{"id":20832,"date":"2015-09-26T15:01:19","date_gmt":"2015-09-26T21:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=20832"},"modified":"2018-02-09T01:49:46","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T07:49:46","slug":"how-do-you-hide-a-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/how-do-you-hide-a-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"How Do You Hide a Tree?","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

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\u201cHOW <\/b>do you hide a tree?\u201d I thought for moment about my spiritual director’s question.\u00a0\u201cIn a forest?\u201d Indeed, he went on to say, \u201cLikewise, Satan has raised a tumult of false voices in order to obscure the authentic voice of the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n

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THE FOREST OF CONFUSION<\/p>\n

Once again, I recall how, after the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, my soul was stirred in prayer with frequent warnings from the Lord that the Church was about to enter into a period of “great confusion.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

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You have entered dangerous days\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now, two years later, I see how real those words are becoming by the hour. Conf\"\"usion reigns<\/i>. It is what Sr. Lucia of Fatima predicted as a coming \u201cdiabolical disorientation\u201d\u2014a fog of confusion, uncertainty, and ambiguity over the faith. As it was before the Passion of Jesus when Pilate asked, \u201cWhat is truth?\u201d, so too as the Church enters her own Passion, the Tree of Truth has become lost in a forest of relativism, subjectivism, and outright deception.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, I have lost count of the letters I\u2019ve received of those troubled by the seemingly ambiguous statements of Pope Francis; those disturbed by alleged private revelation and dubious predictions; and those utterly blindsided by the continuing \u201ceclipse of reason\u201d in society at large, as wrong is becoming right\u2014and right is becoming illegal. <\/i><\/p>\n

Just as the winds of a hurricane can be blinding, so too, this confusion is among the first winds of the Great Storm<\/a> <\/i>that has arrived. Yes, ten years ago here in Louisiana, I warned that we need to prepare for a Spiritual Tsunami<\/i><\/a> that is coming; but this week, I am telling those who will listen that it has begun. <\/i>If you have not read The Spiritual Tsunami<\/a>, <\/i>I encourage you to read it now before you go on. Because everything else I am writing here will make that much more sense…<\/p>\n

How do you hide the voice of the Lord? By raising a cacophony of competing voices that obscure the Voice of Truth. So the next question is, how does one discern the voice of the Lord among the chorus of lies and falsehoods that are legion today? The answer to this question is twofold because it involves both a subjective<\/i> and an objective<\/i> answer.<\/p>\n

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<\/u>OBJECTIVE VOICE OF THE LORD<\/p>\n

While I have written on this subject exhaustively, I will keep this simple: the voice of the Lord, the\"\" mind of Christ<\/i>, is perennially expressed in the Apostolic Tradition of the Catholic Church, and voiced through the Magisterium: ie. the successors to the Apostles who are in communion with the successor of Peter, the Pope. For Jesus said to the Twelve:<\/p>\n

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Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me. (Luke 10:16)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Yes, it\u2019s this simple. If you own a Catechism of the Catholic Church<\/i>, you have the summary of 2000 years of Christian doctrine\u00a0in your hands that demonstrably can be traced back through the centuries, through papal teachings, councils, the early Church Fathers, and canonical books of the Bible.<\/p>\n

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CHILDLIKE ADHERENCE<\/p>\n

When Hurricane Katrina tore through Our Lady of Lourdes parish ten days after I had preached there about the coming Spiritual Tsunami<\/i><\/a> (see The Hour of the Exiles<\/a><\/i>), the only thing left standing in the Church, in place of where the altar stood, was a statue of St. Th\u00e9r\u00e8se de Liseux. It was as if the Lord was saying that the only ones who are going to survive the coming spiritual deception are those who become \u201clike little children\u201d [1]<\/sup><\/a>cf. Matt 18:3<\/span><\/span>