THE DUTY OF REMNANT CATHOLICS

A MESSAGE FOR THE 15th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

As scandals rock the Holy City of Rome, it is important that we see them in the perspective of Vatican II and the subsequent apostasy from the faith, rather than as the misguided cover-up of a few isolated acts of moral corruption.

Catholics are protected by our trust in a God who is our way, our truth and our life.  Without God in our lives, we are bound to lose our way, to become ignorant of what is true or false, right or wrong, and our lives are left meaningless, seemingly devoid of purpose or goals.  The half-century or more since Vatican II has deprived us of the stability and brightness of our faith.  What we believe here at St. Margaret Mary’s is no longer what is believed by the Catholics in the next parish, by the bishop of our diocese, or even by the so-called Vicar of Christ in Rome.  There are very few of us left with any moral compass pointing to the truths revealed by God.

What we believe here is certainly the same truths revealed by God and  passed down for two thousand years by the Church.  But it is not the same faith that is believed by most ‘Catholics’ in the world today.  This should not discourage us.  On the contrary, we should be humbled that it is on us poor few that the almighty and everlasting God has chosen to keep the light of that faith burning bright through the murky clouds of heresy and moral corruption that sweep across the land. And as we know God and love him, so too we must now serve him by our work in preserving that faith and restoring it to souls everywhere.  For this reason we should recite daily the following prayer:

Almighty and Everlasting God, / we beseech thee to restore unto this world of sin / that faith which St. Peter / thy first Pope and Prince of the Apostles / did once humbly confess; / and commit once more, / through thine infinite mercy, / the government of thy Church / unto a worthy Vicar of thy Son; / that he may be bestowed / with such increase of all virtues / as may be pleasing in thy sight; / and that being so adorned, / he may lift from the Church and from all nations / the heavy weight of heresy / that presseth down upon us; / and rendering Christendom once more acceptable in thy sight, / may bring at length all nations / to render due homage at the feet of their divine King, / even Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, / who liveth and reigneth with thee, / in the unity of the Holy Ghost, / ever one God, / world without end.  / Amen.