I find your interpretation of the three days of darkness has relevance to the spiritual and moral darkness we are now in.
If we are to wait for the literal three days of darkness to happen before we take our faith seriously, then we are too late.
Isn’t the nature of prophecy to warn before the physical event happens. We can see this all over the Bible that this is the case. Aside from that, everything is a creeping process almost undetectable in the noise of everyday events until it reach it crescendo.
If you will allow me to use this example to illustrate my point. In this world, we live within the bounds of time and space. Just as coming of the Word become flesh, He submitted to the natural human development happening within the rules of time and space.
So this event of three days of darkness is sure to follow this space-time constraints. Only magic don’t. God does not do magic. However, the bible does speak of an event that will happen as in the twinkling of an eye.
This is the period of the Holy Spirit, if we are to see it from the context of succession of the work of God.
At creation God the Father only speaks the word and it is done. Magic can’t to that from nothing.
I consider the following statement of yours a crucial key-point: "If we are to wait for the literal three days of darkness to happen before we take our faith seriously, then we are too late." You are absolutely right. I think that such prophecies have, first of all, the purpose of determining us to do something in order to change our lives and start walking on the path of holiness. We must do good and worthy deeds as long as we still have time - because when God orders a prophecy to be fulfilled, indeed, it will be fulfilled without even thinking ("in the twinkling of an eye" - as you have said). Thank you for your comment!
I think the phrase “in the twinkling of an eye” is from the perspective of those who are not paying attention to the signs of the times, as it was for king Herod to learn a new king was born.
The miracle of the sun in Portugal was prophesized for a different purpose from the three days of darkness.
It seems to me that those who are not paying attention to the signs of the times are - in fact - those who don't believe, aren't they? That is why our King and Lord, Jesus Christ, strongly emphasize that we must be awake ALL the time and not only sometimes: "Watch ye therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour" (Matthew 25:13). Definitively, there were different purposes related to different prophecies - especially those prophecies (like Fatima) through which God establishes specific religious practices and devotions like the devotion of the first nine Fridays (the Sacred Heart devotion) and the devotion of the first five Saturdays (the Immaculate Heart devotion). But I still think that the general purpose of them is to determine us to change our lives or - if are already on the way - to do better. I am very curious (because I am going to write something precisely on this theme): why do you consider the miracle of the sun a prophecy? Is your opinion related to II Peter 3 verses 7 and 10?
Thank you so much for this thoroughly researched post. Very timely. I agree with your conclusions and that we must stay close to the heart of Jesus in this very dark and demonized world so that we will be ready for any spiritual combat. God bless!
Perhaps you could consider writing an article explaining why we are in an era of great darkness. I've heard this claim from other traditional priests and from Dr. K., but I have a difficult time believing that we are in an alleged dark time. Yes, there are certainly many bishops, priests, and laymen who are not upstanding leaders and certain mortal sins are rampant, but looking at different epochs of history, even recent history such as the 2 world wars, we seem to have it pretty good right now. It also appears that while church attendance in the West isn't strong, the faith of its believers is. I think too often we coat the past with far too much naive nostalgia, as if the Church was less corrupt and governments were just rulers most of the time and the lay people were pious people.
A good suggestion - I will think about writing such an article. But until then, I give you only three clues: 1) The fact that there have never been entire cultures dominated by a strictly atheist mentality, which does not accept the existence of the world beyond (especially hell) or of a God who punishes evil; 2) The universal spread of pornography; 3) States that support laws in favor of abortion. Although the sins themselves were known in other eras and sometimes they were even widespread, such things have never been seen in history on such a scale as in our days.
Interesting, but it seems the idea that Bl. A.M. Taigi is the source of the alleged prophecy rests on some feeble assumptions. Was there anything in her words that said she was the sole source? Did Mr. Akins do a comprehensive analysis, and can we rely on what he says?
Unfortunately, besides what I mentioned, I haven't been able to find anything else significant. And, indeed, there is little information. However, I think it is relevant that from so little, so many fake texts have appeared that say so much. In Mr. Akins article there are two significant statements: 1) "we should not place confidence in any alleged verbatim quotations attributed to Taigi—especially lengthy ones—in the absence of verifiable documents written during her life" (and there are no verifiable documents) and 2) "I have not been able to verify any reference to the three days of darkness in an approved apparition". What we have is only what I've mentioned in my article: the short sentence from the 1873 book about Anne Maria Taigi's life (what Father Nadal, her confessor, told to some persons: "This scourge, he told many persons, was to be a supernatural darkness, which was to prevail for three days, during which blessed candles would alone give light.")
I'm grateful for your work, Mr. Kmita. I've often wondered about the origins of the 3-days prophecy, as I thought knowing that would help ground its reliability.
I find your interpretation of the three days of darkness has relevance to the spiritual and moral darkness we are now in.
If we are to wait for the literal three days of darkness to happen before we take our faith seriously, then we are too late.
Isn’t the nature of prophecy to warn before the physical event happens. We can see this all over the Bible that this is the case. Aside from that, everything is a creeping process almost undetectable in the noise of everyday events until it reach it crescendo.
If you will allow me to use this example to illustrate my point. In this world, we live within the bounds of time and space. Just as coming of the Word become flesh, He submitted to the natural human development happening within the rules of time and space.
So this event of three days of darkness is sure to follow this space-time constraints. Only magic don’t. God does not do magic. However, the bible does speak of an event that will happen as in the twinkling of an eye.
This is the period of the Holy Spirit, if we are to see it from the context of succession of the work of God.
At creation God the Father only speaks the word and it is done. Magic can’t to that from nothing.
I consider the following statement of yours a crucial key-point: "If we are to wait for the literal three days of darkness to happen before we take our faith seriously, then we are too late." You are absolutely right. I think that such prophecies have, first of all, the purpose of determining us to do something in order to change our lives and start walking on the path of holiness. We must do good and worthy deeds as long as we still have time - because when God orders a prophecy to be fulfilled, indeed, it will be fulfilled without even thinking ("in the twinkling of an eye" - as you have said). Thank you for your comment!
I think the phrase “in the twinkling of an eye” is from the perspective of those who are not paying attention to the signs of the times, as it was for king Herod to learn a new king was born.
The miracle of the sun in Portugal was prophesized for a different purpose from the three days of darkness.
What really mean the Virgin promised to give a proof for people to believe
I see.
It seems to me that those who are not paying attention to the signs of the times are - in fact - those who don't believe, aren't they? That is why our King and Lord, Jesus Christ, strongly emphasize that we must be awake ALL the time and not only sometimes: "Watch ye therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour" (Matthew 25:13). Definitively, there were different purposes related to different prophecies - especially those prophecies (like Fatima) through which God establishes specific religious practices and devotions like the devotion of the first nine Fridays (the Sacred Heart devotion) and the devotion of the first five Saturdays (the Immaculate Heart devotion). But I still think that the general purpose of them is to determine us to change our lives or - if are already on the way - to do better. I am very curious (because I am going to write something precisely on this theme): why do you consider the miracle of the sun a prophecy? Is your opinion related to II Peter 3 verses 7 and 10?
What I mean before it happened, the Virgin said something of that happening but not in specific terms.
I guess I used the wrong term from how it is normally understood .
Thank you so much for this thoroughly researched post. Very timely. I agree with your conclusions and that we must stay close to the heart of Jesus in this very dark and demonized world so that we will be ready for any spiritual combat. God bless!
Interesting, you left out Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich’s revelations on this topic.
I will dedicate a special article to Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich's prophecies.
Perhaps you could consider writing an article explaining why we are in an era of great darkness. I've heard this claim from other traditional priests and from Dr. K., but I have a difficult time believing that we are in an alleged dark time. Yes, there are certainly many bishops, priests, and laymen who are not upstanding leaders and certain mortal sins are rampant, but looking at different epochs of history, even recent history such as the 2 world wars, we seem to have it pretty good right now. It also appears that while church attendance in the West isn't strong, the faith of its believers is. I think too often we coat the past with far too much naive nostalgia, as if the Church was less corrupt and governments were just rulers most of the time and the lay people were pious people.
A good suggestion - I will think about writing such an article. But until then, I give you only three clues: 1) The fact that there have never been entire cultures dominated by a strictly atheist mentality, which does not accept the existence of the world beyond (especially hell) or of a God who punishes evil; 2) The universal spread of pornography; 3) States that support laws in favor of abortion. Although the sins themselves were known in other eras and sometimes they were even widespread, such things have never been seen in history on such a scale as in our days.
Interesting, but it seems the idea that Bl. A.M. Taigi is the source of the alleged prophecy rests on some feeble assumptions. Was there anything in her words that said she was the sole source? Did Mr. Akins do a comprehensive analysis, and can we rely on what he says?
Unfortunately, besides what I mentioned, I haven't been able to find anything else significant. And, indeed, there is little information. However, I think it is relevant that from so little, so many fake texts have appeared that say so much. In Mr. Akins article there are two significant statements: 1) "we should not place confidence in any alleged verbatim quotations attributed to Taigi—especially lengthy ones—in the absence of verifiable documents written during her life" (and there are no verifiable documents) and 2) "I have not been able to verify any reference to the three days of darkness in an approved apparition". What we have is only what I've mentioned in my article: the short sentence from the 1873 book about Anne Maria Taigi's life (what Father Nadal, her confessor, told to some persons: "This scourge, he told many persons, was to be a supernatural darkness, which was to prevail for three days, during which blessed candles would alone give light.")
I'm grateful for your work, Mr. Kmita. I've often wondered about the origins of the 3-days prophecy, as I thought knowing that would help ground its reliability.
Thank you, Ms. Kate, for your feedback!