It is a time for prophecy but how much? What may be real? What overextends the bounds of the credible?

Those are questions of the hour but there are some matters to do with reputed apparitions that can be cleared up -- perhaps.

There is Our Lady of America. This devotion spawned by the reputed apparitions of Mary to a nun in the Midwest named Mildred Neuzil is gaining momentum after years -- decades -- of languishing, thanks to the dedicated efforts of a small group set on fulfilling the Blessed Mother's requests -- among which would be installment of a statue fashioned after Our Lady of America at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.

It's not there yet [you can write the director here to urge this], but such a statue has been allowed in the Cathedral of St. Louis by Archbishop Burke, who has also written a strong endorsement of the devotion and messages, and other prominent Catholics are also falling in line.

Bottom line: return to purity, said the apparitions, or America will face judgment.

We reported on these messages at great length just before September 11 [see archives].

Then there is Medjugorje: a few potentially interesting tidbits passed this way during the past two months, first an article in The Washington Post pointing out its popularity (a million pilgrims a year), then an article about a man who became a priest due in large part to the apparition (he once was a wealthy businessman), and also the report that the recent 12th International Seminar for Priests hosted in Medjugorje attracted 628 priests from 46 countries around the world. Above at left is a statue of the Medjugorje Madonna recently installed at the largest basilica-shrine dedicated to Fatima in North America. And also was there word that during his vacation in Lorenzago di Cadore that Pope Benedict XVI prayed before an image of the Virgin that was created in Medjugorje. Such was reported by the web portal of Radio Vatican in a post of July 21, 2007.

Was it the image above at the right? And if so, did Benedict know that it was connected to the apparitions, which have not yet met with official sanction?

At the famed site too -- but somehow under the radar of most Church authorities -- is the fact that there has been an inexplicable exudation of a water-oil-like liquid from the right knee of a bronze corpus of Jesus behind the church for now six years.

What is the liquid? How could it be so consistent? And might it, as one viewer suggests, symbolize the tears of Mary at the knee of the dying Jesus? Did she have her head on His knee?

Again, how much phenomena -- and prophecy is real -- and what do we make of a report on a blog on July 12 claiming that words of warning were issued by a mysterious stranger in New York? This was in the realm of angel accounts.

It came from a man named C. Johnson and is for your discernment.

"I had my first experience with a messenger of God a couple of weeks ago when I visited New York," he asserted. "The day was Monday, June 25, and my cousin and I decided at the last minute that we would head into Manhattan to buy a few more ends and odds for my brothers wedding that coming Friday. We walked a couple of blocks from her apartment, to the subway and got on the D Train. The stop we boarded at was the first or last stop, depending on which direction a passenger was traveling in, so when we actually got on the train we were the only two people sitting there. We ended up sitting in the last car of the train because when we initially came down the stairs to the platform, there were a few 'not so friendly looking people' sitting on the benches outside of the train smoking and having what sounded like a heated discussion. So we walked all the way to the end and sat in two connected seats facing forward, or facing in the direction that the train was moving in. About five minutes later the doors shut and the train began to move.

"About three or four stops later I noticed a woman get on. I noticed her for two reasons, first she got on the train and didn't sit down when there were plenty of seats, and second she starred at me right in my eyes almost as soon as the doors shut and the train started to move again. Usually when somebody stares at me I'll look away but this time I could not take my eyes off of her.

"She was a black woman, about 5'10", kind of slim, she had natural hair that was cut really low, she had on a purple sleeveless turtle neck top with a belt around her waist, a long black skirt, and some sandals. She just stood there looking at me and for the next few stops. Shortly there after, the train car was full and all the seats were taken and there were people standing holding on to the overhead bars.

"Then it happened! I knew something was happening because I saw her leg start to go up and down in a stomping motion. She said "Yes Lord, God has sent me here to warn you people today". She went on to say that we were living in sin and God is tired of us building our foundation on things that can't hold us up like money, our jobs, education, family. She said that God was angry with us for not building our foundation on Jesus Christ and that he would punish us very soon if we didn't stop and ask for forgiveness for our sins.

"She said that the end days weren't coming because they were already here and that this was our last chance. In between her preaching she even spoke in tongues. As she walked up and down the train car in the direction I was facing I noticed the weirdest thing everybody one by one began to withdraw there feet from the aisle to let her pass, even people that had newspapers up to there faces and didn't see her approaching moved out of the way. People who had bags in the aisle moved them underneath their seat.

"Out of all the times I have visited New York this was the largest display of courtesy I had ever seen. Nobody stepped in the path she walked in, not even one rude comment made as she even stood right in front of some peoples faces and preached. Any seasoned New York MTA commuter knows this is out of the ordinary to not hurl vulgarity at a person that gets in your face or at least move away from them. Her last words as she exited the train at the Rockefeller Center stop were, 'You've been warned.'

"I tried to look for her as the train began to move again but she was gone. I'm positive she didn't reach the steps to exit the subway yet, because remember we were in the last car and she had a longer walk than usual, and the train only gives you about twenty seconds to enter and exit before the doors shut and it starts to move again. So unless she ran, which still would have taken more than twenty seconds because of the other people standing on the platform, I would have definitely seen her walking away. But I never saw her, she just disappeared. She was without a doubt an angel.

"My reaching the train station when I did, sitting in the train car and in the seat that I was in, which was directly in the path of this woman was not a coincidence. As a matter of fact there is no such thing as a coincidence, there is only an almighty, and all knowing God that makes no mistakes. God lead me to where I was on that day because he knew I needed to hear that message to pass it on. Just like his angel said, the end days are not coming, the end days are here. What is your foundation built upon, is it God or is it something else? If you don't have an answer to this question you need to pray. If your answer to this question is anything other than your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, then you need to repent for your sins and pray."

8/9/7