orthodox Catholic priests to speak in their parishes or retreat houses in the neighbouring Archdiocese of Edmonton. However, I learned from one of them that I was “not permitted” to bring my ministry into the Archdiocese. I wrote three letters to the Archbishop there over the past year asking for clarification and seeking any pastoral guidance he might offer. This week, I received a response from Archbishop Richard Smith:

The simple fact of the matter is that we have a policy in the Archdiocese, which stipulates that any speaker invited to address our people on matters of faith or morals must first receive a nihil obstat [Latin for “nothing hinders”] from me or my delegate. This is standard policy. In your case it was not granted because of indications on your website that you make reference to what you claim to have received in private revelations. This is an approach that I do not wish to promote within the Archdiocese of Edmonton. —Letter of April 4th, 2011
http://www.markmallett.com/blog/on-the-archdiocese-of-edmonton/

Amen and I count myself among the gray.I once worked with a holy Priest who used to give many retreats.He said to us he had thoughts that came into his mind and he didn’t even know where they came from.They weren’t bad thoughts but he was trying to focus on God.God knows we love Him

“The number of Gentiles is nearly filled.”Nice blend of scripture and Approved Apparitions from your quote/s..Bet he is one of the one’s to be saved.:)

Again, where are the billions we have sent to Haiti to help people there?

Thank you for the link.

This excerpt is very well written:

It is not only through the sacraments and the ministrations of the Church that the Holy Spirit makes holy the People, leads them and enriches them with his virtues. Allotting his gifts according as he wills (cf. 1 Cor. 12:11), he also distributes special graces among the faithful of every rank.

By these gifts he makes them fit and ready to undertake various tasks and offices for the renewal and building up of the Church, as it is written, "the manifestation of the Spirit is given to everyone for profit” (1 Cor. 12:7).

Whether these charisms be very remarkable or more simple and widely diffused, they are to be received with thanksgiving and consolation since they are fitting and useful for the needs of the Church. —Lumen Gentium, 12

It would seem, then, that based on the Church’s Sacred Tradition and her Magisterium, prophetic utterances are to be considered with proper discernment. This is precisely what St. Paul taught:

Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophetic utterances. Test everything; retain what is good. (1 Thess 5:19-21)

While I posted the comment on comment supporting individual revelations, I also look at the sound advice of many who have walked the path before me.

I've had the visions and revelations for over twenty five years. At first there is an excitement that you are someone special as you were chosen to receive. Then there is the fall or disillusionment when the time frame that you impose on the unraveling does not fit your suppositions. This is all a part of learning discernment. The personal tribulations are great as the process unfolds.

Here is a link to an article written in 1994 by Fr. William G. Most that has sound advice. It is well developed and I urge you to read the entire commentary. Do I agree with it 100%? No. But it is well worth the investment of time to read as it clears our heads and facilitates objectivity.

Private Revelations and Discernment of Spirits

by Fr. William G. Most

Private Revelations

St. John of the Cross, a Doctor of the Church and one of the greatest of mystic theologians, who had had so many special favors himself, is very severe with persons who desire to be the recipients of visions and revelations. He never wearies of repeating that the proximate means of union with God in this life is the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and love. True growth consists in intensified love, which is founded on faith and hope. Now although St. John encourages everyone to aim at infused contemplation, even though relatively few attain it, he strongly reproves anyone who desires to be the recipient of a vision or revelation. They desire to see; faith holds on without seeing.

St. Teresa of Avila, who herself had an abundance of visions, takes a similar stand. She admits that great profit can be had from such things when they are genuine and are received in the proper spirit. Yet she says (Interior Castle 6. 9): "I will only warn you that, when you learn or hear that God is granting souls these graces, you must never beg or desire Him to lead you by this road. Even if you think it is a very good one... there are certain reasons why such a course is not wise."

She then goes on at length to explain her reasons: First, such a desire shows a lack of humility; second, one thereby leaves self open to "great peril because the devil has only to see a door left a bit ajar to enter"; third, the danger of auto-suggestion: "When a person has a great desire for something, he convinces himself that he is seeing or hearing what he desires." Fourth, it is presumption for one to want to choose his own path, as only the Lord knows which path is best for us. Fifth, very heavy trials usually go with these favors: could we be sure of being able to bear them? Sixth, "you may well find that the very thing from which you had expected gain will bring you loss."

She then adds that there are also other reasons, and continues with some wholesome advice that one can become very holy without this sort of thing: "There are many holy people who have never known what it is to receive a favor of this sort, and there are others who receive such favors even though they are not holy." We think of the frightening words of Our Lord in Mt. 7.22-23. Speaking of the last day, He said: "Many will say to me on that day: "Lord , Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out devils in your name, and work many miracles in your name? And then I will tell them: I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of iniquity." St. Teresa adds: "It is true that to have these favors must be a very great help towards attaining a high degree of perfection in the virtues; but one who has attained the virtues at the cost of his own work has earned much more merit."

http://www.ewtn.com/faith/teachings/maryd8.htm

When the visions come, they are often temptations to take us off the track of solidifying our own relationship with God. We accept the visions given us and satan uses them to invoke a mission of individual purpose of proclamation.

This individual purpose fits our desire of God’s will for us and we create an ilusion. But we quickly develop our own ego identity around our supposed mission of proclamation and lose sight of our real goal which is a closer relationship with God through surrender.

When a person goes through the turmoil of surrendering individual will to find God’s Will, the transition process has similar attributes to the transition of going from the dependency of a child upon our parents to the individual ego identity of a responsible adult. Just as a sixteen year old thinks they know it all when they have just placed their toe on the threshold of being a responsible adult, a person who places their toe on the threshold of experiencing God’s Love through self transcendence thinks they know it all. It is a natural state of euphoria that guards the entrance to finding the new level of development and often drives the individual backward rather than forward. It’s part of the process of learning discernment.

Thus continued silence, prayer and meditation is often the best action when these visions and revelations are received.

Everything you have written is so true.To be on this journey with Christ is an honor.When you say yes to God you become a servant.If you are receiving certain gifts you must guard your soul.It's important to have a well grounded-old soul-spiritual director for these things .The first book and the hardest book I read when I said yes to God was Dark Night of the Soul.I hated that book and would throw it across the room.I would complain to God”This is too hard”:)It has helped me so much.St John basically says to strip yourself and have no attachments.

mark for later

Thanks for posting this and for reposting that quote from Pope Paul VI.

I've spent my morning chasing information on Catholic Church history, mostly the bad and the ugly, after being curious about a prophetic quote from Pope Pius IX:

"There will come a great sign that will fill the world with awe. But this will occur only after the triumph of a revolution during which the Church will undergo ordeals which are beyond description."

That lead me to his bio on an odd website: http://one-evil.org and to a general impression about the Jesuits.

Questions that arose from reading some of the info there lead me to The Prophecies of Malachi and this:

According to Daniel 9:27, Revelation 13 and 17:10-18, Satan will incarnate the last pontiff who will deify himself and break Rome's covenant with the Jewish banksters.
It is claimed Malachy made only 111 predictions and that the Benedictines devised pope 112 in order to dissociate their order from the "Beast" so that John Paul II's successor should be the final pope.
However "Gloria olivae" resides still in Rome as Pope Emeritus, His Holiness (sic) Benedict XVI, and it appears Malachy's prophecy of popes 111 and 112 are intended to be conjoined in accordance with the two popes mentioned in Revelation 19:20, and 20:10.
This scripture is reinforced by the fact Pope Benedict was the first pope to receive the Ring of St. Peter after it was re-instated by John Paul II who did not wear the ring, and contrary to custom Pope Benedict XVI did not destroy his ring but "disabled the seal" and now wears the ring contemporaneously with Pope Francis I, enjoining both to St. Peter—something that has never happened in the history of the false church, but fulfilling Jesus' prophecy!

I bring these up because I'm one of those who thinks "something's coming" and find that this sense or feeling is "verified" by many prophetic revelations all coming together in our time, here and now.

According to the messages in True Life In God, it and it's messages are for us now, for this time, a sort last lifeline for the lost and the (spiritually) dead. Many of the messages speak of occult corruption within the Church, which seems to be verified from the research I've been doing.

And many, many others point to where we are right now. For example, in the first part of this two part message from Jesus titled Daniel The Prophet

when My Day comes, the sun will turn as black as coarse sackcloth; the moon will be aflame and the very foundations of the earth will shake, and like entrails pouring out of an abdomen, the earth will vomit out its demons; when this happens, men will long for death but will not find it! then, the sky will roll like a scroll and immediately will dissolve in flames and all the elements will melt in the heat; that day is coming and sooner than you think; I will fulfil these prophecies in your own lifetime;

My mistake. This should have read "second part" instead of "first part":

For example, in the second part of this two part message from Jesus titled Daniel The Prophet

My apologies for my many errors.