1.) How you relate to God
I. Keep a Holy Hour, and practice self mortification and penance. Pray and Fast. Offer yourself to God, and be open to whatever He may say in answer.
II. Be a priest or Beget them. The Church needs priests, and the best priests are formed in families. Discern carefully your Vocation, and that of your issue. If you are not going to be a priest, you still need to be well formed.
III. Remember the Four Last Things. Death, Judgement, Heaven, and Hell. Remember that you will die. Go to confession in preparation of your judgement. Aim for Heaven, but know that Hell is real and people go there, probably more people than we would like to think.
2.) How you relate to your Parish
IV. Shrink the Church. The Church manifests itself locally through your Parish. Be concerned about how your Parish is run, get involved with keeping your Parish run well. Be visible, be vocal, be active in the service of your Church, as it exists around you.
V. Find Fertile Soil, and set down roots. Be discerning about your Parish, and vote with your feet and your dollars. Find a Parish that is worth investing your time and money in. Send your kids to the Parish school, and get to know your fellow parishoners.
VI. Hold to Tradition. Tradition is what has kept the Church alive for 2,000 years. Hold it. Keep it. Make it your own. Bring it into your home. Bring it into your Parish.
3.) How you relate to The Church
VII. Ask God to fix it. Accept that you have no control over what is going on in the Greater Church. It is going to take a Miracle.
VIII. Be prepared for God to ask you to fix it. It is going to take a Miracle. Ask God for that Miracle. Be prepared for Him to ask you to be that Miracle.
4.) How you relate to the World
IX. Don’t Apologize for your Faith. Practice joyfully, and in full confidence that it is True.
X. Have an answer for why you love your Faith. Practice it. Be ready to answer. You never know when someone will ask. You never know how powerful your witness can be.
Times-Dispatch of Vichy Earth 