Flashback: "I realize in hindsight that my feeling of discouragement was part of the falsehood of the modern era"
Is the End at Hand?
Written by Administrator
Tuesday, 06 June 2006
Is the End At Hand? June 6, 2006 — 06/06/06
Michael D. O'Brien interviewed by Valerie Schmalz, IgnatiusInsight magazine
The number 666 is believed by some interpreters of the New Testament Book of Revelation to be the Mark of the Beast, the sign of the Antichrist who will come near the end of the world to engage in the battle of the Apocalypse. American filmmakers and book publishers are never ones to let an opportunity to make money pass them by. The producers of the remake of The Omen are releasing the movie on June 6, 2006. At the same time as the fictional tale of a child born to be the Antichrist hits movie theaters, The Rapture, the final book in the fundamentalist potboiler Left Behind series by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye, is also set for release in bookstores on June 6th.
What about this whole End Times scenario? What does the Catholic Church believe? IgnatiusInsight interviewed author Michael O’Brien whose fictional work Father Elijah is built around the character of a priest who is a convert from Judaism. Father Elijah is sent by the pope and the cardinal secretary of state to penetrate the inner circles of the man they believe is the Antichrist and call him to repentance. The plot for O’Brien’s book came to him in one inspiring moment while he was praying in a parish church for the state of the world and the Church. O’Brien, who is first and foremost the married father of six children and a Christian painter, went on to write an entire series, published by Ignatius Press. He is known as a strong voice for the Church’s moral values in Canada and in the West. Most recently, O’Brien gave a talk about the Apocalypse and Christianity at St. Patrick’s basilica in Ottawa, Canada...
O’Brien: In the early 1990s, raising a large family in an anti-life society with very little income, I was often overwhelmed with a feeling of discouragement. My faith was very strong in Christ but I saw the power of anti-life and anti-Christ forces growing in my native land—what Pope Benedict XVI has now called “the dictatorship of moral relativism.” At the same time, I saw a grievous weakening of the particular church in the nation where I live, the Church in Canada, which is very much like some particular churches in Europe and in America. We were losing the ability to recognize truth, to live by truth and to resist the power of falsehood and death.
One day I was in my local parish church, praying about this. I was weeping in front of the crucifix and pleading with the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Begging him to bring us through this time. I was pleading with him to purify and strengthen the Church in my land. And in this state of deep grief and prayer, I was suddenly flooded with a very powerful supernatural peace, for me an unprecedented kind of peace, and at the same time there came into my mind a full-blown story. It was like watching a movie in my mind. It startled me because I had no thought of writing a novel. I did not think of myself as writer, I was a Christian painter, the father of a family and the editor of Catholic family magazine. However, there came a very strong knowledge that God wanted me to write this down. I was absolutely convinced it could not be published. Even so, over an eight month period I wrote it and then I just put it on a shelf and did not try to get it published. However, through an uncanny act of Providence, doors opened and I was asked to submit the manuscript. I refused because I thought it would be a waste of postage. So my eventual publisher, Ignatius Press, said just send us the manuscript, we’ll pay for postage. A couple of months later they sent me a contract and Father Elijah was published within the year.
That little act of obedience has borne tremendous fruit. I think over 40,000 copies of this novel have been sold and it has now been translated into four languages.
I realize in hindsight that my feeling of discouragement was part of the falsehood of the modern era, which can so easily infect Christians with a sense of futility. How can we resist this monolith that seems to control and dominate every aspect of our lives in this secular age? This moral relativism that sucks the life out of the modern world? Well, we can indeed resist it. The New Evangelization is possible but it will demand of each of us a docility to the Holy Spirit and a willingness to risk everything for Christ even when it appears to be pure folly. We must remember that the darkness cannot overpower the light. Christ has won.
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This interview can be found at Ignatius Insight's web site. Click on the link below:
Ignatius Insight Interview
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2006/vschmalz_theend_jun06.asp
Click here for Credit Card and Amazon Order of Fred Martinez's book "Hidden Axis":
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1410746186/qid=1099936755/sr=11-1/ref
- Doctor
of the Church St. Francis de Sales totally confirmed beyond any doubt
the possibility of a heretical pope and what must be done by the Church
in such a situation:
"[T]he Pope... WHEN he is EXPLICITLY a heretic, he falls ipso facto from his dignity and out of the Church, and the Church MUST either deprive him, or, as some say, declare him deprived, of his Apostolic See."
(The Catholic Controversy, by St. Francis de Sales, Pages 305-306)
Saint Robert Bellarmine, also, said "the Pope heretic is not deposed ipso facto, but must be declared deposed by the Church."
[https://archive.org/stream/SilveiraImplicationsOfNewMissaeAndHereticPopes/Silveira%20Implications%20of%20New%20Missae%20and%20Heretic%20Popes_djvu.txt]
- "If Francis is a Heretic, What should Canonically happen to him?": http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2020/12/if-francis-is-heretic-what-should.html
- "Could Francis be a Antipope even though the Majority of Cardinals claim he is Pope?": http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2019/03/could-francis-be-antipope-even-though.html
- LifeSiteNews, "Confusion explodes as Pope Francis throws magisterial
weight behind communion for adulterers," December 4, 2017:
The AAS guidelines explicitly allows "sexually active adulterous couples
facing 'complex circumstances' to 'access the sacraments of
Reconciliation and the Eucharist.'"
- On February 2018, in Rorate Caeli, Catholic theologian Dr. John Lamont:
"The AAS statement... establishes that Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia
has affirmed propositions that are heretical in the strict sense."
- On December 2, 2017, Bishop Rene Gracida:
"Francis' heterodoxy is now official. He has published his letter to the
Argentina bishops in Acta Apostlica Series making those letters
magisterial documents."
Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church by the bishops by the grace of God.
Election Notes:
- Intel Cryptanalyst-Mathematician on Biden Steal: "212Million Registered Voters & 66.2% Voting,140.344 M Voted...Trump got 74 M, that leaves only 66.344 M for Biden" [http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/intel-cryptanalyst-mathematician-on.html?m=1]
- Will US be Venezuela?: Ex-CIA Official told Epoch Times "Chávez started to Focus on [Smartmatic] Voting Machines to Ensure Victory as early as 2003": http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/will-us-be-venezuela-ex-cia-official.html
http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/01/a-hour-which-will-live-in-infamy-1001pm.html?m=1
http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/epoch-times-show-crossroads-on-capital.html?m=1]