You can feel it. It's in the wind. Something is coming. The approach is not fear of any sort but preparation for whatever "it" turns out to be.

This is an exciting, challenging time, a serious time, a time we did not want to see come, but a time that excites us to that for which God has prepared us, and for which we must prepare ourselves.

Something is coming because everything is so upended that we have reached the point of chaos. Such is exhibited most recently in the Schiavo case -- but hardly confined there. Good is proclaimed evil and evil as good. The litany of current societal ills is not confined to the horrid spectacle of the poor victim-soul named Terri. That case is showing how far our institutions are melting down, and when I think of systems melting down, when I think of them oppressing the people, when I think of courts standing over innocent deaths, I think of my old friend, the Ukrainian Catholic activist, Josyp Terelya, who, for his faith, spent twenty years in Soviet gulags.

We have not always agreed and I can't vouch for every aspect of his mysticism, but a mystic and certainly a man of great courage Josyp was and is, especially those years before he came to America. It was in the gulag that Terelya [left, with a fellow mystic] had incredible visions of the Blessed Mother as well as the Archangel Michael, and it was this elevation above the physical that sustained him in prisons from which the majority did not return.

As I said, I can't vouch for every single message from any seer but Josyp's latest resonates at a time when our institutions are threatening us. They call us to the kind of action he had to exercise in the U.S.S.R. They give us hope, strength, and direction.

"Children of the New Holy America, listen to Me," the Blessed Mother allegedly told him on January 9, during what are occasional manifestations at his home in Toronto. "I give you the strength to tread on snakes and scorpions.  Tread on them and do not be afraid.  This is His Will: 'Behold I have given you the power to tread on snakes and scorpions' (Luke 10:19).  "PEACE, GRACES AND BLESSINGS --- let these be over all the earth, over all of mankind, and upon you. Thus with  confidence -- TREAD!  This is the Will of God and I am His servant -- the Handmaid of God. Through me you have been given the Holy Eucharist, imperishable Truth about the Grail. Listen to the words of the visionaries, who follow Christ, for in them is the Truth."

What do the seers see? We have to be careful here. There are many alleged seers and the caution is that the subconscious and even deception can slip into legitimate inspiration. We take from revelations what is good, without despising them, but we do test them, as instructed by the Apostles. There are seers who saw a tsunami coming. There are seers who feel a great quake. But the crucial "seeing" is into the nature of what we need to do in our own lives, the love we need to develop, the courage to take action when faced with societal horrors like Schiavo, horrors once confined to places like the Soviet gulag.

Josyp's message went on to talk about "today's Pharisees, about the evil deeds that are created in their institutions," and called on the "children of America" to realize that "God is giving you His Signs through the consecrated and faithful of the Church, so that the events of the present times do not pass into oblivion." He sees a special presence of Jesus descending upon our nation in April.

The Ukrainian mystic, whose wife, Olena, passed away several months ago, claims that there will be some form of new grace from Christ, a "descent" over America in coming months that will "give you the weapons with which you can overcome Lucifer." 

These weapons, says the Blessed Mother, are "peace, love, and obedience."

"The Church of Christ is arising from Its chains and blood and tears, the Church that was by His Side during His Life," the message went on (for your discernment). "This same Church for which was shed the blood of the holy martyrs, the Church that wept countless tears, and that followed Christ through hunger and cold, never forsaking Him.  Flee from the Pharisees of this world.  Do not shame the kingdom of the Martyrs.  Children of mine, love America.  Love her like you love me and my Son, Who existed from all ages, and all will be given to you. Amen."

Man has elevated himself above the Lord, and so now our eyes turn to the warnings of prophecy.

But at the same time, it is hardly a time to despair. When I think of Josyp, I think of his famous vision of the Archangel Michael, reported in a book I wrote with him called Witness [left, presented formally to the Pope]. He described this vision in a letter to wife Olena from his jail cell on July 17, 1983 -- less than a year before the famous apparitions began in Medjugorje.

Crouched and freezing in solitary confinement, Josyp had fallen asleep or into some sort of altered state in which he "saw" himself at the Marian site of Zarvanystya (also a favorite of the Pope's). During that lapse he saw an intense light illuminate a meadow. He smelled apple blossoms. A large white eagle came and settled on the field and told him not to fear.

An eagle.

In the distance Josyp saw "an old man dressed in white" in this vision. He recalled only his face. The man said, "Why are you so troubled? Suffer and do not give in because you are under the protection of the Mother of God and after your release from prison there is a bright road spreading before you. The Church will rise."

When Josyp asked who he was, the man said, "I know you and you know me."

The voice went on: "The Lord is now gathering the good men against the evil" and told Josyp that rebellion against God extended across the  world. Worse times were approaching, he was told, than the times of Luther -- "worse" times and yet for prayer-warriors, glorious calls to action.

In the end, he was told, God would punish the "apostates," and yes, there would be persecution: the world "divided into the messengers of God and the messengers of anti-christ." After the great revelations of the Virgin, this "man" told Josyp, a renewal of love of Christ would begin and there would be a rapid rise of devotion to the Immaculate Heart.

"I asked him whether I would still be in prison, and this ancient, celestial man answered, 'Yes, but not for long because God has other plans for you.' I asked again, 'Who are you? What is your name?'

"His answer: 'I am a servant of God, the Archangel Michael."

Tears streamed down Josyp's face. When he came to -- in that cold, dank cell, in solitary confinement -- he didn't know if he had dreamt it or really seen it.

"Meanwhile the guards smelled the aroma of apples and began searching the cells," wrote Josyp. "But of course there were no apples to be found."