Long Absence - Time to Catch Up Some

 It has been a couple of months since last writing anything, and to be honest there is good reason for that - a lot of personal transitions are going on in my life right now, some of which I am not at liberty to chat about at this time but will at a later date.  But, I needed to write in order to assure those who care to read this that I am still alive and well.  That being said, let's talk about some things.

We all can agree that the year 2020 has been probably one of the most bizarre years we have had in a long time.  We have all been affected to some degree - the social distancing measures, the masks, etc.   And, that is just the COVID-19 stuff!  There have also been riots all over the place, instigated by Marxist terrorist organizations such as Antifa and Black Lives Matter, and to top that off it is an election year.  All of these things have impacted us in a lot of ways, and we have been coerced essentially into embracing a new definition of "normal."   However, the good thing about the human race is that God imbued us with a resiliency to adapt and "make do" with the circumstances, and like everyone else I have done that with a significant degree of success.   I do miss some things though - like attending Mass in a regular church, eating Mongolian BBQ at the local Chinese buffet, and actually being able to breathe without a mask over my nose when I go into a supermarket or other public arena.  However, this too shall pass within time - something tells me the Presidential elections may be a key to determining the end of the situation but that is just me.

In addition to experiencing a lot of these things as part of the greater society, I have also been faced with some personal transitions of my own, including the death of my father last month and another big life-changing circumstance that I cannot divulge a lot about at this time.  Additionally, with the acquisition soon of my Maryland driving license and starting my PhD. program in a couple of weeks, it has been a busy summer season for me.  But, again, I am at this point at the threshold of a new chapter in my own life, and it is a chapter that is starting off a bit hectic but will begin to fall into place once the initial dust settles from the transitioning. 

I mentioned my PhD program, and I wanted to talk about that for a bit.  Back in February, I had a huge disappointment when Catholic University of America, where I was hoping to pursue this, turned me down for admission due to the fact I didn't have enough prerequisite coursework for the program, which personally I thought was a bunch of BS but it is what it is.  So, that left me in a bit of limbo as to how to continue to get this terminal degree, and I finally - after a LOT of inner debate! - settled on Liberty University.  Liberty as you know is a large Evangelical Protestant university founded in the early 1970's in Lynchburg, VA, by Baptist evangelist Jerry Falwell.  While a solid bastion of conservative values, I was honestly a bit apprehensive about the whole thing as I am now Catholic and I really wanted Catholic coursework for my doctorate program.  So, I changed my educational goals slightly, and was accepted a couple of months back into Liberty for the PhD in History program, which I think will be compatible both with my career aspirations and my Catholic convictions.  I am now at peace about doing this, and my start date is on August 24th - hard to believe in less than two weeks from when I am writing this I will be embarking on my doctorate, a long time in coming!  I was also blessed with full financial aid to enroll in the program, and I can also graduate from it in 3 years with my doctorate, which is fantastic.  I am a little apprehensive, but the excitement of getting this accomplished far outweighs any apprehensions I have.  It was a bit of a detour I didn't expect, but it will get me to the same destination regardless.

The next part of all this is a bit of inner reassessment with my Catholic faith.  I will remain a Catholic until I die, I know that, and that is not even the issue.  The main thing about that is deciding now, given circumstances, how to remain Catholic in a regular parish where many fellow parishioners often espouse certain spiritual and theological views that are at odds with traditional Catholic doctrine. I will deal with the specifics of that on my other page, as that is an ecclesiastical/theological issue, but I wanted to explore the personal dimension for myself here.  I have always been somewhat more conservative and staunchly a traditionalist as far as my faith is concerned, but often I have had to settle for less than what I really desired.  In recent weeks, I have been doing some inner reflection on that, and have decided that at some point this year I will begin attending a more traditional Latin Mass downtown here at the nearby parish of St. Mary's.  The Ordinary Form of the Mass (or Novus Ordo) is the primary Mass that is celebrated at most Catholic parishes, including at St. Joseph's where we attend now.  This Mass is the product of some post-Vatican II revisions in the Catholic Mass that were instituted beginning around 1969 or so, and it is considered the "regular" Mass of most Catholics.  I am not totally against the Ordinary Form at all, as in the past I have attended some very reverent Ordinary Form Masses, and if done properly, it can be a spiritually fulfilling Mass.  But, the problem for me is some of the "tweaks" that some clergy and lay leaders like to incorporate into the Mass - guitars, and the use of secular songs such as "My Sweet Lord" and "Little Darling" as Communion hymns - that is really taking innovation too far.  Also, the attitudes of some laity in these parishes at times scare me - I mentioned the encounter a couple of months back with a local member and leader in our Knights of Columbus council who was actually defending Saul Alinsky, a notorious Marxist, and also more or less saying his feelings matter more than Church teaching, and yet this guy has parish leadership - I have nicknamed this individual Count Dooku, as like that fictional character from the Star Wars story he is a Sith posing as a Jedi (or to put it in Scriptural terms, a wolf in sheep's clothing).  I have heard other things too, and also have seen it displayed among sixth-graders I have taught who have no idea how to find a verse in the Bible, and lack sufficient knowledge of even basic Catholic devotions such as the Our Father and the Hail Mary.  For a faithful Catholic convert like myself, it puts me in a weird position in that I know the Catholic Faith is of God, but many manifestations of it I am seeing are woefully short and even outright defiant of Magisterial authority.  You even see it now in bishops and hierarchy in the Church also, which is even more alarming.  These observations have led me to pursue a more traditional expression of my faith, and that is why I am now in a position to start attending the Extraordinary Form of the Mass (also known as the Traditional Latin Mass or Tridentine Mass), which is celebrated only a couple of miles from my house.  I think attending that will probably help me to grow in my faith more, as well as reestablishing faith in my Church for being what Christ called her to be.  As mentioned, a couple of other life changes have also been pivotal in making this decision, and at some point in the near future I will share that as well. 

I am also going to now talk about what is coming in the next couple of months or so, as I do want to get back into my writing and such.  I have explored the Star Wars idea, as I have recently re-watched all the movies, and I have some insights to share.  Due to the COVID-19 issue, I have not been able to be the food critic I normally am in my culinary blog, but hopefully that will change too.  Likewise, I do have some projects in the works for my theological page, and cannot wait to implement those either.  And, I wanted to also do a brief thing on my father who just recently passed away - Dad and I were not that close over the past few years, but he was my father and I did love him, although we had differences.  Dad also had many good attributes as well, and I feel like he needs to be memorialized for those.  I am at present waiting on his estate to be settled, as his executor, a very nice lady named Susan Hickox, is sending me some of his personal effects and I wanted to use those to talk a little more about him.  So, we will wait on those as well.  

I will be back soon to share more, as the proverbial dust settles and I have more focus to talk more, and when I do I will have some interesting stuff to share.  So, stay tuned, and also protect yourselves by observing the proper safety measures as we slog on through this COVID-19 mess.