Understanding Parish or Community Life

What I call community is not the same as what is known in America as parish life. It seems that the word "community" is misused constantly is parish when the mission statements. Mission statements did not exist in pre-Vatican II "communities".  Why mission statements became popular had to do parishes accepting business models for worship and relationships instead of family models. Yes, many mission statements use the word "family" but one cannot create a family atmosphere with a business model.

Community comes from people getting involved in each other's lives. When I was home schooling, the little group of home schooling moms created a little community. We saw each other weekly outside of Mass time, did things together with the children and shared talents and resources.

Community means men meeting in Bible studies, joining Men of St. Joseph or other fathers' groups, and even having men's Adoration groups. Sierra club is another community building group, which I know of personally, as my dad was president for years.

But, unless the members of families actually meet during the week outside of Church, socializing and praying with each other, there will be no community.

Community needs to start small and grow because people are becoming friends in the Lord, each one having a personal relationship with Christ and working on personal holiness at home.

Why there are so few real communities has to do with the fact that meeting together does not seem to be a priority in some areas.

As I have written so many times, imagine a diocese with only a handful of churches, few opportunities for receiving the sacraments, and almost complete marginalization of Catholics in the marketplace. This is coming.

For years on this blog, I have written about podding and creating small groups close by in your neighbourhoods for support when things get tough. Many Catholics will be, and already are, not accepted by their own families regarding Catholic doctrine. Communities are necessary to sustain such "lone wolves" who have been kicked out of the family circle for being really Catholic.

Being involved personally, knowing your Catholic neighbors, having dinners, having barbeques with these Catholic remnant people, praying together as families as well as individuals, create community. Home schooling moms seem to be very good at creating Catholic mini-communities.

Parish life usually does not create real community, as this model did years ago, as too many Catholics may be understood as living lives of heterodoxy.

Some people with whom I have spoken think community will "just happen" when things get tough. I do not think so.

Some communities are being built, as in those people who have moved to the Clear Creek Abbey area in order to have the TLM as the center of a communal life. There is some community is Idaho and in Tennessee in TLM communities which have worked on relationships. There are a few charismatic communities in Michigan and in Indiana.

The great blockage to community life is the stubbornness which insists that communal life must be seen as the same as parish life. The old paradigm no longer works, as, in my last parish, the heterodox Catholics simply cannot live the same life as those who are obedient.

The model of community can no longer be the divisive families of many shades of belief, or the old parish model. One cannot have intimate relationships with those who are living in disobedient and refuse to repent. Doctrinal divisions in families or in parishes stop community building.

Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior, had many things to say about division. Just look in Mark, Luke and Matthew, in the passages on the separation of the sheep and goats, and the turning of family members against other family members.

Mark, 13:12

And the brother shall betray his brother unto death, and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death.

Luke 12:53

The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

Matthew 25:31-46

³¹ And when the Son of man shall come in his majesty, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit upon the seat of his majesty.

³² And all nations shall be gathered together before him, and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats:

³³ And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left.

³⁴ Then shall the king say to them that shall be on his right hand: Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

When I returned from Europe to the States, one thing which struck me, which I had not noticed before, was the fact that so many Catholics were idolizing their families.

Their families were more important that the Catholic communities, than Catholic teaching, than Catholic culture and practice. Their families took them away from activities or socializing with Catholics who could help them be stronger and holier.

Finally, I saw wives giving in to the pagan practices of their families and husbands to theirs instead of listening to the holy spouse God had given them.

Why has this happened? Why the deceit that one can bring one's family to God? Why the compromising on such a large scale?

The Kingdom of God is the Church. And the Church Militant is made up of those who fight for the truth of the Catholic Faith.

We may not share this vision, this grace with our siblings, or even parents.

In fact, I see husbands giving in to wives who want to spend too much on luxury items, going out, and so on, when these men know God is calling the family to more prayer and simplicity.

I see wives giving in to husbands on the issue of contraception.

I see husbands not wanting to confront the occult or new age practices they see their wives are doing.

I see wives not speaking to their husbands about pornography.

Husbands and wives are to bring each other to heaven. That is the main reason God brought them together.

If a family gets in the way of that process on purpose, by the strength of old sins, such as involvement in the occult, Freemasonry, lax Catholicism, the wife or husband must step in and help the other one break away from lives of sin.

How this is done takes prayer, patience, tact, but always the truth.

I have written about podding and building community before the really hard times hit. Some people have written or phoned me to say that they want to do this, for their own sake, the sake of the children and the spouse, but the other half of the couple does not.

If it is the man who wants to do so, the Catholic woman owes him obedience. If it is the woman who wants to grow deeper in holiness, she must pray, but never sin.

Family idolatry is rife. Our families do not save us, God does. Many saints had holy parents, but some did not.

The day St. Damien of Molokai told his father he wanted to be a priest, his father grew angry and said "no". The next morning, the father told him to get into the farm cart, said nothing else, drove the young man to the seminary, and dropped him off. The father never spoke with the saint again.

In my own family, one member, a father, never spoke to his daughter after she entered the convent. Never.

We need to make choices daily. Some need to break away from consumerist, materialistic families. Some need to break away from negative families. Some need to break away from families involved in the occult, or power, or abuse.

I cannot save those in my family who have fallen away. Only God can. I love them and pray for them daily. But, no family member will take me away from the path of holiness.

Can you say the same? Are you caught up in family idolatry? Would you die for Christ when your family may decide not to do so?

Some times the sin of the family is pride. 

We make choices daily, little choices, which lead to bigger ones.

May I add that persecution will come soon, and that we are going to have to choose between REAL communities or false ones.

from Maccabees....

Now I urge those who read this book not to be depressed by such calamities, but to recognize that these punishments were designed not to destroy but to discipline our people 2 Maccabees 6

Many younger Catholics understand we are headed for real persecution. Those who do not can read my previous posts on the stages of such persecution. We are in the beginning of the last stage.

But, many Catholics think that persecution is for punishing the wicked. Not so. Look at the quotation above from Maccabees. Persecution is for the good of the Church. For our good, individually and collectively.

No one who is honest can deny that evils entered the Church in the past sixty years or so. People, including leaders, became complacent, and worse, seriously full of sin. The case of contraception is merely one part of the evil-even today. There are many priests, and even bishops in England, who do not teach that Humanae Vitae is an infallible document.

And, in America, some seminaries are still, in 2013, accepting homosexuals as future priests and have homosexuals on the staff.  Also, the laity do not correct one another and ignore sin, which is not only hypocritical, as not abiding by one's baptismal promises, but encouraging evil. Many Catholics are not obedient, and get involve in New Age practices and false private revelations, all which are disobedient actions and are sinful. Many Catholics are not orthodox. This is unfaithfulness. This is sin.

So, the Church must be purified. The lavender mafia is only one aspect. The sins against children are only one aspect. The tacit agreement and support of abortion by Catholics who vote for pro-abortion politicians is only one aspect. Now, we have priests and bishops accepting ssm. The blasphemies against God and the sacrilegious reception of Holy Communion as well as abuses in the Liturgy add to the list.

As seen in Maccabees, God is faithful and will not let His People go to hell. He wants the salvation of those in His Church as well as outside the Church.

Persecution is for us, folks. If you cannot see this, you are ignoring the evil which is in the Church. The Maccabees started with themselves, fasting, praying, fighting and witnessed great miracles.

We shall need community to live and to worship freely.

We cannot expect miracles unless we pursue purity of heart. Pray, fast, reflect, think, act. Form real communities, not false ones which will NOT support you in times of persecution. Some of the enemies of the Faith sit next to you in your parish on Sunday.

27%

As I am leaving this house, which has sold, and looking for new digs, I am shocked by the number of people I have met who live alone, but will not rent out space. Why do single people need an entire house and big ones? A friend of mine knows four women who are living alone in huge houses. They will not rent. Renting parts of houses was not uncommon when I was younger. I rented an entire floor of a house from a widow at one time.

Perhaps it is because I lived in community for almost seven whole years, I am used to living in disciplined order with others. Perhaps it is because I was in the convent, that I know what it is like to share. Marriage alone does not really teach people how to share unless the couple have children. Children create mature adults, as the couple, who can just coast along as two single people doing things together, must die to self when the children come along. Children are part of our salvation as parents.

But, this great number of single people of which I have become aware since coming back to the States astounds me for another reason-many are women. Check out these statistics from here, the 2012 census.

• Sixty-six percent of households in 2012 were family households, down from 81 percent in 1970. • Between 1970 and 2012, the share of households that were married couples with children under 18 halved from 40 percent to 20 percent. • The proportion of one-person households increased by 10 percentage points between 1970 and 2012, from 17 percent to 27 percent. • Between 1970 and 2012, the average number of people per household declined from 3.1 to 2.6. 

27% of Americans live alone. This reveals two major problems: a lack of community causes this, and a lack of the ability to want to share causes this.

A nation, a culture with this many single households must not be seen as normal. Two conditions cause single households-the fact that people are not getting married, and the fact of an aging population which is not incorporated into families.

In days gone by, Grandma or Grandpa lived in families. Even in the 1980s, "Granny Flats" were popular in new houses being built, with little add-ons for the Aged P. In 2011, only 3% of White households were multi-generational, only 6% of Asian were multi-generational, and 8% of both Black and Hispanic households were multi-generational. Grandparents use to be part of daily life in communities.

Not so anymore.

 In 2011, there were 56 million married-couple households and 32 million one-person households--from article above.

Of those who live alone, 55.3% are women, and 44.7% are men. I spoke with a man yesterday who lives alone. His house is worth one million dollars. I do not "get it".

Coming from countries where community forms a primary part of daily life, as in Malta, I still cannot get use to the lack of local community, or the idea of so many people living alone.

I have created a monastic day complete with chapel. Even monastic communities get together several times a day. But, those I know who are living alone do not spend hours in prayer or study. One single woman I spoke with does visit the sick in her neighborhood, which is fantastic, but she also spends time watching television.

Americans seem to be heading for a real crisis of isolation leading to a lack of love and care for the elderly and the single, who seem to be choosing a lack of real love.

A statistic of 27% single households indicates an implosion of local community.

Review of one of my most controversial posts--
http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2012/07/i-do-not-believe-that-being-single-is.html

Repost for Good Friday

Thursday, 11 April 2013

NO MORE HIDING PLACES?: On Being a Recusant Catholic or Conscientious Christian from Another Denomination in 2013

Posted by Supertradmum

Where are the hiding places? 

LifeSiteNews in the article I just noted in the last post, also refers to two other cases where those who have had religious convictions against gay marriage have been persecuted. Fines are persecutions. Ask the descendants of the once wealthy Recusant families in England. 

However many families, including the Mores, the Ropers, the Throckmortons, the Selbys, the Bounts, the Arundels (for centuries), and perhaps even the Shakespeares were fined over and over and over. From 1581, one sees this in the annals. Many families fled to France. Some were torn to pieces as sides were taken, such as in the Throckmorton Family. Some came to the States and Canada, such as the family noted below in the note. There are few, if any, hiding places NOW.

Recusancy. After 1581, recusancy became an indictable offence, so recusants often appear in quarter sessions records and the fines levied were recorded in the pipe rolls. After 1592 a separate series of rolls, the recusant rolls was created for this purpose which continues until 1691. The pipe rolls also contain the accounts of fines and forfeitures of lands collected under the recusancy acts. Pipe and recusancy rolls are available for viewing at TNA. In 1581, the fine for missing an Anglican service was raised to twenty pounds per month. Also, in that year, a treasonable offence resulting in death was committed by anyone converting to Catholicism or attempting to convert others to the religion. In addition, a fine of 100 marks and a year in prison was imposed on those hearing mass. The details of criminal proceeding and fines levied should be contained within quarter session records. An Act of 1581 also forbade the Catholic education of children. Notice the last sentence. Parents were no longer allowed to raise their children in the Catholic Faith. Are you paying attention? More on the flower fines from another angle. FromLifeSiteNews. There are more links. The combination of legalizing same-sex “marriage” and odious “anti-discrimination” laws have faithful Christians saying their freedom of religion is being violated. And the court cases are piling up. An appeals court in New Mexico found a Christian couple, Elaine and Jonathan Huguenin, guilty of “discrimination” for refusing to photograph a homosexual “wedding.” They were ordered to pay more than $6,600 in fines after denying their services. Canadian homosexual activists demanded “born again Christian” florist Kimberly Evans of New Brunswick be taken to court for refusing to sell flowers for a gay “wedding.” Victoria Childress of Des Moines also faced threats of legal action for refusing to bake a cake for a homosexual ceremony on the grounds that it violated her Christian faith. More on the Recusancy Laws can be found here. I have taken a few of the laws and copied these. 1592 The first separate recusant rolls were compiled consisting mainly of Catholics and lasted up to 1691 (previously recusancy was recorded in the pipe rolls). The rolls recorded the punishments and fines of those who refused to conform to the Anglican doctrine. Memoranda Rolls 1217-1835: includes records of seizure of recusants' lands. 1593 Catholics were obliged to obtain permission to travel beyond five miles from their homes and those absent from home for more than three months were to leave the country. Another Act of the same year ordered that people of the age of 16 who refused to attend an Anglican service were to be imprisoned. Catholics had to worship in isolated places 1606 The Oath of Allegiance was introduced, denying the authority of the Pope and those that refused to swear the oath were liable to be imprisoned. Convicted recusants were ordered to receive Anglican communion once a year or face a fine or seizure of their property. Recusants were also barred from office and professions including the military. Informers were paid £50 for revealing a priest saying mass or persons attending mass. All the restrictions applied to a Protestant who married a Catholic wife. 1625 Catholics forced to pay a double rate of taxation. Tax records can be found in Lay Subsidy Rolls and Catholics and other nonconformists should be recognisable as they paid a double rate. 1661 Clarendon Code 1661-1665. Four Acts passed designed to emasculate the power of nonconformists. Corporation Act. (1661). Catholics and other nonconformists were excluded from official posts unless they took the sacrament of holy communion at an Anglican service. 1662 Act of Conformity. The Act excluded Catholics from holding church office. 1662 Conventicle Act. Made meetings for Catholic and nonconformist worship illegal, even in private houses, where more than four outsiders were present 1665 The Five-Mile Act. Nonconformist and Catholic ministers were forbidden to live or visit within five miles of a town or any other place where they had preached. 1672 Declaration of Indulgence. The Penal Laws against Catholics were relaxed. 1673 Test Act. The strength of anti-Catholic feeling led parliament to order the enforcement of the recusancy laws and pass the Test Act in retaliation against the Declaration of Indulgence. The Act required all those taking up an official post, civil or military, to take the oath and to submit a sacrament certificate that they had taken Anglican communion. Between 1689 and 1702, the requirement to take the oaths and test was extended to beneficed clergy, members of the universities, lawyers, schoolteachers and preachers. The declarations can be found in TNA. 1676 A proclamation ordered a survey of every recusant aged 16 and over. The names were handed to the local Justice of the Peace who called on those named to take the oath or be jailed. 1678 The Popish Plot. A fictitious plot made up by Titus Oates which alleged that Catholics were planning to assassinate King Charles II and bring the Catholic Duke of York to the throne. Estreats Rolls held at TNA hold information on fines imposed on Catholics following the alleged plot. The Estreats Rolls contain valuable genealogical information on those accused of recusancy in the local courts. They will include the recusant's name, parish, rank or occupation and the fine levied. http://hutchinsonfamilyhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/hutchinson-family-were-catholic.html 1689 The Bill of Rights excluded Catholics from the royal succession. New oaths of supremacy and allegiance were passed and measures were introduced to restrict the freedom of movement of Catholics. The Toleration Act of 1689 eased some restrictions, but the specific acts under the Clarendon Code were not repealed until the 19th century. 1692 Following the double rate of taxation Catholics were forced to pay in 1625, Catholics were obliged to pay double land tax. Catholics and other nonconformist entries should be recognisable amongst the land tax records as they paid double the rate of others. 1699 Recusants were barred from purchasing or inheriting land and any Catholics found practicing their religion could be jailed for life. 1702 The Security of Succession Act. The Act introduced an oath whereby all officials had to deny the right of the son of the exiled James II to succeed to the throne. Some returns of Catholics taking oaths are held by TNA as well as certificates of those who refused to take the oath. 1714 Security of the Sovereign Act. TNA holds certificates of those who refused to take the oath. 1715 Catholics were blamed collectively for the Jacobite rebellion. As a result, everyone over the age of 18 was compelled to swear an Oath of Allegiance. Lists of those who refused to take the oath are normally available at county record offices. 1716 Catholics were required to enrol documents such as wills and conveyances that involved the transfer of property and details can be found in close rolls held by TNA. 1723 Following the Jacobite rebellion of 1715, Catholics refusing to take the oaths of loyalty were required to register their names and estates at quarter sessions or face the seizure of their property. The returns describe the estates in detail, giving precise locations and dimensions of lands. The Forfeited Estates Commission was responsible for overseeing the seizure of the estates and details can be found in the close rolls held at TNA. Resucant Thomas Throckmorton's Tomb

Retrying to post an article--The Inner Safe Haven

Too many people have told me here that they cannot find a safe haven, a community. I have thought on this today and reflected on St. Catherine's words on creating a cell within the mind to which one can retreat in order to find God and peace.

Some have asked me if this house, or this village, or this town is a safe haven. I have had to say "no" when asked by some friends here because the safe haven, by definition, must be safe. To be safe is not an external phenomenon, a security made by "preppers", but an interior safety.

One of the reasons why some of my friends have moved into other areas and discovered that what they thought they had found or created, in Washington State, or Idaho, or Maine, has not become a safe haven is that they have brought the world with them into what they thought would be a sanctuary. The reason is that those who have moved into the "community" have brought sin and corruption with them.

A true safe haven is interior, made from the life of prayer which seeks for perfection. Only when one stops sinning mortally, when one tries to omit all venial sins, and live in the life of virtue, working on the elimination of one's predominant fault, can one create that safe haven, which is the place where one meets the Indwelling of the Trinity.

Prepping for physical trials is fine, but those efforts alone do not create a safe haven. One of the things which we did in community so long ago was to repent and change, pray together twice daily, work on faults and sins.

Without the focus of holiness, no person, family or friends can create a safe haven. Christ must be the center of all efforts, not things, not place, not even people.

If one is moving into a community and bringing all of one's sins and faults into the area or house, those around one are there to help the process of purification. If one is not willing to change, to convert, to face old and new sins, there can be no safe haven.

The monastic communities, especially Benedictine and Cistercian ones, demand daily conversion. Monastic peace is bought for the price of dying to self, the death of the ego.

In the past, communities, or safe havens survived and flourished because of the holiness of the members, and not because of the mountains or valleys which protected these buildings.

Those communities which tolerated sin fell into ruin, or were renewed by reformers, such as St. Anselm.

The inner safe havens of each member creates the true, physical safe haven. If people are merely focusing on the externals, the place will not be a safe haven, no matter how remote or physically rich.

We are all called to holiness. Create the cell within the mind and soul for God to come and rest within. Such is the beginning of true community,

Friendship in the Lord Part Four

I am concerned about the virtual community members reading the many, many Catholic blogs across the world. I am concerned when people write to me that they are completely isolated in their own areas, in American states, in European countries, in other nations across the globe. These good Catholics, who write to me or even speak with me, tell me that they are the only awake and orthodox Catholics in their parishes, where too many Catholics have compromised their consciences, and where their fellow Catholics are quite open about their disobedience to Catholic teaching. One cannot have friendships in the Lord with those who choose disobedience.

These good, obedient people, who have contacted me, from Australia, from Britain, from Germany, from New York, from Minnesota, and many other places, tell me that they are completely marginalized and alone in their remnant status.

Thinking about this problem and the loneliness of so many excellent Catholics, who are praying and doing penance for the Church, I have come to the sad conclusion that the virtual community, as much as it helps me, fails most Catholics who are on line.

Yes, these Catholics can write to me and Michael Voris, or Father Z., and say, "I am so glad I found you, as I was feeling so alone."

But, the truth is, these good people are physically alone. 

The virtual community has created some real community in some areas. I know this personally and am very glad of this. But, for the most part, those who have sought fellowship through twitter or the blogosphere remain separated from real Catholic community.

This fact not only grieves me, but shows me the depth of the problem of the smallness of the remnant.
When people in large metropolitan areas cannot find respectful, valid, or legal liturgies, cannot find real Catholic schools, cannot find a spouse, cannot find a spiritual director, I am saddened and realize that this situation will spread and become worse.

The isolation of real, practicing Catholics has not changed because of the virtual communities. Yes, we know we are not alone, but like those in Australia who write to me, miles separate people from meeting and becoming real brothers and sisters in Christ.

I have been more fortunate than most, in that the virtual community has brought me great friends and some benefactors. My Christian lady virtual friend who is purchasing bedding for me is one example. Yet, I would love to be in a real, daily Christian community. One reason I have wanted to stay in Europe is that I have found such groupings and miss those friends in Christ deeply.

It takes time to build on the ground, intentional communities. It takes energy. Yesterday, I spoke with a good Christian man who desires community and has lived in a wasteland of liberal Catholicism too long. He wants to pod. I had a note from a good woman who desperately wants community in her area and is praying for a young priest whom she thinks has the capacity to help create such in her city.

But, time is running out in some areas of the world. In America, only one crisis, either man-made or from weather, could shut down all the highways and put the entire nation under travel restrictions. We saw this in New York only weeks ago. Our movements will be curtailed and those who desire real community may never experience such friendship in the Lord.

I have tried for a long time on this blog to encourage community. I have failed in my attempts to inspire people to move, to seek out like-minded Catholics, to truly sacrifice personal comfort for the greater good of a community.

I have a friend who was in a famous Protestant community for most of his life. He told me one time, years ago, that community was very hard, but worth it. He left in order to marry someone outside the community, but the experience of friendships in the Lord mark him as someone who understands the Early Church.

I was in community for seven years. Again, I left it in order to pursue graduate studies and move out into the world, where God was calling me. I do not regret leaving that community so long ago, as that was God's Will for me, but I have never found anything like it in my travels. I also experienced and help create community when home-schooling, and when helping to set up real Catholic schools. It seems that the desire for community was more alive from 1971 to 2001, than now. I hope the desire in some hearts becomes reality.

I know that those in communities will be able to survive, spiritually, in the coming months when the Church faces the biggest challenge since Arianism once the Supreme Court passes same-sex marriage. As an excellent priest told his congregation when Great Britain passed the law years ago, "Your children and grandchildren will face a different world than you have had. You have no idea what is coming."

He was and is correct. The Church in America will split over this new decision. Many bishops will uphold the decision and decide to work with evil. Some bishops will stand up for the true teaching of Christ and His Church and be persecuted. Fines will be followed by church closures, bankruptcies of local dioceses, and the splitting of parishes.

Those Catholics who are isolated now will be more so then. I cannot inspire those who do not see or do not want to move into areas where there are communities already. I have failed in this task online.

Sadly, too many of the TLM communities are under attack or are facing dropping numbers in certain areas owing to changes in priests or the natural movement of people. In some cases, those who are attending the TLM do not want community. I have friends in TLM groups who have been trying to set up communities since before the Summorum Pontificum.  They, too, have failed to inspire others with the vision.

As I go into a place where I shall be more isolated and far from my small communities, from those few I have met who want to build real friendships in the Lord, but who cannot find others who want to do so, I am saddened. But, I must and do trust in Divine Providence.

For those who are succeeding in this endeavor, please write to me on this blog so I can share the good news with others. Some people who have contacted me are willing to move, but do not know where to go.

One of the tragedies has been something I first encountered in 2006, and this is that too many Catholic married couples are not of one mind on this topic. So many wives have told me over the years that they have wanted to move into real communities, but their husbands have not been open to this prospect. That a couple is not of one mind on the building of the Kingdom of God is a tragedy and causes great suffering for those who have had to give up their vision for friendships in the Lord.

The so-called splendid isolation of those who refuse to consider community may be based on fear, selfishness, sloth, or, more likely, consumerism and status. One must die to self to join others in building community. But, in my opinion, community is a necessity, not an option.

Pray for me that I can join those I have friendships in the Lord again. I miss all those with whom I have shared community, J, J, C, C, C, K, S, M, M, S, M, T, D, Fr. C., and others--a remnant, indeed. I pray for you who desire the building of the Kingdom of God on earth.

I pray that those who have hesitated no longer do so but act. I pray for the couples who need to come together in vision. I pray for those single people who have desired lay community life in the great urban ares, in agricultural towns, in mountain villages, and remain isolated with their God. I pray for myself and others who are old and have not found the support they need in parishes which ignore the elderly and shun those who are poor. Pray for me that I can return to "my people".

May all my readers on this virtual community discover or build physical communities before the curtain of darkness falls on our lands.

Psalm 133

The Blessedness of Unity

A Song of Ascents.

1 How very good and pleasant it is
    when kindred live together in unity!
2 It is like the precious oil on the head,
    running down upon the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
    running down over the collar of his robes.
3 It is like the dew of Hermon,
    which falls on the mountains of Zion.
For there the Lord ordained his blessing,
    life forevermore.

Need More Responses

One of two responses on podding. This one is for Orthodox readers of this blog. There is a growing lay community connected to St. John's Orthodox Cathedral in Alaska.

http://www.stjohnalaska.org/community.html

http://www.stjohnalaska.org/history.html

I need more responses.

The second one concerns lay people moving out near Clear Creek Abbey, the Benedictine community found here. If anyone has any specific information about this grouping of the laity, please let me know. Someone just indicated that there were laity moving out to this area, but I was given no details.

http://www.clearcreekmonks.org/links.html

Passing Up Angels....Friendship in the Lord Part Three

From today's readings...there is no such thing as coincidence.

http://uploads2.wikiart.org/images/james-tissot/abraham-and-the-three-angels.jpg

Hebrews 13:1-8New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition 

Service Well-Pleasing to God

13 Let mutual love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.3 Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.[a]4 Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers. 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” 6 So we can say with confidence,

“The Lord is my helper;
    I will not be afraid.
What can anyone do to me?”

7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Part one

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2015/02/friendship-in-lord.html

Friendship in the Lord

Many years ago, about 1974 to be exact, I remember reading a book by Father Paul Hinnebusch, Friendship in the Lord.

This book is now out-of-print. However, as I was in a lay community for seven years, I learned what this meant from experience and not merely from a book. I think the confusion about lay communities stems from the fact that people have never seen one or read about such.

The Anabaptists, of course, have communities, such as the Bruderhof, and the various Amish and Mennonite communities. These Protestants began their movements as mostly agrarian groups, purposefully separated from urban life, and from the evils surrounding their worlds, such as the compromises made by the Lutheran bishops under Nazism.

Catholic communities, and, indeed, the first communities mentioned in Acts, were urban. It was not until the fall of the Roman Empire that the Church moved out into the countryside. This movement out of the cities, a Catholic Diaspora, helped spread the Gospel, and created the monastic orders, specifically Benedictinism. Recall that St. Benedict's order grew out of the decay following the lack of order after the fall of Rome. His own father was a governor, as the local governments continued using Roman law and order, when possible, even after Rome was ruined.

The combination of law, order and Catholicism created new communities, in addition to the urban ones. It was never the intention of the communities, as seen working in Acts, to isolate themselves from the great cities of the time. In fact, if one also remembers the churches mentioned in the Book of Revelation, one sees that these seven churches were found in the largest cities in the Middle East, especially in the Levant, at the time.

Urban life now seems to be horribly anti-communal, and the suburban life-style, which I never lived, preferring to live in cities, or in towns or villages, dictates against communal life.

I have seen neighborhoods here in New Jersey full of McMansions and no sidewalks. Bedroom commuter neighborhoods by definition are anti-communal.

The strip malls I see here are also anti-communal. One parks a car in front of a store, shops and leaves. There is no place for gathering or even sitting down with friends.

Perhaps this is one reason I love Europe as the smaller villages have community still, and the cities are built on the old communal squares or gathering places. One sees one's friends by walking to church, for example.

Urban sprawl kills communities which existed in older times. For those who are younger than I am, the memory of community simply is not there in the imagination.

We lived in Catholic ghettos, or with other Protestant families who were still having children. People were in each others' houses. Of course, the inflation which hit America in the late 1970s, forced some women to have to work instead of being stay-at-home moms if a certain lifestyle was desired, In my own married life, we chose a simpler lifestyle on purpose in order for me to stay at home and home school.

Such are the choices people make.

However, the ideal of friendship in the Lord, which is found in real communities, seems a dream to many Catholics. Friendship takes time and detachment, and is not based on false, societal class structures, but on the sharing of resources and talents.

Many of us in the community movement in the States now so long ago learned how to have happy, prayerful families. Single people met like-minded single people, which created good marriages based on Godliness and not modern disorders of sex and false romance.

To be in a community meant that those who chose to do so had spiritual direction on a regular basis, and also, the teaching of how to become a servant. In fact, our community had something called "servant school". Dying to self, like those who lived in large families in the past experienced, became part of daily life.

Friendship in the Lord means first of all that one has a relationship with Christ which can be shared with others. and that one wants to live for and in Christ, building the Kingdom of God and not the Kingdom of Man.

Years ago, I had the delight in one college in which I was an instructor, to teach St. Augustine's City of God. This book should be read by all Catholics, and if God allows me some stability, perhaps I can share some of my notes, still floating around my head, with my readers here. At the time I was teaching this book, in the early 2000s, most of my friends were involved in the pro-life movement. Some were even in "rescue".  These people met at each other's houses, including mine, and prayed together, discussing pro-life issues, and the ministries coming out of the concern for pro-life issues.

This group was a small community. We shared dinners, were in each others' houses, and helped each other sharing talents. I was working and homeschooling, and out of this group, I tutored a girl with special needs, whose foster-mother needed help. And, so on.

Out of this group, came homeschooling sharing of talents as well. Many of those involved went to the local TLM even before the Summorum Pontificum.

The group broke up as some of us had to move away for other jobs, one key person moving to California and one going into a convent. However, like my earlier community experience, it was clear that working for the Kingdom of God formed the center of our focus.

Community will be essential in the days which are coming upon us quickly. Those who are strong need to help those who are weak. Those who are weak need to grow and learn to trust in Divine Providence more directly, more intensely.

When I encouraged readers a long time ago to pod, I was hoping that some would see the immediate need for such movements towards community. The time is coming quickly when people will not be able to move into neighborhoods with other Catholics. The time is coming quickly when the isolation of surburbia will become a real prison.

Too many people tell me that they would move into pods but that their spouses do not agree. These couples need to pray together so that one mind can be found on these issues. Women need to learn obedience to their husbands, if their husbands want to take the lead in the formation of community.

Perhaps because my generation came out of big families, where we learned how to share from little on, it was easier than those who have grown up with their own private bedrooms and all the luxuries of middle-class income families. I do not know if that is a problem for some-giving up "individualism" for the sake of the Kingdom.

There is no doubt that the Church grew in persecution because of the communities. That the Holy Spirit left us traces of this history in the Acts of the Apostles proves the importance of communal life.

To be wholly human, one must learn to have friendships in the Lord.

Part One...to be continued