What or Who is a "Christian/Catholic Warrior"?

A little search on the new widget I have added to my side bar (from CatholicBlogs.com) threw up a blogsite called “The Catholic Warrior“. On his page he has two prayers: the traditional “Prayer to St Michael” and the prayer that is often erroneously attributed to St Francis “Make me a channel of your peace”. Both prayers taken together perhaps answer the question I pose in the title to this blog.

I have been thinking about this because of that “Soldier’s Creed” business I unearthed in the blog below. The Creed has the statement “I am a warrior”. Maybe it is something of the “wild man” in us blokes, but to stand up and declare confidently “I am a warrior” does have a certain “feel-good” effect upon one.

So what is a “Christian/Catholic Warrior”? Peter Holmes has some answers in his blog review of “The Compleat Gentleman”. Peter also blogs about some of the old hymns we used to know in our Protestant days. In this context, “Onward Christian Soldiers” comes to mind. You may think that there is nothing to match this in Catholic circles, but “We stand for God” comes instantly to mind. I very well recall the sound of an entire cathedral full of Catholic folk (guys and gals) singing this at Bishop Anthony Fisher’s episcopal ordination in Sydney a few years back.

Having a strong interior spiritual warrior ethos is, I believe, almost essential for taking a stand against the many dangerous evils of the world which surround us. Particularly as male Christians, we are tempted by the big three–power, money and sex. So I suspect that, as I said at the beginning, there is a “St Michael” element in being a Catholic Warrior (the Archangel is my co-patron Saint, along with St Joe–blokey stuff) — the real need for evil to be faced head on without any cowardice.

But also, as I hinted in my comments on the afore mentioned “Soliders Creed”, there must be something of the St Francis also. The little fellow was a warrior in his own way, but also exemplified the fact that we live out our warrior ethos in peace, love, faith, pardon, hope, light, joy and (above all) forgiveness. This is not stuff for wusses.

So here, I think are the two elements of Catholic/Christian Warriorship: Always standing up against falsehood and evil, and always being a peacemaker acting in love toward every human being. What are your thoughts?

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2 Responses to What or Who is a "Christian/Catholic Warrior"?

  1. PBXVI says:

    So where is the “Lord make me an instrument of your peace” prayer from if not from St. Francis? Just curious as I have never heard that it was not from him before. Glad you found my blog, and I’m glad I found yours! I would say that the 3 things we fight in life are the world, the flesh, and the devil. The 3 purposes in life are to Know, Love, and Serve God in this life and in the next. Makes life seem pretty simple at first… God Bless!

  2. Schütz says:

    Hi ya, PBXVI. See the Wikipedia article at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_of_Saint_Francis
    This is quite true. All good hymn books these days acknowledge that although it has been “attributed” to St Francis, there is nothing really linking him to the text. Sorry to burst that bubble. It’s a good text though, and I am sure St Francis would have approved!

    Yes, when I said “the big three” were money, sex and power for guys, I know and had in mind the really big three that threaten us all the devil, the world and the sinful self (Luther was very strong on this–although he usually added “The Turk” and “The Pope”!)

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