The STORM that's NEEDED

As we celebrate with friends and family it comes to the close of another year. We reflect on the previous 12-months and aim to do better with the next twelve, whilst also hoping for a less traumatic year to be had by all. Whether 2017 will be one of the good years or not we can only tell with time – though I believe this will be one big shake-up of a year for everyone. Get ready, world, to experience events of massive disruption to everyone: young and old, rich and poor, religious and atheist, slave and free.

During the last year the Church celebrated an extraordinary jubilee year of mercy. Divine mercy. This year, 2017, is a landmark year for many reasons, notably the centenary of the Fatima apparitions of Our Lady and the "miracle of the sun" but also 500-years since the "Protestant Reformation" ripped through Europe, fracturing western Christendom.

In the Jewish calendar we are currently in the year 5777. Those schooled in Biblical studies will know that the number seven is a divine number to indicate "perfection." The number five is to signify grace. 5,777 = grace + perfected. Have a read of this article on "Mystic Post".

So not only in the Church, but the Jewish mind also, we are at a cross-roads of sorts. Coincidence? According to Jewish Rabbi's, "coincidence" is not a "kosher" word. To many Catholics, coincidences are actually signs from God, or angels, which are signs from God, none-the-less.

Throughout the next nine and a half months there will be "signs in the heavens" culminating towards the end of 2017, near the centenary of the "miracle of the sun". Sadly, most of the world will not look up at the night sky to witness such events unfold before our eyes because they are too glued to their phones and computer screens.

"And a great portent appeared in the heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars." – Revelation 12:1

For too long, God has been despised, hated, reviled, ignored, replaced. The whole world is wallowing in sin. In the west we have created a world without God. But God still exists, whether you want to claim he is a fable of antiquity, a moral guiding force for our ancient, illiterate, uneducated ancestors – as though we have the monopoly on knowledge! Perhaps, people in the past had things more spot-on than we have the world at this very moment.

Catholic prophecy speaks of a time when the "Immaculate Heart shall triumph" – I believe it will be soon, in the next twelve months. The prophecy also speaks of an "Illumination of conscience" where we will all experience a deep inward reflection of our lives and actions as they appear to God. Everyone. Not just Catholics. Not just Christians. EVERYONE. Some will take these signs for what they are, a warning from God, and choose to repent and mend their relationship with the Eternal Father. Many will have other excuses and grow harder in heart, becoming more wicked and evil.

Following this "illumination of conscience" there shall be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all who reflect and repent. Think the first Pentecost, but on a much, much larger scale. What an exciting time to be alive! The Lord is more-or-less giving us all a second chance, allowing us to know for certain He is real, from personal experience. An admonition. That shall be God's great mercy to us pilgrims here on earth.

Twelve-months ago I experienced my own personal "illumination" – though it wasn't THE "illumination" prophesied. Finally I understood the world in a different way. I understood why certain behaviours of mine were in fact evil. Sinful. I chose to take all that on board, renouncing the gay lifestyle I had been involved in since I was a teen. I broke-up the relationship I had with my now best-friend. Things have been going steady since, though I for one am not without sin, even now. The prophesied "illumination" may have to occur before I drastically change my ways, but I have started. Trust me, the sooner you know the truth, the better for your soul!

"Repent, and believe in the Gospel!" – Mark 1:15

Death of Celebrity

It is the final week of 2016 – that week in between Christmas Day on the 25th and New Years Day, the 1st of January 2017. A quick browse on social media will indicate 2016 was, by most, a horrible, dreary, deathly year. I for one don't think it was too bad of a year, though many bad things might have happened. Perhaps nothing major happened to me personally, though every year is littered with seemingly arbitrary events, deaths and trauma.

One of the main things I found people say is how many celebrity deaths there was in the year. According to Wikipedia, there are quite a number, though most of them unreported. From religious leaders, doctors and politicians, it seems that celebrity is the only thing that matters to this depraved world.

I don't want to rain on your period of grieving whomever you are grieving. George Michael was the most recent celebrity death that got the attention of the mainstream media. But could all these deaths be the start of the end of celebrity? We can only hope.

This world is so disconnected from reality. Social media is aflame with egotistical, superfluous wannabes. What about the Middle East – Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen? "We don't live there so who cares" is the excuse of many. Well, how about the influx of migrants into Europe? The religious persecution against Christians and other faiths? Everyone is too involved with themselves and the bubble they place themselves in than to care about reality of life for some not as fortunate to live in a free, democratic, well-off "first nation".

Why do the general public appear to care more about the death of a celebrity than the death of someone who actually changed the world somewhat? Anti-smoking doctors, heart surgeons, the physicist who gave us the "heimlich maneuver"?

Soon enough celebrity will be dead, when we realise we are all made of the same substance and all in need of God's saving grace. When Jesus Christ is coming with the clouds at trumpets blow, all of us will be looked at the same and judged accordingly. And lets face it, there aren't too many celebrities who actually do great, selfless things without thinking of a way to "make a buck."

"I AM coming soon." – Revelation 22:12

Welcome to 2016

We are technologically-abundant, materially-rich and spiritually-bankrupt.
The Churches of old dwindling in attendance, most long forgotten, sold and demolished for a new set of inner-city appartments.
Where is God in all of this? He no longer exists as one all-powerful being, for we have stolen his name, applying it to our own feeble human structure. We kill in the womb as if no life had ever been growing. Our parents and grandparents can no longer do anything useful so we give them an injection to send them to sleep.
Politicians are our priests. Transgenders our spiritually enlightened beings to be looked up to. Movie stars and singers our canonised Saints, and Facebook is our meeting place to whinge, whine, gossip and troll.
Weekend time we go to break bread and have a pint. Followed by church services – a singer or band inebriating our senses in large sporting stadiums.
Just remember to not question or think outside the new-norm. Else you'll find yourself in courtrooms and gaols. Yes, thinking, and true intelligence, that is now a crime.
So much entertainment forever on offer. But are we happy, or even close, like the golden days of old?
One day, I hope, we shall live to see another golden-age in the West. But it won't happen until we look back and repent of all the evil and sin. Selfishness and hate. Corruption and greed. Then finally restore the All Powerful to the place He deserves. In our heart, in our mind, public life and private.
Come Lord Jesus. Maranatha. Amen.