There is no need for fear. There is need to face the future with determination. And that determination has to be mitigation – a lessening of what will otherwise come.

It was claimed at Medjugorje in Hercegovina that one “secret” given by the Virgin Mary (to six seers) had already been lessened. Whatever one’s feeling on those claims, it all seemed to reverberate with the same theme: penance.

“The loss of the sense of sin is one of the great tragedies of our time,” observed a priest. “They don’t want to deal with the idea that God would allow any kind of purification. We focus on His mercy so much that we forget His justice. And some of it—wars as well as storms — we are doing to ourselves.

“Nature reflects the chaos in the spiritual order. You see that right from the Garden of Eden.

“There was peace until they sinned, and that continues.

“The chaos that we see—the storms and tsunamis [and civil unrest; the wars and threats]—continue to get more intense and closer together and it is because sin is getting worse.

“I have been speaking about this since the early 1980s, but after 9/11, I said, ‘now the birth pangs have begun.’ We can’t keep killing babies and violating human dignity and think that nothing is going to happen to us. We’re doing it to ourselves. It’s a natural consequence of what we’re doing.”

One can add: grabbing each others’ throats, openly displaying sexual immorality, along with profanity, and especially mammon: the wanton (“Wall Street, Wall Street, Wall Street”) materialism.

What had been small storms, what had been minor floods, had grown and would continue to grow—were destined to grow bigger yet.

Fear? I knew a woman who had toughed out the storm with her family on the second floor of a house and felt total peace for the simple reason that she had prayed her way through the entire matter—felt peace even as seven feet of river water was washing through the first floor and destroying the walls beneath.

Faith can carry us through anything. But there just isn’t very much of it. There is far too much focus on the physical.

And so no one wants to mention the foul word, chastisement. And yet it was the term used in the prophecy. “How mankind responds to this new evil will determine the extent, length, and severity of the first chastisements,” said one. “These chastisements will differ according to regions, and like the great evil, will not always or usually be immediately noticeable for what they are.

If we are going to broken down little by little and sometimes not so “little by little,” if we are going to head in the direction of simplicity and peasants, and less technology [which is now fully out of hand], that means a change in our infrastructure, and like September 11, the hurricanes and ice storms and snow and hurricanes afford a preview of how swiftly our infrastructure could change. Perhaps a more accurate word

“Because of the greedy nature of the people, you will have people killing people for a cup of gasoline,” said an angel to Dr. Howard Storm, the atheist professor who had a famous near-death experience and alleged encounter with Jesus and angels. “The world will watch in horror as your country is obliterated by strife.”

But they wouldn’t help, he said, because they considered themselves victims of exploitation [and arrogance].

“The United States must change immediately and become the teacher of goodness and generosity,” he quoted an angel as saying. Either that happened, he said he was informed, either the “culture of violence” would end, or it would come to an end because the seeds of destruction were planted within. Either there would be change or destruction. “Either you will destroy yourselves or God will bring it to an end if there isn’t a change,” he further quoted the angel. The U.S., said Storm, was supposed to teach other nations how to give every person food, clothing, housing, medical care, education, and economic prosperity. There was enough for everyone. It was how God had designed Creation. But some were hoarding. The U.S. must share resources and help others gain access to such necessities not only of food but clean water and hygienic waste disposal, instead of focusing only on itself. “There must be a turning to God or the reign of the United States will end,” the alleged angel said.

[resources: books by Michael H. Brown]