Catholics Must Not be Afraid to Fight to Defeat Sin, to Defend God’s Commandments,
Defend the Integrity of Your Faith and Your Chastity
by Bishop Athanasius Schneider:
Translated by Counterculteral Father
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.
My dear brothers and sisters,
Bishop Athanasius Schneider, “Don’t be afraid to be a hero.”
During Pentecost, the Holy Ghost filled the hearts of the faithful
with his Divine presence, and their souls with his seven-fold gifts, and
above all with the gift of Divine love. It is from that day that the
fire of Divine love started to burn in their souls.
What are the effects of that Divine fire? It is the
transformation of our weak and inconstant human love into a supernatural
love. Thanks to that supernatural love, we are able to love God with
all our strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Above all, the
fire of Divine love in our soul gives us the virtue of fortitude. That
virtue of fortitude has, for two thousand years, given the faithful the
capacity to prefer death to the betrayal of their baptismal promises, to
prefer to die rather than to sin, to die rather than to betray their
priestly vows, to die rather than to betray their religious vows.
Neo-Marxist Ideology of Gender
Today, there are families, young people, priests and bishops who, in
order to remain faithful to God’s commandments, are often marginalised,
ridiculed and persecuted by the dictatorial power of the new worldwide
neo-Marxist ideology of gender, and the cult of the earth and the
climate. Moreover, there are also families, young people, priests,
seminarians, and even bishops who are marginalized and ridiculed,
sometimes even in the ecclesiastical domain, because of their fidelity
to the integrity of the Catholic Faith, and to Divine Worship according
to the tradition of the apostles and of our ancestors.
Faithful Catholics are the Object of Attack
Pentecost is also the day when we celebrate the visible birth of the
Church, which is the great family of all the adopted sons of God. There
is also, of course, another Divine creation called the human family,
made up of a father, a mother and their children. Our Savior Jesus
Christ raised the natural family to the dignity of being the domestic
Church thanks to the sacrament of Marriage. In our time, the natural
family and the Christian family have become the principal object of
attack for the destruction of the civilized world by the neo-Marxist
gender ideology. Paradoxically, we are living in the age of the family
precisely because it is under attack. It is today that the family is
called to witness to the Divine beauty of its essence and of its
vocation.
Communal Prayer is the Answer
In order to remain faithful to that vocation, the Catholic family
should, in the first place, practice daily communal prayer. Pope Pius
XII said: ‘We beg of you, make it your heart’s concern to retain that
most beautiful of traditions of Catholic families: evening prayer
together. Gather together, at the end of each day, to implore God’s
blessing, and to honor the Immaculate Virgin by a rosary in praise of
her, for all those who will go to sleep under the same roof. If the hard
and unrelenting demands of modern life do not leave you with the free
time to consecrate those few blessed moments to God, nor to add,
according to the beloved custom of our fore-fathers, a brief reading of
the life of a saint, the saint whom the Church proposes for us each day
as a model and protector, make sure that you totally consecrate, however
brief it may be, that moment when together you turn towards God, to
praise Him and to present to Him your desires, your needs, your troubles
and your worries. The center of your existence should be Christ
Crucified, or an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus: May Christ reign in
your home, and may you reunite around him each day.’ (Discourse: 12
February 1941)
Fight, be a Hero
O Catholic Families, fathers and mothers of families, young men and young women:
do not be afraid to fight against sin, against the seductive spirit of neo-Paganism. Do not be afraid to fight to defend the commandments of God,
to defend the integrity of your Faith and your chastity. Do not be
afraid to be heroic. Listen to what Pope Pius XII told us: ‘In modern
times, as in the first centuries of Christianity, in countries where
religious persecution prevails openly, or in those where it is hidden
but no less harsh, the most humble of the faithful may find themselves
at any time in the dramatic position of having to choose between their
Faith, which they have the duty to guard intact, and their liberty,
their means of subsistence, or even their very life. But even in normal
times, in the ordinary circumstances of Christian families, people
sometimes find that they are faced with the alternative of breaking a
solemn duty, or of exposing themselves, their health, their goods, their
family and social standing, to sacrifices and to sad and weighty risks.
They find themselves facing the necessity of being heroic, and
demonstrating that heroism, if they wish to stay faithful to their
duties and remain in the grace of God.’ (Discourse: 20 August 1941).
My dear brothers and sisters, the Catholic family still has a
vocation that is sometimes forgotten in our times. It is the vocation of
being the first seminary (cf 2nd Vatican Council
, Optatam Totius
§2). What is the most urgent necessity facing the Church and the world
in our times? The most urgent necessity of our times is to have
authentically Catholic families, which become the first seminaries for
priestly and religious vocations. Pope John Paul II said to Catholic
couples: “If Jesus, with an act of preferential love for your family,
gave one of your sons the gift of a priestly or religious vocation, what
would your attitude be? I hope that you would believe the words of Don
Bosco, who said: The greatest gift which God can offer a family is a son
who becomes a priest. Therefore, be ready to receive that gift with a
loving and sincere gratitude.’ (Angelus: 13 January 1980)
Dear Catholic fathers and mothers, dear Catholic grandfathers and
grandmothers, say: ‘ Lord, if You wish, call one of my sons, one of my
grandsons, to the priesthood.’ Young men and young women, who feel in
your souls the vocation to marriage, the vocation to found a domestic
Church, say: ‘Lord, if You wish, call one of my future sons to the
priesthood.’ And you, boys and young men, each one of you can say:
‘Lord, I am ready to follow You, if You call me to the priesthood.’
What a beautiful vocation it is to be a true Catholic!
What a beautiful vocation to fight for the integrity of the Faith,
and the commandments of God! What a beautiful vocation it is to be a
Catholic family, a domestic Church! What a beautiful vocation it is to
be a chaste young man, or a chaste young woman! What a beautiful
vocation it is to be a seminarian and a priest with a pure and ardent
heart!
Do not be afraid of the Goliath of our times, that is, the new
worldwide anti-Christian ideology. The fire of Divine love and the Holy
Ghost’s gift of fortitude will make us able to conquer the Goliath of
our times with the five stones of David’s sling.
Come, Holy Ghost, and once again, make many domestic Churches
flourish, which will give us the five stones of David to conquer
Goliath: that is to say, good Catholic fathers and mothers, pure
children, pure young people, pure priests, and courageous bishops.
Come, Holy Ghost, come! Amen.
The original (in French) may be found
here.
Slight editing.
