Is the Evil One Upping His Game?

Does anyone else feel like the evil one is upping his game? I do. I think he's becoming desperate, especially in the past few months. Look back even farther than that with the priest sex scandals. That didn't destroy the Church. The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate estimates (from a "survey-based estimate) that adult converts to the Faith have remained fairly constant over the past 30 years. There was a huge spike in 2010 with 6.1 million conversions, but overall the mean from their estimates is 4.7 million every 5 years. Their last estimate from 2019 was 4.4 million.

Round 2

More recently, COVID forced many Catholic Churches to close their doors to the public and to cease Public Masses. Thanks to technology, many people continued to worship in their homes, thus bringing God back into homes and families.

Not being able to receive the Eucharist was really difficult; the Spiritual Communion, while inviting Jesus into our hearts, to me is not the same. I needed to feel Jesus on my tongue and taste Him. Well, at least where I live, the Churches have opened up for Masses (with regulations) and Adoration is occurring.

No one can destroy Jesus

Which brings me to what is happening as I write this. There have been attacks on Catholic Churches in the U.S. I'm not going to go into specifics because honestly, those people who are doing this need our prayers, not publicity for their ignorance. These people need Jesus, especially when the evil one has hold of them. The thoughts I have had on this during my daily reflection of the Readings boil down to this:

...something greater than the temple is here. (Matthew 12:6)

Is it horrible that these things are happening? No doubt. But the statues are not Jesus. They are not The Church. Even the church building is not The Church. We are the Church. Jesus is the head of the Church. Jesus is the temple and no one can destroy Him or our faith in Him.

U.S. martyrs?

Fr. Josh Johnson, in a podcast, mentioned that he believes the time is coming when we will see U.S. martyrs. I really believe that is about to happen. Am I scared? I am more scared of denying Jesus than I am of dying. The evil one is desperate. He is trying his best to get in our heads through social media to make the faithful nervous, anxious, and ready to denounce our faith so we will live. But if we denounce our faith, we will not live. Yes, the devil is upping his game and it may seem that he is winning and that God is nowhere to be found.

...But you do see,

you take note of every misery and sorrow;

you take the matter in hand.

Psalms 10:14

May we all stay in God's embrace and find safety and protection from satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. (Prayer of St. Michael) Feel free to copy/print the prayer by clicking below.