The Immensity of Imminence

The first real snow of the season imparted several inches in one day and made a brilliant sight of the world.  Everything was white.  Each tree branch was heavy with the weight of snow. 

            Driving home from Mass, we marveled at the beauty of it all and at the sheer magnitude.  Think of how many individual, tiny snowflakes have to come together to cover a space of earth much farther than the eye can see with four inches of snow!  Then think of the fact that no two of those snowflakes are identical – each is a unique masterpiece from the hand of God.

            That morning our good priest had commented in his homily that God is not the distant deist Watchmaker who wound up the universe and sent it on its way, and who remains aloof from it all.  No, that is not our God at all.  His immensity is such that the whole universe cannot contain Him, and yet his imminence is such that the whole universe does contain Him, for in Him we live and move and have our being.  Our God created the universe in His love and He sustains that universe and every creature at every moment by that same love.  He loves everything that He has made without exception.  Not a sparrow falls that He does not know it.

            Neither does a single snowflake fall that He does not know it.  Not only does He know it falls, He knows just where it falls.  He knows just how the wind will affect the particular atmosphere around which every individual snowflake falls and will guide it to its proper place on the earth. 

If I may venture an opinion, I think that He goes further than merely knowing these things.  I think the Divine Artist guides the snowflake from the beginning to the end.  He draws up just the right speck of dust into the air and guides it to the right cloud that He pushes to just the right height in the heavens and sends to the proper place in the sky.  He guides the frost crystals and weaves them around that speck of dust until it is perfectly balanced, intricately designed, and uniquely beautiful (If you’ve ever seen the book Snow Crystals by William Bentley, you know what I’m talking about).  He continues to move the cloud to just where He wants it and sends the flake forth, guiding the wind by His loving hand to place the snowflake precisely where He wants it, whether it be on top of a frozen blade of grass, a pile of deep snow, or an already burdened pine bough. 

            Now think about that same process being performed on about a hundred bazillion snowflakes at the same time covering miles and miles of earth.  More than that!  It is being done in numerous locations throughout the world while completely different weather phenomena are happening elsewhere that are no less guided by His love! 

            All this is so obviously beyond human capacity that it is hard even to contemplate.  I mean, if I had to place enough individual snowflakes to cover just one of those tree branches, it would take forever!  And He is doing it to a numberless multitude of trees at the same time in a matter of hours!  That’s not to say that He couldn’t do it instantly either, but for some beautifully patient reason He does His work slowly.  There are probably reasons beyond what I could imagine, but one that comes to mind is that He does it simply to prolong the beauty in hopes of catching our attention.  For it is not only the finished product that is beautiful, but the process itself is a wonder that thrills the soul.  And to think it all only lasts a few days at the most around here. 

            As we marveled at the magnificence of the snow around us, we turned our thoughts not only to the snow that covered the trees, but to the trees themselves.  I thought about maple sugaring and how wonderful that whole process is.  The tree must first die back into dormancy in the autumn.  The sap retreats into the roots of the tree for its winter rest.  As this is happening, the leaves cease to produce chlorophyll and they blaze with all manner of colors.  Then they fall from the tree and impart calcium and other minerals that the roots thrive on and thereby provide for their own soil requirements.  Then, for all the eye can see, nothing happens in that barren tree until buds begin to open in early spring.  But long before that, the sap begins to run.  God who fills all is there in intimate observance of the cellular structure of the inner tree and by His love He calls it back to life by drawing the sap up from the roots back through the trunk and into the limbs, scions, and branches until the life that human eyes can perceive finally begins. 

            But it is during this hidden wakening that we tap the trees and collect the sweet sap that we boil down into syrup and sugar.  There is such a narrow window for this.  You must have cold nights and warm days to get the sap to run well and the sap must be collected before the buds come on or the syrup will be bitter.  And none of this would happen if the tree didn’t first die in autumn so that it could rise again in spring. 

            Not only does our God know all this in His omniscience, He is present to it in His omnipresence.  Not only is He present to it, He effects it by His omnipotence.  Not only does He effect it, He effects it in love, for all is directed by His love, for He is love and He does nothing except by love.

            I am often in awe of the fact that God did not make everything in a purely utilitarian way (perhaps only a child of our epoch would even consider making anything in a purely utilitarian way).  The world could have been bare and ugly while still sustaining life.  But that would not be the work of our God.  He made everything marvelously useful and beautiful at the same time.  And some things, as far as I can tell, are just beautiful for no other reason than being beautiful.  Why that fleeting flourish of color at dawn and dusk?  Why the thousands upon thousands of fireflies shining in the fields and trees?  Why the brilliant display of foliage in autumn? 

            St. Bonaventure says well that God created all things “not to increase His glory, but to show it forth and to communicate it” (CCC 293).  The immense complexity, the interconnectedness of all creation, the marvelous attention to the smallest detail, the sheer overflowing beauty of the universe is an effusion of God Himself.  Every corner and every creature in the universe bears some vestige of His goodness.  It does not add to His glory, but flows forth from it.  What else would we expect from the God Who is love?

            But it serves another purpose since our fall.  It calls us back to Him Who is Beauty, Who is Love.  God did not allow the fall to strip the creation of its beauty, for He knew that for many it would be the strongest voice calling weary, sin-stricken souls back to Him.

           

“Question the beauty of the earth,

                        The beauty of the sea,

                        The beauty of the wide air around you,

                        The beauty of the sky;

            Question the order of the stars,

                        The sun whose brightness lights the day,

                        The moon whose splendor softens the gloom of night;

            Question the living creatures that move in the waters,

                        That roam upon the earth,

                        That fly through the air;

                        The spirit that lies hidden,

                        The matter that is manifest;

            The visible things that are ruled,

            The invisible things that rule them;

            Question all these.

                        They will answer you:

                        ‘Behold and see, we are beautiful.’

            Their beauty is their confession of God.

            Who made these beautiful changing things,

            If not One who is beautiful and changeth not?”

             

A Note on Prudence:

            In paragraph 1806 of the Catechism one will find the following:

“Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it; ‘the prudent man looks where he is going.’ (Prov. 14:15)  ‘Keep sane and sober for your prayers.’ (1 Pet. 4:7)  Prudence is ‘right reason in action,’ writes St. Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle.  It is not to be confused with timidity or fear, nor with duplicity or dissimulation.  It is called auriga virtutum (the charioteer of the virtues); it guides the other virtues by setting rule and measure.  It is prudence that immediately guides the judgment of conscience.  The prudent man determines and directs his conduct in accordance with this judgment.  With the help of this virtue we apply moral principles to particular cases without error and overcome doubts about the good to achieve and the evil to avoid.”

In a previous post I wrote about the use of prudence in making the decision to abandon wage-slavery so that one might have the freedom to care for the spiritual needs of his family as well as their material needs. 

The Catechism wonderfully points out that prudence is not to be confused with fear or timidity.  Cowardice is not prudence.  To let fear keep you in the bondage that keeps you from caring for your family as you ought is terribly imprudent, especially when considered in light of eternity.  Not only could your children and your spouse lose their souls because of your abnegation of your spousal and parental duties, you could lose your own soul for eternity for failing your duties.  Highly imprudent indeed.

However, rashness is also imprudent, and many families are not poised to make the jump out of wage-slavery right away.  Part of prudence is discerning the right means of achieving the good.  For a man whose family has $90,000 in school debt on top of a mortgage, a car loan, and credit card debt, it is highly imprudent to jump straight into yeomanry (i.e. the freedom of the small holder, craftsman, homesteader…).  He cannot expect to repay his debts from this kind of work and he is obligated to repay them.  Prudence, in choosing the right means for this man to get out of wage slavery must find a way to eliminate the debt justly.  This can mean any number of things, and it most certainly entails the virtues of patience and fortitude to achieve the good that he sees on the horizon and for which he is striving.

Likewise, a man who has no experience on the land and no skilled craft would be ridiculously imprudent to make the jump to yeomanry.  Prudence would mark out a path of apprenticeship in land or craft or both and would likewise demand patience and fortitude to achieve the good. 

I stand by my general assessment that our whole society is broken and is not functioning on a human scale.  It is not good for families or for individuals to be enslaved to debt, comfort, or a wage, or to be reduced to a “hand” in a factory or a cog in a machine.  But once that has happened, and it has, there is no quick fix.

In criticizing the “filthy, rotten system” I do not mean to encourage imprudent action that can quickly sink a family deeper in the mire.

I know a number of families who might be poised to make the imprudent decision of rashness.  They desperately want the freedom of the yeoman, but they either have a ton of debt or no skilled craft or experience on the land.  I pray for them, especially that they have the patience to continue the long road to freedom and to do what they can to get ready for the jump when the time comes. 

I also think that desperate times call for desperate measures and that the possibility of associations of debt-sharing and debt-alleviation might be true necessities if we are going to establish a just society where families can be what they are called by God to be.  While debt may have been incurred by the consent of a person, there are a lot of social pressures to take those debts on and many of us who went straight to college from high school had no real understanding of what debt meant when we signed away years of our lives to repaying tens of thousands of dollars so that we could have the “college experience.”  I think that Christian Charity calls for us to carry each other’s burdens if at all possible.  Our Lady of Ransom once called men to ransom Christian slaves and captives from the Muslims in the Holy Land.  Might she not be calling us now to ransom Christian slaves from a usurious system that has turned its back on the Gospel?

 However, I also know a number of families who are being sorely tempted to the imprudence of cowardice.  They have skills and experience.  They have land.  They have workspaces.  They have little or no debt.  And yet they are being told by so many “concerned” voices that they shouldn’t make this jump.  That they should continue working 50, 60, 70, or 80 hour workweeks so that they can fulfill their obligations to their families.  This is the voice of fear calling us to cling desperately to Mammon for our salvation.  This is the lie that says that working for a big corporation or being a member of union will provide our security.

Let me say this once and for all: THERE IS NO SECURITY OUTSIDE OF GOD’S HANDS.  I’ve known men with extremely “secure” jobs who lost them over night and were out of work for months.  I’ve known huge corporations who thought they could take over the world and who tanked overnight.  It is a materialist LIE FROM HELL that we will ever make our own security. 

Total abandonment to Divine Providence is the only security.  Seeking first the Kingdom is the only security.  Living so poorly that you haven’t far to fall when the economy collapses is the only security.  God alone is our provider.  God alone is our hope.  If He wills it, no obstacle can stop it. 

If you are without skills or experience or in heaps of debt or both and yet you feel a desperate longing for freedom, then pray to the Holy Spirit for prudence to show you the way to travel and for the fortitude to take that path.  And be patient on the way.  God does not need silver or gold.  He only needs souls to say, “Yes” without conditions.

If you have the skills and no debt and the only thing keeping you from the freedom that you need to truly fulfill your obligations to your family is fear for your own providence, then consider the lilies and the birds of the air and pray for the prudence you need to walk the right path which lies right at your feet.

Quid hoc ad aeternitatem? What is it worth in the light of eternity? – St. Bernard

Taking Christ at His Word

 

            Living in a disposition of radical trust in Divine Providence is not incompatible with family life.

            Jesus said, “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they? … Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore do not be anxious…”

            When He said this, He was speaking to each of us.  This was not exclusively directed at consecrated religious or priests.  This was directed at all of mankind.

            Jesus was saying that complete dependence on Divine Providence is normal to mankind, and especially to His followers. 

            Now, this dependence necessarily looks different for a family than for a convent, but that doesn’t change the fact that both are called to radical dependence on God. 

            By our very nature, we are dependent on His love for our existence.  We do not subsist in ourselves.  We need Him, not just for our next breath, not just for the next beat of our heart, but for our very being.  If He should cease to love us, we would not simply die, we would be annihilated – we would lose our existence. 

            It is a lie of the materialist heresy that we are dependent solely on ourselves, that we are in control, that we are God.  We are not.  We are not the Creator.  We are creatures dependent on our Creator.  To forget this is to lose the source of our peace and joy in this life. 

            Whether we want to acknowledge it or not we need Him.  And whether we believe it or not, He wants to take care of us.  He is a loving Father.  He wants His children to trust Him.  He wants them to thrive and flourish.  He wants them to be happy, to be at peace.  He wants them to be with Him forever.

            The dependence of a family on Divine Providence is necessarily different than a religious’ dependence – just like a hand’s dependence on the heart is different than the eye’s dependence on the heart.  But both are equally dependent.

            What troubles me is that families who want to radically give themselves to Christ (in a way befitting a family) are counseled under the guise of “prudence” not to go “too far.”  They are counseled to settle for wage-slavery – although, they call it “financial security.”  They are being told that mediocrity is the lot of family life.  If they wanted to be saints, they should have become priests or religious.

            I wonder what Our Lady and St. Joseph think about this “prudential” counsel?  I wonder what Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin think about this?  Or Sts. Isidore and Maria?  Or Sts. Adrian and Natalia or Sts. Timothy and Maura or any number of the multitude of married saints? 

            Mediocrity is not the lot of any Christian. 

            The problem is that, as a society, we tend to equate obscurity with mediocrity.  Most families are called to obscurity.  But that has nothing at all to do with mediocrity.  The Holy Family lived in obscurity.  Jesus Himself spent 30 years in obscurity.  St. Anthony, St. Mary of Egypt, and all the desert fathers and mothers, and all the hermits and cloistered religious who followed their examples did not settle for obscurity, they sought it out.  And nobody would call any of them mediocre.

            In telling families to pursue holiness, to pursue greatness, we are not telling them to pursue notoriety or fame.  That is what the world, the flesh and the devil tell them to pursue.  We say that pursuing holiness means pursuing obscurity.  If God calls us out of obscurity then we must obey, but even so, we must learn to love the hidden life. 

            To choose wage-slavery which strips a man of his ability to be present to his family because he wants a “secure” paycheck is settling for mediocrity.  Especially if this man sees his family suffering in his absence and still is unwilling to make the jump of trust in Divine Providence that would allow him to structure his life so that he is with his family, he is being cowardly not prudent.  It is never prudent to be a heretic.  Materialism says that the needs of the body are of the highest importance.  Choosing to bring in a paycheck to provide for their needs (and their superfluous desires) and neglecting their emotional, relational, and spiritual needs for a father (or a mother) is to embrace materialism and all its ill effects. 

            I am not saying that prudence is not essential – it most certainly is, especially in the decision to go completely against the current and free oneself from wage-slavery in order to be present to one’s family – but prudence is not cowardice.

            The Catechism defines Prudence thus: “The virtue which disposes a person to discern the good and choose the correct means to accomplish it.”  The exercise of prudence leads us to the conclusion that, because the spiritual good of our family is of higher importance than their material good, we must not allow the material welfare of our family to become an obstacle to their spiritual welfare. 

Work is ordered to the good of the family.  The family is not to be sacrificed to Mammon on the altar of work, even under the guise of “doing our duty” to provide for the family.  Our duty is to assist each member of our family on his or her path to heaven.  Yes, we are humans and we need material sustenance, but that does not change the fact that we are made for eternity and what a failure it would be to feed and clothe the body that will turn to dust and to completely neglect the soul which is eternal. 

I do not mean to imply that we ought not work for the material welfare of our family.  St. Paul wrote, “If any one does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his own family, he has disowned the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”  Of course we must take up our legitimate responsibility of providing for the material needs of our families.  And we must work incredibly hard to do that.  BUT not to the detriment of providing for them spiritually. 

Hard work is required to provide for a family, but that work does not have to take a man or a woman away from home for hours upon hours every week.  In fact, it doesn’t need to take them away from home hardly at all.  For most of human history, work was done by both parents at home by the vast majority.  That meant that work time was not separate from family time.  That meant that work was not separate from education.  That meant that providing for the body was not a detriment to the soul, because in watching their parents work and in working alongside them, children learned the Christian virtues that can only be learned through apprenticeship – through discipleship to those to whom they were entrusted by God. 

Look to Nazareth

            A friend and I were talking on the playground after Mass the other day.  During the conversation I was struck with the thought that one of the reasons that Jesus came into a family was because He knew that the day would come when the family was in a desperate crisis and we would need an example that is undeniably Divine.

            In the hidden life of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in Nazareth, we have been given a model to follow if our families are to find peace. 

Theirs was a simple, quiet life.  They did not know the addiction of entertainment or of noise to distract them from their own emptiness.  They were not empty.  And yet, neither were they grand in the eyes of the world.  They did not believe the lie that a person must achieve fame or power or notoriety to have a meaningful or “successful” life.  In their simple ways of living, in the work of their hands, the sweat of their brows, and the love in their hearts all directed toward the good of each other, they found fulfillment and peace.

They were poor.  And yet, even this did not shake their peace for they did not believe the lie that happiness only comes with money.  They not only bore their poverty, they loved their poverty because they saw how pleasing it was to God and how much freedom it gave them to do what was right.  They embraced the teaching of Our Lord before He taught it in time – “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” 

They worked hard.  And yet, even the bone weariness at the end of a long day of working wood, or wool, or weeding did not take away from their peace.  They loved their work.  It was not easy, but it was human, dignified work that brings with it the reward not only of providing money for the family but also of the satisfaction of something beautiful resulting from the work of one’s hands.  They did not believe the lie that a life of undisturbed leisure and uninterrupted idleness is the only way to happiness.  They knew the goodness of work and they embraced it.

There are a thousand more virtues I could extol about the Holy Family of Nazareth and maybe over the course of time I will.  But allow me to extol one more and I will be done.

The Holy Family of Nazareth spent their life together.  Joseph’s shop was quite literally attached to the house, opposite Mary’s kitchen.  His commute was through the door.  Mary and the child Jesus could see him toiling for them.  They could see the sweat dripping from his face and arms.  They could see the care with which he shaped his wood.  They saw him pouring himself out for them. 

Mary cooked and cleaned and spun and wove right there at home.  And by her thrift and her labor and the skilled work of her hands she did her share to care for and provide for the family and for the poor in their midst.  Joseph could see her pouring out herself for him and for Jesus.  He saw the care that she took in preparing the meals, in keeping the house just so.  He saw her carrying water from the well and weeding the garden.  He saw her skillfully carding the wool and spinning it and weaving it. 

And Jesus.  He saw both of His parents spending themselves for love of Him.  He could have become a rabbi.  But that would have meant leaving home.  Becoming a disciple of a rabbi would have been the end of his regular contact with Mary and Joseph.  Instead, the Eternal Son of God chose to remain with His family.  He chose Joseph and Mary to be His teachers.  He chose to apprentice His foster-father and become a master carpenter. 

By casting off the lies that fill so many minds and hearts today, the Holy Family had the freedom to be a family.  In turning their back on notoriety, noise, riches, and idleness they gained the freedom to be together.  Jesus was not out with His friends all the time.  He was not always at school or soccer or harp lessons or any other extra-curricular – He was home with His Mother and father. 

And this lack of a “social life” did not stunt His growth.  The Scriptures say that, “the Child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom and the favor of God was upon Him” and a little later that, “Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man.”  He flourished under the loving care of His parents.  They knew what was best for Him and He obeyed them.  Desiring wisdom, the Incarnate Wisdom sat at the feet of a “lowly handmaid” and a carpenter. 

The lies that this Family rejected are ripping our modern families to shreds.  How long will we listen to that voice, issuing from the pits of hell, that convinces us that we will find our happiness in fame, in distractions, in pleasure, in riches, in flurried activity?  How long will we listen to the lies that say that we are robbing our children of their childhood by keeping them from a thousand activities that surround them with opportunities to lose their innocence?  How long will we let the lie that frenetic activity brings happiness fill their ears and ours?  How long will we let those lies tell us that a bigger house, a nicer car, or a bigger paycheck is worth abandoning our families for 50, 60, 70 hours a week? 

There is very little reason that you should listen to a fool like me.  I’m not asking you to listen to me.  I’m asking you to listen to them.  Close your ears to the lies.  Turn off the television, the movies, the radio, the computer, throw away the magazines and the newspapers and the child psychology books that fill your home and your hearts with lies. 

If you would find peace and true happiness that lasts for eternity for you and for your loved ones, then turn away from the lies and look to Nazareth.

At the Heart of Thornhaven Farm (written Holy Saturday 2016)

            On this Holy Saturday morning, when our dear Lord keeps the Sabbath in the tomb, one cannot help but see this whole world as passing away.  In the light of these high holy days which re-present the mysteries of our Faith in time, in which we see the terrible reality of the cost of our sins and the unfathomable depths of Divine Love, one cannot help but feel that nothing else really matters.  We have seen Divine Love stretched out on the Wood of the Cross and shed every drop of His Precious Blood for love of us, to save us.  We have seen Him laid in the tomb, where He now takes His rest in death.  We eagerly await His rising at the Vigil this evening when death will finally be trampled under His holy feet and hope will spring forth like the seedlings in spring.

            All this makes me look at our farm in a different light and ask the question, “Why are we doing all this?”  In the light of the events of the Triduum, I must confess that part of me asks whether or not we ought to forget about the farm and fill the street corners with our preaching of the Divine Love of Jesus.  The Triduum makes the farm seem like such an inconsequential thing. 

            And frankly, it can be, if it is done out of the wrong motive.  I am reminded again of what Fr. McNabb wrote, “Leave the garden cities and the fleshpots, not in order to scorn suburbia or to lead a simple life, but to worship God.”   The right worship of God is the only reason to head to the land.

            If we are doing this simply out of a desire for peace and quiet, it’s worthless.  Don’t get me wrong, peace and quiet are nice, but they cannot be the end of this venture.  If we are doing this simply out of a desire for stability, it’s worthless.  Again, I am a huge proponent of the stability the agrarian life offers a society as opposed to the fickleness of the market economy, but that stability cannot be the end.  If we are doing this simply as a way of being “set up” for the fallout when our society collapses, it’s worthless.  Again, I think a sustainable farm would be much better able to weather such a collapse, but this cannot, it must not be the end.  The only real preparation for a societal collapse or apocalypse is holiness.  Our preparation does not consist in filling bunkers with food.  It consists in Holy Communion and Holy Confession as often as possible – it is preparation for martyrdom primarily, and we prepare for martyrdom by entering the cleansing waters of the Confessional, receiving the Strength of Martyrs Himself in Holy Communion, and learning to abandon ourselves entirely to His will.  All the temporal preparation is worthless if our souls are not prepared to meet the God Who made them.

            Why, then, are we doing all this?  Love.  Divine Charity can be the only motive.  That is why our farm got the name “Thornhaven” so long ago.  It is because our security, our joy, our peace, our happiness, our lives do not depend on the farm, they depend on the thornhaven of the Sacred, Burning Heart of Jesus.  It is for love of Him that we do what we do.  This is the only motive that will sustain us, for it is He alone who sustains us by His love.  It must be for love of Jesus that I get up in the morning long before dawn to begin my day.  It must be for love of Jesus that I milk the goats.  It must be for love of Jesus that I slop the pigs.  It must be for love of Jesus that I clean the chicken coop.  It must be for love of Jesus that I cut the hay.  Without this as the motive of all that I do, nothing I do will have any value… it will all be worthless. 

            If it is not a return for the Love He has shown me at the Last Supper, on the Cross, in the Tomb, or in His Rising, then it is completely meaningless, and it would be better for me to give it all up. 

            If it is not because of the freedom it allows me to make my life a life of prayer and to center the life of my family on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, where we stand at the foot of Calvary every single day and receive the Fruit of that Tree of Life so that we might have the strength we need to love Him in return for His love for us, then there is no reason for us to be here.  Without love, a man’s life is but dust.  Without Divine Love, he has nothing to offer anyone, even those he loves the most.

            If our hope is not in Him, if our lives are not anchored in that Thornhaven, then they will be a frenetic mess.  They will be void of all peace, order, joy, and love.  If our pride and vanity make us swell up too much to fit through that Narrow Gate of a lance wound to enter the New Garden of His Heart, then we will have failed miserably.

            All our work must be done from within that Heart.  It is, after all, a Human Heart, drawn from the dust of the earth like all the rest of humanity, and yet it can contain all the dust of the earth within it, for it is also the Heart of God.  We must cast all that we love and all that we are into that Furnace of Charity, that all may be transformed and renewed by His Burning Love.  It is not until we have cast our farm into this Heart that we can know how to see it properly, to work it properly, to love it properly, as He loves it.  And He does love this farm, because everything that He made by His love is also sustained by His love.

            O my Jesus, deliver us from the folly of farming for any other reason than that of loving You and spreading love for You to every soul we meet.  Deliver us from loving the earth with any other love than Your love for the earth.  Let us never forget that we are here, on the land, to worship You, not to worship the earth or ourselves.  Everything we do here must be done for love of You.  Everything must be done from within Your Sacred, Burning Heart.  We humbly ask that you take us and hide us in the Thornhaven of Your Heart, where we can love and be loved, where we can see rightly, where we can find the Source of our strength, where we can be safe from the enemy and sin which long to corrupt us and draw us out of the Garden as our first parents were drawn.  Teach us to gather in the praises of all Your creatures here on this farm and bring them to the foot of the Cross that their praises and our constant chorus of love might drown out the blasphemies, mockeries, and putrid hate that fill Your ears in Your great act of Love. 

            O Mary, let our song and the song of all creation pass through your Immaculate Heart, that all dissonance may be turned into beautiful harmony for your Son Who has so loved the world and has been so little loved in return.  Remind us with every glance to the blue sky over our heads, that to be under your mantle is to be in His Heart.  Keep us always under your mantle and direct us always with your motherly hands to do all for love of Him.  Help us, by our little way of love, to build up a society where He is better known and loved, where His Love may flourish in every heart and spill over to the earth who is groaning, eagerly awaiting the unveiling of the sons of God, that all creation’s praise might rise more beautifully to His ears.

            Jesus, Mary, I love you, save souls. 

Why We Make Toys

 

            Play is a formative part of a child’s life.  It both directs and is directed by his interests. 

            There is an opinion out there that a child’s play should be exclusively self-directed and that everything, even the education of the child, should be formed around his or her interests.  While there may be some merit to this perspective, we have found from our experience, that our children often find themselves drawn – if left to themselves – to horribly cheesy books and toys that have no virtue of themselves but are attractive primarily due to flashy colors, obnoxious noises and ridiculous characters.

            Frankly, I regard Satan as the author of this unexplainable leaning toward the ugly, artificial, and mass-produced in many children (I’ve seen it in more children than just my own).  Beauty comes from the hand of God and is intrinsically linked to the truth, and it only makes sense that the father of lies would try to tempt people away from it.

            Maybe there was a time when parents could be completely “hands-off” and let their children’s play be self-directed…you know, like back when kids played with rocks and sticks, but we strongly believe that now is NOT that time.  The world is trying to get hold of our children early.  Flashy commercials and cartoons draw them in and whisper in their ear that they will be happier if they have this and this and this.  They instill in them the mindset that happiness can be purchased.  They lie to our children as they promise that material goods will satisfy their longing hearts.

            This is why we make the toys that we do – primarily for our own children.  I don’t want their heroes to be factory-made commercial figures out of the mind of some Japanese animator.  I want their heroes to be the unique masterpieces of God Himself as He wrought holiness by His grace in the souls of His Saints. 

             I don’t want my children to be lured by artificial, flashy colors and surrounded by synthetic plastics.  I want them to learn to love the colors and materials of the earth that came from the hand of God.  These toys are simple, wooden toys, handmade with love by caring parents – not plastic toys made in factories across the world that are designed by multi-million dollar corporations and made by abused women and children.

            The time is long past for status-quo parenting – for going with the flow.  It is time to swim upstream, to struggle against the current and work to protect our children from the clutching grasp of a commercial system that seeks to instill the deadly sins in them in order to make a profit. 

            If we and our handmade toys can be of service to you in this, we would be honored to help you.  Please let us know if you are interested in any of the toys that we have made or if you have something in mind that we might be able to make.

            We intentionally restrict our toy-making to simple, holy toys that revolve around the lives of the Saints and direct children’s imaginations to sanctity and simplicity.  We have found that storylines are particularly helpful as children play.  For instance, we have the cottage and barn of St. Isidore and St. Maria with which our sons can act out the beautiful stories of Isidore bringing home beggars for dinner, or of Isidore’s feeding the birds, or of Isidore’s plowing the field with angelic help.  With the church, they can enact Isidore and Maria’s daily attendance at Mass before work.

            These same sets can be used of many other saints as well.  It is a beautiful way to involve the whole family in the holy play of the children.  They need their parents to tell them the stories of the saints that can form the way they play and the way they grow.

            If we are going to raise saints, then let our children be surrounded by the Saints even as they play.  Because it is infinitely better to play “Mass” or “St. Francis” than it is to play “Pokemon.”

            I can tell you from the personal experience of my own childhood and from six years of parenting: If a child’s imagination is formed by video games, he will become dissatisfied with reality; if a child’s imagination is formed by the lives of the Saints, he will become dissatisfied with mediocrity.

            In His Heart,

                        Wes

            Sanctafamiliaapostolate@gmail.com

     

p.s. Unfortunately, we don’t make the horses that you see in the picture.  Someday I would like to get to whittling the animals for the children to play with, but I have not been able to do any of that yet.

The Hard Way: Brothers and Sisters of Reparation

            The question has often been asked of us, “Why do you do that?”  This question is asked primarily about our frequently choosing the “hard way” to do things.  Why do I cut hay with a scythe instead of a tractor?  Why do I cut down trees with an ax instead of using a chainsaw?  Why do I milk goats instead of just buying milk from the store?

            The answers to these questions and those like them are fourfold.

            First, we are poor.  I hate saying that, because I don’t feel like we’re poor – we just don’t have any money.  We have an abundance of nourishing goat milk at nearly all times in the fridge.  Occasionally we have other dairy confections in the fridge as well – yogurt, cheese, ice cream.  We have an abundance of eggs from our chickens.  We have fresh berries both wild and cultivated.  We have fresh orchard fruit on the way in a couple of years.  We have a big garden full of nutritious vegetables.  We have a warm and relatively dry house (although she needs a new roof). 

            Beyond this, we are immeasurably rich in immaterial goods.  Our family is healthy and loving.  Our boys are flourishing and our oldest is getting ready to make his first confession.  We have our fourth on the way and everything is going very well so far with the pregnancy.  We live next to and are friends with awesome Sisters.  And most importantly, we are profoundly blessed that we get to go to Eucharistic Adoration and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass every single day.  With this kind of wealth, we don’t consider ourselves poor.

            The fact remains, however, that we have very little money.  Jesus always gets us just enough to pay the bills, but rarely is there much left for extra expenditures.   

            For example, tractor implements cost way more money than we could ever afford to spend even if we wanted them (and we don’t).  My scythe and all the tools necessary to keep it in working condition cost under $300.  A scythe is pretty simple.  It has three parts, and sharpening the blade is the only regular maintenance required. 

            So, reason number one for why we do things the hard way is “Holy Simplicity” (which is our mitigated form of the Sisters’ Holy Poverty).  We are trying to live the poverty of Nazareth.  We don’t renounce all possessions as religious do, but we are trying to live simply so as not to be distracted from our love of God by love of money or comfort or distracting technology or things like that.

            Along with holy simplicity goes holy silence, both for us and for the Sisters.  The scythe is much quieter and less distracting to prayer than the tractor, which can be heard all across the property.

 

            Second, the hard way is usually much more in line with the Church’s teaching on subsidiarity – briefly, that production and consumption should be coterminus as far as possible - and therefore independence.  I can repair my scythe by myself (within reason) and I don’t need a bunch of factory made parts from who-knows-where to repair it.  And it would certainly be easier for a local blacksmith to make a scythe blade than any of the complex pieces required for modern farm machinery.

            And furthermore, regardless of how affordable (or unaffordable) government subsidies make gasoline, there is no way I could ever produce that on my own.  The scythe, the ax, and the bucksaw do not need an oil-refinery to function properly.

            The more we can do locally, smaller, or for ourselves, the better according to Church teaching and natural law… and common sense, which Chesterton rightly said, is the least common sense of all.

            Third, I want to spend as little time in Purgatory as possible.  I am a sinner who needs a LOT of penance and the “hard way” affords me many more opportunities to embrace this remedial penance.

            Fourth, and most important, the Sacred Eucharistic Heart of Jesus is so wounded by the sacrilege, indifference, and offense it receives from men.  The suffering caused by the “hard way” can be offered as a gift to console the Heart of Jesus, to show Him our love.  This reparation can also work for the salvation of the souls of those sinners who are so grievously wounding that Sacred Heart. 

           Our Lord told St Margaret Mary that He suffers more from the indifference and irreverence shown Him in the Blessed Sacrament than anything He suffered in the Passion. 

            Saint Francis of Assisi addressed his Third Order as the “Brothers and Sisters of Penance.

            It is my desire that we Lay Missionaries of the Children of Mary may be worthy of the title, “Brothers and Sisters of Reparation.”

            May many more souls join us on the “hard way” of penance and reparation.  Let us drown out the blasphemous noise rising all round our Eucharistic Lord with the chorus of our love for Him.  On the “hard way” we have chosen, that narrow way that leads to the Cross, let our song resound: “Jesus, Mary, I love you, save souls!” 

In His Heart,

Wes