Personally speaking, this past year has been a bit of a rough ride. As a family, we have experienced some life changing events that have altered our story forever. We have had some bad days. Those days when the veil of darkness was resting upon us… smothering us… blocking out the very source of our comfort… blocking out the very source of our life… threatening our unit as a whole.  It was painful. That heart-breaking kind of pain, that causes your breath to shatter about in your chest, ripping apart your very soul… The kind of pain that brings with it, tempting voices that whisper in the dark of night, that there is no hope, that from here on out...it is nothing but gloom and despair…

Whispers cloaked in darkness that slipped in close and said, ‘this is how it was… this is how it is everywhere and there is nothing that you can do about it’. At times we felt the ground spiraling open below us and for a brief moment, I am afraid we may have even believed it to be so. After all, we are human and prone to weakness. But God…well like I have said many many times before... He is God and He is good. And that is enough for us. So we cast our eyes towards Him and called out, just as Peter called out to the Lord. And we reached out, more like fell out into the outstretched hand of God that was there to meet us…to hold us… to keep us from falling into those empty promises of despair. But it was hard. And I’m not going to lie, it is still hard some days. But we must keep our eyes…our hearts on God and we will get through this too. Remember Job? He lost everything and never gave up… and in the end he got his reward, God gave everything back to him. Even if we don’t believe it at first, we have to put our miserable selves into His hands and let Him guide us. Let Him show us that indeed He does exist and that He is still in control.

Then as we entered into summer, I had, for the most part, taken time away from the throws of all the violence on the news… and all the damning speculations and words that were revealing to us what we have known for some time. That the devil had taken the reigns in the hearts of many men, men who hold roles of authority in the Church.  And since he is bent on destruction he has gone after the One Holy Catholic Church…the voice of Christ on earth … In his arrogance he thinks that he will win. From the looks of things… He probably thinks that he is winning now.

But we must remember that these men were unholy before they entered into the Church… the Church didn’t make them unholy… But it will appear that way for many who don’t understand the Truth of the Church. Many will blame the institution. Many will call for all of those in charge to be punished… as they should be. We also need to remember the message of Matthew 5:30  “And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” 

It feels like it is time for a good house cleaning. What we do know for certain is  that all the news surrounding this is bad. And it is far reaching. Poison spreading through holy veins… threatening the very foundation of the Holy Church… the very breath of God upon the earth…and it is frightening…. and if not for our Faith in God… in the Truth… then surely we all would die. Surely we all would lose our capacities and wander through the desert much like the men of old…much like Judas…without any hope. As His Church Militant, we must remain faithful regardless of the scandals, as St. Francis de Sales put it, “Those who commit these types of scandals are guilty of the spiritual equivalent of murder. While those who give scandal are guilty of the spiritual equivalent of murder, those who take scandal- who allow scandals to destroy faith- are guilty of spiritual suicide.” Do not allow your Faith to suffer.

In the dark trials we encounter, whether they be personal or public, we must look to God and His shining examples that He has placed before us in all of the Holy Saints. These men and women who were often in situations that seemed to be utterly hopeless but weren’t, because they refused to give up their Faith in God. They refused to turn to the world for their comfort. They relied on God and His Truth. They put all of their hope and their Trust in Him. We must do the same. We must do whatever we can… on a daily basis… in our day to day battles… We must strive to be the authentic Light of Christ in a world grown hungry for the rotting flesh of men. We must pray, and we must offer our very blood to the Lord. We must consecrate our families to Him and to the Blessed Mother. We must continue to be strong in the face of all of this evil. It will be hard and it will take Faith. It will take all of our joys, all of our sorrows… all of our everything. The good as well as the bad… our successes and our failures. It will take everything we have… Every moment. Every day. All of our deeds belong to Him already… but we can still offer them back to Him for our sanctification and the sanctification of our families…

We also need to remember that there are still truly holy men and women out in the world today who have heard the call of Christ and have consecrated themselves to the Lord… in the Holy Mother Church. They need our prayers. These are the ones who will help keep the Church steady during these periods of upheaval. We have to Trust. Not just in good and holy men… but in God. In His promise that the Holy Mother Church would survive until the end of times… regardless of all the attacks… regardless of what miserable men do to destroy it… She will survive.  In all of Her splendor… in all of her goodness and holiness. How do I know this? Because God said it would be so… Because Jesus Christ Himself said it would be so. He gave His life as a ransom for man… and for The Holy Mother Church… He is the Heart of the Church…embodied in the Blessed Sacrament… in the Holy Eucharist... He hasn’t abandoned us.

So as we walk through this world with attacks coming at us from every side…some even from within the ‘Holy Church’ itself…  we have got to remember God’s Holy Word … we have got to trust in His Promise that He would never leave us… and that my friends will be enough to get us through the coming storms.

Behold Jesus Christ crucified, who is the only foundation of our hope; He is our Mediator and Advocate; the victim and sacrifice for our sins. He is goodness and patience itself; His mercy is moved by the tears of sinners, and He never refuses pardon and grace to those who ask it with a truly contrite and humbled heart. – St. Charles Borromeo