A Faithful Catholic's Attempt to Process This

These past few days have been difficult as a Catholic.

Reading about the horrors within our Church, and the sins of our shepherds against our innocent lambs brings such deep sorrow and anger to my heart. 

Those words are not deep enough. I don't have the words. I am in shock.

I am a faithful Catholic and I love our Church. I am thankful to our priest who I know will be addressing this issue in Mass this weekend.


I feel powerless to bring the change that is so desperately needed. 

I feel deeply hurt and betrayed. 

I am so angry and disgusted.

There are many others who have already written so eloquently about the feelings of the faithful Catholic. I am not going to try to rewrite what they have already said so well. I will share some of the articles and posts that have helped me process this at the end of this post.

I am grateful for them, as they have helped me understand what I CAN do. 

This is my Church. This is my faith.

I have given my life and my heart to the love of Jesus.

I believe that He gave us this Church beginning with St. Peter.

This matters SO much to me. 

If that is true, then act I must. It is so oddly easy to live out the menial tasks of my daily life and horrifyingly, ashamedly, selfishly forget the suffering and heartbreak of others.

But if Jesus is my King, then I must do all I can for His Church, for my brothers and sisters in Christ.

This is what I plan to do.

Pray
As embarrassing as this is, I forget to pray for the Catholic Church. I pray in gratitude a lot, I pray for friends and family, I pray for our children and for my husband.

I have come closer to God because of our faith and have received so many graces because of our Church.

I will now remember to pray daily for the Catholic Church.

Teach
I would already have been doing this, but I can now do it more fervently in an effort to help our Church grow and heal in the love of Jesus. 

I teach our own children about our faith of course, but I will be doing a lot more with the youth in our parish this year.

Speak
I will be writing to our Archbishop and to Pope Francis,
and will make time to voice my anguish in any other way that I can. 

The Lent of St. Michael and Fasting
I have learned today about the Lent of St. Michael, a practice I had never heard of.

St. Francis of Assisi observed the Lent of St. Michael!

During Lent, I usually fast, give alms and pray for my own spiritual growth. For the Lent of St. Michael, I will offer these things up for the goodness of our Church.

Here are a couple of places that I read about the Lent of St. Michael:

St. Michael's Lent
St. Michael's Lent

I will print the image below to help me REMEMBER these small efforts.

The Lent of St. Michael:
Assumption through Michaelmas: August 15 - September 29
Offered for the Strength, Sanctity and Sins of Our Catholic Church
		Fasting From:
		Television and Social Media
		Ember Days:
		September 19, 21 & 22
		Fasting on Fridays
		One Regular Meal
	No Meat Or More Time In Prayer

I pray that these small efforts will bring healing to our Church, that justice may be done and that our Church may be a source of the love of Jesus and the glory of God. 

Writings From Other Faithful Catholics that Have Helped Me:

What Can *WE* Do About the Abuse Crises? from Hailey at Carrots for Michaelmas

7 Practical First Steps We Must Take by Elizabeth Scalia for Word on Fire

What's a Faithful Catholic to Do? by Jenny Uebbing

An Open Letter from Young Catholics by Various