(LifeSiteNews) — “No matter how heroic some Jesuits are today, the Church of Rome has lost to others the invaluable support and services of the one body of men that, in its pristine form, could have halted the destruction wrought by those hurricanes of change that began in the sixties. … What emerged … was liberal minded partisanship that quickly solidified into a totalitarianism of thought, an approach so dogmatic that what at the beginning seemed a refreshing clarity of vision, quickly became a trap of self-righteous, self-justifying moralism. All who disagreed were considered to be immoral. Conservatism or traditionalism was not tolerated. Those who were guilty of either suffered. … Some remained Jesuits, but took refuge among more tolerant clerical colleagues in parish work and elsewhere. … The Jesuits could once more have made the difference between a Church in shambles. … But the Jesuits will not be the ones to save the day now for the Roman Catholic Church.”
Do these excerpts from Malachi Martin’s book The Jesuits: The Society of Jesus and the Betrayal of the Roman Catholic Church sound at all like what we are witnessing today, not in just the Society of Jesus, but the Church as a whole under a Jesuit leader? To me, the tactics used against anyone who questions the regime are strikingly similar to this description of what happened to many Jesuits after the Second Vatican Council. But since I don’t want this to be a depressing article, I want to focus on the last sentence of the quote, “But the Jesuits will not be the ones to save the day now for the Roman Catholic Church.” This will, of course, bring up this question: Who will it be then? Now, before you start thinking of religious orders, look much closer to yourself. To your families. I can’t help but feel like good, strong families will be the ones to save the Church during this troubling time in history.
Remember the prophecy of Our Lady of Fatima, “The final battle will be over marriage and the family.” What more do we need to know about the power of the family than the assurance that it is the most important battleground to both Christ and the devil? Families draw their power from the fact that they are the ones who really control the future. Fathers and mothers have the power and the duty to raise the next generation of soldiers for Jesus Christ. For the most part, especially in the United States, we still have autonomy in our own homes. We decide what our kids watch, hear, read. That gives us all the tools we need to give them what it takes to win this battle.
The next question is how do we raise these kinds of families? Well, first of all, have kids, and have as many as God sends. Next, give them something we can be sure their secular counterparts aren’t getting: a strong devotion to Our Lady through her holy Rosary. This practice not only strengthens the bonds between your children and their heavenly mother, but kneeling down and praying the Rosary as a family with the father leading every night is an amazing way to bond with each other as well. This is a time when the soldiers all kneel down together and follow their general in a count-off of sorts and a good night to their Heavenly King and Queen. Praying the nightly Rosary is also an important part of ensuring that your Catholicism permeates all areas of your life. It is very hard to accidentally fall into being “only Catholic on Sunday” if you are remembering the mysteries of Our Lord’s life every evening.
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Adhering to and passing down the old traditions is another thing that makes for strong families. With traditions, children feel more loyalty to their faith because they feel like they owe it to the Catholics who came before them to stay Catholic and fight for the good in this world. Prepare for Christ’s coming with Advent, celebrate the joy of the season from Christmas Day until Candlemas. Remember to employ the Ember Days. Fast and do penance through Lent and rise triumphantly with rejoicing at Easter. Feel the tongues of fire that came down on the apostles at Pentecost. Remember the Holy Souls and Church Triumphant in November. Be sure that every name day and baptismal day is remembered with almost as much partying as birthdays. Remembering and commemorating these dates will make your children feel less isolated and as though they are part of something larger that spans all ages, all cultures, and all places.
Telling our stories not only from our Church’s past but also from the history of our culture is another important way to raise strong families. If children have something to reference back to when they face tough situations, decisions are easier to make. If a kid can think, “So-and-so had to do something similar, and it worked out okay,” it just makes it that much easier to do the right thing. Stories can be told through books, film, and even orally. The stories of desperate heroes who had to face insurmountable odds and won anyway are the most memorable and relatable stories to tell. And remember not only to tell the stories of Catholic heroes but also our secular heroes as well. Children hold on to stories about Alexander the Great, Caesar Augustus, Patrick Henry, and Paul Revere just as much as they do Church martyrs. Every country has them, so remember your heroes and pass their stories on to the next generation.
Another great favor you can do for your kids is to raise them as if it weren’t the end of the world. Many people appear to think that the end of the world is so near that the most important activity to engage in is to keep up to date on the latest prophecy at the expense of ensuring that their children are being raised to be adults. That is the worst thing for children! They should always feel like there is something still good in the world worth fighting for. We are by nature designed to fight for what we need to survive. This is true, perhaps even more true, for spiritual matters as well as earthly ones. Raise your kids to believe that the world will continue as long as they live.
Once I heard a priest say, “As far as we know, the world ends for us when we die,” which is exactly how kids should be raised. The Vendeans didn’t say that it was hopeless and that the end of the world had surely come. “Pray and shut down. There’s nothing we can do about it.” That would have made their region an easy victory for the revolutionists. But that was not their way. They felt that the faith was still important to them and their children. They had to defend it whether it was the end or not. And that is how the Revolution failed in France. The only peace that could be found was when they were taken seriously and given the rights the Vendeans fought for. And who is to say that we are not in just another lull in history? Maybe the end will come in the next 10 years, maybe it will be a thousand years off. But our children need to be given the tools needed to be reasonable adults who will pick up the banner where we lay it down into the future, no matter how much time is left.
Now after all these ways to fight, perhaps you are still wondering if these tactics will even work. They will, and let me tell you how. To borrow from Charlie Daniels, “Cause there’s a whole lot more of us common-folks, then there ever will be of you.” What I mean is that those who are opposed to God, country, and family aren’t having families. That means they have no future. They may be enjoying a temporary bit of unrestrained power and control, but there really is no future in it. Maybe that is why it is so important for them to control the school system? As Captain Charette of the Vendeé counterrevolution said, “We are the youth of God.” And we hold a great treasure in the one true faith, the only treasure worth defending and keeping. It’s something worth fighting for, let us hope that we have what it takes to fight.
Families are the religious order that will save the Church in our era. Each individual family is like its own order. There is a joke about different religious orders that goes, “When you walk past a Dominican monastery you hear praying, when you walk past a Benedictine monastery you hear singing, and when you walk past a Franciscan monastery you hear laughter.” This is true in a way, and each of these holy orders have made themselves known for their particular charism.
Families are not dissimilar. Like individual people, we as a family each have our own strengths and weaknesses. People make families, families make communities, and, in a pinch, a community can make an army. And therein lies the wonder. We aren’t alone in this battle and we don’t need to be good at everything. A house runs most smoothly when everyone pitches in with their unique talents. Armies are the same way. The reason a foot soldier is able to do his job is because he isn’t plotting, cooking, making camp, and fighting. He has one job and that is to follow orders. That’s what he’s good at. We need to operate similarly. What are we good at? Is it telling stories? Great! Write, make movies, record podcasts and audiobooks. Is it sewing? Also good. We could use a few people who are dedicated to modest fashion. Whatever your strength, accept it and share it. That is what your religious order was made for.
One last thing to keep in mind is that Catholics are and have always been martyrs. Although it doesn’t appear as though we are quite there yet, remember that we are all called to the life of a martyr. Each Christian must resolve that, if that’s what it takes, we should be willing to be martyred for our beliefs. But the life of a martyr is attainable for all of us. Death to self is sometimes the hardest thing to do. But do it we must, through the sacrifice of our own wills for a truly greater good.
This greater good is not that of the communist who thinks that it is whatever benefits the majority, but the greater good that benefits the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church He loved to the point of death. If He gave so much, how much less can we give who are of much less worth than He? We may not be called to be physically crucified, but He asks us all to join Him in His agony in the garden: the agonizing death to self and unreserved acceptance of God’s will. And if each member of each family resolves to do this, we will set the world on fire with true Catholic Action.