In Palm Beach, they know it was a miracle
by Michael H. Brown
I'm here in Palm Beach County, where we had a wonderful time Friday night at St. Jude Church in Boca Raton and where the people -- at least those with whom I spoke -- had no doubt that the election of a pro-life president right here in this county was no less than a miracle. Time and again, they cited the fact that the final U.S. Supreme Court decision came on the feast day of Our lady of Guadalupe -- patroness of the Americas and also the unborn. Fascinating is the fact that the very same counties that were at the center of the political storm are also most susceptible to the real kind of storm. On a previous visit I went to speak with experts at the National Hurricane Center near Miami, and they made clear their fears that this part of Florida is overdue for the "big one" -- a category-five hurricane that makes a direct hit, with effects that may be all the more severe because of ocean temperatures that in the past decade have been increasing (warm water generates intense storms). Most of the people have moved here since the last great hurricanes, but such storms ("hurricane" means "storm god") will come again, and there are mansions built on land that during just category-three storms in the past were under whitecaps! Hurricane Andrew, a category-four, missed by just twenty miles. From what I understand one former director of the hurricane center, Neil Frank, has publicly mentioned the connection between storms and God's purifications.
Now, just as prayers here and elsewhere halted an election disaster, so can Floridians (and the rest of us) pray ourselves out of a natural disaster -- so can we and must we pray away the coming storms. Every part of the nation is vulnerable to some kind of event, and ironic it was that just last week we heard from a Protestant minister, Howard Storm [see previous article], who came to Christ because of a brush with eternity. During a clinical death he had an encounter with demons (he had been an atheist) but was saved when he finally cried out to Christ. He was given glimpses of the afterlife and told by angels that the world and specifically America would soon see natural disasters, economic trauma, and other events because of its sin. It's precisely what we have been hearing from Catholic visionaries! He says he was shown events that would cause a breakdown in our grid systems of transportation and energy -- resulting in societal chaos if the world was not converted. Just Thursday storms lashing at California affected the flow of electricity and nearly causes rolling statewide blackouts! Where did the waves hit? A power facility in Diablo ("devil") Canyon!
But back to Palm Beach. Why Florida? No one is really sure. There are such good people here, and some great churches. But from Jupiter to Fort Lauderdale and beyond is also a stretch of materialism that is nearly unequaled. It's mind-boggling. There are mansions on inlets with yachts parked out front like cars -- and with their own little helipads!
Sometimes, if it's used for His cause, money is a blessing.
If it's not it becomes a curse.