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.”