I have just got home with Liz from a wake where a 91 year old lady is laying in her coffin and will be buried tomorrow morning. She is the mother of Sister Socorro Help - a member of our Patos church.
The atmosphere at the wake is indescribable! It is total spiritual darkness. It is absolute oppression.
I have been to hundreds of catholic wakes over the years... but this was so so different! It hit me the minute I walked in the house. It was like a flashback to the middle ages!
The dead woman was probably one of the leading... perhaps the leader... of radical middle age Mariological ranty catholicism. Catholicism at its worst. The catholic taliban. Liz tells me she has been receiving letters from this woman for years trying to convert her to Mary!
At the wake one shift after another of chanting women, all glassy eyed, keep chanting memorized prayers. It is haunting. It is oppressive. It is spiritual darkness. Everything is Mary. They are all dressed in identical blouses with Mary written all over them.
I thought within one minute of getting in the place... get me out of here... this is serious oppression. Then God spoke to my heart and said: "Look what I have done for Socorro Help (our church member - the daughter)! I have saved her from this together with her family"! And not only saved her but kept her for years despite intense pressure from the taliban! Lord have mercy! Thank you Jesus for your grace! I could almost hear Luther shouting out: "The just shall live by faith"! "He who the Son sets free is free indeed"!
We went and visited Socorro Help to talk to her and pray with her and she commented that she can't stand it at her own mother's wake. Please remember this dear sister and her family in your prayers! Her son is married and they go to our church but the taliban tell them they are not married and are living in sin because they weren't married in a catholic church! Boy... Patos sure needs the Gospel!
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