Yes different, but I hope better Bobby. Challenges can be hard but always bring great fruit if borne with love. Lough Derg was hard but I got so much out of it. I suppose what is coming will be a thousand, thousand times harder than Lough Derg, a million times harder, but the fruits will be a million times more too. I am trying to be positive. Certainly it will be a great adventure.
I think it is a good time to reflect back on the life of the apostles and how filled with the Holy Spirit they were able to go into the world without fear and evangelize in some really pagan areas. I can't wait for the Holy Spirit to descend upon the disciples of today with His gifts and fruits to overdo the evil of our times. We must keep our heads held high in these times, otherwise we will succumb to the fear of the moment, which is what the evil one wants. Prayer is our way of life now and it is the only way to persevere henceforth. If we keep our focus on that and helping those who will be far worse off than us, because they haven't a clue what is happening, we will find ourselves doing the will of God and that is all that really matters.
Yes it is very exciting to expect a second great Pentecost, also we shall see in our own lifetimes the greatest saints the world has ever seen, many, many of them all around us. Outstanding.
I think unpleasant news effects believers two ways. Some go into a kind of stupor, go quiet and cocoon themselves in and pretend it isn't happening. The more rare person, tries to make sense of it, gets angry and more bold and wants to speak his mind and blow the trumpet of disgust. Seems somewhere in the middle might be the best approach. I think we need to speak truth when necessary, pray allot and let God do his job, whatever that may be. I've tried doing things my way......., I doesn't always work out so well.
Here is a quote from Luisa Piccarreta that I think is pertinent to this topic: Jesus to Luisa: “My daughter, the whole world is upside down, and everyone is waiting for changes, for peace, for new things. They themselves gather to discuss about it, and are surprised that they are unable to conclude anything and come to serious decisions. So, true peace does not arise, and everything resolves into words, but no facts. And they hope that more conferences may serve to make serious decisions, but they wait in vain. In the meantime, in this waiting, they are all in fear, and some are preparing for new wars, some hope for new conquests. But, with this, the peoples are impoverished, are stripped alive, and while they are waiting, tired of the sad present era, turbid and bloody, which unwraps them, they wait and hope for a new era of peace and of light. The world is exactly at the same point as when I was about to come upon earth. All were awaiting a great event, a new era, as indeed occurred. The same now; since the great event, the new era in which the Will of God be done on earth as It is in Heaven, is coming – everyone is awaiting this new era, tired of the present one, without knowing what this new thing, this change, is about, just as they did not know it when I came upon earth. This expectation is a sure sign that the hour is near. But the surest sign is that I am manifesting what I want to do, and that turning to one soul*, just as I turned to my Mama in descending from Heaven to earth, I communicate to her my Will and the goods and effects It contains, to make of them a gift for the whole of humanity." (B.H. Vol 15) *Luisa herself
BH, I love food, but I honestly confess my inability to stomach marmite. Alas! Safe in the Father's Arms!
I have to admit you're right, they seem to have also added sugar over the years and its quite sickly now. So I go for Aussi Vegemite instead - its got lots of Vitamin B which is surely need to stop getting too depressed re some of the "discussions" here . Great on toast and butter.
