Spiritual War Is Declared!!  We Need Shock Troops!!

Spiritual War Is Declared!! We Need Shock Troops!!

Motus in fine velocior

With last Summer’s Supreme Court decision to redefine marriage (Which I’ve been calling our “Genesis 19 Moment“), along with other events happening in the world – including men now allowed to enter little girls’ restrooms – many wonder what kind of evil has been unleashed upon the world. Some wonder if Satan is ramping up his efforts for a decisive battle.

It is uncanny how so many of these events correspond to approved prophecies, most of which have been given in the past two centuries.

“The final battle between the Lord and the reign of Satan will be about marriage and the family. Don’t be afraid … because anyone who operates for the sanctity of marriage and the family will always be contended and opposed in every way, because this is the decisive issue … however, Our Lady has already crushed its head” (Sister Lucia, one of the seers of Fatima)

The Latin phrase, motus in fine velocior, is commonly used to indicate the faster passing of the time at the end of an historical period. I’ve heard it said that it means, “Things accelerate towards the end.” We are living through an historical hour which is not necessarily the end of times, but certainly could be marked as the end of an era. I wrote about the potential significance of the 100 years since Fatima, which could be the “100 years reign of Satan.” That 100 years concludes in 2017.

Up until recent years, I was completely unaware of this prophecy attributed to Our Lady of Good Success, but many years prior to that, I had been saying that “something happened … something erupted in the 1960s …”

“Thus I make it known to you that from the end of the 19th century and shortly after the middle of the 20th century…the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals… As for the Sacrament of Matrimony, which symbolizes the union of Christ with His Church, it will be attacked and deeply profaned. Freemasonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the aim of doing away with this Sacrament, making it easy for everyone to live in sin and encouraging procreation of illegitimate children born without the blessing of the Church … In this supreme moment of need for the Church, the one who should speak will fall silent.” -Our Lady of Good Success

“Shortly after the middle of the 20th century” … most certainly points to the infamous anti-authority, pro-hedonism 1960s, that ushered in unparalleled self-indulgence (the essence of the demonic) into our world. In the midst of this, our Church has not only suffered unprecedented losses in the sheer number of souls, but we are witnessing an epidemic of liturgical abuse and rampant sacrilege. In an article that speaks to this, I called this a “Stealth Arianism.” Many claim we very well could be in the throes of what is termed, “The Great Apostasy.”

Did Archbishop Fulton Sheen prophesy about the condition of (many parts of) our Church today?

“[Satan] will set up a counterchurch which will be the ape of the [Catholic] Church … It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content.”

 

We are living in the days of the Apocalypse, the last days of our era. The two great forces – the Mystical Body of Christ and the Mystical Body of the anti-Christ – are beginning to draw battle lines for the catastrophic contest.

 

The False prophet will have a religion without a cross. A religion without a world to come. A religion to destroy religions. There will be a counterfeit Church.

 

Christ’s Church the Catholic Church will be one; and the false Prophet will create the other.

 

The False Church will be worldly, ecumenical, and global. It will be a loose federation of churches and religions, forming some type of global association.

 

A world parliament of Churches. It will be emptied of all Divine content, it will be the mystical body of the anti-christ. The Mystical Body on earth today will have its Judas Iscariot, and he will be the false prophet. Satan will recruit him from our Bishops.

 

The Antichrist will not be so called; otherwise he would have no followers. He will not wear red tights, nor vomit sulphur, nor carry a trident nor wave an arrowed tail as Mephistopheles in Faust. This masquerade has helped the Devil convince men that he does not exist. When no man recognizes, the more power he exercises. God has defined Himself as “I am Who am,” and the Devil as “I am who am not.”

 

Nowhere in Sacred Scripture do we find warrant for the popular myth of the Devil as a buffoon who is dressed like the first “red.” Rather is he described as an angel fallen from heaven, as “the Prince of this world,” whose business it is to tell us that there is no other world. His logic is simple: if there is no heaven there is no hell; if there is no hell, then there is no sin; if there is no sin, then there is no judge, and if there is no judgment then evil is good and good is evil. But above all these descriptions, Our Lord tells us that he will be so much like Himself that he would deceive even the elect–and certainly no devil ever seen in picture books could deceive even the elect. How will he come in this new age to win followers to his religion?

 

The pre-Communist Russian belief is that he will come disguised as the Great Humanitarian; he will talk peace, prosperity and plenty not as means to lead us to God, but as ends in themselves…

 

The third temptation in which Satan asked Christ to adore him and all the kingdoms of the world would be His, will become the temptation to have a new religion without a Cross, a liturgy without a world to come, a religion to destroy a religion, or a politics which is a religion–one that renders unto Caesar even the things that are God’s.

 

In the midst of all his seeming love for humanity and his glib talk of freedom and equality, he will have one great secret which he will tell to no one: he will not believe in God. Because his religion will be brotherhood without the fatherhood of God, he will deceive even the elect. He will set up a counterchurch which will be the ape of the Church, because he, the Devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the Antichrist that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ…

 

But the twentieth century will join the counterchurch because it claims to be infallible when its visible head speaks ex cathedra from Moscow on the subject of economics and politics, and as chief shepherd of world communism.

 

(Fulton J. Sheen, Communism and the Conscience of the West [Bobbs-Merril Company, Indianapolis, 1948], pp. 24-25)

 

SHOCK TROOPS

As Jean-Baptiste Chautard recounts in his book The Soul of the Apostolate, Pope St. Pius X was conversing with a group of his cardinals one day. The pope asked them:

“What is the thing we most need, today, to save society?”

“Build Catholic schools,” said one.

“No.”

“More churches,” said another.

“Still no.”

“Speed up the recruiting of priests,” said a third.

“No, no,” said the pope, “the most necessary thing of all, at this time, is for every parish to possess a group of laymen who will be at the same time virtuous, enlightened, resolute, and truly apostolic.”

Chautard continues, “Further details enable us to assert that this holy pope at the end of his life saw no hope for the salvation of the world unless the clergy could use their zeal to form faithful Christians full of apostolic ardor, preaching by word and example, but especially by example. In the diocese where he served before being elevated to the papacy, he attached less importance to the (count) of parishioners than to the list of Christians capable of radiating an apostolate. It was his opinion that shock troops could be formed in any environment.”

“Shock troops” (or assault troops) is actually a military term that refers to infantry formations, along with supporting units, created to lead an attack. Consider the Allied Forces of World War II moving toward the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. That first wave of men knew full well that their chances were extremely poor of ever leaving that beach alive, but they knew somebody needed to go first. It is no less than profound that the holy Pope St. Pius X would use a military term, shock troops, to describe the most necessary need of our times. The pope is resolute in acknowledging we are in spiritual warfare as he calls for an uncommon valor willing to be the tip of the spear, the vanguard, warrior saints unafraid “to lead.” (Excerpt from Fr. Richard Heilman’s book, Church Militant Field Manual: Special Forces Training for the Life in Christ).

 

Spiritual Warfare Calls for Spiritual Weapons

In the battle that lies ahead, we need to stand behind our General Patton in His Eminence, Raymond Cardinal Burke. This is our Lepanto. In 1571, Pope St. Pius V called upon the world to turn back the forces looking to “deal the last blow.” Pope St. Pius V did two things. In our times, Cardinal Burke is following this model precisely:

1) Pope St. Pius V Formed a Holy League – In 1571, this Holy League was a collection of the remnant forces of Christianity who, miraculously, defeated a much larger force, looking to deal the last blow to Christianity, in the famous “Battle of Lepanto” on October 7, 1571. In our times, this is spiritual warfare. The devil is gaining immense ground with his forces of secularism within our Church. Or, as Archbishop Fulton Sheen puts it, a Church “emptied of its divine content.” We must reclaim the surrendered ground of the sacred … the supernatural. I wrote about this recently HERE.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen believed this was the place in which we will win the war: “You will have to fight many battles, but do not worry because in the end you will win the war before the Blessed Sacrament,” and …

Neither theological knowledge nor social action alone is enough to keep us in love with Christ unless both are proceeded by a personal encounter with Him. Theological insights are gained not only from between two covers of a book, but from two bent knees before an altar. The HOLY HOUR becomes like an oxygen tank to revive the breath of the Holy Spirit in the midst of the foul and fetid atmosphere of the world.

Cardinal Burke is the Spiritual Head of an initiative to promote monthly Holy Hours of Adoration around the globe. This initiative is aptly entitled, The Holy League. Please go to the website, and join forces with Cardinal Burke to regain the surrendered ground of the Sacred.

2) Pope St. Pius V Called the World to Pray the Rosary – The Feast Of Our Lady of the Rosary actually commemorates the Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571. Pope St. Pius V had asked the world to pray the rosary, and when the Holy League won the miraculous battle, the saintly pope pointed to our Lady’s intercession by proclaiming that day, October 7, The Feast of Our Lady of Victory, which was later named The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

In a few short weeks, you will be given information of a nation-wide campaign to pray the rosary for 54 days – “Novena For Our Nation” – leading up to a Rosary Rally in Washington DC on October 7, 2016. Not only is this significant, as it lands on the anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto, but also that it is only days before one of the most contentious elections in our nation’s history. Stay tuned!!

BE THE SHOCK TROOPS GOD IS CALLING YOU TO BE!!

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