Time to Sharpen Your Weapons

The internet has been a battlefield lately. If it wasn’t the way I connect with so many friends and family, I might be inclined to turn it off and leave it alone to avoid all the sadness. Abortion. Pope Francis hate. School shootings. Syrian refugees. Political fights. These wars are splashed on my screen and they make my heart so sad. Sometimes I feel helpless in my own little world. But then I remember that I’m Catholic. I belong to the one universal religion of Jesus Christ and He gave us weapons to fight these wars.

He gave us Daily Mass. You can go any day of the week to partake in the Eucharist and pray for the causes close to your heart. You can be close to Jesus and offer up the Mass for your personal intentions as well as those of the world. You can stand with other Catholics knowing that the very same Mass is being celebrated all throughout the world. There is power in the Mass. For too long have we made excuses that we can’t attend. Many of us have schedules that would allow us to fit in a morning or an evening daily Mass but we have decided that we are too busy. Put aside your excuses. This world has so much pain and we need you to go to Mass. This is a weapon that must be sharpened.

He gave us Confession. The devil is attacking marriage, parenting, sexuality, the family unit and so much more in an attempt to tear our eyes away from Jesus. He has us so preoccupied with buying more stuff, watching more TV and eating more food, that we’re not even aware of our own sins. Sure, we may see the big ones, but we let so many of the small ones go unnoticed. We need confession to shine a light on our sin and to allow Jesus to come in and heal us. We need that healing if we are to be strong. We need to be strong if we are going to battle and win the modern world for Christ. We need confession. This is a weapon that must be sharpened.

He gave us the Rosary. The rosary is one of the most powerful weapons that Catholics have and one the easiest to use. It only takes 20 minutes (1% of your day) to pray to our Blessed Mother. She has stopped wars and created miraculous ends to some great tragedies in the world. “Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided.” What a promise! Blessed John Paul II had a deep devotion to the rosary and he was able to accomplish amazing things in his lifetime. We need the rosary. This is a weapon that must be sharpened.

He gave us Adoration. If you can’t make it to daily Mass, or even if you can and you just want to do all that you can to win souls for Christ and bring healing to our lands, go spend an hour in Adoration. Jesus is there. He wants to listen to you, to comfort you. He will hear your cries for justice in this world. He asks us to spend time with Him and there is no better place to do that than in front of the consecrated Host. So many of us fear silence because we are scared to open our hearts and truly listen to what God has to say to us. But I promise you, He has a plan for you, to use you in His great plan. Go listen to Him in Adoration. This is a weapon that must be sharpened.

Now is the time for Catholics to unite. We must return to our roots and do “Catholic things.” That means sharpening these weapons and fighting for justice in our war-torn world. Jesus, Mary, the saints and the angels all hear our prayers. We must turn to them now and show them with our actions that we are in this world but not of it; that our hearts belong to Christ and we want to be His light. We must stop pretending that our busy schedules are more important than our faith.

Purpose to pick one of these weapons and focus on it for the month of October. If every Catholic did this, we would see great things happen in a short time!