Sleepless in Woodstock with St. Hildegard of Bingen

Sleep has been elusive this week. Oh, I have no trouble falling asleep, but after a few hours I'm wide awake with a racing mind (and sometimes heart). My go-to habit when I can't sleep is to pray the seven sorrows of Mary. But sometimes I just give up and get up. 

So here I am since 2:30 a.m. wide awake and wishing I weren't. And yet, so many of the saints spent their nights in prayer. Sad to say, I'm more likely to be doing the cryptogram or sudoku puzzles in the Epoch Times in the middle of the night. And sometimes, I do the worst thing for sleep. I turn on the computer.

This morning my computer search took me to a saint whom I've never studied, Hildegard of Bingen. This 12th century saint, abbess and doctor of the church, intrigues me. Not only that, but I had to laugh when I came across this snippet of information:

The Coming of the Antichrist: Cardinal Manning -- Lecture 4

This post examines the final lecture by Henry Edward Cardinal Manning about the Crisis in the Holy See. Remember, he was writing near the end of the 19th century during the nationalistic upheavals in Europe, but history tends to repeat itself. Much in these four lectures can easily apply to our own time although the threats are coming from within the Church these days as much as outside.  Check out my previous posts and read the entire document. The cardinal's prose is easy to understand and he turns often to the doctors of the Church and to well known theologians. 

Lecture 1 - Introduction to the Crisis: the Revolt

Pornocracy Part 2: The Coming Reign of Antichrist

Noah's Sacrifice (1847-53) by Irish painter Daniel Maclise

Remember when God lost His patience with the sinful world and told Noah to build an ark? He sent a flood which, like baptism, cleansed the world for a time. He set the rainbow in the sky as a sign of his never-ending love. But nothing surprises God. He knew man would continue to rebel.

Monstrous Ellen G White and Seventh-day Adventists' anti-Catholic prophecy seminars

Muhammad's nasty twin sister, Ellen G White.
Twins, because both had Satanic visions.

The monstrous Ellen G White (1827-1915) co-founder and female pope of the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) apostate religion had visions which were obviously from the devil, but which she said were from God, telling her that the devil resided in the Papacy of the Roman Catholic Church. Instead of Christ and the Church that He founded being the one true religion, Ellen G White made herself the founder of the "one true religion" of Seventh-day Adventist apostates, complete with their own papacy - the infallible papacy of Pope Ellen. SDAs are perpetually miffed because Saturday is no longer the sabbath, hence their name.

Pope Ellen had over 200 visions where she would shout "Glory!", be filled with superhuman strength, not breathe during the entire vision no doubt because she was living off the life-force of Lucifer, and, upon coming out of a vision and taking her first natural breath, Pope Ellen would exclaim in a long drawn out sigh, "D-a-r-k".