Growth

Last week, our church (St. Cyprian of Carthage in Midlothian, VA) received eight new catechumens, all of whom appeared to be under the age of thirty, and more than half of whom were unmarried.

And this, at a small church in the middle of the woods, half an hour away from the city, with no singles ministry, no campus outreach, no advertising of any kind, and no small groups of any kind.

How To Teach The Same Books Over And Over Again

“The teacher has only to take stock of his soul as class begins and consider all that God has lately asked him to ponder through the divinely appointed accidents, epiphanies, and confrontations of the day. A teacher doesn’t need to stretch a chapter in Pride & Prejudice in order to talk about jealousy, gossip, broken relationships with parents, confounded hopes, or whatever vexing issue presented itself in the break room ten minutes ago. It’s all in there. A teacher really need not read more than five pages of Austen, Augustine, Burke, Boethius, or Bronte before coming to some reference—obvious or slanted—to whatever matter is already on his heart.”

-from How To Teach The Same Books Over And Over Again

What Happens Next

Teacher: Have you been baptized?

Student: Well, my metaverse avatar, which is Kermit the Frog dressed as the police officer from the Village People, was e-baptized at a service in a digital Dave & Busters. Does that count?

Teacher: A baptism really needs to be a public profession of faith.

Student: There were 43,000 people in attendance. No one actually goes to my church anymore. It’s far more public at a digital Dave & Busters. Trust me.

Sayings About Childrearing

There is more hope for a wildly disobedient boy whose parents admit it than for a mildly disobedient boy whose parents deny it.

If a mother makes excuses for her son, there is a little hope for him; if his father makes excuses for him, there is none.

Thoughts On Sheltering Children

“The world stands to have a far tighter grip on teenagers than it does on little children, and yet many parents I speak with basically give up on governing their sons and daughters around 8th or 9th grade.

They give them phones and video games and glumly report at parent teacher conferences that their children are addicted to them, as though the situation is fated, futile, hopeless.

What is odd, though, is that these same parents give their children food and clothing and beds and a home to live in, but worry about “sheltering” them.

If you shelter a child’s body, you need to shelter that child’s soul, too. If you shelter a child’s body because they’re not old enough to do it, then the child is certainly not old enough to shelter its own soul.

Parents, the fact that teenagers are too old to spank does not mean the most difficult part of your work is over. If you do not help your children develop good taste, they will develop bad taste. At seventeen, you should still be telling your sons and daughters, “Don’t listen to that. It’s wretched,” and, “Don’t watch that. It will rot your soul.””

-from the lecture I’m giving for Classical Academic Press tonight, which you can register for here

One Of The Most Generous Poems

Christmas Party At The South Danbury Church

by Donald Hall

December twenty-first
we gather at the white Church festooned
red and green, the tree flashing
green-red lights beside the altar.
After the children of Sunday School
recite Scripture, sing songs,
and scrape out solos,
they retire to dress for the finale,
to perform the pageant
again: Mary and Joseph kneeling
cradleside, Three Kings,
shepherds and shepherdesses. Their garments
are bathrobes with mothholes,
cut down from the Church’s ancestors.
Standing short and long,
they stare in all directions for mothers,
sisters and brothers,
giggling and waving in recognition,
and at the South Danbury
Church, a moment before Santa
arrives with her ho-hos
and bags of popcorn, in the half-dark
of whole silence, God
enters the world as a newborn again.