A Catholic mother on blogs and blogging

The following statement was sent to me this week and I have the author's (Elaine) permission to post it here.
It concerns an issue that has given me considerable food for thought; it poses, among many other things, the question....to whom are we speaking  when we blog?

Here it is, and many thanks Elaine for writing it:

Some thoughts on reading the Catholic blogs from a non-blogger

After reading the advert for the meeting of the Guild of St.Titus, I thought it may be interesting to consider the blogging world from the perspective of a reader.

 Clearly, these reflections should be regarded as idiosyncratic; a personal experience which is not necessarily applicable to a wider audience. 

With that in mind, I offer the following thoughts:

How did I come to read the blogs?

Simple, Richard Collins asked me to join the followers on his blog. Yet, this simplicity reveals an important point as it was a personal relationship that facilitated a step on the journey. It is worth considering how bloggers will capture that ‘personal touch’ in a more virtual environment.

How will the people in the parishes come to know the blogs?

Why do I read the blogs?

There are lots of different reasons why I read the blogs depending on what is happening in the Catholic world and in my world.

 If I am honest, sometimes it is just idle curiosity and I take a ‘pick and mix’ approach to see what is interesting. 

However, often it is a deliberate choice and then the reasons include:

·      Catechesis – especially from the priests ( Father Tim, Father Ray Blake, Father Z)

·      Encouragement – especially from Papa Stronsay

·      Following news – Rorate and others

·      A sense of community – this is important as we do not participate in parish life and travel to a different church each week for the EF Mass (follow Linen for this)

·      Entertainment

·      Challenge

Are there risks in reading the blogs?

Yes. The blogs can communicate powerful rhetoric and can be very convincing. 

Bloggers have a significant responsibility and duty to remain within the boundaries of the faith and not to lead readers astray. 

This applies not only to their posts but to the level of ‘debate’ allowed on the comments. 

It is difficult because debate is often healthy and sorts the wheat from the chaff and it is a tricky area to manage.

Conversely, I have a duty as a reader to consider things with a critical eye and not to blindly believe without thinking for myself.

Another risk is that the relationships are mostly virtual and readers can develop a false sense of knowing the contributors. 

This can happen when readers see the same name in the comments – for example, I could begin to think that I ‘know’ the Olde Jarra Scribe or Shadowlands but I have no idea who they are in real life. 

That is why it is essential that the Guild continues to build on the reality of personal relationships and the bloggers really get to know each other; long may your Chesterton hours continue.

My final risk is that the reading the blogs can be a time consuming distraction from daily duties!

What I do not like about the blogs

·         blogs that have adverts - apart from Mystic Monk coffee!

·         comment pages that become very critical

·         comment pages where two contributors are locked in battle and everyone else is an onlooker ( introspective and boring)

·         a focus on very local events without wider catechesis

·         lots and lots of recommendations in the ‘daily reads’ (too daunting)

Looking forward

The blogs have to become more widely known and read; especially those written by the priests in order to strengthen catechesis. How might this happen?

Equally, for those written by the laity there is an urgent need to think of yourselves as the labourers. You must work hard to ensure that the harvest is plentiful!

I hope your meeting is blessed and fruitful,

Elaine (August 2012)

Richard Collins - Linen on the Hedgerow

St Patrick and the New Arenas of Evangelisation of our Times

St Patrick, an Englishman, was kidnapped and enslaved to work as a shepherd in Ireland.  Tending the sheep he discovered the Good Shepherd looking after him.

Listen to my homily for today:

If you have trouble listening, click here.

Gospel for today Luke 10:1-20 (National Calendar of England)

In the solitude and prayer of the green Irish hillsides, he heard the call of God to shepherd his people.  He escaped and went back to England, where he studied for the priesthood, and was ordained a bishop.  Sent back to Ireland he converted the entire nation quickly by a very strategic approach: he converted the chieftains, bards, and poets, the political and cultural leaders - from the top down.

It is a great mystery to be sent as a missionary.  For God so loved Ireland that he sent his beloved son Patrick.  God loves you and sent you into your family relationships, your workplace, your school, your particular sphere of influence.  Each baptised person has a missionary vocation.  Each baptised is sent by God to spread the Gospel.

There are more fruitful mission fields, or arenas upon which we will have a very fruitful harvest:

Conscience- We must live the teaching of the Second Vatican Council to end the dictatorship of relativism that sits upon the throne of many consciences like a tyrant, destroying the potency of the Catholic faith, and making many people who sit in the pews, unbeknownst to themselves, worshipers of relativism.  The teach of Dignitatis Humanae, the Declaration on Human Freedom is:

"This one true religion subsists in the Catholic and Apostolic Church, to which the Lord Jesus committed the duty of spreading it abroad among all men...

"On their part, all men are bound to seek the truth, especially in what concerns God and His Church, and to embrace the truth they come to know, and to hold fast to it... 

"Government is to assume the safeguard [NOT VIOLATOR] of the religious freedom of all its citizens, in an effective manner, by just laws and by other appropriate means...

"The disciple is bound by a grave obligation toward Christ, his Master, ever more fully to understand the truth received from Him, faithfully to proclaim it, and vigorously to defend it.

To sum up: we owe each conscience He for whom it was made - CHRIST!  We are bound in conscience to proclaim Christ as the Truth for which all men are created and bound to follow once they see it, especially in the proclamation of the lives of the disciples.  N.B.  THIS is the real teaching of the Second Vatican Council.  No one can say in the name of conscience to be a relativist catholic, worshiping the idol of self in place of the only King who should sit on the throne of man's inmost sanctuary, Jesus Christ the Lord.

The violation of the conscience which the Obama administration attempts in its HHS healthcare, in which it seeks to force Catholic institutions to go against the natural law in providing abortions, contraceptives, and sterilizations is not fighting the Catholic Church.  Let's be clear: Obama fights God.  Bring it!  We know who is going to win.

Family Life - There needs to be a clear proclamation of marriage as a one-man one woman covenanted union which is meant for the procreation and upbringing of children.  Same-sex unions can never match the same psychological health, wholeness, and blessing of marriage between one man and one woman.  For more info, read here.

The UK attempting to redefine marriage between same sex partners is ludicrous and the first consultation showed this.  70% said no and 78% said it's not a priority.  However, the government has discarded the first consultation for redefining same-sex marriages and made up a new three month long one, or they need to "redefine consultations before they redefine marriage."  Clearly this is so they can try to shake the tree until the fruit they want will fall from it.  Not going to happen.  Time for Catholics to sign the petition to stop this madness and write their MP's.  Please do this now if you are reading this.  It is so easy.  Just a single email with a few lines.  Click here for a directory.

There has to be a very clear proclamation from every Catholic Church and the life of every Catholic about the culture of death and the lies of contraception, abortion, sterilization, in vitro fertilization, same-sex unions, cohabitation, and everything that attempts to present itself as a legitimate form of family life that is really the seed of destruction of human civilization.

Digital Arena- You can watch live the Holy Father on a digital device.  You can know the teachings of the Church in a few clicks.  You now have no excuse to not know the Church's teachings.  You are not alone.  There is so much help for you and so much encouragement online to preach the Gospel.  The Holy Father said in his Message for World Communications Day a few years ago that especially priests, but all need

"to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis.  Using new communication technologies, priests can introduce people to the life of the Church and help our contemporaries to discover the face of Christ."

Social Teachings of the Church - The teachings of Christ about economics, politics, and civic life need to be lived and shared by Catholic to the world that is in desperate need of reordering.  The collapse of the economic order is because it is now based on materialism and greed, when it needs to be based on charity and solidarity.  There is an excellent online resource, the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.  Read it!

May Our Lady help us to answer the call from our baptism to spread the Gospel with maximum fruitfulness.

Why do we blog?

I mean, specifically, why do we as Catholics, blog?

What is the purpose of this exercise?

Is it merely a chance to air one’s views much as one might debate a topic in the local pub (always assuming you can find a Christian interested in discussing matters such as the hypostatic union and its various implications)

Or, do we blog because we wish to influence a larger audience and perhaps convert them to our way of thinking?

Or, is it just a personal whim and we have no cares about who reads our posts, what they think of them or how many read them?

I have the greatest respect for bloggers who can, hand on heart, claim that they have no interest in viewing their blog statistics; they must be saintly people.

I try very hard not to fret as to whether X or Y numbers of hits have been received concerning a post but, it’s in my DNA to measure what I am doing and to determine if it is for good or not.

If we have no cares for what we post then surely we must become as an empty gong or a clashing cymbal?

In the past twelve months, in particular, we have witnessed the power that may be wielded by the Catholic blogosphere; the odd Bishop about to be promoted quickly dropped from the list, Tesco calling a halt to sponsorship, beyond 2012, of Gay Pride, the Cardinal Vaughan School battle to retain its Catholic identity and many other incidents.

And we are still in an embryonic state as far as refining and honing that ‘power’ is concerned.

There are many facets yet to be explored and developed.

One of those facets is the power to inform and even educate, in short, to evangelise.

I do not mean that we can take the word of Christ and actually convert people (although that might happen from time to time).

 I mean that we have an opportunity to bring many thousands of Catholics up to speed with what is going on in the Church and guide them to a more profound faith.

Is that a bad objective? Is it, perhaps just a shade patronising?

Possibly it may smack of that but it is not intentional; the bulk of the laity have little or no concept of how the Church is changing, reforming, developing and, even, succeeding in the world.

They do know that the Church is now infamous for its muddle headed thinking on the clerical paedophilia issue but ask the Catholic man on the Clapham bus what they know about Summorum Pontificum and you will draw a blank stare before being thrown off!

Try telling a group of the laity that practicing homosexuality is a sin and see how many walk away.

Or that Purgatory is an approved doctrine of the faith (I know of some nuns who deny that this is so).

 Or, even that we have returned to Friday abstinence from meat – you will get some funny looks I assure you.

The Sunday sermon does not usually focus specifically on current church affairs. It focuses on the Gospel or Epistle of the day or, if it is a special feast, then, possibly a homily on that.

The Catholic press struggles to maintain a readership that is way below the number of Catholics in the country.

Therefore, the Catholic blogging community has a great deal to offer (as our blogging priests have shown).

Take this concept one step further. Why not expose the Catholic world of blogging to the laity en masse?

Show them that the Latin Mass is legitimate, that there are forms of church music other than folk Masses - open their eyes to the reform of the reform that is moving at a faster pace in many other countries than it is in Great Britain.

And what better vehicle to undertake this role than the Guild of Blessed Titus Brandsma?

A Guild poster distributed to key parishes and available as a download would not take too much effort and would spread the word much faster than the man with a cleft stick.

Posted by Richard Collins - Linen on the Hedgerow

Go forth and blog?

The Catholic blogosphere has mushroomed over the past five years or so and even the Holy Father has paid tribute to the potential value it has as an evangelising force.

But, is it me or are Catholic bloggers just a little bit spiritually retentive?

We relish the snippets of outrage and enjoy the odd internet spat and the learned posts but, we are preaching to one another are we not?

We indulge ourselves and not the masses.

That is a shade overstated; there are, of course, quite a few readers of blogs out there but I do mean quite a few, I do not mean many.

Ask the average Catholic man on the Clapham bus when he last read a Catholic blog and you will be met with a stare of bafflement. Blog? Catholic? What?

Stand in a roomful of Catholics with a glass of something alcoholic in your hand and tell the group you are with that you are a Catholic blogger – and watch their eye movements as they mark the nearest emergency exit.

Blogging, to the uninitiated, still carries a faint twang of something not quite nice; something that Uncle Rupert did on his own in an upstairs room before he emigrated to South Africa in a hurry.

So, the first step must surely be to bring the Catholic range of blogs to the attention of the faithful – we are not (I assume) setting out purely to evangelise when we commence blogging; I am sure that there is a diverse and varied range of reasons for this self inflicted wounding. But, whether we like it or not, there is a strong evangelical element to all that we do and that is a good and fine thing.

Provided that we open ourselves up to all and not to the select few.

I hesitate to speculate as to how many thoroughly decent, everyday Catholics know nothing of Summorum Pontificum and all that accompanies it; most of them do not even know whether an Extraordinary Form Mass is said in their parish (most parishes appear to leave it off the notices) and, as far as the Diocese is concerned, the old Mass is precisely that. It no longer exists.

And then, of course, there is the stigma attached to the Latin Mass – “it’s banned” “it’s turning the clock back” – there is much work for the blogosphere (and for Guild members) here.

At the recent Guild meeting at Blackfen there did not seem to be much enthusiasm for spreading the word with regard to Catholic blogs – or did I read the mood wrongly?

But I believe that it is incumbent upon us to do so. Did not Our Lord tell us to go out and teach?

This concept, I confess, is not my own; it came from another blogger, A Catholic Gadfly. But, I support it totally.

Gadfly’s view was that the Guild should produce an online poster with one or two lines of copy explaining its purpose and the blog address.

This could then be posted up on parish notice boards with the agreement of the PP.

That seems very reasonable to me.

Posted by Richard Collins – Linen on the Hedgerow

BLESSED TITUS WHO?

                                             Blessed Titus Brandsma

Some (like myself) may be a little ignorant as to whom Blessed Titus Brandsma is but a little research shows that, although dying somewhat prematurely, he made a great impact in his native Netherlands and in Dachau where he died after being injected with a lethal dose of poison.
He came from a poor family and had four sisters and one brother. As a child and even into his youth, he suffered with health problems and cut a somewhat slight figure. So much so that he was nicknamed "Shorty".
After joining a Franciscan 'Minor' Seminary he had to leave due to his poor health but, a year or two later he joined the Carmelites at Boxmeer, taking the name 'Titus'.


Her mastered several languages and was ordained in 1905, gaining a Doctorate in Philosophy from the Pontifical University of Rome in 1909.
For several years he taught at the Carmelite University at Oss and also became editor of the local daily newspaper in 1919. He was usually to be found sitting at his desk with a large cigar in his mouth.
His teaching career expanded and he also made an impact in the journalistic world being appointed ecclesiastical advisor to Catholic journalists in 1935.


As Hitler proceeded with his plans for a totalitarian state, so, Blessed Titus used the power of the pen to oppose him. He wrote an article against anti Jewish marriage laws and this brought him to the notice of the authorities. He followed up by writing that no Catholic magazine could publish Nazi literature and still call itself Catholic.


They came for him on 19th January 1942 and before long he was incarcerated in Dachau.
Daily beatings, poor food and hard labour began to take a toll on an already frail constitution but he insisted that his fellow prisoners should pray for their tormentors. Then his poor body became the subject of medical experimentation and, when he became unfit even for this purpose, they gave him a lethal injection. Before the needle was inserted into him, Blessed Titus made a gift of his rosary to his assassin.

Born 23rd February 1881 as Anno Sjoera Brandsma he died on 26th July 1942 as Titus Brandsma - Martyr.


Here is his own account of his arrest:-


January 19, 1942: Father Titus is Arrested
Having spent the night in Arnhem, I was told that I must spend another night there. With these words I was brought into cell 577 on January 20. Next morning I had to be ready at half past eight to be tried at the Hague. This would probably be finished in the afternoon, and in view of my health I would probably be allowed home. On the night of January 21, I was told that my confinement was to be prolonged in order that more evidence might be obtained. Mr. Hardegen, who tried my case in a courteous way, said that this would not be difficult for me on account of my religious life. Indeed, it was not. I remember an old stanza of Longfellow which I have retained since my college years in Megen, and it is particularly appropriate in my present situation:

In his chamber all alone,

Kneeling on a floor of stone,

Prayed a monk in deep contrition

For his sins of indecision;

Prayed for greater self-denial

In temptation and in trial.

As to that "trial," it was not so difficult as I had expected, though one has to get accustomed to many things in prison. Indeed, going to prison at the age of 60 is a strange experience. Jokingly I said so to Mr. Steffen who had arrested me, while entering the prison. His answer, however, comforted me: "It is your own fault, for you should not have taken the Archbishop's commission." Now I knew why I was here and I said to him fearlessly that I looked upon such a thing as an honour, and that I was not conscious of having done anything wrong by doing that. I said the same thing to Mr. Hardegen and I added: "On the contrary, it was an honest effort to relax the contrasts." On the one side this was accepted, on the other side it was looked upon as an organisation of resistance against the occupying power. I had to oppose this last opinion, and to stress the exclusive intention of communicating both to the press and to the Reichskommissariat the Catholic point of view about the propaganda of the National Socialist Movement, as it was pointed out by the Bishops. This point of view was to be communicated to the Reichskommissariat, even if the managers and editorial staffs of the Catholic dailies were not in agreement; but undoubtedly, they were.
The first day of my commission I asked Mr. Schlichting to go to the Reichskommissariat; on account of his journey to Rome this interview took place after mine with the Catholic press. Meanwhile I quite understand that the attitude of the Bishops and of the Catholic press is not considered agreeable, and that the commission of the Archbishop to me and carried out by me, is looked upon as some act of resistance. Our Catholic principles are at conflict with their principles; the contrast of principles is there. For this confession I joyfully suffer what is to be suffered.
My vocation to the Church and to the priesthood brought me so many grand and beautiful things that I willingly accept something unpleasant in return for it. I repeat in complete agreement with Job: We have received good things at the hand of God, why should we not receive the evil he sends us in his Providence? The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Apart from that, I have not had too bad a time. And although I do not know what will become of it, I know myself to be wholly in God's hands. Who will separate us from the love of God? I am thinking of my old motto: <Prenez les jours, comme ils arrivent, Les beaux d'un coeur reconnaissant Ft les mauvais pour ceux qui suivent, Car le malheur n'est qu'un passant>.
With Gezelle, I praise "my old breviary," which was luckily left to me and which I can say now as quietly as possible. Oh! in the morning Holy Mass and Holy Communion are missing, I know full well, but nevertheless God is near me, in me and with me. It is in him that we live, and move and have our being. "God, while so near and yet so far, is always present." The well-known couplet which was always in St. Teresa's breviary—I sent it to my colleague Professor Brom when he was in prison—is also a comfort and encouragement to me; "Let nothing disturb thee, let nothing frighten thee. All things are passing. God does not change. Who possesses God wants for nothing. God alone suffices."

Scheveningen Police-prison, January 23, 1942.

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Originally posted on Linen on the Hedgerow
 

                BLESSED TITUS BRANDSMA - ORA PRO NOBIS!