They May Take Our Lives, But They’ll Never Take Our Freeeedooooommmmm!

The Fortnight For Freedom has begun. What are ya’ll doing about it? This has major ramifications for religious freedom, as well as what “religion” actually means to the government and the American masses. Let me be totally clear about this:

Religion is not something that happens inside of a house of worship and nowhere else the other six days of the week. It is not simply a preference or a lifestyle choice; by definition, religion transcends the boundaries that civil government would like to impose upon it. It is our first loyalty, superseding all else. Don’t push us, or you’ll find that out right quick.

But seriously, guys,

Sts. John Fisher and Thomas More, Orate Pro Nobis!

Flores Apparuerunt in Terra Nostra!

Happy summer! I have finished finals, term papers, and moved back home for the next few months. Is that a sufficient excuse for the long gap since my last post? The title of today’s post means “flowers appeared in our land”, and it’s taken from a Gradual used for certain Feasts of Our Lady. It’s appropriate, I think, because it is Our Lady’s month and also because Flos just apparuit in her own land. The text of the Gradual comes from the Song of Solomon, I believe. I find it to be rather reminiscent of Tolkien, like when Bilbo goes to Rivendell, or perhaps the Shire in May. (It is more likely that Tolkien is reminiscent of this, but you know what I mean…) Here it is, sung by some splendid Carmelites. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvRcGRTi_wE

While I’m at it, may I say, Mary is simply grand! She kissed God on the forehead and tucked Him into bed every night. That just blows my mind thinking about it. Sure, there were people who played ball with God and ate dinner with Him and said “Bless you” when He sneezed (ha!) and got invited to His birthday parties (what an ontologically fascinating event that must have been!), but Our Lady was the only one who KNEW the gravity of these interactions on a full and consistent basis. Even our august Fathers, the Apostles, had a great deal of trouble with understanding all this at first. But she knew! No wonder she constantly “pondered these things in her heart”. People often say their children “mean the world” to them, but in Mary’s case, it was utterly and universally true.That is why she is so eminently suited to be our Mother and Mediatrix. If you can be an excellent mother to the Hypostatic Union Himself, then handling a few billion ordinary souls is small potatoes.

What I would like to address more specifically today, however, is the aspect of Our Lady that I feel does not get addressed enough in our time: her Queenship of Heaven and Earth. We approach her as children and address her with such newfangled epithets as ‘Mamma Mary” and such, and this is not wrong, but it allows us, perhaps, to forget that she is not like our earthly mothers; she is above them in every respect. We are her subjects, “slaves of this august princess” (to quote St. Louis de Montfort, in all his orthodox splendor), and she is our better. Consider what C.S. Lewis, Anglican though he was, understood about our special relationship with Mary: “The Roman Catholic beliefs on that subject [Our Lady] are held not only with the ordinary fervour that attaches to all sincere religious belief, but (very naturally) with the peculiar and, as it were, chivalrous sensibility that a man feels when the honour of his mother or his beloved is at stake. It is very difficult so to dissent from them that you will not appear to them a cad as well as a heretic.”

Note Lewis’s use of the term “chivalrous sensibility”. This is an idea lost in the wake of Modernism and, in some ways, democracy as well. We don’t put much stock in chivalry in the twenty-first century, and the idea of having a Lady to serve is alien to American sensibilities. Nonetheless, here we are, veritable scullery maids and stable boys of the Eternal Kingdom, with a most certainly existent Lord and Lady. Perhaps with work, we can become ladies-in-waiting or knights. You know the old adage, “dress for the job you want, not the job you have”? The same basic principle holds true here. Act like her knight or lady-in-waiting, and maybe you will be someday. Isn’t that a lovely thought, that not only do you, Joe Catholic, get to attack life every morning as if you were a Knight of Our Lady, if you do it well enough, perhaps you will be someday? And you, Josephine Catholic, are similarly expected to face the dawn as if you were a Lady-in-Waiting to the Mother of God. Does that not lend a certain dignity to your every act? Does it not awaken in your very soul an understanding that you were made for greater things? Understand this, O Thoroughly-Western-Postmoderns, having a Queen does not diminish you in the least. Rather, it imbues your every act, if done in her service, with significance.

Devotions

Over spring break, I went on awesome day-trip with a longtime friend. We drove up to Philadelphia, visited the Shrine of St. John Neumann, and then afterwards went to a talk given by Dr. Alice von Hildebrand. (She is wonderfully witty and so devastatingly intelligent! I love her work, but that is a subject for another post.) Anyway, we got to venerate a relic of St. John Neumann and look at some of his personal effects that were on display. That must have gotten us both thinking about the general subject of Catholic devotions, because when we got back in the car to drive to the lecture, we started talking about all the things we have heard about, seen other people do, and done ourselves in that realm. I remarked (I was Catholic-geeking out) “Argh! Why can’t we just do all the devotions?!”

His reply was simple and brought me back down to earth at once: “Well, you can’t. Then you’d be a devotion hog. Please don’t become one of those. You’d be insufferable!” Ladies and gents, this guy is a brother to me, like a known-him-since-kindergarten, Clare-Francis (except not nearly as awesome, obviously) type deal. That’s why I took what he said into such account.

We all know Devotion Hogs, don’t we? The people who are always pushing some new chaplet or cause or thing you have to wear under you clothes, and you can hear them coming up behind you because they jingle when they walk? I admit it, I walk that fine line every day. I think I’ve reached critical mass myself at the moment; I wear a Brown Scapular, two religious medals, a Cincture of St Joseph, and I have a chain around my ankle as a reminder that I’m Our Lady’s slave (Total Consecration, St. Louis de Montfort). That’s a LOT of stuff, and it might well make me a Devotion Hog. Let’s break it down a little more, though, to get to the meaning of all this stuff.

The point of devotions, and all other sacramentals, is that they point us towards God, bind us closer to His Church, and help us to acquire grace. If you get to the point where you resemble a human Christmas tree and can’t remember to say all the prayers that go along with it, you’ve defeated the purpose of Catholic devotions. At the heart of the matter, every devotion is an OBLIGATION on our part to a certain form of pious practice. For instance, Brown Scapulars aren’t necklaces; they are Our Lady’s livery, and if you wear one, you ought to be saying the Rosary daily, or at least a goodly number of Hail Marys. Other things, like chains worn after one’s Total Consecration, are supposed to be constant reminders to you of your total submission and dedication to Jesus through Mary. Some devotionals, like St. Joseph’s cinctures, fall into both categories; you need to say the Prayer to St. Joseph for purity every day, and having a small rope around your waist helps you remember to act and think chastely, and actively prevents you from dressing immodestly as well.

I suppose the point I’m getting at here is that we shouldn’t overdo these things, or we will forget what it’s all about. On the other hand, if you aren’t doing many of these sorts of things at all, you might not be actively reminded of what it’s all about either. This is a good opportunity to examine your own devotional practices. Too much going on? Downsize! Chances are, you’ll get more graces from cleaning house and doing just a few things well. Not enough going on? Start with a Miraculous Medal or Brown Scapular, and get it down before adding other things. Bottom line: Catholic devotions are awesome, and they deserve to be lived awesomely.

Happy St. Gemma’s Day!

I am terribly, terribly excited about today! It’s the feast of my dear Big Sister, Gemma Galgani. She is so incredibly awesome and I just wish more people knew about her. So instead of being Wamblecropped this Wednesday (it is Easter, after all), I am going to talk about her beautiful life.

St. Gemma was born near Lucca, Italy in 1878 and was the fifth of eight children. Her family was fairly well-off and her father was a pharmacist. Her mother died when she was young, and she, as the eldest girl, became responsible for the care of her siblings. After the death of her father she was sent to live with relatives. She was very intelligent but was unable to continue her schooling due to ill health. She exhibited a remarkable attraction to prayer from a very young age and was extremely protective of her purity. She desired to become a nun, but was turned away by several orders due to her health. She was blessed with many spiritual favors, including visions, constant conversation with her Guardian Angel, and, perhaps most famously, the Stigmata. She lived the last years of her life with a wealthy family in Lucca and died in 1903.

If you want to learn more about her, check out this website: www.stgemma.com, but don’t go crazy clicking on their external links, because they have some crazy stuff going on. Their free holy card thing is nice though.

Blessed be God in His Angels and in His Saints!

Christus Surrexit!

Vere surrexit! Alleluia!

Folks, it’s been some time indeed since last I posted, and I have had lots of time to think about the direction in which this blog should go in the future. I’ve been intellectually lazy about it at times, and that’s simply not worth reading. Hopefully the content on here will become more interesting in the coming weeks.

Shrove Tuesday: Party Down!

I hope you all have a fabulous day, that you all get shrived (because that’s what Shrove Tuesday is actually about, shrift…), and that you all nail your hearts to the foot of the Cross, as St. Alphonsus Liguori put it, and stay there for all of this Lent. I’ll see you all again come Easter.
Laudetur Jesus Christus!

I Don’t Always Do This…

But when I do, it’s always for a good reason. Miss Patricia (It’s utterly weird to call one’s elders by their first names. Is this because I’m old-fashioned or a born and raised Virginian?) over at I Want to See God has “tagged” me in one of those meme things in which one has to say their three favorite religion-y books and then tag other people to do the same. I am going to happily comply because she is a lovely lady, from what I have seen in my comment boxes and her blog. Besides, she’s a Carmelite fangirl, like yours truly. So this one goes out to you, Ma’am!

Pick Number One: The Life of St. Gemma Galgani by Ven. Fr. Germanus, C.P. Ok, so aside from the fact that I’m horribly biased because St. Gemma was my Confirmation Saint, she was pretty much the most awesome turn-of-the-century Italian mystic ever. People, she could FLY and she had the STIGMATA. She was also madly in love with Jesus and she lived her rather short life with wild abandonment to the grace of God. She is utterly incredible and everyone needs to know who she is. Fr. Germanus, who is himself on track for canonization, was her spiritual director, and he wrote this biography after her death in 1903. If you can read this book without crying, there is something wrong with you.

Pick Number Two: The Story of a Soul by St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. If you have never heard of it, you need to find new friends. If you have heard of it but haven’t read it, get on it! And if you’ve read it but didn’t cry, there is something wrong with you.

Pick Number Three: The Baltimore Catechism by The Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church. I know that this is technically several books, but it’s one work. It’s everything they didn’t teach you in RCIA, CCD or parochial school. It’s also everything you need to know by heart about your religion. Crying is optional for this one.

At this point, I am supposed to tag five other people to do the same thing, but I don’t know of five people who haven’t been invited to do this already. So I am going to be an utter spoilsport and instead give you five more awesome books. Lucky, lucky you.

Pick Number 4: Fifty-Seven Saints by Eileen Heffernan. This is a must-read for any Catholic child. My copy was falling apart from being read and re-read by the time I was thirteen. This book is literally full of black saints, white saints, saints that climbed on rocks, even saints with smallpox. I would not have the relationships with all the magnificent Big Brothers and Sisters that I do today without this grand book.

Pick Number 5: The Douay-Rheims Bible. Why? Because. People always make such a fuss about how much nicer the King James Bible sounds than the New American Bible. But the King James is missing some of the best parts! The Douay-Rheims has the distinction of both sounding like the words of the King of the Universe and containing all the books at the same time.

Pick Number 6: The Vulgate (or at least the New Testament from the Vulgate) Need a motto for yourself or your family, or some text for that new tattoo you’ve been wanting? This would be the place to find it. Also, carrying one around makes you feel super Catholic, I betcha.

Pick Number 7: Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton. GK is the man. This is probably the best place to find awesome Chesterton quotes (because every English-speaking Catholic ought to have at least one favorite memorized) as well as his life’s philosophy.

Pick Number 8: Handbook of Christian Apologetics by Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli. After reading this book, my friends and I began using the term “relativist” as a personal insult. It’s full of detailed arguments and explanations, and it is one of the few works on apologetics today that abides by the time-honored philosophic principle of charity. It’s a good reference when the faith needs defending, whether against other people, or your own fallen nature.