I've been reading Father Walter Cizeks book He Leadeth Me this lent. Must say it has to be a spiritual classic. It is a treasure and mine of infinite wisdom. I love his understanding that we often look for God's will in life's situations whilst being blind to the fact that those same situations ARE God's will for us despite it being God's permissive or deliberative will.
Agree. It is hard to find good solid Catholic sources of information in that area. One thing that bothers me is that so many Catholic 'influencers'--I won't call the Countdown people or Doug Barry Catholic "experts"--is how gleeful they are when bad things happen, as if it proves they are right about their own interpretations of new messages and new mystics.
I loved He Leadeth Me. It helped immensely when I first returned to the faith. His insight on God's Will opened my understanding. His profound experience with the Holy Spirit in Lubyanka prison touched me deep. It is a book for these times!
I think that the terrible confusion in the Church affects everyone differently. So many are seeking a port in the storm. This mystic, or that locution. They run here and they run there. They hope for reassurrance. A kind of Catholic fortune telling in a way. Fr Heilman is " good people". He has a good and generous heart and a deep love for the Church. He has suffered a kind of persecution from his bishop and other priests in his diocese because of his love for the traditional Mass and his desire to restore reverence. I hope we can cut him some slack. Its very treacherous out there right now.
I read a report there now. There was a gentleman from EWTN attending a conference in Rome a few days ago. He stayed in the Santa Marta were Papa Frankie lives and actually met him. He can only walk with two people helping him, barely talks but the worst thing is he always looks very, very sad. The guy says he thinks he will die shortly. Prayers for the poor man. My heart is in my mouth about who will be next..
Things are so bad at the moment. Like being lost in a great desert. I feel a great sympathy for people who wander off the track. One thing I think that is happening is this. A New, 'Visionary ', appears, say called Mrs Smith. Jesus and Mary are supposed to give her a heap of messages. Because of the internet tens of thousands read them right away. Many, many people believe the messages right away. Why because the messages say what many people have already being thinking. So because they agree with the content of the messages that think Mrs Smith must be the real deal. I think that's all there is to it really. If Mrs Smith sounds like Life Site News or the Papal Posse she must be true. They want an echo chamber from heaven of what they already believe.
In this sense, Fatima went against what the Church hierarchy and most people expected at the beginning of the 1960s, so much so that, at the opening of the council, John XXIII made an allusion to the "prophets of doom", which many understood as a criticism of the message of Fatima. https://vaticaniiat50.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/council-daybook-vol-1-opening-general-congregation/
"The Pope proclaimed his fearless hope that the council “will bring the Church up-to-date where required.” He assured the cardinals and bishops gathered around him near the tomb of St. Peter that the council will compel “men, families and peoples everywhere to turn their minds toward heavenly things.” He had great hope it seems.......but really the opposite has happened. "He confessed that he has frequently been bothered by prophets of doom, who with misplaced zeal have tried to convince him that the modern world is lost in a “morass of prevarication and ruin.”" It would be edifying to know who he is referring to as "prophets of doom". Was it Sister Lucia? Someone else? It explains possibly why the bishops have mostly been just ignoring or trying to hide such things.....to everyone's detriment. "These prophets, the Pope noted, say that our era in comparison with past ages is constantly growing worse. Such men have learned nothing from history, Pope John said, for they seem to believe that “in the past, particularly at the time of former councils, everything was a full triumph for the Christian idea and way of life and for proper religious liberty.”" It would appear now, in hindsight, that the "prophets" he was referring to were correct. Perhaps Pope St. John XXIII was listening with itching ears himself at the time. I sometimes wonder, since he has been proclaimed a Saint, if he would be the best one to beg to intercede for Francis. "Please dear Saint John XXIII, beg for Francis from our Lord the strength and grace he needs to end what he has started, and to put right the course of the Holy Barque of St. Peter. Amen" .
