Salve Regina

"I went to see him (Chesterton) as he died. I asked to be alone with the dying man. There that great frame was in the heat of death, the great mind was getting ready, no doubt, in its own way, for the sight of God. It was Saturday, and I think that perhaps in another thousand years Gilbert Chesterton might be known as one of the sweetest singers to that ever-blessed daughter of Sion, Mary of Nazareth. I knew that the very finest qualities of The Crusaders was one of the endowments of his great heart, and then I remembered the song of the Crusaders, Salve Regina, which we Blackfriars sing every night to the Lady of our love. I said to Gilbert Chesterton: "You shall hear your mother's love song." And I sang to Gilbert Chesterton the Crusader's song: "Hail, Holy Queen!" - Fr. Vincent McNabb

I remember reading part of Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan's autobiography where he taught his prison guards how do sing the Salve Regina and they would sing it together - even though they didn't know what it was. It's a beautiful prayer - I think.

I was thinking about St. Louis de Montfort and how he argued that the person most devoted to Mary is most devoted to Christ, and how he said that Mary is not great because of anything she is in and of herself. She is great because she was the home, mother, and earthly teacher of Christ. Everything she does points to him, and so the quickest way to understand true Christian devotion, true emptiness of self and love for Jesus, is to look to Mary (through Mary?).

Cardinal Newman has a great line where he says that for Catholics, our beliefs don't contradict our belief in scripture, etc because we see no contradiction, only harmony. He writes 'they say we ought to be disturbed, but we aren't'. That's what I try to tell people when they question Catholic Mariology: when they ask 'why?' answer 'why not?'. It's the 'default' Christian position from Patristic times to the Reformation, and they saw no problem with it. Mother Teresa once was asked why she was Catholic and she replied that it was because she hadn't found a better religion yet. That's my general standpoint.

I want to learn how to sing the Salve Regina in Latin. I love it when we occasionally get to sing it in English for a recessional hymn.

Flee From Sin / Occasion to Sin

"Have you sinned, my child? Do so no more,
but ask forgiveness for your past sins.
Flee from sin as from a snake;
for if you approach sin, it will bite you.
Its teeth are lion’s teeth,
and can destroy human lives." - Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 21:1-2

I came across an interesting theory/theology the other day. Fr. Vincent McNabb, an English Dominican, who lived at the time of Chesterton, argued that the Christian life is about avoiding sin, and for those who have not the heroic virtue to resist sin, then the Christian life is about avoiding the occasion to sin. Occasion to Sin is a very Catholic phrase that means putting yourself in a place to fall - actually I looked up the etymology and it comes from occidere which means 'to fall down'. So Fr. McNabb called Catholics to leave the city where more temptation was at hand.

This is reminiscent of the call in the New Testament out of Babylon:

"Then I heard another voice from heaven saying,
‘Come out of her, my people,
so that you do not take part in her sins,
and so that you do not share in her plagues" - Revelation (Apocalypse) 18:4

Dom Vincent actually called London: Babylondon. Clever. I was struck by this theology because it is much akin to my desire to run away to a monastery. I was thinking about how it applies to what the philosopher sayeth (Aristotle), that moral character/virtue is based on habit. For most post-enlightenment ethicists -especially of the Protestant Moralist tradition (I'm looking at you Richard Baxter and your 18th century Anglican Brethren) - ethics has been seen as the attempt of the sturdy individual to overcome temptation personally and thus triumph over evil and suceed in Christian living. St. Thomas and Aristotle would argue that actually allowing yourself to be placed in the occasion to sin and then failing, makes you weaker morally. Thus every time you try to face the same temptations you're actually getting weaker.

SO, the argument is that such 'weak' Christians should live in an environment that provides the least occasions to sin. I, being one such weak Christian, think such an impoverished, celibate, and obedient life might be a good opportunity to build my moral muscles in order to face the world.

Thus, while many would consider such an option cowardly and 'running away' from the world, I'm reminded of the words of our Lord:

"If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell." - Matthew 5:29-30

This passage beautifully echoes the teleological ethics of the Catholic system. Whereas many would say it is no virtue to run away because you aren't 'beating' the enemy vices, in Catholicism, what you do matters - not what you 'feel' like doing. If you're locked in a padded room and you feel like killing yourself (presumably after reading too much Nietzsche) but can't, then you will die without the mortal sin of murder/suicide on your soul. You will be saved. If you are given the option and fail, you will enter grave sin and be able to hope only in God's extra gratuitous mercy.

So there's my argument. It's the one Joseph used when he ran out of the house of Potiphar (semi)naked: run away, or in the King James: "flee from sin"

(I have a feeling the exact opposite argument could also be made so I'm ready for disagreement)

Chesterton Quote for Today

I was having a bad day with a really idiotic teacher who reminded me why 'higher education' is meaningless really. Anyway, Old Gilbert always reminds me of the classic common sense of Thomistic realism, and practical English wit and wisdom.

"Men invent new ideals because they dare not attempt old ideals. They look forward with enthusiasm, because they are afraid to look back." - What's Wrong With the World

Welcome

I'm just getting things started here at Recusant Corner. I'm a Roman Catholic convert from Anabaptist/Evangelical Protestantism and plan on writing my thoughts here (probably mostly theology, but other stuff as well).

It's hopefully going to be a refuge from Polemics where I can try to operate on the principle 'live and let live'.

Why Call it Recusant Corner?

I'm a history major and my niche in Catholicism is a movement known as Recusancy (wikipedia it). Recusants were the Catholics who refused to submit to the Established Church of England and resisted to the point of martyrdom and persecution at first, and in later years at least were forbidden from public worship.

I find it a fascinating movement and some English Catholics even today like to style themselves Recusants. St. Thomas More, St. Edmund Campion (and all the Tyburn martyrs), John Donne (for a while), William Shakespeare (probably), were Recusants, as well as later figures like: Alexander Pope, Ven. John Henry Cardinal Newman, Lord Acton, G.K. Chesterton, Evelyn Waugh, J.R.R. Tolkien, and others.

Canada (where I live) is technically ruled by the English Monarch who is the spiritual head of the Anglican Church, so technically, and in a very vague impractical sense I am a Recusant.

Many Recusants were Jacobites, and on this blog, you'll find a strong support of the Stuart line rather than the Hanoverian usurpers of the inGlorious Revolution of 1688-9.

Some abbreviations you might want to know so they don't confuse you:

CofE : Church of England - Anglican Church - Established Church
R.C : Roman Catholic
Papist : Roman Catholic
Puritan : Reformed Protestant
Prelate : Anglican
Fr. : Father (indicating a Catholic Priest)
Bp. : Bishop
Abp. : Archbishop
Ven. : Venerable (Level in sainthood/canonization after blessed)
Bl. : Blessed (1st Level in canonization)