The Great Battle Has Begun (Part One)

The following is the first of a three part series on the Kelly Bowring book The Great Battle Has Begun.

When I was a teenager in the 1970s I worked for a home security company. The workers who installed the systems were always in and out of the office for a variety of reasons. One worker in particular scared the daylights out of me.

He was a Christian (denomination not important) and he was always talking about Jesus coming back. Although I was a baptized Catholic, mostly I was immersed in the Jewish faith and hadn’t yet made the connection about Jesus being a Jew and knowing that him coming back was a good thing.

So, this big, boisterous guy would come into the office and my stomach would rumble and my heart would jump all over inside my chest. After a minute of two of him talking I would lose my appetite for the day and sit motionless waiting for the skies to open up and my life to be over. I simply didn’t know what to make of all of his proclamations about Jesus and repentance and judgment and heaven and eternal damnation.

It all scared the hell out of me.

That was then.

This is now…and now I get it.

Every day I look to the skies with eager anticipation of Christ’s return. To some, I might be as crazy as that guy. Thirty years later I get his excitement about the prospect of the second coming. I don’t think I’m crazy but, then again, to others I may very well seem that way.

So it was no surprise that the latest title of Kelly Bowring caught my attention. The Great Battle Has Begun says it all: the great battle is underway. Put on your armor, grab your gear, get your life in order. Buckle up because it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Bowring’s book relies heavily on the private revelations of Maria Divine Mercy which are excerpted throughout. I admit that prior to reading Bowring’s book, I had never heard of this person (I believe she is a woman although she remains anonymous). In fact, I haven’t been much of a private revelation enthusiast until about a year ago when I was doing some research for a book I was writing. My interest was Fatima. In retrospect, that research laid the groundwork for me to begin to understand private revelation and Church teachings on it.

This past year I’ve also read up on Catholic prophecies as part of that research. I’ve read the prophecies of Brother Louis Rocco and Marie de la Faudai—both from the 19^th century. Another set of prophecies that I’ve read include those of Jeanne le Royer who was born in the early 1700s.

As I read Bowing’s book, I couldn’t help but see the connection between what was in it and the words of those Catholic prophets that had been part of my research. With my interest piqued I started to investigate Maria Divine Mercy. No matter where I looked, no matter whose columns and editorials I came across, I found that her revelations were being vehemently dismissed—along with the Catholics who may have been giving them credibility. The private revelations of Maria Divine Mercy have been ridiculed, dismissed, and discounted by countless Catholic personalities from Jimmy Aiken to Mark Miravalle.

This caused me to contact the author Kelly Bowring immediately and ask him dozens of different questions. While I continued to read the book, I needed to understand why Bowring would be so intent on sharing the words of a woman whose role in private revelation was being swiftly and thoroughly attacked throughout the Catholic world.

The Great Battle Has Begun puts us squarely in the beginning of The Great Tribulation. It approaches end-times in a way that many people desire to understand. It offers insights into false prophets, the anti-Christ, the seven seals and our role in our personal salvation as well as our obligation to others through our prayers and fasting. Bowring has weaved into the private revelations of Maria Divine Mercy excerpts from the Book of Revelation as well as various Scripture excerpts.

Every Advent we prepare for Christ’s second coming; The Great Battle Has Begun affirms the need for that preparation. Like right now. It makes it real and not just a warm and fuzzy season we celebrate as Catholics.

The controversy surrounding Maria Divine Mercy adds an unexpected dimension to the book and is why I think it is important to share Bowring’s responses to my questions which are in parts two and three of the series.

part two is here
part three is here


Cheryl Dickow
wwwBezalelBooks.com

Making a Mystic a Doctor of the Church

With the upcoming October 7th announcement that Pope Benedict XVI will pronounce that 12th century German mystic St. Hildegard of Bingen is a doctor of the church—as well as announcing that same honor being bestowed upon St. John of Avila—there is a renewed interest in the understanding of “mysticism” with our church.
The church’s history with mystics actually goes back to the Jewish roots of the faith. 
Mysticism itself can best be explained as man’s need to connect with God in ways that transcend his mere day-to-day experiences. Man wants to know God intimately, deeply, privately—to fill that place within his heart which God created for His own indwelling. St. Augustine perfectly captured this earthly feeling when he said, “Our hearts are restless until they rest with Thee.” Augustine’s life (354-386), as told in his Confessions, reflects the ways in which man experiences earthly restlessness and pursues Divine intimacy. 

Jewish mysticism, which dates back thousands of years, has always been a response to that personal quest. It flourished in many countries during Hildegard’s lifetime, including her own Germany. She was a fascinating figure who built a monastery for her nuns and wrote hundreds of letters filled with warnings and prophecies. Some criticized her while others welcomed her words and wisdom.
Another country that saw the growth of mysticism during the twelfth century was northern Spain where, it is interesting to note, St. Teresa of Avila would eventually experience her own inner mystical conversion in the 1500s and ultimately become, in 1970, the first female doctor of the Church. Now St. John of Avila joins her ranks. 
While we have these mystics in our Church’s history, not all are called to such a state nor encouraged. Looking to the Jewish roots of mysticism, we learn that its study and practice is considered uniquely powerful and was originally forbidden unless a Jewish male was at least 40 years old. This was considered an age where he would have had enough years of Torah study upon which to be firmly grounded in faith since mysticism has a both the potential for the development of good as well as the unleashing of evil. 
The Catholic Church affirms this dual possibility of mysticism and approaches the subject of mysticism with caution. She warns against pseudo-mystics as well as the formation of doctrines, such as pantheism, in which false teachings are perpetuated under the guise of mysticism. 
This paradox of exposing oneself to good or evil in spiritual practices is easy to understand. There is always the potential for ego, if not put fully aside, to become empowered in selfish and delusional ways. In St. Teresa’s writings on her mystical experiences, her humble attitude towards self is ever-apparent. Early Jewish mystics clearly warned that human ego has a way of polluting the heart. In the Jewish “standing prayer” which is called the Amidah, first and foremost the supplicant calls to mind and declares his or her own unworthiness to approach God. The petitioner stands before God in true and complete humility—all remnants of ego and self cast aside. St. Teresa of Avila called humility “truth,” recognizing it as the required approach for such a transforming spiritual experience. Think Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is now no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me.” 
Sadly, mysticism today is often misunderstood and has most recently been maligned because of new-agers as well as through the disclosure that Madonna (the pop icon and not the Blessed Mother) practices teachings from the Kabbalah, one of the earlier known works on Jewish mysticism. 

Kabbalah (which literally means “tradition” but connotes a “handing down of tradition”), is a school of thought in regards to contemplative prayer and union with God. Studying Elijah was a central point of early Jewish mystics. Reference to the “Chamber” experience appears in Jewish mysticism long before St. Teresa of Avila’s own experience, as shared in Interior Castles.

The day-to-day practice of contemplative prayer creates a peaceful existence for one’s soul. It is the constant giving of self, and the giving over of one’s will to the will of God, that will bear spiritual fruit. Contemplative prayer, of which the Catechism of the Catholic Church says is an “intense” time of prayer (#2714), the “simplest expression of the mystery of prayer” (#2713) and a “gaze of faith, fixed on Jesus” (#2715) is the form of prayer used by mystics—modern day and those in our Church’s history.

Catholics have always understood that the earthy passage “matters” and that salvation, given through the grace and mercy of God through His Son, can be lost (Romans 2:2-8, Ephesians 2:8-10, James 2:14-26). Just so, the development of the soul does not occur on its own but does so with a daily commitment to prayer and the pursuit of intimacy with the Creator. The conscience cannot rightly form on its own. Maintaining, or keeping, the gift of salvation—as well as development of the soul and conscience—require an “effort” on our part. The Catechism states that while we may not always be able to spend time in meditation, we are always able to enter into the inner prayer of contemplation (#2710).
Throughout Church history—from Pope Gregory I to Blessed Henry Suso and beyond—Catholic mystics have given examples of ways in which our soul’s longing to connect with God can be fulfilled. Contemplative prayer, and the ways of the mystics before us, are just a few of the tools we are able to use in answering our call to know, love and serve God in this life and be happy with Him in the next (Baltimore Catechism).