Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 323

St Rose the Pioneer

Rose Phillipine Duchusne came to the USA from France at the end of the 1700s. She landed in Louisiana and, deciding to be a missionary headed for Missouri where she founded two orphanages and a convent in a log cabin. She endured terrible poverty, the harsh winters, and then decided to start a mission to the native Americans. After wearing herself out in mission she retired and spent the last ten years of her life as a virtual hermit--living in a simple shack.



The heroism of these people! Imagine any of us enduring even a sliver of the hardship they took for granted as a soldier of Christ. I am convinced that the saints endure this great hardship out of love for Christ and in a spirit of great joy. I have met one or two people serving God like this, and I see in their eyes a supernatural radiance.



They are human beings fully alive, and as St Irenaeus says, "The glory of God is a human being fully alive."

The Obligation of the Nobility

Well, give me the Middle Ages over the present Dark Ages. I know I am an incurable Romantic about the great age of Christendom, but there are certain core ideas that were held as ideals in the Middle Ages that we could do with today.



Take the beautiful concept of noblesse oblige--the obligation of the nobility or simply, "To whom much is given much shall be required." Pictured above is Elizabeth of Hungary--a kind of royal Mother Teresa of her day. She gave up much of her wealth to serve the poor and dying--even converting her castle to a hospital.



What would it be like if we took this principle to our hearts today and really believed that the destiny of our eternal souls rested on what kind of stewardship we exercised? What would our society be like if there was a direct relationship between what we were given and what we give? Think how our personal lives, the lives of our parish, the lives of our communities would be transformed if we believed--truly believed that the more we had been blessed with the more responsible we were to help others.



St Elisabeth of Hungary ora pro nobis.[image error]

Sorry

No blogging today. I've been leading a retreat with 85 seventh graders at Look Up Lodge near Traveler's Rest, SC. Beautiful Autumn day in the mountains. Beautiful kids, beautiful faith. Lots to be thankful for.[image error]

Cough Up

Do I need to say anything at all? Have you made that donation or not? Don't you know the road to hell is paved with good intentions? I think since you've waited so long you should give twice as much. Now get on with it or you can get your own supper. I was going to make meatloaf, but you don't deserve that if you won't co operate.



Just hit the 'Donate' button and pay $25.00. That's less than seven cents a day. We can afford it. I'm not going to say it again. And another thing...[image error]

Conversion of Life

Conversion of Life: 

Be Converted

Convert your whole Life. 

Convert Everything

In other words:

Be transformed into a living flame![image error]

Crazy Story

They think this little boy has learning difficulties so they put him in a special school. One day they give him a lump of clay to play with and he takes it into the corner and starts modeling a person.



Teacher comes along and says, "Hi Johnny, what is that?"



"It's poo."



"I mean, what are you making?"



"A teacher." So she sends for the principal.



Principal says, "Hey there son, What's that?"



"Poo."



"What I mean is, what are you making?"



"A Principal." So they send for the psychiatrist.



"Good Morning Johnny. I know what you've got there."



"What?"



"Poo."



"That's right."



"And I know what you're making too!"



"What?"



"A Psychiatrist. Right?"



"Wrong. They didn't give me enough poo."




[image error]

Amish Bikers

I'm Amish under my leathers.

Shea on Penn State

Mark Shea talks here about why we don't report monster sexual predators even when we see them in the act. Good insights.

Obedience

The root of the word 'obedience' is 'to listen'. 

No wonder the monk keeps silence.

The Anglicans are Coming

The news is out. The Anglican Ordinariate will be established in the USA on January 1. Read more about it here and from Rocco Palmo here. As I predicted, there are more priests coming over than congregations for them to serve. They will, no doubt, serve in local Latin Rite parishes while they build up an ordinariate congregation. Goody Goody! I'm pretty excited by this. I know I'm biased, but they're going to bring in some good stuff to the Catholic Church. It's called "the Anglican Patrimony."



Here are a few of the good things: 1. Good hymns 2. Good education 3. Good sense of self deprecating humor 4. Good taste in dry sherry 5. Good understanding of the importance of lace and incense 6. Good literary sense 7. Good boost to the Western tradition 8. words like "vouchsafe" 9. good Choral evensong 10. good knowledge of architecture 11. good Englishness 12. good sense of the need for Evangelization. 13. Good missionary spirit. 14. Good hats 15. Good down to earth spirituality.