"Crisis Rarely Preached"
Nothing is mentioned about the crisis in our everyday lives, or anything of substance. Everything is like Fr. Becks letter, hollow, with no direct application to the real world in which live. Our boys going down the drain, drugs, porno, video game addicts, our daughters going down the drain, having pre-marital sex, going out on dates by themselves, drinking alcohol, dressing like any other girl in the world. Our young men not having any job skills because the SSPX schools only teach liberal arts. Our young men getting married at 20 years of age with no means of support but their parents. I could go on and on with subject matter for instructive real world applicable sermons to help, to guide, the flock, enough to give a sermon EVERYDAY. And yet, we get NOTHING!
This sounds like a fantasy. I live in St. Marys, and while there are a few bad eggs (hardly not surprising given St. Marys' huge size), nearly all of the people I know here are quite good people. Of course there is liberalism here and there. One cannot live in the world without being affected by it to some degree. And yet the priests are trying very hard to eliminate that liberalism, especially in the children. The Eucharistic crusaders, the C.O.M. and the Knights have all been rejuvenated and have seen a dramatic growth in membership and activity, the Catechism of the Crisis by Fr. Gaudron is being made a mandatory part of the high school curriculum, the works of the Archbishop are being heavily promoted. And these are just some of the things that are being done. Fr. Beck has instituted a weekly lecture series on topics pertaining to Catholic Faith and culture and they are being very well-attended. If you listen to Fr. Beck's sermons they are quite good and have helped me immensely. Just a few weeks ago I heard a sermon by Fr. Desautard excoriating the people for lukewarmness and spiritual mediocrity. Fr. Angele's sermons are also very good, and very practical.
The resistance keeps making these claims...and yet I see with my own eyes the exact opposite of what they claim!
#1- I was not talking about St. Mary's, I said in my state. And I can assure you that it is no fantasy.
Now regarding St. Mary's, are you telling me that this does not apply to St. Mary's:
Our young men not having any job skills because the SSPX schools only teach liberal arts. Our young men getting married at 20 years of age with no means of support but their parents.
If you listen to Fr. Beck's sermons they are quite good and have helped me immensely.
What exactly were they about that helped you in something (in what)? I've had people tell me, "Wasn't that a great sermon?", when the sermon was a hollow joke. I then ask them what was great about it, and they can't even remember what the sermon was about, when I knew every word.
The first, applies to a few people. Most of the people I know didn't get married until they had a college degree and a decent job, or are apprenticed in a trade, or were fortunate enough to get a good job ($50K+) out of high school. What you describes exists but is certainly far from common.
The last sermon, was about how feminism by degrading the feminine nature of woman is destroying the family, and the importance of devotion to Our Lady as the Mother of God in restoring feminine nature and in thus restoring the family and Christendom. It was quite good and inspired my Rosaries :).
The priest, btw, was newly ordained, in case you were wondering.
brainglitch, a lot of things you are referring to are devotional in nature.
I don't blame you for defending people you know and love. I do the same. But you would probably understand more of what is being said if you were able to distinguish that although many people are good or at least trying to be good, and although there are many devotional practices that are inspiring and uplifting, the liberal slide being addressed by the resistance is about doctrine in reference to VII.
There is a slide towards accepting the NO, perhaps not in their own lives, but in general. This you know. As much as we'd like, we cannot deny what +Fellay's Declaration says. And when you consider his individual interviews as well, wherein he openly acknowledges his move will cause a split (in other words HE is the one making the splitting move, NOT those who resist) there is no intellectually honest way of denying it.
Now, they've come up with many reasons to justify it and they've taken to rewriting a bit of ABL's history, and whether one accepts those or not is a different story. Perhaps a person accepts those justifications and agrees with the shift. But the bottom line, that there is a new shift towards a practical agreement without doctrinal solution, remains the same.
There have always been and will always be people who point out the sins of St Mary's or the SSPX, this is not unique to nor the goal of the resistance. This is personal to the individual poster. I have defended the general good will of the average SSPX'er so many times myself in the past few years, so I know very well what is motivating you to point out the good side.
But what I'm getting at is that this defense of the persons you know and love is clouding your ability to see what is the actual objective of the resistance. It is not to malign them. Again, that is personal to the poster. Don't let yourself be distracted by that. The resistance is wanting the people of St. Mary's, and elsewhere, to understand the shift that is taking place and where that shift will lead if it is not corrected. The people are living their quiet, happy devotional lives right now, but that very quiet, happy, devotional life is in jeopardy and that's all the resistance is trying to tell them.
It's as if Frodo and Sam tried to tell the Shire what evil was looming ahead, about to destroy them. They would laugh at them and think they went crazy, since their lives had not been affected one iota. Yet.
But this is real life and we aren't guaranteed a happily ever after. We have to wake the people up because we need everyone one of them to fight. By the time their lives
are affected, it will be too late for too many.
Imagine two lines, almost parallel. One degree of difference will take them on separate paths to infinity. Sure they'll look exactly parallel for a while, but in time that one degree of difference creates a chasm. And we aren't talking one degree of difference on some disciplinary or cultural level. It on the doctrinal level. As you believe so you shall live. If we start
believing that the NO isn't so bad, VII was misunderstood and we really should hitch up to them ... The St. Mary's you know and love and that you're so attached to will not be the same in 20-30 years. It happened to
the world after VII, it would be highly presumptuous of us to think we're any better and have nothing to learn from that little history lesson.
You're young. You studied under Fr Themann, but he's young too. As am I. We didn't know ABL firsthand as adults or at all, up until now we've been relying heavily on what we're told. But it's more than high time to break out his books and interviews and educate ourselves. There may be only one degree of difference between the legacy ABL left and +Fellay's recent stance, but that one degree leads nowhere good.
You realize the SSPX is the last large organization to publicly oppose VII and the NO, right? I don't want to minimize the good that other organizations are doing. I think even the FSSP has its place and its role in the restoration of the Church. But the SSPX is the only public
fighter. Once even we give in and admit the "legitimacy" of the NO, then what? The world will suddenly convert? That's a silly thing to think. Since when does anyone surrender and assume that in doing so, the
other side will suddenly bow to
them? Yet that is exactly +Fellay's thought in wanting to submit to a practical agreement without doctrinal solution, saying we'll get to the doctrine later, they'll listen later, we'll help convert them later, from the "inside". We're already on the inside! Let's just keep doing what we're doing, without compromise. It has worked tremendously so far. And if we keep getting baited by Rome like this, obviously we are having an effect.
That is, until we get full of ourselves and we fall for the bait. :pop:
God's Will will be done, but sometimes His Will is that we get what we deserve. I don't think we're ready for that in this case.
Topic: The leadership in Saint Marys (Read 9993 times)