bits and bants vol. 33
don't let your faith be dependent on people and their bad opinions
“It’s spring I have no time to write!” she says as the temperature outside is a brutal eight degrees above freezing and ominous clouds loom low. I had been busy the past couple weeks planting in the garden with all my spare minutes, but the weather and the forecast for the next week have turned completely Baltic to the point I can’t plant out any of my tender annuals because the frost risk is too great. Which is so frustrating because our season is so short and really missing even a week of growth means a week less of flowers. We’ve also had a lot of appointments for the kid who had major surgery just three months ago, thankfully she’s doing really well. But she still does need to go to many follow-up appointments. Add helping out family in various ways, that is where all my time seems to have gone. Oh and trying to finish up the homeschool year with the two who are under my control, and finish all homeschooling paperwork I have ignored for the entire school year. And apply for new passports for all five kids. That’s where all my time has gone.
Not to comment on this week’s brouhaha of the week, mainly because I find it so boring I can’t get too enraged about it, but I do want to say something that is a byproduct of these weekly brouhahas. I am going to say this as a very boring, very cradle Catholic who’s been around this block many times. (Sidebar: I love the saying I heard from a priest recently in that there is no such thing as cradle Catholics anymore because anyone who practices the faith in our world today has chosen to do so and converted their lives to that fact.) But my point is this; if and when someone says something you don’t agree with and your response and reaction is to say that this damages your own personal faith to the point where you can't remain in the Church, then your faith is not properly placed in Christ.
Your faith, your choosing to remain Catholic (or to remain in any church, really), cannot be dependent on what any other person or persons within the Church say or do. The Catholic Church isn’t a club, it’s not a political party, it’s not even a “group of like-minded individuals”. Have you talked to people at your parish? Would you say that the majority agree on Church teaching and how it should be expressed? Let alone the internet’s worth of the Catholic Church?
If your personal tastes or opinions about how to practice your faith need to be supported and constantly affirmed by people in the Church or other Catholics, then you will eventually be terribly disappointed, if not instantly disappointed. There will be people from any and every direction, political viewpoint, cultural perspective using carefully chosen teachings of the Church to back up their own ideas. This is honestly a cottage industry at this point. And it has been this way for time immemorial. If these opinion pushers disrupt your peace enough there is an easy, one-stop shop for figuring out if that is what the Catholic Church actually believe and teaches: the Catechism. Please, please, please read the Catechism. It talks about everything that is dependent on Church teaching and it lays it out clearly and succinctly and you really don’t need a theology degree to understand it. If you have more questions, talk to a trusted priest who doesn’t seem to have axes to grind. And most importantly, maybe be open to the idea that your own opinions might also just be opinions and not Church dogma either.
The Catholic Church is not a democracy, or cool club, or cult that forces everyone to live identical lives. It is a metaphysical reality in which every baptized person belongs to Christ and thus to each other. But this reality doesn’t take away our sin or our free will. It doesn’t take away our own agendas and our own pride when we see things in Church teaching and think it will conveniently back up what we were arguing about on Twitter. It doesn’t mean that evil people are not within the Church. It doesn’t mean that those within the Church will not intentionally damage and injure others within it.
This is all to say that our faith needs to reside not in the human aspects of the Church, but Christ who gives the Church his divine grace and life. We need to grow closer to Him and know Him more. Christ didn’t abandon us to hoards of other people’s bad opinions, He gave us the Church to properly convey His teachings by the Holy Spirit. Through the authority of the Magisterium of the Church we can know truth and how it should be lived. But again, you may have to read and understand these teachings yourself and not simply be told by whoever you may agree with or who’s hot take on whatever you disagree with this week gets the most likes.
It’s probably harder than ever because of our divided and isolated society in general, the bad catechizing of most Catholics for the past hundred plus years, and the terrible leadership on the whole given to us by our bishops to rely on other Catholics to be guides to the entirety of the Church’s deposit of faith. Frankly, most people the internet freaks out about are right about some things and wrong about some things. But please, don’t put your experience and life of faith in the hands of human beings who get things right sometimes and get things wrong sometimes or just straight up have bad opinions. You have to put your faith in Jesus. And then you’re going to have to humbly allow your opinions and life to be formed by the wisdom of the Church, a Church that has been guided by the Holy Spirit, and on the whole much smarter people than our current age provides.
It’s not an easy answer to follow, but it is a mature and adult one. We have to take responsibility for our own faith and examine who we put our faith in.
bits:
A weird smorgasbord for you today, but I like what I like.
I love Barbara Pym and I will evangelize for her as much as I will evangelize for Muriel Spark even though they’re very, very, very different mid-century brilliant female English writers! But better novels are very rare than the ones written by Pym. This piece on Pym was so interesting I went out and bought the biography mentioned.
This newly published paper by Erika Bachiochi on understanding work and home and the duty of the present moment is such a well-thought out reasoning of the whole place of women question. It’s not really a question. It’s a well thought out reasoning of how we should actually view and acknowledge work in all its forms by both men and women. I need to think about it more.
I really appreciated this look at classical education and what the reality of classical education and homeschooling looks like in the face of what usually are smears of being “right wing”. Homeschooling here in Canada is ages behind that in the States, as in we’re just barely even recognizing that Classical Education is a real thing, or so it feels, but classical education has been around enough for good judgements to be made about it. And
is so smart!How bout we just stop the debasing arguments of calling stuff we don’t really want to engage with “right wing” altogether? Because I am always here for a smackdown from Dr. Larry Chapp.
Since I’m just sharing pieces from all my favourites this week, here’s the GOAT
with a wonderful article on The Feast, a book I loved reading and thinking about.I was so honoured to be ask to write a little something about one of my favourite literary mothers for Dixie at
along with some other brilliant women. I really got so much from their reflections of some great literary characters.And finally, if you’re still wondering where to go for common sense, straightforward writing on what the Church actually teaches when it comes to men, women, and the internet go read everything Emily writes. The end.
reading, watching, what have you:
see aforementioned excuses for a lack of a lot in this section and then add the NHL playoffs.
I did read The Ghost Keeper for the ol’ book club this month and while it was a decent story, I have problems with the constant, annoying switching of tense by the narration, and the pacing of the story. The more I think about it the more frustrated I get, but we’ll see what everyone else says at book club tonight!
Also in frustrating fiction: The Women by Kristin Hannah. Did I start this audiobook knowing full well I was going to be incredibly frustrated by the writing and most likely the story? Yes, yes I did. But sometimes I just want to read what everyone else is reading. But omg, it still surprises me that to gain commercial success as an author all you need to do is string together literally every single cliche about a historical time period in one characters life!
If I get any down time this weekend, which is looking unlikely, I’ll be drinking tequila with a splash of lime juice and watching Bridgerton.
come with me to Ireland!
I would love for you to consider coming on this amazing pilgrimage with me and Katie Marquette this October! We are really going to enjoy exploring sacred sites like the Knock Shrine, Craugh Patrick, and Glendalaugh. We also want to enjoy the beauty of the Irish countryside, the Cliffs of Moher, and small Irish villages as well as whiskey tastings, and hanging out in Dublin.
As much as I think this is an incredible experience to further widen and deepen your faith, I really want any trip I take to be a lot of fun, and I one of my goals is for you to have a lot of fun too! This is not going to be a stodgy tour, this is going to be a lot of fun as we immerse ourselves in all things Irish. I really want you to come along.
Here is the brochure for all the details.
That’s it from me—I’m off to finish some writing for a deadline and begrudgingly catch up on laundry because it’s too cold to go outside and plant.
currently mad at the sun,
Christy
I don’t even know what brouhaha you’re talking about, which partly makes me feel out of the loop but also reminds me that this week I had the realisation that since getting off IG and cutting back a lot on Substack, I simply do not care any more about stuff like the trad wives debate. I get that it has real life consequences, and especially in the US there are potential political ramifications, but it just doesn’t affect my life and it does zero favours to my faith life to care whether someone thinks I need to know how to bake sourdough to be a good Catholic. It’s so boring to bang the “I got off IG!!!” drum but I have to say it has really made it easier to be Catholic in this regard.
Barbara Pym 4eva ❤️ saving that article for later and will definitely hop on any biography!
The Women - oh my gosh! I am writing a study guide on it for work, so I can’t put it in the past but it drove me crazy! And I really like KH’s historical (but not her domestic) fiction. Maybe if I hadn’t taken a class in Vietnam lit in grad school it wouldn’t have bugged me as much, but there’s nothing original in there. Like… nothing. And Vietnam lit has been written by actual vets who have first hand experience so if you aren’t going to add anything new or add any depth, just don’t do it!