Church Militant or Church Belligerent?

I recently came across an article with the same title that can be found here.

It is a very well written article that asks the question: do we fight for the truth because it is the the truth or because we want to win battles?

I fear that I myself often fall into the many pitfalls associated with the Chruch Belligerent and must pray for the grace to avoid them in the future.

The article identifies a few of these pitfalls as such:
1. Prizing principles over persons - "the person succumbs to the temptation to win arguments instead of hearts".
2. Losing the supernatural outlook - "worldly elements and factions exist in the Church.....they are not the only, nor even the most important, aspect of the Church".
3. Making our preferences mandatory for others, or requiring of others what the Church does not - "we mandate what the Church does not, or forbid what the Church permits".
4. Giving free rein to our critical faculty - "If we refuse to trust anyone, then we set ourselves up as our own personal magisterium".

There are many other good points about this subject in the article, which is a very good read.

Lord, give us the grace to fight for your truth and humble our hearts to your Love, let it always shine forth in our thoughts, words, and actions.

St. Joseph, patron of families, champion of purity, and model of humility, pray for us!