“This book proved timely and necessary. There are so many questions and so much room for confusion in today’s situation. Embracing the steadfast hope of Mary on that first Saturday gives me a great solid foundation to stand on. Being able to see our history laid out so plainly is uplifting and hope filled. The book is a priceless guide!”
-Teresa
West Fargo, North Dakota
“This book is a rich guide on living and growing in Christ during evil times such as these. I appreciate that it’s informative and gives us the wisdom and methods of the saints in a clear way. It’s deep but also easy to understand and very helpful.”
-Craig
New Orleans, Louisiana
“This is a fine little manual in the search for spiritual salvation. A number of very disturbing sins are treated and shown in their new deceiving modern manifestation along with particularly good, helpful suggestions in conquering these constant temptations.”
-Felix Soden
Dublin, Ireland
“Timothy Flanders writes an incredibly practical guide to surviving the times we’ve been given. This book will give you the tools necessary to fight the fight and eliminate sin from your life, and hold the line against the Enemy.”
-Maximilian Doty
Lincoln, Nebraska
This new book is an act of hope. It is an attempt to collect in one volume some of the wisdom of our forefathers when they faced impossible situations in the Church. These considerations are things that have helped me in this time, and perhaps they will help you, also.
I hope that, by your prayers, we may be made worthy to join the company of our fathers who came before us in suffering in our time for the one Faith delivered to the saints. And that it may be our joy and our peace to share this with our children.
The first part of this text attempts to start from the point when the darkness can be felt (Ex. x. 21). This point is something that every soul must pass through in order to advance in the spiritual life. It is poignantly described by the Prophet in Psalm LXXXVIII when at first the Holy Spirit exults to say Neither will I profane my covenant: and the words that proceed from my mouth I will not make void, and yet a few verses later laments: Thou hast overthrown the covenant of thy servant: thou hast profaned his sanctuary on the earth. It is this apparent contradiction that brings about the darkness which can be felt. This is the reason for the title of this book, which tries to describe this apparent contradiction, which seems to prove God false, yet is later revealed to be a deeper mystery. This is the subject of the first part of this book.
From there, the book builds on this spiritual foundation to attempt to enter into the way of wisdom as passed down by our fathers.
This text does not deal with the question of the Papacy very much, as this is reserved for another forthcoming book by the author. Rather, this text is concerned about the thing that all our forefathers focused on in dark times—and it’s not the Pope. I hope that by mostly ignoring this topic this book will help re-orient the reader toward a more traditional, pre-modern stance toward the Vatican.
Without any doubt, with absolute certainty, we can say this: our children, or our children’s children, or some future generation of the Church militant will see it—the liberty and exaltation of Holy Mother Church.
In the meantime let us fix the eyes of our hearts on the Church triumphant and suffering, and fight the good fight as our fathers have done: to be made worthy to suffer for the Name of Jesus. Otherwise, we are unworthy of the name “Christian.”
In the words of the Greek liturgy, “Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us, amen.”
T. S. F.
Guadalupe, Empress of the Americas
In the year 2023
of the reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King
