Nearly two years ago, in warning about what turned out to be September 11, Venezuelan mystic Maria Esperanza had said she saw "two powers -- one small, one larger," that were working in concert behind the scenes. She prophesied that they would attack both abroad and on America's own soil. Their goal, said the great seer, would be to provoke the United States into war (and she warned against entering such a war, as has now the Vatican).

While speculation was rampant at the time that Maria was alluding to a nation like Cuba working with a larger one like Russia or China -- and while a future scenario may indeed involve those two large countries -- the current crisis with Iraq crystallizes the possible scenario of a little power -- al-Qaeda -- having worked with a larger one -- Iraq -- to provoke the U.S. There is now evidence that Osama Bin Laden personally visited Iraq on at least two occasions, and one of the hijackers was believed to have met with Iraqi intelligence in Prague before September 11 (although this report is now in dispute). Meanwhile The London Sunday Telegraph reported that British Prime Minister Tony Blair had a dossier on Iraq that would reveal Saddam Hussein trained some of Bin Laden's key lieutenants. There is said to be evidence that Iraqi funds have flowed into terrorist camps.

Tied with this are the phenomena that have taken place in Iraq itself. As we have previously reported, the Blessed Mother began to appear at the Iraqi town of Mozul in 1991 to a Syrian Orthodox girl named Dina Basher, who later developed stigmata. Mozul is on the ruins of ancient Nineveh -- accenting prophetic importance (see the Book of Jonah). We are currently asking any of our Middle Eastern viewers who may have further details on Dina to please contact us. What we do know is that the Patriarch issued a decree referring to the happenings as "astounding miracles" (an opinion repeated by the Bishop of Baghdad). 

Is the Lord trying to say something through that? Is He asking us to revisit the story of Nineveh? We look back at that ancient city and wonder if it means Iraq is going to be destroyed just as Nineveh was destroyed by invaders. Is that the prophetic symbolism? Is that the significance, if significance there is? Or could the location also harbor a secret warning for the U.S.?

We ask this because Nineveh was known in the Bible as "that great city" (Jonah 3:2), just as the great city of today is New York. The fact that the phenomena would occur at Nineveh may send out a warning that any war with Iraq will be followed by an event that affects one of our modern-day "Ninevehs" -- if not New York, then perhaps Los Angeles, London, or some other major center. In other words, war may be followed by a great act of terrorism or an unusual natural disaster. Nineveh was saved for a while after it heeded the warnings of Jonah, but reverted back to evil and was destroyed not only by war -- war with Babylon -- but also floods. We look back at a prompting we had received that "war will be followed by the great calamity" -- and wonder if this might apply to both Iraq and the United States: that any war will be a prelude to some unexpectedly large event in one of the two countries.

We can only hope that's not the case, that it's errant prophecy, that mercy will carry the day as it has carried the day so far.

And we can only urge prayer. Now is the time for novenas. We are offering a new book, The Church's Most Powerful Novenas, at this time when prayer is so needed -- not just for the world scene, but in all our lives. We also strongly urge the Scriptural Rosary. A darkness has descended and can be dispelled -- if not in Iraq, at least in our own homes and families.

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