Comments on: Unfinished Personal/Global Musings II (Valentin Tomberg on Disintegration – Death) http://corjesusacratissimum.org/2009/11/unfinished-personalglobal-musings-ii-valentin-tomberg-on-disintegration-death/ Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:11:35 +0000 hourly 1 By: roger http://corjesusacratissimum.org/2009/11/unfinished-personalglobal-musings-ii-valentin-tomberg-on-disintegration-death/comment-page-1/#comment-1602 roger Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:14:37 +0000 http://corjesusacratissimum.org/?p=1027#comment-1602 Thank you, Edwin. How do we go forward indeed? This most profound of questions is obviously one that cannot be answered in a soundbite. It is so huge that every day of my life is involved with struggling with it, as I imagine yours may well be, too. This whole website is bound up with this question. We cannot mechanically re-live what is past, but we can try to live that which has eternal value within certain things given in the past. Just one example of what I have mind here - <em>just one </em>- are the Sacraments. Paul VI tried to change the Mass with the aid of a stopwatch apparently. That is, I have heard a report I judge reliable (from George Weigel) that in the Vatican the new Mass was devised by "experts" with stopwatches in hand ... But tradition does not develop through utilitarian innovation. How many seconds can we allow the Agnus Dei now that it is in the vernacular ...? No, tradition develops by those who are loyal to the inspiration of the past, but who are open to the inspiration - true inspiration, <em>not utilitarian innovation </em>- of the future. We cannot "freeze the Tradition" in 1962 as the Holy Father has said - otherwise it will become pharasaic - deprived of Eternity. And not Tradition, which ever develops ... But we can cultivate a spirity of fidelity and reverence for the spiritual genius of the past and openness to the continued work of the Holy Spirit in the future. These words I hope express a true Traditionalism. And it seems to me that such true Traditionalism - sans the ignorance of the past perpetuated by contemporary "culture", sans arrogant "knowing-better", sans cynicism, irreverence, iconoclasm - is what must be <em>cultivated</em>. Against the colossal forces of globalising capitalism, we must live it, we must educate for it, we must work to clarify the issues and our thinking and we must pray ... Thank you, Edwin.

How do we go forward indeed?

This most profound of questions is obviously one that cannot be answered in a soundbite. It is so huge that every day of my life is involved with struggling with it, as I imagine yours may well be, too. This whole website is bound up with this question.

We cannot mechanically re-live what is past, but we can try to live that which has eternal value within certain things given in the past.

Just one example of what I have mind here – just one - are the Sacraments.

Paul VI tried to change the Mass with the aid of a stopwatch apparently. That is, I have heard a report I judge reliable (from George Weigel) that in the Vatican the new Mass was devised by “experts” with stopwatches in hand …

But tradition does not develop through utilitarian innovation. How many seconds can we allow the Agnus Dei now that it is in the vernacular …?

No, tradition develops by those who are loyal to the inspiration of the past, but who are open to the inspiration – true inspiration, not utilitarian innovation - of the future.

We cannot “freeze the Tradition” in 1962 as the Holy Father has said – otherwise it will become pharasaic – deprived of Eternity. And not Tradition, which ever develops …

But we can cultivate a spirity of fidelity and reverence for the spiritual genius of the past and openness to the continued work of the Holy Spirit in the future.

These words I hope express a true Traditionalism.

And it seems to me that such true Traditionalism – sans the ignorance of the past perpetuated by contemporary “culture”, sans arrogant “knowing-better”, sans cynicism, irreverence, iconoclasm – is what must be cultivated.

Against the colossal forces of globalising capitalism, we must live it, we must educate for it, we must work to clarify the issues and our thinking and we must pray …

]]> By: Edwin Shendelman http://corjesusacratissimum.org/2009/11/unfinished-personalglobal-musings-ii-valentin-tomberg-on-disintegration-death/comment-page-1/#comment-1601 Edwin Shendelman Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:21:02 +0000 http://corjesusacratissimum.org/?p=1027#comment-1601 "Roman and canonical law matured for almost 2000 years, then international law began to separate from private law. The successive separation of law from metaphysics, i.e. philosophy, the divorce of philosophy from morality, the parting of morality from religion are not steps in the direction of progress, but steps in the direction of an increasing poverty of ideas and the narrowing of one’s horizon in regard to posed problems" What an incredible paragraph! What more needs to said? An almost-perfect summary of our problems. But how do we go forward without trying to re-live what is already past? “Roman and canonical law matured for almost 2000 years, then international law began to separate from private law. The successive separation of law from metaphysics, i.e. philosophy, the divorce of philosophy from morality, the parting of morality from religion are not steps in the direction of progress, but steps in the direction of an increasing poverty of ideas and the narrowing of one’s horizon in regard to posed problems”

What an incredible paragraph! What more needs to said? An almost-perfect summary of our problems. But how do we go forward without trying to re-live what is already past?

]]>