We are the answer to change

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” … “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fail one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.” (Edmund Burke)

Several years ago, a priest pointed out in his homily that the number of abortions that have taken place in America is greater than the entire population of Canada. It would be as if we (Americans) crossed over the border into Canada and discovered no one was there. Our Blessed Mother said there would be annihilations of nations, and we’ve already experienced it. 

We forget that we are the force for change. What can we do? We pray the rosary. Prayers of petitions. Embrace our suffering in communion with those suffering around the world. These are all good and necessary actions that only Catholics and our sister Eastern churches have available. But do we change our way of thinking? This is the teaching of the saints and holy ones who proceed us. Proper desire and perspective in prayer is important.  Holy authors for two millennia have taught that, if we order our thoughts to God, our ways will follow His. 

“…prayer is essentially a rising of the soul to meet the will of God. If we think of it as a drawing of God’s will down from Heaven so that it coincides with ours, we think of it mistakenly. Even the specific act of petition, so often insisted upon in the Gospel, is to be valued not for what it manages to get out of God but for what it gets out of us. It cannot get out of God what God has not from all eternity wanted to give. … The merit attached to any work is measured solely by its conformity to the will of God.”[i]

So the efficacy to our efforts is not based upon the quantity or extremity of it, the number of novenas prayed or the days fasted, but by the heart we put into it. For example, upon arrival in Languedoc, St. Dominic found a mess of heresy and the monks who were supposed to battle the heretics had fallen into living the high-life, presumably with what appeared as very sound rationale for doing so and certainly with their prayer customs in order (e.g. divine office, rosary). 

“The Cistercians, on account of their worldly manner of living, had made little or no headway against the Albigenses. They had entered upon their work with considerable pomp, attended by a brilliant retinue, and well provided with the comforts of life. To this display of worldliness, the leaders of the heretics opposed a rigid asceticism which commanded the respect and admiration of their followers. Diego and Dominic quickly saw that the failure of the Cistercian apostolate was due to the monks’ indulgent habits, and finally prevailed upon them to adopt a more austere manner of life. The result was at once apparent in a greatly increased number of converts.” [ii]

The sincerity of habit reflects the sincerity of heart, and God responds. The answer to the crisis of today is converted hearts, beginning with our own.  

St. Alfonsus Liguori teaches humility is the first requirement for prayer. 

“The Lord does indeed regard the prayers of His servants, but only of His servants who are humble. … The prayer of a humble soul penetrates the heavens, and presents itself before the throne of God; and departs not without God’s looking on it and hearing it. And though the soul be guilty of any amount of sin, God never despises a heart that humbles itself[iii] “

Pope Benedict XVI spoke of the importance of prayer: 

‘He [St. Augustine] then uses a very beautiful image to describe this process of enlargement and preparation of the human heart. “Suppose that God wishes to fill you with honey [a symbol of God’s tenderness and goodness]; but if you are full of vinegar, where will you put the honey?” The vessel, that is your heart, must first be enlarged and then cleansed, freed from the vinegar and its taste. This requires hard work and is painful, but in this way alone do we become suited to that for which we are destined.” [iv]

So how does that change the world? According to Tanqueray, as we permit God to fill us with grace… “Out of this grace spring the infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy Ghost which perfect our faculties and endow us with the immediate power of performing Godlike, supernatural, meritorious acts.” Precisely more of what we need in our lives and our world! Allowing God to change us will change the world. We are the answer to change.

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.’ ~Ann Frank

But the world is only as holy as the Church is holy. We must continue to pray for Pope Francis, all clergy and religious, and the worldwide Church: 

“But since my journey is not yet ended, and the region of clouds and darkness is not yet passed, ask God to give me grace to walk bravely, as a Christian should walk, and to do a little good in this world, following the example of Christ, our only model. Pray that I may not be a bad steward of the many graces granted to me, and that, because I love, I together with all those dear to me, may one day find admission to the embrace of Him who is infinite love, and to life everlasting.” (Servant of God Elisabeth Leseur).

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam 😊

P.S.

• An inspiring, 5 min video of truth of Pope Pius XII https://www.getprinciples.com/a-heroic-humble-and-courageous-pope/
• Also Bishop Burbridge of Arlington published an excellent Catechesis on the Human Person and Gender Ideology which will be helpful in those difficult conversations. Excerpt: “We know from biology that a person’s sex is genetically determined at conception and present in every cell of the body. Because the body tells us about ourselves, our biological sex does in fact indicate our inalienable identity as male or female. Thus, so-called “transitioning” might change a person’s appearance and physical traits (hormones, breasts, genitalia, etc.) but does not in fact change the truth of the person’s identity as male or female, a truth reflected in every cell of the body. Indeed, no amount of “masculinizing” or “feminizing” hormones or surgery can make a man into a woman, or a woman into a man.” https://www.arlingtondiocese.org/uploadedImages/CDA/Assets/PDF/Communications/Bishop/Public%20Messages/Catechesis%20on%20Gender%20Ideology%20English%2020Dec.pdf

(Image by Maurício Eugênio from Pexels)

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[i] In Prayer and the Will of God, Dom Hubert Van Zeller

[ii] St. Dominic story http://www.nobility.org/2013/08/08/dominic-guzman/

[iii] St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Great Means of Salvation and Perfection https://library.catholictreasury.info/bk/prayer/

[iv] Pope Benedict XVI Spe Salvi—Prayer as a school of hope http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi_en.html