By ZOE CANNON
GRATITUDE FOR THE GIFT OF FAITH
“The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard ‘delay,’ but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3-9).
Is your faith strong enough to help you be a defender of the Church? The challenges today are as real as they were for Christians in the early Church. There is a lot of work to do. The best place to begin is with prayer.
My favorite time to pray is during my daily walk outdoors. One particular day, I was focused on our misguided society, and I caught myself saying out loud, “Jesus sometimes I feel so alone!” I looked down as two blades of grass blew onto the road and landed at my feet in the shape of a cross. I stopped to look and heard these words: “When you carry the Cross you are never alone!” My prayer took on new meaning.
The universal “law of cause and effect” states that every action produces a reaction. We experience this when we give someone an encouraging word or a helping hand. The compassion we express to others by our words and actions can also make us feel better about ourselves, and that is God’s plan for life. The power of one person is best revealed in the Paschal Mystery – the life, death and resurrection of Jesus!
When the challenges of the pandemic began, I taught my grandsons the St. Michael Prayer and the story behind its origin. Recently, during our catechism lesson on the creation of man, we talked about the devil tempting man in scripture. I asked them to recall times when the devil tempted Jesus. The first answer shared was the story of Jesus fasting in the desert for 40 days and how the devil tempted him with food by telling him to turn the stones into bread. Great answer!
But the answer from a six-year-old, who was only five when he learned the St. Michael Prayer, really amazed me. He said, “this is not in the bible, but remember when Pope Leo XIII heard voices inside the tabernacle during Mass, and the Devil was telling Jesus he could destroy His Church, and then Pope Leo wrote the St. Michael Prayer to protect us from being tempted by the Devil?” When I shared the vision of Pope Leo XIII, I never imagined these details would be remembered a year later by this little guy.
The world may seem dark and hopeless, but there are many witnesses of light and strength in the Church to give us great hope! The Miracle of the Sun that appeared in Fatima on Oct. 13, 1917, was a warning from the Blessed Mother for the Church. We must protect the family, marriage and precious life from the evil one. Our voice of truth can make a difference.
We cannot sit in the middle on issues of abortion or the sanctity of marriage; being silent with the truths does not make us less culpable. We know we are each created in the image and likeness of God, as a temple of the Holy Spirit. Do you want to live in a civil society or a culture of death? People “follow the science” when it comes to the environment or a pandemic; but as a nation, we fail to protect the unborn with real science. And we often fail to respect God’s design for the Sacrament of Marriage.
The voice of the Church can make an enormous difference! Evil does not hide in the dark anymore, and a nation divided on the issue of protecting the most innocent among us is unconscionable. Is God’s patience running out? He truly wants no one to perish, but for all to come to repentance. Do not delay! St. Michael, protect us! Amen!