I watched the 3 part talk (part 1 here) In Our Time by Fr. Ripperger. It was so great I re-watched it and took these notes. I highly recommend watching the video series and then if you want to revisit his ideas you can go over the notes below. There is a literal college course of great information in this talk. He begins in Part I by describing the current state of society and in Part II moves on to what you can do to gain the knowledge and perspective to live well in this society. I tried to copy his words as close as possible. Bold is mine as well as any mistakes.
Part I – The situation in America
Marxists have taken over much of America.
They “will focus principally on children in order to sustain this general corruption.”
Marxists used public education system to corrupt.
Put them in school systems which are secularized.
1.6 million, 40.3% of all births are out of wedlock.
Freemasons – were behind divorce laws, gay marriage.
79% of couples live together before getting married.
56% of people in our country think it is acceptable for homosexuals to marry.
“This is a sign of mass insanity.”
We are living in a state of mass insanity.
“People are so sinful”. In scripture – they lived so sinfully that God gave them over to their passions and men started sleeping with men and women started sleeping with women.
50+ genders. A sign we are living in a time of mass insanity.
Less than 5% of the marriages that end up in annulment are between 2 Catholics.
A complete breakdown of the family unit
Women in the feminist movement are miserable.
Fathers do not require modesty in their daughters.
It is up to the fathers to require their daughters to follow the dictates of modesty.
Modesty of language also. Women are getting worse than men with regard to foul language.
Children are not taught any discipline.
Electronics have worked their way into every aspect. It is fracturing the families.
The total and general corruption of customs. The general public life will collapse.
Secular education has been one reason for the death of priestly and religious vocations.
Communists took over educational system in the country.
Communists want to destroy the family.
They outlawed marriage in Russia, but saw the economic destruction and reinstituted it.
The state takes over the education of the children.
Religion has to be subordinate to the state.
The state is completely communist.
The primary focus of America is the economy. To communists, the only thing that is important is the economy. The common good of the citizenry and the virtue that they are developing in their relationship that should…be the most important thing.
The pedophilia problem in government and the elite is a gargantuan problem.
80% of politicians in this country have been to bohemian grove
1.25% of the clergy are pedophiles
2.75% of the American population has a problem with pedophilia
8% among professionals – doctors, lawyers, etc.
10% pedophilia among high school teachers
“More souls go to hell because of the sins of the flesh than for any other reason.”
“Sins against chastity.” Not because they are the most grievous, they are the most common.
People have no shame. The fear of being perceived as being lowly.
Innocence will no longer be found in children nor modesty in women.
The collapse of modesty is so profound with relationship to dress
Pope Pius the XI – A dress cannot be considered decent which is cut 2 fingers breadth from the pit of the throat. Which does not cover the arms at least to the elbows. And scarcely reaches a bit beyond the knees.
It is saturated in our culture today
“Corruption of customs. Unbridled lust. Impious press. (don’t care about honor and have no respect for anyone.) Secular education. The vices of impurity, blasphemy, and sacrilege will dominate in this time of depraved desolation. And that one that will speak out will be silent. The spirit of impurity that will saturate the atmosphere in those times like a filthy ocean it will inundate the streets, squares, and public places with an astonishing liberty.”
Custody of the senses isn’t enough, you have to have custody of the mind.
“There will be almost no virgin souls in the world.”
“The church will be full of those who accept compromises.” The laity is not interested in Catholicism in an unadulterated fashion.
Modernism
Modernism is defined as the synthesis of all heresies. The foundational principle of modernism is ‘I make myself and what I think and feel the standard or principle for what is true or right for me rather than an objective, external, magisterial teaching. Cafeteria Catholicism is the direct result of that. People will choose what they like that fits them rather than adhering to whatever the church says. That means that there isn’t a single heresy that isn’t resurfacing.
Modernism is so rife in the church. Have to have an extraordinary philosophical and theological background or you have an extraordinary grace you are simply going to fall into it
There is a complete collapse in philosophy and theology.
The decline of piety and respect for the clergy.
Fraud in our country
Fraud is the daughter of avarice which is the vice of (greed).
At the heart of fractional reserve lending is fraud. A bank has a million and loans out 10 million. That is fraud. They don’t have the money. Fraud is to represent having something and not actually having it.
Private ownership of national currencies. The entire common good of a nation is subject to private individuals’ control of the finances.
Christ said, “In the end times they will be carried off by fairy tales.”
Fairy tales: much of science. Evolution. The fairy tale there is a free market.
“This is not a battle over ideas anymore. This is a battle between good and evil.”
“A vast portion of the graces come into the world by our prayers, sufferings, and good works.”
“All grace comes into the world by means of the Catholic Church.”
We are in a battle between good and evil and the evil people are trying to destroy our culture, our country, our sovereignty.
Knowledge is going to come from grace or serious study.
Grace – enlightens the mind and strengthens the will.
Part II – What to do
1. Study. Start reading and become more knowledgeable about the Faith. Knowledge will give you the perspective to know what is going on.
What to study – this is your goal: what you have to do is build a repertoire of knowledge regarding what the church has always taught in relationship to those things necessary for salvation. That’s what you have to achieve. From there you can branch out.
You’ve got to study, you’ve gotta work at coming to real knowledge of this thing if you’re going to navigate and actually save your soul today.
Study the moral doctrine of the church
Ecclesiology
Study the real theological disciplines.
Mirari Vos – on liberalism and religious indifference Pope Gregory XVI
Libertas praestantissimum – Pope Leo XIII (to understand our country and why we have the problems we have).
Pascendi dominici gregis – Pope Pius X
Humani Generis – Pope Pius XII
The popes against modern errors – 16 papal documents
Read the Spirago Catechism and then branch out from there.
(Your must base your morality and life not on what you feel is right but on) An external magisterium (the teachings of the Church), which is actually handing us an objective revelation from generation to generation to oneself.
Modernism is so rife in the church. Have to have an extraordinary philosophical and theological background or you have to have an extraordinary grace or you are simply going to fall into it.
2. Restructure your family. Get your family strengthened in order for it doesn’t end up succumbing to some of the basic problems. Family life will give you a structure that you can plug into and have a normalcy of life. We are living in an insane culture and the more insane it becomes the less it is going to be like the normal family life, normal family structure, normal society structure.
The attack on the family has been key in undermining the psychological and moral development of people, and their spiritual development.
The destruction of manhood. It pertains to the father to confirm the moral code.
What it means to be a true father and husband.
Women get out of the workforce. Most women will be happier if they are at home with their children.
Pushing paper, building something, most work is far less noble work than forming the mind of a child.
When women were told that what they were doing at home was less noble or less good than what the men were doing, they were completely lied to and sold a bill of goods.
The man’s job is for the sake of the wife and the children so that she can stay home and do that job. The normal family structure has to be re-established.
Children have to work on obedience and piety.
Piety is the virtue in which we give honor to our superiors, it’s completely gone.
The restructuring also has to find a proper ordering with regard to the spiritual life.
It’s the father’s place to direct the spiritual life of the family.
The restructuring of the family life is the only way to restore order to our society.
GK Chesterton – “I don’t know why women want the right to vote. Because a woman can make or break a nation by the way she raises a single child. Where the vote is meaningless.”
Feminism made it seem that what the women did at home was less noble. She’s forming the mind of the child plus she’s taking care of the home. Cooking, cleaning, etc, which can seem like drudgery but provides a suitability to the kids and husband which would otherwise be lost.
Women used to do little craft things for the people in the family or the house, there was a certain decorum or suitability of the house achieved as a result of that.
Feminists hate what it is to be a woman.
3. Do some basic things so that you can survive
If the chastisement comes, prep. Get some food.
How far the chastisement extends is entirely the choice of God. Pray to be spared the effects of it.
Society hasn’t collapsed because of technology. Every other culture that has gotten this disordered has never survived this long.
The only reason America has not fallen apart is because it is being propped up by technology and by fraud.
Have a decent understanding of what is really going on in the world.
The people that are evil are lying and manipulating us.
As the culture continues to decay, we are in freefall, there’s nothing putting the brakes on this. It can’t stop the decline unless God puts the brakes on it. It is declining in such a manner that eventually you have to accept the fact that in the end, you’re going to be considered the one that is evil. Accept the fact that this is going to get worse. You have to have your spiritual things in order.
Navigate
Practice of the Catholic Faith – that’s how you’re going to reach your end – your salvation.
We live in a very tumultuous time. You’re going to have to be able to practice your Catholic Faith.
Don’t be depressed or despair. We should have hope.
You have to master detachment. Detachment is a holy indifference to all things created, so that you are attached to God alone.
So you have to stop following your emotions. Follow your intellect illumined by faith, that’s what you have to be based on, not how you feel. With detachment, a person just doesn’t react much. All emotions arise out of the emotion of love. Love attachment (to something). If you find yourself getting emotionally upset that means you have a disordered attachment somewhere.
Stop trusting your own judgment in matters and trust the judgment of the tradition of what the Church has always said.
Stop making yourself the principal judgment of matters.
What do we detach from? Have to be detached from anything worldly – your car, things you own, your house, your property. You have to have detachment from it. Have to have perfect equanimity and perfect peace, you’re going to be able to walk away from that stuff without it bothering you in the slightest.
Detachment from your family. Love them, care for them for God’s sake, rather than for your sake or theirs.
Detachment from the well-being of your country. People love the country from piety. Patriotism is under piety.
We could end up in civil war, because the people who do evil won’t give up what they are attached to; they’re disordered, their sin.
You can fight for your country but it has to be done in a way that doesn’t affect you spiritually.
To a person who is detached, it doesn’t matter at all what happens around them. They will look at the situation and determine what they need to do so that God is served. Because they are ultimately attached to God. He is the only thing that is going to be stable in the near future.
Detachment from the state of the Church.
Have to break the vice of curiosity. Get away from the news. You can be knowledgeable, but you can’t be wasting all sorts of time bc it is going to drag you down spiritually.
Any attachment you have when we go through the Chastisement will be a cause of pain.
You have to have a perfect willingness to suffer.
A virtue is a habit. Something you do all the time. You become virtuous in it.
Virtue is its own reward. As you start to gain a certain level of virtue there is a delight that occurs in the performance of that virtue.
The saints have a great peace and joy about them, they never lose their equanimity. Because they have mastered the virtue.
If you don’t willingly embrace the cross, if you don’t willingly submit to the suffering that God sends you in your life you will not develop the virtue. This is why people suffer and suffer and in the end, don’t have any joy in it, they haven’t developed the virtue – bc it’s been involuntary, they don’t want it. Where if they are willing to embrace it for God’s will to be served then what happens is that’s when the joy will start to be developed.
If we’re entering into a period of chastisement nobody is going to have any joy or peace if they don’t have that willingness to suffer. And it has to be mastered. You have to be willing to suffer well.
When people suffer a little bit their anger is all over the map. Anger is an unwillingness to suffer. People are angry about the situation in the church. It’s because they don’t have detachment, and are unwilling to suffer it.
Anger is a twofold passion – it’s a perception of injury. Essentially the person has a sorrow. Something bad has happened to themselves or someone they love, with a desire for vindication. We’re holding onto the injury and sorrow that comes from it.
The saint recognizes that there is no punishment that could be meted out against him in this life that he is not deserving of, because of his sin. So when something happens to him it doesn’t bother him that much because he thinks “Well, I deserve this anyway.”
The things people love are being trounced on, and they’re not willing to suffer for it, so they get angry.
A period of chastisement is a period where there is lots of pain, in a variety of different ways. So you have to be willing to suffer that pain. And if you’re not willing to, then you’re going to be angry.
Should we fear the coming chastisement? No. If you suffer well, when the evil comes, it just doesn’t bother you. I just get to become holier through this process.
Could you live in a concentration camp for the rest of your life and would it affect your equanimity, your peace, your joy?
People suffer from fear, despair, and anger in a concentration camp. It all boils down to they’re not willing to suffer.
The person who is willing to suffer well has great confidence in God. Bc the suffering is not going to deter him from recognizing God’s goodness even in the suffering.
“To test this faith in confidence of the just there will be occasions in which everything will seem to be lost and paralyzed. This will be then, the happy beginning of the complete restoration.”
Fast and Do Penance
The Marian Apparitions for almost 2 centuries now, have repeatedly called attention to the necessity to fast and do penance.
By fasting and penance do we get our lower faculties subordinated to reason and to what faith knows what we have to do.
We have to be willing to purify ourselves and get right order in us interiorly, that can only come through fasting and penance.
To make restitution to God for the profound evil we have caused. God created this world to manifest His glory. And anytime any one of us sins we detach from that glory to which He has a right. This is why you must stand in front of Him at the end of time when Christ returns – you have to stand before everyone else – all the angels, all the saints, all the damned, and account for every single infraction of the law.
Making restitution to God. (paying God back what you owe Him.) Reparation. To restore the natural order and make restitution.
The reason for chastisement is both justice and mercy. To restore this natural order of justice and make restitution to each other and ourselves and to get ourselves straightened out. The second thing is an act of mercy bc we have become an abomination to ourselves.
Modern man has become so disordered that we’re an abomination. This is one reason why our lady wants us to make restitution.
If you want peace through that and joy even through the chastisement you have to master that willingness to suffer. This means there has to be a serious growth in virtue. One in just the natural virtues. Fasting, abstinence, working on basic justice, fortitude, getting rid of your fear, being prudent. Next, work on infused virtues. Master fasting for God’s sake, master fortitude and prudence for God’s sake.
There is a natural virtue of mortification. People in sports deny themselves all types of things to achieve something in sports. We have to do it for God’s sake.
Work on the virtues of faith, hope, and charity.
What will it be like in the end? “Men will become lovers of pleasure and charity will grow cold.” People who love pleasure are never charitable.
Charity is being able to love God and love your neighbor for God’s sake. You can’t allow anyone to come between you and God.
Hope – the awaiting of the divine assistance in achieving our salvation. We know God will provide what is necessary for my salvation.
Most people are doing nothing to keep themselves spiritually protected.
Do the Nine First Fridays, so that you don’t die an unprovided death.
Nine First Fridays are also there to make reparations to the Sacred Heart.
People are not making enough reparations to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
“On Friday during Holy Communion, He said these words to His unworthy slave, if I mistake not: ‘I promise you in the excessive mercy of My Heart that Its all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on nine first Fridays of consecutive months the grace of final repentance; they will not die under My displeasure or without receiving their sacraments, My divine Heart making Itself their assured refuge at the last moment.’”
First Friday Requirements: To meet the requirements for the First Friday Devotion a person must, on each First Friday for nine consecutive months:
1. Attend Holy Mass
2. Receive Communion
3. Go to Confession*
Notes on the 9 First Fridays from here
First Saturday of 5 consecutive months –
I promise to help, at the hour of death, with graces necessary for salvation those who, on the first Saturday of 5 consecutive months, go to Confession, receive Holy Communion, say 5 decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for 15 minutes while meditating on the mysteries with the intention of making reparation of my Immaculate Heart.
Habitual life of prayer, especially the Rosary and the Meditation. The Rosary is the spiritual weapon. There’s a grace that God provides to those who pray the Rosary daily.
Meditation will help you maintain your sanity through all this.
Mortification
- Penance
- Fasting – must be done on a regular basis. Once or twice a week. Wednesdays and Fridays.
There are 9 levels of prayer. 1st is vocal prayer, 2nd is meditation, you can only get to the other 7 levels of prayer through meditation.
You will plateau in your spiritual life if you don’t meditate.
Confession at least once a month.
Regular Mass Attendance. Get to daily Mass. Because as we go through this time we are going to need a lot of sacramental graces to survive this thing mentally and psychologically and spiritually.
You have to be prepared for the fact that you maybe are entering a period where you will not get regular access to the sacraments.
You have to stop any mortal sins now. You might not have access to a priest or confession or the sacraments.
You have to get spiritually prepared, where your interior life is so solid that if you go a year or two without getting to confession you’re not going to end up in hell over it.
Make use of the sacraments now to gain that holiness. To be prepared, in your spiritual life, through meditation, mortification, all those virtues necessary, overcoming all your defects, you have to work on becoming a saint so that when this hits you’re not ill-prepared.
Positive note – God’s chastisement is for our betterment. It’s ultimately an act of mercy, and it’s an act of love.
To any good catholic, living today is chronically painful. You’re constantly dealing with the disorders in society and the sinfulness. You’re constantly dealing with the sinfulness of the church. The sad part is that most people are not sorry because of how much offense God has taken.
The chastisement is justice bc it will restore right order and we have a price to pay.
On the other hand it is an act of mercy, and what is going to come out the other end is actually going to be very joyful.
We might even see a vast majority of the countries actually profess Christ as King of the country. And the countries will become confessionally catholic.
Be very wary when things are easy. Do not slacken off on your own mortification when things are easy. Because it’s going to come a time where it’s good for 20-25 years and then after that it’s going to be worse than it is now.
Listen to what our lady is saying. After 25 years people will start to slacken and don’t slacken.
Thanks