It is wrong to focus all the "signs of the times" in any one area such as the economy. What is occurring and about to occur is much larger than any one realm. Such signs are not confined to the financial markets, politics, or the weather. There is a confluence. They arise on all sides. Something is drawing closer.

That's not to say the economy won't be a factor, which it very much will. It is to say the potential events that may form our future are dauntingly large -- and unpredictable. Massive occurrences that we rarely contemplate could take center stage. We have noted a prophecy that mentioned "strange loud rumblings" (as a precursor). Recently, there was a strange rumbling associated with a meteorite that hit in Canada, and then, just before the new year, "a tremendous explosion, like a sonic boom," was heard from the skies near Tok, Alaska, at the same time that others saw a fireball or a squiggly contrail. "I could kind of hear it still rumbling, like thunder," recalled a witness, right to the point. "I thought, what in the world?"

At the same time, scientists released a report claiming evidence that a meteorite hit the Atlantic more than two thousand years ago, causing a tsunami that washed the shoreline from Fire Island to lower Manhattan. A repeat of such an event would have obvious consequences.

There are also rumblings at Yellowstone National Park, where seismologists are monitoring subterranean movements that could signal eruption of a "super-volcano" (see Sent To Earth). Back hundreds of thousands of years ago, this volcano exploded with 2,500 times the force of Mount St. Helens and covered an area that now encompasses a dozen states with thick ash. If it erupted, it would blot out much of our sunlight -- shutting down photosynthesis. Such volcanoes are thought also to exist (unseen) at the bottom of the ocean.

There are quakes, one recently in an area of terrorists on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan -- a real world hotspot.

There are the rumblings of war.

How (if we accept that particular prophecy) will the rumbling come?

We can say this: even straight-laced secular journalists are noting the signs and beginning to speak like those of us who put stock in the prophetic pulse.

"It's all coming to pieces, isn't it -- the world we live in, the continuity we thought we could count on, the climate, the economy, the fragile peace," wrote the famed movie reviewer, Roger Ebert, in the Chicago Sun-Times blog spot. "The twentieth century was called 'the American Century,' with some reason. I do not believe the 21st century will belong to anybody, and it may not last for 100 years of human witness. There are nuclear weapons in the Middle East and on the Indian subcontinent, and if one is used, more will follow and who can say when the devastation will end? The weather is unhinged. It is no longer a question of global warming. It is a question of what [the heck] is happening? I do not have to rehearse for you the details of this horrible American autumn, and a winter not yet half over. The tornadoes, the hurricanes, the floods, the blizzards, the wild fires, the heat waves, the water shortages, the power blackouts. The White House declares 'a state of emergency' and the federal government sends money. How many states of emergency are we still in? How much more money is there?"

We don't believe that, with God, anything is actually "falling apart," and we will approach the deeper prophetic elements, among other topics, next month (God-willing) during a retreat in Texas, which of course has seen its share of potent weather. We do believe that the Lord is simplifying the world and bringing it back in line with His Plan. The words "disruption" and "upheaval" keep coming up. Watch the Midwest and West. In Hawaii, a blackout hit as the president-elect was staying there, as if to indicate that no one will be out of reach.

"Six months ago my American flag fell over in the night and knocked my statue of Mary off her stand," wrote Tom J. Parsons of Pierre, South Dakota. "It broke the globe, so I couldn't fix it, but it didn't harm Mary. I enclose a picture. Look at how close to her toes it broke off perfectly. The American flag broke the globe.  Look what has happened to the stock market since then. My spiritual director said he thought it had a lot more ramifications than just for me personally.  I suggest that everyone dust off their rosaries. We must all pray, go to Mass and Confession, and pray a full Rosary every day. Mary is going to lead us to sharing instead of selfishness." 

We hear such testimonies on a daily basis. One preparation: Holy Water. Watch especially developments on embryonic stem cells.
 
Something comes -- many things do -- and with God there is nothing to fear. In the midst of chaos, or calamities, we should preach hope, more than hellfire. "My children, why do you not give me your hearts completely?" the Blessed Mother allegedly said at Medjugorje recently (where rumors again swirl). "I only desire to put in them peace and salvation – my Son. With my Son your soul will be directed to noble goals and you will never get lost. Even in greatest darkness you will find the way."

The world of nature exists within a larger pattern of cycles that are then in cycles of which we have no understanding. Falling apart?

No. It it is all coming together, and no bailout, no governmental action, and no Treasury secretary will have a significant say in the outcome.

[resources: Sent to Earth and Houston retreat: Michael Brown on miracles, prophecy, current times]

[see also: Earthquake swarm at Yellowstone, Paper: Obama will be first president to rule nation in decline, Democrats debate way to lift ban on embryonic stem-cell research, Was it a meteor?,  and Archives: Israel and number '11']