The League of Bearded Catholics

Corpus Christianum!

The Virgin with Angels - William Bouguereau

It's a bit late, but it seemed appropriate - on this Feast of the Assumption - to announce that some time ago, I joined the ranks of Corpus Christianum;

...an international Private Association of the Faithful, open both to men and women, dedicated to praying for a renewal of Christendom

I joined, as I say, some time ago, but did not feel I deserved to make much of the association publicly, as my prayer discipline has never been anything to write Rome about. I joined less to lend my prayers to the effort, and more in the hope of finding some meaningful structure and motivation for my prayers. I hoped that joining would be an aid to my daily prayer routine, and this has, in fact, happened... by increments. Baby steps.

Being a part of Corpus Christianum means making a commitment to praying the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and also to praying the Rosary daily, with specific intentions for each decade. This I have failed in, but... I continue to make progress, which can only be by the grace of God.

The Little Office has been a challenge and great source of growth. It has made me pray for greater understanding of our Holy Mother, and I think those prayers have been answered, to the capacity I am able to understand.

One thing that came to me on this feast day is that God did not just choose Mary to be the Mother of His Son (though we often speak that way)... He created her for that purpose. He was emphatically not drawing names from a hat.

Saint or Ain't?

Patron Saint of Curmudgeons? Oh, I hope so.

The Pachyderminator writes in the combox on this post about the Hilaire Belloc novena;

Sorry to be a curmudgeon, but you can't pray for his soul and pray for his intercession at the same time. He can't receive our prayers if he's in still in purgatory. And if we're not confident that he's in heaven, we shouldn't be holding novenas to him.

First of all, admit it... you really like being a curmudgeon. I know I do, on occasion. I look forward to turning fifty later this year, as it will mark a sort of symbolic beginning to my most curmudgeonly years... though I don't expect to hit my full potential until after seventy (God willing).

Hilaire Belloc certainly made the most of his natural gift for grumpiness, too, which is why - though I'm confident he will enjoy the Beatific Vision - I'm less certain he will be canonized by the Church than I am in the case of, say, Chesterton.

People don't naturally associate gruffness and snark with sainthood, even though we have plenty of examples to demonstrate how they may go together; St. Paul, St, Augustine... there is even a legend of St. Nicholas (our beloved patron!) punching Arius in the nose at the council of Nicea. There are many others.

In the case of praying to Belloc, or praying for him, I don't find the idea generates for me the kind of cognitive dissonance that it seems to for the highly esteemed Pachyderminator, and perhaps others. People began praying to Mother Teresa almost (forgive me, Mother) before her body had cooled, long before there was any official cause. I and many others have found ourselves praying for the soul of a dead relative one minute, and praying for their intercession the next. Perhaps rolling them together so tightly might give one pause, but the fact is, for anyone not canonized by the Church, we can't know for certain which kind of prayer will be more appropriate at any given point in time. If it makes one uncomfortable to the point of distraction, of course, one need not do it, but I don't see any hard and fast reason not to.

(*edit* - I will concede, though, that this is the first I've heard of a novena to anyone who is not a canonized saint)

Whereas I find a saintly glow evident behind practically all of Chesterton's writing - even his polemics - it seems less evident in Belloc's work, though I personally have no doubts as to where he is spending eternity.

Truthfully, I might need to be a tad more careful in separating my personal confidence in Chesterton's saintly status and my hopes that he will be officially canonized. I am pretty ignorant on what it takes to move the process of beatification ahead, and though I see copious evidence of Chesterton's sanctity, I don't know how this stacks up to the official requirements of the Church.

Others, who know much more than I do of the process, do share this confidence, though, and that gives me hope.

God Invented Weekends

I love being a Catholic. The photo above was not set up at all... just a collection of stuff that happened to be there this morning: my favorite pipe, some smoking paraphernalia, prayer book, Rosary and G.K. Chesterton coffee mug. Later tonight, I suppose I should take another photo, only there will likely be a glass of wine instead of the coffee.

There are hedges that need trimming, and half a hundred small chores that cry for attention, but The Boss jovially insisted I take the whole day off and drop by His House later to see him.

Sunday is also a great day to read all the poems Pavel Chichikov has sent through the week. Like a good meal, it takes a little leisure to give them proper attention.

Today (Sunday, July 11) is also day four of the Belloc Novena.

(cross posted at Old World Swine)