Reading the article again, maybe my initial gut response against it was too harsh. I sense a lot of hurt and hardening behind it, and I think what came through to me the most was this sense of "It's not my fault my kids abandoned the faith, so I need to stop being so upset about it. I did everything right and it's on them now." It feels so...hard. Not vulnerable. A shutting off of the pain, and another kind of pride than the one the author is warning against. And I just know that from what I've seen in my life, it's been vulnerability and a continual reaching out and allowing oneself to be rejected and humbled again and again that has won the hearts of others. It's Jesus' way...His continual holding out of His bleeding Heart to every person that continues to slap His Face. Except in His case, He DID do everything right. And in our case as parents, we have done so very many things wrong. We are not blameless. We owe it to the love Jesus has for our children to NEVER give up on them, to keep extending our love in every way we can, and keeping our hearts open no matter how much more it hurts when they get broken again and again. And of course that's not easy. It's why we ask for Jesus' Love to come and be our love for us. Jesus, meek and humble of Heart, make my heart like unto Thine.
I have experienced what you have described. Thank you for putting it into words so beautifully. It’s a process, too, on both sides. Jesus thirsts for souls. He stands at the door and knocks.
My sincere apologies for my initial response. My own experience has gone far beyond having family members who have simply left the Faith. I've been on the receiving end of vicious gas lighting and public slander and calumny from a very highly intelligent bipolar and diabolically narcissistic child. The only option for me was and is 100% isolation from their abuse, for my own psychological and spiritual sanity. This author and his words hit very close to home and his "pride" has nothing to do with it.
I am sorry. I know the devastation narcissism causes, especially when we love that narcissist very much. You and your family are in my prayers.
I'm so sorry you're living this. I relate, but it's both of my narcissistic parents. There has to be self preservation, most definitely. In these cases, a person is also used as the scapegoat & it's important to learn about the scapegoat in the family. I don't think ppl really understand gaslighting either unless they live it with their family, as it questions our sanity, events that have taken place & most importantly, our Faith. I feel the same, perhaps my family won't convert. My Great Aunt & my dad's cousin seem to be the only ones to be any kind of example of the Faith. I entrust my family to God & His Mother, but my prayers are different now. I believe God wants me to have Faith & confidence that my brother's children who are still so small & myself will be removed from all the evil & abuse. Unfortunately, what my parents have done are straight from the pits of hell & I don't want to think about what my nephews & niece could be enduring as my brother has repeated the same pattern. I have every confidence that God will make a way, if they don't convert, to stop such severe evil in our bloodline. I've cried long & hard that the most evil ppl I know, I'm related to. I will always forgive, but I know God's been right there will me in my sufferings & He knows what they do. I question God as to why He's allowed it to go on for another generation with my sweet nephews & niece, but God promises to repay us. I question God as to why He's allowed them to get away with soooo much evil, while I feel punished for my Faith. But, I know God is soooo good. He loves us very much & He'll right every wrong. I pray for my family's salvation, but I can't force them to do good & reject evil. Since they have each other to encourage each other's evil the evil grows, unfortunately. I accept being the scapegoat of the family because I constantly call it out, my family would much rather I go along with the evil... So, I don't see there being reconciliation because both my parents have said they are too old to change, in other words, they don't want to & there's too much pride there, too. A friend sent this to me & it's helped understand being the scapegoat of the family. I have found a lot of peace with the article, too. https://www.laurakconnell.com/blog/family-scapegoat-2
If I had to guess I would say that most Catholics in the West have lost their Faith and found it again. Had some kind of conversion experience that brought them to or back to the Faith. That even includes our priests most of whom now they say were brought to their vocation through Medugorje.. I love the way St Paul talks of us being New Creations: 2 Corinthians 5:16–17 “So if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new Certainly when I look at myself now compared to what I was like before my conversion it is like we are two different people. I think people nowadays have to touch bottom before they reach the top. To be a Catholic a real Catholic nowadays requires deep, deep commitment and this in turn requires deep, deep conversion. The days of casual social Catholicism are gone.
Unfortunately both my wife’s grandfathers were 33rd degree Freemasons. I’ve spoken with priests who think a generational curse related to their involvement at such a high level in Freemasonry may have passed down the family tree and forms part of our family’s struggles. I have done Fr. Ripperger’s prayers against Masonic generational influences.
That’s a huge factor. Good that you prayed Fr. Ripperger’s prayers. Msgr, Rossetti’s deliverance prayers include deliverance from freemasonry. It would be good if you could pray the one hour monthly deliverance prayers with him on YouTube. My godfather was a Mason. Horrors. exorcism.com
I have not seen the return of my husband and children(yet) but I have seen a profound change in me. Harsh truths dont work. Period. Love is the only bridge we can build and I have found that love and patience and kindness and most of all humility keep the bridge open. I do resonate with Laramie Hirsch though. The heartbreak of seeing the little ones you raised in the safe harbor of faith scorn it or toss it aside or follow others with itching ears is a deep heart sick wound. It can only be offered to Jesus in union with His Passion. From that flows the grace to simply love and endure.
I cant even imagine what you or Brian have endured but I believe your words and his. This is a very different scenario from children leaving the faith. This is diabolic in the extreme. It's the height of charity to offer your prayers and sufferings for them. This kind of prayer must be very powerful before the throne of God. When the time is right He will act I am certain. In the mean time you and Brian carry heavy crosses we can barely imagine and you both seem to do it with great courage.
My grandfather was a Mason although as my father tells it he had a death bed conversion. Thanks be to God. But I know there are curses attached to free masonry especially if someone leaves. There has been terrible turmoil in my father's side of the family. I have prayed with Msgr Rossetti and the prayers from Father Ripperger's book. Probably time to do it again.
You have said this so beautifully. And you describe the journey of parenthood accurately. Because we are fallible human beings we do many things wrong. I have gone deep into my own failings and have seen i am by no means guiltless. But sacrificial love and accepting the suffering as a gift and offering it to Jesus brings great peace.
One thing I do know about 33 degree Masons and above is that there seems to be a tradition of giving their babies, 'Satanic Baptism', which has of course all kinds of bad, long term effects.
How do y'all know your family members were 33rd degree freemasons? I thought it was super secretive. I've always wondered if there were freemasons in my family, especially on my mom's side, because she is soooo messed up in so many ways, and it seemed to be generationally passed on to her. (I don't know much about my great-grandfather, and my grandfather didn't raise my mother because it was a one night stand kind of thing.) A deep, overwhelming fear, tendency toward self-harm, and extreme narcissism. My great-grandmother ended up in a mental institution, my grandmother was a very angry, proud woman who withdrew from society and left her husband to go live alone on empty land until she went crazy, and my mother is a bipolar narcissist (I'm the scapegoat) who swings wildly between acting like a terrified child (I have to be her mother figure) and a vindictive, manipulative person who can tear me down in two seconds. Some of these traits were passed onto one of my siblings, and my son and I both have to battle what feels like spiritual attacks of fear and anxiety. Actually my son, whose fear could be absolutely crippling and cause constant headaches, has been miraculously cured of a lot of it through the 54-day rosary novena my husband and I prayed for him last year, thanks be to God! Anyway, there are so many horror stories and so much dysfunction on my mother's side of the family that it's always made me wonder if there were freemasons in that line...but I don't know how to find out! Sometimes I'm overwhelmed by the great mercy of God, that through all of the sin and dysfunction of humanity, including entire families, that He still reaches our hearts and pours His grace out and saves so many of us. How was the Catholic faith even passed down to me through such a messed up family? How are all of you on this forum still faithful, praying Catholics trying to carry the torch through this dark world? Why did God bless us with this when we did nothing to earn it? We have so much responsibility, to be His Heart to others, no matter how much they hurt us, because we so easily could be any one of them if the grace of God weren't holding us fast. How can we ever repay Him enough?
And you know, after typing that all out... How do I even know I'm not actually just as bad or worse than anyone else in my family? What if we're worse but completely blind to it? Lol I ask my husband from time to time to tell me if I'm a narcissist, and he says no, but...aren't people too afraid to tell narcissists that they're narcissists? I know every time I'm starting to think I've improved a little in some virtue I've been working on, God sends something along to humble me... And that something is always just myself, messing everything up. Maybe, the real miracle is God and His constant love and forgiveness...and our response to others should be to humble ourselves to them and ask for theirs too. How do we really know they aren't actually better than we are?
I dont know how you find out about family connections to free masonry u less you are told. I only knew because my father told me the Church did not want to bury my grandfather in consecrated ground because he was a mason.
Well, after I read your post, I decided to ask the wife of my grandfather (the one who didn't raise my mom) if he has any freemasons in his family line...and she just told me that he IS one.
