Signs of the Times  

   TEN "CANNOTS"  -- Attributed to Abe Lincoln


  1.  You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift;
  2.  You cannot help small men by tearing down big men;
  3.  You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong;
  4.  You cannot life the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer;
  5.  You cannot help the poor mainly by destroying the rich;
  6.  You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income;
  7.  You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred;
  8.  You cannot establish security on borrowed money;
  9.  You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and
                            independence....
 10.  You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do
                           for themselves!


                                  THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE


    In 1787, Gibbon completed his masterful book, "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."  Below are listed his five reasons for the fall of that Empire:

      FIRST -- the rapid increase of divorce, the undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home [families], which is the basis of human society;

      SECOND -- higher and higher taxes and the spending of public monies for free bread and circuses for the people;

      THIRD -- the mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting and more brutal;

      FOURTH -- the building of gigantic armaments when the real enemy was within -- the decadence of the people [and its rulers];
 
     FIFTH - the decay of religion; faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life and becoming impotent to guide the people.

                                          WILL HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF AND WILL WE NOT LEARN
                                                FROM THE PAST?    

            "Those who do not study history are condemned to repeat it."
                                                                        Winston Churchill


     "Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore , we must be
                     saved by HOPE.

       Nothing which is true or beautiful or makes comeplete sense in any immediate context
                     of history; therefore, we must be saved by FAITH.

      Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we must
                     be saved by LOVE.

                                                           --from "The Irony of American History"
                                                                        Reinhold Niebuhr


    "Love Justice, you rulers of the world.  Set your minds sincerely on the Lord, and look fir Him with all honesty.  Those who do not try to test Him will find Him; He will show Himself to those who trust Him....Dishonest thoughts separate people from God, and if we are follish enough to test Him, His power will put us to shame..."
                                                                                                             Wisdom of Solomon


                                             PROPHECY OF ST.NILUS:

     Realizing that St/ Nilus is scarcely known to a large part of the church, a brief sketch of his life, taken from the Catholic Encyclopedia is related below:
    
       St. Nilus was one of the many disciples and fervent defenders of St. John Chysostom.  He was an officer at the Court of Constatinople, married with two sons.  While St. John Chrysostom was patriarch, before his exile (398-403), he directed Nilus in the study of Scripture and in works of piety.  St. Nilus left his wife and one son and took the other, Theodulos with him to Mt. Sinai to be a monk.  The bishop of Eleusa ordained both St. Nilus and his son to the priesthood.  The mother and other son also embraced the religious life in Egypt.
      From his monastery at Sinai, St. Nilus was a well-known person throughout the Eastern Church; by his writings and correspondence, he played an important part in the history of his time.  He was known as a theologian, Biblical scholar and ascetic writer, so people of all kinds, from the emperor down wrote to consult him.  His numerous works, including a multitude of letters, consist of denunciations of heresy, paganism, abuses of discipline and crimes of rules and principles of asceticism, especially maxims about the religious life.  He warns and threatens people in high places; abbots and bishops, governors and princes, even the emperor himself, without fear.  He kept up a correspondence with Gaina, a leader of the Goths, endeavoring to convert him from Arianism.  He denounced vigorously the persecution of St. John Chrysostom both to the Emperor Arcadius and to his courtiers.
       St. Nilus must be counted as one of the leading ascetic writers of the 5th century.  His feast is kept on November 12th in the byzantine calendar; he is commemorated also in the Roman Martyrology on the same date.  St. Nilus probably died around the year 430, as there is no evidence of hislife after that...

    Now the PROPHECY: