The Eclipse. A Catholic view

Carlos Caso-Rosendi

In the past, I have published a few articles calling your attention to odd coincidences having to do with dates, events, scriptural words, and images. I made sure to call them hypothesis because I am not a prophet, I do not have visions, I am not visited by celestial beings, or receive special revelations.

A curious ‘fatwa’

Recently I  read an article in the Catholic.net website in Spanish, founded and supported by the followers of the notorious sexual adventurer Marcial Maciel, founder of Regnum Christi and the Legionaries of Christ. There I read a sort of a fatwa condemning the mentioning of astronomical bodies and their interpretation as divine signs. The admonition seems to be written in condemnation of the work of Mr. Antonio Yagüe, a Spanish geologist and engineer who has published copious eschatological studies backed by proper ecclesiastical approval.  Since Jesus said that “…there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars”  [Luke 21:25  Douay-Rheims Bible] I won’t pay attention to the condemnations of Catholic.net. As far as I am concerned, they can go and fly the proverbial kite. Christ is not a heretical astrologist and if he says “look there!” I can’t care less who tells me not to do it.  And by the way, congratulations to Mr. Antonio Yagüe for his excellent work. His hypothesis may or may not come to pass but that is irrelevant. The important thing is that he is making us watch.  “Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh, shall find watching. Amen, I say to you, that he will gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and passing will minister unto them.”  [Luke 12:37, Douay-Rheims Bible.] So far Mr. Antonio Yagüe has proven to be much less dangerous to the faith (and much more edifying) than the pedophile Marcial Maciel was. I will continue reading Mr. Yagüe’s writings without fear of being sexually assaulted. Mr. Yagüe is definitely not peddling horoscopes of dubious value, regardless of how mistaken his hypothesis may be. I do not know if Mr. Yagüe’s analysis is correct but at least he is not talking about Marxism, Theology of Liberation, or Sedevacantism. Those are the dangerous ideas, much more dangerous than the failed speculations of a sincere man.

So let me insist one more time, this article came to my mind after hearing the Holy Mass readings for August 21, 2017, which is the feast of Our Lady of Knock, and also the day when the Church remembers Pope St Pius X. Coinciding with those two Catholic events, a large number of people across the United States witnessed a total solar eclipse. A number of rather extraordinary coincidences surrounding the eclipse generated various interpretations. Not only the Sun and the Moon coincided on August 21. Besides those two astral bodies, a number of other things were aligned to make us think about where are we going. I will try to give you a brief view of those coincidences later on in this article.

A reason to attend Holy Mass

Few of you know that some of my ancestors, through my very Catholic paternal grandmother, come from County Cork, Ireland. My second great-grandparents Dónal Hayes and Máire O’Callaghan emigrated to Argentina in the mid-19th century escaping from the Great Irish Famine, their daughter Cáitlín Hayes, married a Scottish merchant in Buenos Aires, Mr. John Henry French. He was named John Henry after our beloved John Henry Newman, perhaps one of the most famous converts of that century. Their only daughter was my grandmother whom they named Agnes Evelyn. In turn, she married a handsome descendant of one Northern Italian orphan, a survivor of the cholera epidemic. That was my grandpa, Alberto who was not very Catholic at all but looked very much like the current US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson. Unfortunately, his sons decided to be lukewarm Catholics like him and not like my good grandma. Unfortunately, my father denied his children the benefit of Catholic baptism but Heaven had other plans.

Many decades later I was baptized and received into the Catholic Church on Assumption Day 2001, at the Cathedral of the Most Holy Blood of Christ in London under the auspices of Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor whose ancestors coincidentally are also from County Cork. It’s a long way to Tipperary but you see, the way to Cork does not seem to be any shorter. The happy Catholic faith of my Irish grandmother, her love for Our Lady, and her faithful praying of the Holy Rosary led me to the devotion of Our Lady of Cork. That is why I attended Mass after dutifully watching the eclipse on television. During Mass, my mind was busy processing a number of coincidences surrounding the eclipse which I will list later in this same article. The readings for Mass were Judges 2:11-19, then several verses of Psalm 106:34-44. and the account of the encounter of Jesus with the wealthy young man in Matthew 19:16-22. As the Scriptures were read, my thoughts went in all directions, marveling at the many connections coming from all angles. Obviously, God wants to tell us something because no one could have arranged all those elements in such a marvelous way. My dear readers may want to take a break from time to time because this one promises to be a long article but I can assure you it is going to be worth your while.

Here are the basic components of this fascinating puzzle:

1.  The many coincidences found by various researchers surrounding the solar eclipse over US territory on August 21, 2017.
2.  The Catholic Church remembering Our Lady of Knock and Pope St. Pius X on August 21.
3. The Holy Mass readings of Scripture scheduled for that day.

Many strange coincidences

See if you can follow the thread of coincidences without getting dizzy! In this section of the article, I am simply copying what others have researched previously. Please do not confuse this with Astrology. The study of the constellations, planets, and other celestial objects is called Astronomy and it is one of the major sciences. Astrology, horoscopes, astral charts, etc. have nothing to do with this. Those ignorant enough not to make that distinction can call this “astrology” and “superstition” until they drop from exhaustion.  I assume readers have some basic concepts clear.

These are some of the coincidences found by researchers that have been published on various websites. Links and credits are provided in the Notes section below.

•  It’s been 99 years since a total solar eclipse crossed the entire United States.
• Another total solar eclipse will cross the entire United States again seven years later in 2024. The paths of both eclipses superimposed look clearly like the Hebrew letter Tav.
• Tav is the 22nd and the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It means “truth” and Ezekiel in chapters 9-12 uses it to mean a mark or sign. A Tav basically looks like a cross. It is also the first letter of the word “Torah” used to identify the Mosaic Law and the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures.
• Total solar eclipses occur because the Sun is 400 times the size of the Moon and it is located 400 times farther away from Earth. The numerical value of the Hebrew letter Tav is 400.
• The surface temperature of the Sun is 5778 degrees on the Kelvin scale. The eclipse occurs on the first day of Elul, the final month of the Hebrew year of 5777. The Hebrew year 5778 begins exactly one month later on September 21, 2017. The month of Elul is a time of repentance in preparation for the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah (Head of the Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement).
• Quoted from the article by Krista Smith: “The eclipse on August 21st is also exactly 40 days from Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement) which is on September 29th. “40” represents a period of testing in the Bible as can be seen in the 40 years the Israelites wandered in the wilderness and the 40 days Jesus was tested in the wilderness. This 40 day period leading up to Yom Kippur begins on August 21st is called the season of Teshuvah, which is a time to get right with God before judgment falls on the Day of Atonement.”
• This is the first total solar eclipse that is only visible in the US, the first total eclipse visible only in the USA since the country was founded in 1776.
• In Jewish tradition, Lunar eclipses are considered omens for Israel but Solar eclipses are omens for the Gentiles. There were four Lunar Eclipses in 2014-15, the first Blood Moons in 2,000 years to form a Tetrad coinciding with Jewish religious festivals in a Mosaic Jubilee year.
• On June 30, 2015, the astronomical conjunction known as the Star of Bethlehem reappeared for the for the first time since the 1st century. That is very likely the conjunction that led the Magi to Jerusalem in search of the newborn Jesus. See Matthew 2:1-12.
• The eclipse appears to be connected to the astronomical alignment of September 23, 2017, involving the constellations Virgo and Leo, along with Mercury, Mars, Venus, and Jupiter the King of Planets. On that date, Jupiter will exit the lower part of Virgo, in a way resembling the birth of the child described in Revelation 12.  The solar eclipse over the USA coincides with the star Regulus (the Little King), in the constellation of Leo the Lion, as in the Lion of Judah the royal tribe of Israel.  This is the first time in over 10,000 years that the nine astronomical elements match exactly the positions required to meet the scriptural description.
• Quoted from the article by Krista Smith: “The uniqueness and precision of the September alignment are its greatest strength.  It’s not enough that the moon and the Sun are near Virgo once a year.  It’s not enough that Jupiter passes through Virgo’s womb every 11 or 12 years.  Every condition in Revelation 12:1-2 has to be met and that’s  what’s unique about the alignment on September 23rd.The woman must be clothed with the sun.The woman must have the moon under her feet.She must have a crown of exactly twelve stars. She must be pregnant and give birth.  Pregnancies only happen in wombs and they last 37 to 44 weeks, on Sept 23rd it will have been 42 weeks. The planet Jupiter entered Virgo on Jan 16′ and will drop on Sept 23rd (depicting an exit from the womb, if you will). It’s not enough for Jupiter to just pass through Virgo or retrograde nearby.  It needs to stay in her womb in a way that pictures a pregnancy.”
• As shown by the blog Chrisify the eclipse begins in Oregon at the same time the Sun sets in Jerusalem, and the path of the eclipse connects seven American cities called Salem in seven different American States:  Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Missouri, Kentucky, and South Carolina.
• The intersection of the paths of both eclipses occurs near the town of Cairo, Illinois where there is a cluster of towns founded by Masonic associations. Since Donald Trump is the first President that has never belonged to a secret or esoteric society, does this means that the end of the preponderance of the Masonic cult is coming to an end?
• From Spirit Daily: “There is a “midpoint” area of the eclipse, located near Troy, Kansas, which I find amazing—although it is not the center point of the total span of the eclipse, it is the general area of the land, after the eclipse makes the first contact with the western shore of Oregon, until its last contact on the eastern shore of South Carolina. This area is surrounded by the following towns: Maryville, Conception, King City, St. Joseph (all in Missouri) and Mary’s, Maryville (in Kansas). Does this indicate the Holy Family is central to the meaning of the eclipse?
• The eclipse follows the Oregon Trail and the Trail of Tears, both of which could be compared to the Exodus. The Oregon Trail represented hopes for a new beginning, in a new land of promise, even though there were tremendous hardships and suffering along the way. The Trail of Tears represented the forced relocation and displacement of native Americans on a trail filled with immense hardship and suffering Does this represent what’s ahead for Americans, or mankind in general, in the End Times?
• The eclipse passes directly over St. Joseph, MO—near the “mainland midpoint area”—and St. Joseph was considered a “jumping-off point” for those on the Oregon Trail if they decided not to go any further. Is this a warning to us today that you’re either on board or you’re not at this point?
• There are three Salem’s at key points in the path of the eclipse, all of which will experience 100% darkness: Salem, OR (near the point of the first contact), Salem, NE (near the center point) and Salem, SC (near the point of the last contact). Biblical Salem was the home of Melchezidek, the high priest, often likened to Jesus; Salem is Shalom in Hebrew, which means Peace.

I have been told there are even more strange coincidences. I am sure many will come to light as this event is studied further in the days to come. I hope these are sufficient to establish the uniqueness of this eclipse. In my opinion, there are enough connections to prove that chance alone cannot explain them.

Our Lady of Knock

Coincidentally the Church remembers the Miracle of Knock every August 21. On the evening of August 21, 1879, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a large group of people in County Mayo, Ireland. It was the vigil of the octave of the Feast of the Assumption. The crowd included many families. Here is an account of the miracle.

“Our Lady was wearing a large, brilliant crown and clothed in white garments. On her right was Saint Joseph, his head inclined toward her and on her left Saint John the Evangelist. To the left of Saint John was an altar on which stood a cross and a lamb. Standing only a few feet off the ground, the Blessed Virgin wore a white cloak and was described by witnesses as being incredibly beautiful. She wore a bright golden crown, and appeared to be praying with her eyes looking toward heaven with her arms bend in front of her with her palms facing inward. Fifteen parishioners stood to witness the apparition for two hours as they recited the rosary. Although it was daylight when the apparition began, the weather turned for the worse and it began to rain heavily. The area around the apparition appeared unaffected, however, as the ground remained dry as long as the vision lasted. She did not speak, but the gable of the church where the manifestation was made was covered with a cloud of light. Saint Joseph, the foster-father of Jesus, also wore white robes and stood on the Virgin’s right. He inclined his head respectfully toward the Blessed Virgin. Saint John the Evangelist wore a mitre, and appeared to be preaching as he held a book in his left hand.” Quoted from The Woman in Orbit. Mary’s Feasts Everyday, Everywhere by Sister Maretta Lamberty, S.C.C.

Now let us see if we can connect a few things. The American Eclipse of August 21 crossed the sky over the USA, although it was partially visible in a tiny part of neighboring Canada, the phenomenon affected the USA for the most part. I believe this is a sign directed specifically to the United States and its coincidence with this double Catholic feast should be kept in mind particularly by American Catholics. Our Lady of Knock appeared in 1879 with two saints: St Joseph and St John the Divine. St Joseph appeared in a reverent posture, with his head inclined towards Our Lady who was praying the Rosary in the orans position, pleading in a posture standing, with the elbows close to the sides of the body and with the hands outstretched sideways, palms up. St Joseph’s posture is indicating holy reverence, St Mary’s posture indicates prayer more specifically the reverential praying of the Holy Rosary. The orans position of her arms reveals the need for sacrifice. If you think praying in such posture is not sacrificial, try it for thirty minutes without taking a break. What is St John doing? Well, he is wearing a miter, that is the headdress proper of his apostolic rank. And he is preaching. His posture is a message to the Catholic hierarchy whose mission of preaching the Gospel should be inseparable from their investiture as princes of the Church. St John represents the faithful hierarchy of the Church because he was the only disciple that remained close to Jesus and Mary at the time of Calvary. Appropriately, the Lamb of God is visible on the right side of the vision. He takes the sin of the world, he is there to remind us that this is a time of redemption and restoration.

While this extraordinary miracle took place, a heavy rain fell on the surrounding area but the faithful watching the event were miraculously kept dry and the ground remained dry as well. The interpretation is, in my humble opinion, very straightforward: while the hierarchy advances the cause of the Gospel fearlessly and the faithful remain reverent, prayerful, and devout leading a sacrificial life in Christ, the storms ravaging the world will not affect the Church, their souls, or their salvation.  Matthew 10:28. Coincidentally enough, this vision happened to occur at a time when many Irish were leaving their land seeking a better life in America. Many times in history God has used migrations as a means to evangelize and conquer new lands.

Pope Saint Pius X. Restore All Things in Christ

Pope St. Pius X was a tireless defender of the Catholic faith who retained – despite his many battles – a very Eucharistic and pastoral heart. “Perhaps nowhere in the history of the Church is there a better example of a man possessed of so many of the saintly virtues—piety, charity, deep humility, pastoral zeal, and simplicity—than in… St. Pius X. Yet the parish priest of Tombolo, who remained a country priest at heart throughout his life, faced the problems and evils of a strife-torn world with the spiritual fervor of a crusader. The inscription on his tomb in the crypt of the basilica of St. Peter’s gives the most eloquent testimony to a life spent in the service of God. It reads:“Born poor and humble of heart, Undaunted champion of the Catholic faith, Zealous to restore all things in Christ, Crowned a holy life with a holy death.” Pope St. Pius X led the Church in an incredible spiritual crusade against the heresies of Modernism. He also brought about great fruits in the Church by promoting Marian devotions, daily reception of the Holy Eucharist, and faithful parish-based catechesis. It is widely reported that Pope St. Pius said the following in response to those who asked him to “go soft” on the Modernists: “Kindness is for fools! They want them to be treated with oil, soap, and caresses but they ought to be beaten with fists! In a duel you don’t count or measure the blows, you strike as you can! War is not made with charity, it is a struggle a duel. If Our Lord were not terrible he would not have given an example in this too. See how he treated the Philistines, the sowers of error, the wolves in sheep’s clothing, the traitors in the temple. He scourged them with whips!” The quote “Absolute truth is unchangeable!” in widely attributed to Pope St. Pius X. Something close to this statement is found in the Oath Against Modernism. The text reads, “the absolute and immutable truth preached by the apostles from the beginning may never be believed to be different, may never be understood in any other way.” This quote comes from Lamentabili Sane, and reads it context: “With truly lamentable results, our age, casting aside all restraint in its search for the ultimate causes of things, frequently pursues novelties so ardently that it rejects the legacy of the human race. Thus it falls into very serious errors, which are even more serious when they concern sacred authority, the interpretation of Sacred Scripture, and the principal mysteries of Faith. The fact that many Catholic writers also go beyond the limits determined by the Fathers and the Church herself is extremely regrettable. In the name of higher knowledge and historical research (they say), they are looking for that progress of dogmas which is, in reality, nothing but the corruption of dogmas.” He also promoted the now sadly abandoned Oath Against Modernism (1910), which reads, “Therefore, I entirely reject the heretical’ misrepresentation that dogmas evolve and change from one meaning to another different from the one which the Church held previously.” Quoted from St. Peter’s List.

Does the shoe fit, my dear American readers?  Do you still think that it is just by chance that the Church remembers this great man and the great Miracle of Knock on the same day the Maker of Heaven and Earth – the “Great Architect”, to use the Masonic appellative – decreed a spectacular sign from Heaven to visit our country?

Many of you remember the words of President Ronald Reagan at the end of his first term: “You ain’t seen nothing yet!” We are now going to analyze the reading for the Holy Mass of August 21, 2017. The message contained in them is undeniable.

A Divine Message to the United States

 

Judges 2: 11-19  —  Then the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and worshiped the Baals;  and they abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; they followed other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were all around them, and bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger. They abandoned the Lord, and worshiped Baal and Astarte.  So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers who plundered them, and he sold them into the power of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies.  Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them to bring misfortune, as the Lord had warned them and sworn to them; and they were in great distress. Then the Lord raised up judges, who delivered them out of the power of those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen even to their judges; for they lusted after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their ancestors had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord; they did not follow their example. Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord would be moved to pity by their groaning because of those who persecuted and oppressed them. But whenever the judge died, they would relapse and behave worse than their ancestors, following other gods, worshiping them and bowing down to them. They would not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.

Baal was the local name of a deity worshiped across the ancient Middle East. The Israelites got infected with that unclean spiritual practice by the neighboring Canaanites, who had that thing as a fertility god, sort of the big honcho in their crowded pantheon. The word bah-al meant more or less “lord” and it had the same double use as the English word that can be used to address a human authority or God himself.  In a strictly religious sense, Baal was understood to be the god of fertility. He ruled over the rain needed to for agriculture. Baal was the god of storms, lightning, and rain. That is why the Prophet Elijah makes fun of him and of his followers in 1 Kings 18. [Please see my previous article  Fire and Rain at Mount Carmel.]

The ancient Israelites were given the best of the land of Canaan and God promised them that if they kept his Law, they were going to remain free and prosperous but the Israelites gradually began to worship the false fertility Gods of the peoples whom their ancestors had defeated. The Spanish poet Antonio Machado wrote a few wry lines for those who believe in God and yet they’re not quite sure of God’s grace.

Un poco labrador, del cielo aguarda
y al cielo teme; alguna vez suspira,
pensando en su olivar, y al cielo mira
con ojo inquieto, si la lluvia tarda.

He is a bit of a farmer, waiting for Heaven’s gifts
He fears Heaven and sometimes he sighs,
Worried about his orchard, he looks up,
With anxious eyes if the rain delays. [1]

Americans, in general, have proven to be not much better than the Israelites. Almost through no merit of their own, Americans inherited a wide extension of blessed land. While they remained faithful to Christ, it pleased God to bless them with a kind of prosperity never before seen in the history of man. The Christian American toiled to build a great commercial empire that extends its trade lines across the world. The land was virtually free from damage in spite of two world wars, and a Cold War fraught with perils. To my mind, it is obvious that God blessed the USA and yet all that security and prosperity did not beget a grateful generation. In fact, Americans began to worship the very gift of God, prosperity. Just as the Israelites had done before, they began to sacrifice their own children on the altar of abortion, they worshiped sex and invented newly sophisticated vices that so far have wasted countless young lives. As a result, the favor of God has gradually abandoned the American people. God has sent them many good men in an attempt to wake them up from the vain and deadly illusion of trying to live without Christ but a great number of Americans seem to be deaf to the call of truth and purity.

Here is the Responsorial Psalm for that same Mass. This Psalm recalls the foolish unfaithfulness of Israel. Observe the parallelisms with today’s America:

Psalm 106: 34-44 

They did not destroy the peoples
as the Lord commanded them,
but they mingled with the nations
and learned to do as they did.
They served their idols,
which became a snare to them.
They sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to the demons;
they poured out innocent blood,
the blood of their sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;
and the land was polluted with blood.
Thus they became unclean by their acts,
and prostituted themselves in their doings.
Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people,
and he abhorred his heritage;
he gave them into the hand of the nations,
so that those who hated them ruled over them.
Their enemies oppressed them,
and they were brought into subjection under their power.
Many times he delivered them,
but they were rebellious in their purposes,
and were brought low through their iniquity.
Nevertheless, he regarded their distress
when he heard their cry.

Of course, the Gospel Reading for that Mass provides the solution, the cure for the grievous illness that affects us. The remedy is hard but effective. The country has to turn its attention to God’s counsel and stop trying to serve Christ and Baal at the same time. The reading presents us with the story of Christ meeting the rich young man. Think of the young man as a representation of American society.

Matthew 19: 16-22 — Then someone came to him and said, ‘Good Teacher, what do I have to do to have eternal life?’  And he said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? There is only One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.’  He said to him, ‘Which ones?’ And Jesus said, ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness;  Honor your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  The young man said to him, ‘I have kept all these; what do I still lack?’ Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions

A rich but virtuous young man asks Jesus what one has to do to have eternal life. His question is loaded, he wants to own the blessings of God. He begins by respectfully calling Jesus “good teacher” and Jesus responds, in typical Jewish fashion, with a question that conceals a revelation: “only God is good” which is a roundabout way to say “I am God and I am here; you are almost there.” Then Jesus states the obvious: “Keep the Commandments” but he selects mostly the “social” commandments regulating the relationships between individuals, leaving a few unmentioned. The young faithful Jew admits to following the commandments and wonders if there is anything else that will help him attain his goal, he knows he is still lacking something. And then Jesus drops the bomb: “give the money to the poor, trust you have a treasure in Heaven, and follow me.”

Jesus could have said: “Dear friend, I am the source of your blessings, I made the Law and the Commandments, and I have given you the grace of faith, and the freedom that comes with prosperity. Now it is time to move on to a higher level, I invite you to be part of the very source of your blessings but you can’t embrace the Heavenly blessings while holding on to earthly riches. Trust, leave the world now, don’t wait until death takes all your riches away, come with me. I offer you eternal life in exchange for your trinkets.”

Perhaps the rich young man lived long enough to understand the wisdom Jesus offered him. We do not know if he finally became a Christian but he left us a lesson: a man or a society who does not grow in the knowledge of holiness, a society that does not dare to delve deeper into the transcendental will eventually lose its soul even if it has conquered the world. The American Founding Fathers were rich men, some of them like Franklin and John Hancock were perhaps among the richest men in the British Empire. Yet those men knew how to recognize their hour in history. They threw their lot with the oppressed and risked all they had, including their lives, to acquire a kind of freedom yet unknown to mankind. In their heart, they knew God was moving them towards a great uncharted spiritual and political territory. They did not hesitate because they were men of God, and as such, they dared to say to the whole world, “In God We Trust”.

Return from Temptation

The US has been tempted to follow the devil in his rebellion against God. The devil knows his fight is foolish and futile but he wants to drag as many souls as possible into his shameful defeat. There is no possible dialog with the forces of nihilism. No one can try to tame a rabid dog and escape unharmed.

All of the signs we are seeing are not mere coincidences, are not heretical traps to distract us from serving God faithfully. On the contrary, God is becoming more and more obvious because He wants to save us. Like Jesus before the rich young man, God is revealing Himself cautiously because if He truly showed Himself as He is we would be consumed by His justice.

See what a powerful sign God has put before us. Pray, fast, serve the poor, and preach the Gospel for the last hour is coming and who will be able to stand?

 

 

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References – Bibliography

[1]  Del Pasado Efímero by Antonio Machado (1875-1939) taken from his book Campos de Castilla.

Elul and the 40 days of repentance, August 21, 2017, by Emmet O’Reagan.

Eclipse Weirdness August 15, 2017, published by Spirit Daily.

Why is the Great American Total Solar Eclipse cause for pause? August 15, 2017, by Krista Smith
The Seven Salems of the Eclipse August 13, 2017, by Chrisify.

The Woman in Orbit. Mary’s Feasts Everyday, Everywhere by Sister Maretta Lamberty, S.C.C.

Restore all things in Christ, published by St Peter’s List.

Note of December 20, 2018: I just discovered this. The video shown below explains how two neutron stars collided 130 million years ago. The resulting gravitational waves reached our planet on August 17, 2017. Only 3 and 1/2 days before one of the most peculiar solar eclipses in history marked its path across the United States on August 21, 2017.