Hermitage Notes - How Should We Then Live

The battle is real.

The battle is hot. 

The intensity of the battle will only increase as modernism continues its advance in neutering the faith and morals handed down to us by our spiritual ancestors … the faith and morals attested to and recommended by the Saints … the faith and morals attested to and recommended by the blood of the Martyrs shed for the sake of the Gospel. 

Saints and Martyrs; flesh and blood testaments of the New Testament. 

The advances of modernism that are weakening the Church should be no surprise. The scandals of the 20^th Century that have so terribly scarred the beautiful face of the Church should not surprise us. The push by some of the bishops and priests to further liberalize the Church should not be surprising. 

His Holiness Pope Saint Pius X [Pontiff 1903-1914] labored faithfully to warn and protect the flock from the advances of modernist thought. “That We should act without delay in this matter is made imperative especially by the fact that the partisans of error are to be sought not only among the Church's open enemies; but, what is to be most dreaded and deplored, in her very bosom, and are the more mischievous the less they keep in the open. We allude, Venerable Brethren, to many who belong to the Catholic laity, and, what is much more sad, to the ranks of the priesthood itself, who, animated by a false zeal for the Church, lacking the solid safeguards of philosophy and theology, nay more, thoroughly imbued with the poisonous doctrines taught by the enemies of the Church, and lost to all sense of modesty, put themselves forward as reformers of the Church; and, forming more boldly into line of attack, assail all that is most sacred in the work of Christ, not sparing even the Person of the Divine Redeemer, whom, with sacrilegious audacity, they degrade to the condition of a simple and ordinary man.”[1] 

Here we are now, a little over a century after His Holiness penned these words, engaged in a fully-fledged exercise of spiritual survival in an arena where modernism, now so thoroughly entrenched, is no longer content to be mischievous in the dark shadows but, rather, unashamedly flaunts and declares itself openly as acceptable and holy. 

The book, How Should We Then Live: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture, by Francis A. Shaeffer [first published in 1976] was an eye-opener when I read it in 1980. The question, “How should we then live?”, in light of the continued development and advancement of modernism in the world [and more importantly in the Church] is well worth fresh reconsideration. 

1 Peter 3:1-13 [Pope Peter with pen in hand] talks about the atmosphere of scoffing and indulgence in lusts that will precede the Lord’s Second Coming. Peter poses the question, “Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements melt with fire?

Saint Michael the Archangel,

defend us in battle;

be our defense against

the wickedness and snares of the devil.

May God rebuke him,

we humbly pray;

and do thou,

O Prince of the heavenly host,

by the power of God,

cast into hell Satan

and all the other evil spirits

who prowl about the world

seeking the ruin of souls.

Amen.

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[1] The Encyclical "Pascendi Dominici Gregis" Given by His Holiness Pope Saint Pius X September 8, 1907