Br. JR,
How does one go about doing what you advised above?
The formal way would be to enter a secular or a religious order.
The informal way of proceeding is to begin to read the writings of these schools. For example, I came to become a Franciscan after many years of exposure to all things Franciscan. It all began with a simple book report.
When I was in grade six, the brothers asked us to write a book report. I wanted to learn about Francis of Assisi. I was Jewish and I was at a Franciscan school. Every October 4, the brothers had this major celebration in honor of their founder. They made all of the students attend mass under penalty of expulsion. It was the only time that I saw them seriously threaten. You could walk off with the poor box and be forgiven, but you had better be there for the mass of St. Francis. Then, you went home. There was no school that day. Everyday they had us pray to St. Francis. We had to learn the Peace Prayer. There was a rather interesting practice among them, they walked barefoot around the school. The wore sandals when they went outside.
Anyway, I read this book called The Perfect Joy of St. Francis and I did my book report. I was fascinated by this character and began to read every biography that I could find about him. Being in a Franciscan school, this was easy. They had an entire stack on Francis and Franciscanism in their library. By the time that I was in high school, I knew that I wanted to be like this man and his sons. However, he was a Christian.
I recall siting in the school chapel crying. I wanted so much to be like this man that I would daydream about it in class. By the time that I reached high school graduation, I realized that I had to become a Christian. What made this man so wonderful was that he was a Christian. The rest is history. I became a Christian.
I eventually married, had three children, was widowed and lost one of my sons. I raised two kids by myself and became a Franciscan. During those years, I read everything I could find on Francis and Franciscan spirituality, Franciscan history, Franciscan theology and more. I attended their workshops. I found out that they even have degrees on Francis of Assisi. So . . . I took courses in Franciscan studies. I visited anything Franciscan that I could.
Needless to say, by the time that I became a brother, I wanted to get a doctorate in theology and I wanted to major in Franciscan studies. So I wrote a dissertation on Franciscan Detachment and Its Influence on Teresa of Avila.
That’s how I went about it. I read and I became familiar with the Franciscan school. Other people have the benefit of being close to a religious house or a retreat house run by one of these communities. Other people watch movies. Others do the internet searches. There are many sites on Benedict, Francis, Dominic, Teresa of Avila, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Jose Maria Escriva and the other great schools. Mother Teresa reflects the Franciscan school. She borrows quite a bit from St. Francis. Jose Maria Escriva borrows a lot from St. Francis de Sales, who was a master on lay spirituality. There are also periodicals that the different traditions put out and you can subscribe to them.
The important thing is to keep in mind that being a Traditional Catholic is not about attending the EF. That’s important to some Traditional Catholics and it’s a very good thing too. But if that’s all that one does, then one is missing the spirit that gives life to the body. The Holy Spirit has raised these families and teachers to breath life into the Church. They are part of and essential to the Catholic Tradition.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
in fact most people I still see in church today are those who were alive pre-Vatican II. Those who are leaving are those who never got a taste of the TLM.