Tuesday, September 7, 2021

5 Principles That Helped Me in Turning Towards Catholic Tradition

(Re-post)

Turning towards Catholic Tradition.  This is the phrase I usually use when I relate to someone that phase in my spiritual journey as a Catholic in which I turned away from the Regime of Novelty that dominates the Novus Ordo form of the Roman rite, towards the Traditional form of the Roman rite.  AKA the Traditional Latin Mass, or Tridentine Latin Mass.  


But in reality it was a kind of conversion, akin to being an orthodox Catholic surrounded/ influenced by heterodox practices of semi-Arian bishops (if not full throttle Arian bishops) in the 4th century, during the Arian crisis, turning explicitly to Catholic Tradition as handed down clearly by bishops like St. Athanasius.  



Some Principles that Helped My Conversion to Catholic Tradition:

1. Treating Catholic Tradition as a wellspring of spiritual faith to be discovered, more than an intellectual philosophy.   I've been guilty like any other trad in over-intellectualizing the Faith, but the gifts of reason bear fruit only when kept subordinate to the virtue of faith.  One man might treat the traditional Faith as a mere intellectual accomplishment, touting a library of Thomistic books, while actually having a weak faith.  The founder and moderator of Fish Eaters forum cautions against this HERE

2. Treating the Traditional Latin Mass as the doctrinally sound form of the Roman Mass (the true Mass).  Beauty being founded upon Truth, the Truth must be the foundation of turning toward the traditional Mass.  Cardinal Ottaviani, as head of the Holy Office, explained it best HERE.

3.  Treating Conversion to Tradition as a gradual process.  On one hand, once you understand that the Novus Ordo is--not good--and that Vatican II took us down--a bad path, you make an immediate decision to embrace Tradition and not look back.  On the other hand, it is a slow learning process to understand not only the complexities of subjects like the "New Mass" or the doctrinal problems of the Council, but even more all the customs, devotions, and lower level doctrines left out of even the best of RCIA programs.  Turning to Tradition is more like stepping outside of rapid, chaotic waters, like in a river torrent, and instead moving along gracefully in deep, still waters.



Still Waters Run Deep

4.  Turning steadily towards something more stable, perennial, and sublime, rather than a superficial radicalized kind of reaction against the errors of our time.   The Catholic considering turning towards Tradition has a choice which path they will go down.  They can seek something more sober and maturing, in the doctrines and traditions of the Faith, or something more opinionated and angry, that has little to do with traditional Catholicism.

5.  Thinking with the traditional "Mind of the Church," vs. merely creating a trad ideology.  The Society chaplain in Tulsa (when the Society was in Tulsa), taught several months of adult catechism classes about this topic after Mass.  It was revealing to me how he exposed a litany of traditionalist opinions, some perhaps true and others perhaps false, that some trads mistake for actual Magisterial teaching.  I've seen this play out in trad discussions, especially online, where opinions are forced with dogmatic certainty.  We have Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, but also the Magisterium that ultimately tells us how to understand divinely revealed Truths, what must be believed.

God knows I have not always followed these ideas or principles, but I try.  I hope these points help you and yours.  It took me years--after I started going to the TLM--to acclimate to Catholic Tradition.  And I am still pondering it, and trying to put it into better practice, day by day.