Setting The Record Straight

The account of “The Patriarchal Family” in Human History” by the famous Catholic historian Christopher Dawson concludes that without enough fathering a culture always dies in a few decades. It is almost too late to reverse the demographic collapse of families in Western culture and the end of our civilization. What happened to our Dads? Yet we must not despair. When we look back it becomes clear that the revolutionary Christian marriage vows reformed the patriarchal family structure. This is the way back. These vows dedicate spouses completely to each other, while honoring Dads as the indispensable foundation of moral authority in a marriage and thus in society.

What happened to our Dads? Where did they go? How did Dads lose their honored status in the Christian family described in the Bible? Are Dads at fault or were they chased away from their children? We might find part of the answer when we consider the natural families of other advanced mammal species. New scientific studies have indicated that the Father is the most important foundation of a family. Are we a matriarchy or have Dads been replaced by a Super-Dad; a Patriarchal government using the power of welfare, public schools, media, and free health-care?

Astonishing Louis IX was one of God’s great gifts to the entire world as a model of wisdom, virtue, and temperament. He was the real life embodiment of the legendary wise king described in many religions. He commanded the largest army ruled the largest and wealthiest kingdom, and led the European centre of arts and intellectual thought. In wartime he displayed genius as an innovator in the art of military logistics and wise strategy. He courageously fought at the front of every battle. In peacetime his compassionate character led him to introduce a humane legal system and to spend time listening face to face to the common people, defending them against nobles when necessary. Beggars were fed from his table, he ate their leavings, washed their feet, ministered to the wants of the lepers, and daily personally fed over one hundred poor.

“Merrie Old England” is an accurate description of the good times of the 13th Century. People had refined manners and open hearts. Troubadours sang of idealized love. Chivalry ennobled men and protected women. Secular life was clustered securely around the Catholic Church’s monasteries, universities, and hospitals. Intellectuals abounded. Communities were small so a lot of laws and administration were not needed. The secular guilds were democratic organizations that cared for their member’s earthly needs from the cradle to the grave. There was very little poverty. There were old age and disability pensions, and even insurance of all types.

Universities are a natural invention of the Catholic Church. They are one of the many beneficial gifts Catholic Culture showered on the world in the 13th Century - The Age Of Illumination. The universities had a larger number of students that they do today. They were administered by democratically elected student fraternal organizations, not by the professors. There was an academic freedom so liberated that it puts to shame our modern politically correct university communities. As a result the 13th Century University provided a safe home for an unmatched concentration of great scientists, philosophers, theologists, medical doctors, legal experts, artists, writers, and musicians. Though it was 250 years before printing, anyone could borrow the numerous hand-copied books from university lending libraries, even the gloriously illuminated ones. It was a time of intelligence, sacredness, trust, happiness, and sublime earthly works.

Light ! The brilliance of God’s grace that illumines our lives reached its peak in the 13th Century. Some call it ”The Greatest Century”, but it should be called “The Age of Illumination”. The most apt symbol of the 13th century is the ingenious Basilica of Saint-Denis which was created by Abbot Suger to open the inner space to streams of sunlight. Following the 13th Century was the hyper-rational era called “The Enlightenment”. It should be called “The Darkening”. “The Darkening” shut out God’s guiding light and has led civilizations, following mankind’s perverse inclinations, down into one murderous revolution after another. In contrast listen to the magnificent and delightful effects “The Age Of Illumination”.Short stories by Catholic Authors that present a positive image of the Catholic Church http://www.catholicstories.net

Art has flooded from Catholicdom in greater abundance and unmatched beauty than anything produced in other cultures in any period. One is led to attribute this cornucopia of genius to God the Creator having graced the human species with an extraordinary creativity. An ability that imitates His own; that is the image of His own. A wellspring of God’s beauty gushed forth through God’s human creatures from the earliest days of the Catholic Church. It reach an astounding height as an illuminating positive response to the darkness shadows of the Protestant Reformation. This crest of created beauty continued for four centuries. Is it over?Short stories by Catholic Authors that present a positive image of the Catholic Church. http://www.catholicstories.net

An Old Civilization vanished. It had been millions of years old, climaxing in the magnificence of Christendom/Catholicdom. In the USA it was replaced by layers of mutually intolerant civilizations called Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z, etcetera. Was this just natural “progress”? No. It was the result of a carefully executed cultural project executed in full view. Although many deny its existence, this Culture War succeeds the same way every where, beginning with Bismarck, and continuing with Soviet subversion, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and the Communist takeover of 32 countries after World War Two. The subtle lever of Public Schools and the hoax of Peer Group socialization were inserted under societal foundations toppling countries into a world in which governments became the parents.Short stories by Catholic Authors that present a positive image of the Catholic Church. http://www.catholicstories.net

We all know the ghastly story of “The Spanish Inquisition” conducted by a violent Roman Catholic Church. However the story is a lie, a slander, war propaganda, disinformation, in other words a deliberate hoax. The legend of the Grand Inquisitor is so dramatic, delicious, and astonishing that many people think that it has to be true.But there is no data to support it. Fortunately the Dominicans kept complete highly detailed records of the proceedings for 240 years. The actual data reveal that the so-called “Spanish Inquisition” was the most advanced humane and even gentle court in Christendom at the time. Listen and be astonished at how easily fooled we can be by a good lie.

Civilization is teetering on the edge of a precipice. We have been led there, blindfolded and credulous, by the retreat of humility before hubris. The coincidence of the arrival of the internet, glamorous and efficient, with the simultaneous retreat of a sensible Christian awareness of the flawed nature of mankind is a disaster. We have charged heedlessly into building our most vital systems on the fragile foundation of the easily corruptible internet. After 35 years of creating Information Technology systems Chuck offers his pessimistic analysis based on the typical character of IT professionals. He found that their rampant hubris, charged by the seductive lure of technological novelty, caused them to undervalue the tender humanistic needs for which IT systems were supposed to have been created. He also comments on the similar retreat of humble truth-seeking that has deteriorated contemporary science.

Listen to Part 2 of the amazing and true life story of Father John Gerard. This is an except from “The Hunted Priest”, the autobiography of John Gerard, a Jesuit priest, who risked all in a savagely anti-Catholic England under Elizabeth I. He had been condemned to be tortured to death in the Tower of London yet managed to make a incredible escape. He survived to live a long life, multiplying generously his granted portion of God’s love.

Truth is more amazing than fiction. Especially when Jesuits write about what they will endure for the love of Christ. The Hunted Priest is an autobiography of John Gerard, a priest who dared and defied a savagely anti-Catholic England under Elizabeth I. At first he disguised himself as a country gentlemen and traveled about secretly administering the sacraments to underground Catholics. When he was found out, he hid in a series of the infamous “priest holes”, emerging once a day to say Mass and perform the sacraments. Captured, he was condemned to be tortured to death in the Tower of London. Listen to what happened next for that was only the beginning of his story.

Its Father’s Day ! We honor our Dads ! However in this “progressive” age many us have fathers that have disappeared from our lives. Some even have no idea who their father is. The one parent family is common now. Manhood is routinely condemned. Did this happen inevitably? Perhaps it could have been prevented if we knew its cause? It is curious that we do know its cause but most people refuse to believe it. It is a tragedy that the pathological effects of fatherlessness are not just emotional and social but include permanent neurological damage to the developing child.

How can today’s sensible secular intellectuals account for the unmatchable beauty, the order, and technical genius of the music of the Catholic “West”? “Parsifal” is Richard Wagner’s greatest opera. Unfortunately for some it is unashamedly Catholic and luminescent with sacred beauty. What had happened to the younger Wagner who, in Tristan and Isolde, had abandoned the order of logos and unleashed the relativistic chaos that eventually produced a school of modern classical music so ugly that no one now wants to hear it? Perhaps in “Parsifal” he had found the true sensuousness within the logos.

Unique and stupendous! No product of any other culture approaches the magnificent beauty and fecundity of the tidal wave of Catholic Art that began in the Church’s so-called “Counter Reformation”. The phenomenon occurred in every art form. Elizabeth Lev has just published a delicious book about this that is briefly reviewed here. This review leads into proposing a vision of what we will do in a heaven that is creative and fun. Finally there is a statement from Jordan Peterson about Catholicism that cannot be missed.

Vanished ! A thousand years ago there was a magnificent town. It clustered around the world’s largest basilica. It was the most advanced center of art and science on earth, and was carefully administered with sublime orderliness. Knowledgeable historians agree that our modern world began there on one particular day. There the “West” was founded. Now only a ruined tower stands alone. Much of the best ideas that formed our nation is were conceived and made real there. Like lost Camelot, not even a drawing of it can be found. Atheistic iconoclasts, once again, did a thorough job of destroying the inspired, lovely, and complex works of Catholics. Now few care that even the last insubstantial memories of it have begun to vanish.

“Saving souls” was the bold way Catholics used to casually refer to evangelizing. Christ commissioned us all to perform this laborious and dangerous endeavor. The courageous among us have obeyed Him. Listen to a brief sample of these amazing reports, called Jesuit Relations, that record the adventures of the brilliant and Indomitable French Jesuits in North America in the 17th century. The reports were published every year and were always best sellers in France.

This is Part 2 of reflections on the fire at Notre Dame du Paris. Chuck converses with his young son Dawson wondering how much we must lose of what is beloved and revered. In this first of two Podcasts they explore hopeful possibilities that arise from Catholicism, the Bible, Eschatology, and Astrophysics.The near loss of Notre Dame du Paris was heartbreaking for hundreds of millions of people. Perhaps It will be restored as it has been several times in the past, perhaps as a Catholic Church again. However ultimately will Notre Dame du Paris be lost forever ?

Reflect with Chuck and his young son Dawson as they converse, examining questions of how much on earth we must lose of what is beloved and revered. In this first of two Podcasts they explore hopeful possibilities that arise from Catholicism, the Bible, Eschatology, and Astrophysics.The near loss of Notre Dame du Paris was heartbreaking for hundreds of millions of people. Perhaps It will be restored as it has been several times in the past, perhaps as a Catholic Church again. However ultimately will Notre Dame du Paris be lost forever ?

“The Imitation Of Christ” is one of the most widely read works of Catholic literature. Many Christians have found these instructions, originally intended for novitiates, to affect them as if they were the words of a compassionate parent, clearly and gently leading them to center their attention on and in God. This is the last in a series of readings drawn from great spiritual writings offered for reflection during Lent of 2019.

Next in the series of inspiring reflections for Lent are these brief passages from The Philokalia. Next to the Bible itself The Philokalia is the most revered literary source for spiritual guidance for many Eastern Orthodox Catholics. Much of The Philokalia was written in the early centuries AD.

For Lent, another offering of ancient stories, mostly about love, from the Desert Fathers and Mothers. In their radical commitment to asceticism and simplicity the Fathers and Mothers were early Catholic Coptic peasants of Egypt who present a direct challenge to comfortable Christianity. They are honest and humble about their sins. One Father wonders why he has been kept away from sin by fear of barking dogs rather than of fear of God.

Another Lenten reading. This stunning treasure from an anonymous monk in the14th century has been wildly popular since it first appeared. When you read it, the terse and artless writing sounds new, as if it was written tomorrow. If you are a contemplative Catholic and have not known of it before you must encounter it now for this an essential work for contemplatives. “The Cloud of Unknowing” tells of a way to contemplate God, not only when we receive the Eucharist, or kneel in silence in the Adoration Chapel, but in each moment in our life’s stream of tiny moments.

Listen to a few little stories and thoughts the Desert Fathers and Mothers. These early Catholic ascetics entered into solitude first of all to meet our Lord and to be with Him and Him alone. They discovered that only with a single-minded attention to Christ were they able to give up the victimizing compulsions of the world and face their own true natures. Sometimes they found humility.

A treasure. Quiet reflections for Lent from The Philokalia. Next to the Bible itself The Philokalia is the most revered  literary source for spiritual guidance for the Eastern Catholics. Since much of it had its source in the early centuries when all Catholics were united under the Pope, It should be better known by all Catholics.