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Post by cato on Dec 7, 2018 21:26:28 GMT
Am looking forward to this immensely. I find Dreher is one of the few sane voices left who actually has a positive solution to our woes. Great that Iona has chosen to invite him to Ireland. It's like an early Christmas surprise. Deo gratias.
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Post by cato on Jan 19, 2019 11:57:22 GMT
Breda O Brien in todays Irish Times gives a sensible sympathetic account of Rod Dreher in advance of Monday's meeting in Dublin. Breda O Brien is also linked with the Iona institute which is helping to organise the event.
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Post by cato on Jan 21, 2019 23:12:25 GMT
Just finished another Rod Dreher's book How Dante can save your life. I recommend it highly. He writes about reading the Divine Comedy during a difficult time in his life and applying the insights of the great Italian work to his life. I may start a Dante thread as he is a great guide and source of practical wisdom.
I am just back in the door from the Dreher talk in the Newman Church tonight. There was a full house and Dreher spoke well. He was introduced by our own John Waters. The audience were largely grey heads with a few young nuns and some young men who looked like seminarians. I saw one or two priests I know who wouldn't be conservatives .Bishops were prominently absent.
I ll post a few thoughts tomorrow.
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Post by cato on Jan 22, 2019 16:05:06 GMT
I planned to take notes last night at the Dreher talk but I was too caught up in what he was saying and I feel a bit strange about writing in a church.
Basically he outlined his thesis of widespread church collapse in the west. And it will get worse! Many Christians practice a form of egocentric therapy ( Moral Theraputic Deism) and are unable to cope with a hostile society that hates Christianity. He mentioned that hatred several times.
To survive we need to strenghten our faith.Our model is St Benedict who lived in the shadow of Rome's collapse. He withdrew , prayed and then acted in concrete steps. In his case setting up communities of men and women who led balanced disciplined lives of prayer work and study. Benedict did not consciously seek to restore the faith or rescue western civilisation. He responded to God's call and his little band of followers gradually expanded throughout the ruins of dark ages Europe bringing their message of learning and creating a civilisation of love to quote Pope St Paul VI .
Dreher also mentioned discipline a lot. I am not very disciplined but what he says has the hard ring of truth about it.That's the hard part of his message. Essientially it is a call to personal conversion and reform as a necessary vital first step.
He praised the Iona institute for its witness to profound truths and denied he advocates a retreat from the public square. We need to have a strong informed passionate faith to be in the public square or else we will be overwhelmed. Many of his critics are professional religious people (ie clergy) he noted.
There is a lot of denial as to the scale of the collapse in Ireland.
He addressed his own loss of faith in catholicism when questioned later by an audience member. He came across as humble and honest.He didn't give a blue print for Ireland At the start of his talk he mentioned how many catholics had told him Ireland was no longer home. He confirmed this fact in his talk but offered christian hope. We need to decide do we want to keep and indeed witness to the faith or are we content to keep our heads down and manage the rapid decline into absolute irrelevency.
He quoted Karl Marx once in his talk. I can't recall the quote but he said Marx was wicked.No catholic cleric would dare utter that statement. In fact many now regard Marx as a post biblical prophet! I hope the Iona institute put his talk up on line. I saw a few people recording him on their phones. An interesting inspiring talk.
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Post by cato on Jan 22, 2019 22:55:32 GMT
Ps The Iona Institute have put Rod Dreher's transcript of his talk on their website.
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Jan 23, 2019 11:42:54 GMT
Ps The Iona Institute have put Rod Dreher's transcript of his talk on their website. I had a read of the speech. There seem to be two central ideas in it: first, that Christians have to be deliberate and intentional and disciplined in their faith, since they can no longer count on the support of society or even the churches. I imagine everyone who was there listening to him (or most of them, at any rate) are already doing that, that their faith is part of their everyday lives and embedded in routines in the way he suggests. The other is that Catholics have to band together in real, face-to-face communities of some kind. This is a great idea but it's quite challenging. I mean, most of us are grateful just to have a job and somewhere to live. Few of us are in a position to throw that up and start afresh. We might all like to be part of a close-knit, homeschooling, inter-generational Christian community but it don't come easy, as George Harrison says. I tried to put out feelers for a Catholic writer's group recently, but drew a blank. And a writer's group is a pretty minor undertaking... The Irish language has much the same problems. It can only flourish if people are only speaking it face-to-face in everyday life. But how many people can move to the Gaeltacht, or create their own mini-Gaeltacht?
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Post by cato on Jan 23, 2019 16:47:36 GMT
The other is that Catholics have to band together in real, face-to-face communities of some kind. This is a great idea but it's quite challenging. I mean, most of us are grateful just to have a job and somewhere to live. Few of us are in a position to throw that up and start afresh. We might all like to be part of a close-knit, homeschooling, inter-generational Christian community but it don't come easy, as George Harrison says. I tried to put out feelers for a Catholic writer's group recently, but drew a blank. And a writer's group is a pretty minor undertaking... The Irish language has much the same problems. It can only flourish if people are only speaking it face-to-face in everyday life. But how many people can move to the Gaeltacht, or create their own mini-Gaeltacht? [/quote] Conservatives and catholics , are I find, as a species very individualistic. I have tried in the past to organise one or two reactionary projects only to find no one would agree on anything when it came to practicalities. I do think we need to create or find those spaces or places or supports. Or we perish. We no longer have the option of splendid isolation or just doing what we have done for generations. Most parishes still provide a sacramental factory model with vague non threatening spirituality once a week. This will not suffice. It is plainly dying off. Conservative catholics will have to change and give up a lot we now take for granted in order to survive. Most of the official church's plans for the future consists of more liberalisation. Dreher argues for more and a deeper tradition.
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Post by Stephen on Feb 1, 2019 11:09:29 GMT
Would have loved to go.... Do you have a link?
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Post by cato on Feb 1, 2019 12:43:59 GMT
Would have loved to go.... Do you have a link? Look up the Iona Institute website. I keep meaning to learn how to post links. Am a bit of a technical dinosaur...
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Post by Seán Ó Murchú on Feb 16, 2021 20:38:49 GMT
Rod was too lazy to stay in the One Holy Apostolic Church and the book was a good job at Gifting Christians of all stripes. This book could most charitably be called overrated. While the subject matter is interesting, the author is mediocre and doesn't expand the subject.
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