'Moment Is Coming' Said Mystic Who Saw A Time When 'Things' Would Be Left Behind

More than any Gospel readings, it is important to recall the account of the Good Samaritan. When we see those in need, our first reaction must be to help, both in the temporal, with financial assistance, if we find the right way and means, and most importantly, with prayer: the victims of Katrina, those many who have been displaced, those many who need to re-establish their lives, need our prayers. We must continue to pray that they get back on their feet. I remember how difficult it was when I was in a house fire and lost everything.

Such experiences are also cleansing. One of the calls of disasters is a return to simplicity. With such events, we should all realize how fleeting material things are and how the focus is always to be on each other. God is the true tower. That lesson was implicit in the World Trade Center, which was the very symbol of consumerism. When those towers collapsed, we realized how even the largest "things" we build can vanish in an instant.

Maria Esperanza, the Catholic mystic who foresaw September 11, left a largely unknown prediction that may relate now to the hurricane.

"I don't want to alarm anyone," she once said (page 59, The Bridge to Heaven). "I just want the people to recover so they will have the will and strength to take the Bible and prepare themselves -- defend all the rights that Jesus gave us, the right to an honest life. We are people of light. And people of light must be conscious of their duties. We cannot be concerned about money or houses or big cars. No. The moment is arriving when we must leave all those things. The moment is coming."

Esperanza, of Caracas, Venezuela, whose site of apparitions had Church sanction, is taken seriously because she foresaw 9/11 in a series of visions that were documented before the event. Her first was a detailed one on December 9, 1992, in which she saw "two huge towers with black smoke all around them," a prophecy that was followed by a message posted on this website in December of 2000 in which she loudly warned that two powers, one large and one small, would act in such a way as to provoke America, and added that "they want somehow to upset the United States, to work inside and cause disturbances. They feel they can put the nation in jeopardy working not just from the outside but also from the inside. They have people inside already..." she warned. "Something that will shake the world."

Esperanza, who died on August 7, 2004, repeated the warnings about enemies on America's own soil right up to three weeks before September 11, when she issued her most urgent message about materialism and "a great event" that would happen within weeks.

In the days after 9/11, before al Qaeda was even named as the culprit, the Venezuelan seer, who was held in high esteem by a series of local bishops, told us that a "roaring lion" was behind the World Trade Center event. Later we learned that "Osama" means "roaring lion."

When asked what the future held in other regards, the great mystic repeatedly foresaw a time of huge, challenging events, especially natural disasters that would lead to a simpler and more spiritual world -- what she called "a reawakening."

"We're about to be in a big war, but I have more fears for natural disasters because there are so many injustices in the world and the Lord is making Himself felt by His Justice," she said in the book.

And the remark is fascinating in how it lines up with predictions from elsewhere to the effect that our way of life is going to be simplified. An atheist who had a near-death experience and has been featured on most major television networks claims that angels told him our infrastructure would be broken down -- simplified -- during this century, and with Katrina we saw how quickly that can happen.

Latch onto God -- not things.

At Medjugorje in Bosnia-Hercegovina, a priest commenting on the alleged secret prophecies said that after the events materialize we will live more of a peasant lifestyle. A German stigmatic saw the U.S. as brought to its knees -- to simplification -- not by war but by natural disasters.

There is no honest way of knowing when what is coming next will come. For the poor people of New Orleans, it was two weeks ago. But the word is consistently: prepare. Events will unfold throughout the decade, sometimes gradually, sometimes in rapid succession. It is not the "end of the world." It is a major purification. Some of the events will be very, very big in this century.

How do we prepare?

Spiritually, we keep our hearts full of love. We pray.  We fast. We go to Confession. We live each moment in the holiest way we can. It's as simple and as difficult as that. With love, there is no fear. If you fear, pray for a fuller heart. Love casts out fear.

In the temporal, there is no need for panic, although it never hurts to have a couple weeks worth of food and water, plus flashlights, batteries, extra medications, and gas in the tank. This is a good practice no matter what kind of time we are living in. There is an excellent book that covers many scenarios and how to prepare, put out by a non-profit group. In big cities, potassium iodide does not hurt, as a safeguard in the event of nuclear terrorism. Does that mean we expect it? There is no need to run for the hills. We stand our ground and pray and in many cases will be able to pray away a lot of what would otherwise be unpleasant.