Prophecy has never been more pertinent, and while wending its way more slowly than many expected, is unfolding in the timing (and Mercy) of God.

To the storms, tornadoes, the pandemic, the droughts, wars, the terrorism, crime, the acrimony, the temperatures, we can perhaps add “smoke”:

The nation’s largest city (as well as the world’s nerve center, and harbinger) has been shrouded this week in record smog, which arrived via wildfires in distant Quebec — across an international boundary, traveling five hundred miles.

“On Wednesday morning, the famous New York City skyline once again disappeared behind a hazy veil,” said a weather site. “Photos and videos shared on social media captured the eerie glow of the sun as it rose above some of the most famous skyscrapers in the Big Apple.”

The headline on Fox News:

Canadian wildfires pour smoke into US, heavy haze creates Martian-like scene in NYC

So: can it be a “sign of the times”?

Note the smoke of volcanic eruptions. And note the adjectives being used by New Yorkers and newscasters.

Worst air quality in 20 years grips New York City, creates apocalyptic-looking skyline

That was the banner on AccuWeather.

Twenty years ago brings to mind 9/11, which of course blanketed the city with a different but similarly “apocalyptic” smoke (one that ended up killing more with chronic lung damage than succumbed on September 11 itself).

As for the mystical — and this dimension does exist (despite “mainstream” Catholic outlets) — we have quoted a prophecy that in 1990 said, “New York City is under an evil cloud and will be for 12 years. Do not go there. The pride there will be broken.”

That “smoke” came and left, as will the smoke from the Canadian fires, which already is dissipating, but a sight it was, the skyline obscured, with even a bridge in Manhattan resembling the Golden Gate in foggy San Francisco.

A sign or metaphor of the times in this way also: the public seems to be moving about in a collective brain fog (which, ironically, to keep us spinning, can also be a long-term effect of covid).

First New Yorkers were ordered indoors due to the terrorists. Then with the coronavirus. Now this. What next?

The Trade Center again!

Through the day it will vanish (moving south as far as D.C. and Charlotte, and perhaps west toward Buffalo, which needs no further weather events), but if that’s not enough, there are also the smoky volcanoes rumbling — one south of Mexico City (near one of the most powerful Archangel Michael shrines in the world), and the other in Hawaii. For your discernment.

Here’s a headline from The New York Times:

Kilauea Erupts in Hawaii With ‘Incandescent’ Glow

A later “word of knowledge” from the 1990 source said, “When you see the great smoke rise, Satan will have touched the earth. His manifestation will be near. He will seek to destroy what Christ has built, as Jesus came to destroy the work of the devil. In the end, the Cross will predominate, but not before the end of an era that has strayed.”

That hasn’t occurred yet, though one can be excused for watching current events and wondering about forerunners.

[resources: Fear of Fire, half-price sale]

[Feedback from the mail (Matthew  A. Tsakanikas, STL, STD Department of Theology Christendom College): “