18 November 2009

A Hiatus

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I'm not blogging again, at least until after Christmas. There are three main reasons:

First, I can rely on the blogosphere, or even the Internet for fellowship, but not for communion, and if I cannot find any way to articulate the manner in which I am in full and proper communion with either my parish priest or my Bishop, while each of them claims to be in communion with the Pope, I need to spend time looking for why somewhere other than here.

Second, I want to reflect on trad Catholic blogging from the outside: the LMS created a fortress of insularity because it needed to. I think that time has gone, but I sometimes sense a new insularity online, that seems to value an idea of ultratrad heteropraxis. "My praxy is better than your praxy" is less bad than "my doxy is better than your doxy", but it isn't good.

(First and second leave me wondering what exactly the Catholic blogosphere is: not national exactly, and not a comunion; not a movement, even if "New"; unguided, unshepherded, even if blessed with a really rich crop of posting pastors; what is the sense in which it is "Catholic" when it consists of lots of people expressing their own interpretation of things?)

Third, I'm not convinced that I'm keeping up with the Zeitgeist: lot's of you are racing off while I feel quite happy at rest. The fact that I can go to EF Mass every week if I try, and so can lots of others, while we can also go to OF Mass every day, feels like a decent start, and one worth bedding in, especially if the alternative involves lots of arguing. I have some big things to argue about with my spiritual betters, but the availability of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass isn't one of them.

I'll still haunt you: I'll comment when I feel moved to. But a pause for reflection might throw up an idea about whether I have anything unquerulous to say, and about how to say it.

God Bless you all, and be assured of my daily prayers.
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8 comments:

Londiniensis said...

All the Best and God Bless.

JARay said...

All the very best from me too and God bless. I often wonder how bloggers can put it all together. I don't think that I could.
I wonder what happened to The Sensible Bond!
JARay

Anonymous said...

Dear TTony
so
this is intended as an aurevoir, not a farewell? E'en were it so , you're a free agent.
I hope.
However, whilst no given blog or website is essential,
They aren't half useful for a saner, more accurate reflection of the outer life of the church in the world, let alone everything else going on.
Assumption: time was when Catholics as well as otherwise read a daily newspaper, listened to the news on the radio or the box, discounted bias as best they could ( or did they? I've never been too sure abt George Orwell in stalinist times noticing paracticing Catholic families with a Daily worker (for non-brits or youngsters, the old
coomunist party paper , unsubtle complete big lies and a cloudcuckoo party-line take on events, and very red) on the kitchen table).
I suspect the Anglosphere MSM have got more unreliable over the past decades, maybe that impression is just because internet + a dose of discernment makes checking it out abit so easy.
Incongruity: in church more than twice a week , secretly charitable godfearing catholics that nonetheless get news ,abt church included, via msm and repeat the take on Anglicans that Rome is making a fshing bid that will bite back in the form of married priests. All their priorities are right, but..
If I hadn't had a long phone call 18 months ago from North Africa when those anglicans ASKED to come in as a group , please, I might believe it myself. If I never surfed either.
Internet isn't ideal.
but it's better than MSM.
Memory: Priests insisting, in sermons , in the uk, that one should at least read one catholic news paper on account of lies and misunderstandings re church by noncatholic media...
True, Catholic internet isn't like being in communion at the same mass.
It isn't obviously (in both senses) practicing catholics being a liitle like christ in the world, (more than they would be if they werent ! ) at work, in their family, engaged on corporal works of mercy , catequesis even...
It's much more like a load of mostly pretty awful people who happen to be catholic catholics (aweful, that's me , any other reader if the cap fits)
at their worst (which used to be friday night b4 sat.confession b4 communion at mass on Sun) sounding off in a bar at the tops of their voices.
Only without the beer.
Scandalous, in the absolute, perhaps.
But compare that to any other boozer's crowd,as a crowd, and, sorry to offend a politcally correct reader should there be one, the church with its hand tied behind its back beats the world ten times over. Experience, not theory.

For the rest:
Nada te turba
nada te espanta
solo Dios basta

God bless.
prayers continue.

I don't know yet if ican get myself right,for once, so if I'm anon Im mike cliffson etc, although of course I coud be someone else supplanting the alias.
there's something unerving abt masks and virtual reality when it isnt the anonymity of the public penitent.

Rita said...

I have similar feelings about the LMS, at one of their Masses I felt like a distinct outsider amongst the Amish.

I do hope you continue to hover around, with Philip gone and Andrew Khoo having a bit too much of real life to deal with at the moment, it could be getting a bit lonely out here. I increasingly feel I'm blogging into a vacuum, but perversely that is making me more determined to continue.

I pray you have a fruitful break.
God Bless you and yours.

Dorothy B said...

Thank you so much for your blog. It was a great joy to me, a few years ago, to discover the British Catholic blogs, together with a few from other countries. The more points of light and warmth there are in what can seem like a very dark landscape, the better.

During the time I have been following these blogs, what wonderful things have happened, thanks to our present Holy Father.
How much would we have known about them, if it had not been for the blogs?

Have a very peaceful and happy break, and a good Christmas and New Year. And whatever you decide for the future of your blog, please acept my very best wishes.

Victoria Mildew said...

Sorry to see you leave the stage as a main part; glad you will be around to blog as and when.
In the large world of Blogovision, may I say that yours (with a few others) has been a sane, sensible and calm blog - no tantrums, hissy fitting or screeching at each other.

May God bless you in in the next phase of your life - whatever He has planned for you.

Pax

VM

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Innocent Smith said...

Ttony,

Sounds like a break will do you good. I know somebody else who took a break recently and found it helped clear out some of the soot. Bon courage and many prayers.

Finally, in view of JARay's remark and if I may ... those who enjoyed The Sensible Bond might enjoy

http://thesundaymorningsoapbox.blogspot.com/

Inncent.

The Raven (C. Corax) said...

I do hope that your hiatus is not too protracted, as I miss the sanity and common sense that marks your writing.

God bless and, if you will forgive the liberty, may I wish you a merry Christmas.

Thomas