For it is a day of confusion, and of treading down, and of perplexity, from the Lord, the LORD of Armies, in the valley of vision; a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains.
Isaiah 22:5
It was just November when we got the last minute news that Dr. Ralph Martin from Renewal Ministries could join us in January for our Encounter School of Ministry – Palm Beach Campus Transformation Night It seemed like perfect timing to have him offer us his encouragement to keep faith and prepare our hearts for the fulfillment of the angel’s promise of Jesus’ return (Acts 1:11). His arrival would also coincide with the conclusion of our Quarters on Prophetic Ministry and Advanced Ministry Training wherein his connection to the Catholic Renewal and faithful service to steward the prophetic word he was given in 1975 makes him a most suitable example to our students of stewarding a prophetic word. What is prophecy except little more than a fortune cookie that is tossed aside and never fully digested, if not properly discerned and watched over to see it come to pass? Ralph Martin is a Watchman.
Ralph shared the words the Lord had revealed to him in 1975 at the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Conference at the Basilica at St. Peter’s in Rome. He gave it at the closing Mass, after Communion, after a time of worship and quiet:
“Because I love you, I want to show you what I am doing in the world today. I want to prepare you for what is to come. Days of darkness are coming on the world, days of tribulation. . . . Buildings that are now standing will not be standing. Supports that are there for my people now will not be there. I want you to be prepared, my people, to know only Me and to cleave to Me and to have Me in a way deeper than ever before. I will lead you into the desert. . . . I will strip you of everything that you are depending on now, so you depend just on Me. A time of darkness is coming on the world, but a time of glory is coming for my Church, a time of glory is coming for my people. I will pour out on you all the gifts of my Spirit. I will prepare you for spiritual combat; I will prepare you for a time of evangelism that the world has never seen. . . . And when you have nothing but Me, you will have everything: land, fields, homes, and brothers and sisters and love and joy and peace more than ever before. Be ready, my people, I want to prepare you.”
Just a month after Ralph and I emailed each other the confirmation for his trip, the Vatican released a bombshell of a declaration. Everything about its timing for release, just before the Feast of the Nativity of Jesus, suddenly made Ralph’s visit even more perfectly timed. We would need his encouragement as a Grandfather of the Renewal now more than ever.
Many have been already watching and praying since news of the synods were announced, and new appointments were made to key positions within the Vatican hierarchy in these last recent years. Perhaps like me you have already witnessed the destruction of families, the division of ministries, the end of lifelong friendships, and the rise of offense in the hearts of those close to you. Yet, even as ‘scandalized’ threatened to present itself as the word of the year over the Church and her disciples, there was still an air of hope and disbelief at the prophecies foretold. ‘Fiducia supplicans’ burst that bubble wide open. If anything the events that have unfolded since 2020 have made one thing abundantly clear, we are never going back to the way things were. Too much has become seen and what is seen is impossible to be unseen.
Even if we
Galatians 1:8
or an angel from heaven
should preach to you a gospel
other than the one that we preached to you,
let that one be accursed!
With the path beginning to appear now before us, even if yet dimly like a mirror, people seem to be entering willingly into the dark times prophesied. Factions are indeed forming. A separation of distinctions are being made in the name of unity and clarification. It is becoming more and more clear who believes what they believe. The Age of Old is being transformed before our eyes by those charged with the duty to bring us all into the Age of Thy Kingdom Come.
And friends, this may surprise you, but it is necessary and very much in need.
For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you.
1 Corinthians 11:19
Friends, Brothers, and Sisters,
Do you see the war that is being waged before us? Not just of spiritual powers but fueled also by the flesh in the form of power called the ‘Will of Man’. Do you understand the intensity of this hour? It’s not too late to prepare yourself. Samuel did not know it was the Lord who called to him because “the Lord had yet revealed Himself” to the young boy. This day the Lord is revealing Himself to many who are hearing Him now for the first time. But they are mistaking His voice for the voice of another. They are still looking to the opinions of men when the Lord is calling them to listen to Someone greater – Him! How will you answer Him? Will you have the docility of young Samuel and with pure heart cry out “Here I Am, Lord! Speak your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:7-10). Will you reveal yourself to Him in response of sincere humility like Mary who deliberately echoed the cries of a desperate Hannah, “my heart exults in the Lord; my strength is exalted in my God” (1 Sam 2:1). Without both virtue and grace it is difficult for our hearts to stay in this battle. All the enemy has to do is get you to a place in which your hopes are crushed, your spirit demoralized, and your heart scandalized and your mouth will remain shut to the praises of the Lord and your ears will become deaf to His calls. So let us turn now toward one another. Though our building may be being shaken and our dependence on the support systems we’ve come to trust and to lean on are being sifted and weighed and stripped away, let us turn toward the voices of our fathers and to all the saints who answering the call of the Spirit have forewarned us about these days of tribulation and recall to mind now their instruction to not be ourselves shaken but instead to place our trust in Jesus, to “do whatever He tells you.” And perhaps, just perhaps we might be able to retain a glimmer of hope, and hold fast to the Truth handed on from generation to generation. Let us remain united in the heart of Mary that we might too deliberately echoe the cries of her fiat, and proclaim “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour” (Luke 1:46).
For what other Truth can be recognized from among us except that Truth which is approved and approves of those who possess Him, except that Truth be the Holy Spirit! To which we must answer His call now and cry out also, “Come Holy Spirit! fill the hearts of your faithful. And kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And you will renew the face of the earth.”
The most perfect preparation of the evangelizer has no effect without the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit the most convincing dialectic has no power over the heart of man.
—POPE ST. PAUL VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, n. 75
Now about that word for this year… interestingly, the word “scandalize” has two definitions. So naturally, we ought to clarify and make a distinction, right?
I think maybe I’ll let you decide.
I invite you to please join me this Wednesday, January 17th at the Cathedral of St. Ignatius Loyola Christians of every kind are invited. Let us be encouraged by a Great Father of the Renewal who has served faithfully the Word of the Lord. And let us fall down, in Adoration, and intercede for the faithful among us to have courage to respond to the Lord’s call with the same obedience as the Saints!
✝️ May the Lord Bless you and Keep you all the days of your life.
