Moritur et Ridet

Thread One ^ | 1952 | Whittaker Chambers

[Askel5]

On the Feastday of St. Benedict.

[Askel5]

I'd appreciate a ping to the Catholics and a prayer our age is so fortunate as to have its own Saint Benedict.

God knows we are in desperate need of such a man.

[B-Chan]

B-chan Birthday Bump...

[mercy]

BUMP

[Askel5]

Aw ... Happy Birthday, B-Chan! What a feastday to share.

[B-Chan]

I'll celebrate with a glass of Benedictine tonight...

[Dumb_Ox]

It is always dangerous to draw too precise parallels between one historical period and another; and among the more misleading of such parallels are those which have been drawn between our own age ... and the epoch in which the Roman Empire declined into the Dark Ages. Nonetheless certain parallels there are. ... What they set themselves to achieve - often not recognizing fully what they were doing - was the construction of new forms of community within which the moral life could be sustained so that both morality and civility might survive the coming ages of barbarism and darkness. If my account of our moral condition is correct, we ought also to conclude that for some time now we too have reached that turning point. ... This time, however, the barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers, they have already been governing us for quite some time. And it is our lack of consciousness of this that constitutes part of our predicament. We are not waiting for Godot, but for another - and doubtless very different - St. Benedict.
-Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue

[Askel5]

Oh Dumb_Ox ... magnificent addition. Thank you so much.

[Askel5]

I was waiting for yours ... Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readgins, Memorial to St. Benedict, Abbot

Regards.

[Salvation]

My apologies.

I met with our Deacon today to turn in the Archdiosecan reports for Disciples in Mission (an evangelization program that is being promoted in connection with the USCCB letter, Go and Make Disciples, came home and ate lunch, and my son showed up with a new microwave for my kitchen!

So, of course, that meant cleaning up the kitchen, right? LOL! My apologies for being so late.

[Bob J]

TONIGHT (6pm pdt/9pm edt) on UNSPUN!

ANN COULTER and JESSE LEE PETERSON!

Click HERE and Listen LIVE while you FREEP!

ALSO! RadioFR's new CHAT SERVER IS UP! Come on in and CHAT!

[Salvation]

For we sense, in the year 1952, that we may stand closer to the year 410 than at any time in the centuries since.

And in the sunrise of the 21st Century we ALL need to stand close to these "pray and work" guidelines.

[Salvation]

And thanks for posting Thread Two!

[Askel5]

Not worry ... I certainly didn't mean to complain. I was just plotting to nab the link the moment I got your ping.

Sounds like you're doing good work and DID good work on your son. What a nice surprise. (I could use a good excuse to rearrange and clean the kitchen, myself. =)

Best regards, Salvation.

[logos]

Oddly enough, I'm a graduate of a Benedictine College (which one isn't important). It seems to me that it is often - if not always - that the things most true and most profound are also the most simple ... the things we see or experience in some way, and only years later (too often!) say, "Well, duh!"

[patent]

>>>>I venture that it did something else as well. For those who obeyed it, it ended three great alienations of the spirit whose action, I suspect, touched on that missing something which my instructors failed to find among the cause of the fall of Rome. The same alienations, I further suspect, can be seen at their work of dissolution among ourselves, and are perhaps among the little noticed reasons why men turn to Communism. They are: the alienations of the spirit of man from traditional authority; his alienation from the idea of traditional order; and a crippling alienation that he feels at the point where civilization has deprived him of the joy of simple productive labor.

Very interesting article, thanks for the bump Askel.

patent

[Siobhan]

a Catholic ping for St. Benedict

[Askel5]

Keeping you and yours in my prayers, Siobhan.

[Askel5]

I don't wish to start anything with those who are abuzz with talk of olives or looking to the last Benedict or two for clues.

Just thought another look at the original might be in order ... a few of the paragraphs lending real perspective to Chambers' observations around the time of our last Benedict.

Please ping if you think it worthy.

[St. Johann Tetzel]

What was there in this little book [St. Benedict’s Holy Rule] that changed the world? ... In an age of pillar saints and furiously competing athletes of the spirit, when men plunged by thousands into the desert, in a lunge towards God, and revulsion from man, St. Benedict’s Rule brought a saving and creative sanity. Its temper was that of moderation as against excesses of zeal, of fruitful labor as against austerities pushed to the point of fruitlessness, of discipline as against enthusiasm, of continence of spirit and conduct as against incontinence.

...in a shattered society, the Holy Rule, to those who submitted to is mild but strict sway, restored the discipline and power of Roman family life....

For those who obeyed it, it ended three great alienations of the spirit .... The same alienations, I further suspect, can be seen at their work of dissolution among ourselves, and are perhaps among the little noticed reasons why men turn to Communism. They are: the alienations of the spirit of man from traditional authority; his alienation from the idea of traditional order; and a crippling alienation that he feels at the point where civilization has deprived him of the joy of simple productive labor.

These alienations St. Benedict fused into a new surge of the human spirit by directing the frustrations that informed them into the disciplined service of God. At the touch of his mild inspiration, the bones of a new order stirred and clothed themselves with life, drawing to itself much of what was best and most vigorous among the ruins of man and his work in the Dark Ages, and conserving and shaping its energy for that unparalleled outburst of mind and spirit in the Middle Ages. For about the Benedictine monasteries what we, having casually lost the Christian East, now casually call the West, once before regrouped and saved itself.

Lots of folks are asking about Ratzinger taking the name "Benedict." As Askel5 noted, its a good idea to look at the original.

You are being pinged because you previously requested to be added to my personal "orthodox Catholics" ping list. If you would like to be added or removed, please send me a FReepmail. --Dr. Brian Kopp (Polycarp IV)