A Christian Call to Pray For The Church

Secularism and strong anti-Christian beliefs are fast eroding the influence of the Catholic Church. People no longer believe they need to go to mass. Churches stand empty, sacraments are neglected and the priests and bishops who should be proclaiming God’s Truth and preaching to teach repentance are instead joining the ranks of those who seek to destroy the Faith.

The sins of some of the clergy bring shame onto all of them, and few are trusted or respected. An entire generation has turned its back on the Church and her moral teachings.  Purity is marketed as a lifestyle choice reached through strict dietary control: no meat, milk, eggs, butter, cheese, etc. Suicide is a virtuous act, done out of love and charity for others, and to assist suicide is an act of mercy. Marriage is dismissed as unnecessary, it is much better to move from partner to partner. Pregnancy is popularly considered anti-social behaviour.

Apocalyptic visions draw many from the Faith, and for others, there are new prophets who proclaim a Third Age with no need for religious structures or rites – ‘spiritual, not religious.’  No more division between old religions, all amalgamated into one way of life. No hell or purgatory to fear after a life lived by these precepts, only a series of future lives to clear your karma. A life free from all external controls and where self-expression faces no limits appeals greatly to the majority of the population.

Political leaders throughout the West are staunchly secular and, though they may meet with the Pope and claim to be faithful Catholics, they leave obedience to the Church’s teachings behind in Rome when they return home. In their own countries, these national leaders openly assist those who seek to eliminate all evidence of the Church’s practices and beliefs. They do this by the laws they pass, the people they appoint to power, and by the witness of their own lives.

Old heresies have come back to life, spreading quickly through public propaganda. Some so-called philosophers openly proclaim God and the devil are equals who share responsibility for the universe and power over it. They are believed and followed by thousands of Catholics who never knew why they were Catholics and do not know what Catholicism is beyond a system of religious duties. Many heretics are powerful with vast amounts of money at their disposal, which is given away lavishly on the condition that their teachings go along with it.

Wealthy, educated, powerful, sophisticated, refined – these trend-setters and opinion-makers have no need for the Church or for God, and even bishops and abbots make friends with the now dominant class to secure favour and privilege.

The Holy Land is lost to Christianity, anti-Semitism is spreading throughout Europe and most of the Middle East is hostile to the West. 

One Thousand Years Ago

“…let us look at the history of Christianity, to see how history develops and how it can be renewed. It shows that saints, guided by God’s light, are the authentic reformers of the life of the Church and of society…. in every generation saints are born and bring the creativity of renewal.” (Benedict XVI, General Audience, 13 January 2010)

Pope Innocent III was elected in 1198. He was a reformer pope and in 1215 convened the Fourth Lateran Council. Concern for true Christian teaching and practice was at the heart of Lateran IV’s decrees. This included reform of the clergy’s behaviour, reiterating the the creeds, and confirmation of Transubstantiation. At another time, he sent great abbots to battle for the faith against the heresies and the bishops and princes who had turned their backs on the Church. These abbots were enormously wealthy, with servants and retinues. They were the social equals of the princes and bishops and could not reach their hearts. They were also half-hearted and more than once asked to be replaced. God, however, cannot be thwarted and the men He called to do His work were two of the greatest saints of the church: St Francis of Assisi and St Dominic de Guzman. 

St Dominic and St Francis did God’s work in a radical way. They modelled their lives on the apostles. They walked barefoot through the countryside and the towns. They spoke in the language of the people they met. They lived in the most extreme poverty, without money or shoes or extra clothing, and trusting the providence of God for their food and shelter. Both prayed day and night and were willing to die for God’s kingdom. All of this was done at the service of a faith wholly orthodox. As Paul VI wrote, “…the world listens willingly to teachers when they are also witnesses.”(Evangelii Nuntiandi) This is a lesson never to be forgotten in the task of spreading the Gospel: one must first live what one proclaims.

The Franciscans and Dominicans were not only witnesses. A widespread need in their time was for religious instruction which they provided to laity and clergy alike. The proclamation of the Gospel in simplicity and with its depth and grandeur was the aim of this movement. Indeed, they devoted themselves with great zeal to preaching. Within a decade, they had changed the Church and the world around them. Thousands of followers filled the monasteries they founded and thousands more were converted back to the Faith. 

All through the crisis of the 13th Century, God was actively involved as He still is and always will be. Individuals listened to God’s voice and followed His inspiration for “God our Saviour wills, everyone, to be saved and come to full knowledge of the faith.” (1 Timothy 2:4)

The Power of Prayer and Orthodoxy

I am sent, not by men, but the most high God, to show you the way of salvation, by announcing to you the truth of the Gospel (St Francis of Assisi).

St Francis preached to everyone who would stand to listen in the marketplace or on the roads as he walked throughout the lands. His great passion was the conversion of sinners and the rescue of those whose souls were in danger of eternal damnation. St Dominic and St Francis reached out to people wherever they were in their lives and in their understanding of the Gospel. 

Dominic and Francis each sought to speak to the individual. To reach out person to person to rekindle into Flame hearts that had become cold. They did not save the Church on their own, the proposal of a “lay holiness” won many people over. They had followers who shared the Good News in their families, neighbourhoods, and workplaces. Great reform can happen when the world is filled with authentic witness and abundant prayer.

These saints prayed before every choice and every deed. They prayed while they walked and as they rested. They prayed the offices and the psalms and still prayed even more. Their mission was to preach and teach in order to lead people back to God and they did this by prayer, humility, self-denial, and obedience.

They did not turn their backs on the Church because of the poor preaching of the clergy, rather they inspired the clergy to learn and pray and to preach better. They did not complain about the failings of others, but proclaimed their own nothingness and praised the glories of God.  They did not rail at the riches and secular values of the bishops, instead they witnessed by their lives the freedom gained through the most abject poverty, storing up for themselves treasure in heaven.

They showed that the Church remains the true, authentic home of the Gospel and of Scripture. Indeed, Dominic and Francis drew the power of their witness precisely from close communion with the Church and the Papacy.

Proclaiming the Good News

In the same way, we need to work with our Church and continue on our mission to proclaim the Good News. This mission need not require going far from home, it requires us to pray always and to give witness to our faith. It requires having an answer when someone asks what we believe, and why we believe it. Our mission is to stay faithful and be able to explain to those who do not understand exactly Who we are faithful to and that He is the Son of God.

To Pray and to Teach to Pray

We are a community of Faith and of Prayer. We are living stones in the universal church and the church is constantly in prayer. We have the gifts of the Rosary and the Divine Office. We are blessed with the Divine Liturgy celebrated in the Mass. We have the freedom to read the Word of God at any time. Pope Francis gave his first lesson on prayer on Wednesday, 6 May 2020. Below are a few excerpts from the 29th lesson given at his General Audience on 14 April 2021. 

The breath of faith is prayer: we grow in faith in as much as we learn to pray. After certain passages in life, we become aware that without faith we could not have made it and that our strength was prayer — not only personal prayer, but also that of our brothers and sisters, and of the community that accompanied and supported us, of the people who know us, of the people we ask to pray for us.

Prayer is what opens the door to the Holy Spirit, who inspires progress. Changes in the Church without prayer are not changes made by the Church.

Through prayer they nourish the flame of their faith, as oil would do for lamps. And thus, they move ahead walking in faith and hope. The saints, who often count for little in the eyes of the world, are in reality the ones who sustain it, not with the weapons of money and power, of the communications media, and so forth, but with the weapon of prayer.

The lamp of the Church’s true faith will always be lit on earth as long as there is the oil of prayer.

The question that we Christians need to ask ourselves is: Do I pray? Do we pray? How do I pray? Like parrots or do I pray with my heart? How do I pray? Do I pray, certain that I am in the Church and that I pray with the Church? Or do I pray somewhat according to my ideas and make my ideas become prayer? This is pagan prayer, not Christian.

This is the Church’s essential task: to pray and to teach how to pray. To transmit the lamp of faith and the oil of prayer from generation to generation.