The Fathers of the last great council bade us mark the signs of the times. It is an evangelical phrase used by our Lord, and it refers to recognising the fulfilment of divinely inspired prophecy. So let us attempt to do so. The nations have apostatised from the Church

(2 Thess. 2:3). The Jews have retaken Jerusalem, putting an end, it would seem, to the times of the Gentiles (Lk. 21:24). The last states to continue, however tenuously, the Roman and imperial tradition - Austria-Hungary and Russia - fell a life-time ago, though the final heir

apparent to the last emperor died within the present decade (2 Thess. 2:7, and patristic commentary). The sin of Sodom is everywhere publicly triumphant, such a sin as the angelic doctor foretold would mark the final combat (Commentary on the 2nd Letter to the Thessalonians,

ch. 2, lecture 2). Abortion is made a sacred right (Matt. 24:12). Idols have been openly honoured in St Peter’s (Matt.24:15). Babylon-Leviathan extinguishes the still lingering traditions of Christian liberty (Rev. 13:3), and everywhere threatens the perpetual sacrifice

(Dan. 9:11). From the heaven of high authority, does a life-giving rain fall, or destructive fire? (Rev. 13:13).

I do not claim that all these prophecies have been wholly fulfilled, but those which have not seem now to tend toward their fulfilment. The needles, we might say,

are all on red.

Do not give way either to despair or to false complacency. Go to confession and pray the rosary. Qui perseveraverit usque in finem, hic salvus erit.