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So, yesterday, I talked about how the little thing I read in a very old book caused my husband and I to engage in some deep conversations. I wrote about one aspect of the quote that we discovered in those conversations yesterday, which was...lively, shall we say. Today, I want to talk about the other thing we discovered and alluded to at the end of my post yesterday. We discovered that what has happened is that the culture has selected a virtue, twisted it, and then slapped modern framing on it to make it not sound so bad. For example: Original Virtue: Temperance The Vice: Self-indulgence, neglect of responsibilities Modern Framing--Self-Care, "Take care of number one." Original Virtue: Dignity--seeing yourself as a child of God The Vice: Narcissism, selfishness Modern Framing--Self-Love, Justifies prioritizing one's desire over community, but this is fine because 'you do you." Original Virtue: Prudence with regards time and effort The Vice: Selfishness, isolation, lack of generosity Modern Framing: "Protecting my peace." I could go on and on, but you get the point. The thing that struck me and my husband was how these all boiled down to focus on the self and as we know in our society, the more that we have focused on ourselves, the more unhappy, more depressed, and more anxious we have become. The culture tries to pass off the modern framing so that it looks like a virtue, but my husband said, "If the virtue doesn't have a sacrifice attached to it or a focus on others, it's not a real virtue. It's self-serving and virtues are never self-serving." Like the quote said yesterday, dressing things up in "beautiful false names" will only make us prisoners. We must always strive to look outside of ourselves and seek to bring light and love to others by living out the virtues. Only then, Catholic Pilgrims, can we find true joy and the peace that only Christ can give. Live the faith boldly and travel well this Wednesday.
Continue ReadingI was reading through a very old book that I was recently gifted that has just one or two sentences on a page. I read: "Nineteenth century man became all the more irrevocably the prisoner of his own life-sorrows through the beautiful false names with which he labeled them." I sat with this a very long time. Later that night, I asked my husband what he thought and could he think of any life-sorrows that have been given "beautiful names" in order to make them seem good. It became a bit of a thought experiment for us. I could think of one right off the top of my head: Selfishness has become self-care. Now, this isn't to say that taking care of yourself is wrong. We should take care of ourselves because our bodies are good and neglecting them can cause us to not be able to do God's will. However, our culture has taken vices that cause sorrow, dressed them up in a new name that is hard to argue with, and then encouraged people to engage in them. What happens then? You become a prisoner. My husband said, "Anytime you take something bad and try to make it sound virtuous, it always is a move towards self-centeredness. The focus becomes entirely on you and ultimately that makes us miserable. That's why you become a prisoner. Together, we thought of a few more things that have been dressed up with "beautiful names." Abortion--health care. Abortion already is a euphemism, but it is now being referred to as the double euphemism of "health care." Laziness--"protection from burnout" "work-life balance" Narcissism--self-love Isolation--"protecting my peace" Lies--"your truth, my truth" On the surface, all these phrases or "beautiful names" seem good. Initially, it's hard to argue with them. But, when you scratch just beneath the surface you'll see that they all come back to the self. There is something else that my husband and I discovered while thinking through the original quote. I'll talk about that tomorrow. Until then, live the faith boldly and travel well, Catholic Pilgrims.
Continue ReadingYesterday, my husband and I finished our 33-day reading of this book and prayed the consecration prayer at the end together. If you would have told me when Dustin and I were dating that one day we would consecrate ourselves to Jesus in the Eucharist in a small Blessed Sacrament Room on base, I would have looked at you with utter confusion. For one, I wasn't Catholic. For two, I had no idea what the Eucharist was so why would I be consecrating myself to it? For three, I didn't see the importance of faith in the married life at that time. I thought our romantic love for each other would be enough. I would have thought you were saying I'd turn into some hokey-pokey weirdo. However, God's ways are not our ways. Now, I have been Catholic for 13 years. Now, I know that the Eucharist is everything and that I will never exhaust my ability to be in awe and wonder at the miracle of Christ in the Eucharist. Now, I have seen Dustin and I realize that a marriage needs God at the center. The Eucharist is the food for our married life together. At the beginning of this book, Matthew Kelly says, "What is the difference between the people who have left the Catholic Church over the past thirty years and those who have stayed?" The answer: "Those who believe don't leave." Those who believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist don't leave. And I'd add, those outside the Church who come to believe, can't become Catholic quick enough. That was me. The second the Eucharist clicked in my brain, I needed to be Catholic that instant. It was a desire like I've never known. To loosely quote Flannery, O'Conner: To Hell with all this symbolic nonsense. No army of demons could keep me away from becoming Catholic, because it is in the fullness of the Catholic Church that I can receive the Eucharist and there is nothing more important that Jesus truly present on our altars and offered to us in Holy Communion. Live the faith boldly and travel well this Monday, Catholic Pilgrims.
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