Skip to main content

Navigating Catholic Life - Part 1 Introduction

Image
By
 +
JMJ
 

This series has, metaphorically, been a lifetime in the writing. I've been a 'Traditional' Catholic, as opposed to an [Modern, Liberal, Conservative, Communist, etc] Catholic since 1982.  

Up to 1982, I was a regular Post-Conciliar Catholic, growing up at the tail-end of the rout (definition) of Catholic Belief that happened after the end of the Second Vatican Council and after the introduction of the Novus Ordo Missae (NOM) in 1970.  

One of my earliest memories of that era was trying to get as much of the pew in front of us in my mouth. It tasted awesome. A part of that memory is of a church lady scowling down at me as I continued to taste the pew.  I remember the parish priest was really conservative.  Throughout that church he had stashed relics of the Traditional Mass. Candle sticks, statues, side altars, thurible, Missal, tabernacle. His sermons were as good as any I have heard from the SSPX priests. 

As a side note, his parish thrived with one side effect.  At least one person lost the faith when he moved to another parish and found that the oasis in which he had grown-up was practically unique in our city. 

It turns out that his success had a downside, the bishop split the parish and my family moved to the new parish where as one of the 'founding families' we were heavily engaged. This was instrumental because by being engaged my parents and siblings began to notice subtle differences that, over a few years, became instrumental.  The seeds of the Second Vatican Council and perhaps more than one weed had found purchase and it resulted in our return to our original parish, then the Ukrainian Rite and finally in 1982, we found the little chapel served by Fr. Normandin (RIP).

 

I will say that initially, I didn't want to be at the Traditional Mass.  It was so different and foreign to my earlier life that it took time to adapt.  My first experience was memorable and highly negative.  I may tell that story later.  What I want to highlight at that point was something that, in hindsight, I noticed.  One of my siblings became very scrupulous and literal to almost a dogmatic level.  This, I now know, is dangerous because, like the resistance, it blinds people to what is really required to stay a faithful catholic in this crisis.

Perspective.

This perspective is achieved by study, a strong spiritual life, and practice.  We can never be a perfect catholic, like doctors who practice medicine, we must practice Catholicism.

I will try to convey what I've learned and noticed in this series (outline below) and kick off the series trying to answer a question left by Murrax on the Unhinged Catholics (link) post.

 P^3

Series Outline

Series Purpose: Discussing how to live as a Catholic is a decidedly indifferent and "liberal" world

Label: Series - Navigating Catholic Life

  1. Intro
  2. Being a Good Husband and Father (reply to Murrax comment)
  3. Strategic Planning: A Catholic's Plan for Life
  4. Risks and Worries: Risk Management for Life
  5. Golf Analogy: Pay Attention!
  6. Stress and More Stress: Dealing with the Demands of 21st Century Life as a Human
  7. Start Now, Tomorrow is a Wish, Not a Promise: Child is the Father of the Man, Child is the Mother of the Woman. Aka Child is the Parent of the Future
  8. Confusion: Fertile Field for Disagreements and Conflicts
  9. Exhaustipation: To Tire to Give a Poop
  10. Locus of Control
  11. Offence: Taking and Offering
  12. Arguments and Emotions
  13. What I would tell my past self about the future
  14. Most People in My life have been transient: Stability in this life is illusionary
  15. Three Paths: Same Situ, Different Situ, You Exit the Situ
  16. Decisions and Action:
  17. Wet Soap Bar: Harder you try to hold-on the more likely it is to shoot out of your hands
  18. Clarity: What is clear to me is not clear to others!
  19. Why Do I Go to the SSPX for the Sacraments?
  20. People and Relations
  21. Your Story vs Others Stories
  22. Balance Providence and Prudence:
  23. Vivid and Creative Imagination: A Gift From God
  24. Wonder and Life
  25. Life is Simple, People are Complicated:
  26. Value and Values:
  27. The Truth
  28. The Four States of A Soul
  29. Not Knowing the Future: Is a mercy of God
  30. Golf and Catholic Life
  31. Wisdom from the Father-In-Law 
  32. When a tree falls
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Count Capponi - RIP

By
+ JMJ I had heard of Count Capponi over the years and was happy to hear a voice crying in the wilderness. I suspect that his conscience was clearer than many. This part of the article caught my attention: Capponi defended the right of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre to continue his work without the label “schismatic,” which term Capponi rejected, saying: “You cannot apply the standards of the new code of canon law and the mentality of the old code. According to the new code, Lefebvre could do what he did with a Catholic intention, and he did what he did in ‘sincerity’ and invoked the ‘state of emergency’ argument, which the new code permits. You might not like the new code, but it’s what governs the Church.” I know a few people who tried to stir up a fuss when the SSPX cited the New Code in one of the documents with Rome.  Yet, the truth is what it is --- the New Code was promulgated by a reigning Pope and flawed as it is ... there are some benefits to its liberality. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is it sinful to attend the Novus Ordo (New Mass) - Is it Sinful to Not Attend the Novus Ordo on Sunday?

By
+ JMJ A non-SSPX Catholic is upset over the SSPX statements on not attending the Novus Ordo Missae. Ladies and gentlemen, what the SSPX, or at least its website editor, is advocating is a mortal sin against the Third Commandment.  Unless the priest deviates from the language of the Sacramentary, the consecration, and thus the rest of Mass is to be considered valid.  No one may elect not to attend Mass simply because abuses are occurring therein.  Might I suggest that such absenteeism is its own abuse?  The Third Commandment binds under mortal sin.  Father So-And-So from the SSPX has no authority whatsoever to excuse attendance at Mass, be that Mass ever so unpalatable. Source:Restore DC Catholicism Well, this is interesting. First why does the SSPX issue this statement? Because it is sinful to put your faith in danger by attending a protestant service.  It is likewise dangerous to put your faith in danger by attending a protestantized ma...
Post a Comment
Read more

Those who return to the past are not outside the Church - Rorate Caeli

By
+ JMJ I had been thinking about putting together a post explaining some of the history of how the SSPX has arrived at its current position. Now I see that Rorate has posted a translated editorial that shows the roots of the SSPX principles. In reading these words, I see patterns and themes that were put forward by Archbishop Lefebvre decades ago. Perhaps his sight was clearer than most. P^3
Post a Comment
Read more

Fr. Burfitt on Fr. Pfeiffer's Attempted Consecration

By
 + JMJ   Amidst the shadows cast by the publication of Traditionis Custodes, I am working on a map of the 'resistance' splinters to put their reaction in contrast with that of the SSPX.  In the midst of this, I just came across Fr. Burfitt letter on the attempted consecration. Breaking it down (see below)  items 2 and 3 are key.  Just as the consecrating bishop is 'doubtful', even if he hadn't muffed the first attempt, Fr. Pfeiffer remain doubtful and therefore this impacts those men is attempts to 'ordain'. There were rumours that Fr. Pfeiffer was seeking episcopal consecration for years as he cast about for various bishops (also doubtful) to help him achieve this goal. I wonder how he convinced the 'doubtful' bishop to provide (twice) the doubtful consecration. What a mess!  This creates a danger to the souls of his followers and wonder where it will end. Will he go full sede and have himself 'elected' pontiff as others have done before him...
Post a Comment
Read more

SSPX Transfers

By
+ JMJ Eponymous flow posted the following list of transfers etc. Source: http://eponymousflower.blogspot.com/2020/04/castling-of-leadership-at-sspx.html The departures Bishop Bernard Fellay, the third Superior General until 2018, leaves the General House in Menzingen and moves to the Seminary of St. Thomas Aquinas in the USA. Bishop Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, suffering from ill health, is being referred to the Seminary of St. Pius X in Ecene as a retreat. Fr. Christian Thouvenot, until now Secretary General of the General House, becomes a professor at the seminary in Ecene. Fr. Franz Schmidberger, until now Rector at the Seminary of the Heart of Jesus in Zaitzkofen, moves to the district of Germany. Fr. Jürgen Wegner, until now district superior of the DISTRICT USA, moves to the district of Austria. Fr. Philippe Brunet, until now Superior of the Autonomous House of Spain-Portugal, becomes professor at the Seminary U.L.F. and co-saviour of La Reja in...
2 comments
Read more