Signs of the Times  

   "At that time an impure woman will bear an impure son.  And the old serpent that deceived Adam will infect that son in such a way that nothing good can go into him or remain with him.  He will be lifted up to remote and changeable places so that people cannot know him.  Trained in all the diabolical arts, he will remain hidden until he reaches a man's estate.  He will not openly display the vices hidden within him until he sees that he is mature and copious in every kind of evil.  From the moment of his birth many conflicts and enmities against the legal system will swagger about.  Fiery justice will be darkened in its purity, and love will be extinguished among human beings.  In place of justice and love, bitterness and brutality wil come to the fore, and such evil will develop that the teachers of heresy will even preach their false beliefs openly and without hesitation.
      And among Christians, so much doubt and uncertainty will arise about the Catholic faith that people will not know whom to invoke as God.  Countless signs will appear in the sun, moon, and stars, in the waters and the other elements as well as in all creation, so that people will be able to predict the disaster that is to come through these signs as if in a painting.  Such melancholy will then take hold of men and women that they will regard dying as if it were nothing.


    ....Never let anyone deceive you by any prediction or rumors or any letter claiming  to come from us, implying that the Day of the Lord has already arrived.  It cannot happen until the Great Revolt has taken place and the Rebel, the Lost One, has appeared.  This is the Enemy, the one who claims to be much greater than all that men call "God", so much greater than anything that is worshipped, that he enthrones himself in God's sanctuary and claims that he is God." (2 Thess.2:2-4)
      The meaning of this statement is as follow: You who are of God and believe God's words, take care lest you be shaken in your hearts by fear or spiritual deceit or worldly charms or writings that are truly directed at you as if that day were already here when the Creator of all things will reveal the abyss of hearts.
       [Human beings should keep themselves free from every threatening temptation of the end of the world and they should seek in faith help and means now the mystery of evil ("Mysterium iniquitatis") is so openly at work...]
     But human beings are in the midst of God's power.  For before humanity was formed, God was, and when humanity will have come to the end of its bodily existence, God will continue in all the divine power.....