I have been around longer than I like to think about. I only say that so you will know that when I say it was 20 years that so few young people were entering seminaries and sacred life, it closed many powerful academies down and was like a dread of hopeless on those of us who knew our day would pass, our glass would be run and no one would live or do battle as we had.
Imagine so faithfully being the custodian of things people have lived and died for and preserved through the millenia as well as refreshed and renewed in our times - to have been so high to be any part of that continuous ancient and royal line, only to find that people did not want the things of G-d anymore because they did not hold value or hope for them. Like if tomorrow, no one wanted to look at hollywood movies anymore.
It went on so long we got used to it. We wondered if the way and things wouldn't die with us to be taken back to G-d from whence we got it. The bittersweet part. The really important and scary part was the idea of us becoming extinct and the ramifications for the world if such a thing could really ever happen, even tho Bible says it won't.
We continued aging, boys and girls in shabbier flesh lonely for the way of life, the young arising and taking our vesture. Rummaging through the temple like they were looking for gold and we don't even care about manners for that when one of them is onto something. Our lights were fading and people had no idea of the treasures and powers we possessed from G-d for the aleviation of suffering, the healing of the sick and the knowing and movement of the Spirit - the most important things in the world, which we had said "Could never fail or be wasted" yet even in our own joy, we dwelt in shame and fear. Even though Bible had said, it was so lean and so long we a lot of us became habituated to doubting thomas on hope for the ancient priesthood of the most high G-d.
"The hinges are rusty in the graveyard of dreams and the hinges all squeek with tiny screams and we sit in the shade, the shadows among, and dream of the days when we were brave and young"
I mean, it was a looong time and not only that, so many young people suffered so greatly and were robbed of so much intentionally - but I digress ~
Then, not very long ago at all, it began to change. At first we barely noticed, but as time went on it seemed we were noticing more. Young people saying "G-d" and pursuing the knowledge of the temple and contemplative lives. To follow the song of their heart and the song was singing to G-d. More and more had to come before I could convince myself. I didn't want to be fooled, but indeed, it seemed like they just kept coming.
Like Thomas Merton said "There is no way of telling them that they are walking around shining like the Sun." But they were - they are! Like the Sun's first rays breaking over the horizon and becoming the fire of dawn, the more of them came the brighter it got. The brighter it is getting.
Yes, darkness and great evil such as the world has never seen (but evil is always the same) are rising and catastrophe will soon strike our world such as few can imagine or accept - and yes, even tho the very skies are darkened and the sun's light obscured, the darkness will be full of light and the warriors of G-d - and the prophecy IS true, "the Lord is coming, with tens of thousands of his Saints" and these Bright Sons of Morning, the young Emperors and Emeperess, will know the things we know, and possess the things we possess and exceed us in valour, for their times are more than ours were.
Reassemble the libraries! Reopen the labs! Make for them rooms and means that they may immerse their selves as we did, as we all have, even from the first days!
Lay everything from the first days to the last at their very feet and roll out the red carpet too. They who are at the most spiritually powerful and intellectually vibrant time of their lives are reclaiming all G-d has bequeathed to them.
Breathtaking! All Heaven on the edge of their seat ~
