Wow--truth after truth here. Thank you. Babbitt is someone I need to read; I recall Kirk mentioning him in The Conservative Mind. Re. formation: my own mind and imagination are forever marred by years of rock music. As I wrote for Crisis a while back "Protect your ears and you'll protect your soul." I keep wondering what it must have been like to have a mind--a being--in a pre-noise age. In a time before screens. I don't think we know how degraded we've become.
“Much of the disorder in mainstream Catholicism today is a result of sham spirituality having infected the mind of the Church and the Church now being one of its purveyors.” So true. So much of this two-part essay is reflective of that Rosseauean “man is inherently good” and if we just tolerate, nay, embrace and accept all attitudes, viewpoints and beliefs, the common good will be achieved. Sadly this has been the nature and the direction of political and religious hierarchy for decades. We would be well served to remember the words provided by Matthew millennia ago when he wrote
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy[a] that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matt 7: 13,14
"In most Novus Ordo parishes, a kind of doublethink is required to convince oneself that what is happening has been divinely instituted by God the creator the universe." Exactly. I am not the kind of person who has ever really struggled with belief in the Real Presence, but once when I was at a Novus Ordo, I could not help thinking how hard it was to believe what was going on was as sacred as it is with the kind of behavior I was witnessing before me. It's true -- it's almost as if the Novus Ordo makes it easy to doubt the Real Presence.
Would you consider writing more specifically on the things you believe we need to return to in life to "live liturgically"? I know you mentioned some of them here and in the first part, but I would love it if you could go more in-depth. I am only nineteen and was raised with a little decorum, but not so much as I could wish. I feel like I have to start from the ground up all by myself. Perhaps you could take us as you would your children and instruct us in living liturgically?
Andrea, thanks for your comment. I'll give it a shot in an upcoming post. I didn't go too deeply into that because I feel that there are so many "living liturgical" blogs out there that do it so well, that I didn't want to stray from my lane. I will say that I was raised as a Novus Ordo Catholic lite, and I had to really pull myself up by the bootstraps (with enormous help from the grace of God, of course) in my 20s. The real spiritual progress came when I had children and began to go deeply into the catechism so that I could catechize them. My husband I hit a moment when we realized that the surest way to pass on the faith to our kids was to be fully committed to the Latin mass and to living the liturgical year at home, guided by the traditional Mass.
I have had a similar experience after having kids. Although I have always appreciated a beautiful mass, I did not think as seriously about what was symbolicly communicated during a typical lax novus ordo mass. Now that I have toddlers, I realize that even if they don’t understand the doctrine of the Eucharist, they do understand if something is taken seriously or not.
I was raised in the Novus Ordo, too, but my family changed course when I was 14. I didn't know there were other newsletters out there writing about how even our behavior should be liturgical...
What was most surprising for us was the difference in behavior from our kids at the two different masses. Despite our TLM usually being around 1 hr. 40 min, the kids were so much better behaved than at the Novus Ordo. I realized that they intuited the seriousness of the traditional mass.
I remember reading somewhere (maybe Antonio Damasio's "Decartes' Error"?) about a man who had some type of brain surgery and was rendered entirely unable to make practical, prudential judgments in the real world. His business went into liquidation, his marriage and friendships fell apart, etc. However, he scored entirely normally on scientifically-based intelligence tests, and his post-surgery scores did not show any statistically significant differences from his pre-surgery scores. Eventually, the researcher noted that the man showed a great decrease in emotional capacity and expression after his surgery and began to wonder whether this explained his poor decision making. And if we really think about it, the hundreds of little decisions that we make on a day-to-day basis are not entirely governed by reason, and nor should they be. If one were to ask that man, "Is murder morally justified?" he'd be able to answer objectively and say, "No." But when deciding between two morally neutral options, one does have to provide a subjective value judgment to one over the other based on emotion or imagination, and without that, such decisions would not be possible.
The head and the heart have to work together in an individual person, just like the two spouses in a marriage work together as head and heart. This prioritization of the former at the latter's expense is actually the cause of the decline of women's status in society in the early modern period, and now modern feminism treats women like defective men to the detriment of all social relations. Descarte's destruction of the traditional understanding of the human person then extends to all aspects of society. It affects education, which now totally ignores the principle that knowledge comes through the senses, healthcare ("brain death" is not true death, which only occurs when the HEART and lungs stop functioning), the family (the advent of feminism being based on a failure of both men and women to understand that complementarity is a good thing) and politics (which is reduced to a raw power struggle precisely because everyone wants to be the head, and no one wants to be the heart). The demise of chivalry and respect based on distinctions of rank and sex (dixit Burke) is intrinsically tied to the demise of the Western intellectual's proper understanding of human nature itself.
Examining children’s books is one of the ways my wife, who leans strongly against tradition for reasons relating to her rather botched upbringing, has found her way back to the necessity of it. Very excited to subscribe and to search the archives for recommendations as well (ours are 4 and 1 and already the fight is on for their moral imaginations, contra the trash of the world around them).
I'm so glad you found my Substack, then! Take a look at "The 8 Worst Books . . ." to get an idea of what types of books to avoid. And then take a look at my post on the imagination of Elsa Beskow for an idea of what the moral imagination can look like in a children's book.
I ordered every book positively mentioned so far earlier today, I think! And yes indeed: we've seen many books of that variety, and couldn't agree more with your description of what's deleterious about them for young people. To date, our daughter has also found such books a bit boring, perhaps in contrast to better fare!
Also, take a look at my post on Kobi Yamata's What Do You Do With an Idea. That is key to understanding the romantic imagination--the type of imagination that you want to keep away from your children! Stay tuned for an upcoming post on the diabolical imagination of Karl Marx and also a lighter one on The Wind in the Willows!
Such a nice article. Thank you Emily. I anticipate in the coming ages the dethroning of reason. I wonder, can the West, so fundamentally dependent upon reason since the days of St. Augustine, survive?
Next you should discuss the connection between reason and imagination and how the crowning of reason leads necessarily to revolutionary ideas that then lead to rational conclusions about the superfluousness of beauty and symbol. This of course is the error that the Protestants took to the extreme and that threatens our beloved Catholic Church.
Wow--truth after truth here. Thank you. Babbitt is someone I need to read; I recall Kirk mentioning him in The Conservative Mind. Re. formation: my own mind and imagination are forever marred by years of rock music. As I wrote for Crisis a while back "Protect your ears and you'll protect your soul." I keep wondering what it must have been like to have a mind--a being--in a pre-noise age. In a time before screens. I don't think we know how degraded we've become.
Truly, I think it is beyond our comprehension. The imagination is such a complex thing. What surrounds it creates our entire worldview.
And yes - check out Babbitt. I highly, highly recommend Democracy and Leadership (Liberty Fund has a wonderful edition).
“Much of the disorder in mainstream Catholicism today is a result of sham spirituality having infected the mind of the Church and the Church now being one of its purveyors.” So true. So much of this two-part essay is reflective of that Rosseauean “man is inherently good” and if we just tolerate, nay, embrace and accept all attitudes, viewpoints and beliefs, the common good will be achieved. Sadly this has been the nature and the direction of political and religious hierarchy for decades. We would be well served to remember the words provided by Matthew millennia ago when he wrote
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy[a] that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matt 7: 13,14
Fantastic article.
"In most Novus Ordo parishes, a kind of doublethink is required to convince oneself that what is happening has been divinely instituted by God the creator the universe." Exactly. I am not the kind of person who has ever really struggled with belief in the Real Presence, but once when I was at a Novus Ordo, I could not help thinking how hard it was to believe what was going on was as sacred as it is with the kind of behavior I was witnessing before me. It's true -- it's almost as if the Novus Ordo makes it easy to doubt the Real Presence.
Would you consider writing more specifically on the things you believe we need to return to in life to "live liturgically"? I know you mentioned some of them here and in the first part, but I would love it if you could go more in-depth. I am only nineteen and was raised with a little decorum, but not so much as I could wish. I feel like I have to start from the ground up all by myself. Perhaps you could take us as you would your children and instruct us in living liturgically?
Andrea, thanks for your comment. I'll give it a shot in an upcoming post. I didn't go too deeply into that because I feel that there are so many "living liturgical" blogs out there that do it so well, that I didn't want to stray from my lane. I will say that I was raised as a Novus Ordo Catholic lite, and I had to really pull myself up by the bootstraps (with enormous help from the grace of God, of course) in my 20s. The real spiritual progress came when I had children and began to go deeply into the catechism so that I could catechize them. My husband I hit a moment when we realized that the surest way to pass on the faith to our kids was to be fully committed to the Latin mass and to living the liturgical year at home, guided by the traditional Mass.
I have had a similar experience after having kids. Although I have always appreciated a beautiful mass, I did not think as seriously about what was symbolicly communicated during a typical lax novus ordo mass. Now that I have toddlers, I realize that even if they don’t understand the doctrine of the Eucharist, they do understand if something is taken seriously or not.
I was raised in the Novus Ordo, too, but my family changed course when I was 14. I didn't know there were other newsletters out there writing about how even our behavior should be liturgical...
What was most surprising for us was the difference in behavior from our kids at the two different masses. Despite our TLM usually being around 1 hr. 40 min, the kids were so much better behaved than at the Novus Ordo. I realized that they intuited the seriousness of the traditional mass.
Another great article!
I remember reading somewhere (maybe Antonio Damasio's "Decartes' Error"?) about a man who had some type of brain surgery and was rendered entirely unable to make practical, prudential judgments in the real world. His business went into liquidation, his marriage and friendships fell apart, etc. However, he scored entirely normally on scientifically-based intelligence tests, and his post-surgery scores did not show any statistically significant differences from his pre-surgery scores. Eventually, the researcher noted that the man showed a great decrease in emotional capacity and expression after his surgery and began to wonder whether this explained his poor decision making. And if we really think about it, the hundreds of little decisions that we make on a day-to-day basis are not entirely governed by reason, and nor should they be. If one were to ask that man, "Is murder morally justified?" he'd be able to answer objectively and say, "No." But when deciding between two morally neutral options, one does have to provide a subjective value judgment to one over the other based on emotion or imagination, and without that, such decisions would not be possible.
The head and the heart have to work together in an individual person, just like the two spouses in a marriage work together as head and heart. This prioritization of the former at the latter's expense is actually the cause of the decline of women's status in society in the early modern period, and now modern feminism treats women like defective men to the detriment of all social relations. Descarte's destruction of the traditional understanding of the human person then extends to all aspects of society. It affects education, which now totally ignores the principle that knowledge comes through the senses, healthcare ("brain death" is not true death, which only occurs when the HEART and lungs stop functioning), the family (the advent of feminism being based on a failure of both men and women to understand that complementarity is a good thing) and politics (which is reduced to a raw power struggle precisely because everyone wants to be the head, and no one wants to be the heart). The demise of chivalry and respect based on distinctions of rank and sex (dixit Burke) is intrinsically tied to the demise of the Western intellectual's proper understanding of human nature itself.
Hear hear!
Great article....thank you!!
Amen! Lex orandi, Lex credendi.
Examining children’s books is one of the ways my wife, who leans strongly against tradition for reasons relating to her rather botched upbringing, has found her way back to the necessity of it. Very excited to subscribe and to search the archives for recommendations as well (ours are 4 and 1 and already the fight is on for their moral imaginations, contra the trash of the world around them).
I'm so glad you found my Substack, then! Take a look at "The 8 Worst Books . . ." to get an idea of what types of books to avoid. And then take a look at my post on the imagination of Elsa Beskow for an idea of what the moral imagination can look like in a children's book.
I ordered every book positively mentioned so far earlier today, I think! And yes indeed: we've seen many books of that variety, and couldn't agree more with your description of what's deleterious about them for young people. To date, our daughter has also found such books a bit boring, perhaps in contrast to better fare!
Also, take a look at my post on Kobi Yamata's What Do You Do With an Idea. That is key to understanding the romantic imagination--the type of imagination that you want to keep away from your children! Stay tuned for an upcoming post on the diabolical imagination of Karl Marx and also a lighter one on The Wind in the Willows!
Such a nice article. Thank you Emily. I anticipate in the coming ages the dethroning of reason. I wonder, can the West, so fundamentally dependent upon reason since the days of St. Augustine, survive?
Next you should discuss the connection between reason and imagination and how the crowning of reason leads necessarily to revolutionary ideas that then lead to rational conclusions about the superfluousness of beauty and symbol. This of course is the error that the Protestants took to the extreme and that threatens our beloved Catholic Church.
I feel like such a discussion can dovetail with an examination of Karl Marx and communism, which I'm currently working on!
The emoji pilgrim is odd, looks a little too anime.