Posted on 06/07/2004 9:25:18 PM PDT by Salvation
REAGAN EXHIBITED A 'MYSTICISM' THAT LINKS WITH PROPHECIES ABOUT ROLE OF AMERICA
Ronald Reagan was many things. He was an actor. He was a governor. He was president. We all know this. Fewer know that he taught Sunday school -- that he prayed in a charismatic fashion -- and that he was "born again" (every bit as much so as opponent Jimmy Carter). As a youth, many know he was a lifeguard. Later, he became spokesman for General Electric. He was in charge of the actors' guild.
Almost no one recognizes him in one of his most important roles: that of prophet.
But a prophet Reagan was, especially concerning Communism. At a time when the vast majority of people believed we would always live with the Soviet threat -- that there would always be the specter of hammer and sickle -- Ronald Reagan [who died on Saturday, just after this was written] prophesied that the "evil empire" would soon crumble. True to his words, crumble it has (at least for the time being). The only other prominent person to make a similar prediction was the Pope -- who like Reagan was nearly killed by an assassin's bullet (in fact just five weeks after) and who is likewise seen as mystical.
Lesser known was the prediction by an Italian priest named Stefano Gobbi, who in 1988 quoted a locution from Mary as announcing the imminent liberation of Communist countries at a time when the top foreign-policy experts would still have scoffed at such a possibility.
Just as fascinating was Reagan's conviction -- his prophetic utterances -- about his own nation.
These are fascinating because his sense of the United States ties in with other mysticism.
President Reagan mentioned the Divine Will and saw the Hand of God in the very creation of the U.S. Often, he quoted Pope Pius XII, who had said that "into the hands of America, God has placed an afflicted mankind."
That was also President Reagan's vision. In his view, America was a "shining city," a "chosen land" anointed by the Lord. The former president often spoke about the nation as extraordinarily blessed. "Specifically, Reagan believed that the American people were preordained to play a crucial role in history," notes author Paul Kengor. The U.S., said Reagan, was a "land of destiny," one that had gotten to where it was due to a "Divine system of selective service." It was to "advance man a further step in the climb from the swamps."
"You may think this is a little mystical, and I've said it many times before, but I believe there was a Divine Plan to place this great continent here between the two oceans to be found by people from every corner of the earth," said Ronald Reagan in 1990. America was "less of a place," he once added, "than an idea" -- a beacon.
Such connects with the mysticism of an Ohio nun, Sister Mildred Neuzil, who in the "Our Lady of America" apparitions also saw an extraordinary mission for the U.S. and often mentioned the Divine Will. Many of her revelations came just before Reagan's ascent to power. She quoted the Blessed Mother as mentioning the nation's "mandate from Heaven" and in messages granted an imprimatur claimed that Christ intended for America (and specifically its youth) to lead the world to purity and spiritual advancement.
Another mystic, former atheist Dr. Howard Storm -- an art professor from Ohio who "died" from a rupture of his intestine -- claims that during that trauma he encountered Christ and several angels. He says they told him that the U.S. had been blessed more than any other nation in history but that its mandate was to share its wealth and knowledge -- to help the poorest nations, to give away technology, to distribute resources fairly. Dr. Storm -- now a minister -- asserts that America's mission was to teach others the technology of hygiene, agriculture, and water treatment -- as Reagan put it, to bring them "out of the swamp."
Once more, America was set as a very specially ordained place -- the center of both technological and spiritual advancement. "They made it very clear to me that God had given this country the greatest blessing of any people in the history of the world," Storm told us, echoing the former president. "We have more of God's blessing. Everything that we have comes from God. We didn't deserve it, we didn't earn it, but we happen to be the wealthiest, most powerful nation in the world. And God gave us all this so that we could be the instruments of God's light in this world."
The Vatican has seen the same. Just last week, a headline said, "Holy See Calls for Better Distribution of Global Resources" and reported that Rome "called for mechanisms to guarantee the redistribution of global resources, given the inequalities caused by the process of economic liberalization.
"Liberalization and technological change have not benefited all the participating states equally, thus contributing, in some cases, to deepening economic disparities between and also within our countries," a papal in Prague representative said.
Has America done this? Is it still that "shining city" on a hill?
[next: naming evil helped bring it down in the Soviet Union and is now necessary in the United States?]
[resources: Our Lady of America and God and Ronald Reagan]
[see also archives on Our Lady of America]
By "read the stars", she probably meant to identify constellations. Reagan was close to my grandfather's generation, and he taught me the same thing. It was very common knowledge for country and small town people back then, although today almost no one other than sailors really study the night sky (in fact, in the city, you can't even see it properly.)
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