There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. Luke 21:25

On September 23, 2017 there was a sign in the sky. A woman clothed in the sun with the moon at her feet and a crown of twelve stars. It was as if heaven was announcing a new era, but as with every new era, a Passion happens; a great suffering. We know that the church will go through what Christ went through.

Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the “mystery of iniquity” in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh. ccc 675

I am not here to talk about eschatology, it is something I know very little about. I also am not here to speak of timelines, for no one knows the hour. But I do think there are some things to look for as we forge ahead in this wonderous time to be alive. I don’t pretend to say that I speak for God, for that responsibility is so big, but I do feel prompted to write what I see is coming based on viewing things through the lens of the Passion. I don’t think anyone reading this is blind to all of the things going on in the world. For me, I look for the things of the church to tell me what is happening in the world.

To begin, I think COVID lockdown was a warning for us, much the way that Christ tried to get his message across and warn the hard hearted. But his message often wasn’t heard, and he couldn’t perform miracles in his own hometown because of their lack of faith. We had an opportunity to live in faith during COVID but instead the faithful were banned from worship and given hand sanitizer as a savior. We could have grown closer to the Lord, instead we appeared to turn to the world to save us worrying more about the flesh than souls. This statement is not to judge the fear in people’s hearts, but to point out that Christendom shut down instead of ministering in a time of dire need. The Eucharist was taken away from the faithful. Many prophets, both religious and secular pointed out what was happening only to be scoffed at.

Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown and among their own kin and in their own house.” And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them.  And he was amazed at their unbelief. Mark 6:4-6

Jesus will go where He is heard. He is preparing His church for her Passion, death and resurrection.

Many people are speaking about an Illumination of Conscience. This is something that I believe will happen, but I want to say what I would look for prior to this.

First, I would look for a cleansing of the Temple.

Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.  “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’ Matthew 21:12-13

There are two ways I see the temple cleansed. One is the temple of my own heart. Many of you out there have been suffering greatly, you’re tired, your cup feels empty. God is not willing our exhaustion for the sake of wearing us out, rather, in the love that God has for us, I see this as an emptying of all that is not of Him in preparation to fill the cup overflowing. It is preparation to learn complete abandonment and trust.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Psalm 23:4-5

The second way I see the cleansing of the temple, is an actual cleansing of all idolatry from the Vatican. I don’t know what this would look like. I just know that first the idolatry will be revealed and that then it would anger some enough to want the Eucharist totally gone. His house is a house of prayer and we have let idolatry in.

I would expect to see a betrayal of church doctrine on the teaching of the Eucharist. Of course when we betray our own bodies with false ideology of transgenderism, sinful mockery of marriage, and enshrinement of abortion, it is only a matter of time before we betray the body of Christ Himself. Thinking we are god, we make God what we want instead of humbling ourselves in obedience to God.

And that is the marker I would look for to know when the illumination of conscience would come. It would seem like death, but it would bring illumination.

It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun’s light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two.  Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Having said this, he breathed his last.  When the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, “Certainly this man was innocent. Luke 23:45-47

Illumination from heaven brings resurrection of the Truth. I see an illumination of conscience as both death and resurrection. When we see our sin and what it did to him, we must die to our sin and choose the way He left us. Just as many eyes were opened when Christ died, so too many eyes are opening to the destruction the world brings. But when the Eucharist is removed, people see their sin on display. The light of goodness whose source for us is Christ in the Eucharist, may briefly seem extinguished.

before I come as the just Judge, I am coming first as the King of Mercy. Before the day of justice arrives, there will be given to people a sign in the Heavens of this sort: All light in the heavens will be extinguished, and there will be great darkness over the whole earth. Then the sign of the Cross will be seen in the sky, and from the openings where the hands and the feet of the Saviour were nailed will come forth great lights which will light up the earth for a period of time. This will take place shortly before the last day. (Diary of Saint Faustina 83) 

Illumination of conscience would be a mercy and choice must be made for or against God. And then the battle begins. Like the early church that was persecuted, there will be persecution. But God provides. We must always look up and remember his goodness.

I imagine the disciples were tired too, perhaps feeling empty when they saw the angered leaders and the walls closing in, yet they couldn’t stay awake to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane. All of them ran away, but one came back. The disciple John came back. John was with Mary.

This brings me to the all-important point of why I write this here. The future has some dark things, as it did for the disciples prior to the Passion. Jesus told them what was coming, but they couldn’t picture it in their heads. We know from how Peter reacted to the arrest in the garden that they expected Jesus to display His power without His dying. But that wouldn’t have opened heaven bringing the total forgiveness of all our sin.

For us, we cannot expect that God would display His power prior to His purging all ungodliness from our hearts and from the Church. There is no other way for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. All impurity must go.

It is here we turn to the Virgin Mary, the one human person who is pure and gave birth to the Divine Person of Christ. She is one through whom all grace flows. Saint Louis de Monfort said that it isn’t enough to just consecrate yourself to Mary. He said we must do all things in and through her. That is my prayer in every decision I make. I pray for it to be in and through her.

When we act in and through Mary, the vessel through which God became man, God elevates us, and we can stand at the cross and still look up at heaven believing that God is good as the world we know crumbles.

I see a new Pentecost in the future, one where the Holy Spirit reigns down. Interestingly, I do have a date (but not a year) stuck in my head as a date for the New Pentecost; that date is August 5. That is obviously for discernment.

God Bless you all and Pray without ceasing.

August Queen of Heaven, Sovereign Mistress of the Angels, thou, who from the beginning hast received from God the power of the mission to crush the head of Satan, we humbly implore thee, to send thy holy legions so that under thy command and by thy power, they may drive the devils away, everywhere, fight them, subduing their boldness and thrust them down into the abyss.

Who is like unto God?

O good and tender Mother, thou willst always be our love and our hope.

O divine Mother, send Thy holy angels to defend me and drive far away from me the cruel enemy.

Holy Angels and Archangels defend us, keep us.