"When Gregory assumed the Supreme Pontificate the disorder in public affairs had
reached its climax; the ancient civilization had all but disappeared and barbarism was
spreading throughout the dominions of the crumbling Roman Empire. Italy, abandoned by the
Emperors of Byzantium, had been left a prey of the still unsettled Lombards who roamed up
and down the whole country laying waste everywhere with fire and sword and bringing
desolation and death in their train. This very city, threatened from without by its
enemies, tried from within by the scourges of pestilence, floods and famine, was reduced
to such a miserable plight that it had become a problem how to keep the breath of life in
the citizens and in the immense multitudes who flocked hither for refuge. Here were to be
found men and women of all conditions, bishops and priests carrying the sacred vessels
they had saved from plunder, monks and innocent spouses of Christ who had sought safety in
flight from the swords of the enemy or from the brutal insults of abandoned men. Gregory
himself calls the Church of Rome: "An old ship woefully shattered; for the waters are
entering on all sides, and the joints, buffeted by the daily stress of the storm, are
growing rotten and herald shipwreck" (Registrum i., 4 ad Joannem episcop.
Constantino.). But the pilot raised up by God had a strong hand, and when placed at the
helm succeeding not only in making the port in despite of the raging seas, but in saving
the vessel from future storms..."
"These memories, Venerable Brethren, are a source of unspeakable comfort to Us. When
We glance around from the walls of the Vatican We find that like Gregory, and perhaps with
even more reason than he, We have grounds for fear, with so many storms gathering on every
side, with so many hostile forces massed and advancing against Us, and at the same time so
utterly deprived are We of all human aid to ward off the former and to help us to meet the
shock of the latter. But when We consider the place on which Our feet rest and on which
this Pontifical See is rooted, We feel Ourself perfectly safe on the rock of Holy Church.
"For who does not know," wrote St. Gregory to the Patriarch Eulogius of
Alexandria, "that Holy Church stands on the solidity of the Prince of the Apostles,
who got his name from his firmness, for he was called Peter from the word rock? (Registr.
vii. 37 (40)). Supernatural force has never during the flight of ages been found wanting
in the Church, nor have Christ's promises failed; these remain today just as they were
when they brought consolation to Gregory's heart—nay, they are endowed with even
greater force for Us after having stood the test of centuries and so many changes of
circumstances and events.
Kingdoms and empires have passed away; peoples once renowned for their history and
civilization have disappeared; time and again the nations, as though overwhelmed by the
weight of years, have fallen asunder; while the Church, indefectible in her essence,
united by ties indissoluble with her heavenly Spouse, is here to-day radiant with eternal
youth, strong with the same primitive vigor with which she came from the Heart of Christ
dead upon the Cross. Men powerful in the world have risen up against her. They have
disappeared, and she remains. Philosophical systems without number, of every form and
every kind, rose up against her, arrogantly vaunting themselves her masters, as though
they had at last destroyed the doctrine of the Church, refuted the dogmas of her faith,
proved the absurdity of her teachings. But those systems, one after another, have passed
into books of history, forgotten, bankrupt; while from the Rock of Peter the light of
truth shines forth as brilliantly as on the day when Jesus first kindled it on His
appearance in the world, and fed it with His Divine words: "Heaven and earth shall
pass, but my words shall not pass" (Matth. xxiv. 35).
We, strengthened by this faith, firmly established on this rock, realizing to the
full all the heavy duties that the Primacy imposes on Us—but also all the vigor that
comes to Us from the Divine Will—calmly wait until all the voices be scattered to the
winds that now shout around Us proclaiming that the Church has gone beyond her time, that
her doctrines are passed away for ever, that the day is at hand when she will be condemned
either to accept the tenets of a godless science and civilization or to disappear from
human society. Yet at the same time We cannot but remind all, great and small, as Pope St.
Gregory did, of the absolute necessity of having recourse to this Church in order to have
eternal salvation, to follow the right road of reason, to feed on the truth, to obtain
peace and even happiness in this life."
Pope St. Pius X, Iucunda sane (Encyclical on Pope St. Gregory the Great), 12th March, 1904, (para 7-9)
The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, by Rembrant (1633)
The above encyclical of Pope St. Pius X cites an allegory of Pope St. Gregory the Great comparing the Church to the Barque of St. Peter in the midst of a great tempest. This was a deliberate allusion to the accounts of Christ's calming of the storm in the Gospels. Alongside the symbolism of the Battle of Lepanto, this very same theme predominates St. John Bosco's famous prophetic
Dream of the Two Pillars. A prophecy which seems to be of especial significance this year, considering the fact that we have a very rare occurrence of a "blue and blood moon" on 31st January this year - which is the feast day of St. John Bosco himself. This is the first occurrence of a "
blue and blood moon" in over 150 years, and will also appear during yet another "super-moon" phase (the last of three consecutive such appearances), when the moon is at its closest point to earth.
The last time a "blue and blood moon" lit up the night skies was on 31st March, 1866, while St. John Bosco was still overseeing the construction of the Basilica of Our Lady of Help of Christians in Turin, which wasn't completed until 1868. During its construction, St. John Bosco insisted on incorporating several prophetic elements into the architecture of the Basilica itself, based on the various prophetic dreams and visions he had experienced over the years. The most notable of aspect of these curious additions to the architecture of the Basilica was an allusion to a prophetic date pointing to some time in the 20th century as the moment of another great Marian victory:
...additional work on the Church of Mary Help of Christians was in progress. Each of the two belfries flanking the facade was to be surmounted by an angel, nearly eight feet tall, fashioned from gilded wrought copper, according to Don Bosco’s own plan. The angel on the right held a banner…bearing the word “LEPANTO” drilled in large letters through the metal, while the one on the left offered…a laurel wreath to the Blessed Virgin standing atop the dome.
In a previous design, the second angel too held a banner on which the figure “19” was drilled through the metal followed by two dots. It stood for another date, “nineteen hundred,” without the final two numbers to indicate the specific year. Though ultimately, as we have said, a laurel wreath was put into the angel’s hand, we have never forgotten the mysterious date which, in our opinion, pointed to a new triumph of the Madonna. May this come soon and bring all nations under Mary’s mantle.
(Lemoyne, Biographical Memoirs IX, p276)
In an earlier blog post found
here, I had compiled several pieces of evidence (including the famous dream of the
March of the 200 Days) which suggested that the date hinted at in this engraving was the year 1999. The turn of the millennium saw the appearance of a series of astronomical phenomena beginning in 1999 which was identical to the Signs in Heaven described throughout Sacred Scripture. These Signs in Heaven herald the moment when the head of the ancient Serpent is crushed under the feet of the Woman Adorned with the Sun, and Satan is cast down to the earth by the Archangel Michael towards the end of the world, dragging down a third of the heavenly host with him. This is among a clustering of other prophetic signs which mark the end of the period of the short time of Satan - which I argue in my book
Unveiling the Apocalypse: The Final Passover of the Church, encompasses a total period of 100-120 years. In my book, I propose that the subdivision of this figure into a separate, yet interrelated and overlapping 100-year and 120-year timeframes was in order to distinguish between the two very distinct prophetic elements contained in chapter twelve of the Apocalypse, which requires us to differentiate between the moment Satan is cast down to earth in great fury towards the end of his period of greater power, and the moment when the flood sent forth from the Dragon's mouth is finally swallowed up.
Although a great victory is won in heaven at the moment Satan is cast down to earth, the evils brought about as a result of the "short-time" allotted to him continues unabated for another brief duration thereafter (an additional 20 years on top of the century given over to the Devil itself). It is only once the Devil realises that he has been cast down to earth that he sends forth a flood of impurity which threatens to sweep the Woman away:
Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers[b] has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”
And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. 17 Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. (Rev 12:7-17)
Although the end of the century given over to the Devil ends with the victory achieved in Heaven during the Great Jubilee Year of the Incarnation - when the head of the ancient Serpent is crushed under the feet of the Woman Adorned with the Sun, the true end of the short time of Satan only comes about when the flood spewed forth from the Dragon's mouth is swallowed up by the earth. In my book, I argue that the true beginning of the short time of Satan was at the dawn of the 20th century, after Pope Leo XIII had consecrated the entire world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1899 - the same year as an alignment of all seven classical planets. It is these rare alignments of the seven classical planets which I propose is symbolised by the seven stars held in the hands of Christ, which are one and the same as the "keys to death and Hades". The very same keys which are entrusted to the Successors of St. Peter, to determine the final destiny of humanity:
In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. (Rev 1:16-18)
It thus seems that it is the series of the planetary alignments of all seven classical planets which occur at the end of the Sabbath Millennium discussed by the Early Church Fathers (according to the chronological schema of St. Bede the Venerable), which are singled out for particular importance. The short time given over to Satan at the end of the Sabbath Millennium is made in answer to the demand that Peter is to be sifted like wheat - which is the sister passage in the Gospels to the handing over of the keys:
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:31-32)
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matt 16:18)
It is no coincidence that the vision of the period of Satan's greater power was given to the same Pope whose pontificate would witness the beginning of the period of the sifting of the Successors of St. Peter, when the shaft to the Abyss was opened with the keys of death and Hades:
And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. (Rev 9:1-2)
And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city... (Rev 20:7-9)
With the recent charges of heresy being levelled against the true Successor of St. Peter, we have now reached the pinnacle of the sifting demanded of Peter, when Satan has finally been able to point to the soiled garments of the Roman Pontiff in his role as Pontifex Maximus (High Priest), and claim that he has won victory over the Church instituted by the King of kings:
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by. (Zech 3:1-5)
In the wake of the Filial Correction issued on 24th September, 2017 - the feast day of Our Lady of Ransom (under whose form we find the devotions of Our Lady's Dowry and Our Lady of Walsingham), we now know the exact form this accusation has taken. In light of the prayer of Christ for Peter's never-failing faith, as affirmed by the dogmatic constitution of the Church Pastor aeternus concerning the indefectibility of the Church, we can rest assured that this charge being levelled against the true Successor of St. Peter is patently false. As Pastor aeternus explicitly states, the Apostolic See was gifted with an indefectible nature in the never failing-faith of the Successors of St. Peter, so that it can endure with rock-like strength for all of time:
That which our lord Jesus Christ, the prince of shepherds and great shepherd of the sheep, established in the blessed apostle Peter, for the continual salvation and permanent benefit of the Church, must of necessity remain for ever, by Christ's authority, in the Church which, founded as it is upon a rock, will stand firm until the end of time.
For "no one can be in doubt, indeed it was known in every age that the holy and most blessed Peter, prince and head of the apostles, the pillar of faith and the foundation of the Catholic Church, received the keys of the kingdom from our lord Jesus Christ, the savior and redeemer of the human race, and that to this day and for ever he lives" and presides and "exercises judgment in his successors" the bishops of the Holy Roman See, which he founded and consecrated with his blood.
Therefore whoever succeeds to the chair of Peter obtains by the institution of Christ himself, the primacy of Peter over the whole Church. "So what the truth has ordained stands firm, and blessed Peter perseveres in the rock-like strength he was granted, and does not abandon that guidance of the Church which he once received" (Pastor aeternus, Chap 2, para 1-3)
So the fathers of the fourth Council of Constantinople, following the footsteps of their predecessors, published this solemn profession of faith: "The first condition of salvation is to maintain the rule of the true faith. And since that saying of our lord Jesus Christ, You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, cannot fail of its effect, the words spoken are confirmed by their consequences. For in the Apostolic See the Catholic religion has always been preserved unblemished, and sacred doctrine been held in honor. Since it is our earnest desire to be in no way separated from this faith and doctrine, we hope that we may deserve to remain in that one communion which the Apostolic See preaches, for in it is the whole and true strength of the christian religion...It was for this reason that the bishops of the whole world, sometimes individually, sometimes gathered in synods, according to the long established custom of the Churches and the pattern of ancient usage referred to this Apostolic See those dangers especially which arose in matters concerning the faith. This was to ensure that any damage suffered by the faith should be repaired in that place above all where the faith can know no failing.
The Roman pontiffs, too, as the circumstances of the time or the state of affairs suggested, sometimes by summoning ecumenical councils or consulting the opinion of the Churches scattered throughout the world, sometimes by special synods, sometimes by taking advantage of other useful means afforded by divine providence, defined as doctrines to be held those things which, by God's help, they knew to be in keeping with Sacred Scripture and the apostolic traditions.
For the Holy Spirit was promised to the successors of Peter not so that they might, by his revelation, make known some new doctrine, but that, by his assistance, they might religiously guard and faithfully expound the revelation or deposit of faith transmitted by the apostles. Indeed, their apostolic teaching was embraced by all the venerable fathers and reverenced and followed by all the holy orthodox doctors, for they knew very well that this See of St. Peter always remains unblemished by any error, in accordance with the divine promise of our Lord and Savior to the prince of his disciples: "I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren."[60]
This gift of truth and never-failing faith was therefore divinely conferred on Peter and his successors in this See so that they might discharge their exalted office for the salvation of all, and so that the whole flock of Christ might be kept away by them from the poisonous food of error and be nourished with the sustenance of heavenly doctrine. Thus the tendency to schism is removed and the whole Church is preserved in unity, and, resting on its foundation, can stand firm against the gates of hell.
(Pastor aeternus Chap 4, para 2;4-7)
The indefectibility of the Church was upheld by Pope St. Pius X himself, which is a sad irony, since it is this saintly pontiff who lends his name to the SSPX - one of the chief sources of the current opposition to the pontificate of Pope Francis. It is quite likely that Pope St. Pius X had the prophetic dream of St. John Bosco in mind when he was quoting Pope St. Gregory the Great's metaphor of the Barque of St. Peter enduring the tempest, given the fact that there are few other similarities connecting these visions. St. Pius X notes that the conversion of England was won under the pontificate of Pope St. Gregory, who coordinated the Gregorian Mission spearheaded by St. Augustine of Canterbury. This was the first large scale mission known to have been sponsored by the Holy See itself, and achieved great success with the conversion King Æthelberht of Kent; and was aided by the Irish missionaries who were already evangelising the north of Britain.
In the same encyclical on St. Gregory the Great and the Barque of St. Peter in the storm, Pope St. Pius X alludes to the famous prophecy of St. Edward the Confessor concerning the future fate of England, which was symbolised by the cutting down of a tree:
Today, on the contrary, although the world enjoys a light so full of Christian
civilization and in this respect cannot for a moment be compared with the times of
Gregory, yet it seems as though it were tired of that life, which has been and still is
the chief and often the sole fount of so many blessings—and not merely past but
present blessings. And not only does this useless branch cut itself off from the trunk, as
happened in other times when heresies and schisms arose, but it first lays the ax to the
root of the tree, which is the Church, and strives to dry up its vital sap that its ruin
may be the surer and that it may never blossom again. (Pope St. Pius X Iucunda sane)
St. Edward, who reigned from 1042-1066, was the penultimate Anglo-Saxon king, and was renowned during his own lifetime for his exemplary life of holiness. On his deathbed the King witnessed a famous vision, which has since been recognised as a prophecy that his beloved country would be estranged from the Catholic faith for three centuries, after which it would re-flower and "bear fruit". The prophecy was quoted by Ambrose Lisle Phillipps in a letter to the Earl of Shrewsbury in 1850 after the conditions brought about by the Catholic Relief Act of 1829 allowed the return of the diocesan episcopacy to England, which occurred after Pope Pius IX issued the papal bull
Universalis Ecclesiae in 1850.
"
During the month of January, 1066, the holy King of England St. Edward the Confessor was confined to his bed by his last illness in his royal Westminster Palace. St. Ælred, Abbott of Rievaulx, in Yorkshire, relates that a short time before his happy death, this holy king was wrapt in ecstasy, when two pious Benedictine monks of Normandy, whom he had known in his youth, during his exile in that country, appeared to him, and revealed to him what was to happen to England in future centuries, and the cause of the terrible punishment. They said: 'The extreme corruption and wickedness of the English nation has provoked the just anger of God. When malice shall have reached the fullness of its measure, God will, in His wrath, send to the English people wicked spirits, who will punish and afflict them with great severity, by separating the green tree from its parent stem the length of three furlongs. But at last this same tree, through the compassionate mercy of God, and without any national (governmental) assistance, shall return to its original root, reflourish and bear abundant fruit.' After having heard these prophetic words, the saintly King Edward opened his eyes, returned to his senses, and the vision vanished. He immediately related all he had seen and heard to his virgin spouse, Edgitha, to Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury, and to Harold, his successor to the throne, who were in his chamber praying around his bed." (See the full article on the Catholic Encyclopaedia article
here)
The prophecy of St. Edward the Confessor can be found in the Vita Ædwardi Regis, an early biography of the king which was commissioned by his wife Queen Edith and written within a year of his death (c.1067). This text survives in an extant manuscript dating to around 1100, which is housed in the British museum. Although the version above quoted by Phillipps differs slightly from the original, cited below, we can find all the major elements in it.
The green tree which springs from the trunk
When thence it shall be severed
And removed to a distance of three acres
By no engine or hand of man
Shall return to its original trunk
And shall join itself to its root
Whence first it had origin
The head shall receive again its verdure
It shall bear fruit after its flower
Then shall you be able for certainty
To hope for amendment
The green tree or shoot represents England, the trunk is the Catholic Church. The offshoot of the trunk is removed to a distance of three acres, which represent three centuries. After which the shoot returns to the trunk and re-flowers, which refers to the return of the episcopacy in 1850, three hundred years after the Anglican Church broke away from Rome during the English Reformation under King Henry VIII. The tree bearing fruit after its flowering is still yet to come, when the full conversion of England will inaugurate the Second Pentecost, as foretold by numerous other prophecies such as those of La Salette:
On September 19, 1846, we saw a beautiful Lady. We never said that this lady was the Blessed Virgin but we always said that it was a beautiful Lady. I do not know if it is the Blessed Virgin or another person. As for me, I believe today that it is the Blessed Virgin. Here is what this Lady said to me:
“If my people continue, what I will say to you will arrive earlier, if it changes a little, it will be a little later. France has corrupted the universe, one day it will be punished. The faith will die out in France: three quarters of France will not practice religion anymore, or almost no more, the other part will practice it without really practicing it. Then, after [that], nations will convert, the faith will be rekindled everywhere. A great country, now Protestant, in the north of Europe, will be converted; by the support of this country all the other nations of the world will be converted...
(Our Lady of La Salette to Maxmin Giraud)
In this respect, it is interesting to note that the conversion of England plays a pivotal role in St. John Bosco's prophetic dream concerning the March of the 200 Days. The dream of the March of 200 Days is set among a section of the memoirs containing three prophecies, the first of which is connected to St. Dominic Savio's vision of the Pope, the Great Monarch and the future conversion of England:
.
..there will come a great warrior from the North carrying a banner and on the right hand that supports it is written: "The Irresistible Hand of the Lord." At that very moment there went out to meet him the Venerable Old Man of Lazio, holding aloft a brilliantly glowing torch. The banner then increased in size and turned from black to snow-white. In the middle of the banner, in letters of gold, there was written the name of Him who is able to do all things. The warrior with his men bowed and shook hands with the Venerable Old Man.
(You can find the full text of the three prophecies
here).
We can see the similarities between the above prophecy and that of St. Dominic Savio below, where like the "Venerable Old Man of Lazio" (who represents the Pope), the pontiff holds aloft a flaming torch to enlighten a nation residing in spiritual darkness:
One morning as I was making my thanksgiving after Communion, a very strong distraction took hold of me. I thought I saw a great plain full of people enveloped in thick fog. They were walking about like people who had lost their way and did not know which way to turn. Someone near me said: ‘This is England’. I was just going to ask some questions, when I saw Pope Pius IX just like I have seen him in pictures. He was robed magnificently and carried in his hand a torch alive with flames. As he walked slowly toward that immense gathering of people, the leaping flames from the torch dispelled the fog, and the people stood in the splendour of the noonday sun. ‘That torch’, said the one beside me, ‘is the Catholic Faith, which is going to light up England.’”
The
conversion of England is foretold in many prophecies to inaugurate the beginning of the Second Pentecost - including those of the 1846 version of La Salette, and the famous prophecy of St. Malachy which is widely believed to be authentic. So St. Dominic Savio's vision here is clearly associated with the new springtime envisioned by Bl. John Paul II and Bl. John Henry Newman. The first prophecy of St. John Bosco then continues with the theme of the Second Pentecost:
Things follow too slowly upon each other, but the great Queen of Heaven is at hand; the Lord's power is Hers. Like mist She shall scatter Her enemies. She shall vest the Venerable Old Man with all his former garments. There shall yet come a violent hurricane. Iniquity is at an end, sin shall cease, and before two full moons shall have shone in the month of flowers, the rainbow of peace shall appear on the earth. The great Minister shall see the Bride of his King clothed in glory. Throughout the world a sun so bright shall shine as was never seen since the flames of the Cenacle until today, nor shall it be seen again until the end of time...
(Biographical Memoirs)
Note the mention here of "two full moons" shining "in the month of flowers", which may be of some importance to our present scenario, since in addition to the blue and blood moon which occurs on Jan 31st this year (the feast of St. John Bosco), there will be another blue moon in the month of March 2018 - which is a possible contender for the "Month of Flowers". This blue moon occurs on the 31st March, 2018, which also coincides with Holy Saturday, which commemorates Our Lord's descent into Hades and the Harrowing of Hell (recalling Christ holding the keys to death and Hades in his hands in the Apocalypse).
The theme of the Second Pentecost is continued in the second prophecy of St. John Bosco concerning the March of the 200 Days, which as well as being directly associated with the Dream of the Two Pillars, also contains imagery strongly reminiscent of the Third Secret of Fatima:
It was a dark night, and men could no longer find their way back to their own countries. Suddenly a most brilliant light shone in the sky, illuminating their way as at high noon. At that moment from the Vatican came forth, as in procession, a multitude of men and women, young children, monks, nuns, and priests, and at their head was the Pope.
But a furious storm broke out, somewhat dimming that light, as if light and darkness were locked in battle. Meanwhile the long procession reached a small square littered with dead and wounded, many of whom cried for help.
The ranks of the procession thinned considerably. After a two-hundred day march, all realized that they were no longer in Rome. In dismay they swarmed about the Pontiff to protect him and minister to him in his needs.
At that moment two angels appeared, bearing a banner which they presented to the Supreme Pontiff, saying: "Take the banner of Her who battles and routs the most powerful armies on earth. Your enemies have vanished: with tears and sighs your children plead for your return."
One side of the banner bore the inscription: Regina sine labe concepta [Queen conceived without sin], and the other side read: Auxilium Christianorum [Help of Christians].
The Pontiff accepted the banner gladly, but he became distressed to see how few were his followers.
But the two angels went on: "Go now, comfort your children. Write to your brothers scattered throughout the world that men must reform their lives. This cannot be achieved unless the bread of the Divine Word is broken among the peoples. Teach children their catechism and preach detachment from earthly things. The time has come," the two angels concluded, "when the poor will evangelize the world. Priests shall be sought among those who wield the hoe, the spade, and the hammer, as David prophesied: 'God lifted the poor man from the fields to place him on the throne of His people.'"
On hearing this, the Pontiff moved on, and the ranks began to swell. Upon reaching the Holy City, the Pontiff wept at the sight of its desolate citizens, for many of them were no longer. He then entered St. Peter's and intoned the Te Deum, to which a chorus of angels responded, singing: Gloria in excelsis Deo et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis. When the song was over, all darkness vanished and a blazing sun shone. The population had declined greatly in the cities and in the countryside; the land was mangled as if by a hurricane and hailstorm, and people sought each other, deeply moved, and saying: Est Deus in Israel [There is a God in Israel].
From the start of the exile until the intoning of the Te Deum, the sun rose 200 times. All the events described covered a period of 400 days.
So it appears to be fully evident that the various prophecies of the future conversion of England were firmly in the mind of Pope St. Pius X when he composed his encyclical on Pope Gregory the Great. This is especially important to us today, since the bishops of England have recently announced they plan to rededicate England as the Dowry of Mary in the year 2020 at the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham (which is closely associated with St. Edward the Confessor). This year will see yet another rare alignment of all seven of the classical planets on 4th July, 2020, an event which we noted earlier symbolises the opening and closing of the Abyss. Could this be the moment which marks the true end of the short time given to Satan, when the flood poured forth from the mouth of the Dragon is finally swallowed up? If so, it would see the end of the current storm which is currently buffeting the Barque of St. Peter, in a scene which was repeatedly recalled by Pope Benedict XVI:
"Excita, Domine, potentiam tuam, et veni. Repeatedly during the season of Advent the Church’s liturgy prays in these or similar words. They are invocations that were probably formulated as the Roman Empire was in decline. The disintegration of the key principles of law and of the fundamental moral attitudes underpinning them burst open the dams which until that time had protected peaceful coexistence among peoples. The sun was setting over an entire world. Frequent natural disasters further increased this sense of insecurity. There was no power in sight that could put a stop to this decline. All the more insistent, then, was the invocation of the power of God: the plea that he might come and protect his people from all these threats.
Excita, Domine, potentiam tuam, et veni. Today too, we have many reasons to associate ourselves with this Advent prayer of the Church. For all its new hopes and possibilities, our world is at the same time troubled by the sense that moral consensus is collapsing, consensus without which juridical and political structures cannot function. Consequently the forces mobilized for the defence of such structures seem doomed to failure.
Excita – the prayer recalls the cry addressed to the Lord who was sleeping in the disciples’ storm-tossed boat as it was close to sinking. When his powerful word had calmed the storm, he rebuked the disciples for their little faith (cf. Mt 8:26 et par.). He wanted to say: it was your faith that was sleeping. He will say the same thing to us. Our faith too is often asleep. Let us ask him, then, to wake us from the sleep of a faith grown tired, and to restore to that faith the power to move mountains – that is, to order justly the affairs of the world.
Excita, Domine, potentiam tuam, et veni: amid the great tribulations to which we have been exposed during the past year, this Advent prayer has frequently been in my mind and on my lips. We had begun the Year for Priests with great joy and, thank God, we were also able to conclude it with great gratitude, despite the fact that it unfolded so differently from the way we had expected. Among us priests and among the lay faithful, especially the young, there was a renewed awareness of what a great gift the Lord has entrusted to us in the priesthood of the Catholic Church. We realized afresh how beautiful it is that human beings are fully authorized to pronounce in God’s name the word of forgiveness, and are thus able to change the world, to change life; we realized how beautiful it is that human beings may utter the words of consecration, through which the Lord draws a part of the world into himself, and so transforms it at one point in its very substance; we realized how beautiful it is to be able, with the Lord’s strength, to be close to people in their joys and sufferings, in the important moments of their lives and in their dark times; how beautiful it is to have as one’s life task not this or that, but simply human life itself – helping people to open themselves to God and to live from God. We were all the more dismayed, then, when in this year of all years and to a degree we could not have imagined, we came to know of abuse of minors committed by priests who twist the sacrament into its antithesis, and under the mantle of the sacred profoundly wound human persons in their childhood, damaging them for a whole lifetime.
In this context, a vision of Saint Hildegard of Bingen came to my mind, a vision which describes in a shocking way what we have lived through this past year. “In the year of our Lord’s incarnation 1170, I had been lying on my sick-bed for a long time when, fully conscious in body and in mind, I had a vision of a woman of such beauty that the human mind is unable to comprehend. She stretched in height from earth to heaven. Her face shone with exceeding brightness and her gaze was fixed on heaven. She was dressed in a dazzling robe of white silk and draped in a cloak, adorned with stones of great price. On her feet she wore shoes of onyx. But her face was stained with dust, her robe was ripped down the right side, her cloak had lost its sheen of beauty and her shoes had been blackened. And she herself, in a voice loud with sorrow, was calling to the heights of heaven, saying, ‘Hear, heaven, how my face is sullied; mourn, earth, that my robe is torn; tremble, abyss, because my shoes are blackened!’
And she continued: ‘I lay hidden in the heart of the Father until the Son of Man, who was conceived and born in virginity, poured out his blood. With that same blood as his dowry, he made me his betrothed.
For my Bridegroom’s wounds remain fresh and open as long as the wounds of men’s sins continue to gape. And Christ’s wounds remain open because of the sins of priests. They tear my robe, since they are violators of the Law, the Gospel and their own priesthood; they darken my cloak by neglecting, in every way, the precepts which they are meant to uphold; my shoes too are blackened, since priests do not keep to the straight paths of justice, which are hard and rugged, or set good examples to those beneath them. Nevertheless, in some of them I find the splendour of truth.’
And I heard a voice from heaven which said: ‘This image represents the Church. For this reason, O you who see all this and who listen to the word of lament, proclaim it to the priests who are destined to offer guidance and instruction to God’s people and to whom, as to the apostles, it was said: go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation’ (Mk 16:15)” (Letter to Werner von Kirchheim and his Priestly Community: PL 197, 269ff.).
In the vision of Saint Hildegard, the face of the Church is stained with dust, and this is how we have seen it. Her garment is torn – by the sins of priests. The way she saw and expressed it is the way we have experienced it this year. We must accept this humiliation as an exhortation to truth and a call to renewal. Only the truth saves. We must ask ourselves what we can do to repair as much as possible the injustice that has occurred. We must ask ourselves what was wrong in our proclamation, in our whole way of living the Christian life, to allow such a thing to happen. We must discover a new resoluteness in faith and in doing good. We must be capable of doing penance. We must be determined to make every possible effort in priestly formation to prevent anything of the kind from happening again. This is also the moment to offer heartfelt thanks to all those who work to help victims and to restore their trust in the Church, their capacity to believe her message. In my meetings with victims of this sin, I have also always found people who, with great dedication, stand alongside those who suffer and have been damaged. This is also the occasion to thank the many good priests who act as channels of the Lord’s goodness in humility and fidelity and, amid the devastations, bear witness to the unforfeited beauty of the priesthood."
(Address of his holiness Benedict XVI on the occasion of the Christmas greeting to the Roman Curia,
20th December, 2010)
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(I would like to point out that credit for some of the key insights presented above must be credited to my good friend Fr. Richard Heilman. Father is currently attempting to draw up much needed recruits for his "Nineveh 90" prayer campaign. Please join him @ https://www.romancatholicman.com)
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