Unfortunately, I've been sick with a flu/cold this week, so I'm feeling behind in most areas of life. I was able to get a video published today, so thank God for that. I'd love to see this Locals community be a venue where you guys can share more intimate (and perhaps critical) feedback about the content that I'm producing. YouTube is overwhelming with comments, but this affords us an opportunity to have more productive interactions. At any rate, here's the newest video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoZogFGJ4K4
We're coming up on the final stretch of Lent and I find myself apprehensive about the shift from fasting to feasting. In practice, I've never been very good at feasting well. Joseph Pieper argues that leisure is our most important activity in life, but it's so hard to live out in a world consumed by work followed by shallow distraction. I'm contemplating retaining some of the things I've given up this Lent as I've seen so much fruit from their exclusion that I'm not really interested in bringing them back. Is anyone else experiencing this suggestion in your spiritual discernment?
In other news, I was able to interview Fr. Robert Spitzer, but we very quickly ran out of time which was a learning experience for me. It feels like every interview I do has some important lesson for me to learn. Hopefully those lessons will be reflected in future interviews. I'm looking forward to publishing it soon. He's remarkably knowledgable, and obviously intelligent.
Lastly, a few pieces that caught my eye this week include an incisive article by Phil Lawler who I almost always entirely agree with. https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/pope-francis-doctor-law/
I've heard lots of people are upset about some website promoting "recovery from traditionalism". It was a reminder of how peaceful life is when you aren't immersed in the controversies of Twitter and elsewhere.
And I'm looking forward to catching this conversation between Jordan Petersen and Bishop Barron. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd6iCSQep8E
I pray that as you approach Holy Week, your faith will be strengthened as we immerse ourselves in the Passion of our Lord!
Brian Holdsworth
In military tradition, reinforcements are those called up to support the front-line soldiers. In architecture, reinforcements provide support to a weak area. Today, the Church is struggling to its mission to teach and evangelize. I would never consider myself a first pick to do this work, but desperate time seems to necessitate that people like you and I fill in. Here we can support each other as we aim to renew the Church and evangelize the culture.
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Brian Holdsworth@brianholdsworth
December 16, 2024
The 3 Laws of Pleasure
Since we are in a season of fasting, and eventually feasting, I thought I'd share an interesting passage from a book by Venerable Fulton Sheen called "Way to Happiness". It appears in a chapter called the "Philosophy of Pleasure" in which he describes 3 laws for our consideration, which I will reproduce below.
1. If you are ever to enjoy yourself, you cannot plan your life around constant pleasure.
He says pleasure, to be enjoyed, requires contrast. Just like with fireworks. You cannot enjoy fireworks if they are shot against a backdrop of a blazing fire or in the light of day. They must be enjoyed with the contrast of night. Pleasure, similarly, is best enjoyed when it is a rare occasion, as a treat or a reward. Nobody would enjoy Thanksgiving if every night were a turkey dinner. Our enjoyment of life is vastly increased if we choose some form of mortification or self-denial in advance of some pleasure. This is why advent is such a perfect opportunity to maximize the joy of Christmas. Deny ourselves no that we might fully enjoy the festivities later.
2. Pleasure is enhanced when it has endured a period of tedium or pain.
Sheen describes this like a second wind. Our work, for example, becomes more productive, and even enjoyable once we have overcome a period of temptation to put it down and be distracted. If you can endure past that, you will achieve a greater reward. He also uses the example of marriage. It becomes a greater joy and stability after a period of disillusionment and the loss of the honeymoon phase.
3. Pleasure is a by-product, not a goal.
Pleasure only comes as the fulfillment of some obedience of duty. You can enjoy ice cream, because it relates to the duty of eating. But if you make that pleasure your aim, you will over indulge and suffer ill consequences - like sickness. To seek pleasure, apart from law, is to miss it. He then says that the Christian way is to fast first and then feast later, that you might savor its reward. By contrast, he says the "pagan way" is to feast first, and be hungover tomorrow.
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Hello everyone,
My family attended the wedding of a dear friend over the weekend and I have some thoughts that I'd appreciate feedback on. I'll preface by stating that our friend is evangelical and the ceremony was probably the most meaningful wedding ceremony I've seen outside of a Catholic nuptial mass. Everyone who participated (pastor, singers, people who prayed) clearly love the Lord, have Jesus at the center of their lives, and visibly want the same for everyone. Obviously, that's a good thing. Several people approached my wife asking if she attends church. Once she said that she does and that it's a Catholic church, the conversations abruptly ended and those who asked became distant (these people ran the same play on me a few years ago with the same end result, by the way). Also, the pastor tried proselytizing during the ceremony, which I thought was out of place. Point being, they love Jesus so much although with quite an interesting approach.
Toward the end, I found myself next to my ...
Faith Alone Destroyed by Computer Logic
If Sola Fide (faith alone) were true, then applying conditional logic to scripture would only every find this one condition. But in fact, we find many with salvation as the result. Watch me apply this logic to devastating effect on the Protestant cornerstone.
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Vatican II, the Final Stretch of Lent, and What's Caught My Attention
