Think of the love that the Father has lavished on us,
by letting us be called God’s children;
and that is what we are.

But we’re turning into the Maytag repair man. Our lot is getting very lonely. Being a true Christian, especially in a traditional Catholic/Christian community is not very easy. It takes a special gift of the Holy Spirit to hold true to what is right in the Church.

In the Roman Catholic tradition there is a great battle going on. It is between those who which to re-invent the Church in their own image and those who hold fast to a very traditional, dogmatic way of thinking.

Neither is correct.

I recently read a series of articles in the St. Anthony’s Messenger, a Franciscan magazine. These were effusive articles relating the great things that Vatican II brought about. The commentators and the —everyday people,— selected to write brief observations, were completely one sided in their views. The funny thing was that there was a common thread, besides the ‘this is all great’ part of their message. The common thread was that they all said ‘something is missing’. They couldn’t put their finger on it or describe it. But it was there, a longing for the holy, the sacred.

When you look at our Church, the PNCC, you might observe that its congregations are small. You might notice that its church buildings are not huge cathedrals or modernist monstrosities. You might see churches that speak of holiness in honor of God. You might observe everyone pulling together and cooperative decision making. You might notice a respect for the sacred and a love of democracy.

You might notice —“ the Catholic Church.

Look around you. Look at these walls, this Altar, the windows, the statues, the candles. People are dying alone, without the comfort and love of the Catholic Church they grew up in because all this was done away with. It went into the garbage pile. They are hurt and cannot find their way home. They stay away in anger because they have no home.

On this All Saints Day, the saints are crying. They are calling to the world and saying, we are here, the martyrs and mystics, the doctors and confessors, the virgins, the priests, deacons, and bishops, the holy men and women.

Look around you and give thanks. We are not ultra-modern. We are traditional. We pray. We light candles and use incense. We say novenas and the rosary. We do the Stations of the Cross. We believe in penance, repentance, and forgiveness. We believe Jesus Christ is truly present in the Word and in the Eucharist, and that the Holy Mass is a sacrifice not a holy mess.

I could walk into many churches, go to the tabernacle, pull out the ciborium, throw the Eucharist on the floor and step on it. No one would probably notice or care. Only 30% of Roman Catholics even believe anymore.

Long-time syndicated columnist and editor at the Dallas Morning News, William Murchison describes how Europe has lost its Christian faith.

—If you don’t believe a thing is true, or vital, or relevant, in due course you quit acting as though you did, notwithstanding any sentimental attachment you might have to the outward forms and symbols of the old belief structure…You look elsewhere for satisfaction. Europe has long been looking elsewhere for the satisfactions Christianity once supplied.—

A church as a museum is not a Church. Look at these walls, look at the blending of the old and the new. Look at the democracy and will of the people. No one here threw out the baby with the bathwater. No one here threw out the saints and what they fought for. No one denigrated the ancient and sacred tradition of the Holy, catholic, Church.

When you come here and feel small. When you come and there are only 50, 75, or a hundred people here, remember that it is not the number that counts. Remember that it is whether those who come believe. Whether this is a Church.

Saint John said, —Because the world refused to acknowledge Him, therefore it does not acknowledge us.— We live the beatitudes and hold the faith of the saints. You yourselves are called to be saints. To be those things the world does not want. To be what everyone else modernizes out of existence.

Being poor in spirit and gentle; to mourn and hunger and thirst for what is right; to be merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and persecuted in the cause of right.

Listen again to Saint John:

My dear people, we are already the children of God but what we are to be in the future has not yet been revealed; all we know is, that when it is revealed we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He really is.

May God bless you and May God sustain our PNCC.