Showing posts with label Spiritual Warfare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spiritual Warfare. Show all posts
Tuesday, 11 January 2022
Saturday, 15 August 2015
Only the Brave will Survive - Prepare Yourself for the Fight Ahead!
THE VORTEX—ONLY THE BRAVE WILL SURVIVE
TRANSCRIPT
Only heroic Catholics will survive.
In short, in the times that are just ahead for Catholics, only the truly dedicated will not become apostates and thereby lose Heaven. This was the opinion of Fr. John Hardon, a very holy priest who died 15 years ago in Detroit — a man who was remarkable owing to his holiness. What he said has come even sharper into focus in light of the wholesale rejection of the Faith by an overwhelming majority of the Irish last week.
If you are not preparing yourself now, and your family now, bracing yourselves spiritually for the darkness into which civilization is descending, you will not survive. You will inherit Satan for your father. People do not suddenly decide to suffer for the Faith. They prepare themselves to suffer great hardships for the Faith, by undergoing little hardships and sacrifices in advance. You could think of it as a kind of dress rehearsal. Our Blessed Lord Himself said conversely: If you cannot be trusted in small matters, you cannot be trusted in larger ones (Luke 16:10).
Heroes do not miraculously appear. They have the stuff of heroism inside them all along, cultivated and molded and formed, waiting to emerge publicly if and when the correct circumstances arise. In the meantime, they live rather ordinary lives on the outside, perhaps even unaware themselves of the reality that they are heroes in the making.
Such was the course of countless saints — who are, after all, the heroes of the Faith. But not one of them scaled the greater heights of holiness without first mastering the lesser heights. How did they do this? By choosing a life of prayer and sacrifice: prayer to unite themselves to Heaven while still on earth, and sacrifice to unite themselves to Christ suffering. Without the conscious choosing of this route, a person will fall away when the test comes.
We sometimes have this too-nostalgic thought about the age of martyrs in the early centuries. We see the drawings of heroic Catholics standing straight moments before the lions pounced. What we do not see, what is not memorialized in art, is the vast numbers who committed apostasy before the jaws of those same lions, or those in whom the Faith had turned cold. They were more than content to offer incense to the Roman gods.
And they didn't do it necessarily out of hate toward the Church; in all probability, actually, it was just a mild indifference — just enough to get them to officially treat the Church in the same manner in which they had unofficially viewed Her. What the persecution did in them was simply concretize their ambivalence and lack of regard. Some time long before they had lost their love of the truth, but it was the case that circumstances just never prevailed upon them to make a formal announcement — something akin to the husband or wife who long since stopped loving their spouse. He or she plods along, knowing the truth down deep, but not really having any driving reason to deal with it.
And then, suddenly, along comes the lover, the one who ultimately forces the spouse's hand — the one who makes them choose; and they choose to bring into the open what has been the reality all along. And they abandon the marriage. At last, circumstances did prevail upon them — and they chose betrayal, adultery.
This is exactly the same dynamic playing out across the Catholic world right now.
Many lackluster, indifferent Catholics feeling no real love of the Church will abandon Her as soon as the right conditions present themselves. Those conditions are arriving very soon — and very soon, the choice will have to be made. Only the most dedicated, heroic Catholics will choose correctly and be saved — and their number will be very few.
Pray and sacrifice that you and those you love will be among them.
In short, in the times that are just ahead for Catholics, only the truly dedicated will not become apostates and thereby lose Heaven. This was the opinion of Fr. John Hardon, a very holy priest who died 15 years ago in Detroit — a man who was remarkable owing to his holiness. What he said has come even sharper into focus in light of the wholesale rejection of the Faith by an overwhelming majority of the Irish last week.
If you are not preparing yourself now, and your family now, bracing yourselves spiritually for the darkness into which civilization is descending, you will not survive. You will inherit Satan for your father. People do not suddenly decide to suffer for the Faith. They prepare themselves to suffer great hardships for the Faith, by undergoing little hardships and sacrifices in advance. You could think of it as a kind of dress rehearsal. Our Blessed Lord Himself said conversely: If you cannot be trusted in small matters, you cannot be trusted in larger ones (Luke 16:10).
Heroes do not miraculously appear. They have the stuff of heroism inside them all along, cultivated and molded and formed, waiting to emerge publicly if and when the correct circumstances arise. In the meantime, they live rather ordinary lives on the outside, perhaps even unaware themselves of the reality that they are heroes in the making.
Such was the course of countless saints — who are, after all, the heroes of the Faith. But not one of them scaled the greater heights of holiness without first mastering the lesser heights. How did they do this? By choosing a life of prayer and sacrifice: prayer to unite themselves to Heaven while still on earth, and sacrifice to unite themselves to Christ suffering. Without the conscious choosing of this route, a person will fall away when the test comes.
We sometimes have this too-nostalgic thought about the age of martyrs in the early centuries. We see the drawings of heroic Catholics standing straight moments before the lions pounced. What we do not see, what is not memorialized in art, is the vast numbers who committed apostasy before the jaws of those same lions, or those in whom the Faith had turned cold. They were more than content to offer incense to the Roman gods.
And they didn't do it necessarily out of hate toward the Church; in all probability, actually, it was just a mild indifference — just enough to get them to officially treat the Church in the same manner in which they had unofficially viewed Her. What the persecution did in them was simply concretize their ambivalence and lack of regard. Some time long before they had lost their love of the truth, but it was the case that circumstances just never prevailed upon them to make a formal announcement — something akin to the husband or wife who long since stopped loving their spouse. He or she plods along, knowing the truth down deep, but not really having any driving reason to deal with it.
And then, suddenly, along comes the lover, the one who ultimately forces the spouse's hand — the one who makes them choose; and they choose to bring into the open what has been the reality all along. And they abandon the marriage. At last, circumstances did prevail upon them — and they chose betrayal, adultery.
This is exactly the same dynamic playing out across the Catholic world right now.
Many lackluster, indifferent Catholics feeling no real love of the Church will abandon Her as soon as the right conditions present themselves. Those conditions are arriving very soon — and very soon, the choice will have to be made. Only the most dedicated, heroic Catholics will choose correctly and be saved — and their number will be very few.
Pray and sacrifice that you and those you love will be among them.
See Michael Voris Video here
http://www.churchmilitant.com/video/episode/the-vortexonly-the-brave-will-survive
Friday, 22 August 2014
Spiritual Warfare - What is expected of us?
I ran across the article from a link with the National Catholic Register. It spoke volumes to me and thought I needed to pass it on. You will find this and many enlightening articles at www.onepeterfive.com
Spiritual Warfare:
Why We Are Losing
by Father Richard Heilman
In recent decades, we have seen Satan engage the world as
never before. In all of human history we have never witnessed evil promoted so
effectively, while virtue, character, and morals are roundly mocked and
rejected. Meanwhile, it could be said that the Mystical Body — the Church — has
never been so unprepared for and unengaged in the challenging mission of
spiritual warfare. It is obvious that Satan’s forces are well trained and well
organized, while ours clearly are not. At the very beginnings of our great
nation, Sir Edmund Burke warned, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil
is that good men do nothing.”
 |
| "Mary has chosen the better part..." |
The one thing necessary constitutes the essential foundation
for the interior life and stems from the story of Martha and Mary (Luke
10:38-42), where we first see that, amazingly, the Second Person of the Holy
Trinity was sitting right in their living room. Even so, Martha remains busy
with the good and noble protocol of hospitality, while Mary sits at the feet of
Jesus, her eyes locked on His Holy Face, peering into His soul, hanging on His
every word. Mary is actually in adoration, soaking in everything our Lord wants
to give her. I like to say that she is “Mary-nating” — soaking in the gusher of
God’s graces. Mary had come to understand what St. Augustine once said: “God
loves each of us as if there were only one of us.” Remarkable!
 |
| Mary is Listening to Christ, Martha is too busy |
The disconnection is seen, first and foremost, in the
Martha-like indifference to the presence of the Divine in so many of our
present-day liturgies, compared with a more Mary-like contemplative way of
worshiping. Contemplative awe and veneration have always been the distinctive
way Catholics worshiped, until recent decades. In awe and wonder, we would
worship Him and soak in the supernatural graces necessary to stand firm against
the tactics of the devil (Eph. 6:11) and to grow in the way of sanctity.
This is why Pope Benedict XVI (then Cardinal Ratzinger)
stated that any real effort at renewal in the Church must begin with a new
liturgical movement:
 |
| Pope Benedict XVI |
“I am convinced that the crisis in the Church that we are experiencing today is to a large extent due to the disintegration of the liturgy, which at times has even come to be conceived of etsi Deus non daretur (as though God were not there): in that it is a matter of indifference whether or not God exists and whether or not He speaks to us and hears us.”
Grow in Holiness
In
other words,
the reason evil is promoted
so effectively today is because
we’re
ignoring God’s offer of
supernatural strength and power.
We are, in essence,
bringing a knife
to a gunfight, and we are getting slaughtered!
The time is now to prepare an elite fighting force, surrendering to God and then allowing His grace to invade every aspect of our lives. “Grace,” wrote Thomas à Kempis, “is the mistress of truth, the light of the heart, the comforter of affliction, the banisher of sorrow, the expeller of fears, the matrix of devotion, the producer of tears. What am I without it but a piece of dry wood and an unprofitable stock, fit for nothing but to be cast away.”
Here are the three essential approaches for receiving the
abundance of God’s grace, the unum necessarium:
 |
| Sacrament of Confession |
St. Augustine tells us: “The whole power of the Sacrament of Penance consists in restoring us to God’s grace and joining us with Him in an intimate friendship. This very moment I may, if I desire, become the friend of God.” Go to Confession at least once a month, and immediately after any grave sin. Never receive Holy Communion with serious sin on your soul.
2) Go to Mass (frequently):
St. Peter Julian Eymard tells us
to “hear Mass daily; it will prosper the whole day. All your duties will be
performed the better for it, and your soul will be stronger to bear its daily
cross. The Mass is the most holy act of religion; you can do nothing that can
give greater glory to God or be more profitable for your soul than to hear Mass
both frequently and devoutly. It is the favorite devotion of the saints.” Do
your best to find a parish that is working to offer due reverence to God in the
Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, especially if you have the responsibility of the
salvation of family members.
3) Consecrate yourself to Jesus through Mary:
Once St.
Maximilian Kolbe learned about St. Louis de Montfort’s consecration to Mary,
called the “surest, easiest, shortest, and the most perfect means” to becoming
a saint, he called it a “secret weapon for the world,” a “shortcut to
holiness.” Mary crushes the head of the serpent. Always keep Mary at your six
(your back)!
The Gospels stories show how Jesus touched people in ways
that made them question the direction of their lives. Some turned away because
His challenge seemed to be too hard. But many others were so moved by His
mission and ministry that they were compelled to search for a more perfect way
of living and being.
Where do YOU stand?
Are you ready to put it all on the
line?
This means nothing less than to do
what God is calling you,
what God is calling you,
from the
depths of your being, to do —
to rouse yourself to action on behalf of the
kingdom.
Are you ready to say “YES” to the call
to become His champion?
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