SSH Goes Mainstream

Vox Day.

Can we better understand monastics or those especially living an eremetical form of life as being sigmas? I suppose the normal hierarchy could be found where there is more of a monastic community. Monasticism then could be understood in such "sociological terms," though those who extol the perfection of living the evangelical vows would not be satisfied. But it would allow a place for continued development of our understanding of the "lay" Christian vocation.

Monastics leave the world because they reject its unwholesome spirit. But in leaving the world, they don’t abandon the human person. https://t.co/YaViC2mKlM

— OCN (@MyOCN) January 11, 2021

Meanwhile, in the AmChurch...

After a period of political gloom, I spent a few days with these outstanding young men: serious, curious, based, totally in love with the Lord and with Saint Josemaria.

Now I’m perfectly refreshed. pic.twitter.com/H50nmb8TFQ

— Sohrab Ahmari (@SohrabAhmari) January 29, 2021

Though our students were unable to travel to D.C. this year for the @March_for_Life, our @UDCFL joined the march in spirit. Last Saturday, over 75 of our groundhogs prayed together outside of an abortion clinic. We are so proud of our students and stand united in prayer today!💙 pic.twitter.com/8VpPUZtXIw

— University of Dallas (@UofDallas) January 29, 2021

The AmChurch continues to fail Roman Catholic men.

Loyalty or Ultramontanism or Something

Opus Dei is having a disastrous effect on Catholic journalism, because prominent commentators attached to it are effectively forbidden from reporting Francis’s outrageous abuse of his office. https://t.co/fRcp9e7Hr6

— Damian Thompson (@holysmoke) November 26, 2020

A Good Crop?

The majority appear to be non-American? Could explain why they don't share the soy look that so many American priests and male religious have.

The 29 newly-ordained priests of the Prelature of Opus Dei with Msgr. Fernando Ocariz! pic.twitter.com/WwpfBhZNcE

— Sachin Jose (@Sachinettiyil) September 5, 2020

Written by an Opus Dei Member?

Did I link to the original Crisis article when it was first published?

Which reminds me of the allegation that Byzantine spirituality has been dominated too much by monastics... something to ponder.

Instead of "slave morality" do we have "wage-slave spirituality"?



(Imaginative Conservative)

Leadership Camps?

Opus Dei has various summer camps, some are advertised as developing "leadership" in girls and young women. Such camps are aimed at building up confidence and self-esteem, but what actual leadership skills? Redefining the "spirit of service" as leadership doesn't count, as they really aren't the same thing, even though people brainwashed into niceness might agree. Do these camps temper clique formation and the attempt by alpha hens to maintain social control?

As noted in the book Warriors and Worriers, women naturally tend to be strive to be non-offensive to other women and are [direct] conflict-avoidant. It is also known that women don't like being under the authority of other women. Leadership is not just telling other people what to do -- that is just assertiveness with respect to others, and the same sort of bossiness that is disliked in girls (and in boys). The sort of trust that is required for leadership must first be earned, as well as the other qualifications for leadership, such as being just towards others (including one's future subordinates]. This sort of understanding of social relations, one based on justice and desert, is abstract and different from one that is based on emotion and pleasing others. If we try to turn girls into men, will we be successful? And even if we are, will they have lost something that they need to be good wives and mothers? Yes. But in the age of "female empowerment" we can advertise such camps as being ways to cultivate true femininity only so far, and maybe some lip service must be paid to conflict ideals about what it means to be a good woman in order to get customers who may not be so "traditional."

Do such camps exist elsewhere in what remains of Western Christendom?

Was there any collaboration or involvement of Palestinian Christians?

Or was this a Latin-only affair?

Opus Dei: Opening of the Saxum Visitor Center
The official opening of the Saxum Visitor Center in the Holy Land took place on February 7 in the presence of the Minister of Tourism for Israel and the Auxiliary Bishop of Jerusalem.

What manner of secularism?

Opus Dei: accepting the Feminist paradigm on work and career -- Formulas for Holiness
February 10 is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. Considering Guadalupe’s passion for chemistry, we are starting a series on some of her “formulas” for how to face the problems affecting professionals today: lack of time, stress, restlessness, fear, sadness

If they are single and no man wants to marry them, Catholic female overachievers may consider becoming numerary members, right?

Msgr. Cormac Burke: “Feminism v. Femininity

EPPC: Feminism v. Femininity: The Threat to Woman’s Identity

An Intro to Opus Dei Spirituality at ROK

Interesting. How to Develop a Masculine Spiritual Program

Catholic Feminism is Still Feminism

CWR: Kimberly Hahn: Wife, Mother, Author—and Local Politician
"During the course of the campaign, we knocked on over 8,000 doors, out of a possible 9,500. I campaigned the night before the election well into the darkness."
By Jim Graves

Kimberly Hahn, a respected Catholic author and wife of theologian and well-known speaker and author Scott Hahn, has entered the world of local politics. Running as a Republican reformer in an old mill town long dominated by Democrats, she won a seat on the Steubenville, Ohi...

Comments: So if natural law points to patriarchy, what do we make of Scott Hahn's theology? Tainted by ignorance or bad cultural habits (the white-knighting in his commentary on Genesis and the sin of Adam is bad)? Or a greater defect?

Note too that this is probably implicitly sanctioned by Opus Dei as well if Hahn is still associated with the group.

Fr. Rutler on Scientific Opinion

Making Dogma Out of Unsettled Science by by Fr. George W. Rutler

Also from Crisis:
An Intimate Portrait of the Founder of Opus Dei by Richard Bastien
The Vast Majority Myth by William Kilpatrick
The Contemporary Denial of Reality by Anthony Esolen

Be the Change You Wish to See in the World

Reform and Renewal Starts with Us
Anthony Esolen

BenOp in Wsj
Austin Ruse, The Escriva Option

What distinguishes the laity from the monastics? Fr. Louis Bouyer has written on both, and how both share the same Christian vocation, even if their rule of life is different. For lay people in (post-)industrialized Western countries living as wage slaves (whether they are aware of the degradation of their condition or not, despite the manifold material comforts they may have), their freedom to live a fuller prayer life may be curtailed to one degree or another. (Hence the objection from many to the laity praying the liturgy of the hours, or at least the two major hours, morning and evening prayer, because it is not "practical."

As for forming intentional communities -- this may not be necessary if one has a parish community; however in a parish one may need to fight the temptation to see one's self as being part of the "remnant." One should do what one can to help the lukewarm and to instruct the ignorant; even if these efforts do not seem successful, the witness to the love of Christ which should inspires such actions does matter. Nonetheless, one should strengthen the friendships one has with fellow Catholics.

Benedict & the Omnibus of Options

Fr. McCloskey Was in the Area This Past Lent?

Holy Week 2015: Hearing confessions in the Silicon belly of the high-tech beast

Masses for Feast of St. Josemaria in the US (2015)

a list

A Mass in Oakland but not in San Francisco.

But There is No Common Good

The problematic premise upon which this piece is based: Some Catholic Preliminaries to the Presidential Campaign by Fr. C. John McCloskey.

There is no common good because we do not live in a political community but in a unitary nation-state which replaced the federation of states that existed before Abraham Lincoln, a nation-state in which physical mobility, industrial capitalism, the growth of megapoleis, the creation of neo-Yankee "proposition nation" identity, and other causes have wrecked many local communities in which a true common good was instantiated.

If Opus Dei (of which Fr. McCloskey is a prominent American spokesman) cannot get its politics right, its take on lay spirituality will remain lacking. (And the advice of priests on American politics will be erroneous.)

Video Summary of Ordination of 32 Priests (Future Priests Talk About Their Priesthood)

The Basic Message of Opus Dei

Upholding modern capitalism and feminism?

From the English version of the website:

With the supercaption "Finding God in Work and Family," linking to Message: Work, family life, and other ordinary activities are occasions for spiritual union with Jesus Christ.

I think the primary subject of the photo, who is illustrating the basic message, is the physician not the mother.

"Incontro Romano" Celebrates 25th Anniversary
"Incontro Romano," an annual Rome gathering to discuss issues related to women, work in the home and service sectors, and family, held its 25th international Congress this past Tuesday, 31 March.


Professional Prestige

Dealing with the world as it is

Letter from the Prelate (February 2015)

The anniversary of 14 February 1930 makes present to us the essential contribution that women are called to make to the family atmosphere in their own home, in places where they work, in the professional and social associations they take part in. Perhaps you fail to realize it, my daughters; but the way you present yourselves in society—your modest and elegant bearing, your good manners with others, your smile—just as the cleanliness and care of your home, are a wonderful way to show others how marvelous it is to realize we are children of God. Thus you bring everywhere the good aroma of Christ[15] that is distinctive of Christians.

No program of resistance or change... should we resign ourselves to the way things are? What about those women who have a choice as to whether they can work outside the home or not?

Not Without Precedent, This Sort of Painting?

Post by Opus Dei.

Post by Opus Dei.

Prelate Javier Echevarría's Successor?

The Eponymous Flower: Important Strategic Course in Selecting the Head of Opus Dei

Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz

George Scialabba and Opus Dei

Strong Faith: Blessing or Curse?