The Slow Burn

 

or on YouTube

 

As of today, all the visitors over these Feast days have left, the house has fallen silent, and my energies return to this mysterious apostolate. It is entering its twenty-first year with nearly 1900 writings that span four pontificates. My hair is a little more gray, all but one of eight children that was at the beginning has now left home, and my eyeglasses have taken a near-permanent place on my nose.

To my surprise, these cold January days are being warmed by a renewed sense of purpose: that I am to continue accompanying you, my readers and listeners… like a crackling shortwave broadcast from the dying twilight of the free world. 

 

A Challenge to Our Faith

How many are the prophecies of these times that have streaked across our digital skies! From the prescience of the popes over the past century, to Our Lady’s apparitions, to St. Faustina’s revelations, to Servant of God Fr. Stefano Gobbi’s locutions, to the Church-recognized revelations at Medjugorje, not to mention the dramatic prophecies of various souls from around the globe — a lot has been said about our days. 

And yet, here we are. The sun rose this morning and will set again tonight. 

It is clear that God’s time is not our time, that Divine Mercy is a slow burn whose Sacred Flame assiduously resists the breath of Divine Justice. Generations have come and gone since many of these aforementioned prophetic revelations were announced — souls who were preparing for the “end times” as much as some of you reading this. And yet, the fulfillment of these prophetic revelations was not to be in their times.  

Yes, the people are grass! The grass withers, the flower wilts, but the word of our God stands forever. (Isaiah 40:7-8; cf. 1 Pt 1:24)

How many are those whom I have heard predict the Warning, for example, to be this or that year, or the Tribulation to be in this or that period, or the so-called “three days of darkness” to be on this or that day? And they have all been wrong (a lesson to those who trade in baptized fortune-telling?). In truth, God continues to surprise us with His incredible patience. 

And yet, perhaps you may find this unsettling (it does me, at times). Why does God warn us… and then years, if not decades, pass and those warnings fade like the icons in an ancient church? Well, I don’t have the inside scoop on God’s designs, other than that the Lord gives us time to prepare and time to see His warnings unfold so that the Church will acquire the needed wisdom and grace to endure.

Think of the parable of the ten virgins who waited and waited for the return of the Bridegroom. He was so long delayed that they fell asleep. But when he finally returned suddenly at midnight, they awakened, and the five virgins whose lamps had oil set out to meet him, leaving the foolish virgins behind.^[1]cf. Matt 25:1-13 They were foolish, not because they weren’t expecting the Bridegroom, but because they weren’t prepared for him…

 

The Delayed Bridegroom

The Christians in the early Church were no doubt tested by the delay of what they thought was the imminent return of Jesus. Thus, the first pope penned these balanced words:

But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard “delay,” but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:8-9)

Nonetheless, Peter warned:

…scoffers will come to scoff, living according to their own desires and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? From the time when our ancestors fell asleep, everything has remained as it was from the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:3-4)

These are the rationalists and atheists, those for whom reality consists only in what their eyes can see and senses touch (and yet, they are the blindest of all). St. Thérèse de Lisieux seemed to anticipate these scoffers and the terrible temptation a future generation would face:

If you only knew what frightful thoughts obsess me. Pray very much for me so that I do not listen to the Devil who wants to persuade me about so many lies. It is the reasoning of the worst materialists that is imposed upon my mind. Later, unceasingly making new advances, science will explain everything naturally. We shall have the absolute reason for everything that exists and that still remains a problem, because there remain very many things to be discovered, etc. etc. —St. Thérèse of Lisieux: Her Last Conversations, Fr. John Clarke, quoted at catholictothemax.com

“Your Jesus isn’t coming!” they hiss. “Just the progress of man — if man can outlive his progress!”^[2]cf. The Progression of Man

I am reminded again of the novel Lord of the World by Fr. Robert Hugh Benson in which he fictionalizes the time of Antichrist when the Church, he supposes, will be as irrelevant as a corpse in a tomb; when there will be, he writes: “the reconciliation of the world on a basis other than that of Divine Truth”…

…there was coming into existence a unity unlike anything known in history. This was the more deadly from the fact that it contains so many elements of indubitable good. War, apparently, was now extinct, and it was not Christianity that had done it; union was now seen to be better than disunion, and the lesson had been learned apart from the Church… Friendliness took the place of charity, contentment the place of hope, and knowledge the place of faith. —Lord of the World, Robert Hugh Benson, 1907, p. 120

Of course, Fr. Benson was describing the utopian vision of Freemasonry, which…

…believes itself to be the custodian of the “original” primeval revelation to mankind — a “revelation” that can unite all mankind regardless of their particular religions… This is why the naturalism of Freemasonry is so pernicious, for it claims that nature can reach its end without the assistance of divine grace. —Joshua Charles, Editor of The War of the Antichrist With the Church and Christian Civilization, Monsignor George F. Dillon, DD; p.xviii TAN Books, 2023

Which is why, since 1738, at least eight popes have condemned Freemasonry in one form or another, including dozens of formal documents. Pre-eminent among them was Pope Leo XIII who warned:

They [Freemasons] are planning the destruction of holy Church publicly and openly, and this with the set purpose of utterly despoiling the nations of Christendom, if it were possible, of the blessings obtained for us through Jesus Christ our Saviour. —Humanum Genus, Encyclical on Freemasonry, n. 2

The primary instrument of their global domination, warned Pope Leo, would be through worldwide Socialism and Communism.^[3]Joshua Charles, Editor of The War of the Antichrist With the Church and Christian Civilization, Monsignor George F. Dillon, DD; p.xxvii, TAN Books, 2023

 

The Fuse Has Been Lit

It has been over a century since the fuse of Communism was lit in the October Revolution of 1917.^[4]cf. When Communism Returns But that’s the point: the fuse has been lit. And just as Our Lady of Fatima predicted, the “errors of Russia” have spread throughout the world. The collapse of Christendom, that is, of Western Civilization, which was founded upon the Gospels, is unfolding before our very eyes.

The spiritual crisis involves the entire world. But its source is in Europe. People in the West are guilty of rejecting God… The spiritual collapse thus has a very Western character. —Cardinal Robert Sarah, Catholic Culture, April 5th, 2019

The destruction of economies, borders, stability, peace — all of it is deliberate and methodical. What is most diabolical is that it is taking place under seemingly benign slogans like “The Great Reset” and “Build Back Better.”^[5]…not to mention global “healthcare” and “saving the planet” from climate change. But their titles reveal in plain sight the hidden intentions^[6]cf. Hidden in Plain Sight of the World Economic Forum and their secret and not-so-secret financial backers:

…the utter overthrow of that whole religious and political order of the world which the Christian teaching has produced, and the substitution of a new state of things in accordance with their ideas… —POPE LEO XIII, Humanum Genus, Encyclical on Freemasonry, n. 10

When you see New York elect a socialist mayor beneath the shadow of the “Freedom Tower”^[7]The official name of the building is One World Trade Center, which has been its legal name since March 2009 when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey confirmed the change from its former colloquial name, “Freedom Tower”. and Statue of Liberty, let that be a sign of how well entrenched the Communist agenda is (see The Spectre of Global Communism). 

 

Prepared in the Present Moment

Alas, I have written of these things repeatedly, as many of you know. The point of this first writing of 2026 is to tell you three things.

I: Do not despair nor entertain the temptation that God is not there; that everything is random and that nothing will change. The prophecies are unfolding before our eyes, even if they are seemingly “delayed.” The timing is God’s business, not ours. 

II: Remain vigilant with your soul in a state of grace.^[8]ie. not in “mortal sin”, which can deprive one of sanctifying grace, and therefore, eternal life. Fight against sin and the temptations which assail you. Trust in God’s mercy, love your neighbour, and remain waiting and watching. 

According to the Lord, the present time is the time of the Spirit and of witness, but also a time still marked by “distress” and the trial of evil which does not spare the Church and ushers in the struggles of the last days. It is a time of waiting and watching. —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 672

III: Continue to live in the present moment, moving ahead with your plans as common sense and God’s will would dictate. Continue your education, seek your next job, grow your families, and plan your future. None of us knows God’s timing, and so we would be presumptuous to bury our talent in the ground out of fear.^[9]cf. Matt 25:24-30

But I will add a final caveat. It is my belief, based on over twenty years of studying the collective consensus of popes, credible prophetic revelations, the Church Fathers, and the signs of the times, that we are approaching the “Day of the Lord.” And throughout the Scripture, it seems this Day comes as a literal surprise:

…the day of the Lord will come like a thief… (2 Peter 3:10)

So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come. (Matthew 24:44)

For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night. When people are saying, “Peace and security,” then sudden disaster comes upon them, like labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. (1 Thessalonians 5:2-3)

It is possible, in fact, that the so-called “Warning” or “Illumination of Conscience” inaugurates the vigil of that Day, much like Saturday Night Mass is the Vigil of Sunday, the “day of the Lord.” 

…the work of each will come to light, for the Day will disclose it. (1 Corinthians 3:13)

…Then I watched while he broke open the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; the sun turned as black as dark sackcloth and the whole moon became like blood… The kings of the earth, the nobles, the military officers, the rich, the powerful, and every slave and free person hid themselves in caves and among mountain crags. They cried out to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of their wrath has come and who can withstand it?” (Revelation 6:12-17)

Crowds upon crowds in the Valley of Decision; for near is the day of the Lord in the Valley of Decision. (Joel 4:14)

Given the collective prophesies and “signs of the times,” the message ought to be clear: we should Prepare ourselves spiritually for the Great Transition that seems imminent.

Still, it’s a slow burn and we really don’t know how long it will take… but someday, some generation is going to reach the end of the fuse, and it increasingly seems like it could be ours. 

Dear children, open your hearts to my call. Do not [just] fold your arms. God is making haste, and do not put off what you need to do until tomorrow. Humanity is walking along the paths of self-destruction that men have prepared with their own hands. Turn to my Son, Jesus. He loves you and awaits you with open arms. Turn away from the world and live turned towards Paradise, for which alone you were created. Listen to me. I want to see you happy here on Earth and later with me in Heaven. Be attentive. When they offer you wide doors, always remember that the path to eternity passes through the narrow door. You will yet have long years of hard trials, but those who remain beside Jesus will be saved. This is the message that I give you today in the name of the Most Holy Trinity. Thank you for having allowed me to gather you here once more. I bless you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Be at peace. —Our Lady to Pedro Regis, December 23, 2025

 

Related Reading

Prophecy in Perspective

When Communism Returns

The Great Reset

The Spectre of Global Communism

Isaiah’s Prophecy of Global Communism

The Great Theft

The Final Revolution

 

 

So grateful for your prayers and support.
Thank you!

 

To journey with Mark in The Now Word,
click on the banner below to subscribe.
Your email will not be shared with anyone.

Now on Telegram. Click:

Follow Mark and the daily “signs of the times” on MeWe:

Follow Mark’s writings here:

Listen on the following: