"For he that is not against you is for you"- or do I really need to start smacking heads?

37 John answered him, saying: Master, we saw one casting out devils in your name, who follows not us: and we forbade him. 38 But Jesus said: Do not forbid him. For there is no man that does a miracle in my name and can soon speak ill of me. 39 For he that is not against you is for you. 40 For whosoever shall give you to drink a cup of water in my name, because you belong to Christ: amen I say to you, he shall not lose his reward. (John 9:37-40) from http://www.newadvent.org/bible/mar009.htm

I have read some posts and articles regarding the labeling that so many just love to do, such as conservative, traditional/trad/traddie, neo-con.... Sometimes (often) it makes me want to start knocking heads together in hopes that will knock some sense into others. I am thinking of a recent article I read that was critical of those who were judged to be conservative but not traditional.

Everyone is not going to be formed in the same way and that is good. You want diversity (yes the d-word) in the good sense which means there will be variations in speech, opinions, ideas because your environment, your family, your ethnicity etc. can and will influence you. Read St. Thomas Aquinas especially in the area of temperance. What is suitable for one person given their state of life might not be appropriate to others. Even in the TLM mass, speaking with those who attended prior to the changes, there were those who experienced a low mass for almost every mass and those who learned the ordinary and propers and who attended many sung masses as well as vespers services etc.

So the relevance is we are in a culture that is actively working against the church on many levels. We need active catechises including more priests not afraid to preach on what the church holds, teaches and believes, even though much is counter to what society says.

Yes, there are hymns that are earwigs to me and which I would love to gather into a pod and jetison into space forever (though they are so bad it could start an inter-stellar war if there were ever found to be life on another planet). I cringe to see guitars and drum kits at mass, the social mixer "kiss of peace" and numerous other additions. I also understand and know, that the people I know who do like that style and who are on the front lines with me in Germantown and who are and will be in Annapolis (or other capital cities) and DC, are not the enemy and I don't need to concentrate on changing them. The enemy is "prowling about the world seeking the ruin of souls".

Why the lost their minds

I have managed to catch a cold which is now in my chest. Trying to remember to offer it up, which is always a challenge for me, possibly because the concept of offering up your daily aches, frustrations, etc was not exactly taught in Baptist or Methodist circles.

I also now have an 18 year old at home as my son had a birthday last week. Still trying to figure out how time went by that quickly. I am also in disbelief that next week is Thanksgiving! We are heading home for the holidays (Graeters & Masseys!) and looking forward to daily mass in a beautiful church using a communion rail and a 9am TLM (instead of the crack 'o dawn or afternoon (nap time) ghetto.

I have been able to catch up on a few blogs and posts and it has been interesting. One of the things that has happened since I started attending the TLM is I understand much more the attitudes of some of those in the traditional camp. I don't condone extremism, but with knowledge has come understanding. There are not many people who could take years, even decades of being told they were wrong and what they were requesting (TLM's) was reactionary and backwards and wrong unscathed. It is hard to know that what you are being told is wrong because you actually read the documents (Latin was no longer the language of the church, masses is various languages was unity and Gregorian chant was out), and live with knowing the majority of people are being told the wrong thing and have listened.

It is hard to look to the saints, but there are many examples of those who were criticized or thought to be wrong, who were later vindicated. Take strength in that and pray for our Holy Father Pope Benedict. Unity is better and stronger than dis-unity and make no mistake, we are under severe attack.