Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 8416 Plough Quarterly • Winter 2017 the community, given work to do, and reha- bilitated. I went to their school, and saw such a sense of confidence. It’s not a white-knuckle, we’re-so-afraid-of-the-world approach. Because they know who they are in Christ, they live with joy. When I see people like that, I realize that this is not just some pipe dream or abstract ideal. There are flesh-and-blood people living this out right now. I asked Marco Sermarini, who leads the Tip- iloschi community, “Do you ever worry about anything?” He said, “Oh yes, Rod, I lie in bed at night and I worry about what’s going to happen to my children and our community. But then I realize that our Lord came into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, not a thoroughbred, and that I just have to be a donkey for the Lord.” As long as we can be simple little donkeys, just plugging away doing the everyday ordinary things and sanctifying our everyday life, that’s where we will find our hope. This autumn, a terrible earthquake in Italy leveled the basilica of Saint Benedict in Norcia, rendering the monastery uninhabitable. By the grace of God, a couple of smaller earthquakes earlier in the fall had caused the monks to move to tents on the hill overlooking the town. Because they heeded the warnings of those earlier tremors, they survived the big one that destroyed both their basilica and all the churches in town. Now, despite their present suffering, they will be present for the rebuild- ing and are a sign of God’s abiding presence among the people of Norcia. The monks see a sign in all of this. So do I. Let those who have ears to hear hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.  Interview by Peter Mommsen on September 27 and November 9, 2016. Watch the interview at plough.com/dreher. immediate problems for the church, but it will certainly create new ones. Again, I say to my fellow Christians: do not take false hope from the machination of princes. Prepare. Persecution Is Normal In the last decade, more Christians may have been killed because of their faith than at any time since the sixteenth century. What is our responsibility to Christian brothers and sisters around the globe? I asked a pastor who works with the persecuted church overseas the same question. He said that we Americans need to realize that what the persecuted church is suffering now has been the normative experience for most Christians through most of the life of the church, going back to the beginning; that what we’re experi- encing now in the West, this period of relative peace and non-persecution, is actually unusual. Persecution is normal. If we’re not prepared to live that way if things turn bad in this country, then we’re not worthy of the gospel. So I think we should be as supportive of them as we pos- sibly can, but we also need to let their example of courage inform the way we prepare for what may be coming in our country. In what may be dark times ahead, where do you see signs of hope, and what should we focus on to keep the joy of the gospel? In my book, I write about a Catholic com- munity in San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy, called the Tipiloschi – Italian for “the usual suspects.” Although they go to the normal church, they also come together for communal meals, service projects, Bible study, communal prayer, and Mass every week. When I visited this community, I saw so much joy – not self- satisfied joy but creative joy. I met a couple of young men who had done prison time for minor offenses and now had been brought into