End times signs for catholics

[SeekerDude]

Her spiritual advisor and Superior would have been on the lookout for mental illness in her. The same way demonic possession usually ends up being referred by a Priest to a psych professional and may be diagnosed as a mental illness. She would have been closely observed. Miracles attributed to her intercession below and the theologically sound messages she relayed point to her authenticity.

A miracle was attributed to Saint Faustina in March 1981, when Maureen Digan of Roslindale, Massachusetts, was cured of lymphedema, an incurable disease, after praying at Saint Faustina’s tomb. The certification of the miracle led to Saint Faustina’s beatification on April 18, 1993. A priest who had heart damage was cured on October 5, 1995, and this led to Saint Faustina’s canonization on April 30, 2000.

It’s not easy becoming a Saint, it usually takes decades after a thorough process and examination by secular and religious experts.

Thanks for the info.

I also happen to know very well how to get to Roslindale (since it is a neighborhood of Boston), so I might track her parish down and see if I can hear it from the horse’s mouth after Mass, though it was almost 32 years ago.

I may also have to scrutinize Faustina’s prophecies, since that is one of the sources of my discomfort.

 

[SeekerDude]

Thanks for the info.

I also happen to know very well how to get to Roslindale (since it is a neighborhood of Boston), so I might track her parish down and see if I can hear it from the horse’s mouth after Mass, though it was almost 32 years ago.

I may also have to scrutinize Faustina’s prophecies, since that is one of the sources of my discomfort.

Digan had suffered from Lymphedema (a disease which causes significant swelling due to fluid retention) for decades, and had undergone 10 operations, including a leg amputation.

Should be easy to spot if she is still alive, and still attends Mass in Roslindale.

 

[LEMAITRE]

Thanks for the info.

I also happen to know very well how to get to Roslindale (since it is a neighborhood of Boston), so I might track her parish down and see if I can hear it from the horse’s mouth after Mass, though it was almost 32 years ago.

I may also have to scrutinize Faustina’s prophecies, since that is one of the sources of my discomfort.

Please do find her if you can and keep us updated on how you went.

 

[SeekerDude]

I would like to note, however, that there don’t seem to be any peer-reviewed medical journals quoted on Maureen Digan’s case. Considering that it is an incurable disease, I would think that that would be at least noteworthy and warranting further investigation from the medical community.

Putting on my skeptic hat, but I have seen someone here claim that whole Protestant parishes have converted to Catholicism, an event I consider highly unlikely if only taking human stubbornness into consideration, so let me invoke my own stubbornness and take anything anecdotal with a big grain of salt.

Not that I don’t trust the Vatican to have done its homework, but I don’t exactly trust the Archdiocese of Boston to be honest considering recent history, plus, I want to put my hands in those wounds myself before I accept any notion of dead carpenters rising from the grave so to speak.

 

[SeekerDude]

Please do find her if you can and keep us updated on how you went.

Will do. I don’t know how many Catholic Churches are in Roslindale, since, well, it’s Boston and Catholics are everywhere, but I do know of at least one. Sacred Heart, I think it’s called, about a block from Roslindale Square.

 

[asd72]

This is why I find interpretation of prophecy as futile. I mentioned it either here or in another thread, but prophetic literature tends to be highly metaphorical, and as such applicable to anything. What of the stars falling out of the sky? Why, we know Alpha Centauri isn’t going anywhere soon. So does that mean light pollution? I live in an urban setting. One side of my family lives in a rural setting. I can go outside right now and count 20 stars. Over there, I can’t count. Did they fall out of the sky? Then why is it not global? What does that mean? Does that mean the darkness metaphorically gets even darker? Or is the night sky blander everywhere? The moon turns blood red every so often depending on atmospheric conditions. The sun turns black as sackcloth every time there is an annular eclipse, and those eclipses are not global.

The only thing that is common is that light is overcome by darkness. But is that a literal thing that we can observe with actual celestial bodies, or is it a metaphor? And if it is just a metaphor, how dark is dark?

World’s always been a dark place. I perceive it as just as dark as it was when we dropped out of the trees and started walking on two feet. The type of darkness is different. The percentages are the same, but there are a whole lot more of us at once, and we can talk to each other all at once, and we can do darkness on a seemingly miraculous scale. Does that mean we are in the End Times? Or does that mean we’re a more advanced, more interconnected collective jerk?

Perhaps get this book - Coming soon: Unlocking the book of Revelation. By Michael Barber.

To get the true literal sense of scripture, you must understand what the original writer and the original audience understood by what was said.

 

[SeekerDude]

Perhaps get this book - Coming soon: Unlocking the book of Revelation. By Michael Barber.

To get the true literal sense of scripture, you must understand what the original writer and the original audience understood by what was said.

I have a limited budget, but I’ll see what I can do.

But as far as I understand Revelation, it was a strongly worded letter steeped in allegory. Quite honestly, even if I do convert wholesale, I won’t be able to accept Revelation as anything more as encouragement to martyrdom in the face of the Roman Empire. I see absolutely no future in Revelation, and I expect all commentary on it to be just that.

 

[SeekerDude]

Quite honestly I expect the “End Times” to be one possible outcome of human stupidity. I see humanity’s future to be possibly more glorious in the physical realm than bleak. I expect our future to be the galaxy. Or at least our own little chunk of it.

And I expect this world to be destroyed by the sun, on a time frame as inconceivably large as the one that brought us up from bacteria.

 

[LEMAITRE]

I would like to note, however, that there don’t seem to be any peer-reviewed medical journals quoted on Maureen Digan’s case. Considering that it is an incurable disease, I would think that that would be at least noteworthy and warranting further investigation from the medical community.

Putting on my skeptic hat, but I have seen someone here claim that whole Protestant parishes have converted to Catholicism, an event I consider highly unlikely if only taking human stubbornness into consideration, so let me invoke my own stubbornness and take anything anecdotal with a big grain of salt.

Not that I don’t trust the Vatican to have done its homework, but I don’t exactly trust the Archdiocese of Boston to be honest considering recent history, plus, I want to put my hands in those wounds myself before I accept any notion of dead carpenters rising from the grave so to speak.

Digans Contact Details from article interview at link below from 2011:

*Editor’s note: The Digans are making a DVD that will be released soon. To contact them, e-maildmspeakers@gmail.com; fax 413-243-2828; or write to Bob and Maureen Digan, P.O. Box 537, Lee, MA *01238.

Five independent Doctors examined her after her return from Poland. Some religious, others not. They each concluded she had been completely healed. They had no medical explanation. The Sacred Congregation for the Causes of Saints, in consultation with five doctors, examined the accumulated evidence. Then, a team of theologians did the same, followed by a team of cardinals and bishops. The cure was accepted by all as a miracle caused through Sr. Faustina’s intercession to The Divine Mercy, which led to St. Faustina’s beatification on April 18, 1993

thedivinemercy.org/news/story.php?NID=3212

 

[Bob_Crowley]

I do accept the idea that all my grandparents and my father are dust in the ground, awaiting resurrection (and not currently in heaven or anywhere else).

That’s yet another point of difference between myself and the church in which I was raised.

As a fellow Australian, I had the peculiar experience of my own father turning up in my bedroom the night he died. He started with an apology, we argued and conversed, and at the end he gave this almighty scream and disappeared.

I think he’s in hell, and he was a Catholic by baptism who abandoned his faith. In fact, my mother once told me that he was sometimes altar boy to a bishop in Sydney in his younger years. He lived on the north shore I think, where his father had a fruit shop or something. I know he didn’t care for Sydney much, and thought it was a bit of a rat race. It was also the time of the razor gangs in Sydney in the 1930’s, and since he lived close to the city, possibly witnessed some less than saintly acts. I remember him commenting that two women ran the gangs in Sydney for years (Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh).

But he abandoned his faith years ago.

He was also very cruel to his own family for a long time, as he admitted himself on that night viz. “I can’t believe how cruel and stupid I’ve been!”, “I’ve been an absolute mongrel to you!” and “All I was expected to do was look after my family! I didn’t even do that!”

As far as I’m concerned his judgement took place immediately after death. If I’d had the presence of mind to record the time, I think I could have given a very good estimate of time of death. And I had no idea he’d died. In fact his body wasn’t found for four days, and it was only the smell which alerted a young bloke living above his unit which prompted a call to the police.

I still remember standing there when my uncle came to tell me he’d died. When the penny dropped, I counted back four days, and thought to myself, “Then what the hell was that the other night!??”

I think your grandparents and father have already been judged, just as my father was, and are now working out their respective rewards - heaven, hell or purgatory - just as the church teaches.

 

[SeekerDude]

Digans Contact Details from article interview at link below from 2011:

*Editor’s note: The Digans are making a DVD that will be released soon. To contact them, e-maildmspeakers@gmail.com; fax 413-243-2828; or write to Bob and Maureen Digan, P.O. Box 537, Lee, MA *01238.

Five independent Doctors examined her after her return from Poland. Some religious, others not. They each concluded she had been completely healed. They had no medical explanation. The Sacred Congregation for the Causes of Saints, in consultation with five doctors, examined the accumulated evidence. Then, a team of theologians did the same, followed by a team of cardinals and bishops. The cure was accepted by all as a miracle caused through Sr. Faustina’s intercession to The Divine Mercy, which led to St. Faustina’s beatification on April 18, 1993

thedivinemercy.org/news/story.php?NID=3212

Again, thank you, going to leave the tab up, but these doctors are still not named and no peer-reviewed publications are being mentioned.

I also saw something about someone named Bobby dying in there. Seemed to be a kid. Again, skimming but why would God do a solid for one person and then screw over a kid?

Maybe I’m missing something, but it is also well past my bedtime.

 

[LEMAITRE]

Again, thank you, going to leave the tab up, but these doctors are still not named and no peer-reviewed publications are being mentioned.

I also saw something about someone named Bobby dying in there. Seemed to be a kid. Again, skimming but why would God do a solid for one person and then screw over a kid?

Maybe I’m missing something, but it is also well past my bedtime.

Email the Digans and ask them for the Doctors names, their email address is one the post with their contact details. Doctors do not have to be peer reviewed to be considered legitimate in their diagnosis. I have never been peer-reviewed and I assist in diagnosing patients daily (new graduate ), granted none of them have been cured of incurable diseases instantly.

All the Doctors had a look at her medical files prior to and after the ‘miracle’, all agreed that she was suffering from an incurable disease and there was no medical explanation for her cure. AFAIK, one Doctor knew her personally, the others examined her separately and had a look at her medical records which were extensive because she had been struggling with this incurable disease since she was 15 and she was in her late 20s when she visited Poland.

All the usual tests were done by 5 different Doctors surgeries. Hardly a conspiracy.

 

[hansard]

The belief that your family members are just dust in the ground awaiting resurrection tends toward the Jewish belief in Sheol. It was a place where souls (really shades - shadows of the people they once were) would sink.

I guess based on that observation, where do you understand the souls of your loved ones to be?

I believe that the souls of the deceased are in a state of unconsciousness, in God’s care.
They are “asleep in Christ” as some people say. This effectively means “dead”, as the soul has no more consciousness than a person in a deep, dreamless sleep (general anaesthetic is the nearest experience I can think of).

I believe the Bible says something about this: “The dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” (Eccles 12.7).

This does not mean that the spirit has consciousness when it returns to God.

If they had been already sent to hell or taken to heaven, there would be no need for the resurrection. The whole idea of the resurrection, as I understand it, is to give people the chance to accept God’s reign and live forever, or to consciously reject God and be punished eternally.

 

[mangy_dog]

I have been discussing end-times with my two Baptist friends the past year. Perhaps more correctly they have been discussing and I listen. It’s scary listening to them, not because I believe their conspiracy theories or endless list of end-times signs but because they actually believe their research which AFAIK is wholly based on YouTube presentations.

What I am interested in is what does the Church say is the Signs of the end-times? I know the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem is one.

Apologies in advance to Forum Admins if this has been posted in wrong section or a disallowed topic.

There are a great number of Catholic prophecies and warnings written through the ages concerning the “end times”. Thes are of course-private revelation and are not meant to be taken as “need to believe” or to cause anxiety in the reader. Some still do look them up as a curiosity sake and do end up getting anxious.

One important detail about catholic prophecies in contrast to the “prophecies of everyone else”…is that they focus on spiritual matters of prayer, sacrifice; devotion to the Eucharst; the Rosary; the Mass etc. They are strong admonishments and encouragements as well as warnings and reminders of things to come should we continue on a path away from God.

I suggest you keep a very critical view of “other people’s prophecies” other than what is in the book of the Apocalypse and catholic prophecies.

Some books on the subject: Catholic Prophecies (imagen that) and the Thunder of Justice.

Also, look up the apparitions and messges of Our Blessed Mother at LaSalette; Fátima; Betania; Akita and others.

Above all, panic and anxiety are not fruitful. Stay away from anyone that make you feel this way. Don’t let the protestants influence your catholicism.

Catholic prophecies will inspire you (it has to me) to a life of prayer and a life of the spirit, nurtured by the Sacraments of Confession and Communion.

Pray the Rosary everyday and do the basic catholic things really, really well.

Love, mangy dog.

 

[findingmyself08]

I believe that the souls of the deceased are in a state of unconsciousness, in God’s care.
They are “asleep in Christ” as some people say. This effectively means “dead”, as the soul has no more consciousness than a person in a deep, dreamless sleep (general anaesthetic is the nearest experience I can think of).

I believe the Bible says something about this: “The dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” (Eccles 12.7).

This does not mean that the spirit has consciousness when it returns to God.

If they had been already sent to hell or taken to heaven, there would be no need for the resurrection. The whole idea of the resurrection, as I understand it, is to give people the chance to accept God’s reign and live forever, or to consciously reject God and be punished eternally.

That is an interesting belief, but it brings up some more questions for me.

How do you explain near death experiences? Near death experiences often involve those experiencing it seeing loved ones, having out-of-body experiences, etc.

Furthermore, how do you explain visions of saints (including St. John in Revelation) of heaven or even purgatory?

 

[GEddie]

Originally Posted by hansard
I believe that the souls of the deceased are in a state of unconsciousness, in God’s care.
They are “asleep in Christ” as some people say. This effectively means “dead”, as the soul has no more consciousness than a person in a deep, dreamless sleep (general anaesthetic is the nearest experience I can think of).

I believe the Bible says something about this: “The dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” (Eccles 12.7).

This does not mean that the spirit has consciousness when it returns to God.

If they had been already sent to hell or taken to heaven, there would be no need for the resurrection. The whole idea of the resurrection, as I understand it, is to give people the chance to accept God’s reign and live forever, or to consciously reject God and be punished eternally.

That is an interesting belief, but it brings up some more questions for me.

How do you explain near death experiences? Near death experiences often involve those experiencing it seeing loved ones, having out-of-body experiences, etc.

Furthermore, how do you explain visions of saints (including St. John in Revelation) of heaven or even purgatory?

The above theory, commonly known as soul-sleep or psychopannchy, forms no part of Church teaching.

The Church teaching is the communion of saints; which holds that those in Heaven, though divested of an earthly self, are “made alive in the spirit” so that not only do their minds survive death, they remember and can intercede for us.

Soul sleep is a misnomer in any case. Souls cannot sleep, as sleep is a body function. Only bodies have eyes to close, limbs to stretch and brains to fall asleep.

ICXC NIKA