Great Saints and what they can teach us for our times

GREAT SAINTS of HISTORY

  • What their lives can teach us in these troubled times.
  • Article written for Catholic Voice by PaddyEarly(paddyearly@gmail.com).

The history of our Catholic Church points to innumerable great Saints and Martyrs. In addition of course we also have innumerable very powerful holy people that have not been canonised by the Church but who very likely occupy very high places in the heavenly realm.

Since Jesus came to earth through the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady the gold standard was set by the Holy Family. The simple truth is that every human being is called to be a Saint by seeking to live a life of great virtue in emulating the life of Jesus. Our Blessed Lady of course gave us the great example of doing the will of God in accepting the call by God to be the mother of Jesus the Saviour of the world. And of course Saint Joseph has always been a fantastic role model for our fallen humanity.

Throughout human history since the fall of our first parents Adam and Eve resisting the temptation to grievous sin has been and continues to be the big challenge for each and every one of us. Because the truth is that the ways of the world can be very tempting and Satan and his evil spirits rampage around the world seeking the ruination of each one of us. And once we yield to temptation it can be very difficult to make a return to a state of Grace which would enable us to conquer our sinful tendencies especially when the pressure from the culture is one of permissiveness. It seems that great Saints arise when the challenges in the secular world are at their most intense.

  1. In looking to the Saints as a great example we all have our favourites. An example could be Saint Dominic or Saint Francis of Assisi each of whom founded great orders of Priests and nuns which continue to the present day. Saint Dominic was a great preacher and Our Lady chose him to launch the Holy Rosary and this continues to be such an incredible prayer set which covers the life and times of our Saviour Jesus. And again great Saints like Saint Padre Pio recognised the glorious power of the Holy Rosary and always strongly recommended it for daily recitation. Padre Pio described it as the greatest weapon against Satan who hates Our Lady and equally hates each Hail Mary recited with faith. It can be seen that many Saints lived very short lives but their devotion to doing the will of God in all things continue to inspire millions in our world. A great example would be Saint Therese the Little Flower whose life continues to encourage huge devotion. What each Saint proves beyond any doubt is that life is eternal which of course was best proven by the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. And of course unbelievable but proven Eucharistic miracles plus the major Marian apparitions of Our Lady continue to proclaim that Jesus is our Living God and that everything He taught us during His very short time of public ministry is true beyond any shadow of doubt.
  2. When Jesus walked the earth as God in a human body the resistance to His truth, despite countless miracles was intense. With His crucifixion the Jews believed that His teachings could be dismissed and killed off. But of course that was to defy God and the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost began an unstoppable momentum in the establishment of the Catholic Church throughout the world. But of course heresy and apostasy have abounded ever since that time in salvation history. On a recent visit to Poland on pilgrimage the lives of great Saints of more recent times was strikingly evident. We visited the convent in Warsaw where Saint Faustina entered and later visited the Divine Mercy convent in Krakow where Faustina died. And of course the life of St. John Paul11 is completely bound up in huge spread of the devotion to Divine Mercy which included the sanctification of Faustina and the establishment of Divine Mercy Sunday which has huge followers throughout the world. In choosing Faustina God proved once again that what would be regarded as very ordinary human beings are consistently chosen by God as instruments to proclaim the kingdom of God and reawaken faith and devotion in the laity.
  3. Another great Saint that I learned much more about was Saint Maximillian Kolbe and we were privileged to have Mass celebrated for us in the original timber chapel which he built on the outskirts of Warsaw. His journey to Saint is an incredible one of such deep faith, courage and total dedication to the will of God. When he was a young man he was somewhat wild and clearly a handful for his mother. One day his mother in great exasperation asked him “what will become of you Raymond (his birth name). This upset him and he went to his room and prayed. Our Blessed Lady appeared to him and gave him a choice of two crowns to one of chastity (white) and one of martyrdom (red). He chose both! Like many other great Saints he was hugely influenced by another great Saint Louis Marie de Montfort whose True Devotion to Mary is one of the great classics to consecrate our lives to Mary. Maximillian studied in Rome and saw at first hand the huge negative influence of the Freemasons and had a deep desire to convert them. He founded the Militia of the Immaculata in 1917 to encourage total devotion to Our Blessed Lady for the evangelisation of the world. This is the same year as the Fatima apparitions and the miracle of the sun. In addition in 1921 Frank Duff an Irishman founded the Legion of Mary with very similar aims – personal sanctification and lay evangelisation. Frank Duff who will almost certainly become a Saint was also deeply influenced by Saint de Montfort. Both of these great spiritual enterprises have had huge success and are still strong around the world to this day.
  4. TIMELINE OF ATTACKS ON CHRISTIANITY.
  5. Looking at the timeline of huge events, battles and wars it’s easy to see the continuing war between good and evil and the way evil occurrences have destroyed humanity and moral values particularly in the last 100years. There were 3 massive battles the outcome of which can only be seen as miraculous;
  6. 732 the battle of Poitiers/ Tours was essentially between Christianity and Islam which the Christians won against the odds.
  7. 1571 the famous battle of Lepanto was undoubtedly won through the power of prayer because it was against the odds also.
  8. 1683 the battle of Vienna again a huge victory for Christianity and also against the odds.
  9. Now to add into the mix some very serious historical events which also represented a massive undermining of Christianity;
  10. 1517 Luther’s reformation has had a catastrophic effect on humanity and has added massively to the huge confusion in our world.
  11. 1532 Henry V111 had his own version of the reformation which completely destroyed a whole stable way of life in Ireland, England and the whole world and was a gigantic attack on Catholicism.
  12. 1848 the French Revolution destroyed France and again was a direct attack on Catholicism.
  13. 1914 World War 1 devastated all of Western Europe
  14. 1917 Russian Revolution again destroyed the Christian tradition and unleashed the horrors of Communism on the world
  15. 1935 World War 11 destroyed Europe including the UK and Ireland destroying vast numbers of humans and redrawing the map of Europe
  16. 1949 Communism in China
  17. So we can see that in the period from Luther right through to the Vietnam War the world was engaged in devastating wars which have wreaked huge havoc on civilisation.  The common denominator in all of these catastrophic events has been heresy and apostasy from the one true faith. A rejection of Jesus and His Church and a complete focus on worldly power and domination of peoples. And these events in human history have resulted in a massive victory for the forces of darkness. In particular England from the time of Henry V111 has destroyed wealth and independence for ordinary people. Again in the period from 1532 huge numbers of Catholic Priests & nuns were slaughtered. Great Saints like Thomas More and John Fisher are still so greatly admired for standing for the faith.
  18. With the coming to power of Oliver Cromwell in 1649 the Bank of England was established as a private bank lending money to the Government of the country and charging interest! So the enslavement to debt had begun and since that time the control of money and the enslavement of people to money has destroyed people throughout the world. Remember Jesus was completely against usury! Once the link to gold or silver was abandoned we entered an era of fiat currencies with nothing to back them and with complete control of the financial affairs of Governments and people concentrated in the hands of a very small band of “elites” who have absolutely no faith in Jesus as God. And their only focus is on their own wealth!
  19. Essentially after World War 11 the use of physical force oppression has been replaced by psychological warfare and the means and the tools were honed during this World War. Technology, chemicals of all sorts and the use of gas as a means of mass extermination were “perfected”.
  20. THE PAST 100 YEARS.
  21. When you look at the destruction of faith in the whole of the European continent essentially since the French revolution it’s a truly shocking picture because only through the Truth of Jesus can the world be united in the Body of Christ as He intended. The French revolution was put forward as a battle for “Liberty, Fraternity and Equality” but the truth is that it was designed to destroy the Catholic faith and was all about establishing a secular republic. The same can be said of the Russian revolution and both of the World Wars. And the net result has been the enslavement of huge numbers into the slavery of debt and sin. Because once individuals and countries turn away from the Truth of Jesus they are then on a path of destruction because the central Spiritual basis of power is destroyed. So what is marketed as “freedom” is in essence slavery to sin with control firmly in the hands of the enemy Satan. And Satan and his minions – the Freemasons and Bankers- have a hatred of the human race and simply seek to undermine human dignity which can only come to us from our birth right as children of God.
  22. Abortion commenced in Russia after the revolution and was directly linked to the destruction of the family and the ownership of all property given into the hands of the state. To enforce these catastrophic policies huge force was used to kill people and break their spirit. When Our Lady appeared in Fatima she warned that Russia would spread her errors but nobody really understood what she meant as the revolution only happened the same year. The huge destruction of Europe in the aftermath of WW11 could not have achieved without the “elites” pushing it and supporting Hitler. The destruction of so many millions of human beings in a war being fought for the profit of the elites really wrecked the will of the people. Many thousands of Priests and nuns were killed and the surrender of the Church to Hitler destroyed and weakened the will of those that survived and you can see that in the Church today where Western European Cardinals and Bishops are for the most part of the “modernist” movement. Communism also destroyed the seminaries through infiltration of weak and homosexual men definitely in America but most likely throughout Western Europe also.
  23. The push for the Church to adapt to the ways of the world can be seen in the fruits of Vatican 11 and the rejection of Humanae Vitae by almost the entire Church. The complete undermining of marriage and the family was achieved by the enemy with great ease!
  24. In the aftermath of WW11 the establishment of Global entities such as the UN, EU, G20, Bilateral & Trilateral, World Bank etc have all been used to further globalist and secular states everywhere throughout the world. These institutions are completely devoid of any faith in Jesus and are under the control of the “elites” and for the enslavement of mankind and his ultimate destruction. The stated UN goal for 2030 is a “viable” global population of maximum 600 million!!! That means the vast majority of the human population are scheduled for annihilation in a very short time frame.
  25. DIVINE INTERVENTION.
  26. God is never absent from our world but as we all know He gives us free will to choose Him and live by His laws which are never designed to enslave us but to give us a sense of belonging to Him. He has always throughout the entire history of mankind been the source of life and power. But He can only work through people of faith who choose to put Him at the very core of their lives. God is our creator and He loves each of us utterly and totally so His desire for all of us is that we co-operate with Him in bringing Heaven to earth. Satan on the other hand is a destroyer and a hater of each of us. He destroys our minds and our wills by making sinful ways seem so attractive. In the 2000 years since Jesus was on earth Satan has honed his powers of destruction and has adapted his tools of destruction in hugely “successful” ways!
  27. The greatest source of Divine intervention have been Marian apparitions and it is interesting to look at their timeline compared to the timeline for diabolical wars and heresies as outlined above;
  28. 1531 Guadalupe is simply one of the great wonders of the world on so many levels. It came 14 years after Luther and just ahead of Henry V111! The miracle of the tilma is beyond any scientific explanation. 9 million converts followed – more than the reformation lost!
  29. 1664-1718 Laus in France
  30. 1832 Miraculous Medal struck after apparition. Such a powerful sacramental!
  31. 1846 La Salette another great miracle and again to young simple children.
  32. 1858 Lourdes one of the great miracles again in France shortly after French Revolution
  33. 1879 Knock in Ireland. A superb miracle with the focus on Jesus the Lamb of God.
  34. 1917 Fatima is such an awesome set of apparitions first the Angels in 1916 and then Our Lady over 6 months in 1917. Still so strongly relevant to our times.
  35. 1945-1959 Our Lady of All Nations another incredible miracle.
  36. 1973-79 Akita in Japan. Given on 13th October 1973 anniversary of Fatima!
  37. These are approved apparitions but in addition there are so many others some of which I will mention; Mary in Cairo 1968-71, Mary in Ukraine 1987 12 months to the day after Chernobyl! Rwanda and Medjugorge both in countries where huge civil wars took place both started 1981; Garabandal 1961-65 was stark in terms of the apostasy within the Church!
  38. So we can see very clearly that there has never been a time in our history when the presence of God was not being brought into the awareness of anyone who had faith to believe and respond. God raises up great Saints for each time in history but our deluded world very often responds by killing them! Our Blessed lady has clearly shown her deep love and concern for the whole of mankind throughout the past 2000 years but sadly her warnings and pleas have largely been ignored.
  39. CONCLUSION;
  40. The world is in a very fragile state at present because the level of heresy and apostasy is simply unsustainable. At an earthly level there seem to be very few leaders of absolute integrity either within the Church or in secular society. People are divided on lines of liberals or conservatives and because the liberal agenda is focused on earthly pleasures without limits there can never be a meeting of minds. The great tool of the liberals is to call conservatives all sort of ugly names in a deliberate attempt to stifle debate. Because they have the “media” backing their agenda (the media are controlled by the elites who are Lucifarian) it can be almost impossible to withstand this oppressive culture. This is particularly true as the education system has been totally corrupted and this has resulted in our precious children being “educated” on a diet of liberal nonsense devoid of faith in God and thinking that any parents with faith are nutcases.
  41. The world is also very fragile in that huge numbers of the populations live in cities/urban areas which depend on the electricity and water controlled by the elites. The world has essentially lost the ability to survive without much material resources like the generations which preceded us. For example most people 100 years ago were rural depending on their own input to produce their food and supplies. Even though by modern times they would seem primitive they had great personal abilities and community involvement enabling them to survive great hardships, rear and educate their children.
  42. We are in an even more fragile state when the level of debt in our world is looked at in any depth. The modern consumer lifestyle is based on debt and is completely unsustainable in the event of a collapse of economies which if and when it comes could make 2008 look like a teddy bears picnic.
  43. The family is the first Church but the family as a powerful nucleus to withstand heresy has been decimated by crazy liberal ideologies that mock self-sacrifice as completely against the “me” culture! But faith in God, living by the laws of God and nature demand self-sacrifice to rear great families and provide for future generations.
  44. Many of Our Lady’s apparitions warned of great catastrophes which could unfold if people continue to reject God and it seems now that such an outcome is almost inevitable because of our continual failure to embrace God.
  45. Each one of us must choose to deepen our faith and be prepared to engage in battle for our faith just as much as our forefathers did when they withstood brutal oppression over many centuries. Far too many Irish people have forgotten their history of oppression and have become soft.
  46. Each of us will be judged on our input and our willingness to suffer for our faith even to laying down our lives. We must pray with deep faith for the conversion of our own family and all the countries of the world.     
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