1.  First, a few preliminary items before we go to the Mailbag.  Apologies for the deplorable lack of posts.  I have no excuse.  This occurred to me the other day:  scientists guesstimate that there have been something like 110 billion human beings in total throughout history.  There are approximately 7.5 billion human beings alive right now.  This means that approximately seven percent of all of the human souls that have ever existed up to this point are alive right now, and thus their salvation remains an open question.

Something like 3% of the souls who have ever lived have access to this website, and Google Translate gets better every day.

This level of potentiality, and thus the responsibility to not only act, but act rightly, has never before been bestowed on any generation.

And that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, (as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but much more now in my absence,) with fear and trembling work out your salvation. For it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to accomplish, according to His good will.  Philippians 2: 11-13

Fear and trembling, indeed.  God help us.

2.  Thanks once again for the munificent support, both in terms of those proxy units of human life called “dollars”, as well as the prayers and general encouragement.  Work at the place where I clean all the things continues apace.  Floors to be swept and mopped, toilets to be scrubbed, surfaces to be dusted, trashcans to be emptied.  I got a raise last month, but am still working for well-below minimum wage, paid in cash under-the-table.  And I am grateful to get it, and grateful to have something concrete to do.  A co-worker (who has no clue who I am) is sadly a typical product of post-modern culture, seeking to get as much money for as little work as possible, complaining about every task (a function of effemininacy), and is completely dumbfounded when I firmly state that I LIKE TO WORK.  In fact, such an attitude is taken almost as a betrayal – a failure in “solidarity” on my part.  “You’re working too fast…”  It is fascinating to personally experience these dynamics again after so many years.  I have also been trying to subtly “coach”, or at least offer tips to one of the managers, who has not been in a leadership position before, namely that a good leader must be able to discern when to “ask” and when to “tell”.  Asking is a courtesy, and courtesy is a strength, but if a directive is not followed after the courtesy “asking”, a strong leader must IMMEDIATELY assert himself and TELL the employee what he must do.  Weakness under the guise of courtesy (again, an effeminate dynamic) is no virtue, and leads only to chaos and disfunction.  I’m sure we’ve all been in workplace environments in which the least-qualified underlings were running the show due to impotent, supine leadership.  But, it is largely solitary work for me.  And tremendously gratifying.

3.  I’m delighted to see that a corps of people are using my Rosary Against Modernism recording every day.  Someone told me the other day that getting people to pray the Rosary is the best thing I’ve done here.  Perhaps.  We’ll find out at the General Judgment, I reckon.

4.  Just a little teaser: there is a conspiracy afoot to start a weekly Podcast that I would be a panelist on with some other notable names from the innerwebz.  I hope it comes to fruition.

5.  Let’s go to the mailbag.  First…

Hi Ann,

I want you to know that because of your clear, logical, reasoned teaching about our Faith and why Catholicism believes what it does, I have, over the past two months:

–gone to confession twice, after 13 years away from it (having committed many, many grave sins over that time!)
–begun attending Tridentine Latin Mass (TLM) regularly
–purchased the St. Edmund Campion Missal
–purchased the Douay Rheims Bible
–realized just what a miracle and privilege it is to attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (this, after having been raised Catholic!!)
–tried not to judge Novus Ordo Masses or its attendees as akin to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey. (Because I too still occasionally attend Novus Ordo, out of scheduling necessities)
–said the St. Joseph novena with you
–gone out to dinner recently on a wonderful blind date with a great guy, whom I would not have met, if I hadn’t begun attending TLM and making friends at the conservative parish where I now often go!

Your education has served me better in my faith in about three months, than years of Catholic schooling did, over the course of 16 years.

I am the same age as you; born in 1976, and feel a tremendous kinship with you, even though I realize we don’t know each other!
Believe me when I tell you, we are quite similar. Even before I discovered your blog (via Gates of Vienna), I was one of those “crazy, outspoken conspiracy theorists who liked firearms.”

So: hang in there. You are doing God’s work, and don’t ever forget it. Remember that you are touching lives and saving souls (like mine, and that also means the lives / faith that I touch, because of you) that you will never, ever know about. So take heart. Even during the seemingly dark times and wondering “is anyone listening?”, know that we are, even if you don’t see it. I pray for you regularly.

A

6.  And now, the letter from the JOOOOOOOOO.  No word on whether this fellow is one of the “shape-shifting lizard” variety of JOOOOO.  It’s so hard to tell, you know. </sarcasm>

My next post will be a commentary/expansion on this letter.  See if you can anticipate where I am going to go with this, and what points need to be addressed.  I promise, it will be interesting and timely.  And no punches will be pulled, as always.

Dear Ann:

Audeo scribere, I dare to write you, having watched several of your videos on youtube, read through your website, as well as through references to you on facebook and across the internet.

I’m a Jew in various stages of cultural and religious alienation from my community. I’ve been attracted to Catholicism since I was a teen, have been studying Latin for the explicit purpose of “being at home” with the Tridentine Mass, the writings of the Church Fathers, and generally imbibing the spirit of the Church. My plans to pick up Koine have not been as successful, mainly for lack of time, and I plan to pursue these in the near future. For two reasons, I have not taken the final and formal step of being baptized. The first, and probably the gravest is that I am married to a Jewish woman I love dearly, and having felt my way a bit in this direction, I realize that this will break her heart, and I cannot bring myself to do this to her. The second is the whiff of antisemitism I get from so many Christians, and which I find so difficult to ignore.

So the first reason I am writing you is to tell you that I’d listened carefully to your Boston Speech videos on youtube, and that even though your views on antisemitism in Christianity were not news to me, this was the first time I’d heard these stated as clearly and as unequivocally by a Catholic. Your words were balm to my heart, and I cannot thank you enough for having said them, and for so many different reasons:

① Antisemitic views are particularly prevalent in the Traditional Catholic camp.

② Antisemitic views are often intermixed with a particularly nasty brand of supersessionism, and with Holocaust revisionism.

③ Antisemitism, like any other form of bigotry and racism, is simply put, unchristian, as I understand Christianity, which is, by definition, universal. I could go on at this point, but I don’t want to tire you.

I too say the Rosary in Latin, and in general, I find the Rosary the most comforting prayer. I use the traditional schedule of the mysteries, and have not added the Luminous Mysteries introduced by the Late John Paul II. He seemed like a wonderful and kind Pope, and he certainly had a kind disposition towards the Jews, but I like the original schedule of the mysteries.

We live and work in {location redacted}. There is a local Catholic Church in {location redacted}, but the Priest with whom I was in touch has been reassigned, and the current one is, well, not all that religious, if you can believe that. So I would love to be in touch with a Traditional Catholic. If you have any thoughts you would care to share with me on the Rosary, on Catholicism, on the place of Latin in the Church, etc. I would be grateful to you.

Thank you, and as you guys like to say, God Bless!

M