Feast of Saint Ronald

 

So for Christmas last year I made Saint badges for many of my family. I didn't know what to do for my Dad, as he only has Ronald for his name, there isn't a Saint Ronald is there? 

St. Ronald was born in Agdir Norway in 1100 AD. He was a talented and venturesome son of wealthy parents. As a young boy, his parents sent him to visit the Orkney Island in Northern Scotland. He was appointed Earl of the Orkney and Shetland Islands by King Sigurd I of Norway in 1129. St. Ronald had many close calls to losing his life including a pilgrimage to the Holy Land during the Crusades. In gratitude for his life being spared, he built the Cathedral of St. Magnus in Kirkwall, Scotland. He was martyred in 1158 AD by a group of warriors rebelling against him, his rule and his religion and was buried at the Cathedral he had built. In 1192, Pope Celestine III moved St. Ronald's remains to Rome after St. Ronald's canonization. His feast day is August 20th. Two of the Orkney Islands are named after him, namely North Ronaldsay and South Ronaldsay.

So I made a badge for my Dad and the same one for myself, it's my middle name and will wear it today.

[ I sell some other badges here;
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?sid=stuartmcc1927 ]

Bishop to Preach on the Hundredth Anniversary of GK Chesterton's Conversion

Watch this very special announcement at the 11th Annual GK Chesterton Pilgrimage. Please Share. For next year's Pilgrimage details see; https://www.facebook.com/events/365152871733972/

In a letter from Bishop David Oakley, the new Bishop of Northampton, his Lordship said, “Please be assured of my support for the important work that you are engaged in. It is good that the [Catholic GK Chesterton] Society is promoting the work of this important contributor to Catholic thinking in the twentieth century. And of course, that you are engaged in the promotion of Chesterton’s Cause. Please know of my prayers for the Society and all you are doing at this time.

The date of Saturday, 30^th July 2022 is now firmly in the diary here, and I would be delighted to preach at the Mass.”

For details of the Pilgrimage and for copies of the GK Chesterton Prayer see; Home (catholicgkchestertonsociety.co.uk)

Saturday 30th July 2022 will be the 100th Anniversary of the Conversion of GK Chesterton. The location was, "the Railway Hotel in Beaconsfield, the dance-room of which had been converted into a makeshift chapel in the absence of any Catholic church in the town. In truth it was little more than a shed with a corrugated-iron roof and wooden walls, fitted with chapel fixtures by Sir Philip Rose and made available by the hotel's Irish landlady, Mrs Borlase. However, if Father Rice had failed to persuade Chesterton to be received in more luxurious surroundings [Douai Abbey School where Father was headmaster], he was compensated amply when Gilbert requested that he be present with Father O'Connor at his reception on Sunday, 30th July. The two Priests breakfasted together at the inn at which Father O'Connor was staying before walking together to Top Meadow [GKC's house]. According to Father Rice, they found Gilbert in an armchair reading the catechism, 'pulling faces and making noises as he used to do when reading'. Greeting his two friends, he got up and stuffed the catechism in his pocket. At lunch he drank water and poured wine for everyone else, and at about three o'clock they set out for the church. While Gilbert was making his Confession to Father O'Connor, Frances [GK's Wife], who was weeping continually, was comforted by Father Rice."

From Wisdom and Innocence, A Life of GK Chesterton by Joseph Pearce.

 

"By the Babe Unborn" by G.K. Chesterton

               

                 If trees were tall and grasses short,

                  As in some crazy tale,

                If here and there a sea were blue

                  Beyond the breaking pale,

               

                If a fixed fire hung in the air

                  To warm me one day through,

                If deep green hair grew on great hills,

                  I know what I should do.

               

                In dark I lie; dreaming that there

                  Are great eyes cold or kind,

                And twisted streets and silent doors,

                  And living men behind.

               

                Let storm clouds come: better an hour,

                  And leave to weep and fight,

                Than all the ages I have ruled

                  The empires of the night.

               

                I think that if they gave me leave

                  Within the world to stand,

                I would be good through all the day

                  I spent in fairyland.

               

                They should not hear a word from me

                  Of selfishness or scorn,

                If only I could find the door,

                  If only I were born.

Today is the 53rd Anniversary of the passing of the Abortion Act in the UK, since then over nine million babies have lost they lives as a result of this. Please support The Good Counsel Network. You could also buy some Pro-Life, Chesterton and other badges here.

GK Chesterton on Nietzsche on Nietzsche's Birthday

"Other vague modern people take refuge in material metaphors; in fact, this is the chief mark of vague modern people. Not daring to define their doctrine of what is good, they use physical figures of speech without stint or shame, and , what is worst of all, seem to think these cheap analogies are exquisitely spiritual and superior to the old morality. Thus they think it intellectual to talk about things being 'high.' It is at least the reverse of intellectual; it is a mere phrase from a steeple or a weathercock. 'Tommy was a good boy' is a pure philosophical statement, worthy of Plato or Aquinas. 'Tommy lived the higher life' is a gross metaphor from a ten-foot rule.

This, incidentally, is almost the whole weakness of Nietzsche, whom some are representing as a bold and strong thinker. No one will deny that he was a poetical and suggestive thinker; but he was quite the reverse of strong. He was not at all bold. He never put his own meaning before himself in bald abstract words: as did Aristotle and Calvin, and even Karl Marx, the hard, fearless men of thought. Nietzsche always escaped a question by a physical metaphor, like a cheery minor port. He said, 'beyond good and evil,' because he had not the courage to say, 'more good than good and evil,' or, 'more evil than good and evil.' Had he faced his thought without metaphors, he would have seen that it was nonsense. So, when he describes his hero, he does not dare to say, 'the purer man,' or 'the happier man,' or 'the sadder man,' for all these are ideas; and ideas are alarming. He says 'the upper man.' or 'over man,' a physical metaphor from acrobats or alpine climbers. Nietzsche is truly a very timid thinker. He does not really know in the least what sort of man he wants evolution to produce" -- G.K. Chesterton, "Orthodoxy", Chapter 7

Both of the 1 inch [2.5cm] button badges above, are available here; https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?sid=stuartmcc1927 

Happy Birthday Mahatma Gandhi, Pro-Lifer inspired by GK Chesterton!

"Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on this day in 1869 and was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist, who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule, and in turn inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world." Or so the internet says.

I only know that he was inspired by an article written by GK Chesterton, see Father Ian Ker's biography for details [see last post]. So wear Chesterton and Gandhi badges to inspire others. 

Without Chesterton Would You Have Heard of Gandhi?

“In his Illustrated London News column of 2 October 1909, Chesterton addressed the question of Indian nationalism. “The test of a democracy is not whether the people vote,’ he argued, ‘but whether the people rule. The essence of a democracy is that the national tone and spirit of the typical citizen is apparent and striking in the actions of the state.’ And he thought that the principal weakness’ of Indian nationalists seeking independence was that their nationalism was not very Indian and not very national’. There is a difference between a conquered people demanding its own institutions and the same people demanding the institutions  of the conqueror. The article was read by Gandhi, who was in London at the time to press for ‘freer rights of residence, travel and trade  to members of the Indian diaspora in South Africa’, where he was then living He referred to the article in a dispatch he sent to the paper he had founded in Durban, Indian Opinion. This article for some reason did not appear until January of the following year. In the meantime Gandhi had responded to Chesterton’s criticism by completing in ten days, on board the ship that carried him back to South Africa, ‘an extended defence of the virtues of ancient Indian civilisation’. Written in Gandhi’s mother tongue, it was published under the title Hind Swaraj, and also in English under the title Indian Home Rule, in Durban in 1910. Apart from Gandhi’s two-volume autobiography and collections of articles and speeches, it was the only book qua book that Gandhi ever published.” From Fr Ian Ker's Biography, 'GK Chesterton', page 249 

I just noticed that this GKC article, that had such an impact on Gandhi was published on Gandhi's Birthday. See tomorrow's post. Chesterton and Gandhi badges here; https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/stuartmcc1927/m.html

Fight Back Against Anti-Christian Attacks, in a small way.

I saw an article online that said that 'Anarchists' had defaced a statue of St Boniface in Devon with anti-Christian graffiti. They wrote "God is Dead". I've noticed lots of other anti-Christian attacks all over the place. Churches burned or vandalised, statues attacked in lots of different ways in many different locations. Priests attacked and even killed while saying Mass. I'm sure that this is not new.

I can't protect every Church and religious statue in the world or even locally, but I can do something. Look around you next time you are out and about,

on a bus or train, in a coffee shop or better still a book shop [second-hand]. How many of the people that you see are obviously Christian? Sometimes you may spot a Priest or a Religious Sister, or see someone carrying/reading The Bible or some other religious book. I've seen people carrying small religious statues with them and even saw a chap 25 years ago walking around Kensington, West London, with an six foot white wooden cross over his shoulder. 

It was Friedrich Nietzsche, who died 25th August 1900, who famously said that, 'God is Dead'. I went and bought a small badge making machine. I shall be wearing a 'God's Not Dead' badge each year on the 25th August and again on 15th October, Nietzsche's Birthday. I've also made some other badges that may be a bit less 'boom!' I'm sure there are times when I won't be wearing a Christian badge, but there are lots of times when we all could. I'm selling some here. By all means, get a big wooden cross instead, or buy a badge or t-shirt from someone else, but wear something when you can.

Today is the anniversary of the death of St Therese, her Feast Day is 1st October [3rd October in the Old Rite] and I have seen one of her statues vandalised, so these badges are also available.