"What is the biggest problem orthodox Catholics face today?"

Such a beautifiul Dawn, and a glorious sunny day. I missed the one bus that is running at 'my stop' i.e. the one five minutes walking away from my front door-- although it is actually probably seven or even eight, and I was moving pretty slowly, with my hip giving me grief. Tomorrow, tomorrow.

Have been reading a blog called The Rad Trad-- I have done so in the past but what with one thing and another it has been some little while since last I looked through it. He, the author, is continuing a series entitled 'Looking for Perspective'-- which, perspective, is always a good thing. The second post in the series, here, makes the argument (which is certainly true, from my perspective) that the most difficult challenge orthodox believers face these days is keeping the information and noise of what is described as 'the chatter machine' in their proper place while giving the practice of the Faith itself its due pre-eminence in our lives. (I've reversed the sequence of the two paragraphs cited next.)

... People will spend hours a week reading about the latest moronic thing a German bishop said or what writers speculate over a Vatican survey. Concern over current events has its place and no success reform movement has ever transpired in the Church without a genuine interest in current events. Current events, however, do not constitute a full time practice of Christ's precepts or greater spiritual communion with Him.

... The greatest problem is that the Christian can care more about these things than about the practice of the Faith. Faith is, according to every Catechism, a gift from God and the inception of belief, preceding even Baptism, for we petition Faith and the promise of eternal life from the Church before entering the cleansing waters of the font....

I suppose that some occupant of the Throne of Peter might take it into his poor head to impose an ersatz rite of Mass in Breton on the entire Latin Church-- that would require me to take notice etc etc: but generally it is my immediate responsibility to avoid sin, do the works of virtue, pray, and cultivate as best I can the faith, hope, and charity that will see me into the heavenly realm; my commentary on the ecclesiastical news of the day or on the idiocies that appear in the pages of the Guardian is of very little use compared with these realities.

 

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