The Joys of Suffering

People may not realize it yet, but it looks like we are about to enter an era of great suffering, and we are already seeing it before our eyes. The world is entering an era of war, and many Catholics are being persecuted and killed for practicing their religion.

People who are afraid for the future may not see it, but this suffering is a gift from God. He is allowing us a chance to fight the devil with great force, and all we have to do is resist. The areas of suffering that I foresee for America could be AI taking away our jobs and us having to rely on stipends, and the infiltration of other religious groups and us having to fight to keep our faith.

Comfort, Luxury, and Detachment

One of the great issues for the Catholic faith right now is that we have gotten comfortable with luxuries, and they have been normalized for daily use. We are all guilty of using these luxuries. However, not all luxuries are sin, because they have practical uses, and this creates a great opportunity for us to do penance by giving them up. For example, digital media has become widespread, and lots of it is horrible for us to take in. As Catholics, we need to stay away from just about every TV show because of the sexual and demonic references that almost every show likes to display.

With the implementation of video shorts, it has become easier than ever to develop scrolling addictions, and there are algorithms that have been made to keep us hooked. I feel that just about every American has some sort of digital media addiction, and if you give this up, you have achieved an impressive task and brought yourself one step closer to being detached from the world and one step closer to making it to heaven.

Sacrifice, Merit, and Reparation

In the traditional Church, we are taught that when you make a sacrifice, you are building up merits for the afterlife. This practice is common throughout history and in the present. There is one sacrifice that most Catholics do, both Novus Ordo and traditionalists, which is the giving up of meat on Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent. However, traditional Catholics give up meat every Friday to thank Jesus for His sacrifice on the Cross.

Fasting and abstinence are also commonly done by Catholics as a way to make reparations for our sins and for the conversion of souls. Prayers can also be done to build merits for our souls, such as praying the Rosary, and according to the miracle of Fatima we should be praying the Rosary every day to help convert sinners. The Rosary is also a great way to assist in releasing the souls of Purgatory, and most of us will have to go to Purgatory to finish off the reparations for our sins.

Helping the Souls in Purgatory—and Them Helping Us

A wonderful gift that God has given us is that every soul we pray for in Purgatory will pray for us when it is our turn, and we have our whole lives to form a massive group of people to pray for us when it is time.

Indulgences and Shortening Our Time of Purification

We can also earn plenary and partial indulgences by acts of devotion to shorten our time as well. Two wonderful prayers for partial indulgences are the Anima Christi and St. Joseph’s prayer, and we have the wonderful gift to constantly stack these prayers for our partial indulgence as long as we say them devoutly.

make it sound more formal while keeping my tone and words and correct the grammar and punctuation mistakes

The Joys of Suffering for God

People may not realize it yet, but it looks like we are about to enter an era of great suffering, and we are already seeing it before our eyes. The world is entering an era of war, and many Catholics are being persecuted and killed for practicing their religion.

People who are afraid for the future may not see it, but this suffering is a gift from God. He is allowing us a chance to fight the devil with great force, and all we have to do is resist. The areas of suffering that I foresee for America could be AI taking away our jobs so that we have to rely on stipends, and the infiltration of other religious groups so that we have to fight to keep our faith.

Comfort, Luxury, and Detachment

One of the great issues for the Catholic faith right now is that we have become comfortable with luxuries, and they have been normalized for daily use. We are all guilty of using these luxuries. However, not all luxuries are sin, because they have practical uses, and this creates a great opportunity for us to do penance by giving them up. For example, digital media has become widespread, and much of it is horrible for us to take in. As Catholics, we need to stay away from just about every TV show because of the sexual and demonic references that almost every show likes to display.

With the implementation of video shorts, it has become easier than ever to develop scrolling addictions, and there are algorithms that have been made to keep us hooked. I feel that just about every American has some sort of digital media addiction, and if you give this up, you have achieved an impressive task and brought yourself one step closer to being detached from the world and one step closer to making it to heaven.

Sacrifice, Merit, and Reparation

In the traditional Church, we are taught that when you make a sacrifice, you are building up merits for the afterlife. This practice is common throughout history and in the present. There is one sacrifice that most Catholics do, both Novus Ordo and traditionalists, which is the giving up of meat on Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent. However, traditional Catholics give up meat every Friday to thank Jesus for His sacrifice on the Cross.

Fasting and abstinence are also commonly done by Catholics as a way to make reparations for our sins and for the conversion of souls. Prayers can also be done to build merits for our souls, such as praying the Rosary, and according to the miracle of Fatima we should be praying the Rosary every day to help convert sinners. The Rosary is also a great way to assist in releasing the souls of Purgatory, and most of us will have to go to Purgatory to finish off the reparations for our sins.

Helping the Souls in Purgatory—and Them Helping Us

A wonderful gift that God has given us is that every soul we pray for in Purgatory will pray for us when it is our turn, and we have our whole lives to form a massive group of people to pray for us when it is time.

Indulgences and Shortening Our Time of Purification

We can also earn plenary and partial indulgences by acts of devotion to shorten our time as well. Two wonderful prayers for partial indulgences are the Anima Christi and St. Joseph’s prayer, and we have the wonderful gift to constantly stack these prayers for our partial indulgence as long as we say them devoutly.

Conclusion:

We are entering an era that many Saints would have loved to have been in. We are entering an era where one of our merits will literally be rejecting what is so obviously wrong to do and there are so many opportunities to say “no” to temptation. If you retain one piece of information from this article, that would be to give up as many luxuries as possible to sanctify yourself and build up your merits for the afterlife. For example, give up caffeine, sugar, your phone. Even if it is only for a small period of time.