20 October 2026
Summa Contra Gentiles, Book III: XX How Things Imitate the Divine Goodness
Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 7 March 1274), was a Doctor of the Church, Philosopher, Theologian, Jurist, Dominican Friar, and Priest. Known as Doctor Angelicus "Angelic Doctor," and the Doctor Communis "Universal Doctor" his writings serve as a defense and proof of the validity of Christ's authority over all. The Summa contra Gentiles (also known as Liber de veritate catholicae fidei contra errores infidelium, "Book on the truth of the Catholic faith against the errors of the unbelievers"). The Summa contra Gentiles consists of four books. The structure of Saint Thomas's work is designed to proceed from general philosophical arguments for monotheism, to which Muslims and Jews are likely to consent even within their own respective religious traditions, before progressing to the discussion of specifically Christian doctrine.
Why AI Risk Could Arrive Fast | Roman Yampolskiy, PhD
How fast could AI move from useful tool to dominant intelligence? In this rapid-fire exchange, Roman Yampolskiy predicts AGI and ASI by 2028, widespread job redundancy, severe AI risks, and a long-term future in which humanity may no longer be central. 0:31 AGI and ASI Arrive by 2028 1:24 AI Makes Current Jobs Redundant 3:05 AI Harm, Casualties, and Extinction Risk 4:16 Unsupervised AI Authority 5:22 What an AI-Dominant Future Really Means Roman V. Yampolskiy is a tenured Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Louisville's Speed School of Engineering, where he founded and directs the Cyber Security Lab. Widely credited with coining the term "AI safety" in 2011, he is the author of AI: Unexplainable, Unpredictable, Uncontrollable.
Could Lady Margaret Beaufort Have Killed the Princes in the Tower?
Catholic Origins of the Big Bang Theory
Teens Sing Exquisite Lullaby to Those Lost Through Abortion at Illinois State House
From 2019, when Illinois made it "legal" to murder the unborn up until birth. After the bill passed, the governor was on the Illinois Senate floor, hugging and congratulating abortion-rights supporters.
From Aleteia
By Cerith Gardiner
This powerful video of pro-life young people has gone viral.
As the state of Illinois is in the throes of debating whether to allow a baby to be aborted up until birth, a powerful video has been posted on Facebook by St. John Cantius Church in Illinois of a group of teen pro-lifers singing the exquisite “Coventry Carol,” or as it’s also known “The Hymn of the Holy Innocents,” that they performed at the State House in Springfield back in 2017.
The post, which has amassed over 220,000 views, calls us to “Listen to our youth sing in the Illinois State Capitol for those lost through abortion …”
The youngsters from St. John Cantius united with the Crusaders for Life — a grassroots movement of pro-life youth from Chicago and beyond — during a rally in support of the dignity of the unborn two years ago. The 100 activists circled the rotunda inside the capitol building to give an emotional rendition of the hymn that stems from plays in medieval times depicting Herod’s massacre of the Holy Innocents based on the Gospel of St. Matthew.
While the melody in itself is moving, it’s worth taking a look at the lyrics that reveal the devastating loss of innocents back in the times of King Herod:
Lully, lullay, Thou little tiny Child,
Bye, bye, lully, lullay.
Lullay, thou little tiny Child,
Bye, bye, lully, lullay.
O sisters too, how may we do,
For to preserve this day
This poor youngling for whom we do sing
Bye, bye, lully, lullay.
Herod, the king, in his raging,
Charged he hath this day
His men of might, in his owne sight,
All young children to slay.
That woe is me, poor Child for Thee!
And ever mourn and sigh,
For thy parting neither say nor sing,
Bye, bye, lully, lullay.
So take a minute to lose yourself in this glorious lullaby:
Huge! Fr Chad Ripperger Silenced by His Bishop!
Do we take the Archdiocesan press release at face value? There are competing narratives happening surrounding the silencing of Fr Chad Ripperger, and while we debate this, Modernist media are celebrating his silencing as a massive win.
Did They Have Drive-Bys in Medieval Times?
Traditional Catholic Morning Prayers in English | October
The Catholic Commando Who May Have Inspired James Bond
There are many men "who have inspired James Bond". In fact, Wikipedia has an entire page devoted to Inspirations for James Bond. Major March-Phillipps isn't on it.
From Aleteia
By Cécile Séveirac
Major Gus March-Phillipps, an elite British officer and devout Catholic, led some of the most daring covert operations of World War II before dying in combat.
On the night of September 12–13, 1942, a daring British commando raid known as Operation Aquatint was underway. In the dark of a Normandy night, a small unit of Allied commandos made its way to the German-occupied French coast near Sainte-Honorine-des-Pertes. But nothing went as planned.
The small group landed on the beach but immediately came under heavy German fire. Gustavus Henry March-Phillipps, known as “Gus,” risked everything but was killed during the fighting. He was 34 years old.
An extraordinary officer, novelist, sailor, horseman, and devout Catholic, he left behind an elite commando unit and a track record of successful covert operations. Yet, even today, he remains largely unknown to the general public.
Gus March-Phillpps was an unconventional figure for his time, both an irreverent poet and a swashbuckling soldier. Born in 1908, he entered the abbey school of Ampleforth in Yorkshire in 1917. Run by Benedictines, it is one of England’s great Catholic boarding schools, where faith is taught and lived daily.
He didn't particularly distinguish himself academically or in sports, but developed a reputation for recklessness, according to his obituary in the Ampleforth Journal (PDF). Nevertheless, the seeds of a solid faith and a chivalric ideal were undeniably planted.
A man who didn't fit the mold
After leaving Ampleforth in 1926, he entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery. He spent his early years in the regular army in England, followed by a three-year stint in India.
His obituary in the Ampleforth Journal describes him as a “rather wild and irresponsible subaltern.” However, this was likely just the impatience of a man too big for ordinary frameworks.
The obituary offers a memorable portrait of his personality:
“But Gus March-Phillipps was indeed a remarkable young man, not only for what he did but more especially for his peculiarly attractive and fine qualities. […] But those of his friends who knew nothing of his exploits will remember him for his qualities, his courage, his nobility, his independence, his love of England and particularly the English countryside and English traditions, his impatience for action, his Catholic Faith, his love of the sea and of horses, and most of all for his ability to inspire his followers, his natural genius for leadership.
“What he loved most was to be in a situation where he knew that only by his own skill, determination and leadership could he avert disaster from himself and his companions. Few of his friends and none of his officers and men would have refused to follow him on whatever crazy adventure he might have proposed.”
“A curious mixture of conflicting impulses”
In short, he seemed straight out of an adventure novel, a “curious mixture of conflicting impulses.” He wasn’t an intellectual dreaming of action, nor was he a soldier scribbling verses out of boredom; he was both.
He had resigned from the regular army to devote himself to writing, but the Munich crisis of 1938 pulled him out of his literary retirement. He applied to rejoin the military and was called up the following year.
The Small Scale Raiding Force
March-Phillipps had a precise idea of what he could and wanted to do. Confident in his abilities, he joined the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) as an intelligence officer, serving first at the 2nd Corps headquarters and then at General Headquarters from September 1939 until the evacuation of Dunkirk.
Back in England, he refused to sit idle. He hounded his friends, acquaintances, and superiors until he received permission to implement his own ideas on how to fight the enemy.
Alongside his friend Lt. Geoffrey Appleyard, he formed a secret unit under the aegis of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). This unit officially became No. 62 Commando, also known as the Small Scale Raiding Force (SSRF). Some of its members later helped establish the 2nd Special Air Service (SAS).
It would take a novel to cover all of his unit’s exploits. In January 1942, he led Operation Postmaster. In the dead of night on the Spanish island of Fernando Po, his men seized three enemy vessels without firing a shot and brought them to Nigeria. This audacious success cemented the SOE’s reputation.
Returning to England as a newly promoted major, he launched a series of nighttime raids along the German-occupied coastline. These included capturing German prisoners at the Casquets lighthouse (Operation Dryad) and fighting German troops during a raid targeting a radar installation and antiaircraft positions in France (Operation Barricade).
His military service earned him several honors, including the Distinguished Service Order and a mention in despatches.
A fateful mission in Normandy
The night of September 12–13, 1942, proved fatal. As his 11-man detachment landed on the beach at Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer — nearly 21 months before the D-Day landings on that same stretch of coastline — the current had carried their vessel several miles west of its intended destination.
Barely ashore, the commandos came under German fire. Unable to return to their landing boat, they found themselves trapped on the beach. Their supporting vessel attempted to recover them but eventually had to withdraw when German patrol boats opened fire.
Major March-Phillipps was killed during the fighting. He died alongside Sgt. Allen Michael Williams, 22, and Pvt. Richard Lehniger, 42.
He was buried with them in the church cemetery at Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, on the very Normandy coast where he drew his last breath. His tombstone bears a famous quote from Thomas à Kempis’ spiritual classic, The Imitation of Christ: “He that loveth, flyeth, runneth and rejoiceth; he is free.”
Major Gus March-Phillipps tomb
Although relatively unknown today, March-Phillipps has been cited as one of the possible inspirations for James Bond. Ian Fleming, who created the famous character, also worked in British intelligence during the war.
In 2024, director Guy Ritchie brought a highly romanticized version of their story to the big screen in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, starring Henry Cavill as Gus.
“If I must die”
A year before his death, Major March-Phillipps penned a prayer in the form of a poem. Rather than asking God for protection, he prayed for the grace to face death with simplicity, unwavering faith, courage, and joy.
The author of his obituary in the Ampleforth Journal wrote, “He was, I know, granted this.”
IF I MUST DIE
If I must die in this great war
when so much seems in vain,
And man in huge unthinking hordes
is slain as sheep are slain,
But with less thought: then do I seek
One last good grace to gain.
Let me die, Oh Lord, as I learned to live
when the world seemed young and gay,
And “Honor bright” was a phrase they used
that they do not use to-day,
And faith was something alive and warm
When we gathered round to pray.
Let me be simple and sure once more,
Oh Lord, if I must die,
Let the mad unreason of reasoned doubt,
Unreasoning, pass me by,
And the mass mind, and the mercenary,
And the everlasting “why.”
Let me be brave and gay again,
Oh Lord, when my time is near
Let the good in me rise up and break
The stranglehold of fear;
Say that I die for Thee and the King,
And what I hold most dear.
— G. March-Phillipps
December 1941
19 October 2026
St Artemius, Martyr ~ A Bi-Ritual Saint
Holy Great Martyr Artemius of Antioch was a prominent military leader during the reigns of the emperor Constantine the Great (May 21), and his son and successor Constantius (337-361). Artemius received many awards for distinguished service and courage. He was appointed viceroy of Egypt. In this official position, he did much for the spreading and strengthening of Christianity in Egypt.
Saint Artemius was sent by the emperor Constantius to bring the relics of the holy Apostle Andrew from Patras, and the relics of the holy Apostle Luke from Thebes of Boeotia, to Constantinople. The holy relics were placed in the Church of the Holy Apostles beneath the table of oblation. The emperor rewarded him by making him ruler of Egypt.
The emperor Constantius was succeeded on the throne by Julian the Apostate (361-363). Julian in his desire to restore paganism was extremely antagonistic towards Christians, sending hundreds to their death. At Antioch, he ordered the torture of two bishops unwilling to forsake the Christian Faith.
During this time, Saint Artemius arrived in Antioch and publicly denounced Julian for his impiety. The enraged Julian subjected the saint to terrible tortures and threw the Great Martyr Artemius into prison. While Artemius was praying, Christ, surrounded by angels, appeared to him and said, “Take courage, Artemius! I am with you and will preserve you from every hurt which is inflicted upon you, and I already have prepared your crown of glory. Since you have confessed Me before the people on earth, so shall I confess you before My Heavenly Father. Therefore, take courage and rejoice, you shall be with Me in My Kingdom.” Hearing this, Artemius rejoiced and offered up glory and thanksgiving to Him.
On the following day, Julian demanded that Saint Artemius honour the pagan gods. Meeting with steadfast refusal, the emperor resorted to further tortures. The saint endured all without a single moan. The saint told Julian that he would be justly recompensed for his persecution of Christians. Julian became furious and resorted to even more savage tortures, but they did not break the will of the saint. Finally, the Great Martyr Artemius was beheaded.
His relics were buried by Christians. After the death of Saint Artemius, his prophecy about Julian the Apostate’s impending death came true.
Julian left Antioch for a war with the Persians. Near the Persian city of Ctesiphon, Julian came upon an elderly Persian, who agreed to betray his countrymen and guide Julian’s army. The old man deceived Julian and led his army into the Karmanite wilderness, where there was neither food nor water. Tired from hunger and thirst, Julian’s army battled against fresh Persian forces.
Divine retribution caught up with Julian the Apostate. During the battle, he was mortally wounded by an unseen hand and an unseen weapon. Julian groaned deeply said, “Thou hast conquered, Galilean!” After the death of the apostate emperor, the relics of the Great Martyr Artemius were transferred with honour from Antioch to Constantinople.
Saint Artemius is invoked by those suffering from hernias.
Troparion — Tone 4
Your holy martyr Artemios, O Lord, / through his sufferings has received an incorruptible crown from You, our God. / For having Your strength, he laid low his adversaries, / and shattered the powerless boldness of demons. / Through his intercessions, save our souls!
Kontakion — Tone 2
Let us gather to sing worthy hymns in honour of Artemius, / the pious and victorious martyr who defeated his enemies: / He is great among martyrs and generous in performing miracles, / and he intercedes with the Lord on behalf of us all!
From Theodoret, Hist. Eccles.1. 3, c. 18; Chron. Pasch. p. 297, ed. Du Cange; Julian the Ap. ep. 10; Ammian. Marceli.1. 15, c. 23; Fleury,1. 15, c. 23.
A. D. 362.
AUGUSTUS, not being willing to intrust the government of Egypt, which was a rich and powerful country, from which the city of Rome was in part supplied with corn, to a senator, like other great provinces of the empire, passed an order that, instead of a proconsul, it should be governed only by a Roman knight, with the title of Augustal prefect.† The government of the troops was committed to a general officer with the title of duke, or general of Egypt. Artemius was honored with this command under Constantius, after Lucius and Sebastian. If, in executing some commissions under Constantius, he appeared against St. Athanasius, by various contrivances he afforded him means and opportunities to make his escape. If he betrayed 100 great weakness in obeying his prince at that time, he never approved his heresy. At least, that he was orthodox in his faith in the reign of Julian, is evident from Theodoret, the Paschal Chronicle, and the ancient Greek Calendars. The idolaters in Egypt accused him before that emperor of having demolished their temples, and broke down their idols. Julian summoned him to appear before him at Antioch in 362, and upon this indictment condemned him to be beheaded in that city, about the month of June in 362.
Artemius engaged in the service of impious Arians, who imbrued their hands in the blood of the saints, and placed on the pinnacle of worldly honors, stands upon the brink of the precipice, in imminent danger of being tumbled down headlong into everlasting flames; yet the omnipotent hand of God rescues him from these dangers, and leads him to bliss by a glorious martyrdom. The view of the many imminent dangers of perishing eternally, to which our souls have been often exposed, must fill us with the deepest sentiments of gratitude, love, and praise, for the infinite and most undeserved mercy by which we have been preserved. Should not we burst forth into incessant hymns of praise and thanksgiving? singing with the royal prophet: Unless the Lord had helped me, my soul had long ago dwelt in he11.1 Should not we, in a transport of gratitude, implore, without interruption, the divine grace, and resolve to serve God with all our strength that the fruit of so great mercies may not perish through our malice?
Christ-Centered Catholic Spirituality: Tridentine Sacrificial Spirituality
Mr Torkington begins a series on Catholic spirituality, looking at the condemnation of Quietism as a heresy in 1687 by Pope Innocent XI.
From Crisis
By David Torkington
The condemnation of Quietism in the seventeenth century unleashed an anti-mystical crusade that drove contemplation out of Catholic spirituality and left a man-centered moralism in its place.
Without detailing the many different strands of the Catholic post-Tridentine Sacrificial Spirituality of this period, let me say that the two great pillars of this spirituality were the Sacrifice of the Mass and the daily Sacrifice of ourselves in imitation of the way Christ sacrificed Himself for us every day of His life on earth. It was not just that the sacrificial nature of the Mass was reiterated, but that the sacrificial nature of the Catholic Spirituality was reiterated too, because it mirrored in the seventeenth century the spirituality that predominated in the first Christian centuries.
This became ever clearer to me in my own personal study of my own ancestors in England and Ireland. It enabled me to see for myself the sacrificial nature of their daily spirituality that was handed on to me, not just “in spite of dungeon, fire, and sword,” but because of it. I am a direct descendant of Sir Nicholas Tempest who was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn in 1537 and myriad more who were taxed out of existence, or rather into extreme penury, because they refused to go to a Protestant church and receive their idea of Communion. Then, when they could no longer pay, they paid for their refusal with imprisonment until they could. Ancestors of mine languished in the infamous dungeons of Hull Castle where the tide came in each day to soak them so they were never dry, and a prey to multiple illnesses, some of which were fatal. It is believed that the expression “come hell or high water” derived from the sufferings endured in this infamous hell hole. Hell if you betrayed your faith and high water if you did not!
Although the prolonged persecution of Catholics and the sacrifices that had to be made by them can be seen in England more than elsewhere, the persecution of Catholics took place throughout Europe as a backlash against the Catholic Counter-Reformation. During this time the importance of the sacrifices necessary in order to continue to practice one’s faith, and the sacrifices made in keeping one’s faith in daily spiritual dying to self, was seen perhaps more clearly than at any other time since the early Church. They saw, with a clarity that has sadly long since been forgotten, that all the sacrifices made in their daily lives in order to come to know and love God and to love their neighbor as Christ loves them were the gifts, the offerings, the sacrifices that they took with them to Mass to be united with the supreme sacrifice of Christ made present in that Holy Mystery.
What could clearly be seen in the vibrant faith of Catholics were the fruits of contemplation that Saint Thomas Aquinas said would be the sign that the Holy Spirit was once more at work in those who freely chose to open their hearts and minds to receive Him. Through the Holy Spirit, Christ was living, not just in His Church in general, but in each individual member of the Church, so that they could say with Saint Paul, “I live. No, it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20).
Through the Holy Spirit, Christ was living, not just in His Church in general, but in each individual member of the Church.Although we Catholics might think we know what is going on at Mass, many of us do not. We can begin anew by understanding the precise nature of what takes place when we go to Mass, and Christ’s own personal sacrifice through which He redeemed us. When He called upon us to do the one thing necessary, He was in His sacrificial life upon earth, loving God with His whole heart and mind, with His whole body and soul, and with all His strength both inside and outside of the prayer in which the Holy Spirit continued to infuse into His weak human nature, the Father’s infinite loving that made all things possible.
In order to do this, each sacrificial day on earth began with Jesus reciting a prayer called the Shema, which was the equivalent of our morning prayer, in which He pledged Himself to do His Father’s will in all and everything that He did in the forthcoming day. It would enable Him to express tangibly, really, “in spirit and in truth,” the first commandment, which was to love God with His whole heart and mind, His whole body and soul, and His whole strength. This sacred sacrificial offering would be made again and again in the synagogue where He went to pray three times a day, and each evening when, after the day’s work He would, as St. Luke tells us: “Always go off to some lonely place where he could be alone and pray…sometimes throughout the whole night” (Luke 5:16 and 6:12). It was this wholehearted loving of His Father that enabled Him to receive from the Father, the Divine Loving that He would be able to share with the neighbor in need of His divine redemptive loving.
Nevertheless, throughout His life on earth, as He was doing His Father’s will, He was continually opposed by the Power of Evil, not just in His personal prayer life, but through the unpurified sinners whom He had come to redeem. Indeed, it was their leaders who condemned Him to the ignominious death on the cross. However, the very moment He died on the cross was the moment when His sacrificial action on earth was brought to its completion, to its final and glorious apotheosis in heaven.
Just as Jesus Christ Himself was transformed, transfigured, and glorified, so also was His sacrificial action. It was transformed into another form of supra-supernatural sacrifice, or rather loving, that was pure, simple, unalloyed, and contemplative. The sacrifice that He had made in His human nature throughout His life on earth, and in His death upon the cross, entailing both physical and psychological pain and agony, was now shorn of all such suffering as His human loving was transformed and glorified. Now it could be subsumed into a pure, simple, unalloyed, and contemplative act of loving, into the infinite otherworldly loving that Christ, as the Son of God, had experienced before His incarnation on earth.
But this time there was a difference. That same experience that totally enveloped Him now also enveloped His human nature too, with which He had already redeemed the world in principle, and with which He would continue to redeem the world in reality through those who were open to receive Him.
The rather ugly phrase “an unbloody sacrifice” is such an inept, inert, and anemic expression to express the full-blooded fulsome act of hypostatic loving, performed by the most perfect divinized person, Jesus Christ, our Lord and King. This pure, simple act of selfless, wordless, imageless, contemplative loving is the supernatural highway over which Christ’s Loving reaches out to His Father, and His Father’s Loving reaches out to Him and through Him to us, to give us the fruits of the contemplation that we have been called to share with our Redeemer so that others can be redeemed through us.
This is now how Christ our King becomes present amongst us when we celebrate what the early Christians called the “Heavenly Liturgy” and we now call the Holy Mass. He is caught up in a supernatural act of suspended animation; an act of pure, unalloyed contemplative loving, the same contemplative and ecstatic loving with which He loved His Father from all eternity. It is the same ecstatic act of loving with which He loves the Father now, and the same ecstatic loving that He invites us all to join Him now, beginning here on earth and then continuing to eternity. If I may paraphrase Saint Thomas Aquinas, this otherworldly contemplative loving can be defined as “the pure, simple, unalloyed act of lovingly gazing upon the glory of God, accompanied by awe.” This is how Jesus Christ our King prayed on earth, and this is how He continues “to raise His heart and mind to God in heaven” now, and continues to call upon us to join Him, so that in, with, and through Him we may be able to contemplate His Father. Then, to experience with Him the eternal flow of infinite love that passes to and fro between the Two, which is the person of the Holy Spirit.
It is He who facilitates our journey from start to finish into the life of the Holy Trinity. By residing within those who choose to receive Him, His loving gradually infuses and surcharges every part of our being and acting with the divine goodness. It is the goodness that then becomes visible to others as it expresses itself in the perfect human action called the infused virtues and the gifts and charisms of the Holy Spirit.
Through baptism we are taken up into Christ’s being, and then, through continual cooperation with the Holy Spirit, we are further taken up into Christ’s acting. Then we are taken up into His contemplation of the Holy Trinity, which is our ultimate end. In order to help us understand this sublime Mystery, Jesus called Himself the New Temple that would arise after His glorification, so that in this New Temple we could contemplate with Him the glory of God the Father, hence the word CON-TEMPLATION. Then, to the measure in which we have been purified in learning contemplative loving here on earth, we can receive from God what St. Thomas Aquinas calls the fruits of Contemplation. They are the infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit that enabled the early Christians to so embody Christ, that through them He could convert an ancient pagan Empire into a Christian Empire in such a short time. Then to do it again in subsequent centuries whenever Christians returned to the profound purifying and transforming contemplative loving to which Christ calls us. In this way we can participate in our own personal redemption, and in the redemption of the world in which we live and then enjoy to eternity the ecstatic bliss of eternal beatitude.
After years of joyful endeavor, the early Christians built the vast and awe-inspiring Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. It was completed in 537 in thanksgiving to the Holy Spirit for what He had done through those who were open to receive Him, in those first glorious centuries of Christianity. It was the same infused contemplative loving that transformed the early Church, that once again transforms the early medieval Church through the new mendicant apostles, the Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, and the Augustinians, whom St. Thomas Aquinas defended from their detractors with those famous words: It is better “to contemplate and share the fruits of contemplation with others” –“contemplata aliis tradere.”
That is why it was under the profound wisdom of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, and so many other contemplative apostles whom they inspired and influenced that, as Monsignor Ronald Knox pointed out, post-Tridentine Catholicism returned to the essential, ascetical, contemplative, and redemptive spirituality that prevailed in the early Church.
Although the sacrificial nature of Catholic Tridentine Spirituality was everywhere apparent, it was not everywhere the same. There were two clearly apparent but different emphases that I will compare and contrast to see the nature of each and the part they played in future “Spiritualities” in the Catholic Church. The first is a “Theocentric Spirituality,” lived and introduced by Jesus Christ our Lord, into the early Church, and continued in subsequent centuries, finding a unique flowering in post-Tridentine Spirituality. The second is an “Anthropocentric Spirituality,” because it has its origins in the Renaissance with its particular emphasis and focus on man.
The fortunes of these two spiritualities, and through them the fortunes of the Church, were dramatically changed for the worse at the end of the 17th century, when a new heresy, just as damaging to Catholic spirituality as Arianism in the early days of the Church, was condemned by Rome. Yet how few Catholics have even heard of it? Nor have they any idea how its aftermath has led to the tragic circumstances in which Catholic Spirituality finds itself today. In her book The Interior Castle, Saint Teresa of Avila describes the first level of experiential contemplation and calls it the “Prayer of Quiet.” A Spanish priest resident in Rome called Miguel de Molinos taught his followers that they could attain this degree of Mystical experience almost instantly without having to pass through the mystical purification called “The Dark Night of the Soul” by Saint John of the Cross. All they had to do was to wait in naked faith upon the action of God doing absolutely nothing.
When assailed by distractions and temptations, they were told to do exactly the same, absolutely nothing, for God would take them away when He chose to do so. In the year 1687 Molinos was condemned to life imprisonment for heresy (Quietism) and immorality, for which he was indicted together with some of his followers. (See Enthusiasm by Monsignor Ronald Knox Chapters XI & XII.)
In the following decades armies of anti-mystical crusaders spread all over Europe, quashing any form of prayer that had the slightest whiff of Quietism about it. Mysticism, they chanted, begins in mist and ends in schism and they have been chanting it ever since, albeit sotto voce in later centuries, thus throwing out the baby with the bathwater. As the Theocentric spirituality that centered on God went out, so then the anthropocentric spiritualities centering on man came in. The profound contemplative prayer with the fruits of contemplation that had so far characterized true traditional Catholic spirituality went out, and a moralism came in instead, as the newer anthropocentric congregations now took the lead. In the centuries that followed, even the older orders who originally had a theocentric spirituality centered on the contemplation and the sacrifices needed to attain it, gradually began to adopt the spirituality of the Anthropocentric Spiritualities and the moralism that characterized it.
In his monumental history of the Catholic Church, Monsignor Philip Hughes put it this way: “The most mischievous feature of Quietism was the suspicion that it threw on the contemplative life as a whole. It was the tragedy of history that this life shrank to very small proportions, and religion, even for holy souls, too often took on the appearance of being no more than a divinely aided effort towards moral perfection.”
This new moralism began to infiltrate into Catholic education after the Renaissance, seen as the birth of modernism. The stoical philosophy that grew up in the pagan world alongside Catholicism in the early Church, began to creep into Catholic education as can be seen in the foundation of St. Paul’s school in London by the Renaissance man Fr. John Colet in 1509. Gradually, all the other major private schools, grammar schools and higher university education followed suit. The Classical stoical belief that you can make yourself into a perfect human being in the new anthropocentric Spirituality being passed down through the centuries, was first handed on to me in a Catholic grammar school run by secular priests many centuries later. Finally it found its way into religious education in the novitiates of religious orders and congregations of men and women, as I found out for myself many years later, both in the Franciscan Novitiate where I was “formed” and in the myriad other orders and congregations to whom I gave retreats immediately after the Second Vatican Council. Moralism was giving way to the new man-made socio-psychological spiritualities that destroyed them.
It also introduced into Catholic Spirituality the corrosive cancer that would corrupt it, namely the pride and the arrogance that has to be banished before God’s power can work. St. Paul insists that God’s power can only work in weakness. That is why in any authentic prayer journey God always leads those who begin as adolescent stoics into contemplative prayer, which, contrary to common belief amongst non-practitioners, and pseudo-mystics, begins with a prolonged period of darkness, dryness and aridity in which the proud and arrogant of heart are purified for union with Christ.
Mysticism, they chanted, begins in mist and ends in schism and they have been chanting it ever since.Throughout the aftermath of Quietism and down to the Second Vatican Council, the Traditional Tridentine Mass reigned supreme at the center of Catholic Life. Today, this Catholic Tridentine Mass has become the standard around which traditional Catholics gather to defend their traditional Catholic faith. Although the standard bearers are physically united by the Traditional Tridentine Mass they are sadly disunited by the superficial cafeteria spirituality that divides them. Only a return to the God-given Theocentric and contemplative Spirituality given to the early Church by Christ Himself can reunite us all together in the Holy Spirit through whom this spirituality was transmitted to the early Church.
When I say that the vast number of Catholics do not understand the true traditional theocentric spirituality that has been outlined in these essays, I do not just mean ordinary Catholics, but Catholic intellectuals and theologians too. I do not mean to point an accusing finger at them as if they are responsible for this sad state of affairs, because they most certainly are not. They, like everybody else, are the victims of the prolonged spiritual bankruptcy that has prevailed in the Catholic Church, in the aftermath of the condemnation of Molinos and the other semi-Quietists, and of the anti-mystical crusaders who have systematically extracted contemplative loving from Catholic spirituality. As all too many enthusiastic amateur spiritual theologians have tried to make a synthesis of Traditional contemplative spirituality with disastrous consequences, I must, in charity, call out some Shepherds who can cause confusion, but I will leave that to my next essay in this series.
Pictured: Mme Guyon, condemned as a Quietist