Mary has produced, together with the Holy Ghost, the greatest thing which has been or ever will be—a God-Man; and she will consequently produce the greatest saints that there will be in the end of time.
God the Father has communicated to Mary His fruitfulness, as far as a mere creature was capable of it, in order that He might give her the power to produce His Son, and all the members of His mystical body.
Both Saint Bernard and Saint Bonaventure say that the Queen of Heaven is certainly no less grateful and conscientious than gracious and well-mannered people of this world. Just as she excels in all other perfections, she surpasses us all in the virtue of gratitude; so she would never let us honor her with love and respect without repaying us one hundred fold. Saint Bonaventure says that Mary will greet us with grace if we greet her with the Hail Mary.
---(Saint Louis de Montfort, from True Devotion to Mary)
Saint Louis began to tie Mary in with eschatology. He helped springboard the Church into this awareness that we have this sort of destiny in which we are meant to have this close relation, devotion, and dependence to Mary, Mother of God and our Mother in the End Times. This is happening through the Rosary, through the Marian Apparitions, through the proclamations of the Dogmas of the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption and perhaps some other teachings and events waiting to flower. This is clearly meant to be, and beautiful even enthralling. From Heaven, she has a visionary plan for us. She has been put in charge as a general. We must go to her for help. She is a portal of the Almighty, a portal of mellifluous grace. She is the Spark that will help change everything for the better. She is Pure and Holy Help and Care without second thoughts or regrets. The Queen Mother is not content until she has a special, intimate and ultra-refined relation with everyone, and neither should we be.
The Holy Father desires this, Jesus does, the Spirit does and the collective belief and practice of the Church from the Holy Popes down to the poorest pauper all understand that this is meant to be. It is sheer arrogance or outright naivete for a Roman Catholic, let alone any Christian to think otherwise.
O Mary by your Holy and Immaculate Conception, as well as Glorious Assumption, free us from evil.
He presented them with another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a person who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. When the plants sprouted and bore grain, then the weeds also appeared. So the slaves of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?’ He said, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the slaves replied, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, since in gathering the weeds you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned, but then gather the wheat into my barn.”’” (Matthew 13:24-30)
This parable definitely has eschatological teachings in regards to the Resurrection in the harvest and Last Judgment in the separation. But it is compelling and strangely wise how Jesus handles this situation. Just let them grow together. He is not concerned about what may or may not happen to the wheat because of the weeds. Not anxious about the wheat being harmed. Just let them. He seems confident that his wheat will mature. My impression is that the situation is as he will's it and that things are under his control. No panic. No sense of urgency. The mistake would be to uproot the weeds before the time. That would damage the wheat, and ruin the field.
Like I said compelling. Otherworldly. The impatient human response would be to go grab the weed puller and start ripping up the field which would destroy it all. But this is not the response of the Master.
In the Apocalypse, the verb, erchesthai usually refers to the coming of God or of Christ. The imperative here (Rev 6:1) could tally with the demands of the Spirit, of the bride, and of John (22:17,20), all of whom ask for the coming of Christ. In this case, he would be coming to the aid of his own by means of a conquering power that will punish the persecutors of his Church. (From the Jerome Biblical Commentary, p. 477, #38, notes on Revelation 6:1-2)
The addition of “and see” (καὶ ἴδε or καὶ βλέπε [kai ide or kai blepe]) to “come” (ἔρχου, ercou) in 6:1, 3-5, 7 is a gloss directed to John, i.e., “come and look at the seals and the horsemen!” But the command ἔρχου is better interpreted as directed to each of the horsemen. The shorter reading also has the support of the better witnesses. (NET Bible Notes)
This is a sort of different way of understanding chapter 6 verse 1 of Revelation. Most of the modern translations of Revelation 6:1 omit the second imperative with the effect that the four living creatures each command a horseman to come. So for example in the Latin Vulgate we have
dicens, tamquam vocem tonitrui: Veni, et vide.
in English this is translated, "saying, in a voice like thunder: Come and see." With both 'Come' and 'see' understood as imperatives seemingly in relation to John. On the other hand most modern translations (I assume drawing from an old Greek script) omit "ed vide". For example:
I looked on when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a thunderous voice, “Come!" So I looked, and here came a white horse! (NET Bible)
The command of the living creature is directed to the horseman. This shorter translation opens up for a little different understanding. If this understanding has any merit we could assume that in a broader context the living creature is almost praying for the Coming of Jesus and the Kingdom of Heaven. The breaking of the First Seal officially inaugurates his plan to Come Again. This plan includes the coming of the four horsemen. So one could understand this as desirable, as Good News, worthy of a prayer, that Jesus would break the Seal, that the horsemen may come forth, evil may be overcome, perfect justice may prevail and that Jesus would finally come again as the culmination of all these mysterious events.
In Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis came up with an inventive and insightful way of describing virginity: Eschatological!
159. Virginity is a form of love. As a sign, it speaks to us of the coming of the Kingdom and the need for complete devotion to the cause of the Gospel (cf. 1 Cor 7:32). It is also a reflection of the fullness of heaven, where “they neither marry not or are given in marriage” (Mt 22:30). Saint Paul recommended virginity because he expected Jesus’ imminent return and he wanted everyone to concentrate only on spreading the Gospel: “the appointed time has grown very short” (1 Cor 7:29). Nonetheless, he made it clear that this was his personal opinion and preference (cf. 1 Cor 7:6-9), not something demanded by Christ: “I have no command in the Lord” (1 Cor 7:25). . .
161. The value of virginity lies in its symbolizing a love that has no need to possess the other; in this way it reflects the freedom of the Kingdom of Heaven. . .Whereas virginity is an “eschatological” sign of the risen Christ, marriage is a “historical” sign for us living in this world, a sign of the earthly Christ who chose to become one with us and gave himself up for us even to shedding his blood. Virginity and marriage are, and must be, different ways of loving. For “man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him”.
This above video has been circulating on social media, and I think this is an excellent example of the direction the Western society is headed. A zombie apocalypse featuring this school of thought which treats all forms and all concepts as equals. This conceptual blunder (to put it mildly) leads to many errors in faith and morals not to mention outright insanity as is clearly demonstrated in the video.
Identity is an abstract concept which is ultimately rooted in form. In identity one compares forms. Form refers to what is bounded from an immediate surrounding. You trace the lines. You compare this form to that form. If your brain is working properly you think these two forms are different, distinct, unique to some degree. Gee this form has something or does/has done some action that this other form doesn't have, or do. They are unequal. You measure and dissect differences, you code DNA, you note what it can or cannot do, and vice versa. And you name these two forms.
Identity: a description which distinguishes this form from that form used repeatedly in official and unofficial settings.
Regardless of the description or anyone's opinion about identity, identity is ultimately rooted in form. The subjective aspect, that is the description is ultimately traced back to the form itself. Form is objective. One has no choice when it comes to form. Form is what an object has before light even reaches our eyes from the object. Form is the thing speaking for itself. Form precedes opinions.
To learn more I will link my unique and independent series of articles on basic ontology and physics. These articles are built up over years and I have a treasure trove of valuable quotes and research, especially on the notion called Form. Form is the most important concept in philosophy because it enables one to resolve the ontology of the word referent, a cornerstone of critical thinking and rational analysis. These articles will enable you to destroy all intellectual hogwash and charlatans of this age. They can also help enhance one's understanding of the Sacred Script. As a bonus there are also some nice physics articles at that blog, but I won't link those in.
The Roman Catholic Church is said to have more than one billion members worldwide. With this comes all sorts of groups and diversity. Diversity and a spectrum of groups can be great manifestation of God's work, but not always. This article is a quick description of some tendencies in the members of a group within the Church which could be labelled ultra-conservative or radical traditionalist. There is a whole spectrum of ultra-conservatism, radical traditionalism or plain conservatism but this list should be able to paint a sufficient picture: * They tend to criticize or outright reject the teachings of the Second Vatican Council. Some in this group even think the evil in the Church and the World today was a result of Vatican II: a thought that is beyond insane. (historically, a group usually breaks away from the Church after each major ecumenical council.)
* They tend to favor the Traditional Latin Mass or in extreme cases outright reject the current form of the Mass in favor to the TLM.
* They tend to favor the 'good ole days' and in extreme cases want to go back to the good ole days.
* They tend to favor a stodgy and decadent form of Thomism/Aristotelianism. I would even suppose that some rad trads idolize Aquinas, maybe even Augustine, much to the ruin of their brains. (Note: there is literature of thousands upon thousands of good Catholic Christian thinkers)
* They have Pharisaical tendencies. All the criticism Jesus launched at the Pharisees can be applied to this group.
* They tend to act Triumphalist or take the attitude that before the 60's the Church was right about everything She did.
* They tend to overemphasize petty religious laws, rules, precepts, (e.g. Canon laws) in contrast to the immaculate morals in the Way of Christ Jesus.
* They tend to overemphasize eschatology, and I might add have a naive understanding of eschatology to the point of outright heresy, schism.
* Their personal interpretations of Sacred Scripture are appalling, or cut and paste
* Pending context, they tend to act domineering or the extreme opposite: overly submissive
* They tend to behave superficially or petty
* They lack critical thinking and rational analysis skills
* They have the habit of appealing to authority especially Magisterial documents without understanding how the Magisterium works or how Magisterial Teachings relate to Divine Revelation. Online they tend to blindly quote Magisterial documents without any sort contextual analysis or thought-process.
* They tend to overemphasize specific Marian Apparitions such as Fatima.
* Some in this group are European Monarchists.
* Some in this group promote a new wave of Geocentrism based in the U.S. Some in this general group actually believe in Geocentrism!!!
* Some of the more extreme members of this category doubt or outright reject the Messianic authority of the elected Popes since Vatican II.
* Some seem especially vulnerable to false private revelations and claims that so and so is this Petrus Romanus or the Two Witnesses.
* They tend to act prudish (which is not the tried and true virtue of chastity/modesty)
* They tend not to be uptight at Mass or in prayer
* They tend to have an unrealistic view of the Roman Catholic Church (not to mention the world)
* They are idealogues
* Some seem especially vulnerable because of mental illness or perhaps some other life trauma.
* Some cut themselves off from Pope Francis and the rest of the Church. In other words they are schizmatic.
The reason I made this list is because I have witnessed the young and the naive fall prey to the wolves of this group. I thoroughly understand how much direct and indirect harm the members of this group can inflict on the innocent sheep of Christ Jesus. It is a TERRIBLE thing to witness. These sorts of people need special help and healing that comes from Jesus alone.
I advise in all sincerity to not associate with these people. Turn away from them and never look back. Do NOT follow their teachings. There are other ways to learn and live the Catholic Christian Faith than through these people. Listen I'll be the first to admit that the world is messed up and the Church is suffering now, but this is no excuse to go extreme in your beliefs. Where is your Faith, your Hope, your Love. Your fortitude? Your brilliance? You invest yourself in these lunatics? You sit back whining and complaining like baby rad trads?
There is still a lot of good in the world, and this is inspired by the Spirit. Jesus alone has authority to heal the Church and the world. Not some loons who claim to be the Messiah, or Petrus Romanus or the Two Witnesses. Just look at these pale loons on youtube. They are clearly sick people. You can see it in there faces. Don't be daft. Something is not right with these people.
And don't follow me or my teachings. Follow Christ Jesus and use your brain. Be brave and be your own unique child of God. Follow and learn from Pope Francis who holds the keys. Follow the Scriptures; learn the Magisterial teachings; learn critical thinking and rational analysis skills. Again accept and follow Pope Francis, the Bishop of Rome and his valid successors!
