Church Militant Day

With all the ecclesiastic powers invested in my blog, I hereby declare today Church Militant Day. On November first we celebrated All Saints Day to honor the Church Triumphant. Then we celebrated All Souls Day where we prayed for those in Purgatory in the Church Suffering. So I think it follows for today to remember the Church Militant. Too often we are the Church Pacifist or the Church Apathetic when it comes to spiritual warfare. We deny that there is evil and we cease to fight against our own sins. Like pacifists we become isolationists in that we don’t worry about sins that don’t seem to personally affect us. That we can bring inner peace through spiritual diplomacy – where we compromise with the world to get along. Spiritual appeasement is even more dangerous then normal appeasement. To lose your life from aggressors is one thing and losing your mortal soul is quite another.

We forget that we are on a pilgrimage and that the world and its allures are not our final end.

O GLORIOUS St. Joseph, you were chosen by God to be the reputed father of Jesus, the most pure Spouse of Mary, ever Virgin, and Head of the Holy Family. You have been chosen by Christ’s Vicar as the heavenly Patron and Protector of the Church founded by Christ. Therefore, with the greatest confidence I implore your powerful assistance for the whole Church Militant. Protect, in a special manner, with true fatherly love, the Sovereign Pontiff and all the bishops and priests in communion with the See of Peter. Be the protector of all who labor for souls amid the trials and tribulations of this life; and grant that all the nations of the earth may submit with docility to that Church out of which there is no salvation.

Dearest St. Joseph, accept the offering I now make of myself to you. I dedicated myself to your service, that you may ever be my Father, my Protector and my Guide in the way of salvation. Obtain for me great purity of heart and a fervent love for the interior life. Grant that, after your example, all my action may be directed to the greater glory of God, in union with the divine Heart of Jesus, the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and your own paternal heart. Finally, pray for me that I may share in the peace and joy of your holy death. Amen.

Here are some suggestion I wrote for a Church Militant Boot Camp before.