I lived in Rome for a long time. I have a good feel for this place, since over many years I left a lot of blood, sweat and tears here.
Since I’ve been back on this trip – the last was in May – I have an even more powerful sense of foreboding.
As I make contacts with people I know, and hear their impressions of what is going in the the City and “across the river”, invariably there is anxiety and sadness. Words like “demolition”, “Stasi”, “purge”, “la Terreur”, “sickness”, are coming up.
Mind you, I am having some good consolations here and I am, on both an earthly and a spiritual level, recharging.
When you are close to the core, expect there to be powerful forces at work for good and for ill. There is much that refreshes me here, even as I sense that there is something seriously amiss.
It stands to reason that the Enemy would be on the attack here and now in a way unlike other times. The Enemy is really good at being the Enemy.
We have to be really good, now especially, at being the well-armed Church Militant, eyes open, alert, determined.
There is an oppression settled over Rome like I have never felt before. I get that in some places, as if there is seriously creepy music playing on a certain frequency, but it’s right at the noise level.
I am moved, at this hour in particular – I write as the consistory is taking place across the river – to beg you to pray pray pray for the Church.
Do something today, some act of reparation. Stop and, please, do something to stem the rising storm.
It’s time to activate all our sleeper cell strength, incite in ourselves as never before that pilgrim soldier, clothed as the new man in baptism, endowed with sonship, offered the full armor of God.
Call now upon the Sacrament of Confirmation and feel it fill you will effective force. If you know you must, then examine your conscience and GO TO CONFESSION! Your Confirmation might and the help of the sacraments of Matrimony and Holy Orders are largely dormant in you until you return to the state of grace.
Ask Mary, Queen of the Clergy, Mother of the Church, to place her mantle over us and with her own hands to root out those who seek from within to undermine.
Call upon the Holy Proto-Martyrs of Rome, whose blood nourished the Church, to intercede for us.
Pray to the Guardian Angels of those figures who might come to your mind, asking them to hold them to true courses, to restrain their hands when they are set on the unworthy, and to thwart them with corrections proportionate to their schemes.
Call friends and make an agreement to meet in church to pray before the Blessed Sacrament. If you can’t meet up, make a pact to pray at the same hour, for example, a Rosary.
Offer some act of mortification to provide punch to your prayers. The driving of some demons requires both prayer and fasting.
I will say Mass at 6PM Rome time, or close to. 11AM EDT. Perhaps you might join your intentions to my own?
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Despair. The Dark Ones most powerful weapon against humanity. Light, love and laughter. Praying the rosary is spiritual assault rifles…
I will pray the Rosary at 11 pm, uniting in prayer with you, Father.
St Michael, defend us in battle.
There is definitely something “off” right now. Even my Protestant friends who have no idea of what’s going on in the Catholic Church have commented about how things feel wrong in the world right now, a dark sense of foreboding. I was just texting my friend yesterday that we need to pray, pray, pray. My sons and I will say a Rosary tonight with your intentions Father.
I pretty sure Rome is 6 hours ahead of EDT, not 5 hours behind.
I’ll be praying none the less.
It’s truly a terrible time in the Church, I saw images on that satanic pagan ritual performed in the Vatican Gardens in front of Pope Francis. I can’t believe that was not only allowed.. but officiated by the Pope in the Garden of all places. I’m appalled at where our Church is.. and where it is going. I believe I saw a few idols, hands, and other ‘doll body parts’ in the ritualistic circle that the participates were bowing down to.
I’m praying for our Church.. this is going to take a miracle to recover from.
I’m worried and scared. I know the Church will prevail but it is going to be a war…father against son, mother against daughter. St. Michael the Archangel defend us in battle and be our protection against evil!
How exactly does one “activate” or “invoke” the Sacrament of Confirmation?
It’s not unexpected. The Church has arrived at the threshold of Golgotha. Those attending Masses in “modern” parishes each Sunday for the past decades are un-surprised at the trajectory now penetrating Rome. Be not afraid. Mary’s Immaculate Heart & Christ Will Triumph.
Excellent action items! This is serious business, serious, and I humbly suggest also praying the Litany of the Saints daily for their intercessions. And don’t despair, always trust in God because He has a plan. (Okay, I admit, that last sentence is to remind me).
This is not over by a long-shot but in the end Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart will triumph.
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“How exactly does one ‘activate’ or ‘invoke’ the Sacrament of Confirmation?”
I always been helped to recall the sacrament by reading about it, i.e. from the Catechism, etc.
I’m following the advice of Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, and praying the Novena of the Sacred Heart every day. And I am praying the Rosary every day and fasting every Wednesday as Cardinal Burke and Bishop Schneider called on the faithful to do.
Thank you, Father. Sometimes I kind of feel like I’m going crazy (figuratively) or overreacting but hearing from you and the good priests, bishops and cardinals sets me right. I’ve been praying the Rosary and fasting according to Cardinal Burke & Bishop Schneider’s request and will continue to do so. It’s odd — today I had to leave one Mass early because both my kids were feeling unwell. The visiting priest was giving a sermon in which he claimed that before Vatican II the Church forbade the reading of Scripture (!!!!!). He then went on to trash traditional practices such as novenas and was in the middle of praising Vatican II when we left. I felt such a heavy, oppressive feeling leaving the church (I subsequently went to another service). Even tonight I sense, as you said, a foreboding — and I’m in Idaho not Rome.
Good idea Father, thank you for the encouragement.
There is oppressive foreboding everywhere, so sad to hear it is heavy in Rome too, but not surprised.
Isn’t there a prophecy that the center of the Church will move from Rome to Fatima? Didn’t the Pope recently send away bones of St. Peter to Fatima? As we approach the apparent death of the Church as she follows the path of the Passion, we can expect more darkness and, yea, shock and fear. And then there’s the Abomination of Desolation in the Holy Place that is inevitable – where ever or what ever that is exactly – Yes, we need to buckle up and use all our weapons against it. We can surmise for now what it is, but apparently, when we really do see it we will know it.
Father Ripperger promotes devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows as very effectively powerful in many ways. Perhaps as the Church goes through such terrible suffering as in the Passion, yea, praying the chaplet of the Seven Sorrows is timely.
Anyhow, the bright side is that the darker and scarier and more hopeless that it gets, the closer the triumph of the Immaculate Heart!
In the meantime, I’m going to do the dishes, clean, stack wood, feed the pet, cook, fight the ennui, pray…in other words, focus on what I can control and is under my authority. Otherwise, the distractions are exhausting.