From the Mass readings this week:
Elijah appealed to all the people and said, “How long will you straddle the issue? If the Lord is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him.” (First reading, Wednesday)
We must each ask ourselves: Am I trying to “straddle” the “hot button” issues today by appealing to political correctness rather than truth? Am I being loyal to Church teaching or my ego? Am I in step with Sacred Tradition or the decrees of the State; the Words of Christ or the mantras of the masses?
Am I, therefore, of a spiritual or a worldly mind?
…worldliness is the root of evil and it can lead us to abandon our traditions and negotiate our loyalty to God who is always faithful. This… is called apostasy,[1]“Let no one deceive you in any way; for [the day of the Lord] will not come, unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. (2 Thess 2:3-4) which… is a form of “adultery” which takes place when we negotiate the essence of our being: loyalty to the Lord. —POPE FRANCIS from a homily, Vatican Radio, November 18th, 2013
Confess the Faith! All of it, not part of it! Safeguard this faith, as it came to us, by way of tradition: the whole Faith! —POPE FRANCIS, Zenit.org, January 10th, 2014
Heaven’s messages this week are powerful exhortations to not be passive, to not be of two minds, to not cave-in to the “half-truths and lies” that are spreading in the name of fighting “equality,” “justice”, and “tolerance.” Pope Benedict reminded the faithful in the Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate of the necessity, always, of “charity in truth.” For charity without truth is error, while truth without charity is cold. Or put another way:
Deeds without knowledge are blind, and knowledge without love is sterile. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Caritas in Veritate, n. 2, 30
Otherwise, as Our Lady said to Pedro Regis recently, we risk becoming like “the blind leading the blind.” And…
They multiply their sorrows who court other gods. (Psalm, Wednesday)
We know many of you are experiencing tremendous divisions in your family and communities. Perhaps, out of fear, or the desire to be praised, or simply to “keep the peace,” you have compromised, offering your loyalty to the “god of Baal”, that is, the spirit of the world”, and not the Truth, who is Jesus Christ. If so, St. James writes:
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you of two minds. (James 4:8)
In other words, it is time for the Body of Christ to stop straddling the spirit of antichrist, and decide whom we will serve. For as Christians, we can only breach the gap of these present divisions through the power of charity in truth. Yes, you will be persecuted, but as Jesus encourages us in Monday’s Gospel:
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Monday’s Gospel)
Prophets like Elijah.
—Mark Mallett
See also:
Compromise: the Great Apostasy
Political Correctness and the Great Apostasy
Footnotes
| ↑1 | “Let no one deceive you in any way; for [the day of the Lord] will not come, unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. (2 Thess 2:3-4) |
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Alicja Lenczewska
Elizabeth Kindelmann
Through what became The Spiritual Diary, Jesus and Mary taught Elizabeth, and they continue to instruct the faithful in the divine art of suffering for the salvation of souls. Tasks are assigned for each day of the week, which involve prayer, fasting, and night vigils, with beautiful promises attached to them, laced with special graces for priests and the souls in purgatory. In their messages, Jesus and Mary say that The Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is the greatest grace given to mankind since the Incarnation. And in the not-so-distant future, her flame will engulf the entire world.
Father Stefano Gobbi
Why Gisella Cardia?
Thirdly, the messages have frequently been accompanied by visible phenomena, photographic evidence found in In Cammino con Maria, which cannot be the fruit of subjective imagination, notably the presence of the stigmata on Giselle’s body and and the appearance of crosses or religious texts in blood on Gisella’s arms. See the pictures taken from her apparition website 
Jennifer
Why Manuela Strack?
Why the Visionaries of Our Lady of Medjugorje?
Why Pedro Regis?
Why the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta?
of the saints. It wasn’t until she became a “Daughter of Mary” that the nightmares finally ceased at the age of eleven. In the following year, Jesus began to speak interiorly to her especially after receiving Holy Communion. When she was thirteen, He appeared to her in a vision that she witnessed from the balcony of her home. There, in the street below, she saw a crowd and armed soldiers leading three prisoners; she recognized Jesus as one of them. When He arrived beneath her balcony, He raised his head and cried out: “Soul, help Me!” Deeply moved, Luisa offered herself from that day on as a victim soul in expiation for the sins of mankind.
immobile, rigid-like state that appeared almost as if she were dead. It was only when a priest made the sign of the Cross over her body that Luisa regained her faculties. This remarkable mystical state persisted until her death in 1947—followed by a funeral that was no little affair. During that period in her life, she suffered no physical illness (until she succumbed to pneumonia at the end) and she never experienced bedsores, despite being confined to her little bed for sixty-four years.
Why Simona and Angela?
Valeria Copponi