Shaping the Rhythm of Life

'Whoever prays is certainly saved. He who does not is certainly damned. All the blessed have been saved by prayer.' - St Alphonsus Liguori

From TAN♦Direction

By R. Jared Staudt,PhD

Prayer forms Catholic culture more than anything else, especially when centered on the Eucharist. Encoun­tering Christ daily in prayer enables the Eucharist’s divine life to grow and transform everything else. Prayer should shape the rhythm of the Christian life by giving order to each day, providing time to celebrate each week, and draw­ing us deeper into salvation history through the liturgical year. Time manifests the lordship of Christ by bringing each day under His direction and seeking to conform all things to Him. Christ’s kingdom does not belong to this world, even as it gives shape to the world. Abiding in prayer allows the kingdom of heaven to shape earthly life, drawing the duties, cares, joys, and hardships of this life under its guid­ance. Prayer bridges the divide between heaven and earth, strengthening Christ’s Eucharistic presence within the soul of the disciple.

Daily prayer provides the necessary foundation for a Eucha­ristic life. Specifically, personal daily prayer extends the pres­ence of Jesus within the soul, allowing His life to guide ours in an abiding state of communion. Encountering Jesus in the Eucharist initiates a call to remain close to Him and to live out His teaching and commandments. “Abide in me, and I in you. . . . If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love” (Jn 15:4, 7–10). Although we begin to abide with Jesus through the Eucharist, He teaches us that this communion requires our continued action to follow Him and remain faithful to His commands. Our life cannot contradict the union He offers us; rather, it should reinforce it by following Jesus the rest of the week. Prayer and right living together open our hearts for Jesus to enter in and abide there.

Prayer creates the continual space for Jesus to act in our lives. We are literally not alone when we pray, because through it we come close to Jesus, giving us strength and comfort. The evangelist Luke relates how Jesus told His dis­ciples that “they ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Lk 18:1). When Paul exhorts the Thessalonians to do the same, he urges them always to give thanks, the word for the Eucharist, showing that we should maintain the disposition of prayer at Mass continually: “Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thes 5:16–18). Every moment is an opportunity for praise and thanks. Paul also tells the Ephesians to redeem, or ransom (exagorazo), the time, an intriguing image calling us to draw each moment to Christ, redeeming it from the influence of the enemy (see Eph 5:16). The redemption of Jesus should extend to how we spend our time, living under the kingship of Christ and not the prince of this world, the devil. How we spend our time shows our true priorities. If we value communion with Jesus, we will seek to spend time with Him. Jesus awaits us every day, hidden in the Eucharist, and invites us into deeper friendship with Him. Francisco de Zurbaran’s painting The Eucharist shows the continual adoration that Jesus’s Eucharistic presence receives from the angels. This presence is a continual invitation to join in this ongoing adoration as an anchor to our life, giving us spiritual stability. We can take our place next to the angels, gazing at Jesus’s hidden presence and allowing it to soak into us, making us more like Him.

This article is taken from a chapter in How the Eucharist Can Save Civilization by R. Jared Staudt, PhD, which is available from TAN Books.

Cleaning the Augean Stables

Maximilian Krah, the man being investigated is 'one of ours' since he's an AfD MEP. Good on The European Conservative for not shirking their duty.

From The European Conservative 

By The Editors

Our hope is that the investigations that we have planned for the coming months will lead to a cleaning of the Augean stables among other parties and organizations—for the vices common to today’s political class are common to man.

Today we publish an investigation into various claims made against a member of the European Parliament. Our aim in doing so is to follow our investigations wherever they may lead, without regard to the political affiliations of those involved. This is, after all, the ultimate goal of investigative journalism.

Investigative journalism was not part of our long-term plans when we launched this publication 15 years ago. However, since then, we have grown—from a simple four-page newsletter to a quarterly journal of ideas, now with a daily news and analysis website. 

This evolution has not been without its growing pains, but if there is one thing that is certain, it is that readers are hungry for both ideas and information—especially when it comes to the conservative and nationalist-populist groups, movements, and parties that we have always seen as our bailiwick. 

Part of our task has thus always been to consider with seriousness and sobriety—and, when warranted, sympathy—those who seek to preserve national sovereignty and the hallmarks of European civilization that are actively being destroyed or undermined by public and private sector elites, and foreign powers. However, part of our task has also always been to seek to delineate those ‘boundaries’ beyond which we think responsible and constructive conservatives and Rightists should not venture. 

This requires questioning those so-called conservatives among us who, for one reason or another, find themselves foolishly enamored of or seduced by the power of totalitarian political regimes or globalist forces in our world. This has included, most notably, China.

It is one thing for Western globalist elites to have all but prostituted themselves for lucrative business deals with the CCP. It is, however, quite another thing for Western European conservatives—that is, those who are supposed to be doing restorative and rehabilitative and reintegrative work on behalf of our Judeo-Christian civilization—to get ‘chummy’ with the Chinese communists or to engage in other activities for gain. The ongoing ‘Qatargate’ scandal clearly illustrates this point. It points to internal contradictions and a misguidedness that demands a remedy. At times, it is also accompanied by a corruption of the spirit and mind.

With today’s publication of Thomas O’Reilly’s report that suggests similar kinds of shenanigans, we seek to shed a light on corners of our conservative constellation where questionable characters often operate with impunity. Sunshine is often the best disinfectant.

Our hope is that similar investigations that we have planned for the coming months will also lead to a cleaning of the Augean stables among other parties and organizations—for the vices common to today’s political class are common to man. The great literary and philosophical works of the West teach us this—as do our ongoing investigations and reporting. Stay tuned.

Great Catholic Scientists, Number 21

Pierre André Latreille (29 November 1762 – 6 February 1833) was a French zoologist, specialising in arthropods. Having trained as a Priest before the French Revolution, Latreille refused to take the oath required by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, was imprisoned under threat of death, and only regained his freedom after recognising a rare beetle species he found in the prison, Necrobia ruficollis.

Make Church Music Great Again

Mr Holdsworth discusses Church music. I agree it needs to be made great again. It is the only thing that upsets me about Mass at St Wenceslaus. The preaching is Catholic, the Mass is celebrated reverently and according to the rubrics. There are no acolettes or blue haired EMHCs, but the music! 90% of the time its syrupy, unsingable 1970s and '80s 'music' of questionable orthodoxy, or it's reasonably orthodox, but of protestant origin.

His introduction, again, a loose transcript:

The debate about what is appropriate for music at Sunday worship has raged for decades and as it has, many people and communities have adopted novelties and new approaches without waiting for it to be resolved. Since I’m not a theologian or a liturgist, I don’t think I can break new ground in that aspect of the debate, but I do think I can provide some insight using an analogy that speaks to something I do have some experience in which is filmmaking. Some filmmakers will start exploring the question of musical accompaniment for their films before they even begin to shoot or edit the film. Music is so significant in setting the tone and pace of a film that it needs to align with the vision for the film from the very beginning. It can make or break the effectiveness of a film’s ability to capture the emotional investment of an audience. When it comes to Sunday worship, we should be choosing and composing music that is appropriate and reflective of what’s happening in front of us; which begs the question: what is happening? Well, Sunday worship is about growing in our faith by hearing the word of God and then by commemorating and recreating the Lord’s supper. The last supper was this moment in history in which Jesus fused the profound meaning of the sacrifice of the Passover lamb with the sacrifice of his own life which would release not just a people from slavery, but the entire world from sin and death. This is arguably the most important moment in all of human history as Jesus establishes this ritual that signifies the incredibly heartrending sacrifice that he would make. This is the drama that unfolds for us on Sunday. With that in mind, can we ask ourselves what kind of music should accompany this drama? If I was trying to capture the essence of this drama like a filmmaker, I would use music is stirring, troubling, epic, and intensely spiritual. It should be anything but light hearted and trivial. So if you’re a music leader or a song writer, let’s aim higher. Let’s produce music that is worthy of the drama that unfolds for us every Sunday.

Why It's Not OK To Sucker Punch a Neo-Nazi

Mr Holdsworth on a moral question.

His introduction:

By now, most people have seen or heard about the neo Nazi who was sucker punched on inauguration day while he was giving an interview. Usually, when movements indulge in violence like rioting or physical assault on individuals expressing different views, you’ll see people start to back off a bit and distance themselves from that kind of behavior, but in this case, it seems like most people really embraced and celebrated this action, so I thought it’d be worth talking about why it’s not OK to sucker punch a neo Nazi. Physical assault is a violation of another person’s human rights and that’s why it’s illegal. One of the fundamental characteristics of Fascism or national socialism or Nazism is the use of force to achieve conformity. Now, if you oppose fascism but you do so by violently oppressing someone else in the name of your opposition, then you’re guilty of the same thing that makes fascism wrong. In other words, you’re just as bad and should be as enthusiastically denounced. So, if you don’t mind becoming the thing you hate, then ya, go ahead and physically assault people in the name of refusing them their inherent human rights.

Why You Shouldn't Argue Online

I agree with Mr Holdsworth, which is why I tend to 'preach to the choir', and ignore comments from liberal, modernist, heretic, and other friends who get upset at what I post. In fact, my immediate family, none of whom agree with either my theology or my politics, do not 'follow' me on Facebook, tho' were all 'friends' on the platform.

His introduction:

If you're as opinionated and self righteous as I am, then leaving a disagreeable online comment or post alone is really hard to do. There's this irresistible compulsion to want to put that person in their place. It's not enough to be right, we have to remind people that we are right with an impressive demonstration of our reason and moral aptitude. If we can be honest with ourselves, though, those arguments never go anywhere. They never produce the results we were hoping for and if nothing else, they tend to put everyone, ourselves included, in a bad mood. So, with that in mind, I created a rule for myself to never get into arguments online. This video explains why.

Words We Think Are Bad But Aren't

Here is Mr Holdsworth's introduction to this short video,

There are a lot of words that have been misused or have suffered from bad associations that aren't fair. Here are 4 words that need to be rehabilitated in the name of using language properly.

We Need Better Music for Mass

All I can say, is I agree with Mr Holdsworth 110%!

His introduction to the video:

It’s an amazing fact that we can carry on with the day to day affairs of our lives without giving a second thought to the immensity of our universe and the incomprehensible forces that explode and contract within it. The known universe is characterized by neutron stars, black holes, supernovas, rogue asteroids, and even within our own solar system, there are forces that produce a sense of terror and awe just to think about: like the fact that there is a cyclone on Jupiter bigger than our planet. Carl Sagan famously described our planet as a pale blue dot based on the photo of the same name taken from deep space which provides a sense of the scale of our own world which consumes all of our attention, but in the grand scheme appears to be floating helplessly in the vastness of space. As a Catholic Christian, I’m someone who believes that this immense, awe inspiring system of systems with forces that can produce existential dread in the most resolute members of our species was created by a mind - the source and ground of all being, who is the logos, who is God. But it doesn’t stop there. The one who spoke all that in to existence also invaded creation through the incarnation of Jesus Christ – a human person who said and did things that have an unmistakable confounding but simultaneously beautiful quality. He is the focal point at which the transcendent eternal source of everything that is became available to our senses. He is the moment at which heaven collides with that pale blue dot. And just before he was arrested and crucified, he gave us a formula and a format that would provide for the continual manifestation of this collision of heaven and earth. He gave us his body, blood, soul, and divinity; his incarnation, in the form of bread and wine consecrated on the alter of every mass celebrated every day throughout the world. And if you had never been to a Catholic Mass, with all of that context in mind, you might think, if that’s true, it must be an incredibly powerful and epic moment to witness and the Church expects us to believe that it is true, while simultaneously garnishing that moment with music like The King of Glory. Why do we do this? Think about what we’re asking people to believe and then consider how we present it to them and then we ask ourselves why people don’t believe and why the faith is in such dramatic decline in regions where this is common practice. And of course, this hasn’t always been the case. There have been profound periods where artistic and cultural expression found their stride in the context of the mass and we can still get glimpses of it, especially in the way our Eastern Orthodox brother and sisters practice their liturgy. You can’t watch or participate in that without thinking that the gravity of this moment is significant. Where I live, most Catholic masses seem to be doing everything they can to diminish and trivialize the gravity of that moment.
To be totally honest, I’d rather there be silence rather than some of the attempts we make to improve upon the profound way that Jesus appears to us. I don’t blame musicians and worship leaders because the problem is a lot bigger than that. I myself have been tapped to lead music at mass and if I had to do it tomorrow, I’d be playing my guitar singing the only songs that are recognized and available in the hymnals in our pews. The solution to this problem needs to come from the top down. We need our bishops and priests to lead us into a better understanding of what is appropriate for our liturgy. We need to stop supporting publishers who push this kind of thing, exclusively. The Church needs to reclaim a sense of patronage of good music and art made by sincere, faithful, Catholics who appreciate the subject matter that they are communicating. And I’m not trying to say, we need to go back to the way things were or only use a particular style or particular instrument. This isn’t about liberals vs. conservatives. This is about good and appropriate art and liturgy vs. bad art and liturgy. This experiment we’ve been on for the last half century has been one in which we’ve been chasing cultural relevance only to drive our Church into a deeper state of cultural irrelevance. Trying to fit in isn’t the way to be cool. Doing something entirely unique and set apart from everything else is how you capture people’s interest. It seems like the Church used to understand that and has forgotten it. Let’s do what we can now, to reclaim it.

Why I #Converted to the #Catholic #Church - Part 2: Choosing between Protestantism and Catholicism

The second part of Brian Holdsworth's conversion story.

His introduction to the video:

This is part 2 of my #conversion to #Catholicism story. If you haven't seen part one, check it out here: Once I had encountered God in such a meaningful way, I began searching for a faith community to help me understand the Christian faith. I quickly became confused by the myriad of denominations and decided I needed to understand why there were so many. I began to study about Church history and Martin Luther's reformation. I compared the claims of the reformers and the Catholic Church and did my best to read the Bible from an objective point of view. What I found surprised me as the Catholic claims seemed to hold up to scrutiny while the premises for Protestant conclusions struggled to hold together.

Why I #Converted to the #Catholic #Church - Part 1

Today begins our new series of 'Videos at 15.00'. If and when, the Chevalier does another livestream, I will post it.

But, in the meantime, meet Brian Holdsworth. I've already shared one of his videos, Attending My First Latin Mass, which, if you haven't watched, I highly recommend. It will be posted again, in the series.

 Mr Holdsworth is a young convert, a husband and father. I'm going to begin the series with the videos he did on his conversion story, and then post them in order. N.B., I don't necessarily agree with all of Mr Holdsworth's positions on philosophy, and ecclesiastical politics, but I think he makes excellent Catholic videos.

His introduction to the video,

I've been asked to share my catholic conversion story a few times so here it is. This will be multi part (hopefully only 2). To understand what led to my conversion to the Catholic Church, you have to understand a bit about my view of society growing up and what shaped that view. It was marked by cynicism until I met someone that invaded that perspective with grace, kindness, and peace. That led to an encounter with God and a conversion to Christianity.

Many of the ideas in my videos are concepts that are covered in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Even if you're not a Catholic, I really strongly recommend you take an opportunity at some point in your life to read it. It's an incredible document that was developed under the supervision of one of the most profound philosophers of the 20th century; John Paul II.

I'm also heavily influenced by the writings of C.S. Lewis. In fact, that's an understatement. He's by far my greatest influence and if you haven't already been exposed to his writing, I strongly encourage you to check it out. Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity are a great place to start.

Please comment with your ideas about the video and if you find it interesting, please share it and subscribe.

Attending My First Latin Mass

If you have not seen this video, watch it!!!! Mr Holdsworth is a young husband and father and a convert. His channel is here.

This is what the 'Youth' wanted, and Francis's lickspittle toadies wouldn't even consider it. Instead, from the synod, we got perversion and 'synodality', so the Bishops will have an easier time of spreading even more heresy, perversion, and filth.

Here is a quote from him: