Sunday, October 05, 2014

Still Alive

I am indeed still here.  The energy I spend at work, plus my preoccupation with other things going on in my life, have contributed to my silence since July, and the sparse postings for about the last year. 

I feel the need of more silence.  I am not sure how much good I do opening up my trap.  And there is something else going on, too.  Three months ago, Father Blake commented on the growing silence in the Catholic blogosphere, and raised some good points.  I will see what he has to say about the uncertainty of the times and raise him.  Evil is clearly having its hour right now.  The world and the Church are engulfed.  Despite the assurances of the false prophets proclaiming, "Peace, peace!", there is no peace.  The armies of darkness are on the move, both within and without the Church, and most of us in the Church who are not marching with evil are nevertheless in a state of prostration.  It seems clear from their conduct that most Catholics, even among those who attend Mass every Sunday, do not believe the content of the Catholic faith.  Many priests and bishops and even cardinals do not believe the content of the Catholic faith.  In my own diocese, the liturgy has been reduced to a bourgeois entertainment; people behave in church as if they were in their own living rooms; priests act as though the priesthood is just another job; and there have been no priestly ordinations for two years.  Let us not kid ourselves that there is no connection between Catholic laxity and the tidal wave of evil sweeping the earth.

What can one say in the midst of all this?  I feel that I am up against an immovable, implacable will.  Nobody is listening.  Nothing I say changes anything.

Perhaps I need to focus my energies on prayer, on setting and keeping my own house in order, and on fighting the small battles in my immediate sphere.  Or, perhaps I am just copping out.  Maybe I am yielding to selfishness and cowardice.  Maybe I am yielding to sloth, my besetting sin and predominant fault.  The ardor of my charity is cooling, like that of everyone else.  It was never all that it should be.

I can only pray for the grace to do and say what I ought to, when I ought to; for the grace to correspond to grace and not waste God's inspirations; and for forgiveness for all the times I have failed Him.

11 comments:

  1. Anita - I so understand what you are saying and I agree that there is not much to be done except prayer.

    My Catholic blog list is down to almost nothing and half of those people are not blogging anymore.

    I realized quite some time ago that it was pointless to say much of anything. And when so much of what there is to say sounds negative, I also realized it was harming me.

    My motto now is "let God sort it out."

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  2. Dear Anita, I'm 70 now, and left off blogging for just about the same reasons. I spend a lot of time shooting off my mouth on Facebook arguing some of the basics we Catholics take for granted. For instance, the universe will have an end (revelation and physics say so) and had to have had a beginning; Call it the Big Bang, call it Genesis 1:1, but there it is.
    That stuff. What scares me is the apparent widespread lack of belief in *anything*.
    On another note, I found out from a British TV show that the two-finger salute Churchill is giving might be the same there as the American middle-finger salute.
    Take care and God bless. You'll get a sign and a map. :-)

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  3. Adrienne -- we are in agreement. Bob -- that two-finger salute is indeed the equivalent of the American middle-finger salute. Churchill drew a lot of criticism on account of it. But, like the naughty little boy that he was at heart, he kept it up.

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  4. I also agree with what you are saying, Anita. Prayer is very important right now. Thanks for your post!

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  5. Well, I typed up a long comment, but who knows where it went? Well said, Anita!

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  6. Anita, I know what you mean. We all are suffering. I feel like I've been watching the house leaning and tilting and groaning for the past four decades and now it has reached that point where the only thing I can do is get out of the way or be crushed. It's interesting how we all see silence and prayer as the only thing left to do.

    And yet, when I read your posts I am tremendously encouraged. There are still people out there who need to read the words which make sense of it all.

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  7. Thank you, Adrienne and Paramedicgirl. Thank you, Father. I say a Memorare at the end of my daily Rosary for all clergy, from the Pope on down. Faithful priests must, humanly speaking, feel very lonely.

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  8. I haven't; I have blogged since this entry, will probably blog again.

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  9. Miss Moore, Your comments on wdtprs have helped me to better understand what is happening in our Church. Thank you for speaking frankly and respectfully.

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  10. Dear Miss Moore
    I just discovered your blog tonight. I was reading the comments on this article and clicked on Fr. John Speekman's name, which took me to his blog, Homilies from Australia. Unlike your blog, he does not have the handy means to follow his blog. His posts are recent. Would you be able to contact him and help him to remedy this, as well as let me know if there is a way to subscribe? Thank you kindly.

    catholicmelanie@gmail.com

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