Eschaton and the End of Time

I know. This kabob stand on the information superhighway is frivolous and shallow at best. So here's an apocalyptic vision to quicken up the pace:

“The image of the woman [the Church] before the altar in front of the eyes of God that I saw earlier was now also shown to me again so that I could also see her from the navel down. From the navel to the groin she had various scaly spots. In her there appeared a monstorous and totally black head with fiery eyes, ears like the ears of a donkey, nostrils and mouth like those of a lion, gnashing with vast open mouth and sharpening its horrible iron teeth in a horrid manner... Lo, the monstrous head removed itself from its place with so great a crash that the entire image of the woman was shaken in all its members. Something like a great mass of much dung was joined to the head; then, lifting itself upon a mountain, it attempted to ascend to the height of heaven. A stroke like thunder came suddenly and the head was repelled with such strength that it both fell from the mountain and gave up the ghost.”

Damian Anti-Christ

After describing the fall of anti-Christ and the woe of those who had been deceived by him, the Seer continues:

“Behold, the feet of the aforementioned female image appeared to be white, giving out a brightness above that of the sun. I heard a voice from heaven saying to me: ‘Even though all things on earth are tending toward their end, so hardships and calamities is bowed down to its End, nevertheless, the Spouse of my Son, though much weakened in her children, will never be destroyed either by the heralds of the Son of Perdition or by the Destroyer himself, however much she will be attacked by them. At the End of time she will arise more powerful and more secure; she will appear more beautiful and shining so that she may go forth in this way more sweetly and more agreeably to the embraces of her Beloved. The vision which you saw signifies all this in mystic fashion.’” (Scivias 3:11; Translated by B McGinn, Visions of the End, pp101-102)

I'll leave you to consider whether elements of this vision apply to the Episcopal Church.

The Seer is Hildegard von Bingen (of course), Katharine Jefferts Schori's new "ally."

God bless,

LSP

Katharine Jefferts Schori & Hildegard

Perhaps you remember that Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church (TEC), has taken to quoting Hildegard von Bingen, 12th Century Sibyl of the Rhine. For Schori, Hildegard is all about viriditas (greenness), like a latter-day Gaia worshiping U.N. apparatchik.

Here's Schori, apparently oblivious to irony, referring to her new patron rebuking Barbarossa for fueling Church schism:

Listen to Hildegard the prophet: “He Who Is says, ‘I destroy contumacy, and by myself I crush the resistance of those who despise me. Woe, woe to the malice of wicked men who defy me! Hear this, king, if you wish to live; otherwise my sword shall smite you.”

And here's Hildegard again, preaching on the Cathar heretics:

"Diabolical seduction [by the Cathars] gives rise to criminals and seducers, the hate and the crime of the devil, brigands and thieves; but it is in homosexuality that the sin is most impure, the root of all vices. When these sins have accumulated among the nations  the constitution of God’s law will be torn, and the Church, like a widow, will be stricken."

Hildegard

Why didn't Jefferts Schori reference that, when preaching to her crew of greenist mountebanks in Taiwan?

We'll return to Hildegard and her apocalyptic visions later. In the meanwhile, KJS, be very careful when invoking the Teutonic Seer.

Mind how you go,

LSP