Defending Our Faith

                “My Lord, my God, today I see Your blessed holy Church under attack once again. I am not much of a historian, but I do know Your Church has been under attack since You first instituted it when You walked on earth. In fact, You Yourself were brutally persecuted and condemned to death so of course, those who follow You will also be under attack. It makes no sense to me, however, why people want to persecute You and all that You teach when everything You do is out of love for all of us and with the goal of eternal joy for everyone. How can people be so blind and driven to hatred and murder of those who follow Your teaching?

                “When I read about the many martyred saints who died simply because they said yes to You, I am overwhelmed. Do I have the same conviction and determination as they do to stand up and defend You in the face of imminent death? Your holy Church is under attack now and we as members must be able and willing to fight as holy soldiers. Our training must begin in prayer to strengthen our bond of love. Next, we must be educated about our faith. We need to understand what it is we fight for. We must not be caught unprepared when someone asks a question regarding the faith. “I don’t know why the Church says that,” is not an option for Catholics today. We must learn Your teachings the way we learn a language so that it simply flows out of us naturally and infuses all our thought processes. Once we learn the facts and foundations of the Catholicism that You have given us, then we need to dig a little deeper to understand why we believe what we do. Just saying, “I believe because I do,” isn’t strong enough to build the heart and soul of a holy warrior. We need to have the conviction and passion grounded in knowledge and understanding to be willing to be persecuted and to withstand the threat of death for our belief. That level of commitment and strength requires a deeper understanding of why we believe what we do.

                “Dear Lord, shape us, train us, form us and then transform us into Your holy army, ready to defend You and all You have given us. The martyrs understood this, lived this and died in that spirit. May we follow their examples just as they followed Your example.”

Replacing Addictions

“My dear Lord, what do You ask of me today? To show people Your love here on earth? There are so many people in the world and so many that don’t even think about You. That makes me sad. Help me show them that You exist, that You love them, that You created them for love.

                “For those that do love You and live for You, may they be an example and inspiration for others to see that there is more in the world than living for ourselves. Especially touch the hearts of those addicted to drugs, alcohol, sex, food; all the things that feed the desires of the flesh. They make people feel good temporarily, but in the end, they end up devoured by these things, broken and extremely unhappy. They end up hating the very flesh they have been feeding and pleasuring. The flesh takes over their souls and leaves them physically ill, weak and wanting to retreat in darkness and solitude until they can be lost in the haze of their chosen addiction once again.

“Help them Lord to break this vicious cycle. Help them to realize for what You created them. May they once again love themselves as You do. May they desire only the love of their souls. Once they can allow You in again, then they can recognize their bodies as temples for You. Then they can love their flesh properly and care for their bodies, nourishing them to be holy temples for You, not for themselves. I understand this but don’t know how to share this with someone who is lost in their addiction. Open their understanding and use me as You wish to help them turn away from the hell they are living, the hell they have allowed to grow around them.”

“People can be so desperate and will cling to any ‘quick fix’ but when it comes to real work to save their souls, they sometimes give up and look again at a quick fix. Help them to see You as the ‘quick fix.’ Help them cling to You the way they cling to their addiction Let Your love be what they crave. Let that be their addiction.”