Posted on 06/06/2003 5:00:11 PM PDT by Salvation
SEER FROM CHURCH-APPROVED SITE CLAIMS CHRIST IS PREPARING FOR A MANIFESTATION
Maria Esperanza with Mother Teresa of Calcutta in 1982
www.spiritdaily.com
In the revised version of a book based on her visions, seer Maria Esperanza Bianchini of Caracas, Venezuela, claims that Jesus is on the verge of a major appearance or manifestation. The assertion is made in The Bridge To Heaven, a collection of interviews originally published in 1993 and set for re-release this week with updated interviews and information.
A manifestation or the Final Coming? We are leaving this for your own determination and make this distinction because there have been a myriad of similar prophecies since the first century -- when indeed even Christ's disciples expected Him to return within their lifetimes. Similar expectations have been held since, especially during a major chastisement during the Middle Ages, when apocalyptic prophecies reached a special fervor as Europe and Asia suffered through tremendous upheavals in weather and bubonic plague. Speculation has surged in the years following 1981 -- when word came of seers granted secrets by the Blessed Virgin at Medjugorje in Bosnia-Hercegovina, secrets that have not yet been revealed but that some believe have apocalyptic elements.
It was five years before Medjugorje -- in 1976 -- that apparitions began at a smaller spot called Betania (for "Bethany") near Caracas in Venezuela. Those apparitions were followed in 1984 by a major appearance of the Blessed Mother that was witnessed not only by Esperanza (the main seer at Betania) but also at least 490 who wrote declarations for the local bishop, Most Reverend Pio Bello Ricardo, a trained psychologist who personally interviewed the witnesses, consulted the Vatican, and formally declared the apparitions authentic in 1987.
The bishop, who has himself testified to witnessing other forms of phenomena around Esperanza, took the additional extraordinary measure of formally declaring Betania to be "sacred ground."
The site thus became one of only a handful of Church-approved apparitions during the 20th century and for that reason many take the prophecies of Esperanza, whose phenomena have been documented by scientists, into special consideration. Those phenomena include stigmata, visions, apparitions, "reading" souls, healing, bilocation, and other gifts similar to those of Pio, whom Esperanza knew when she was a young woman living in Italy with husband Geo, a native of that country.
In the original version of The Bridge to Heaven, Esperanza had said, "Jesus is coming. His coming is near. Perhaps I will not live to see this, but the Lord is coming. Little time will pass. It will be in a way never before imagined by man, because the Light of His New Rising will be evident to everyone. Jesus will be felt very clearly in our hearts and you will see Him just as on that great day of His resurrection into Heaven."
While, as we have often emphasized, Scripture itself warns that no prophecy (save that of Jesus) is perfect [1 Corinthians 13:8], and while predictions are often conditional, Esperanza has had some impressive "hits" -- including predictions related to September 11. When asked during interviews last autumn and winter for the new book if she believes He is really coming and if so how it might be, Esperanza, who often sees things in ethereal symbolism, elaborated on what seems at the least like a major manifestation. We offer it for your own interpretation.
"It will be very different than what people think," she told writer Michael H. Brown. "He’s going to come in silence. People will realize He is among us little by little. I’m seeing Him right now. He has His mantle covering His hair. He has a robe like white and black. His first presentation will be like this, because in those days an innocent person whom He loves a lot will die, an innocent person. This will shock the world, will move the world. Many people will believe. He will disappear for some days and appear again.
"And when He disappears, people will go back again to the mess, to the disordered things. He will bilocate, He will multiply Himself, to assist everyone, in their homes, because this will be a definite thing. He will come and knock on every door. And then people will realize it is truly Him. He will let Himself be seen for a little while and then will disappear until God decrees what has to be done. And then people will understand what is happening and begin preparing themselves. There is not much time for that. I will say from ten to twenty years. Everything is already in place, in motion. I see palm trees, and they will say again, 'Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord.' We are being prepared right now. I know what I am saying sounds crazy, but I have to say what I have to say. Sometimes I am like St. Thomas, who has to put his finger in His side."
The distinction is made between a "manifestation" and the actual, formal Second Coming because the Church teaches that the Second or at least Final Coming of Christ will be followed by the end of the world. When asked: "Are you speaking of visions, or maybe dreams? That Christ will return in visions? We look at Matthew 24 and Luke 21 and it says when He comes again it will be in glory on a cloud. So you’re speaking of a manifestation – not the Second Coming?" Maria replied:
"The same way He resurrected, that is how God is going to appear to you, to me, in that way, the same way as He resurrected, as an apparition. That’s the way He is going to appear, to you, to me, to everyone in that way. He is going to start appearing. He already is among us but is not letting us see Him. With our brains, in this physical reality, we can only see what God wants us to see, but it only needs a little touch from God to open another little door in our brains to see Jesus whenever He wants us to see Him. That’s why I have been saying to be ready, because things are starting to happen.
"The Catechism says the Second Coming is followed by the end of the world. How do you respond to that?" she was asked, at which point her husband Geo, who often speaks for her because an illness prevents her answering questions in depth, said:
"It is an interpretation. Read Psalm 71. When He comes in glory is the Final Judgment, it is the end of this world. If He comes now, the ones who will receive Him will be the Pope and all the faithful souls in the world, no one else, because they are expecting Him and waiting for Him. We are also waiting."
The years before such a manifestation will include a special light from Heaven, says Esperanza, and many natural and geopolitical events meant as purification and preparation.
[later this week: what Esperanza has to say about souls in purgatory]
[resources: The Bridge to Heaven, The Day Will Come, The Final Hour, Betania Video: Land of Grace]
They don't seem to encourage that much any more, probably so as not to raise false hopes in people who have already suffered considerably.
I read carefully about the Lourdes miracles; many are well documented, and I don't remember anyone other than French and English nationals, maybe a German or Swiss, being cured which I find a little odd. There was not one American in the lot, although a friend told me a strange story about their dipping an American's hearing aid in the water and hearing was restored through the use of the aid. Evidently American hearing aids can be cured :-).
I don't know what to make of it any more. There is no doubt that cures have taken place there, but they are very scanty in proportion to the enormous number of sick pilgrims who go there. There was an American couple (catholic) who borrowed on their life insurance to take their son (can't remember exactly what his problem was - cerebral palsy I think). He was not cured nor was there much, if any, improvement in his condition.
One wonders, in hindsight, if powerful psychological mechanisms kick in in some of these cases due to hopes and expectations. The more we know the less we seem to know and understand.
I prefer to read what the saints have said, or approved apparitions of Our Lady or Our Lord.
But I believe we are on the verge of some troubling/persecution times.
Gospel for the Procession of Palms Reading I Responsorial Psalm Reading II GospelGospel for the Procession of Palms
Mark 11:1-10
When Jesus and his disciples drew near to Jerusalem,
to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives,
he sent two of his disciples and said to them,
"Go into the village opposite you,
and immediately on entering it,
you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat.
Untie it and bring it here.
If anyone should say to you,
'Why are you doing this?' reply,
'The Master has need of it
and will send it back here at once.'"
So they went off
and found a colt tethered at a gate outside on the street,
and they untied it.
Some of the bystanders said to them,
"What are you doing, untying the colt?"
They answered them just as Jesus had told them to,
and they permitted them to do it.
So they brought the colt to Jesus
and put their cloaks over it.
And he sat on it.
Many people spread their cloaks on the road,
and others spread leafy branches
that they had cut from the fields.
Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out:
"Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come!
Hosanna in the highest!"
or
Jn 12:12-16
When the great crowd that had come to the feast heard
that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,
they took palm branches and went out to meet him, and cried out:
"Hosanna!"
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,
the king of Israel."
Jesus found an ass and sat upon it, as is written:
Fear no more, O daughter Zion;
see, your king comes, seated upon an ass's colt.
His disciples did not understand this at first,
but when Jesus had been glorified
they remembered that these things were written about him
and that they had done this for him.
6 [13] Palm branches: used to welcome great conquerors; cf 1 Macc 13:51; 2 Macc 10:7. They may be related to the lulab, the twig bundles used at the feast of Tabernacles. Hosanna: see Psalm 118:25-26. The Hebrew word means: "(O Lord), grant salvation." He who comes in the name of the Lord: referred in Psalm 118:26 to a pilgrim entering the temple gates, but here a title for Jesus (see the notes on Matthew 11:3 and John 6:14; 11:27). The king of Israel: perhaps from Zephaniah 3:14-15 in connection with the next quotation from Zechariah 9:9.
Go to the link above for the live links that are referenced in other books of the Bible.
Anything is possible. I'm having trouble figuring out why there would be blood on statues anyway. It doesn't make sense really. It isn't something I would seek out or want to happen.
Jl 3:1-5
Thus says the LORD:
I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.
Your sons and daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
your young men shall see visions;
even upon the servants and the handmaids,
in those days, I will pour out my spirit.
And I will work wonders in the heavens and on the earth,
blood, fire, and columns of smoke;
the sun will be turned to darkness,
and the moon to blood,
at the coming of the day of the LORD,
the great and terrible day.
Then everyone shall be rescued
who calls on the name of the LORD;
for on Mount Zion there shall be a remnant,
as the LORD has said,
and in Jerusalem survivors
whom the LORD shall call.
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