Tribulation Times
POPE BENEDICT XVI ON ADVENT: "First it invites us to reawaken the expectation of the glorious return of Christ; then, as Christmas approaches, it calls upon us to welcome the Word made flesh for our salvation. "
BLOG (In the awareness of our need for God): We all should await the Parousia or Second Coming of Christ. In patient expectation, we prepare for the coming of Christ like the master of the house who alone can really manage it and, with his necessary guidelines, lift it out of the morass it has sunk into. We cannot allow the long waiting to suppress our enthusiasm or drain our energy. We have no choice but wait. But we should not be idle. All should be asking themselves, "What should we be doing?" Diligently fulfilling our responsibilities is the call of the hour anytime and anywhere. It is the wise way of waiting. Hopefully and joyfully waiting for what is to come is to believe that God is true to His promises even as we do our part.
EXCERPT FISHEATERS ADVENT OVERVIEW: ...what Christians do (or should be doing!) during Advent and leading up to Christmas is a foreshadowing of what they will do during the days of their lives that lead up to the Second Coming; what non-Christians refuse to do during Advent, and put off until after Christmas, is precisely a foreshadowing of what they will experience at the Second Coming.
We Christians are to prepare for the Coming of Christ before He actually comes -- and that Coming is symbolized and recalled at Christmas. Non-Christians miss this season of preparation, and then scramble for six days after the 25th to make their resolutions. By then, however, it's too late -- Christmas has come and gone, Our Lord has already made His visitation to the earth, and He has found them unprepared. This is precisely what will take place at the Second Coming, when those who have put off for their entire lives the necessary preparations will suddenly be scrambling to put their affairs in order. Unfortunately, by then it will have been too late, and there will be no time for repentance. The Second Coming will be less forgiving than the Incarnation. There will be no four-week warning period before the Second Coming, like we get during Advent. There will be no six-day period of grace after the Second Coming during which to make resolutions and self-examination, like the secular world does from Dec. 26 until Jan. 1.
EDITORIAL: Time to rebuild what secularists tried to wreck
Some of you will know -- but chances are most of you will not -- that the Christian season of Advent begins this week. If Lent is the time to detox, then Advent is the time to pre-tox; and time to redeem the soul and purge it of impurities. And what better time to appreciate the value of that season than the current times?
With the excesses of the past decade laid bare, Paddy Kavanagh's poem of the same name rings true: "We have tasted and tested too much."
Indeed we have. Not that a roaring economy forced us to do so. I have never agreed with those who say the Celtic Tiger made us more selfish. Economic success never does this. What it does do is give us choices. It gives us the ability to earn a lot of money, to consume more, and to substitute the sensual for the spiritual. But it never, never, forces us to or tells us that we should. This is something that many misunderstood. Secular commentators on Ireland's success have spent the past decade running down the traditional values and institutions that make up our society. As a result, we don't just have undercapitalised banks, we have an undercapitalised society, a society eroded by the subprime, secularist confidence tricksters -- people who believe you can build a successful society without religion, without strong nuclear families and without trust and community.
But as the financial turmoil of the world makes clear, far from being surplus to requirements in a liberal capitalist democracy, the freedom that such a society brings makes those things even more needed. The less the State regulates us, the more we need to regulate ourselves.
Our own government's need to intervene in the banking crisis shows just what happens when self-restraint breaks down. It is no different from what happened in the case of Baby P in the UK, a tragic case which warns us to turn back from Britain's failed secular experiment. In that case, the tragic death of a toddler was blamed on the failure by social workers to intervene. But was it really? Was it not the fault of those who relentlessly urged us that traditional families and the parental duties that go with them are things of the past?
Who told us that religion and the ethical code it imparts are no longer needed? Who destroyed both of these things without leaving anything to replace it? As if anything could.
All around us, that death- knell of secularist credibility is being sounded. As the evidence of its failure accumulates, how could it be otherwise?
US CAPITOL VISITOR CENTER DISPLAY: 'We have built no temple but the Capitol. We consult no common oracle but the Constitution.'
INSPIRING: Catholic evangelist presents Hollywood vs. faith
Prayer request? Send an email to: PrayerRequest3@aol.com
READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/december.asp?version=63&startmmdd=0101
December 3, 2008POPE BENEDICT XVI ON ADVENT: "First it invites us to reawaken the expectation of the glorious return of Christ; then, as Christmas approaches, it calls upon us to welcome the Word made flesh for our salvation. "
BLOG (In the awareness of our need for God): We all should await the Parousia or Second Coming of Christ. In patient expectation, we prepare for the coming of Christ like the master of the house who alone can really manage it and, with his necessary guidelines, lift it out of the morass it has sunk into. We cannot allow the long waiting to suppress our enthusiasm or drain our energy. We have no choice but wait. But we should not be idle. All should be asking themselves, "What should we be doing?" Diligently fulfilling our responsibilities is the call of the hour anytime and anywhere. It is the wise way of waiting. Hopefully and joyfully waiting for what is to come is to believe that God is true to His promises even as we do our part.
EXCERPT FISHEATERS ADVENT OVERVIEW: ...what Christians do (or should be doing!) during Advent and leading up to Christmas is a foreshadowing of what they will do during the days of their lives that lead up to the Second Coming; what non-Christians refuse to do during Advent, and put off until after Christmas, is precisely a foreshadowing of what they will experience at the Second Coming.
We Christians are to prepare for the Coming of Christ before He actually comes -- and that Coming is symbolized and recalled at Christmas. Non-Christians miss this season of preparation, and then scramble for six days after the 25th to make their resolutions. By then, however, it's too late -- Christmas has come and gone, Our Lord has already made His visitation to the earth, and He has found them unprepared. This is precisely what will take place at the Second Coming, when those who have put off for their entire lives the necessary preparations will suddenly be scrambling to put their affairs in order. Unfortunately, by then it will have been too late, and there will be no time for repentance. The Second Coming will be less forgiving than the Incarnation. There will be no four-week warning period before the Second Coming, like we get during Advent. There will be no six-day period of grace after the Second Coming during which to make resolutions and self-examination, like the secular world does from Dec. 26 until Jan. 1.
EDITORIAL: Time to rebuild what secularists tried to wreck
Some of you will know -- but chances are most of you will not -- that the Christian season of Advent begins this week. If Lent is the time to detox, then Advent is the time to pre-tox; and time to redeem the soul and purge it of impurities. And what better time to appreciate the value of that season than the current times?
With the excesses of the past decade laid bare, Paddy Kavanagh's poem of the same name rings true: "We have tasted and tested too much."
Indeed we have. Not that a roaring economy forced us to do so. I have never agreed with those who say the Celtic Tiger made us more selfish. Economic success never does this. What it does do is give us choices. It gives us the ability to earn a lot of money, to consume more, and to substitute the sensual for the spiritual. But it never, never, forces us to or tells us that we should. This is something that many misunderstood. Secular commentators on Ireland's success have spent the past decade running down the traditional values and institutions that make up our society. As a result, we don't just have undercapitalised banks, we have an undercapitalised society, a society eroded by the subprime, secularist confidence tricksters -- people who believe you can build a successful society without religion, without strong nuclear families and without trust and community.
But as the financial turmoil of the world makes clear, far from being surplus to requirements in a liberal capitalist democracy, the freedom that such a society brings makes those things even more needed. The less the State regulates us, the more we need to regulate ourselves.
Our own government's need to intervene in the banking crisis shows just what happens when self-restraint breaks down. It is no different from what happened in the case of Baby P in the UK, a tragic case which warns us to turn back from Britain's failed secular experiment. In that case, the tragic death of a toddler was blamed on the failure by social workers to intervene. But was it really? Was it not the fault of those who relentlessly urged us that traditional families and the parental duties that go with them are things of the past?
Who told us that religion and the ethical code it imparts are no longer needed? Who destroyed both of these things without leaving anything to replace it? As if anything could.
All around us, that death- knell of secularist credibility is being sounded. As the evidence of its failure accumulates, how could it be otherwise?
US CAPITOL VISITOR CENTER DISPLAY: 'We have built no temple but the Capitol. We consult no common oracle but the Constitution.'
INSPIRING: Catholic evangelist presents Hollywood vs. faith
Ladder of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 12- "On lying"
3. Let no one who thinks rightly suppose that the sin of lying is a small matter, for the All Holy Spirit pronounced the most awful sentence of all against it, above all sins. If Thou wilt destroy all that speak a lie, as David says to God (Psalm 5:4), what will they suffer who stitch an oath on to a lie?Prayer request? Send an email to: PrayerRequest3@aol.com
This month's archive can be found at: http://www.catholicprophecy.info/news2.html.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please no anonymous comments. I require at least some way for people to address each other personally and courteously. Having some name or handle helps.
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.