Fools For Christ?

Thanks to Caroline for prompting me to use this phrase.

On another blog, a comment I left prompted someone to ask how wearing a veil could possibly make any reparation to Christ.  The offending questioner doesn't read my blog, but here is my answer anyway.  I am an extremely self-conscious person.  When you walk into a Novus Ordo Mass where people are talking about their air conditioners and their bunions at 96 decibels before Mass begins, oblivious to the Divine Presence in the tabernacle, you bet your bippy you're gonna get some looks when you walk in with a veil on your head.  I offer the discomfort up.  It's not important for anyone to appreciate that gesture except The One for Whom it is intended.  And by the way, I don't wear a veil to garner looks, I wear it because I grew up wearing one, before the Mass was blown up and the world followed suit.

There is a reason this blog is called "The Little Way", and that is because I am a client of St. Therese and wish to follow in her footsteps by offering up every sacrifice, no matter how seemingly small or insignificant.   I wish to abandon my own will and adhere to His.  There has been a lot of conversation of late, much of it uncharitable and selfish, about factions in the Catholic Church.   I've been thinking that it's not so much about trads versus progressives or Novus Ordos versus Extraordinary Forms as it is those who wish to make the faith about themselves and those who wish to center it around Jesus Christ, the Cornerstone of the Church.

One thing is very clear to me and that is that there are some converts and reverts with chips on their shoulders.  It's as though they want to make up for lost time by going overboard now.  I can relate, as I felt somewhat the same way when I first came back to the Church. I felt woefully inadequate and sinful around the well-dressed families with eight children who home-schooled, prayed the Rosary together every night and wouldn't be caught dead voting for a Democrat.  Eventually, I came to see how selfish this obsession with my perceived short-comings really was.  The only Person I need to impress is Divine.  It matters not what anyone  else thinks and the minute I start to care, I'm missing the point.  Not so with some others.  They don't "measure up", so instead of embracing where they are and ignoring the superfluous stuff, they denigrate and condemn to the point where it consumes them.

How much of the Catholic blogosphere is made up of people who are more interested in making their point, at the risk of setting the Lord aside entirely?  Why call yourself a Catholic blogger?   Anyway, I've learned my lesson and I will not be engaging these people anymore.

Some time ago, I engaged in a "conversation" with a traditional Catholic who seldom updates his blog.  He is one of the few people I know who is articulate enough to disagree with Father Z and not incur the wrath of his red pen.  One day, he asked me to consider how much time bloggers spend wrangling over issues that may not even be of peripheral interest to Our Lord.

His advice?  Instead of spending hours staring at a computer screen, typing away to have the last word, oremus!  Good advice for us all!