These Last Days News - March 18, 2020
URGENT: Forward a link to this web page to your clergy, family, friends and relatives.

How Early Christians Saved Lives and Spread the Gospel During Roman Plagues and Persecution...

CONSTANTLY
"My child and My children, pray constantly a vigil of prayer going throughout your world and the earth, for the little time that is being allotted to mankind." - Jesus, August 21, 1985

GREAT COURAGED NEEDED
"Great courage will be needed in the days ahead. You will pray much, and the Father will counsel you on your next recourse. Spread the message, My child, with great haste.
    "Did I not warn you that the agents of darkness would try to stop the truth? Have no fear, My child. It is not man that you should fear. Man has lost his way; he is in deep darkness. Darkness has entered into the hearts of many. Many in My Son's House now have gone down the road to darkness. Pray for them, My child. Do not castigate them in any way, but pray that they may be given the light." - Our Lady, November 1, 1973

The above Messages from Our Lord and Our Lady were given to Veronica Lueken at Bayside, New York. Read more

PJMedia.com posted on March 17, 2020:

by Tyler O’Neil

Christians facing the coronavirus today would do well to remember how the selfless love of the early church helped spread the gospel in a world much more hostile to Jesus' message than our world is today. Christianity spread in the face of persecution for many reasons, but in two cases it spread in the midst of deadly plagues — because Christians risked their lives to save others.

Two historic plagues ravaged the Roman Empire: the Antonine Plague (165-180 A.D.) and the Cyprian Plague (249-262 A.D.). The plagues killed roughly a quarter to a third of the population, striking down emperors (Marcus Aurelius, Hostilian, and Claudius II Gothicus), and ravaging the empire. As in the case of the coronavirus today, panic spread because the society did not understand the disease.

As sociologist Rodney Stark noted in The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion, Christians responded to the plagues differently than their pagan neighbors.

"During the first plague, the famous classical physician Galen fled Rome for his country estate where he stayed until the danger subsided. But for those who could not flee, the typical response was to try to avoid any contact with the afflicted, since it was understood that the disease was contagious. Hence, when their first symptom appeared, victims often were thrown into the streets, where the dead and dying lay in piles," Stark wrote.

Bishop Dionysius recounted the events in Alexandria, Egypt, during the Cyprian Plague: "At the first onset of the disease, they [pagans] pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest, throwing them into the roads before they were dead and treated unburied corpses as dirt, hoping thereby to avert the spread and contagion of the fatal disease."

Yet Christians sought to help the sick, even risking their own lives. As Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, put it, "Although this mortality had contributed nothing else, it has especially accomplished this for Christians and servants of God, that we have begun gladly to seek martyrdom while we are learning not to fear death."

"Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy; for they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains," Dionysius recalled of his fellow Christians. "Many, in nursing and curing others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead ... [a death that] seems in every way the equal to martyrdom."

Even basic care likely powerfully reduced the death rate. As William McNeill pointed out in Plagues and Peoples, even "quite elementary nursing will greatly reduce mortality. Simple provision of food and water, for instance, will allow persons who are temporarily too weak to cope for themselves to recover instead of perishing miserably." It is entirely plausible that Christian care for the sick would have reduced mortality by as much as two-thirds, Stark argued.

This Christian charity did not just save lives — it also spread the gospel. Historians have long struggled to understand how a small group of Christians after Jesus's ascension — Acts puts the numbers at 120 and 5,000 — eventually outnumbered all other faiths in the Roman Empire (with an estimated population of 60 million).

Using estimates from historical sources, Stark found that growth from 1,000 Christians in 40 A.D. to 33 million Christians in 350 A.D. required a growth rate of 40 percent per decade. While this growth seemed miraculous to Christians at the time and historians afterward, it can also be explained through the expansion of social networks.

When Christians risked their lives to help their pagan neighbors during the plagues, two things happened. Pagans who did not come into contact with Christianity were more likely to die, and pagans who received Christian charity were more likely to live — and to develop relationships with the Christians who saved them. A pagan saved from death may befriend the Christians who saved him, and he may have lost his previous friends from the plague. By saving pagans, Christians not only demonstrated the love of Jesus but also spread social influence.

Stark has long found that social networks are essential to religious conversion. While new believers say they are satisfied by true doctrine, friendships with other believers are also essential when it comes to choosing a faith. This is not to say that faith doesn't matter or that the Holy Spirit is not involved in conversion — the process in each person's heart is still a mystery — but from a social science standpoint, relationships are key to understanding a person's decision to publicly identify with a religion.

Christians in the second and third centuries A.D. lived countercultural lifestyles. They stood out because they refused to sacrifice to Roman emperors (who were considered gods) and they stood out because they cared for the sick, the orphans, and the widows. They saved children who were left to die (an early form of abortion/infanticide) and they founded the first hospitals.

When early Christians risked their lives to save pagans during the plagues, they lived out the teachings of Jesus Christ, providing concrete evidence that their lives had been changed by the Holy Spirit of charity. Their sacrifice was a witness to those around them, and it helped spread the gospel by expanding their social networks.

Christians today should adopt the same spirit of charity, although it may look entirely different in practice. Social distancing helps limit the spread of the coronavirus, and Christians should value the lives of others more than the comfort and social opportunities of daily life.

Christians can also support charitable enterprises doing God's work in this difficult time. The Christian charity Samaritan's Purse airlifted a field hospital and other supplies to Italy on March 17 to help that country's overwhelmed health system care for coronavirus patients. Samaritan's Purse's DC-8 aircraft carried roughly 20 tons of medical equipment, a respiratory care unit developed for the coronavirus, and 32 disaster relief personnel, including doctors, nurses, and respiratory specialists, who will stay in Italy for at least a month.

"We are going to Italy to provide life-saving care to people who are suffering," Franklin Graham, the charity's president, said in a statement. "There is a lot of fear and panic around the country, but we trust that God is in control. We continue to pray for everyone affected by this global health crisis and for our medical team as they respond."

Edward Graham, youngest son of Franklin Graham and assistant to the vice president of programs for Samaritan's Purse, put it succinctly: "Medicine is a magnet for the Gospel."

Not every Christian can or should get up and fly to Italy to help with the crisis — there will be work to do in your own homes and neighborhoods. But Christians around the world should help however they can, with the same spirit as the early church. Acts of charity can reap a tremendous harvest for the gospel.

TOO LITTLE HOLINESS
"I have warned you to protect your households and your children from the evil forces that now have cast a dark shadow upon mankind and the world. There are doctrines of demons being expounded by human beings who knowingly or unknowingly have become tools of satan. The saddest knowledge that I have received is that My Son is being defamed even by His own, His own teachers, those who have given themselves over to the world and have allowed Our sheep to go straying.
    "I have asked you all not to abandon My Son's Church, but to remain: set an example of prayer and holiness. There is too little holiness now in My Son's Church, and in other denominations upon the earth.
    "Those who have little knowledge of the Book of life and love, the Bible, will fall easy prey to false witnesses who go about the world now, deceiving even some of the elect. You must read your Bible so that you will not be deluded by the written word. The Bible cannot be taken as sectional or piece by piece, but you must know the whole, for satan has poisoned many minds. And satan, too, can expound the Scriptures." - Our Lady, May 26, 1979

SAVED
"Many souls that would otherwise fall into hell and eternal damnation have been saved because of the thousands of prayers that have been rising to Heaven for their salvation. Only, My children, in the time of your great reward in Heaven will you understand fully how great was your mission upon earth." - Jesus, October 6, 1976

WARRlORS
"You just remember, My children, to call on Michael and the angels, whom man has deemed to cast aside. Yes, this guardian you will need. We have placed them at your sides; call on them. We are all waiting and watching. No one will be lost if they call on them, Our warriors." - Our Lady, May 30, 1971

EDITOR'S NOTE:  We welcome your comments at the end of this page.  Email a link or print out a copy of this web page to your clergy, family, friends and relatives.  Email this page to a friend.

We urgently need your prayers and financial support to be able to continue to create these web pages.  Click here... Thank you in advance.

We strongly encourage you to print and/or email copies of this web page to all the bishops and clergy.  Also, email or mail a copy of this web page to the news media and as many other people as possible.  Email a copy of this page to everyone you know.

 Wars are a punishment for man's sins.  Abortion, homosexuality, and the changes in the Catholic Church cry out to Heaven for just punishment.
    When you pray the Holy Rosary, you have Our Lady's hand in your hand.  When you pray the Holy Rosary, you have the power of God in your hands.  Start now!  Let's All Pray that all clerics will have the courage to continue to work for the salvation of souls in the face of plagues and disease... Click here...

The Virgin Mary's Bayside Prophecy Books are Now Available in E-book Version.  Click Here Now!

The awesome Bayside Prophecies...  https://www.tldm.org/Bayside/
These prophecies came from Jesus, Mary, and the saints to Veronica Lueken at Bayside, NY, from 1968 to 1995:

COURAGE AND PERSEVERANCE
"Now, My child, I give you My peace in courage and perseverance. The strength will be given to you to continue your mission, but know that the battle rages now for souls. Satan will send great forces against you and all who work for My Mother. But know now that Her voice will not be stilled throughout the world, for We will rise up great enemies against these forces of satan. As they seek to send enemies among you, We shall crush them." - Jesus, October 2, 1974

COURAGE TO STAND FORWARD
"I bless you, My child, and this cross discarded with sorrow in Our hearts. It will bring immeasurable joy to your heart. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
    "Now, My child, you shall have two crosses, but this one you will take with you, so you will always be close to My sacred grounds. Many graces have been given for the return to the Sacraments of Our wandering sheep. Bless them, My child, on every oc­casion with this crucifix. A holy priest once held it, and he will be returned to the flock when he receives the courage of his convictions to stand forward as a true shepherd." - Our Lady, November 1, 1975

"RETURN TO A LIFE OF PRAYER"
"Clergy, bishops, cardinals in My House, return to a life of prayer. Take yourselves out of the world. You have become seekers of pleasure, pleasures of the flesh. My children and My shepherds, you will all be judged, and shall I find you wanting?
    "My Mother has promised to be with you as I am with you unto the end of time.
    "There will be many trials set upon the world. And if you retain your sacramentals and keep your faith, you will go through these times with great courage and perseverance. I repeat: Many shall wash themselves clean in the Blood of the Lamb." - Jesus, July 25, 1977

MORE
"If you pray more, you will learn to love prayer. It will become a way of life that you cannot turn from, for it will give you something that you have never found in the world." - St. Theresa, May 17, 1975

SUNDAY HOLY HOUR
"I wish that there be held on these sacred grounds an hour of reparation on the Day of the Lord. This hour will be for your Vicar and the fallen hierarchy in the House of God. This hour will also be in atonement for the discard of the holy Day of God." - Our Lady, September 14, 1972

SAINTS
"The power of prayer has made saints from sinners." - Our Lady, October 2, 1972

CHILDREN
"In order for your children to be saved, My parents, you must keep a constant vigilance of prayer going throughout your home, and those homes of your immediate families. One good example can save a dozen, My children." - Our Lady, October 5, 1985

SOUL MEDITATION
"My children, We are always with you, but you must think your way to Us. This may be confusing at first, but really quite simple; for prayer is a form of soul meditation through the thinking process. What you hear within is the Spirit within." - Our Lady, October 6, 1970

UNLESS
"Unless you pray, you will be lost." - St. Thomas, November 24, 1973

UNANSWERED
"Your prayers will not go unanswered. Ask, and you shall receive; seek and you shall find the way. Believe and you will be given the way." - Jesus, October 6, 1979

WEAPON
"Pray, for prayer is the greatest weapon given to you now to remove this evil from among you." - Our Lady, September 7, 1974

ACTION
"Pray, but act also, for prayers without action is like placing a mess of meat on a dead man's grave." - Jesus, August 5, 1978

OPEN UP
"They do not always have to be written words, but pray from your heart; open up your heart to My Son." - Our Lady, November 20, 1976

SPEAK ONCE
"Speak once, and if not hastened or listened to, speak no more, but pray that the Eternal Father in Heaven will open up the ears of those who have closed their hearts and their ears to the truth." - Our Lady, November 20, 1979

WOMEN
"The angels command respect to My Son. You [women] will cover your heads when you pray." - Our Lady, November 23, 1974

BEGIN AND END
"Each day of your life must begin with prayer and end with prayer." - Jesus, February 10, 1977

STRENGTH
"The prayers of others can reach out and give this strength to the weak." - Our Lady, March 24, 1972

INVASION
"O My children, prayer and penance is the major, now, blockade against invasion." - Our Lady, March 15, 1978

CHASTISEMENT
"The coming Chastisement will be lessened in your area if you will follow the direction I have given you from Heaven: a constant vigilance of prayer." - Our Lady, April 22, 1973

DAILY
"You must all now keep a constant vigilance of prayer. And when I say constant, My children, it means daily." - Our Lady, March 18, 1978

MY GOD
My God, I believe, I adore, I trust, and I love Thee. I beg pardon for all those who do not believe, do not adore, do not trust, and do not love Thee. - Veronica, October 6, 1976

SUCCOR
"When you become ill, be it physical, mental, or sorrowfully in your heart, you will say, 'My Jesus, my confidence!' And I will truly succor you." - Our Lady, September 7, 1985

Directives from Heaven... https://www.tldm.org/directives/directives.htm

D18 - The Holy Rosary PDF
D19 - Prayers  PDF
D20 - Importance of Prayer (Part 1)  PDF
D21 - Importance of Prayer (Part 2)   PDF
D243 - Holiness  PDF
D244 - Prayer and Works PDF
D541 - Lack of Holiness, Part 1 PDF
D542 - Lack of Holiness, Part 2 PDF
D561 - Courage, Part 1 PDF
D562 - Courage, Part 2 PDF

EDITOR'S COMMENT:  Evil is accelerating and the Anti-Christ forces are gaining power in the world.  When the persecution starts, all Christian web sites on the internet will be forced to close.  Be sure to have in your possession all the following items: the Bayside Prophecy books, Bayside Medals, Douay-Rheims Bibles, the Protection Packets, Candles, Sacramentals, and Religious Books.  Purchase these items now while they are still available!  You will urgently need them in the days ahead.  Also, you can print out all PDF files for the Directives from Heaven and all of the Bayside Prophecies.  Copy Our Lady's messages and the Directives from Heaven now while they are still available!  Pray to the Holy Spirit for wisdom and guidance on how to prepare now and for the days ahead when the Antichrist is revealed.  Viva Cristo Rey!

We encourage everyone to print or email copies of this web page to all the Bishops and all the clergy.  Also, email or send this web page to the news media and as many people as possible.

"My children, My little humble children, I appeal to you as your Mother, go forward on foot, knock on the doors; bring the light to your brothers and sisters.  For those who have been given great grace, much is expected of them." - Our Lady of the Roses,  May 26, 1976

"As disciples of the latter days, My children, much shall be asked of you, but I assure you:  all that you give in faith and charity shall be returned to you threefold." - Jesus, June 1, 1978

My gift to help spread Our Lady of the Roses' messages to the world.

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