We need only be slightly attentive to the current events of the world to see that there is a tremendous battle for souls being waged.

While Ireland, a longtime Catholic country with millions of its sons and daughters in the United States, seemingly sheds its Catholic patrimony and overwhelmingly votes to change its constitution to allow abortion on demand, a California judge wisely overturns the state’s assisted-suicide law as unconstitutional.

As the mainstream media, which has contributed to the breakdown of the family, gleefully reports on rumors that the Vatican will reassess its timeless teaching on contraception and the priesthood, the professor who chaired a Vatican study group on Humanae Vitae emphasized that Blessed Paul VI’s encyclical “needs no updating,” and Cardinal-elect Luis Ladaria, the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, stated firmly that the Church’s teaching on the priesthood is “definitive.”

EWTN’s foundress, Mother Angelica, was no stranger to spiritual warfare, as she faced it head-on while she was trying to establish her fledgling network, and long afterward. Now that she has departed this life, I pray we who have received her legacy can remain steadfast in today’s battles.

Let us stay sharp by staying close to the sacraments — and always remembering to pray for heavenly reinforcements.

God bless you!