Hold On a Little Longer

“Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial which is coming on the whole world..” (Revelation 3:10)

Announcements:

  • I’ll be speaking with Fr. Chris Alar at the National Shrine of Divine Mercy (in Stockbridge, MA) this Saturday, December 9th, at 11:00am, on the Divine Will. All are welcome to come by and join us in person (in the Chapel) or watch online: https://www.youtube.com/@DivineMercy_Official 
  • The paperback of my latest book, Only Man Bears His Image, (October 2023) had been out of stock for a while last month. It is now available again, however: https://www.amazon.com/Only-Man-Bears-His-Image/dp/1957168064 I’m working to get it available at other bookstores as well. I’ll post updates here at DSDOConnor.com– please subscribe with your email address (on the right hand sidebar) to be kept in the loop! I believe this is an extremely important book in combatting diabolical ET/UFO deceptions that are now infiltrating the Church to an apocalyptic degree; even at the hands of supposedly “orthodox minded” theologians. Please read and promote it! (Note: it’s a huge book—but you don’t have to read it cover to cover. It has a very detailed Table of Contents that you can use to quickly and directly have your own questions addressed)
  • I’ve done two webcasts recently with Mark Mallett: “Why Still Be Catholic?” and “Chaos Into the Storm”
  • I was honored to again join Doug Barry and Fr. Heilman at the U.S. Grace Force Podcast: https://youtu.be/PERov8pvPSA?feature=shared 

Perhaps perseverance is the most underrated virtue. For when we look at how direly the whole world, our own individual lives–and everything in between–needs radical change, we tend to think immediately and only about solutions to fix the problems we observe. And indeed, there is much we must do to work towards solutions!

Yet many crosses are not supposed to be “fixed”– in the short term. They are simply to be shouldered—for a period of time known to God; a time during which we build up great treasures in Heaven through suffering in His Will.

“Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial which is coming on the whole world..” (Revelation 3:10)

When we only think of how to fix the problems, we tend to forget the value of preserving the good that is present. We tend to forget the extreme value of perseverance. 

Why do I share this simple and brief exhortation now?

Because I am concerned that many are simply giving up.

More and more scandals rock the Church. Apostolates that many Catholics once thought trustworthy and even exemplary are torn apart by discord, fraud, and hypocrisy. Priests, pundits, founders of Catholic groups, etc., drop like flies to accusations of deceitful and even degenerate behavior. Theologians you thought you could trust begin promoting heresy, diabolical deceptions, or schism. (As I warned in my webcast with Mark Mallett several weeks ago, everyone will fail you. Everyone but Jesus Christ. So remain close to Him.)

The results of all this we too often observe? Despondency. Despair. The faithful giving up.

And these are just the happenings that make the Catholic news. What is more significant still is the steady descent many are witnessing in the Church around them and even in their own families. 

Let me share a personal story.

This week I learned that there will be yet another reduction of Masses in my area. Starting next month, the entire downtown of the City of Albany—an area encompassing tens of thousands of people, the Capitol and entire seat of government of New York State, many (perhaps even dozens) of Catholic Churches (almost all now shuttered), many businesses, skyscrapers, thousands of daily employees, etc.—will not have a single morning daily Mass. The Cathedral itself will no longer have any daily Masses. (There will be one noon Mass a day at one Church in the entire downtown.)

But this is just the latest step of a long descent. When I lived here in this same spot a mere 9 years ago, I was within seven miles of about twenty evening daily Masses a week. Today, there is not a single evening daily Mass within that radius. Within that same radius 9 years ago, there were many Saturday daily Masses (so important to honor Our Lady). Today there is one. Then, there were dozens of 6:30am and 7:00am daily Masses so that students and working people could make it to Mass daily—today, there are only several.

Some of this, of course, is the inevitable result of priests aging, dying, and retiring. But the decrease of Masses is not commensurate with the decrease of priests. The removal of Masses has far outpaced the loss of priests. 

Equally lamentable is that this drastic decrease in available Masses has not been joined by any noticeable increase in attendance at the Masses that remain. 

The corollary to these observed facts is obvious. Daily Mass, of course, is not mandatory, but what we are witnessing is still evidence of a deeply distressing trend: Many Catholics–priests and laity alike–are simply giving up on their former practices. They are abandoning their former zeal. The Covid lockdowns gave many priests and laity a taste of “not needing” to continue to faithfully undertake their pious practices, and too many found that taste–which should have been nauseating–to be delightful. 

“And because wickedness is multiplied, most men’s love will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:12)

“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then from what you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first.” (Revelation 2:4-5)

But this observation about daily Mass where I live is only one way we can see the effects of the same phenomenon. 

As Our Lord prophesied in the verse above from Matthew, the great sinfulness of the end times will mean that “most men’s love will grow cold.” Perhaps this is seen most clearly in the greatest of human loves: that of husband and wife. If there were ever to be a sign that the prophesied times of “love growing cold” is upon us, it would be precisely in marriages failing. And, lately, I have seen so many marriages either destroyed or at least on the brink; pious, seemingly solid Catholic marriages that an outside observer never would have dreamed would even be at risk. 

I beseech all spouses who are tempted to sin against what they recited on the altar to pray, with David, “My vows to the Lord I will fulfill before all his people.” (Psalm 116) Pray with your spouse–every day. Love your spouse… more than your own life, your own desires, your own plans, your own “needs,” and your own ideas about your spouse.

We must not number among those whose love has grown cold.

Let us take seriously the most cliché, but entirely valid, pious advice one hears: “Live as if you will die tomorrow.” Advent is certainly the appropriate time to ponder that. Assume that you will die tomorrow. 

  • Do you want to die one day after deciding you just don’t have time for Mass, or the daily Rosary, any longer? 
  • Do you want to die one day after deciding you just can’t stay with your spouse any longer? 
  • Do you want to die one day after toying with or even accepting the idea that what you’ve always known is true–that the Catholic Church really is the one and only Church established by Jesus Christ, to which all are called–might not be true? 
  • Do you want to die one day after deciding (maybe because of the lies coming from certain men in the Vatican these days) that you need not heed Church teaching on sexual morality; teachings you can easily find, and are absolutely settled and unchangeable, in your Catechism? 
  • Do you want to die one day after deciding it’s just too difficult to raise your children in a truly Catholic way that is leading them to sanctity–to Heaven?
  • Do you want to die one day after deciding that forgiveness and charity are just too difficult, and that vengeance feels much better?
  • Do you want to die one day after deciding that all those things you once stayed away from—because you were piously convinced they were vain, worldly, occasions of sin, or compromises with evil—are actually too alluring to avoid any longer (or that they “must be okay” because this or that friend or relative is accepting them?)?
  • In a word: do you want to die one day after capitulating to temptations to neglect anything God has clearly shown to you individually to be His Will for you, or after capitulating to the temptation to neglect anything God has revealed broadly (e.g.,through Scripture & Magisterium) to be His Will for all?

No, you don’t. 

So, hold on a little longer. Suffer a little longer. The Vindication will come soon. I promise you that.

You have no idea how many treasures you are building up in Heaven just by holding on. 

Keep holding on.

Come, Lord Jesus!

“The great day is closer than you can imagine.” —Message from the seer Eduardo Ferreira, November 24th, 2023