Prophetic Warning from Our Lady

 

Fr Blount Video:-  link below

Prophetic Warning from Our Lady (Youtube)

Surrounded by Fools

 

The Flame of Love

 

Before anything bad happens

Just before Christmas we took a trip to one of the Islands in Romblon to have a few days of prayer. The place we stayed in was a garden resort up in the hills with cabins and a good  restaurant, very peaceful and conducive to ‘rest and relaxation’. Often when we travel, there are Divine Appointments made and this was no exception. Our host, a successful businessman shared his testimony with us as a storm rolled in which would lengthen our stay by 2 days as ships would no longer be able to dock at the port due to the size of the waves. 

His story began with another storm, in Manila some years before, where he became captive to the weather and floods and was unable to go to work. It was during this time that he reflected on his life. Although hard working, healthy and materially successful, he had no time for God. He hadn't been to church since his wedding, decades earlier and it occurred to him that he ought to get himself in good standing with God, as he put it “before anything bad happens”. A pragmatic businessman indeed! He followed through and as the floods permitted, he went to church with a shopping list of sins and made his peace through the sacrament of reconciliation.

Soon after, a crisis did indeed present itself. His son had an accident wake boarding; an ill fitting helmet left him with a skull fracture. A simple operation was needed and whilst in recovery they noticed an infection in the bone had developed which made things more serious. A second operation was conducted to replace that area of the skull. After this, his son was becoming forgetful and it was clear that something was still wrong. A friend suggested that he seek St (Padre) Pio’s intercession. He googled Padre Pio to find out who he was and also identified a shrine dedicated to him near the hospital and began a series of visits to pray for his son. 

After one of those visits he returned to the hospital and found his son’s bed gone:- he had gone in for a third surgery. At that moment he noticed a strong smell of flowers in the room aka the odour of sanctity (often noticed by devotees of Padre Pio during his bilocations). The operation was a success and his son regained all his faculties on recovery. 

Whilst God is relentless in His pursuit of each and every lost soul, it is only when he opened his heart to God and turned his life around that he was able to tap into the new and true life in God. In this case, it also enabled him to handle the crisis in his son’s life as a man of faith rather than relying on his own strength. This became a precursor to another miracle for his son’s healing. It was a wonderful introduction to the might of the intercession of the saints in heaven and God’s provision in our lives when we pray in faith.

‘Do you have a difficult work colleague or boss ?’

In my early career I was very blessed in having good Supervisors and Managers. They were good mentors and I benefited greatly from their experiences and the knowledge they passed on, as well as their friendship. So years later, when I joined a new company, it was something of a challenge to deal with a particularly difficult boss who was shaped in a rather different mould.

Of course we are all under authority of some sort and firstly I had to acknowledge that reality and accept his direction as legitimate and suffer in silence,but not passively. I sought a higher authority.

I noticed a nearby church which held Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament during lunchtime on Wednesdays and I decided that I would use part of my lunch hour each week to pray for him. And so week after week, month after month I went to the Holy Hour and prayed for my boss. Frankly his ways did not improve; but after a few months he was offered a good job in another company and left. I rejoiced and thanked God !

By now I was already in the habit of my Wednesday lunchtime prayer and decided to continue. This time I decided to pray for my immediate supervisor, who I got along with very well, and so again I prayed week after week, month after month and after a few months, he was promoted and I inherited the stapler, his desk, and his Job Title!

I was on a roll and quite fascinated at how God was bringing about the structural changes in our company. What next? I was running out of Bosses but there was one left, also a good chap, so I started to pray for him. Week after week , month after month I made my Wednesday pilgrimage for my colleague and a few months later, I left! Another opportunity opened up for me overseas.

Really there is no formula that we can apply with how God works. Especially if we have no fixed agenda in our prayer for others, we can simply watch Him work things out for us and for those around us.

We cannot get along with everyone, nor usurp legitimate authority but, we can change the world with prayer!

“Unless you turn and become like little children…”

Entering the fourth quarter of life I began to think about some of the conditional scriptures like “unless you turn and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 18:3) and rather than find a book by a crusty old theologian I decided to consult the experts. My nephew’s son and daughter (8 and 5 years of age). 

The first thing I noticed was that they had no (memorable) past and no concept of the future:- no point arranging a meeting for ice cream at 3pm a week on Tuesday with these kids. They live in the moment whereas I spend much of my time looking back or in fast forward. 

Over breakfast the little girl was not too enthusiastic to eat; I pointed out that if she finished her breakfast it would help her grow taller (a desirable result) and so she finished it and then stood on her chair, and climbed onto the table to check my hypothesis as she towered a quarter inch above me, satisfied that she had indeed grown since our last meeting. 

Next the boy, with the natural desire to test his strength, invited me to practice boxing and MMA,  I was able to successfully block a volley of rights and lefts but the surprise haymaker at the end ‘rattled the bones of my ancestors’ and his face lit up with delight. We are our Father’s sons (The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name Exodus 15:3) I remembered a similar training session with his Dad 25 years before. 

Next the little girl, after finding her crayons, led me by the hand into the garden, which is her artist studio and I assisted in her latest creation; the result would make Picasso weep for his lack of imagination and she showed it around later to delight her audience. (May she never run out of colours!) 

Then despite a lack of gymnastic equipment, I proved useful again, this time my arm served as a horizontal bar which she could leap onto from the bunk bed and swing on. And before I had time to do the risk assessment she was already in mid-air. We continued until one of us was tired. 

A finale was straight after as I felt the paws of a growling lion cub grip my neck as he leaped onto my back to take down the old buffalo… not this time though! 

If we can become like children, it is to live in the moment, to have complete confidence and trust in God but also to grow, be tested and be ever creative. 

Of course there is a subsequent  question, if we become like little children, how does our Father respond? I think He is fully attentive, delighted at our need for Him, cooperative in answering prayers as a good father is to his earthly children’s requests. 

The angels bow to God’s Holiness and majesty, the kings of the earth fall before His power, the greatest sinners are in awe at His mercy and forgiveness. Perhaps those who become His children climb up onto his throne and playfully pluck an eternal whisker from his chin in the knowledge that there will be no repercussions.

“Where Faith Costs”

I have a photo of four Chinese Evangelists on my computer. They are all middle aged, ordinary looking chaps who have spent 47 years between them in prisons and labour camps held by the Chinese Communist government because they believe in Jesus. 

They are the product of a movement of the Holy Spirit in one of the nations most hostile to the Gospel message. And now, many in what is referred to as the House Churches (as they have no physical church buildings) have begun to send evangelists beyond China’s borders into the most untouched regions of the world still held captive in the grip of  Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. As they put it in an excerpt from the book ‘Back to Jerusalem’ :- 

“The Lord has been training Chinese Christians  for the past 50 years through imprisonment, torture, suffering and hardship. Thousands have been treated brutally in prison, thousands more have been sent out across the country as evangelists with nobody to rely on but God himself. They have seen numerous miracles and have come to a deep trust in Jesus that could not have been learned in any other way than through hardship and suffering….We have become soldiers of steel, tempered in the furnace of affliction. We do not fear what people can do to us.” 

If we contrast this with Churches in the free world we see a dismal picture; even in our own denomination we see  nit picking on religious practices like where your hands are during the Our Father,  where to receive communion ,  or whether we should revert back to the Latin Mass (or the silent minority who would like it in the original Aramaic) But how about the lost, does anybody care about them anymore ? 

How the western churches need a portion of this Spirit to revive their drooping fervour; but I wonder if any can pay the cost …perhaps Jesus will also supply the appropriate training to those with a heart for Him.