B
bonaventura
Guest
am new in my city (Toronto Canada), and I started attending the parish near my house when I moved here. I went to World Youth Day with a group from this parish, and I was sure that I was going to find a community of young 20/30 somethings who were serious about their Catholic faith. That was in the first two weeks of being in the city. What looked like it might be evaporated before it ever really formed.
I know I probably shouldn’t have, but I stopped going to that parish nearly completely, when an old and rather grouchy priest was assigned to this parish. At that time, I was curious about the Latin Mass, and out of curiousity, visited it a few times, and soon it became my regular sunday mass. I did not become a “Traditional Catholic” though I did learn what one was. Many who attend Latin masses also read rad-trad magazines with cheerful names like “The Remnant”. Most unbearable of all to me is the disrespect that some traditional catholics I have spoken to have for our Holy Father the Pope.
So here I am, stuck in the middle. Like Thomas Howard I am an Evangelical who woke up to the truth of the Catholic faith. While I do love the old Latin mass and prayers, I do not hold with anyone whose theology gravitates towards insubordination ( the SSPX, the sedevacants, or “Traditional Catholics” who think that the vernacular mass is invalid). I don’t find much going on besides Mass at most parishes I visit. There are third order Secular franciscan fraternities in the city, and I’ve joined one, but it’s not fulfilling my most basic spiritual craving; to have some other men around to pray with regularly, at least once or twice a week. I would like to pray the daily office with some guys, and I would like to read books and talk about theology, share our personal spiritual journeys, and support each other as men, in striving towards purity of thought, and word, and deed, towards chastity, moderation, and the quieting of our base desires, and towards the increase of all virtues.
So what should I do? I don’t know. Maybe there are some guys at the Latin mass who would probably be right up my alley. All I want (a tall order indeed) is men who believe in the whole of the Catholic faith, are obedient to the magisterium of the church and who want to follow God with all their hearts, minds, and strength. I am not all of those things all of the time, or even any of them, some of the time. But I do wish I was. That’s all I ask, really, somebody who wishes they were more alive, both more pleasing to God, and to themselves, than they currently find themselves. In other words, someone aware of their own need for grace. I’m dying here.
I had great hopes that this might be found in a secular franciscan fraternity, but the group I have joined (although it is good) is not quite what I’m looking for. For one thing, it is made up of men and women, and for another thing, nobody else in my fraternity, except one, is interested in the prayer of the church, or interested in reading the same kinds of books as me. I intend to persist with the secular franciscan fraternity. Franciscan spirituality is a good fit for me, but for that matter so is anything with any depth at all, especially Benedictine, Trappist, Carmelite, and Dominican spirituality. ANYTHING, ANYTHING AT ALL, where men want to encourage each other to pray, and to really live our lives in the spirit of the Gospel. So what should I do?
Warren
Toronto Canada
[P.S. If this message gets posted twice, I apologize. Some kind of error happened, and my message did not appear after I posted it.]
I know I probably shouldn’t have, but I stopped going to that parish nearly completely, when an old and rather grouchy priest was assigned to this parish. At that time, I was curious about the Latin Mass, and out of curiousity, visited it a few times, and soon it became my regular sunday mass. I did not become a “Traditional Catholic” though I did learn what one was. Many who attend Latin masses also read rad-trad magazines with cheerful names like “The Remnant”. Most unbearable of all to me is the disrespect that some traditional catholics I have spoken to have for our Holy Father the Pope.
So here I am, stuck in the middle. Like Thomas Howard I am an Evangelical who woke up to the truth of the Catholic faith. While I do love the old Latin mass and prayers, I do not hold with anyone whose theology gravitates towards insubordination ( the SSPX, the sedevacants, or “Traditional Catholics” who think that the vernacular mass is invalid). I don’t find much going on besides Mass at most parishes I visit. There are third order Secular franciscan fraternities in the city, and I’ve joined one, but it’s not fulfilling my most basic spiritual craving; to have some other men around to pray with regularly, at least once or twice a week. I would like to pray the daily office with some guys, and I would like to read books and talk about theology, share our personal spiritual journeys, and support each other as men, in striving towards purity of thought, and word, and deed, towards chastity, moderation, and the quieting of our base desires, and towards the increase of all virtues.
So what should I do? I don’t know. Maybe there are some guys at the Latin mass who would probably be right up my alley. All I want (a tall order indeed) is men who believe in the whole of the Catholic faith, are obedient to the magisterium of the church and who want to follow God with all their hearts, minds, and strength. I am not all of those things all of the time, or even any of them, some of the time. But I do wish I was. That’s all I ask, really, somebody who wishes they were more alive, both more pleasing to God, and to themselves, than they currently find themselves. In other words, someone aware of their own need for grace. I’m dying here.
I had great hopes that this might be found in a secular franciscan fraternity, but the group I have joined (although it is good) is not quite what I’m looking for. For one thing, it is made up of men and women, and for another thing, nobody else in my fraternity, except one, is interested in the prayer of the church, or interested in reading the same kinds of books as me. I intend to persist with the secular franciscan fraternity. Franciscan spirituality is a good fit for me, but for that matter so is anything with any depth at all, especially Benedictine, Trappist, Carmelite, and Dominican spirituality. ANYTHING, ANYTHING AT ALL, where men want to encourage each other to pray, and to really live our lives in the spirit of the Gospel. So what should I do?
Warren
Toronto Canada
[P.S. If this message gets posted twice, I apologize. Some kind of error happened, and my message did not appear after I posted it.]
