It is 2015, the Year of Our Lord.
We have had that many years to contemplate, listen, and accept the Good News that Christ, the Incarnate God, established the one, true, holy and apostolic Church, died for us, and rose again on the third day.
We have had the greatest minds ever created by God explain the words of Christ to us, and unravel the mysteries of faith for us.
We have been taught how to pray, to worship rightly, and to live daily.
And, yet, I have had to put down the Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena, which I have read many times before, in growing sadness at the words of judgement from Christ as to those who no longer believe, once they have heard. For some reason, this reading seems more poignant, harder, closer to reality.
Faith is a gift, not merely a hearing, but if one desires to know God, God will grant this grace most willingly. But, in 2015, we find more and more people who have chosen other gods, including themselves, to worship rather than the Crucified One.
Superstition stalks the minds of the young. Materialism has marred the vision of the middle-aged, and some elderly people have fallen into cynicism, or. even, despair.
Evangelism cannot happen in meetings, or in prayer groups. It happens in stores, in restaurants, at family barbeques. But, the windows of opportunity seem to have grown less and less lately.
St. Catherine's heart sank beneath the warning of God concerning His people, including priests.
Please pray daily for priests. Pray, first of all, that they are faithful to the Teaching Magisterium of the Church. Pray that they become holy priests, not merely adequate ones.
Pray daily for our bishops and the bishops of the world. God will judge them most severely.
Pray for parents, for children to seek the Truth.
There are so many for whom to pray.
Many of us both here in America and in Europe have experienced for years the awakening to prayer between 3 and 4. Some of us say chaplets, Some say the rosary. We pray in the silence of the night, before dawn, for those who may be making terrible decisions against themselves, against God.
Learn to pray constantly in this year of Our Lord. We are in boot camp, but not for long.