When I was in Malta and watched the anarchists destroying a shrine of Mary, Our Mother, in Rome in the Autumn of 2011 on television, I knew the persecutions would come more quickly than most people admit.
Anarchy is the undergrowth of larger problems. I and other kids liked lifting up a medium-sized stone in Iowa in the summer to see the insects which only lived in the dark and damp; anarchy grows unnoticed until the environment is disturbed. Many of those animals could not see in the light. Anarchists have chosen the dark, but the darkness is created by another.
They are blinded when we disturbed the environment.
We are in the last stage of persecution, which will lead to laws against Christians and specifically Catholics in the future, the near future.
Here are some things people have done in history at the end of civilizations.
One, create communities, real ones. Create groups to care for the vulnerable and meet regularly. Do not wait for a crisis, start now. Make a support group from your TLMs or from your parishes. Do not pretend that commuting to Mass is always going to be a possibility. Work at local Catholic, orthodox communities.
Two, learn as much as possible your Faith, including memorizing prayers and important documents, such as the Creed. Do not imagine you will have access to these things to pass on to your children or grandchildren. One woman I know who is now in her forties grew up in Soviet Czechoslovakia. At the age of 23, when I first met her, she had never seen a Bible and had never heard of Jesus Christ. That was in 1992. a mere twenty years ago.
It will be like this again.
Three, train your children to be counter-cultural. Do not let the culture snatch them away from you. Discipline them in love and care and "train them in the way to go". Home school.
Four, encourage your older children to choose careers and vocations which will not make them compromise their Faith. There will be more and more jobs closed to Catholics with consciences. Do this NOW. For example, one cannot be a Catholic and a pharmacist in Illinois. A Catholic cannot work for some school systems where sex education is demanded of elementary teachers. Catholics in England who are teachers will fact the gay agenda in the curriculum immediately, causing some who are good Catholics, who have formed their minds to the Mind of Christ to leave the profession. Make choices.
Five, teach and form children in the way of virtue.
Six, choose basic Catholic catechetical books and Catholic Bibles for the home and keep them there. These may disappear. Many things have already gone out of print. Do not rely on future publications of Catholic classics.
Seven, create a "home church" where you are praying daily with the children and inviting others in. Do Bible studies together which center on being strong in persecution. Saints are made, as well as born.
To be continued...
