The day of the attempted assassination of the GOP Congressmen here in the US I was talking with a friend, a guy I have known for years and talk politics with frequently, he was really angry and saying things that I too have felt in the past but in the last 6 months (Since I began praying the Rosary and asking for our Mothers help and intercession) or so I have begun to feel much differently about. I hear these things now and I see the hatred in them and feel shame for saying similar things in the past. Things that I justified because I was afraid of what is happening around me and that we have little control or power over to stop especially on an individual level. I told my friend that I didn't think that hating these people was going to solve these issues. Certainly, we all feel anger over these acts and outrage over them but ultimately carrying that around with us... or at least me carrying it around is something that I can not afford. If even for a little time. Simply because when I am filled with indignation and anger (resentment) at others I am of no use to God or anyone else around me. I should say that in the past I have held onto anger, nursing my resentment of others and the wrongs I perceived them to have committed. It ate me up then and it will now if I choose to take part in it and not forgive and love others. For this I was ridiculed and told that I was acting like a cuck, that my friend was sick of this kind of weakness on the part of people, especially Christians and that I sounded like Jeb Bush. This saddened me. That this evil can only be defeated by brute force and the hard fist in the face of those who attack us by taking the fight to them. Let me say that this is precisely how I lived the first 25 years of my life. I was violent and had a hair trigger and would as soon knock someone out as look at them if they wronged me. I had a frightening veneer but in retrospect I lived in near constant fear. Thankfully, this was a long time ago. I have never however experienced the release from this spirit of anger that I have in the time since coming to Mass and praying the rosary regularly. I feel transformed. I also feel at times like a stranger in a strange land. This got me to thinking a lot about the spirit of people that it seems is rising up across the US. A hardening of the heart due to lines crossed and wrongs committed on both sides. A breakdown of even the idea of rational discussion. Even extending to some of our own friends and acquaintances who with even a mention that this behavior is abhorrent and that trust in Our Lord and letting evil eat itself will return an attack against us. Ones who are calling for civil and rational discourse! These are the signs I see around us that are most concerning. The spirit of the mob. The spirit that I imagine Saint Peter encountered when confronted regarding Jesus in his passion. I imagine that in the days to come there will be martyrs who are torn apart by these spiritual forces. Should the Lord give us the grace to withstand them.
I am looking forward to the Novena for Our Nation starting August 15th. https://www.novenaforournation.com/ Some encouraging quotes concerning the Novena and Rosary Rally in Washington October 7th “I call this our Nineveh moment. The fact of the matter is we need a conversion of our culture, but more specifically our elected officials or leadership. This 54 day Novena and the Rosary Rally are all part of the effort we need to end preborn child killing and attacks on marriage and the family. We’re not trying to invent a new way in approaching God but listening and doing it the way he wants us to come to him. He wants us to come to him through our Blessed Mother, through this Rosary he’s given us, in all docility and piety and to do it his way.” Fr. Richard Heilman, President of the Holy League “I wholeheartedly endorse the Novena for Our Nation and the Rosary Rally on October 7 next I urge as many as are able to participate in these great spiritual works for the sake of our entire nation.” Cardinal Raymond Burke “This 54 Day Novena for Our Nation and National Rosary Rally come at a critical and most serious time of crisis in our country. I cannot think of a more powerful response on the part of Catholics than to pray, fast and come together for the conversion of our nation.” Fr. Stephen Imbarrato, Priests for Life
Yes Don. Your post makes me think of a prayer Our Lord gave to St Margaret Mary. "O God Father Son and Holy Spirit, I worship you profoundly and I offer you my deepest act of adoration, love/and gratitude. And I beg deep pardon for all faithless and hardened hearts that resist the impulse of your grace.
The spirit of the mob that you describe I believe is the very crux of our problems. People today do not have values or anything that they stand for in regards to morality. Their disposition," as long as it doesn't effect me I don't care what my neighbor does" attitude is what is letting our world sink deeper and deeper into a state of decay. People are so lacking in their need for love that they resort to just about anything to fulfill the need to belong and will do just about anything to get attention. My opinion is that society has let its children grow up in a non nurturing environment where children are not allowed to be children and are starved for attention because the parents are too busy with their own lives. Just my thoughts.
definitely, but only around people who don't pray or have faith of any kind. yet there are people who don't pray, have no faith background, that don't have hardened hearts.
I am not certain that I have experienced a hardening of hearts personally but I see a lot of new stories in which the "envelope" is being pushed to the extreme. As a result, I agree with what Soldier of Christ said that we need to stand firm in what we believe. I feel that I was empathetic/sympathetic, as a result of many of us taking this attitude we have witnessed things deteriorate even further. At the risk of simplifying things it appears that we are witnessing the perfect storm. I mean, if people spoke up in opposition to Pres. Obama during his presidency they risked being called a racist. I believe that people were possibly afraid to truly speak up for this reason until it bubbled up so badly to the point that we are at now, extremely divided. Hence, we have a lot of the following type of stories occurring: http://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/restaurantsandnews/starbucks-baristas-in-trouble-for-putting-‘build-a-wall’-on-trump-supporter’s-cup/ar-BBCM4ia?li=BBnb7Kw&ocid=UE07DHP http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...teen-trump-t-shirt-censored-article-1.3253311 The following story does take a shot at President Trump but I do feel that a valid point is being made, basically reminding everyone to take the "high road". http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/rage-is-all-the-rage-and-it’s-dangerous/ar-BBCMwbS?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=UE07DHP
Yes, Don, perhaps this irrational mob spirit has been in the USA for awhile, but with the election of President Trump, it has come to the fore. No longer can conservatives say only the Leftists behave this way, though I must say their leftist ideology has been embraced by numerous universities. Still, angry confrontational demonstrations are not the answer. These are a far cry from the non-violent demonstrations which Martin Luther King, Jr. inspired. JoeJerk has driven away natural law as the basis of sane discourse; emotional sentiment rules. The MSM loves to feed on such discord, so I don't see it slowing down at all, just the opposite. The approaching anarchy will call for a strongman to enforce order, even if that entails effectively gutting the Bill of Rights. Perhaps we are entering into the Great Apostasy and the prelude to the arrival of the AntiChrist? We most turn fervently to prayer and fasting, especially for the Church and our loved ones. And as Peter writes in his first letter (very applicable for our times): 3:14 ... Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts reverence Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence... And we are to live... 4:2...no longer by human passions but by the will of God. 3 Let the time that is past suffice for doing what the Gentiles like to do, living in licentiousness, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, and lawless idolatry. 4 They are surprised that you do not now join them in the same wild profligacy, and they abuse you; 5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!
I think it boils down to the loss of respect for human life ( birth control and abortion) which comes from playing God and turning our backs on God, individually and as a society. The world is sick and we refuse to turn to the medicine, which is our Lord, and heal ourselves. We have set ourselves up as gods. Of course not everyone but enough that it is the general flow of the society. I notice a hardness in general in most people .
Tanker raises an important point. Maybe I would call it a general uptick in disrespect across the board. Don refers to it as a hardening of hearts? Whatever we want to call it, whatever the cause, it isn't good.
You know but the finger of accusation must always be pointed at our own hearts first. We have so many reasons for it to point there. Or at least I know I have, Sigh, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God , have mercy on me a sinner. Melt this hardened heart.
I agree Padraig. We are all to blame for what is going on. We all have a hand in this. I often (daily) reflect on my shortcomings and challenges and how I have contributed to the mess we are in. I should be loving people and yet I often find fault like I am some kind of model....lol. I am overjoyed that our Lord is so merciful and allows me to repent and start again
I think we would all agree that we must drop those stones we keep gathering because none of us is without sin.
I think we do need to journey inwards, rather than outwards I love the old Chinese Missionary prayer 'Lord change the whole world, beginning with myself.' Me first. Me second. Me afterwords. Change, change, change.
