Jonathon Cahn has some interesting videos on YouTube. I gathered from one of them that when Jesus returns it will be in Israel. Do you think so?
It's understandably difficult for those Jews brought up with the Talmud to have a proper understanding of Catholicism, or Christianity in general. It would require a severe breach with many family members and friends. In this context, the graces accompanying it must be enormously powerful. Imagine the Power of Christ that will eventually lead to the final wholesale conversion of the Jews. I often wonder how many good Jews are converted on their deathbed? Death is a mystery and it is hard to define the final moment. A person might be deemed dead by all at his bedside, or other place of death, yet still not be quite there and experiencing one final 'assault' from Christ to see the light. The great Jewish anti-abortion journalist, Nat Hentoff, was a long-time professed atheist, but I read shortly after his death (it came through his daughters) that he had experienced several visions of God in his last illness. I personally would be confident that his atheism didn't stand a chance.
There is a really spooky place just outside Jerusalem called the Kedron Valley. It would make your hair stand on end. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidron_Valley It runs from the Golden Gate to the Garden of Olives. Rich Jews pay a fortune to get buried there as Jewish Legend claims that at the Last Judgement those buried in the Kidron Valley will rise first. The Golden Gate is blocked up for when the Messiah comes he is supposed to enter Jerusalem through the Golden Gate and so many Christians believe that this is the way Jesus will enter. I suspect this is true https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news...onflicts/0000017f-f45f-d5bd-a17f-f67f3d490000
There are going to be US soldiers on Israeli soil, with Russian and Turkish soldiers up the road in Syria. There are so many pieces falling into place. Taking into account Basto's meticulous detailing of the Russian assault on the Ukrainian Catholic Church and that Russia and Turkey can be plausibly identified as Gog and Magog, respectively, Ezekiel 38-39 makes interesting reading.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gehenna this valley also must be so scary, its "hell on earth" (gehenna) where corpses were left to burn and rot in a time where burial was so important. Supposedly the "worm that dieth not" message was based on real worms who thrived on these unburied bodies
Sometimes, especially at certain Mysteries of the Rosary I wonder to myself; there are millions of Catholics all over the World praying and meditating on this very same mystery, I wonder if any other Catholics wander down the same weird track as myself? One Mystery were this is so in the Assumption of Mary, body and soul into heaven. I am always struck by the physical in this that her body went straight into heaven. I think often we concentrate on the spiritual and never think about the body. But one thing I noticed very much in the months after my conversion was the effects prayer was having on my body. I was so much more healthy , my body even felt lighter. It was as though I had lost ten years off my life. The thing about these mysteries which concentrate so very much on Mary is that they tell us so much about ourselves. For just as Mary went body and soul into heaven so too we, on the Last Day will go body and Soul there. So walking about the Kidron Valley reminds us of this. That one day our bodies really will rise from the dead and we will all go escorted by many angels to Jerusalem for the Last Judgement. Just imagine. Also if we go to Hell we'll actually take our bodies to Hell too. Imagine that.
It's so long since I heard a sermon about the Three Last things. When I was a child they used to preach about them quite a lot. https://slmedia.org/blog/deacon-structing-the-four-last-things Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell are what the Church refers to as the Last Things. Traditionally, they were preached about during Advent (as we begin to get all those readings about the end times), although I suspect most of us have never heard a homily about the Last Things.
