Some thoughts on Faith and the direction we are heading.

30 Oct, 2026

I believe that we are living in a time of great spiritual corruption, and that most people have become so accustomed to it that they no longer recognize it for what it is. There are things happening openly in the world which ought to bring a person to shame, yet they are celebrated, defended, and encouraged by people who seem to have no concern whatsoever for the condition of their souls. I have spent a great deal of time thinking about this, and the more I observe the way people live, the more convinced I become that humanity has developed a terrible habit of confusing its own desires with what is good. There is hardly any sin which cannot be justified now, provided that someone can find a way to describe it as an expression of freedom, happiness, or personal identity. A person wants something, and therefore believes he should have it, he enjoys something, and therefore refuses to consider that it might be wrong. If he is told that his conduct is sinful, he becomes offended by the accusation and begins speaking about his right to live however he pleases.

I know that many people do not believe in God. Some have never believed, others have abandoned the faith they were raised in, and there are those who openly despise Christianity. I am aware that they do not consider themselves bound by commandments which they regard as religious inventions. But their disbelief does not change what I believe to be true. God does not depend upon human recognition for His existence, and His authority is not diminished because a person refuses to acknowledge it. I believe that every human being is accountable to God, whether he accepts this during his earthly life or not. The atheist, the believer, the person who mocks religion, and the person who spends every Sunday in church are all creatures of the same Creator. Their lives are not without moral consequence simply because they have reached different conclusions about His existence. there is a particular arrogance in the assumption that humanity has somehow outgrown the need for divine commandments.

People speak about previous generations as though they were intellectually inferior because they believed in sin, judgment, and the existence of hell. They congratulate themselves on having become more enlightened, while openly practising things which would once have been recognized as grave offences against God. I do not think the world has become morally superior simply because it has become less willing to condemn anything.

I have heard people describe chastity as repression, modesty as insecurity, and sexual restraint as something unhealthy. They speak about virginity with embarrassment, almost as though a person who has preserved it has failed to participate properly in life. Young men and women are encouraged to pursue sexual experiences without much consideration for marriage, fidelity, or the spiritual significance of the body. The entire subject has become so casual that I sometimes wonder whether people have forgotten that the sexual act was ever regarded as sacred.

I believe that sexual activity belongs within marriage between a man and a woman. This conviction is not something I am willing to abandon because the world has decided that it is old fashioned. God established an order for human sexuality, and I believe that chastity requires us to respect it even when doing so is difficult. fornication is sinful. adultery is sinful. The deliberate pursuit of sexual pleasure outside the marriage covenant is sinful, regardless of how ordinary it has become or how many people insist that there is nothing wrong with it. I cannot understand why people believe that mutual consent alone settles every moral question concerning sexuality. Two people may willingly participate in something which is contrary to the commandments of God. Their willingness does not remove the spiritual consequences of the act.

The same carelessness is visible in the way people treat their bodies. Pornography has become an ordinary form of entertainment, and prostitution is increasingly spoken of as though it were simply another occupation. People expose themselves to strangers for money, while others pay to satisfy their lust without any intention of fidelity, commitment, or responsibility. I find the entire arrangement deeply degrading. I have seen women boast about earning money by selling sexual images of themselves, and men openly discuss paying for access to those images. Some people regard this as cleverness or independence. I cannot see anything admirable in turning one's body into a product for the gratification of strangers. The fact that money can be made from an activity does not make it honourable, and I believe that the deliberate commercialization of sexual intimacy is a grave violation of chastity. What angers me most is how the language of women's dignity has been turned into advertising for the very industry that profits from their exposure. Girls are growing up watching women promote their intimate lives as a business, with hardly anyone willing to question what this teaches them about modesty and privacy. It is a disgrace that the refusal to expose oneself is now sometimes treated as less progressive than doing so for an audience of paying strangers.

I am aware that a small percentage of people enter prostitution because they are desperate, poor, coerced, or trapped in circumstances which they cannot easily escape. Their suffering deserves compassion, but I refuse to pretend that the practice itself is good. Those who purchase sexual services are equally responsible for participating in it, and I find it especially hypocritical when men condemn prostitutes while privately seeking them out.

There is something profoundly dishonest about a society which encourages people to sell their bodies and then treats the consequences as though they were entirely the responsibility of those who have been sold.

I also believe that acts of sodomy are contrary to the moral order established by God. I know that this is among the most controversial teachings of Christianity in the present age, and that many people regard its continued defence as unacceptable. Nevertheless, I believe that the sexual morality taught by the Church cannot simply be rewritten to accommodate changing social attitudes. I understand human sexuality according to the traditional faithful teaching concerning marriage, chastity, and the proper purpose of sexual union. the sin of sodomy is not made less serious because people have stopped preaching against it, and the silence of religious leaders who fear public criticism is shameful, scripture is not something to be quietly edited until every difficult teaching has disappeared. Those entrusted with defending God's word will have to answer for the truths they were too afraid to speak.

There is another thing about the way people speak of self acceptance today that I cannot ignore, and it is the growing belief that the body must be made to agree with every feeling or desire we have about ourselves. The body is not a mistake made by God, nor is it something we have unlimited authority to reject or reshape simply because we struggle to accept what we were given. We have become so determined to make our physical existence answer to our personal wishes that we rarely stop to consider whether true acceptance might require humility before God's creation, rather than the constant demand that it change for us. God created humanity male and female, and I refuse to treat that distinction as meaningless simply because modern society has decided that personal identity should take precedence over the body itself. Our feelings, however deeply held, do not give us the authority to rewrite what we know to be God's design.

I do not believe that the moral dignity of a person depends upon his freedom from sin. If it did, none of us would possess dignity. Every human being is created by God, and every human being is responsible for the manner in which he lives. I am concerned with conduct and the obligations of chastity, which I believe apply to everyone. I do not claim to know the final condition of another person's soul, and I would be foolish to imagine that I could see into a human heart as God does. Still, I find it disturbing how readily people demand that religious teachings be altered whenever those teachings conflict with contemporary opinion. The Church is expected to change its understanding of sin because society has become uncomfortable with the idea of moral restraint. People who have no interest in following Christianity nevertheless insist upon telling Christians what their religion should permit.

I cannot imagine approaching another religion and demanding that its followers abandon their convictions simply because I found those convictions inconvenient.

Vanity is a difficult vice because it can attach itself to almost anything. Even religious devotion can become an opportunity for pride if a person begins to enjoy being regarded as particularly holy.

I have seen people who appear to take more pleasure in being admired for their virtue than in practising virtue itself. They wish others to recognize their generosity, their discipline, their modesty, or their devotion. They speak about humility while making certain that everyone knows how humble they are. It is possible to become proud even of one's supposed freedom from pride, and I think this is something which should frighten anyone who takes the spiritual life seriously.

Pride is among the most dangerous sins because it interferes with our ability to recognize our own faults. A proud person can explain away almost anything. He believes that his anger is justified, his jealousy is understandable, and his cruelty is merely an appropriate response to the behaviour of others. He is quick to identify the wrongdoing of his neighbour but remarkably patient with his own. I have been guilty of this myself. There have been times when I have remembered an offence committed against me with extraordinary clarity while conveniently forgetting the things I said or did in response. I have allowed resentment to remain in my heart because I believed that I had been treated unfairly. Sometimes I have wanted another person to experience misfortune simply because I resented the happiness which they appeared to possess.

I am ashamed of these things, and I believe I should to be.

There is nothing admirable about envy. It is a miserable condition in which another person's blessings become a source of personal suffering. People become jealous of their friends, their siblings, their neighbours, and even strangers whom they have never met. They resent beauty, wealth, marriage, success, attention, and whatever else they believe another person possesses more abundantly than themselves.

I have seen how easily envy turns into malicious gossip. Someone hears that a neighbour has received good fortune, and instead of rejoicing, begins searching for something unpleasant to say about him. A woman becomes jealous of another woman's appearance and starts criticizing her character. A man resents the success of a friend and quietly spreads doubts about whether that success was deserved. People can be extraordinarily cruel while maintaining the appearance of politeness. They smile, offer compliments, and express concern, then speak with contempt as soon as the person has left the room. There are those who seem almost delighted when someone they envy experiences humiliation.

I believe that slander and the deliberate destruction of another person's reputation are serious sins. A person may spend years building a good name, only for someone motivated by jealousy or spite to damage it through a few malicious conversations. I find it particularly disgusting when this behaviour is disguised as concern, as though the speaker were performing some charitable duty by repeating private information which should never have been shared.

The fact that something is true does not always give a person the right to repeat it. There are private matters which ought to remain private, and there are circumstances in which speaking about another person's faults serves no purpose beyond satisfying one's own malice. I wish people would examine their motives more carefully before speaking about others. there is also a great deal of dishonesty in ordinary human relationships. People betray their friends, deceive their spouses, exploit the trust of their families, and then expect forgiveness without making any serious effort to change. They apologize because they wish to escape the consequences of their actions, or because they are uncomfortable with being regarded as guilty. I do not believe that every apology is an act of repentance. Repentance requires a sincere recognition of wrongdoing. A person must be willing to acknowledge that he has acted badly, even when doing so injures his pride. He must desire to amend his behaviour, and he must understand that forgiveness does not make the original offence insignificant.

I think modern society has become deeply confused about this. People speak endlessly about accepting themselves, forgiving themselves, and refusing to feel ashamed of who they are. There are circumstances in which such encouragement may be necessary, particularly for those who have been treated cruelly or made to feel worthless. But I believe that the language of self acceptance is frequently used to avoid moral responsibility. A person who refuses to recognize his faults cannot correct them. If he insists that every desire, habit, and inclination is a sacred part of his identity, he has given himself no reason to change anything.

I do not want to accept everything about myself. There are things within me which I know to be sinful, and I want to be rid of them. I have struggled with pride, resentment, vanity, and other weaknesses which I would rather not possess. I do not consider myself diminished by admitting this. I would be far more concerned if I had become so satisfied with myself that I could no longer recognize any need for repentance. I believe that confession is necessary for precisely this reason. It requires us to examine our consciences honestly and to acknowledge things which we might otherwise prefer to forget. It is uncomfortable to admit wrongdoing, especially when one has spent a great deal of time justifying it. But I think that discomfort can be spiritually beneficial.

I am still far too weak, too proud, and too easily distracted by the very things I condemn in this world. My devotion is nowhere near what it should be, my discipline is embarrassingly inconsistent, and I have wasted so many chances to grow closer to God. I pray every day that He will help me overcome the vanity, selfishness, and laziness that I still see in myself, and that i will learn to love Him more than my own comfort. I pray that God will keep working on my heart, that I will never become satisfied with my own spiritual weakness.

There are people who regard guilt as something which ought to be eliminated whenever it appears. I disagree, guilt can be a proper response to wrongdoing, and a troubled conscience may be the very thing which prevents a person from sinking further into sin. I would rather experience the discomfort of recognizing my faults than enjoy the false peace of pretending that I have none.

I also believe that penance has become one of the most misunderstood aspects of religious life. People seem to accept the idea of repentance only when it remains entirely inward, requiring no particular sacrifice beyond the expression of regret. The moment someone speaks of mortification of the flesh, bodily penance, or the deliberate acceptance of discomfort for spiritual reasons, the reaction is often one of immediate suspicion. I know that the subject of corporal penance is difficult, particularly because there have been people who have injured themselves under the mistaken belief that suffering alone makes them holy. I do not believe that pain possesses some magical power to remove sin, nor that a person becomes virtuous merely by enduring it. But I also cannot accept the assumption that every historical practice of bodily mortification was undertaken without religious purpose or serious reflection.

The tradition contains accounts of saints who practised severe forms of penance, including flagellation and other forms of bodily mortification. These practices belonged to a religious understanding of discipline, repentance, and the struggle against excessive attachment to the flesh. Whether a particular practice was prudent is a question which deserves careful consideration, and I believe that spiritual obedience and the preservation of life remain serious obligations. Yet I find it strange that the very concept of bodily penance is so often dismissed without any attempt to understand the convictions which gave rise to it.

There is also a hypocrisy in the way society discusses the body which I cannot ignore. People will express immediate horror at the mention of mortification of the flesh, insisting that the body must never be subjected to suffering for religious reasons. Yet many of the same people regard smoking as an ordinary personal choice, despite knowing the damage it can cause. They accept excessive drinking as a normal part of social life, even when it leads to illness, humiliation, violence, or the destruction of families. They celebrate people who expose their bodies for money on the internet, and they speak approvingly of the sale of sexual access as though financial reward were sufficient to settle every question of human dignity. I find the inconsistency extraordinary. A person may knowingly damage his health through repeated indulgence and receive little more than a warning to be careful. Someone who speaks seriously about religious penance may be treated as though the very desire to discipline the flesh were evidence of madness, i question the moral reasoning of those who celebrate one form of bodily conduct as freedom while refusing even to consider the religious meaning which another person attaches to sacrifice. There are people who seem perfectly comfortable with the body being used for pleasure, profit, vanity, or public admiration, but become deeply offended when someone suggests that bodily comfort should sometimes be surrendered for the sake of the soul.

I believe that the flesh must be disciplined, although discipline requires judgment and cannot be separated from the duties we owe to God. Fasting, abstinence, simplicity, prayer, and the willing acceptance of ordinary hardship have long belonged to Christian spiritual life. Penance must be directed toward repentance and humility, rather than pride or the pursuit of suffering for its own sake. I think particularly of the saints who lived with very little, who endured hunger, cold, exhaustion, and discomfort without regarding every hardship as an injustice. Their lives were often severe, and I do not imagine that every person is called to imitate every austerity recorded in their biographies. But I believe their willingness to sacrifice earthly comfort deserves more serious consideration than it usually receives. There is a difference between a person who accepts hardship because he believes that his soul requires discipline and a person who pursues pleasure without considering its consequences. I find it difficult to understand why the latter is so frequently praised as liberated while the former is regarded with suspicion merely because his motives are religious.

I do not believe that every painful sacrifice is wise, and I have no wish to confuse recklessness with holiness. But I think we have become far too reluctant to acknowledge that comfort is not the highest good available to a human being. There are things worth sacrificing for, and I believe that obedience to God must take precedence over the endless pursuit of physical satisfaction.

I am particularly disturbed by the way people speak about God's forgiveness. Even among Christians, there is an assumption that divine mercy means that sin need not be taken very seriously. People reassure themselves that God is loving, that He understands their circumstances, and that He would never condemn them for pursuing what makes them happy. I believe this is a dangerous misunderstanding of Christianity.

God is merciful, and I depend upon that mercy as much as anyone. But His mercy does not mean that His commandments are meaningless. Forgiveness requires repentance, and repentance requires the willingness to turn away from sin. A person cannot sincerely ask to be forgiven while deliberately intending to continue the very behaviour for which he is seeking forgiveness.

I have heard people say that God would never judge them because He loves them. I do not understand how they have reached this conclusion when Scripture speaks so plainly about divine judgment. Christ warned people about hell, about the consequences of sin, and about the necessity of repentance. These warnings are part of Christianity, whether people find them comforting or not. I believe that the fear of God has almost disappeared from ordinary religious life. People speak of Him with extraordinary familiarity, as though He were simply a comforting presence who exists to approve of their decisions. They rarely seem to consider His holiness, His authority, or the fact that every human being will eventually answer for the manner in which he has lived. There is a kind of reverence which I think has been lost. I do not mean that people should spend every moment trembling in terror, but I believe they should possess a serious awareness of the difference between themselves and God. We are creatures, our lives are temporary, our knowledge is limited, and our moral judgment is frequently corrupted by selfishness. God is the Creator of all things, and I find it astonishing how casually people presume to correct Him. Even the name of God is treated with little respect. People who have no interest in religion use the name of Jesus Christ as an exclamation, while others deliberately ridicule Him because they know that doing so will provoke Christians. Sacred images are altered for amusement, religious ceremonies are imitated in vulgar performances, and the saints are mocked by people who seem to know very little about their lives.

There is a difference between disagreeing with a religion and deliberately profaning what its followers regard as sacred. I believe that blasphemy is a grave sin, and I do not think that its frequency makes it less serious.

I believe in the existence of the devil and in the reality of spiritual temptation. I know that many people consider this belief foolish, but I cannot reconcile Christianity with the complete dismissal of evil spirits. The devil is spoken of throughout Scripture, and the Christian tradition has always recognized the danger of spiritual deception.

I do not imagine that every misfortune is caused by demonic activity, nor that every temptation requires some extraordinary supernatural explanation. human beings are perfectly capable of committing evil through their own selfishness and weakness. But I believe that spiritual evil is real, and that people who dismiss it entirely may become careless about dangers which they should take seriously.

Satan is constantly working to pull us away from God, and so many people have grown so comfortable with his influence that they no longer even recognize his presence in their everyday lives. He finds his way into the company we keep, the things we watch and read, the conversations we have, the entertainment we consume, and the sins we willingly take part in without a second thought. He does not need us to openly worship him when he can convince us that everything drawing us away from God is harmless, normal, and perfectly acceptable. The devil thrives when we stop questioning what we allow into our lives, when we laugh at what should offend our conscience, and when we defend the very things that weaken our faith. so many have become accustomed to living alongside temptation that they mistake spiritual blindness for freedom, never realizing how much of their lives they have already surrendered to him. Temptation often begins in ordinary circumstances.

I have experienced this gradual weakening of resistance. There are things which trouble the conscience greatly the first time they are done, but become easier to excuse through repetition. Eventually a person may find that he no longer feels much guilt at all, and mistake this absence of discomfort for evidence that the behaviour was never wrong.

I think this is a terrible condition to reach. The devil does not need a person to openly worship him if that person has already become willing to surrender himself to every temptation. Pride, lust, greed, hatred, envy, and despair can all lead the soul away from God, particularly when they are permitted to develop without resistance.

I believe that prayer, fasting, confession, and the examination of conscience are necessary protections against these dangers. Unfortunately, many people seem to regard spiritual discipline as an unnecessary hardship. They are willing to endure extraordinary discomfort for the sake of beauty, wealth, or physical achievement, but consider fasting or abstinence unreasonable when undertaken for religious purposes. i find this contradiction strange.

A person may spend hours exercising, carefully restrict his diet to improve his appearance, or work himself to exhaustion in pursuit of money. These sacrifices are often admired because they serve worldly ambitions. Yet when someone denies himself food for a period of religious fasting, or chooses chastity because of his faith, the same discipline may be regarded as excessive or unhealthy. i believe that the willingness to endure discomfort is necessary for spiritual growth. A person who expects every desire to be satisfied immediately will struggle to resist temptation.

I am especially disturbed by religious hypocrisy. There are people who speak constantly about their faith while behaving with astonishing cruelty toward others. They attend church, display religious images, and quote Scripture, but they gossip maliciously, deceive their spouses, mistreat the poor, exploit those who depend upon them, etc.

I have heard Christians condemn sexual immorality while privately engaging in adultery. I have seen people speak of charity while refusing to help relatives who were genuinely suffering. There are those who are extremely concerned with the outward appearance of holiness but seem almost indifferent to the condition of their own hearts.

Such behaviour is disgraceful. A person who claims to follow Christ ought to understand that his conduct reflects upon the faith he professes. I wish that those who are eager to condemn only the sins of strangers would examine their own conduct with equal seriousness.

I think often about death, and I am surprised by how rarely people seem willing to discuss it seriously. they behave as though life were something which could be extended indefinitely through sufficient planning, money, and medical care. They devote themselves to the future without considering that they may never live to see it. I may live for many decades, or I may die much sooner. I have no way of knowing.

Memento mori. Remember that you must die.

I have walked through graveyards and looked at the names of people who died long before I was born, they possessed the same concerns which occupy people today. They worried about money, relationships, their appearance, their reputations, and the opinions of others. Some were undoubtedly wealthy, others poor, and many probably believed that they had a great deal of time remaining. now their earthly lives are finished. I wonder how many of them prepared seriously for death. How many considered the condition of their souls ? How many intended to repent eventually, but continued postponing it because there were other things they wished to do first ? I do not ask these questions because I imagine myself superior to them. I ask because I fear that I may be guilty of the same carelessness. The certainty of death should make us more attentive to the way we live. It should remind remind us that our time is limited and that the opportunities we have to practise charity, seek forgiveness, and correct our faults will not continue indefinitely.

I believe in divine judgment. I believe that every human being will answer to God for the manner in which he has lived, and that no worldly accomplishment can exempt a person from this responsibility. Wealth, beauty, intelligence, fame, and social standing will not alter the truth of what we have done.

I believe in heaven, and I believe in hell. I know that the latter has become an uncomfortable subject, even among Christians, but I cannot remove it from my understanding of the faith simply because it frightens people.

The possibility of eternal separation from God is a dreadful thing to contemplate. I am troubled by the confidence with which some people assume that they will be forgiven regardless of how they live. They speak about God's mercy as though repentance were unnecessary, and seem to believe that divine love requires God to approve whatever choices they make.

I have sometimes been tempted to think this way myself. There are occasions when the desire to do something wrong is accompanied by the reassuring thought that I can confess it afterwards. I regard this as a dangerous temptation, because it attempts to turn the mercy of God into permission for deliberate disobedience.

I do not believe that the Faithful life was ever intended to be easy. Christ spoke of taking up one's cross, of denying oneself, and of following Him even when obedience required suffering. The saints endured hardships which many modern people would consider unbearable, and they did so because they regarded eternal salvation as more important than earthly comfort.

There are times when I become discouraged by the condition of the world. I see people mocking religion, celebrating sexual immorality, pursuing wealth without conscience, and treating the most serious moral questions as though they were matters of personal taste. I hear blasphemy spoken casually, see pride encouraged as a virtue, and watch people defend behaviour which I believe places their souls in danger.

Sometimes i feel anger and sometimes i feel something closer to grief.

I do not wish to make peace with sin simply because it has become common, there are many things about the world which I cannot change. I cannot prevent others from blaspheming, from pursuing immoral pleasures, or from rejecting the commandments of God. I cannot make people repent, and I cannot persuade every person who disagrees with me that my convictions are true.

But I can govern my own conduct, and I can speak according to my conscience.

I know that I have sinned, and that I will continue to struggle with temptation for as long as I live. I do not expect holiness to come easily, nor do I believe that recognizing the wickedness of the world makes me innocent of it. I have my own faults to confess, my own habits to correct, and my own attachments which must be brought under discipline.

I do not want my faith to consist merely of opinions which I express while continuing to live according to the customs of the world. I want it to be visible in the way I conduct myself, in the sacrifices I am willing to make, and in the seriousness with which I approach repentance. If I condemn greed, I must be charitable. If I condemn vanity, I must resist the desire for admiration. If I condemn dishonesty, I must speak truthfully even when doing so is inconvenient. If I condemn sexual immorality, I must practise chastity myself. And if I speak of the necessity of penance, I must remember that its purpose is the amendment of the soul, not the satisfaction of pride.

I believe that the world has become far too comfortable with the idea that a person ought never to feel ashamed of anything. There are things of which we ought to be ashamed. There are actions which deserve regret, habits which ought to be abandoned, and desires which must be resisted. I don't not consider this a cruel understanding of human nature. I believe that the capacity for repentance is among the greatest gifts which God has given us, because it means that our sins need not be the final word concerning our lives.

But repentance must be sincere.

I believe that every person should consider these things seriously, regardless of whether he presently accepts Jesus Christ as their Savior. The passage of time does not excuse us from the consequences of our actions, and disbelief does not make the questions of sin, death, and eternity unworthy of consideration.

I pray that God grants me the grace to repent sincerely, to resist temptation, and to remain faithful even when the world considers such faithfulness foolish.

I pray also for those who have abandoned Him, for those who mock His name, for those who live without any thought of judgment, and for those who have become so accustomed to sin that they no longer recognize the need for forgiveness.

May God have mercy upon us, for we have become terribly skilled at excusing ourselves. May He forgive the sins which we have committed knowingly, those which we have committed through weakness, and those which we have become too proud to recognize. And may I never become so accustomed to the wickedness of this world that I cease to fear the wickedness which may still remain within my own heart.

Deo Gratias.