Lecture on Virtues in Challenging Times

Opening Invocation

• Prayer: Directed actions by holy inspirations.
• Invocation to the Virgin Most Sorrowful.
• Opening prayers conclude.

Context of the Series

• Discuss virtues regarding societal/governmental decline.
• Focus: Key virtues vital for facing the current and upcoming crises.
• Situation: Increasing degradation in societal and church conditions.

Current State of the Church

• Example: Archbishop Strickland chastised for teaching the deposit of faith.
• Mention of rumors of worse to come in ecclesiastical matters.

Virtues Needed Going Forward

• Connection to Grace: Humanity's decline tied to the retraction of God’s grace.
• Council of Trent: Man needs grace to avoid mortal sin even for short periods.
• Importance of Fidelity: Need for dependency on grace.

Chastisements and Apparitions

• References: Apparitions of Our Lady (Fatima, Akita 1973).
• Messages: Warnings of heavenly chastisements due to sins.
• Predicted Punishment: Chastisement described in dire terms, worse than the Deluge. Impact on the good and bad alike, leading to mass death.
• Survivors: Envy the dead due to the ensuing hardships.
• Spiritual Preparation: Need for spiritual readiness and reliance on prayer, particularly the Rosary.

Predictions and Behaviors

• Moral Decay: Increase in sins like homosexuality due to lack of grace.
• Indicators: Historical and religious precedents of degradation and predictions by saints and apparitions.

Theological Virtues

Faith

• Definition: Supernatural virtue infused in the intellect to give Ascent to the deposit of faith (Revelation).
• Intellectual vs Emotional: Faith is intellectual, not emotional.
• Certitude: Strong faith provides certitude about church doctrines, leading to confidence in the face of trials.
• Building Faith: Acts of faith and making creeds strengthen faith.
• Consequences of Weak Faith: Weak faith leads to falling into errors and emotional instability during suffering.

Role of Mary

• Assurance: Hope in Mary’s intercession, reliance on her as a beacon of faith during trials.
• Proper Way to Pray: Dissemination of tasks to Mary during spiritual battles.

Faith and Church Teachings

• Consistency: Teachings that have been taught everywhere, always, and by all.
• Dangers of Modernism: The principle of imminence replacing objective criteria of truth with personal experience.

Sensus Fidelium (Sense of the Faithful)

• Definition: Collective inclination of the truly faithful towards truth in church's teachings.
• Danger: Modernism threatens to exploit misinformation among the faithful.
• Resilience: Faith must align with the church’s established teachings despite societal changes or ecclesiastical errors.

Practical Guidance

• Knowing the Faith: More knowledge and study of the faith give the ability to discern truth from errors.
• Maintaining Faith: Sustained focus on God and truth of church teachings is essential for surviving both moral decay and potential chastisements.
• Act of Faith: Confidence in the truth of catholic doctrines and reliance on spiritual practices to uphold faith in trying times.

Conclusion

• Final Blessing: Emphasis on fortifying oneself spiritually against the moral and societal decline. Stay resolute and faithful.