Search Page

It can be tempting, to go from parish to parish, looking for a priest who will really 'understand' our soul, and free us from our scruples. But if we picture the Catholic Church as being like one vast tent, in which we have priests to help us, it can seem rather foolish to go from priest to priest, disbelieving the assurances of one, then turning round to seek opinions from another. Better to trust in Christ, who guides us through His faithful priests and who certainly forgives our sins in each good confession.

It is no small matter, to feel ourselves dragged down by an evil force. When we are doing good work for Christ and the Church, whether it is quiet or public, the evil one tries to drag us down, to tempt us to despondency or despair, to wreck our plans, to deceive us in prayer, and to draw us away from our Saviour. We need to be fervent in fighting all dispiriting thoughts and temptations, and must rely on the grace of Christ, in prayer.

It is Christ our God, our Saviour and High Priest, Who has become the Head of His Mystical Body, the Church. He has also given us a leader on earth: the Pope, the Bishop of Rome who, with the Catholic Bishops in Communion with him, teaches the Catholic Faith and encourages us to remain faithful. Christ is pleased when we show devotion and respect towards the papacy, and to each Pope.

There are three more things that many Catholics need to be told about the Mass - especially children. They know about the gathered Church, the Scriptures, and Holy Communion; it is tragic that so few have learned: 1) Jesus is made Really Present at the Consecration, 2) Through Him, we are made present to the One Sacrifice of Calvary, 3) Jesus, today, prays for us: He prays for our forgiveness and our Salvation.

If we want to be saved, we must abandon our sins, like good people of past ages. Wise people follow the teaching of the Church. It is Christ Who wants us to believe what she tells us about faith and morals. There are people who call themselves 'practicing Catholics', however, whose ways of life include acts regarded with horror, for centuries: unchastity, contraceptive us, divorce with attempted re-marriage, and a failure to hand on the Faith to their families. Everyone needs the Divine grace given through prayer and the Sacraments, to be able to put the Catholic Faith into practice.

It is as if they are choosing to dive into darkness, whenever Catholics decide to ignore the teaching of the Church and follow a way of life always regarded by Christians with horror - involving unchastity, contraceptive use, divorce and attempted re-marriage, combined with a failure to hand on the Faith in its entirety to the children they do have. To ignore the Church's teaching is to ignore Christ, Who guides her by His Spirit - although Christ sees that some people are not entirely blameworthy, perhaps because of fear or ignorance.

It is only reasonable to believe the evidence of our eyes and ears. If we saw blood flowing in a gutter, we would search the road for an injured body, and would find it. If we see plain evidence that hundreds of thousands of Catholics have abandoned their vocations, or left the Church, we are sensible if we look back, to find the cause. It lies in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council, in the exaggeration, rebellion, dissent, and selfishness that cause traditional teaching and liturgy to be despised.

We are not wrong to say things have gone wrong, in Church life. Sensible people draw sensible conclusions from evidence - for example, if we saw blood flowing past us, in a gutter, we would conclude that a body must be nearby, perhaps mortally wounded. So when there are clear signs of a disaster in the Church, with priests and religious having left, in thousands, and with children often uncatechised and irreverent, it is plain that the so-called 'Renewal' of the Church after the Second Vatican Council was in many ways a time of chaos, dissent and exaggeration of the reforms proposed, with disastrous results.

The state of the Universal Church resembles the scene at our local Catholic church. There is a huge pit, where the floor of the church used to be. But this is only an apparent disaster. Just as local parishioners will find that an undercroft has been built, and a new floor constructed, so that church life can become even more joyful and welcoming, so the world-wide Church is going to experience joys and renewal after times of apparent chaos and disaster. This is Christ's promise.

Christ was introduced to the world, even as a child, because He is King: the Divine child Who would sacrifice His life for sinners, and then conquer sin and death by rising from the grave. The Early Church spent many years preaching about Him, and defining His two natures, and His Mission. Only much later were definitions made about His mother's Immaculate Conception, and her Assumption. Yet the time is ripe for confirmation, in a formal declaration, of two other titles: Co-Redemptrix, and Mediatrix of all Graces.

Right from the early times, the Church has honoured the holy Mother of God: Mary. The Church does not teach that Mary won salvation for sinners. Jesus Christ is the only Saviour. By His Passion and Death He won forgiveness for all who repent and put their trust in Him; but Mary suffered, willingly, as she stood beneath the Cross, uniting her prayers and sufferings to His. She had benefited, in advance, at her Conception, from His Redeeming Work; but when she, the Immaculate, stood by the Cross, she had no sin in her. She was one with her Son in praying for sinners. She deserves to be formally proclaimed: 'Co-Redemptrix'.

The Blessed Virgin sacrificed her life, to give the world its Saviour. The Church has issued formal declarations in modern times of what she has long believed about Our Blessed Lady: about her purity (The Immaculate Conception) and her triumph (Her Assumption, body and soul, into Heaven); yet Christ wants to see honour paid to her courage and love, through a formal definition of her titles, proclaiming her, 'Co-Redemptrix', and, 'Mediatrix of all Graces'.

No-one in the Church should deny the importance of Missionary work. Those who revere Truth and love their fellow humans love to share the Truth about God's Love, made plain in Jesus Christ, our Saviour. There is a place for Dialogue with people of other religions; but if people called to evangelise are content to talk each time, without sharing the Faith, they have forgotten God's plan for their lives. They are foolish if they remain deaf to the Holy Spirit.

By our intercessions we grow in holiness and help the Church; however, we must not become despondent if we seem to see no results from our prayers for those in spiritual need: people who do not love God or who have chosen one of a thousand ways in which to dismiss God from their lives, or to ignore His Son, Jesus Christ, or to leave the one true Church. Everyone has free will. And those who refuse to repent before they die will fall into a pit, as if through the floor of a rotten building which they chose to inhabit and refused to repair.

It is a tragedy, when Christian bodies vote to discard long-standing Christian doctrines and offer a truncated version of Faith, having abandoned efforts to believe or share God's laws. Various leaders jettison - as if from a ship, into the deep - the truths that the Catholic Church still teaches about holy, indisoluble marriage, about sexuality, chastity, a male-only priesthood, and other matters.

People are unwise, who are not content with the teachings of the Church, and ordinary devotions, and who run after spiritual marvels, secrets, reported apparitions and miracles, ignoring the judgement of Bishops. Satan can make 'idols', which means false apparitions so enticing that he leads people away from Christ's Way. Satan can manipulate people and circumstances in order to damage souls and try to ruin the Church.

We are glad when people are happy, in church; reverence in Church cannot be separated from dignity, however; and when young people show their delight in the arrival of church banners by loud shrieking and whistling - as if greeting footballers before a game - they demonstrate their ignorance, and their poor catechesis. It is tragic that these Catholics do not yet know how to prepare for the reverent worship of almighty God.

Even in a vast area of the country, Christ sees that it is difficult to find ten just persons who love Him wholeheartedly, believe in all that He teaches through His Church, and persevere in prayer, and acts of charity. Many Catholics pray when it suits them, attend Mass infrequently, design their own moral code, and yet hope to drift into Heaven when they die. They trust in His love for them, but show little love for Him.

Christ cannot fail to shower graces upon all who are struggling to follow in His footsteps, up the Holy Mountain, to Heaven. That is what all who go on pilgrimage are certainly doing, as they serve one another and honour God, in union with Christ, helped by the prayers of Christ's holy Mother, and with the sick and disabled lovingly cared for on the journey.

Very many Catholics seem not to believe that Jesus Christ is a living Person, or that He is Really Present in our churches. They show out their lack of respect or lack of faith by the careless little bob they give, by the tabernacle, instead of a careful genuflection made in gratitude and humility.