+JMJ+
In my last post I focused on the importance of a strong spiritual life in order to pull out of the MadTrad Death Spiral.
I want to make something clear, I don't advocate putting down your favorite traditional Catholic periodical so you can be indifferent to the machinations of the crisis. If anything it should upset you and if you are not upset by all aspects of the crisis, then you are in danger falling in a different way. It is just that being in a constant state of frustration and anger does not help you to understand the foundations of why you are angered.
This leads me to the next point.
Study the Catholic Faith.
Obviously I am not going to recommend you study the Catechism of the Catholic Church, because it's audience is bishops and we know how messed up are the majority of bishops these days. I am not even going to mention the issues in that tome written by a modern bishop if not a Modernist.
I am going to recommend a course of self - study that starts with catechetical materials that start at the high school level and progress higher. I highly recommend the catechisms of the Council of Trent, and Spirago and Clark, Baltimore, Pius the Tenth.
I know that there is a bias against these texts amongst Modernists and modern Catholics, and this is almost an endorsement in itself.
But if you are going to deepen your understanding of the Catholic Faith, then humble yourself and stand on the shoulders of the Giants who wrote these summaries of Catholic doctrine.
Catechisms will not be enough, you'll need to include Catholic texts on Church and bible history. Obviously ones that are not tainted by modernism (rule of thumb: Pre-1965)
Ultimately the goal is to build your understanding to the point where you can start to read texts like Ott's Dogmas of the Catholic Church.
How you study is as important as what you study. Reading on a specific point of doctrine to only prove you are right will not be of much help. You need to study to understand the interwoven fabric of Catholic doctrines as a whole as well as in parts. One goal of this program is to deepen your understanding of why the Catholic Church is right.
This will broaden your perspective, helping you to keep your balance pulling out of the MadTrad Death Spiral.
P^3
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