# 1 - Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. And many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'There he is!' do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect--if that were possible. See, I have told you ahead of time. "So if anyone tells you, 'There he is, out in the desert,' do not go out; or, 'Here he is, in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew 24:4-5; 11; 23-27) # 2 - "At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. (Matthew 24:30-31) # 3 - For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. ((Matthew 16:27) # 4 - As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew 24:37-39) # 5 - "It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. "It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. (Luke 17:28-30) # 6 - "Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man." (Luke 21:34-36) # 7 - Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. (Matthew 24:40-44) # 8 - "At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. "At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!' "Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.' "'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.' "But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. "Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!' "But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.' (Matthew 25:1-12) # 9 - It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. (Luke 12:37-38) # 10 - "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. (John 14:1-3) # 11 - "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. (Matthew 25:13) # 12 - "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. (Matthew 24:36) # 13 - You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him." (Luke 12:40) # 14 - "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." (Matthew 25:31-46) # 15 - If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels." (Mark 8:38)
"Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man." (Luke 21:34-36) I pray that we all are able to stand before the Son of Man. Let not our hearts be troubled but residing in the Grace of Our Lord. Carol and I are going to have our Convalidation ceremony on the 30th of this month. We will be able finally to take part in the Sacraments of confession and Communion together as Husband and Wife. I think it just may be the best day of my life being able to enter into Communion with Our Lord and become a member of the Body of the Church. So looking forward to the Graces which come with the Sacraments. We have received so many already it is hard to fathom.
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s2c2a7.htm The Church's ultimate trial 675 Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers.574 The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth575 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.576 676 The Antichrist's deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgment. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism,577 especially the "intrinsically perverse" political form of a secular messianism.578 677 The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection.579 The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven.580 God's triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world.581 * II. TO JUDGE THE LIVING AND THE DEAD
Don your Convalidation ceremony is the eve of the feast of the Holy Family! How wonderful! May Jesus , Mary and Joseph be the model of your family and May they protect you always. Amen. St Joseph model of Fathers pray for Don and his Family Now. Amen.
What a wonderful day that will be and it's only a week away! Alleluia! Eccl 4: 12a And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him. 12b A threefold cord is not quickly broken. Don, I love the progression of the above verse. In comparing it to your marriage, 12a speaks of the strength that you and your beloved currently share together. But 2018 brings our Eucharistic Lord into the equation! 12b thus speaks that this threefold cord is so much more a bond of love and strength! Alleluia! Thank you, Jesus! Safe in Our Eucharistic Lord!
I had no idea josephite, thank you for letting me know and also for your prayer to Saint Joseph. I have been strongly considering him for my Patron Saint at my Confirmation next month. It seems like he is choosing me!
Padraig, How extremely powerful is this audio from Bishop Fulton Sheen! I have never heard a more powerful nor in-depth talk of Our Catholic faith and what we must do! He proclaims the cross, he exhorts us to do battle with the love and the violence of the cross and he says........ The Catholic faith has had 3 destructions and we are heading for the 4th..........The past destructions have happened every 500 years, the first was the fall of Rome and the heresies against Christ the Christology period..........Then the split of the church between east and west an attack against the head of the Church. .......Then the reformation an attack against the body of the Church. And now it is the attack of the world, it is the seduction of the liberalism, modernism worldliness. ............When we as Catholic’s throw away something the world picks it up and uses it against us! It is the cross and only the cross that we must take back upon ourselves. We have thrown away violence! Violence must be restored! That is: violence towards ourselves. Mortification, humiliation, penance........in other words The Cross. They said to Jesus......Come down off the cross and we will believe. We will believe everything you teach, we'll believe in the Eucharist, the Trinity, in naming Peter! Just don’t preach the Cross, stop it!, we will believe, just come down off the cross! But Christ did not come down off the cross, because if He came down he would never had saved us! Because it is divine to hang there! We must take up our Cross and walk Our Lord Jesus' sorrowful stations! And I must listen again! Thank you padraig. I advise all to listen to this!
I am a little surprised that more people in Fulton's lifetime did not recognize him fro the saint he was. Not only a saint but very, very Prophetic indeed, especially towards the end of his life. I note , by looking at him with a certain sweet sadness that he seems to me to have undergone very intense interior suffering. But how could it be that he would not when he could see so clearly while others led their flocks straight to hell? Still such is the path of all the saints the path of the Cross. Mother Angelica has the very same thing. I was just listening yesterday to the suffering she went through when she pulled Cardinal O'Mahony for a truly dreadful Pastoral Letter he miswrote on the Eucharist. The Cardinal set the Vatican on her, poor woman. Still they would probably both drop dead in shock if they could see what is going on now in the Church. But Fulton Sheen surely called the dice long before they dropped, no doubt about it.
PS , you have a truly great Faith, always nourish it with constant prayer, it will die very quickly in the desert that is the world at the moment if you do not. Praying and loving and making Sacrifice for our families is all we can do for them at the moment. I have found the rosary very, very powerful for conversion if you are concerned about anyone. It has never ever failed me. A Joyous and a very holy Christmas to you and yours. May the baby Jesus give you a great big hug right from me. May the Christmas angels bless and fill your house and may the Virgin of Bethehem bless you all
Oh Padraig, what can I say but thank you for those beautiful wishes and prayers! I wish you a most Holy and Blessed Christmas........nestled snugly in the Immaculate Heart of Mary! which sweetly beats in harmony with the Most Sacred Heart! that our Most Holy Mother cradles in her arms. Amen. I ask Our Dearest Mother, Mary Most Pure, to keep us all [the MoG members and their families] under her mantle, closely united to the Holy Family in their adoration of the Divine Infant in that lowly manger this year. I wish a Merry and Blessed Christmas to all of you wonderful people here at MoG! God Bless you all. Amen. As Padre Pio says it is better to be in the manger and live the cry’s of the infant, the smells of the animals and the poverty of need! than to look on from outside and witness the brilliant light of the stars and the glories and grandeur of the Angels heavenly choirs singing! You are so right about the rosary. I cannot live without the rosary! it has become my life rope and my life. Act of Faith O my God, I firmly believe that you are one God in three divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I believe that your divine Son became man and died for our sins and that he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches because you have revealed them who are eternal truth and wisdom, who can neither deceive nor be deceived. In this faith I intend to live and die. Amen. Act of Hope O Lord God, I hope by your grace for the pardon of all my sins and after life here to gain eternal happiness because you have promised it who are infinitely powerful, faithful, kind, and merciful. In this hope I intend to live and die. Amen. Act of Love O Lord God, I love you above all things and I love my neighbor for your sake because you are the highest, infinite and perfect good, worthy of all my love. In this love I intend to live and die. Amen.
Josephite this so powerful and moving. A call to arms!! And our arms are the Cross! The Rosary and for as long as we have Him—our Blessed Lord in the Eucharist. Thank you for confirming for me what I already discerned —dimly —in prayer.
Thank you!!!! These prayers and your reflections are a true Christmas gift. God bless you Josephite and all your dear ones this blessed Christmas.
Padraig this true for us all. Without prayer we dry up and blow away like tumbleweed. The Rosary is the lifeline Our Mother throws out to us on these raging seas. This week has been particularly arduous for me. Constant fiery darts. Weather now means I might not get to Church for either Sunday or Christmas. I trust theLord. I will do all I can. And trust Him to do the rest. Padraig May God bless you with great mercies and graces this Christmas. I am so grateful to you for this forum and for your insights. I hope it is your holiest Christmas ever!!
