Pride in Charity

I think I need to take these posts in a new direction. Recently I've fallen into a rut of commentary on issues that do not (and perhaps can not) increase charity in souls.While I in no way intended to shy away from denouncing problems in the modern Church and proposing remedies, in the next few weeks I want to make an effort to write for the edification of those who come across this blog.

Something that has been on my mind recently has been the unnatural human tendency towards pride - and even pride in the pursuit of charity and truth.

There was a recent Washington Post article that discussed a certain Presbyterian Church's attempt to overhaul their foreign mission trip program based on how the director felt the experience was oftentimes a counter productive attempt to gratify oneself at the expense of the very people one is attempting to aid. The pastor argued that economics was a factor as well. Its expensive to fly unskilled workers overseas to paint a church or build a fence when the same could easily be done in the United States.

Critically evaluate the above arguments and read the article from the Post.

I admit, at first glance it sounded like a reasonable explanation. I know people who have gone on what essentially ammounted to "feel good field trips" with the possibility of meeting girls - things these people unabashedly admitted. However, I think my initial reaction points towards the first point of this piece: tendency towards pride even when one is prompted towards charity.

Going on a legitimate mission trip where the participants are motivated towards increasing charity in the souls they encounter and attempting to serve the least among us with profound humility would be an unbelievable opportunity to grow in holiness. Nevertheless, I would question my motivations for going. Am I interested in the appearance of holiness? Am I using this as a means to pat myself on the back for being a swell guy? Are my actions motivated by charity or self-righteousness?

In a recent conversation with friends I found that I was not alone in having these initial thoughts, and the responses I receieved were note worthy.

One of my friends spoke of the raw power of charity. Whether self-righteousness or sincere humility motivate one to act with charity - one will be rewarded with the grace to overcome self-righteous pride or persevere in humility.

Therefore when thou dost an almsdeed, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honoured by men. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward.But when thou dost alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth. That thy alms may be in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret will repay thee. (Matt 6: 2-4)

In this passage, Our Lord entreats us to act with charity and humility, but does not say that he who acts charitibly in a perverted spirit will be denied a reward for his charity. Thus, from this perspective we should pursue charity relentlessly without over analyzing a particular situation. The fact that these questions could motivate one to fail to act with charity are an indication that they are not from God who is Charity.

The conversation continued and another one of my friends commented that the fact that these questions over one's motives arise is a beautiful testament to human folly - to how little we can do on our own. These thoughts and the human tendancy to pride, once recognized, can be a means of humbling oneself before God, the Father who seeth in secret (Matt. 6:6). One's response would undoubtedly be: "Look at me! I cannot even act with chairty without being self-righteous! Without my God to act within me I could do nothing for the good."

I am reminded of the Psalmist - Unless the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. Unless the Lord keep the city, he watcheth in vain that keepeth it.(Ps. 126: 1-2) How often should we keep this verse in our hearts (See Image Above)

The two approaches to this problem both have essentially the same end in mind - to encourage one to act with charity because any promptings not to even for the appearance of self-righteousness and pride should be discounted. As in all things, it would be a great benefit to consult one's Confessor regarding battles with pride especially if these scrupulus battles lead one away from charity.

Tirelessly pursue charity in all things! Be fearless in the pursuit of self-immolation for the sake of charity! Continue to pray and make acts of reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus who is so often neglected and offended. Especially pray through the intercession of Our Lady under the title of Immaculatta – Who Has Destroyed All Heresies to watch over the Church and especially Benedict our Pope. And remember me as well.

Ad Meioram Dei Gloriam

Image Courtesy of http://hallowedground.wordpress.com/2008/06/08/hope/

World Youth Day – “Novelty Usurps Beauty”

I have spoken with several people in recent days about Pope Benedict’s wonderful messages from World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia. To be perfectly honest, I have only read one of them, his address to the youth wherein he writes,

“Do not be fooled by those who see you as just another consumer in a market of undifferentiated possibilities, where choice itself becomes the good, novelty usurps beauty, and subjective experience displaces truth.”

Those last two phrases were striking as I see World Youth Day as the post-conciliar embodiment of novelty’s reign over beauty and subjective experience’s glorification at the expense of truth. Remnant columnist Christopher Ferrera hits the nail on the head in his article “Sydney or Sodom?” wherein he writes,

“[World Youth Day is] a rock and pop festival and co-ed sleepover with spiritual addenda… aside from the nefarious activities of more obvious enemies of faith and morals, WYD is entirely consistent with the neo-Catholic version of Roman Catholicism”

My point in this essay that draws largely from Christopher Ferrera’s article is not that World Youth Day lacks any resemblance of the traditional Catholic faith, that point is plainly evident. My point is rather that World Youth Day masquerades as the pinnacle of Catholic youth revival and a “new Pentecost” of the Church when in actuality it is defined by novelty and a glorification of subjective experience.

Fr. Peter Scott (FSSPX) of the Holy Cross Seminary writes,
“I’m not in favour of World Youth Day because of what happens and what has consistently happened since it was initiated by Pope John Paul II… It has become an occasion for a very secular approach to religion, it’s become just a happy party—a week of partying and concerts and worldly activities with very little that is truly holy and sacred and prayerful, and Catholic for that matter.”

Any commentator with a sense of objectivity cannot dispute this to be true. There may have been lines for Confession, reception of Confirmation, and Eucharistic Adoration which surely inspired many. However, sacraments and prayer are not the advertised parts of this façade – a spiritual addenda tacked onto a Woodstockesque neo-Catholic party. It is horizontal humanism at its finest. Mr. Ferrera notes these marginalized positive elements of the event, but writes that “these elements are combined with and undermined by numerous elements of the profane, some of which are in fact neo-pagan. If rapping priests and “Catholic heavy metal” do not represent a paganization of Catholic youth, then I don’t know what would.”

The most telling examples of the battle within the Church today between novelty and beauty, subjective experience and truth came during the reception of Communion. Ferrera writes, “One could not ask for a more evocative image of the state of the Church today: the Pope and his kneeler, attempting to restore some degree of reverence for the Blessed Sacrament, surrounded by a vast sea of irreverence and general liturgical dissolution that he seems powerless to overcome.” The destruction of the Liturgy, the “source and summit of the Catholic life” and the heartbeat of the Church is faltering. This is not a plea for a full restoration of the Gregorian Rite of the Mass, though that is the only hope for the Church today, but rather a plea for the end of Novelty’s reign. Catholic youth are surrounded by a hostile culture that feeds on a paganism sustained by novelty and desire for constant change contrary to the attitude of Eternal Rome and the See of Peter. Ferrera continues,

“Indeed, it is time for the Church’s leadership to abandon the entire neo-Catholic project of attempting to use “liturgical reform” and pop culture to make the Faith attractive. The Catholic youth who attend World Youth Day deserve better. They deserve goodness, truth and beauty…They deserve Catholic liturgy and culture in all their magnificence, and they would respond magnificently if only this banquet were provided to them instead of the trash WYD has offered ever since ‘John Paul the Great’ invented it.”

At last a final word must mention the Juventutem movement present at World Youth Day. I admittedly do not know as much as I should about the priests who offer the traditional Mass and sacraments to attendees at World Youth Day. May God bless their apostolate as they seek to attract souls to conversion and grace in the same way every canonized saint of the Catholic Church sought souls in missionary countries. Pray that they might continue to evangelize and attract souls not with novelty and banality, but rather truth, goodness, and beauty.

While I recognize the harsh tone of this essay, I beg that none who participate in World Youth Day take offense. I have been striving to speak with charity in all matters – especially those in which I would tend to rant. However, the only defense I offer for my tone is zeal. It breaks my heart to think of the power and glory of such a movement as World Youth Day if it was invigorated with methods for saving souls and energizing youth for thousands of years.

Offer prayers and sacrifices for Benedict, our Pope, especially thought the intercession of St. Pius X – Defender of True Doctrine. Pray for the attendees of World Youth Day and their families – that despite the odds there might be an authentic Catholic revival. Continue to pray and make acts of reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus who is so often neglected and offended. Especially pray through the intercession of Our Lady under the title of Immaculatta – Who Has Destroyed All Heresies to watch over the Church. And remember me as well.

Ad Meioram Dei Gloriam

Vidimus Caritati - We Have Seen Charity

In my first article, I discussed my first visit to a chapel staffed by priests of the Society of St. Pius X. While overall I felt the church and the congregation were pleasant, the homily delivered by the visiting priest left me (and my pride in what I believe the mission of the FSSPX) wounded considerably.

I am happy to report however that upon my second visit to this parish, I was overwhelmed by the charity and devotion of the experience – largely stemming from the priest who ministers there regularly. Again, the church was lacking nothing in beauty and the congregation nothing for reverence. The priest heard confessions until about ten minutes before Mass, and thus I was unable to talk with him before hand.

My intent was to attack the sermon from the second Sunday of the month and ask hard questions about the integrity of Fraternity priests who are willing to act as judge and jury, but not physician and shepherd.

The Mass began as beautifully as before - the way in which priests who know the Gregorian Mass as simply the Mass pray the Mass is evident in the devotion and precision the priest (not of himself but of our Lord) offers the Sacrifice – and the people were just as attentive and involved. When the time came for the homily I shot a nervous glance at the friend who accompanied me and offered a short ejaculation for the priest.

I was amazed. He began by reading parish announcements calling his flock by name and entreating their prayers for sick and dying members of the community – one of whom a non-Catholic who he said he personally visited several times before his death. He mentioned supporting several of the youth of the parish who were preparing for a pilgrimage to France “monetarily but more importantly with prayer”. After the announcements he read the Epistle and Gospel in English. Though not exactly to my taste, he offered insights and commentary into the readings as he went along. I was encouraged by his insights into the First Letter to the Corinthians and the prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem in Luke.

After this he went on to tell the congregation about his recent trip to several battlefields from the War Between the States and his pilgrimage to the basilica where St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is interred. His insights into the War as history almost evoked cheers from the Stars and Bars on my heart (“it is a historical fact that Karl Marx congratulated Lincoln on his election to the American presidency”… “the Northern capitalists sought to destroy the Southern agricultural society and annex it into its destructive vision of economic wage slavery”)* He interjected spiritual parallels to the historical narratives at Sharpsburg and Gettysburg and then went on to discuss the relevance of these battles in establishing a New World Order where the South, the glorious Old South, and the United States as a whole, without Christ as its sole monarch will never rise again.

His passionate anecdotes of St. Seton’s life, the Sisters of Charity, and his visit to her tomb – as well as this priests abundantly charitable outlook on the Church – can be summed up in his response to the fact that there are only a handful of Sisters of Charity left in the two St. Seton lived. He looked out at the congregation, called young girls there by name and said, “You! The Church needs you to cultivate your vocations in order that, with St. Seton’s courage, you too go out and educate Catholic children again!” What a contrast! He did not lay blame on the Newchurch or the failures of the hierarchy, but rather called the congregation to holiness and personal responsibility for the reconstruction of the Church, so wounded in recent years.

After Mass he mentioned that he wanted to meet with those visiting for the first time. I gladly obliged about being told by the third person to introduce themselves to me in the vestibule to find him in the sacristy.

When I went to meet him he was joyful and could not stop smiling. He never broke eye contact when speaking to me and kept telling me how “awesome” it was that I could be there. Any heavy handed words about my experience last week fell at my feet. I was completely disarmed by his charity and love for the priesthood of Jesus Christ. The love his parishioners had for him was evident and I was won over. He invited my friend and I to dinner though we had to decline because of pervious engagements. The next day I called him and thanked him for his witness to our Lord and the Sacrifice of the Mass.

My friend was lucky enough to attend his Monday morning Mass (which he offers before he flies back to Kansas in between visiting the sick and ministering to the congregation). His reviews of that experience are even more glowing. It was an incredible testament to the integrity of the priesthood of Jesus Christ sustained by the traditional Mass and sacraments. I was beside myself. This man was truly and priest of Jesus Christ who authentically represented the vision of Archbishop + Marcel Lefebvre and was a true son of St. Pius X.

Please keep this humble priest who wore a shabby cassock and worn shoes without concern for a second tunic in your prayers. Continue to pray and make acts of reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus who is so often neglected and offended. Especially pray through the intercession of Our Lady under the title of Immaculatta – Who Has Destroyed All Heresies to watch over the Church and especially Benedict our Pope. And remember me as well.

Ad Meioram Dei Gloriam

The Charitable Anathema Part I: Positive and Negative Thinking – Is the Glass Half-Full?

From time to time when I cannot come up with something interesting to write I tend to look upon others work for inspiration. With that in mind I want to introduce The Johnson Letters’ first series of posting with a unified theme: The Charitable Anathema by Dietrich von Hildebrand. Briefly, the book is a collection of von Hildebrand’s essays concerning the post-Vatican II Catholic Church and the various ideological trends that have influenced the modern Church.

One essay, “Positive and Negative Thinking”, struck me recently in light of an ongoing debate with several people regarding the way in which one should approach the malaises of the post-Vatican II Church. Dietrich von Hildebrand’s thoughts left me with the inevitable question of paradigm: is the glass half full or half empty?

First, von Hildebrand writes

To judge an attitude without consulting the object to which is refers is to ignore the question of relevance. And to praise an assertion for being “positive”, or to deride a denial or criticism for being “negative”, tells us nothing about the truth of the thesis or the denied proposition. A true proposition should be asserted; a false proposition, denied or refuted.

In other words, one must retain some sense of objectivity when evaluating a particular attitude and refrain from the label of positive or negative. These labels become “deceptive slogans” when misused in this fashion. His argument is focused primarily on an anathema is charitable – it is on behalf of the truth and the good that false opinions are denied and refuted. Specifically, it is the mission of the Holy Church to denounce heresy and heretics in order to defend the faithful from error. This mission is “indissolubly linked” to the announcement of Divine revelation and the missionary zeal which the message of Jesus Christ should be spread. In fact, in the 2,000 year history of the Church, most doctrinal definitions came about by means of refuting a particular heresy that attacked a specific point of Christian belief.

Liberalism is the sin of the age and the modernism that inspires it is perhaps the final heresy the Church will have to destroy. Yet many decry as “negative” the denial and refutation of these errors in practical matters. Positive thinking Churchmen decry the “narrowness” and “lack of charity” of traditionalist criticisms of the post-Conciliar Church. Instead, they ask for traditionalists to be “positive” and emphasize what is true in new theories and opinions, rather than negatively emphasize their imperfections. I understand that this may seem like a hard hearted approach to conversion from error to truth, but anathema can be charitable if pronounced with the utmost humility.

Now on towards the question of half glass test – I would like to offer a brief apologia of viewing the modern Church as a glass that is only half full (a day after the anniversary of summorum pontificum, one might make the argument its three-quarters full). Like von Hildebrand’s article I see the optimist being given a pat on the back for positive thinking, while the pessimist is demonized for negativity. I proudly declare myself to be an ecclesiastical pessimist (though not to the detriment of the resilient optimists).

While only a personality test meant to reveal the perspective in which one sees a glass of water – it subtly reveals the way in which people view the modern Church. The glorified optimist is happy with the half full glass of water; the reviled pessimist, confused and angry that the glass is not full. Half is not enough for the pessimist to be satisfied! The current state of the Church is not enough for one to be satisfied! The fight for tradition continues. A Pope committed to a growing minority that has been ostracized for the last forty years has rightfully liberated the Immemorial Mass 366 days ago! The fight for tradition continues.

It will take the constant action of a committed (and growing) minority committed to the unfailing light of tradition kept alive by charity. It will take a spirit of profound humility. And it will take years of penance and prayer to fill the glass and the rebuild the Church – to heal the battered Bride of Christ.


Continue to pray and make acts of reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus who is so often maligned and offended. Especially pray for the intercession of Our Lady under the title of Immaculatta – Who Has Destroyed All Heresies to watch over the Church and especially Benedict our Pope. And remember me as well.

Ad Meioram Dei Gloriam

Credidimus Caritati

Two weeks ago I attended Sunday Mass at a Chapel run by the Fraternity of St. Pius X. I was struck by how beautifully redone the once agnostic space had become a place befitting the worship of God. I was encouraged by the arrangement of photographs of the diocesean bishop, Pope Benedict XVI, and Archbishop Lefebvre respectively as this is an arrangement I have in my own home. The church proper was oriented correctly with beautiful stations of the cross, and several gorgeous statues of Our Lord and Lady. The altar, made of Italian marble, was beautiful and the center of attention in the chapel.

There were a wide variety of people present: the young and old, large families, and single men and women all dressed appropriately. The chapel was quiet. The only sounds came from the clacking of wayward rosary beads against the pews and a few children clamoring for a better seat to the annoyance of an elder brother or sister. All eyes were on the altar. Some knelt at the altar rail and lit candles in the votive candle holders before statues of St. Joseph and our Lady. The altar boys prepared the sanctuary for Holy Mass with devotion and precision - both in cassock and surplice. The priest entered the sacristy wearing cassock, collar, and clerical shoes.

An altar boy announced the opening hymn, Come Holy Ghost, Creator Blest, and the closing hymn, Salve Regina. Everyone attentively stood while the priest and altar boys processed into the sanctuary and intoned the prayers at the foot of the altar. The Mass was beautifully prayed. So good so far.

However, when it came time for the homily, the only thought running across my mind was the crucifix on the center of the altar. Bishop Fulton Sheen once said "The only way to win audiences is to tell people about the life and death of Christ. Every other approach is a waste." This is not meant to be an editorial about homiletics, take from it what you will in that regard, but I want to discuss a mindset that I believe to be generally false regarding the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X. That is to say, that their priests and faithful fail to preach charity and the pursuit of holiness, but are filled with bitterness regarding the current state of the Church.

This particular priest began to speak of the beauty and tradition of the Gregorian Mass, but soon enough turned to the banality of the Novus Ordo Missae and the revolution in the Church that spawned it. He went on to recount how the Fraternity courageously resisted the novelty of the Second Vatican Council and continued to do so today.

I was devastated though I agreed with nearly everything he said. Nevertheless, I felt that after all of the apologias over cheap wine and cartons of cigarettes I had offered the Society, I had been let down at the pulpit the first time I had ever attended Mass at one of their chapels. I turned my head to Litany of Humility I had picked up in the vestibule of the chapel and began to pray - not only for humility, but charity!

Archbishop Lefebvre's coat of arms carried the phrase "Credidimus Caritati" - We have believed in charity. The Archbishop pleaded with his priests and later his bishops with the words of St. Paul, "Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine." Preach the Word! I could have counted on one hand the number of times the name of our Lord was mentioned in the course of this homily! I was never once exhorted to be holy and to sanctify myself or to show charity towards others. Instead I was told from the pulpit about the inferiority of the Novus Ordo Missae and the post Conciliar Church. "But above all these things have charity, which is the bond of perfection" I wanted to be instructed by an Order who styles themselves as the new Jesuits on how to achieve sanctity and attain eternal salvation. I wanted to be entreated to live a life of greater holiness and tremble at the thought of offending my God again. I wanted to leave that chapel filled with the Bread of Heaven and words of eternal life.The Gospel reading for that day was the feeding of the 4,000 from the Gospel of Mark. How perfectly Eucharistic!

I once joked to a friend who was considering coming to their first Gregorian Mass and skipping their ordinary Novus Ordo, "wouldn't you rather have bread than stones?" I had expected a medicinal fish in sound preaching on the life and death of Christ, but was instead offered venomous serpents. At this Mass, I was given the Bread of Life from the altar, but serpents from the pulpit!

I do not think that a single person in that chapel from young to old was not aware that there is a crisis of identity in the Church. The the Mass and Sacraments have been mutilated nearly beyond the point of recognition and that failures and abuses on the part of the institutional Church have left the faithful in a spiritual desert for the last forty years.

Our Lord once rebuked his apostles saying, "this kind [of daemon] is not cast out but by prayer and fasting." I believe that the current crisis in the Church will only be repaired - and it will be repaired by our Lord who never abandons His Church - by charity and penance. Sound doctrine and the immutable traditions of the Church will prevail as the gates of hell were not given a chance by our Lord, but this does not mean that one's attachment to Tradition and the preservation of the Gregorian Mass and Sacraments is license to beat the dead horse of apostasy and dilution. If one wants to win souls for Christ and his Church, do so by preaching His charity and His mercy. Entreat people to convert and live heroic lives of holiness in the darkness of a hostile world. Encourage them to be a light that draws from the Light itself in the midst of scandal and apostasy. Because we have believed in charity we must act accordingly. This is the way of saints.

We have often heard it said that seeing is believing. Well I have seen and still I do not believe. While this may enrage my opponents in those late night debates I cannot allow myself to sell out the ideals Archbishop Lefebvre in forming priests to resist the Modernism of the world, while at the same time preaching charity. These thoughts are currently being formulated into a letter that will be written to the priest who usually ministers to Holy Redeemer and I hope to discuss this visiting priest's actions with him.

Continue to pray and make acts of reparation to the Sacred Heart for all priests. Especially pray for Bishop Bernard Fellay, the Superior General of the FSSPX, in the coming months. And remember me as well.

Ad Meioram Dei Gloriam