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10) Why not just pray and be good Catholics?

Those who don't study History are doomed to repeat it. Yet those who DO study History are doomed to stand by helplessly while while everyone else repeats it.
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1) "Aren't you just going to stir up trouble?"

I could be accused of stirring up trouble in the Province of Quebec with an inquisition. But my intention is absolutely not to create a mess, but to love God and my neighbor by promoting the teachings of the Catholic Church in their entirety.

The gentle tone and moderate ambiance of this web site, as well as my profession of faith and my submission to the ecclesiastical authorities, are a sign of my good intentions.

If everything is fine in the Church in Quebec, then a simple reminder of important truths certainly won't cause any problems. If on the other hand there is a problem in Quebec, then of course the wolves will start to howl and cause mischief. But that is exactly what we want them to do, so they can be flushed out into the open!

2) "Isn't prayer enough?"

As far as praying and being good Catholics, of course you must continue to do these things, whatever happens. Not only is prayer a good thing, but prayer is the core of the solution to our problem. Why? Because all our problems start the day we turn away from God, and the whole solution is to come back to God. But prayer is "the elevation of the soul toward God" [CCC, #2559], which sounds a lot like "prayer moves us closer to God"! We must pray always [CCC, #2744], since only a "Storm of Holiness" will be able to clean up the Church in Quebec.

But can we limit ourselves to prayer, in other words pray, and only pray? In my opinion, no.  First of all, because we've been trying that approach for decades, and it just doesn't work. Careful! I didn't say prayer didn't work. That would be a horrible heresy! I'm saying that virtue is the Golden Mean, and that extremes are always vicious. Claiming that we must compensate for the ineffectiveness of prayer with action is the heresy of Activism. But on the other hand, limiting ourselves to prayer without translating that into deeds is another heresy, probably that of Quietism.

3) Quietism

In my opinion, that is one of the reasons explaining the sad state of the Church in Quebec: the remaining good Catholics who want to be faithful to the Pope are sometimes tainted with Quietism. Quietism is the horrible heresy which makes people say dumb things like:

- Wanting to do things actively is offending to God.
- We never need self-doubt, we should never ask ourselves questions as to whether we are on the right path or not.
- We must not use our reason to know what to do to love God.
- The Virgin Mother didn't do any exterior works, and yet she is the holiest, therefore we don't need to perform exterior works to become saints.

Quietism is false. First, "that men should persevere constantly in their good works, that they should advance eagerly in grace and virtue, that they should strive earnestly to reach the heights of Christian perfection and at the same time to the best of their power should stimulate others to attain the same goal, - all this the heavenly Spirit does not will to effect unless they contribute their daily share of zealous activity. 'For divine favors are conferred not on those who sleep, but on those who watch,' as St. Ambrose says. [Mystici Corporis Christi, #87].

Also, because Jesus says: "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God", which means that we must not ask for supernatural solutions, when we have natural solutions at our disposal. [Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 97, a. 1] If there is a ladder next to us, we must not jump off the belltower and ask God to save us. We have to slowly come down by the ladder (while saying some Ave Marias, of course!).

Also, because the Prophets never hesitated to condemn bad religious leaders [Ez 34], and Jesus Himself didn't exactly put on kid gloves to do so [Lc 11:39-52].

Finally, because in the history of the Church, saints give us the example of people who "pray as if everything depended on God, and act as if everything depended on them". After all, Saint Joan of Arc didn't just clean her fingernails with her sword!

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