Just a little placeholder and foretaste of things to come at this website.
I am struggling a bit with this weblog. It seems to me it needs to be birthed from a place of real contemplation – and not say, descend into ranting about the New Age movement.
From this place of contemplation, it seems I need to attempt a wide canvas indeed in the time to come.
Yes, the real problems I believe the ascending New Age culture poses for the world.
The Catholic and Christian alternative rooted not only in the values and beliefs fostered by the Church, but also in that which pours forth from Her – the enlivening, strengthening, restoring power of the Sacraments.
Even as that power is eclipsed, though not destroyed by the Novus Ordo …
Yes more on this is definitely needed. As is more on the traditional Latin Mass movement.
I want to reflect further on the horror of global capitalism and materialism.
And on the Enlightenment underpinning of reducing the Mystery of Life to empiricism and rationalism, which bolster that horror.
I want to support in my own humble way, the mission of His Holiness Benedict XVI as he confronts the tragedy and evil both within and without the Church …
Yes tragedy and evil … I have already posted a review of Malachi Martin’s Windswept House to this effect.
I will in fact be posting a number of reviews, which complement the themes of this weblog in unlikely and idiosyncratic ways.
There is for example, an upcoming review of Graham Greene’s 1940 masterpiece, The Power and the Glory, which idiosyncratically enough, I use to hold up the mirror again to New Age culture.
Then there is the terrain of Catholic France and the Sacré Coeur. More than one review on that theme is upcoming, as well.
At the moment, I am finding it easier to introduce the terrain of this website through the reviews. I think I should also flag that sooner or later these reviews will be linked to “sales pitches”. Yes, “you can buy this book at Amazon” …
The fact that the reviews I post here will generally be passionate recommendations may make them look like little but gaudy advertisements …
What can I say? I believe it is important to take a stand for certain things in a world being buried in utilitarian and New Age values.
But to do that most effectively one needs to pray and ponder.
This weblog then may be quiet while I struggle – but the site will not be static.
From Amazon USA:
Some of these can also be found in our Amazon UK store here.
6 Comments
Dear Roger and Kim:
Well, well! Many thanks for your kind remarks on Athanasius, and your quote from Tomberg — a later edition of that book is called \Covenant of the Heart.\ Do you know Strat Caldecott by any chance?
I am VERY gratified to hear of your conversion from the New Age. Not only because every convert is a source of joy, but also because you will be in a better position to see what I have long held — that New Agers do as they do because of a yearning for what only the Church can provide, especially as regards the Sacraments and authority.
Yours faithfully,
Charles
Dear Charles
It is an astonishment and JOY to receive this comment.
I have been intending to write you privately. What has stopped me is that my response to your writings is very complex.
We have disagreements, perhaps quite significant ones …
And yet, and yet … I am moved, haunted by what you write. More and more deeply moved.
And even where you may stand for something significantly different to me, I see you doing so with a kind of rich charity, expansiveness of heart. That I confess I sometimes find lacking in Traditionalist circles.
As I jot these things very spontaneously, I have in mind your very insightful and moving blog responses to the Holy Father. From his majestic encyclical on love to his speech to the curia on the Hermeneutic of Continuity.
These among others were very helpful.
But I have been pursuing with deep interest your writings at your site and at Taki’s magazine. I am definitely wanting and intending to read your books.
Obviously I cannot do justice to all of this here, when I have been holding off writing privately due to complexity …
These words come from a spontaneous spurting of joy … As I write, Kim has yet to hear of your response. She will be delighted. She has also been moved by your writing.
There will be more to say, I am sure. Some of it may well refer to matters involving Peladan, the Hieron du Val d’Or and Paray-le-Monial … where our lives have been changed forever.
Oh I know Second Spring and have had one kind exchange with Stratford Caldecott. When the links go up … links which I am praying about, both his and your sites will be there.
A Postscript to the above.
It must be an hour or so later – and I will be naked and say, I am still quite impacted by your appearance at this site, Charles.
For I have been participating in your thinking for some time, at least trying to.
But in terms of what you say here and now – I resonate with your “long held” position, regarding the “yearning” for the Mystery that the Church, provides day after day after day. New Age people spend hundreds, even thousands, it seems to me in search of Mystery, entirely ignorant, that very nearby probably, a priest will be celebrating a Mystery of unimaginable, unfathomable value … for no charge at all. Of course as I say, the Novus Ordo is serving well to obscure and eclipse that Mystery.
Your comment on the “yearning” for authority is interesting indeed. Clearly New Age folk – like the modern world in general – appear to be in revolt against authority. Yet all the while, one witnesses powerful, unconscious investments in dubious kinds of authority … be it a pop star, a guru, a new brand of marketing …
Warmly yours,
Roger
Dear Charles,
I echo Roger, with my sincere thanks for your warm comments.
I feel daily, the joy you intimate, Charles, at having found Our Lord and having been led to His Church.
Yet, having just prayed the Sorrowful Mysteries, I feel quite sober. I feel a sorrow at how few really get the depth of mystery at the heart of the Mass. I feel a sorrow about ALL that He has given us, unto death, not being recognised.
I am curious as to why you say that New Agers are seeking authority. Curious, as my experience has been the very opposite. That many of a New Age persuation reject the Church for that exact reason-authority. And especially a patriarchal authority.
Now of course, whilst one form of authority is rejected another is accepted, consciously or not, for we cannot escape authority. Roger has intimated at this already.
Oh and by the way, I am curious about papal knighthood. I do not know if you will ever have a moment or the inclination to tell us what it was that led to you being granted this honour?
Warm regards,
Kim
Roger, just thought I’d drop by after your visit to http://mattstone.blogs.com. Being a former New Ager myself you grabbed my interest. Obviously we speak from very different Christian traditions, but I trust our union in Christ can provide a foundation for further conversation.
Yes Matt. Thank you.
I won’t write much more here. As I said in another response, I am in an intense labour process – giving birth to a long article to appear here regarding Valentin Tomberg, among other subjects.
This has so far stopped me looking at your blog as much as I want to.
In the meantime, I will just remark that my journey from the New Age to a traditional Catholicism was long, arduous. In between there were many stages, liberal Anglican, liberal Catholic, etc. My upcoming article also speaks of this.
But for now, I think my journey through these stages – stages that is, for myself – may help me to understand/ relate to your own journey.
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