Webster defines a martyr as one who voluntarily suffers great loss or torture or death for refusing to compromise his religious principles. 

The Catholic Church is under attack from within and without.  From Within because of the deliberate weakening of its doctrines and traditions by the conciliar church in Rome, and also from Without, by the American Federal Government which has been planting “spies” in Latin Mass churches.  Yet there are no bloodless martyrs.  Why?

I believe there are few, if any, who have the zeal for the Faith and are willing to accept the “bloodless martyrdom” that might follow were they to speak out against the gradual destruction of the Church.  It is much easier to go along to get along.  Why put yourself and your family in harm’s way when it’s much simpler to go along like everyone else, accepting liberalism and modernism, when the alternative is to “suffer the slings and arrows” of a bloodless martyrdom?

And as for the clergy, what priest or bishop wants to stir the waters and subject himself to his confreres’ criticism, ridicule, or disciplinary action?  These cowardly clergy hope the problem will go away by itself.  Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen.  It’s much too late for that.

The bottom line is the lack of zeal for the Faith.  One key reason for this lack of zeal is that few Catholics are willing to make the effort to study this precious gift (viz., the Catholic Faith). 

Our Lord made the supreme Sacrifice: He suffered and died for us.  When the Jewish High Priest’s mob seized Jesus in the Garden, the Apostles fled.  They were cowards just as Catholics are today.  They wanted to avoid the difficulty of standing with Christ the Lord against the world.  There were no martyr-apostles in the garden.  (However, their martyrdom came later.  Ten of the eleven remaining Apostles gave up their lives to follow the Master and His teachings.)

Christ keeps each of us in existence, oversees our whole life to be sure we are happy on earth and in Heaven with Him for all eternity.  All we have to do is love Him and His Mystical Body, and avoid even the smallest sin.  Doing this, voila!  You are a “ordinary” saint[1], with your salvation assured.

In closing, here are words of encouragement for hopeful “bloodless martyrs”, i.e., faithful and informed Catholics who have the zeal for Christ and His Mystical Body:

A person who, at the point of death, makes an act of perfect conformity to the will of God will be delivered not only from hell but also from purgatory, even if he has committed all the sins in the world. 

"The reason," says St. Alphonsus, "is that he who accepts death with perfect resignation acquires similar merit to that of a martyr who has voluntarily given his life for Christ, and even amid the greatest sufferings he will die happily and joyfully.”[2]

Think about that! …  and pray this prayer daily:

Oh my God, from this moment forward, I accept with a joyful and resigned heart the death Thou will be pleased to send me, with all its pains, sufferings, and anguish.[3]