A question from another friend of mine:

"Who would be the equivalent of Old Testament Prophets, people like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Samuel...in our time? Does it mean because the Holy Spirit dwells in us that there are no such people in our time?"

More or less contemporary prophets might include St. Marie of Paris AKA Mother Maria Skobstova, Bl. Mother Teresa of Kolkata, Dorothy Day, Bl. Popes John XXIII & John Paul II, +Fr. Paul Marx, OSB, St. Edith Stein...in general I'd say a prophet is anyone who proclaims the Word of God to our times, especially in a positively confrontative, courageous and direct manner; and takes some personal risk in so doing.

Mother Angelica of EWTN definitely also fits in the prophet category; Patriarch Kryill has been reflecting prophecy recently.

I think there are two answers to your question that are equally true.

First of all, the Feast of the Transfiguration tells us nonverbally that the age of the Patriarchs and Prophets is at an end with the advent of Jesus Christ. God, as it were, saying to the human race, "I'll take it from here." It is said that in the quiet of eternity God the Father uttered One Word, the Eternal Logos. He needed to say no more. In Christ there is all the fullness of everything that is necessary. Now He has appeared in the flesh and revealed all that the Father wants us to know.

Secondly, as far as the human beings who lead prophetic lives since His advent, when we (and they) are in Him, then the Holy Spirit is in us and the continuing work of Christ in this end of the ages manifests itself. So prophecy continues, but is often not as striking, perhaps, as it seems to have been in the age of the prophets. On the other hand, these contemporary prophets often meet the same response that the earlier ones did. Recall Our Lord telling the Pharisees that their fathers had murdered the prophets. Well, today we ridicule and ignore them just as people did four millenia ago.

Bob

Thank you, Bob, for saying this.

I was going to say that the People of God are no longer in the Prophetic Age. We are now called the Church and we are in the Age of the Gospel.

It has been my understanding that St. John the Baptist was the last (and greatest) of all the Prophets.