News Item: : The Battle of Our Times: Let Christ be your Rock, your Refuge, your Deliverer, put your trust in Him (Psalm 18:2).
(Category: Torch of The Faith News)
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Friday 17 October 2014 - 22:58:46

Several weeks ago our lives changed dramatically. My mum - aged 68 - suffered a serious stroke, received Extreme Unction from a Traditionalist priest and spent ten days in hospital. When we brought Mum home, she could not remember the house in which she has lived for 33 years, nor much of her past life. Her speech had been seriously damaged and she had lost the ability to care for herself. By God's grace, we all live together and are thus able to love and care for her. This has all rather precluded us from writing blog posts each day. However, we are very grateful to you all for checking in each day for new articles. May God bless you. 

There are no words to express the anguish resulting from the suffering of one's mother, nor the pain caused by her sudden loss of memory, speech and everyday skills. 

In these days we have also experienced something along those lines in relation to the present sufferings of our Holy Mother, the Church. The 'Relatio post disceptationem', released from the Synod in Rome for global consumption on Monday 13th October, pierced the hearts of all who sincerely love Jesus Christ and His Holy Catholic Church.

To describe this text as problematic would be a serious understatement. Light on Sacred Scripture and Tradition, and demonstrating the profound loss of the sense of sin which so characterises our times, the Relatio brings into sharp focus the spiritual battle raging throughout the Church and the world. In truth, this battle has been growing in magnitude and ferocity during the course of the last five decades. It seemed to us on Monday, that Mother Church had Herself forgotten much of Her past life and had lost the ability to speak with understanding and precision. 

The Relatio, as it stands so far, is a source of grave confusion and scandal to Catholics, and to all people of good will, who have tried to co-operate with God's grace in resisting sin in their own lives and its promotion in the wider culture. The spiritual and cultural damage it has done could take decades to heal and overcome. Alas, the times are so precipitous, one wonders if such a period will be granted us.

13th October

This is certainly a momentous date in the history of the Church and the world. It is of course the date on which the apocalyptic Miracle of the Sun occured at Fatima - an event witnessed by over 70,000 people, which converted many sinners. 

Less well known is the fact that this was also the date on which Pope Leo XIII received the vision of Satan attacking the Church; which private revelation led him to compose the powerful Leonine prayer.

It is also the date on which, in the approved private revelations to Sr. Agnes Sasagawa at Akita in 1973, Our Lady warned that, if men did not repent, the Father would inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity which would wipe out a large proportion of the planet. This would be preceded by a trial in the Church wherein the devil would infiltrate into the Church 'in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops opposing bishops.'

We were fascinated - and troubled - to discover this week that the 13th October was also the date in 1962 on which Cardinal Achille Lienart cut off Cardinal Ottaviani's microphone during the opening stages of Vatican II, as part of the liberal usurpation of the direction of the Council. 

16th October

Yesterday, the anniversary of St. John Paul II's election as pope, was the date on which many cardinals and bishops at the Synod in Rome began to find their voice in publicly rejecting the machinations and manipulations which appear to have forged (if you will allow the pun) the text of the Relatio. With their public interviews and affirmations of the true teachings of the Church, Cardinals Burke and Pell have given much consolation to beleaguered Catholics everywhere who - due to the sensus fidelium - had already rejected those parts of this interim working document which were in clear opposition to the traditional Magisterium of the Church. We speak especially of its tacit approval of adulterous couples, greyness on contraception and attribution of value to 'homosexual orientation' rather than recognising it as an objective disorder. It is important to remember that, although the release of this document to the media has given a widespread appearance to the contrary, this document is only a discussion paper with no Magisterial authority and that, according to Cardinal Pell, it was criticised by 3/4 of the Synod Fathers who spoke in the first hour after its release to them. It must be said that the way the Synod has progressed gives the appearance of something stage managed. This has not only damaged the trust of many faithful Catholics, but frustrated participants at the Synod itself.  

Let Christ be Your Rock

Since the proclamation of the 'Kasper thesis' several months ago, and its affirmation by Pope Francis as an example of 'serene theology', none of us has really doubted that this October Synod would be anything other than a battle royal for the heart and soul of the Catholic Church. And so it has proved. There can be few faithful Catholics for whom this has been a peaceful or life-giving experience. To hear of a retired couple promoting the acceptance of homosexual coupling in the Vatican without a single call to repentance by a reigning pontiff or a single cardinal, bishop or priest is a dramatic testimony to darkness of the times we live through.

But courage! Christ assures us in John 16:33 that we will have trouble in the world, but that He has overcome the world. Perhaps few of us - especially as converts and reverts to the Faith - realized that we would have quite so much trouble from within the Church! Nevertheless, we have been given a great opportunity to prove our faith in Christ and His promises for His Church. If you are suffering interiorly because of the dangers faced by the Church, then this shows that you have already received many graces from Our Lord Jesus Christ. The priority of His grace in your life will continue to console, strenghten and sustain you, as long as you rely on Him. 

A couple of weeks ago, due to all the turmoil surrounding the Synod and also my family, I entered what John Bunyan would likely have called the Slough of Despond. I learned a few things through this experience which some readers may find helpful in the difficult days which undoubtedly lie ahead. 

1. It is Jesus Christ, His Sacraments and Grace which will sustain us and His Church. Keep frequenting the Sacraments and nourish these graces with prayer, penance, acts of charity and good Catholic spiritual reading - not Bunyan then! Immerse yourself in the rich sources of our Faith. Make of your home a haven of prayer and study. Don't just read blogs but get into Sacred Scripture, the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, Lives of the Saints, and works such as St. Thomas Aquinas' marvellous Catena Aurea. Contemplate sacred art and study its catechetical content - such as presented by Fra Angelico, Rembrandt and Rublev. Listen to Gregorian Chant in your home. 

Confession and Holy Communion are fundamental to maintaining spiritual sanity and sanctity in any time. This is especially so now. 

Receiving sacramental grace helped me to get my focus back on the Lord Jesus Christ and to receive His peace. 

2. This - coupled with wise counsel from my spiritual director - helped me to recall that the Church has come through the attacks of many heresies, ideologies and empires and has outlived them all. The question to humbly ask is: Was I there then and did the success of the Church at that time depend on little sinful me or on Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit? It is Christ's Church and He is always in control. 

3. We say that we believe that Peter is the Rock and that the devil will not ultimately prevail against the Church.  

Now, when it certainly appears that many cardinals, bishops, priests, protected lay intelligentia - and even Pope Francis himself - might be about to lead us into the Great Apostasy, we have the perfect opportunity to grow in the virtue of Faith. We can truly grow in a given virtue by exercising that particular virtue. God has chosen us to live in these times and to use the material they present to us to save our souls and to help save others by co-operating with His grace. Never forget that in the end all things serve God's Holy Will.   

Trust that Christ's promises are true and believe that those who oppose His truth will dash themselves against this Rock, rather than that He shall let it be moved.    

4. Satan is only a counterfeiter of the truth. He can only work with parody and half-truth. At some point he is always forced to show his hand in his schemes. This allows those who are truly open to the Holy Spirit the opportunity to recognise the deception and to reject and resist it. Have not the events of the last couple of days undeceived many who were perhaps wavering? 

The Battle Ahead

All of this being said, we can be in no doubt that the Church has entered some of the darkest and most treacherous waters in Her 2,000 year history. Please readers, let us pray for one another to persevere in the Faith by remaining afloat on St. Peter's Barque. Ask God each day to give you the graces needed for your salvation and sanctification. Make frequent Confession; Receive Holy Communion worthily and often; Pray the Holy Rosary with devotion; Pray the Holy Michael Prayer often; Read Sacred Scripture and traditional Catholic literature; Keep the Faith in your hearts and minds with all the strength of your will.

Luke 22:31: 'And the Lord said: Simon, Simon. Behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he might sift you like wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not, and thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren.'

Let us pray for the Holy Father and for the Church to be faithful to Christ and to clearly expound the true teachings of the Church as She has received and preserved them these past twenty centuries.

Keep the Faith! 'He that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved' (Matthew 24:13).    

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This news item is from Torch of The Faith
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