And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed.
Today is the one year anniversary of launching CatholicEclipsed, a website dedicated to disseminating authentic Catholicism and exposing the agents of darkness eclipsing it. The days leading up to this milestone have put me into a mood of critical self-reflection and recollection of the purpose with which I started out on this mission. I do not claim an ecclesiastical mission. That would be foolish. But I do believe that my efforts are a direct result of a sending of sorts, insofar as we are all sent into the world as lambs among wolves by the Good Shepherd Himself:
“And after these things the Lord appointed also other seventy-two: and he sent them two and two before his face into every city and place whither he himself was to come. And he said to them: The harvest indeed is great, but the labourers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he send labourers into his harvest,” (Luke 10:1-2).
And, in a very special way, being totally consecrated to the Blessed Virgin Mary through the St. Louis De Monfort True Devotion to Mary, which I encourage you to read and perhaps consider doing yourself, I am also sent by her into the a spiritual wilderness to help console my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ whom I have met here. That is the point of the cross in the desert with the eclipse on HOMEBASE . It represents in a visual way where we are now spiritually during the Apocalypse. It is often lonely here in the desert, where food and drink is scarce (worldly comfort), and friendship is even more so, to where sophisticated man with his civilization has not reached. Here in the desert there is only oneself and God.
The mission, then, of CatholicEclipsed is clear enough, but how one executes that mission is less clear. My attempt this past year at producing video content has been somewhat lackluster. No significant impact was achieved doing so. From the highly stylized “Sect Spect Report,” which (I confess) may have alienated many on account of its apparent flippancy, to awkward and fumbling interviews, my attempts at video productions has been less than stellar. So, I must reassess and adapt to my own abilities and talents to achieve the mission. I am convinced at this point that web articles, with the occasional image, is the way to go. It is a classic way to communicate, and people respond well to it.
That said, I have had in the back of my brain the notion of a CatholicEclipsed podcast. I don’t know how that would work or if visitors here would appreciate it at all, but it does have the advantage over print in that it is more personal and intimate, which would help in the consolation department of the mission. Let me know in the comments what you would think about that.
There have been other changes to CatholicEclipsed. Some of you will notice that I am no longer on Twitter. The reason for this is twofold: Twitter is a temptation and a distraction. Being on Twitter has tempted me in so many different ways, from its grave immodesty to its open blasphemy, I have been tempted to lust and anger so many times I cannot count. Surely, that is utterly fruitless spiritually. And Twitter has distracted me from my mission. I envisioned social media as a way to market CatholicEclipsed, but after a year doing so, my numbers were so woefully low as to be considered nil. No one, with the exception of a handful, actually ever engaged with my Tweeted content, for want of interest or because my material was lame, I don’t know. What I do know is that Twitter wasn’t helping but hurting, and distracting me from producing better and better content, and more of it, and distracting me from my family life. Finally, I had enough, and so I deactivated my account, something one gentlemanly and sagacious reader advised I do some time ago.
So, what to expect this coming year? Well, I intend to produce two kinds of content to achieve the duel aspects of my mission, to expose the agents of darkness (who ever they are) and to console my coreligionists with uplifting and spiritually enriching content. I will attempt a balance, because it is spiritually unhealthy always to be in the thick of things and doing battle. We need a breather every once in a while, a time to recoup and relax and rest in the Lord. To that end, I would really like to know what kind of articles you would like to see, what interests you spiritually, be it devotions, religious arts and music, biographical sketches of saints, prayer life and pious practices, etc. Let me know in the comments section.
CatholicEclipsed is dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, whose feast day it is today. Some of you may have seen my bracelet I wear on my right wrist. I had enslaved myself to Jesus in Mary some years back. I wear this bracelet as a reminder to myself to live out the true devotion to Mary, to be faithful to Christ by keeping my baptismal promises, and to remind myself of the chains of sin which the devil forges around us (which we cannot see), as compared with the the chains of love which God forges around us. We are either slaves to the Devil or to God. But this holy slavery to God is true and perfect freedom, unlike its counterfeit the Devil advertises with a thousand temptations to do what we want. Like a natural slave who owns nothing but depends on everything from his master, I own nothing but give all to Mary to do with as she pleases. This website is just one more thing that doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to the Queen of my heart and soul. May CatholicEclipsed honor her evermore this year, and may she use it as she wills. Amen.
