SAVING GRACE

This class is about bad news and good news. It is about vice and virtue, demons and angels, sinners and saints. Sin, evil, demons, and Satan are real. Call them whatever you want, but I call them dragons. Satan, a fallen angel, said at the beginning of time, "I will not serve." War broke out in heaven, and St. Michael the archangel led an army of angels who casts Satan and the demons who followed him down to the earth. Ever since then, Satan has hated God and hates his creation made in his image (us). His mission is to destroy souls and prevent us from becoming saints. As St. Peter said, "Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion searching for [someone] to devour." (1 Peter 5:8)  But we need not fear the dragons, because on our side we have St. Jospeh, the terror of demons. We have the blessed mother, Mary, the woman whose seed crushes the head of the serpent. We have the great saints of the past interceding for us, we have legions of angels fighting with us and for us, and we have the greatest weapon in the world...the blood of the cross. That blood produces SAVING GRACE... grace leads to virtue, virtue breeds holiness, holiness makes saints, and saints slay dragons! We must be dragon slayers. But to do that, we must train. We must know the enemy and understand his weapons (vice), we must know the swords that destroy the enemy (virtue), and we must learn from the great dragon slayers of old (saints) and read their stories. We must seek help from our allies (Jesus, Mary, angels, saints, and the Church) because we can't win this battle on our own.