September 24, http://www.tribtimes.org
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William Zambrano MD
Sep 23, 2025, 3:25:19 PM (11 days ago) Sep 23
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Tribulation Times
(Dan 12:4) But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.
THE CATHOLIC THING: AI: Nearness to the Beast
FUTURISM: AI Now Claiming to Be God
EXCERPT SUBSTACK: A Generation Unfit for God: Why Millions Can No Longer Pray
We are living through the most successful assault on the human soul in history, and most people don’t even know it’s happening.
The attack isn’t coming through persecution. It’s not bombs or bullets. It’s far more insidious—a systematic rewiring of human consciousness itself. We’ve been neurologically hijacked, and the consequences reach straight into our capacity to encounter God.
The average adult now maintains focus for barely forty seconds before the mind fractures and darts elsewhere. We’ve shattered the fundamental human ability for sustained attention. And with it, we’re destroying the conditions required for a spiritual life.
Dr. Kwasniewski has spoken compellingly about our societal addiction to smartphones, and he’s right to identify the spiritual stakes involved. Sadly, the problem runs deeper than device dependency. We’re not just attached to our screens; we are, in fact, addicted to them. We’re being trained by them. We’re witnessing a corruption of human consciousness that hinders our ability for lingering, for deep thought, for wonder and contemplation—the natural prerequisites of attentiveness and conversion. The constant drip of notifications and dopamine loops of digital life prevents pause and reflection. And now, with artificial intelligence accelerating this transformation, the danger multiplies.
Algorithms don’t merely reflect human desire; they shape it, pulling attention away from depth toward distraction, from meaning toward trivia. What once required discipline—study, meditation, introspective intention—is now displaced by endless scrolling and endless noise. This is no minor cultural shift but an unprecedented threat to our ability to think, to wonder, to be present, to be truly human.
Christian faith requires abilities that modern life steadily erodes. Let us consider what those abilities are, and how they are threatened like never before.
EXCERPT CWR OPINION: Why Catholics can and should resist AI
For Catholics, criticism of technology and rejection of anything “artificial” should be part of the character of what Pope Benedict XVI called “creative minorities.” Before his treaty-brokering days, Pope Francis described this lifestyle and this movement—again, in Laudato Si–in no uncertain terms. He wrote, “it has become countercultural to choose a lifestyle whose goals are even partly independent of technology.”
In this way, Catholics have a built-in capacity to lead the culture against a post-human future. Amid all the tired discussions of the “use” of technology in evangelism, the most important thing we can say is that being Catholic is simply impossible in any kind of virtual or artificial sense, or even with much reliance on technology at all. Until the God-man returns, his men will have to stand at his altars and sit in his confessionals. His people will have to present themselves, bodies and souls, to partake of his body, blood, soul, and divinity in person every seven days. They must bring their babies to the water of the font and the oil of chrism. They must open their mouths and use their tongues, first to utter their sins and then receive the Sacrament upon them.
There is no watching or multi-tasking or consuming or using. There is only the much-maligned Vatican II phrase “active participation,” which we must sublimate as our battle cry in the fight for the only thing that matters.
The real.
PODCAST: Are We Scrolling Ourselves to Death?
RELATED
Smartphone Addiction and Our Spiritual ADD
My Smartphone Ruined My Spiritual Life
Limiting My Phone Expanded My View of God
"Have ANY Catholic Question? Just ask Ron Smith at: hfmin...@roadrunner.com
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READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: https://bibleinayearonline.com/september-oyb/?version=63&startmmdd=0101
September 24, 2025(Dan 12:4) But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.
THE CATHOLIC THING: AI: Nearness to the Beast
FUTURISM: AI Now Claiming to Be God
EXCERPT SUBSTACK: A Generation Unfit for God: Why Millions Can No Longer Pray
We are living through the most successful assault on the human soul in history, and most people don’t even know it’s happening.
The attack isn’t coming through persecution. It’s not bombs or bullets. It’s far more insidious—a systematic rewiring of human consciousness itself. We’ve been neurologically hijacked, and the consequences reach straight into our capacity to encounter God.
The average adult now maintains focus for barely forty seconds before the mind fractures and darts elsewhere. We’ve shattered the fundamental human ability for sustained attention. And with it, we’re destroying the conditions required for a spiritual life.
Dr. Kwasniewski has spoken compellingly about our societal addiction to smartphones, and he’s right to identify the spiritual stakes involved. Sadly, the problem runs deeper than device dependency. We’re not just attached to our screens; we are, in fact, addicted to them. We’re being trained by them. We’re witnessing a corruption of human consciousness that hinders our ability for lingering, for deep thought, for wonder and contemplation—the natural prerequisites of attentiveness and conversion. The constant drip of notifications and dopamine loops of digital life prevents pause and reflection. And now, with artificial intelligence accelerating this transformation, the danger multiplies.
Algorithms don’t merely reflect human desire; they shape it, pulling attention away from depth toward distraction, from meaning toward trivia. What once required discipline—study, meditation, introspective intention—is now displaced by endless scrolling and endless noise. This is no minor cultural shift but an unprecedented threat to our ability to think, to wonder, to be present, to be truly human.
Christian faith requires abilities that modern life steadily erodes. Let us consider what those abilities are, and how they are threatened like never before.
EXCERPT CWR OPINION: Why Catholics can and should resist AI
For Catholics, criticism of technology and rejection of anything “artificial” should be part of the character of what Pope Benedict XVI called “creative minorities.” Before his treaty-brokering days, Pope Francis described this lifestyle and this movement—again, in Laudato Si–in no uncertain terms. He wrote, “it has become countercultural to choose a lifestyle whose goals are even partly independent of technology.”
In this way, Catholics have a built-in capacity to lead the culture against a post-human future. Amid all the tired discussions of the “use” of technology in evangelism, the most important thing we can say is that being Catholic is simply impossible in any kind of virtual or artificial sense, or even with much reliance on technology at all. Until the God-man returns, his men will have to stand at his altars and sit in his confessionals. His people will have to present themselves, bodies and souls, to partake of his body, blood, soul, and divinity in person every seven days. They must bring their babies to the water of the font and the oil of chrism. They must open their mouths and use their tongues, first to utter their sins and then receive the Sacrament upon them.
There is no watching or multi-tasking or consuming or using. There is only the much-maligned Vatican II phrase “active participation,” which we must sublimate as our battle cry in the fight for the only thing that matters.
The real.
PODCAST: Are We Scrolling Ourselves to Death?
RELATED
Smartphone Addiction and Our Spiritual ADD
My Smartphone Ruined My Spiritual Life
Limiting My Phone Expanded My View of God
Ladder of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 3- "On Exile or Pilgrimage"
10. Be on the look-out for this trick and wile of the thieves. For they suggest to us that we need not separate ourselves from people in the world, and maintain that we shall receive a great reward if we can look upon women and still remain continent. We must not believe these suggestions, but rather the opposite.Prayer request? Send an email to: PrayerR...@aol.com
"Have ANY Catholic Question? Just ask Ron Smith at: hfmin...@roadrunner.com
This month's archive can be found at: http://www.catholicprophecy.info/news2.html.
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