News Item: : The Thirst of Jesus Christ
(Category: Torch of The Faith News)
Posted by admin
Thursday 31 July 2014 - 00:13:30

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To love Jesus Christ and His Church is to long for His public reign. To love Him means that His interests are our interests. This is the way of love. And what is at the heart of Jesus' interests? We know the answer to this from His words on the Cross: ''I Thirst!'' He thirsts for souls. If we truly love Him, and love our neighbour for His sake, then we desire to assuage His thirst by bringing souls to Him. In turn, they find that their own thirst - the thirst which only God can quench - is satisfied. To love Him, and to love our neighbour, is to bring Him souls. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church expresses a beautiful teaching on the thirst of Jesus for souls - and their thirst for Him - in CCC 2560: 'If you knew the gift of God! The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking water: there, Christ comes to meet every human being. It is He Who first seeks us and asks us for a drink. Jesus thirsts; His asking arises from the depths of God's desire for us. Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God's thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for Him.'

How thirsty God is for souls in our times! And how thirsty souls are for Him.

Our Lady of Quito, in the Church-approved private revelations to Mother Mariana, in early 17th Century Equador, said that our present times would be a frivolous age and few would save their souls.

How sobering that is to our ears in a post-modern cultural milieu. And yet, how starkly obvious.

The Darkness of These Times.

This has not been an easy day for those who love the Lord and His Holy Church. Most days are not in these times. There are not too many laughs in the news these days for those who love God. Most readers will be only too aware of the unopposed slaughter and mass-displacement of Christians in Iraq by Muslim radicals; the under-reported killing of Catholics in numerous church bombings and shootings by Islamists in Nigeria; the fact that Christians are being brutally beaten by policemen in China because they refuse to remove crosses from public view on their churches; the apocalyptic dangers developing in Ukraine and in Gaza. The mainstream media reports about schools being bombed in Gaza, but fails to mention that one was a Catholic school named after the Holy Family. They also ignore the news of a Christian home being decimated by a shell which killed a lady of 60 years of age. As an innocent and suffering child wept today: 'What has any of this to do with us?'  

Here in the West, there is the constant slump into post-Christian nihilism, with it's own attendant dangers for freedom of speech; and perhaps ultimately for freedom of worship. Last week, Barack Obama signed an executive order which will force Christian employers to comply with so-called LGBT-rights. The US Conference of Bishops stated that Catholics 'will not comply.' The situation, already troubling for Christians as the HHS Mandate saga continues, is becoming positively dangerous. Today we also heard about Bob Eschliman getting sacked from his job as editor-in-chief of Iowa's Newton Daily News. Mr. Eschliman had objected, on his own personal blog, to the issuing of a 'Queen James Bible' which has been published as a pro-homosexualist re-writing of the Bible.

We also heard this morning about another Orwellian development relating to the spreading acceptance of Euthanasia in Europe. Lithuania's 'Health Minister' made the disgraceful proposal, on national television, that terminally ill poor people, who cannot afford palliative care, should be given the 'option' of lethal injection, in order to prevent them from seeing 'their families agonize' over their suffering. This 'Health Minister' also suggested that Belgium's new law on child euthanasia should be 'taken into account.' Thankfully Fr. Andrius Narbekovas, a prominent priest, lecturer and bioethicist on the Lithuanian bioethics committee, has described these suggestions as 'satanic'. 

The diabolical disorientation is what is most disturbing to Catholics with their eyes and ears open.

Contemporary Churchmen: Keeping Jesus and Souls Thirsty 

How few souls today find the living water of Jesus Christ and His Church! How many fail to hear the truth when papal interviews and visits give the impression that Jesus Christ and His Church - with all Her holy Liturgy, Dogma, Morals and Prayer - are not necessary for salvation and sanctification. To Jews and Muslims, the impression is being given that Jesus Christ and the Blessed Trinity are not necessary; to Evangelical and Anglican Protestants, the notion that the Catholic Church is not necessary; to atheists, the idea that God is not necessary. How cruel a deception to keep Jesus and these people thirsting for one another. Is this love? 

With Friends Like These ...

How disturbing it is to learn that Eugenio Scalfari, the Pope's friend and favoured interlocutor, is not only an atheist, but also a co-founder of the anti-clericalist Radical Party of 1955, and was a leading voice in the drive to legalize abortion and divorce in Italy.

Which disciple of Christ can fail to be gutted by the news that Cardinal Claudio Hummes, a very close friend of Pope Francis, has said that he does not know whether or not Jesus would approve of 'gay marriage'?

Can any true Catholic fail to be concerned that the author of the Fides et Forma blog, which has been strongly critical of the year-long persecution of the traditionalist-leaning Franciscans of the Immaculate, has been investigated by the police at the behest of Church authorities? 

Dorothy, at the blog An Honour and a Responsibility, has painstakingly translated an Italian article from Corrispondenza Romana. The original article, by Emmanuele Barbieri, deals with the identity of Mario Castellano; one of the 'consultants' on the team policing the Franciscans of the Immaculate.

The Italian article suggests that Castellano is a man with an interesting history, a 'Cathocommunist' past in Imperia; alleged affiliation to the Grand Orient of San Remo; collaboration on esoteric and pro-Islamic blogs; the writing of articles supporting the rights of Muslims in Italy, multiculturalism, and an adjustment of Italian law to the rights of Muslims; describing the presence of Mosques in Italy as 'a factor of stability and security'; evidence of sympathy for the Italian statesman Cavour - whose anti-clericalism was influenced by English-style Freemasonry; evidence of sympathy for the schismatic priests of the French Revolution. Developments in the Church read more and more like a Malachi Martin novel every day.

A Frivolous Age Indeed

This is indeed a frivolous age, and few save their souls. Catholic cathedrals in Europe have been opened up for Shintos, Suffis and women riding around the aisles on circus horses. In Madrid, a priest 'in good standing' tucks up his chasuble during Mass to dance around with Flamenco women. In Mantua, young people crowd into the cathedral for an evening of rap music with disco lights and a girl dancing ballet. Up in Scotland, the Commonwealth Games are opened by Queen Elizabeth II, with a ceremony that includes a very public homosexual kiss. On Merseyside, tens of thousands of people queue in intense heat to witness giant statues of an old lady and a little girl 'breaking wind' and 'urinating' publicly in the main streets. On Sundays, the shopping centres and outdoor markets of Europe and North America ring to the clatter of coins, whilst churches fall increasingly empty. In Montreal, over in Canada, one church closes from falling numbers every single week. The image of Hell which Our Lady of Fatima showed the three little seers is a shocking wake-up call for Catholics and all people today. In that vision, souls were falling into Hell like snowflakes. In Hell, there is an eternal thirst in an eternal fire.

Our Lady of Quito warned that Freemasonry would become dominant, that all would seem lost for the Church, and that this is when the triumph for Jesus Christ and the Church will come. Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich saw revelations of the 'Illuminati' in Rome building a false new Church in harmony with the world. This will collapse and leave behind Our Lady, the Altar and the remnant to rebuild the One, True, Catholic and Apostolic Church. At Fatima, Our Lady promised: 'In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph.'

Let Jesus Quench Your Thirst

Dear readers, let us use these times to draw closer to Jesus Christ. Let Him console you as you console Him. Be the quenching of His thirst, by giving Him your soul. And in this, allow Him to quench your thirst. 

Remember: 'Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God's thirst with ours. God thirsts that we might thirst for Him' (St. Augustine, De diversis quaestionibus octoginta tribus; CCC 2560).

Keep the Faith: He who perseveres to the end will be saved (Matthew 24:13). 



This news item is from Torch of The Faith
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