Lord, Make Us Ordinary, by Carrie Gress

I was stopped in my tracks recently by details of the latest rape/murder of a 12-year-old girl in Texas by two Venezuelan men. Perhaps it is because I have daughters nearly the same (age) as this child, but the depth of its vileness sunk in deep.

Upon reflection, what is surprising is that such things should still surprise us. Faith and family have been surgically removed right under our noses and replaced with practical atheism and the endless pursuit of pleasure. No one should be surprised by the results of a culture so distracted, disinterested, and disengaged.

In the 1940s, Archbishop Fulton Sheen presciently warned us of what we ought to expect. “Divine ecstasy brings about an elevation of the being, of creative and formative power; the demonic ecstasy brings about weakening of being, disintegration and decay.” We are living in the filth of this diabolical disintegration and decay right now. …