M
Monica4316
Guest
I found this excerpt from the writings of Anne Catherine Emmerich… what does it mean, does anyone know? 
A NEW CHURCH UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF PLANETARY SPIRITS.
September 12, 1820. - "I saw a fantastic, odd-looking church being built. The choir was in three parts, each raised some steps above the last; and under it was a deep vault full of fog. On the first platform of the choir was a seat; on the second, a basin of water; on the third, a table. I saw no angel helping in the construction, but numbers of the most violent planetary spirits dragging all sorts of things into the vault where persons in little ecclesiastical mantles received them and deposited them in their various places. Nothing was brought from above; all came from the earth and the dark regions, all was built up by the planetary spirits. The water alone seemed to have something holy about it. I saw an enormous number of instruments brought into the church, and many persons, even children, had different tools, as if trying to make something; but all was obscure, absurd, dead! Division and destruction reigned everywhere. - Near by, I saw another church, shining and rich with graces from on high, angels ascending and descending. In it were life and increase, tepidity and dissipation ; and yet it was like a tree full of sap compared with the other which was like a chest of lifeless institutions.
The former was like a bird on the wing, the latter, like a paper dragon, its tail adorned with ribands and writings, dragging over a stubble-field. I saw that many of the instruments in the new church, such as spears and darts, were meant to be used against the living Church. Every one dragged in something different, clubs, rods, pumps, cudgels, puppets, mirrors, trumpets, horns, bellows-all sorts of things. In the cave below (the sacristy) some people kneaded bread, but nothing came of it; it would not rise. The men in the little mantles brought wood to the steps of the pulpit to make a fire. They puffed and blew and labored hard, but the fire would not burn; all they produced was smoke and fumes. Then they broke a hole in the roof and ran up a pipe, but the smoke would not rise, and the whole place became black and suffocating. Some blew the horns so violently that the tears streamed from their eyes. All in this church belonged to the earth, returned to the earth, all was dead, the work of human skill, a church of the latest style, a church of man’s invention like the new heterodox church in Rome."
November 12, 1820.-" I passed over a dark, cold country to a large city, and I saw again the great, odd-looking church with nothing holy about it and innumerable planetary spirits laboring at it. I saw it in the same way that I see a Catholic institution being erected, angels, saints, and Christians all laboring in common ; only here the concurrence of the laborers was shown under forms more mechanical. The planetary spirits ascended and descended and shot down rays upon the workmen; but all was done in accordance with human reason. I saw a spirit on high drawing lines and tracing figures, and down below the design, the plan immediately carried out."
A NEW CHURCH UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF PLANETARY SPIRITS.
September 12, 1820. - "I saw a fantastic, odd-looking church being built. The choir was in three parts, each raised some steps above the last; and under it was a deep vault full of fog. On the first platform of the choir was a seat; on the second, a basin of water; on the third, a table. I saw no angel helping in the construction, but numbers of the most violent planetary spirits dragging all sorts of things into the vault where persons in little ecclesiastical mantles received them and deposited them in their various places. Nothing was brought from above; all came from the earth and the dark regions, all was built up by the planetary spirits. The water alone seemed to have something holy about it. I saw an enormous number of instruments brought into the church, and many persons, even children, had different tools, as if trying to make something; but all was obscure, absurd, dead! Division and destruction reigned everywhere. - Near by, I saw another church, shining and rich with graces from on high, angels ascending and descending. In it were life and increase, tepidity and dissipation ; and yet it was like a tree full of sap compared with the other which was like a chest of lifeless institutions.
The former was like a bird on the wing, the latter, like a paper dragon, its tail adorned with ribands and writings, dragging over a stubble-field. I saw that many of the instruments in the new church, such as spears and darts, were meant to be used against the living Church. Every one dragged in something different, clubs, rods, pumps, cudgels, puppets, mirrors, trumpets, horns, bellows-all sorts of things. In the cave below (the sacristy) some people kneaded bread, but nothing came of it; it would not rise. The men in the little mantles brought wood to the steps of the pulpit to make a fire. They puffed and blew and labored hard, but the fire would not burn; all they produced was smoke and fumes. Then they broke a hole in the roof and ran up a pipe, but the smoke would not rise, and the whole place became black and suffocating. Some blew the horns so violently that the tears streamed from their eyes. All in this church belonged to the earth, returned to the earth, all was dead, the work of human skill, a church of the latest style, a church of man’s invention like the new heterodox church in Rome."
November 12, 1820.-" I passed over a dark, cold country to a large city, and I saw again the great, odd-looking church with nothing holy about it and innumerable planetary spirits laboring at it. I saw it in the same way that I see a Catholic institution being erected, angels, saints, and Christians all laboring in common ; only here the concurrence of the laborers was shown under forms more mechanical. The planetary spirits ascended and descended and shot down rays upon the workmen; but all was done in accordance with human reason. I saw a spirit on high drawing lines and tracing figures, and down below the design, the plan immediately carried out."