The Crisis in the Church and the Spiritual Life

Since the Fall of Adam and Eve, humanity has been in crisis. Cain murdered Abel, we had Sodom and Gomorrah, Babel... God intervened, set aside the Jewish Nation to give the Messiah to the World. Unwittingly they managed to "launch" the Catholic Church into celestial "orbit" so to speak. From that first Good Friday, the devil has been ever seeking to "shoot" down the Catholic Church. 

Today, the Church is under a diabolical attack of a most insidious nature. When open, external enemies of the Church attack - we can "handle" it, so to speak. We expect - very sadly - the traditional enemies who deny Jesus Christ came in the Flesh to continue their assault on Our Lord and His Church. We expect the attack from freethinkers and non-Catholics. Horrible as acts of terrorism are, an even greater danger is the subtle promotion of naturalism that has spread like a cancer for well over two hundred years. Its effects are devastating. Catholics are indistinguishable from their pagan next door neighbour. Even those who attend the liturgy in Latin. If you don't believe me, just check out the cesspool of social media. Archbishop Fulton Sheen gave a talk in the mid 1960s. He had been out of the United States, and upon his  return he commented that he could barely recognize his own country, so vulgarized and debased had it become. Imagine what he would say today! 

The Abbe Chautard in his "The Soul of the Apostolate" warned that the actions of a Catholic, must - ABSOLUTELY MUST - be grounded in Christ Jesus. The first step is humility. Do I need to do this? Does God want me to do this? Am I doing it first and foremost for Our Lord? Or, perhaps I do not need to do this, God may not want me to do it, it is being done for praise, glory, attention. Or, it is motivated not by a desire of the conversion of the sinner, but by hatred, revenge, anger... I need to, you need to - always access our motivations.

Given the recent revelations concerning Theodore McCarrick - the Homosexual Network (as the late and much persecuted Fr. John O' Connor called them) in the Hierarchy - the devil will, and is working might and main to destabilize Catholics. 

My first duty is prayer and penance. If I spend one minute on the internet looking up these stories, perhaps I should spend ten minutes in prayer? If I spend half an hour - perhaps I need at least a Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament? If I say I don't have the time for Our Lord, then how can I claim to  have time for McCarrick? I end up giving less time to God and more to Belial and his minions.

I need to ask myself how did the fall of McCarrick and his fellow homosexual conspirators, come about? Simply put, they never had, or they abandoned the spiritual life. Then the devil swept in, pride took over and....

I need to increase my prayer life. The crisis in the Church demands Daily Mass, Confession, the Rosary, meditation, frequent visits to the Blessed  Sacrament.  If not today, tomorrow, or next week, but sooner or later I will fall. If the devil could sift the Jesuits and Dominicans, he certainly can sift me. If I deny this, then I have already acted with incredible pride and have made the first huge step into his camp. For example, every word I write on this blog, must be weighed carefully. Is there someone who is searching for the Faith? Is there someone who is seeking the Church? Great caution must be had. Souls are at stake. 

My actions, your actions must be to encourage others to develop the spiritual life. Everything we do, which is not grounded in the spiritual life, and imbuing others with the desire to seek the spiritual life will fail. Why? Because it is not founded on Our Lord Jesus Christ. "I am the Vine, you are the branches". 


Update: 7/30/2018 5:56 p.m., GMT. 

P.S. I very much doubt this will be re-tweeted; promoted etc. I hope I am wrong. Checking my stats, I am not wrong. This simply proves my point: most Catholics treat our holy religion as politics. Most Catholics- even those who attend the Latin Mass - are but mere politicians. 

We need to be crushed, we need to be driven into the underground. God is a jealous God: it is ALL or NOTHING. The Christians in ancient Rome knew this. Our so-called modern day Catholics do not. God will continue to punish us, as we continue to want to play Catholic and play pagan. This just will NOT do. It is ALL or NOTHING. Since we refuse to give Him ALL, He will give us nothing. NOTHING. 

P.P.S. Look for things to get much, much worse.