Alfonso Gálvez
In the year 2009, at the beginning of a century that found itself fully conformed to the modern ideological principles which had caused, among other things, two World Wars (a desolation never before seen in History), and the greatest crisis --apostasy-- the Catholic Church had ever faced, Fr. Alfonso Gálvez published this book, dedicated to the analysis of the first chapters of the book of Revelation, and of decisive importance to the Christian of today. Although his intention was to comment on each one of the Seven Messages sent to the Seven Angels, this first volume--and most likely the last, given the author´s advanced age--focuses mainly on the message to the Angel of the Church at Ephesus. For Fr. Alfonso Gálvez, the book of Revelation is a 'book of Consolation...written more with a view to the end times than for the early days'. And though we know neither the day nor the hour of the Second Coming, it is true that the times that will precede the Parousia will usher in a general Apostasy and the freezing over of charity to such an extent that the Day of the Lord will be cut short out of love for the chosen ones; because if this were not done, the saints themselves would be vanquished. 'Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?' (Lk 18, 8).This book is written with the intention of encouraging Christians everywhere to live and die within the Catholic Church, even in these times in which the Church seems to be in a process of near self-destruction. No matter what Catholics of today may see, no matter how greatly they suffer persecution, '...it is not licit for them to search for another, for only One is the Church founded by Jesus Christ, and only she is the True Church'.Both the 'Introduction' of the book, as well as its four subsequent chapters (1. 'The Voice of the Spirit', 2. 'Love Lost', 3. 'God Punishes Those He Loves', 4. 'Christian Victory'), and the 'Closing Consideration', describe in all its rawness what could be a historical example of the power of the Beast of the Apocalypse, made manifest in the Modernist heresy which has invaded the Catholic Church. A Church which seems to have lost 'the love she had at first', and to have forgotten (or better yet...rejected), the path of repentance and atonement. Yet, despite all this and against all odds, the final victory will be of the one who perseveres even unto death as a faithful son of the Church founded by Christ: ' To him who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of Life...'.In short, a profoundly prophetic book written about a Holy Prophetic Book: 'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'
