%CODE1%

Welcome, dear friends, to the new Cleansing Fire. Last year, when I started this endeavor, I had no clue it would become the bastion of orthodoxy which it has become. And that’s not because of me, but because of my authors, my friends, and you, the faithful, who yearn for a taste of solidarity, and genuine catholicity.

Cleansing Fire was, as I thought, going to be just another Rochester blog for angry, disgruntled Catholics. However, it has turned into a source of news, prayerful insight, theological and political dialogue, and fraternity. We have all felt the same pain, endured the same abuses, experienced the same ineptitude. We yearn for a return to widespread orthodoxy, for we have a true and profound love for He who dwells in our tabernacles. We come here, not to spread bitterness and pessimism, but to raise the standard of Truth and Tradition. We aren’t heroes and we aren’t martyrs. We are the faithful, who have had enough of the politicking which plagues Rochester.

Although the tone of Cleansing Fire has, in a friend’s words, “matured and developed,” our goal has always been the same: to defend Truth and Tradition in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester. We have one bastion of unshakable and undeniable strength, and that is Our Lord. For we have embraced the cross of love, the cross of defending His honor and His glory. We have such deep affection towards the liturgy, the Church, and Her God, that to sit idly by and permit abuse after abuse to occur without confrontation was impossible. We rose up, the lay faithful of Rochester, and demanded a change. We have trusted in God, and we have not been disappointed. Our sufferings are not in vain, and any risks to ourselves are negligible when you consider what we really stand for – Truth.

Though the Pilates in our midst wash their hands of our blood, and declare “what is Truth,” we solemnly remind them what it truly is. Truth is the Roman Catholic Church, Her Doctrine, Her priests, Her loyal bishops, Her Tradition, Her Sacred Scriptures, Her religious, Her laity, and Her Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Anything less, and there is no Truth, but deceit and treachery.

Lord, in Thee have we trusted. Let us never be confounded. For you have upheld us, and blessed our efforts with such wonderful contributors, friends, commenters, and brethren in orthodoxy that our efforts cannot meet with failure. We are the face of the Catholic Church in Rochester – and it’s not a face marred by lay preaching, liturgical dance, irreverence, or disrespect of the Blessed Sacrament. It is a face radiant with hope, and that hope is not an empty hope, mind you. It is bolstered by what we know the Church to be – the dwelling place of God.

And so, we gather here, licking our wounds, bearing injuries with patience, lifting our burdens as one, not as several. We have trusted, and we have not been confounded.

Tags: Orthodoxy at Work, Reflection

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 10th, 2010 at 10:30 AM . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.