Revelation, Chapter 11, Verse 10-11
10
The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and be glad and exchange
gifts because these two prophets tormented the inhabitants of the earth. 11 But after the three and a half
days, a breath of life from God entered them. When they stood on their feet,
great FEAR fell on those who saw
them.
The
two great witnesses as mentioned here are the spirits of righteousness and
truth. The world delights in destruction and will pay almost any price to avoid
the truth. Yet, if a man aligns himself with the one who had risen on the third
day, the breath of life from God will enter him. A man resurrected in the risen
Lord is a fearful thing for he cannot be brought, and he is clothed in the
power of God: All the world fears a
man that will stand on his feet.
I
will hear what God proclaims;
the LORD –for
he proclaims peace.
Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him,
glory dwelling in our land.
Famous Last Words[1]
·
Friedrich
Nietzsche, pernicious philosopher who preached "God is dead" Nietzsche died in spiritual darkness, a babbling
madman. On a wall in Austria a graffiti said, "God is dead,
--Nietzsche!" Someone else wrote under it, "Nietzsche is dead!
--God."
·
Oscar
Wilde, sipping champagne on his deathbed:
"And now, I am dying beyond my means."
·
H.
G. Wells: "Go away...I'm all
right."
·
Ludwig
von Beethoven: "Friends applaud, the comedy
is over."
·
Dominique
Bouhours, French grammarian:
"I am about
to, or I am going to, die; either expression is used."
·
Thomas
Jefferson: "This is the fourth…"
·
John
Adams: "Thomas Jefferson? --Still
surv.... "
·
Jean
Paul Sartre, existentialist
"I
failed!"
·
Emily
Dickinson: "The fog is rising…"
·
The
prophet Mohammed:
"O Allah!
Pardon my sins. Yes, I come."
·
Nurse
Cavell Before facing a German firing squad
in 1915, "Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness
towards anyone."
·
Henry
Ward Beecher: "Now comes the mystery."
·
Karl
Marx, born in a Christian Jewish family, originator of Communism. On his deathbed surrounded by candles burning
to Lucifer, screamed at his nurse who asked him if he had any last words: "Go
on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven't said enough."
·
Lawrence
Oates: British explorer, who sacrificed
himself in 1912 in an attempt to save his starving companions during Scott's
expedition to the Pole: "I am just going outside, and I may be some
time"
·
Crowfoot
(American Blackfoot Indian Orator):
"What is
life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo
in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and
loses itself in the sunset."
·
Cesare
Borgia, statesman:
"I have taken
care of everything in the course of my life, only not for death, and now I have
to die completely unprepared."
·
Cardinal
Mazarin: "Oh my poor soul, what is to
become of you? —
Where do you go?"
·
Thomas
Hobbes, English Philosopher:
"It's my
turn, to take a leap into the darkness!
·
David
Hume, the Atheist,
He cried: "I
am in flames!" His desperation was a horrible scene.
·
Voltaire, the famous skeptic, Voltaire died a terrible death. His
nurse said: "For all the money in Europe I wouldn’t want to see another unbeliever
die! All night long he cried for forgiveness."
·
Napoleon
Bonaparte, About Napoleon, Count Montholon
wrote: "The Emperor died forsaken by all, on this horrible rock. (St.
Helena) His death struggle was awful!"
·
Thomas
Edison, American inventor
"It is very
beautiful over there."
·
Goethe,
German Poet
"Light, More light!"
·
William
of Orange, first King of the Netherlands, as he was shot by an assassin, "My God, my God, have mercy on me, and on my
poor people!"
·
John
Newton b. 1725. d. 1807. Originally a
slaver, he had a dramatic mid-ocean change of heart that led him to turn his
slave ship around and take the people back to their homeland. He became a
Presbyterian minister and preached against the slave-trade, inspiring William
Wilberforce who brought about the abolition of slavery in Britain and its
colonies. He is most famous for having authored the words to the hymn "Amazing
Grace". As he neared his end, exclaimed, "I am still in the land of
the dying; I shall be in the land of the living soon."
·
Heinrich
Heine, Heine, the great Skeptic, later
changed his attitude. In the postscript to his poem collection
"Romancero" (30.9.1851) he wrote: "When you are on your
deathbed, you become more sensitive and you would like to make peace with God
and the world…
Poems, that only contained halfway reproaches against God, I delivered over to
the flames in a fearful zeal. It is better, that the verses burn than the verse
maker… I
returned to God as a prodigal son, after I fed the swine with the Hegelians for
a long time… In the
theology I have to accuse myself of retreating, because I returned to a
'personal God'." As he died: "God will forgive me. It's his
job."
·
Sir
Thomas Scott,
Scott, once president of the English Lower House said: "Up until this
time, I thought that there was no God neither Hell. Now I know and feel
that there are both, and I am delivered to perdition by the righteous
judgment of the Almighty."
·
Stalin
who was
responsible for the murder of at least 80 million Russian and
Ukrainians, if not many millions more—most of them Christians! The greatest
hushed up holocaust and genocide in human history, never mentioned
by the media, as it is not "politically correct!" About Stalin's
death struggle, his daughter Swetlana Allilujewa, who in March 1953 was called
to the dying dictator in his dacha in Kunzewo, stated: "Father died
terribly and difficult. God gives the righteous an easy death."
·
A
Chinese Communist,
who delivered many Christians to their execution, came to a pastor and said:
"I’ve seen
many of you die. The Christians die differently. What is their secret?"
·
Stephen
the first Christian Martyr,
as he was being stoned to death by the Pharisees, assisted by Saul, who later
met Jesus in a vision and changed into the Apostle Paul: "Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit!"
·
Jesus
Christ: Jesus,
after a long morning of torture and a 3-hour lasting excruciating crucifixion,
He first forgave his Roman enemies from the cross, saying: "Father forgive
them, for they don’t
know what they do!" Then he granted eternal life to a repentant thief that
was crucified beside him, saying, "Today you shall be with me in
Paradise" After the Father's Spirit left Him as He died for the sins of
the world, he said, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me!" Then
He said, "It is finished!" and after He had cried out with a loud
voice, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit"—He gave up the ghost!
Coming of the Lord
and the Last Judgment[2]
1.
Mankind
would suffer from famine, pestilence, and natural disasters.
2.
False
prophets who claim to be the Messiah will deceive and mislead people.
3.
Nations
will wage war against each other.
4.
The
Church will endure persecution.
5.
Worse
yet, the faith of many will grow cold and they will abandon the faith, even
betraying and hating one another.
6.
St.
Paul describes a "mass apostasy" before the Second Coming, which will
be led by the "son of perdition," the "Man of Lawlessness,"
the "adversary who exalts himself above every so-called god proposed for
worship." This "lawless one" is part of the work of Satan, and
with power, signs, wonders and seductions will bring to ruin those who have
turned from the truth.
7.
However,
"the Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of His mouth and
annihilate him by manifesting His own presence." The Catechism affirms,
"God's triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the last
judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world" (No. 667).
8.
Our
Lord will come suddenly. "The Son of Man in His day will be like the
lightening that flashes from one end of the sky to the other" St. Peter
predicts, "The day of the Lord will come like a thief and on that day the
heavens will vanish with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire and the
earth, and all its deeds will be made manifest" (2 Pt 3:10).
9.
Death
will be no more. The dead shall rise and those souls who have died will be
united again to their bodies. All will have a glorious, transformed,
spiritualized body as St. Paul said, "He will give a new form to this
lowly body of ours and remake it according to the pattern of His glorified
body...".
10. At this time, the final, or general
judgment will occur. Jesus said, "Those who have done right shall rise to
life; the evildoers shall rise to be damned". Our Lord described this
judgment as follows: "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, escorted by
all the angels of heaven, He will sit upon His royal throne and all the nations
will be assembled before Him. Then He will separate them into two groups, as a
shepherd separated sheep from goats" Here each person will have to account
for his conduct and the deepest secrets of his soul will come to light. How
well each person has responded to the prompting of God's grace will be made
clear. Our attitude and actions toward our neighbor will reflect how well we
have loved our Lord. "As often as you did it for one of My least brothers,
you did it for Me". Our Lord will judge us accordingly. For those who have
died and already have faced the particular judgment, their judgment will stand.
Those living at the time of the Second Coming will receive judgment.
a.
Those
who have rejected the Lord in this life, who have sinned mortally, who have no
remorse for sin and do not seek forgiveness, will have condemned themselves to
hell for all eternity.
b.
"By
rejecting grace in this life, one already judges oneself, receives according to
one's works and can even condemn oneself for all eternity by rejecting the
Spirit of love (Catechism, No. 678).
c.
The
souls of the righteous will enter heavenly glory and enjoy the beatific vision
and those who need purification will undergo it.
We do not know when the
Second Coming will occur. Jesus said, "As to the exact day or hour, no one
knows it, neither the angels in heaven nor even the Son, but only the Father.
Be constantly on the watch! Stay awake! You do not know when the appointed time
will come"
Catechism
of the Catholic Church
PART THREE: LIFE IN CHRIST
SECTION ONE-MAN'S VOCATION LIFE IN THE
SPIRIT
CHAPTER ONE THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN
PERSON
Article 2-OUR VOCATION TO BEATITUDE
Article 4 THE MORALITY OF HUMAN ACTS
I.
The Sources of Morality
1750 The morality of human acts depends on:
- the object chosen;
- the end in view or the intention;
- the circumstances of the action.
The object, the intention, and the circumstances make up the
"sources," or constitutive elements, of the morality of human acts.
1751 The object chosen is a good toward which the will
deliberately directs itself. It is the matter of a human act. the object chosen
morally specifies the act of the will, insofar as reason recognizes and judges
it to be or not to be in conformity with the true good. Objective norms of
morality express the rational order of good and evil, attested to by
conscience.
1752 In contrast to the object, the intention resides in the
acting subject. Because it lies at the voluntary source of an action and
determines it by its end, intention is an element essential to the moral
evaluation of an action. the end is the first goal of the intention and
indicates the purpose pursued in the action. the intention is a movement of the
will toward the end: it is concerned with the goal of the activity. It aims at
the good anticipated from the action undertaken. Intention is not limited to
directing individual actions, but can guide several actions toward one and the
same purpose; it can orient one's whole life toward its ultimate end. For
example, a service done with the end of helping one's neighbor can at the same
time be inspired by the love of God as the ultimate end of all our actions. One
and the same action can also be inspired by several intentions, such as performing
a service in order to obtain a favor or to boast about it.
1753 A good intention (for example, that of helping one's
neighbor) does not make behavior that is intrinsically disordered, such as
lying and calumny, good or just. the end does not justify the means. Thus the
condemnation of an innocent person cannot be justified as a legitimate means of
saving the nation. On the other hand, an added bad intention (such as
vainglory) makes an act evil that, in and of itself, can be good (such as
almsgiving).
1754 The circumstances, including the consequences, are
secondary elements of a moral act. They contribute to increasing or diminishing
the moral goodness or evil of human acts (for example, the amount of a theft).
They can also diminish or increase the agent's responsibility (such as acting
out of a fear of death). Circumstances of themselves cannot change the moral
quality of acts themselves; they can make neither good nor right an action that
is in itself evil.
Every Wednesday is
Dedicated to St. Joseph
The Italian culture has
always had a close association with St. Joseph perhaps you could make
Wednesdays centered around Jesus’s Papa. Plan an Italian dinner of pizza or
spaghetti after attending Mass as most parishes have a Wednesday evening Mass.
You could even do carry out to help restaurants. If you are adventurous, you
could do the Universal Man Plan: St. Joseph style. Make the evening a family
night perhaps it could be a game night. Whatever you do make the day special.
· Devotion to the 7 Joys and Sorrows of St.
Joseph
·
Total Consecration to St. Joseph Day 1
·
Do the St.
Joseph Universal Man Plan.
Daily
Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Today's Fast: Holy
Priests, Consecrated and Religious.
·
Today in national farmers day: The
average farm can grow enough to feed over 160 people according to the U.S Farm
Bureau.
·
Religion
in the Home for Preschool: October
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
· Rosary
[1]http://users.belgacom.net/gc674645/grave/lastword.htm
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