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Deliverance
from Evil Spirits
by Francis MacNuttDo evil spirits oppress people today, including Christians? This practical manual is written by one of the foremost practitioners of Christian healing and deliverance. Highly recommended. click
|
Deliverance
from Evil Spirits
by Francis MacNutt Do evil spirits oppress people today, including Christians? This practical manual is written by one of the foremost practitioners of Christian healing and deliverance. Highly recommended. click |
Was comet a sign?
@Spirit Daily
It was four years ago in 1997 this time of year that we were returning from a conference at a hotel in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, when we saw it: to the west, Hale-Bopp, the huge comet, hanging there in a way that nothing had hung in the heavens in our lifetimes. More than 30 miles wide, it was plenty big enough to destroy life on earth. And it was discovered just 40 months before its closest pass.
Like Halley's, which hung over Jerusalem before its fall in the first century, Hale-Bopp seemed a presage of God's justice but also of His mercy. We have heard from those who point out that the light it shed was white and red -- like the pale and red rays that radiate from the image representing Divine Mercy (which in at least one rendition also has rays that are tinted blue, another color seen in Hale-Bopp). The two rays denote blood and water. The pale ray stands for the water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls.
"These two rays issued forth from the very depths of My tender mercy when My agonized heart was opened by a lance on the Cross," Jesus was said to have told Saint Faustina Kowalska -- the Polish nun who received the divine mercy revelations. "These rays shield souls from the wrath of My Father. Happy is the one who dwell in their shelter, for the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him."
Ironically, St. Faustina's tomb was visited by Pope John Paul II in 1997 -- the year of Hale-Bopp, which came closest toward the end of April. It reminded us of Jesus telling Faustina that "before the day of justice arrives, there will be given to people a sign in the heavens of this sort: All light in the heavens will be extinguished, and there will be great darkness over the whole earth. Then the sign of the cross will be seen in the sky, and from the openings where the hands of feet of the Savior were nailed will come forth great lights which will light up the earth for a period of time."
"Speak to the world about My mercy," Jesus told her. "It is a sign for the end times. After it will come the Day of Justice. While there is still time, let them have recourse to the fountain of My mercy."
On the front page we are carrying a novena of divine mercy and urge everyone to observe the devotion in a special way this Sunday -- Divine Mercy Sunday. On that day Jesus said the very depths of His mercy are open -- an "ocean" of it -- and those who go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment.
We think there is still time to invoke His mercy for a world that so swiftly approaches God's justice. Many believe the hour of mercy has already dwindled into the hour of justice ( although Christ's mercy will always be available). This week we have been carrying Church-approved messages from Argentina saying it is time to preach this justice. But it is also time to remember that with prayer even a single person can ward off a chastisement. Faustina said that once her prayers disarmed the anger of Christ and saved a beautiful city in Poland (some believe Warsaw) that was about to suffer what she described as a fate similar to "that which God had punished Sodom and Gomorrah." In America we have plenty of cities that are now in similar peril.
Divine Mercy and the Second Coming