What Will Arouse Us to Action?

I don’t know how bad things need to get before we reach a point where we begin to realize “something drastic needs to happen in order to turn things around again.” I’M THERE!!

In the past 50 years, our world has suffered through a radical shift; an onslaught of secular humanism and outright debauchery and depravity. Jeffrey Kuhner of the Washington Times sums it up well …

“For the past 50 years, every major institution has been captured by the radical secular left. The media, Hollywood, TV, universities, public schools, theater, the arts, literature — they relentlessly promote the false gods of sexual hedonism and radical individualism. Conservatives have ceded the culture to the enemy. Tens of millions of unborn babies have been slaughtered; illegitimacy rates have soared; divorce has skyrocketed; pornography is rampant; drug use has exploded; sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS have killed millions; birth control is a way of life; sex outside of wedlock has become the norm; countless children have been permanently damaged — their innocence lost forever — because of the proliferation of broken homes; and sodomy and homosexuality are celebrated openly. America has become the new Babylon.”

Our Church has not been immune to this onslaught of secular humanism. I agree with Fr. Dwight Longnecker’s assessment. Here is a portion (you can read the rest here) …

People are leaving religion in droves because it’s not religion anymore.

 

It’s become a charity with meetings on Sundays, and the problem is modernism. Modernism is the idea that the supernatural is out of date and unbelievable. The “de-mythologizers” tried to weed out all the miracles and supernatural elements from the gospels. For the last hundred years their influence has gained in seminaries and pulpits across the world.

 

Tales of the supernatural had to be removed. They didn’t fit with the modern world. Doctrines about devils and angels, heaven and hell had to be quietly excised from the faith because they were primitive and medieval and incredible to modern folk. Transubstantiation? A pious medieval philosophical explanation of what we all know is really symbolic. Supernatural revelation? No. Religion is all man made. Miracles? We know they don’t really happen.

 

Religious leaders–and I mean Catholics and Protestants alike–turned the Christian religion into an organization that does good works.

Realize this … up until this Modernist infiltration, the Roman Catholic Church has ALWAYS been considered among the elite in “Spiritual Warfare.” Sure, there’s the old expression, “If you need an exorcism, who are you going to call?” But, I am talking about everyday spiritual warfare.

As St. Paul wrote,

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” 2 Corinthians 10:4

Catholics have always had a heighten sense of “spiritual realities,” whether good or evil. Why? Because they have always been well trained in the “art of spiritual combat.” Catholics knew full well, for example, that one should never face the forces of evil without, first, being “Armored Up!” In other words, they knew that once one fell out of a “state of grace,” they were an easy target for the assaults of the devil.

The time is long past due to build a great army of supernaturalized heroic warriors for Christ.

 

St. Michael’s Militia – A GOD STRONG Elite Fighting Force!

The U.S. Army ran a very effective “Army Strong” advertising campaign to recruit soldiers. The key message was:

“There is strong, and then there is Army Strong.” The commercial goes on to say, “It is a strength like none other. It is a physical strength. It is an emotional strength. It is strength of character. It is strength of purpose. The strength to do good today, and the strength to do well tomorrow. The strength to obey, and the strength to command. The strength to build, and the strength to tear down. The strength to get yourself over, and the strength to get over yourself.”

These are warrior assets necessary to overcome the enemy. However, recall that our struggle is not against flesh and blood combatants, but against the much stronger and craftier spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm (Eph 6:11). This means it is not enough for you to possess the power of a warrior. You must discover what it means to be supernaturally empowered by God. You are to become not just Army Strong, but God Strong. You must know what it means to be in a state of grace. St. Ignatius of Loyola said, “Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to Him and if they were to allow His grace to mold them accordingly.”

Fr. John Hardon wrote:

“St. Thomas Aquinas believed that man is more than a composite of body and soul, that his is nothing less than elevated to a supernatural order which participates, as far as a creature can, in the very nature of God. Accordingly, a person in the state of grace, or divine friendship, possesses certain enduring powers, the infused virtues and gifts, that raise him to an orbit of existence as far above nature as heaven is above earth, and that give him abilities of thought and operation that are literally born, not of the will of flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

The unfortunate reality is that the modern campaign of militant secular indoctrination has been so severe that only a dwindling remnant remains who believes or trusts in God’s supernatural power. As a result, the spiritual hearts of many are reduced to the size of a thimble, only capable of receiving a few meager drops, if any, from the wellspring of God’s graces (Rev 22:1-2). In spiritual terms, this makes us puny and scrawny rather than strong and powerful mighty warriors ready to confront the powers of darkness in the heavenly realm. With so many modernized Christians ignoring the reality of grace, it is no wonder that evil is thriving in our day.

In speaking of the need for a New Evangelization, Pope Benedict XVI said, “the true problem of our times is the ‘Crisis of God,’ the absence of God, disguised by an empty religiosity” … a kind of lukewarm, going through the motions of one’s faith, which ends up collapsing completely. The terrible consequence of this war on the supernatural is seen in the epidemic of spiritual sloth in our times — hearts deadened to the Divine Life of God.

 

Enlistment Requirements for St. Michael’s Militia

Whether it’s a Navy SEAL or a Saint, we admire those who put it all on the line — go “all in!” — those who are totally dedicated to the mission. In the military, this dedication is revealed in the Warrior Ethos, four simple lines embedded in the Soldier’s Creed:

• I will always place the mission first.
• I will never accept defeat.
• I will never quit.
• I will never leave a fallen comrade.

Sustained and developed through discipline, commitment, and pride, these four lines motivate every soldier to persevere and, ultimately, to refuse defeat. What would happen if we dedicated ourselves to the training and mission of Jesus Christ with the same intensity?

Like the heroic soldiers on the battlefield who often go above and beyond the call of duty, so do many Catholics in our Church. These are the ones recognized as Totally, All-In, Devoted Catholics.

St. Francis de Sales wrote:

In so far as divine love beautifies our souls, and makes us pleasing to His divine Majesty, it is called grace; in so far as it gives us strength to do good, it is called charity; but when it reaches such a degree of perfection, that it makes us not only do the good, but do so carefully, frequently and readily, then it is called devotion.

Admission into Christ’s elite fighting force begins by knowing that by your baptism you have been “commissioned by the Lord Jesus Christ to fulfill a most dramatic mission; it is the mission of saving souls. This mission cannot be accomplished without entering into conflict with ‘the world, the flesh and the devil.’ It is not a mission for the fainthearted or for those who wish to take the wide road to heaven. It is the path of warfare, of spiritual battle.”

Jesus answered, and said to him: “If any one love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make our abode with him” (John 14:23).

Everything … and I mean EVERYTHING … depends upon OBEDIENCE. Obedience is the very “Key” that unlocks the door to the Divine Life … the blessedness of God’s Presence and Power of Supernatural Grace, once lost by the disobedience of our first parents. Mary is the New Eve who, by her fiat (Yes), brought us a Savior. And, the very last words Mary ever speaks were at the Wedding at Cana, “Do whatever He tells you.” With that call to obedience, bland and tasteless water was turned into the “best of wines” … wine is symbolic of the “inebriation of the Holy Spirit.”

Two Common Acts of Disobedience (and, therefore, *disqualifies you* for enlistment in this ‘Elite Fighting Force’)

• Cafeteria Catholicism: Picking which Church teaching on faith and morals one chooses to follow. We must obey them ALL.
• Anti-Authority: Disobeying and/or disrespecting legitimate authority (Pope, Bishop, Priest), unless they violate the traditions of the faith.

You Must, Before Anything Else, Meet the Minimum Requirements (based on the precepts of the Church)

• Mass on Sunday and all Holy Days of obligation.
• Confession at least once a month, and immediately after mortal sin.
• Communion at every Mass in a state of grace (Confession, if needed).
• Fast and abstain on prescribed days and no meat on all Fridays year round.
• Register at a parish and offer parish some of your time, talent and treasure.

Enlistment Requirements

• Wear St. Michael Medal (Touched directly to the wood of the Cross of Christ)
• Fasting and/or abstinence beyond prescribed days and Fridays
• Practice some form of daily penance
  • St. Michael’s Militia ties “positive penance” with physical wellness (e.g., the strain of exercise)
• Eucharistic Adoration at least one hour per month
• Practice Liturgy of the Hours (Lauds and Vespers)
• Practice the Seven Daily Habits of Prayer, including a daily rosary (with family, if applicable)
• Enrollment in the Brown Scapular (daily wear the cloth or medal scapular)
• Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in your home
• Practice and trust in the supernatural power of devotions and sacramentals
• Work towards 10% of gross income to home parish and charities
• Freely offer yourself to your home parish
• Freely offer yourself to your local Knights of Columbus
• Freely offer yourself for some outreach effort (Soup kitchen, etc.)
• Make a concerted effort to be free of any repetitive/habitual sin(s)
• Participate in special operations to tactical targets (e.g., pray in front of Planned Parenthood)

Evil is moving unabated in our times. The time is now to raise an elite fighting force! The time is now for us to become GOD STRONG!!!