Heaven on Earth: 7 Best Happenings of the 20th Century

Seven historic, heavenly, humbling, hopeful events of the 20th Century interpenetrate each other as they fructify now and into the future:
1.  The 12-step spirituality of Alcoholics Anonymous that is now freeing people from a range of addictions all around the globe.
2.  The outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Pentecostal Movement at the very start of the century and its continuation in the Charismatic Renewal all over the world.
3.  The emergence of renewal, largely lay, movements in the Catholic and other Churches in the afterglow of Vatican II.
4.  Heavenly manifestations on earth, particularly the Divine Mercy messages to Saint Faustina and Marian apparitions including Fatima.
5.  The conjugal, "communion" theology of St. John Paul, Balthasar, Pope Benedict and others that emerged organically with Vatican II and gave fresh but faithful expression to the Catholic faith in the face of the Cultural Revolution.
6. The witness of a regiment of holy women...canonized and not...who image the freedom of the Bride of Christ in their vigor, generosity, purity, fortitude, and interior independence: St. Maria Goretti, St. Gemma Galgani, Mother Cabrini, Mother Katherine Dreexel, St. Josephine Baghetti, Elizabeth Leseeur, St. Theresa of Lisieux (who died before the century but hovers over it), St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, Blessed Maria Teresa Demjanovich, St. Faustina, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Adrienne VonSpeyr, Madeleine DelBrell, Caryll Houselander, St. Theresa of Calcutta, Dorothy Day, Catherine DeHueck Dougherty, and others.
7. The ever-persistence of the Church...resilient, fruitful, steady, quiet, infallible, holy and yet sinful, efficacious, celebratory, hopeful, grateful, local, unpretentious.

By "Church" I mean first the concrete loyalty and life of those who gather around the Pope in Rome and the bishops in union with him. But I include others who are in various degrees of union: the Orthodox, Coptic; the Protestant; the Evangelical and Pentecostal who listen to the Word and rejoice in the Holy Spirit. The first six events above can be seen as ways in which the Bridegroom renews the Bridal Church, keeping her ever new, fresh, thrilling.

These above developments are infinitely greater than the five demonic catastrophies (in prior blog) of that same century...and dwarf the secular accomplishments of technology, science and culture...even as they work to purify and deepen the later and defeat the former.