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An Exodus in Search of Orthodoxy

It is a cool, dark Montana night in early May as we head west from Bozeman toward the Idaho border. Sheets of rain fall intermittently through our drive as we pull our recently acquired utility trailer up and over the passes that divide East from West, Atlantic from Pacific, Montana from Idaho. We are transporting the first of our belongings over to northern Idaho, where we will find a storage unit and seek out temporary lodging for what is to be a challenging transition. We are leaving the comfort and familiarity of the Montana home we built from the ground up and have enjoyed for twenty-one long years. Yes, we are moving.

We get a break from the rain in Missoula, where we stop for half an hour to visit my younger sister. We meet at a fast-food joint to wolf down a few chicken strips and talk about the changes that lie in our future. “Katie took a job at what hospital?” She is incredulous that we are leaving Montana. “Is there enough carpentry work there to keep you busy?” As we drive away, Katie and I look at each other and nod in agreement: “she just doesn’t get it.” I reflect a moment longer and quietly add, “Not many do.”

We pull back onto the interstate and spool the truck up to cruising speed at 75. The break between squalls is ephemeral, and darkness looms large on the horizon. Yet again, we feel the need to reflect upon our trust in God’s providence in the uncertainty of whether it is truly necessary to do what we are doing. The rain begins again, the light fades, and the Carmelite mystics come to mind as we wonder aloud whether we have entered into our own “cloud of unknowing.”

At 11:30, we decide we aren’t going to make it over the two remaining passes to Coeur d’Alene tonight, so we start scanning the Gazetteer for a wayside campsite. A gravel road takes us along the St. Regis River, which parallels the interstate, and we finally find a spot to circle the wagons and pitch our little pup tent away from the glare of passing headlights. We throw up the tent in the rain, grumbling a bit at the weather and our circumstances: “We bought this trailer for camping in bear country, in order to sleep inside of it, so just what are we doing sleeping outside it, again, on the ground…?!”

As we drift off to a fitful sleep, the questions linger.  How did it come to this? How is it that at 50-some years old, we are making our own exodus from our local diocese, from the familiarity of our jobs and our home, from the places and people we know and love, to go settle in a new locale? To begin again?

Morning prayer and recitation of the familiar words of Psalm 131 help to remind us:

O Lord, remember David, and all his meekness.

How he swore to the Lord, he vowed a vow to the God of Jacob:

If I shall enter into the tabernacle of my house: if I shall go up into the bed wherein I lie:

If I shall give sleep to my eyes, or slumber to my eyelids,

Or rest to my temples: until I find out a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.

Behold we have heard of it in Ephrata: we have found it in the fields of the wood.

We will go into his tabernacle: We will adore in the place where his feet stood.

Arise, O Lord, into thy resting place: thou and the ark, which thou hast sanctified.

Let thy priests be clothed with justice: and let thy saints rejoice.

Married late in life, my wife and I do not have children. In this sense, we are vastly different from the many, many families making similar sojourns to the Northern Rockies, to traditionalist parishes here and elsewhere, seeking liturgical and theological sanity, seeking the fullness of the faith. We have met a considerable number of these families. They are large families, many of whom have 8, 10, or 12 children – families from Florida; Washington; Kentucky; and, of course, California – and we have had the opportunity to hear similar stories of their own paths of “exodus in search of orthodoxy.”

It is the Benedict Option applied in northern Idaho.

The stories we hear include elements of cognitive dissonance between what is being said and done – or more commonly, not being said or done – in chancery offices and bishops’ residences with regard to questions involving Amoris Laetitia, climate change as a tool of cultural manipulation, the revisionist conceptualization of Islam in pacifistic terms, and on and on. Then there is the ongoing hostility toward Tradition and faithful souls.

Here we arrive at the heart of the issue. For if Moses petitioned Pharaoh in his obstinacy to allow the Israelites to travel a three-day sojourn into the wilderness such that they might give proper praise and worship to God, what effort is too great for us to employ such that we might do the same? Are we not equally compelled to give right worship to the Blessed Trinity, Who maintains both our essence and existence? Are we not compelled, as were the Israelites, regardless of the sacrifices such worship requires from us?

As prayerful Catholics living in the modern technological age, we must be vigilant not to fall into the complacent notion – the heretical notion – that God is happy with us just as we are. No, we are each and every one of us called to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. We must be on the path of sanctification. For if our perfection is not achieved among the Church Militant, it will be accomplished in the midst of the Church Suffering, or worse yet, never accomplished at all.

I lived in western Montana for 25 years and studied in a diocesan seminary on the West Coast in consideration of a priestly vocation. With this background, it is precisely this disconcerting compulsion toward the status quo that – by God’s pure grace – my spouse and I awoke to find as a malignant toxin in our souls.

Fr. Garrigou-LaGrange, O.P. writes in his famous work “The Three Conversions of the Interior Life” that souls that do not progress through the purgative, illuminative, and unitive stages of spiritual growth become static souls. Put in its simplest terms, he states, “He who makes no progress loses ground.”

In recognition of this, it is incumbent upon each and every faithful Catholic to engage in the daily examination of conscience to which the Church exhorts us. If we fail in this self-examination, we become susceptible to the siren song of complacency, a complacency that, by definition, requires far too little from us. It is a complacency that mires us in perpetual mediocrity and stifles all movement toward perfection. It is this mentality of theological minimalism that seems to have pervaded the chanceries of a great many American dioceses. Indeed, along with perpetual liturgical depravity, wherein the General Instruction of the Roman Missal itself is commonly disregarded, this is the fundamental reason we are leaving our diocese in western Montana.

To my way of thinking, this is the cancer at the heart of the modern paradigm, wherein Catholics spend more time celebrating themselves as “the people of God” than they do the One and Triune God. The horizontal axis of theological practice is overemphasized in pursuit of a so-called “Communion Ecclesiology,” and the vertical axis emphasizing union with God through interior prayer is largely ignored. And thus, we are left with an emasculated form of public prayer, for the horizontal axis corresponds with a fundamentally feminine spiritual dynamic of inclusiveness and pastoral sensitivity. It is the vertical axis that compels men to give right worship to God, as an act of justice between sons and their eternal Father. “Dignum et justum est,” indeed.

Beyond this crippling complacency, made manifest in a profound unwillingness to engage in the spiritual works of mercy, what other explanation can there be for the failure of our bishops to make necessary correction for the entrenched heretical positions that now plague us – Communion for the divorced and remarried, the abandonment of mortal sin, situational ethics, etc. And if sound dogma and doctrine are not maintained, and the fundamental law of non-contradiction no longer applies to magisterial teachings, by what means is unity within the Church to be perpetuated?

It would indeed seem that Yeats said it best in “The Second Coming”: Things fall apart, the center will not hold, mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. It is a true postmodern nightmare wherein philosophical relativism reigns supreme, and the last bastion of truth, the Holy Roman Church, appears to be conceding its Apostolic throne.

Fast-forward, now, to the 15th of June, and another rainy night in the Bitterroot Mountains. A couple hundred intrepid souls have gathered from all points on the compass at St. Joan of Arc Parish in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. It is the Feast of Corpus Christi, and our young priest, a member of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter and a former Marine, thanks the congregation at Mass for assembling to make a Eucharistic procession for several blocks to a nearby park. He notes the incessant rain and the beauty of the witness of faith that will be displayed tonight to an incredulous world, to a world that no longer chooses to worship or recognize the Son of God, the Creator and Redeemer of the world, Who humbly makes Himself present to us in Eucharistic form.

The ancient Mass concludes, and our priest recites the Last Gospel.

Yes, the rain falls heavily again in mountain country. This night, however, the light shines forth through the darkness, and the darkness shall not overcome it.

66 thoughts on “An Exodus in Search of Orthodoxy”

  1. Yes, this is the so-called Benedict Option actually working. Many comments I’ve heard about this Option seem to suggest that we wait around for something to happen – for a monastery to open up down the street so we can all gather in it and be saved from the big bad world. Let’s not forget St. Benedict founded his monastery and HE sat back and waited – and they came in droves. That’s how it’s supposed to work.

    I’ve suggested this to many – quite whining and just pack up and move. In charity, I do understand that facing possible poverty, or at least a much lower income, can be just too daunting for families. But the true Option means that we have to change all of our standards of what’s possible – in order to gain the freedom of right worship.

    Thank you very much for writing about your personal experience. I wish you peace in your new surroundings and your new parish.

    Reply
    • Barbara, thank you for your kind words of encouragement. There is never anything easy about moving, but as we get older inertia tends to work on us like concrete setting up between our feet. Such was the case with my wife and myself, but God’s providential care made itself manifest at every major step of our relocation. Now we are simply praying that the right family comes along to buy our charming log home in the country, so that we can commit ourselves fully to our new life in Idaho. We have found ourselves in the company of traditionalist Catholics who truly appreciate the amazing work that God is doing to draw souls to their community. That said, however, there is much to ponder in the Gospel story of St Peter’s attempt at walking on the water, for the moment we take our eyes off Christ, our fears and doubts begin to overwhelm us! Hence, we must ultimately decide just exactly what is important to us in life, and if, indeed it is our faith, than I recommend entrusting one’s cares to the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts of Jesus and Mary and taking the first steps to at least explore one’s options. God bless, MM

      Reply
      • Please let Fr Flick know that many a sheep from St Anne’s in San Diego miss this good young shepherd. Give him our love and remind him we continue to pray for him. Thanks, and all the best to you.

        Reply
  2. The Benedict Option is a non-starter. It is giving up, surrendering, and ceding the field of battle to the Enemy to go bury your head in the sand and try to ignore the depravity all around.

    The Benedict Option is the opposite of preaching to the Remnant. It is the opposite of being the Remnant. It is the opposite of the example set by the apostles, of engagement, preaching, proselytizing, and martyrdom.

    There are some things worth dying for. There are even some things worth killing for, as the Crusades demonstrate, and many of our brethren in faith and arms from Charles “the Hammer” Martel on through the ages have taught us.

    Western Civilization depends upon Christianity. It always has, and our progeny depend on it. If we are to be nothing more than the Remnant, then we are to hold and keep the Truth to be preserved, and brought out when called for and the time is right to rebuild. If we are to be spiritual soldiers for Christ, then we must be in the world, but not of it. We must engage daily.

    Show the flag. Be a reminder that there is good out there, and accountability. Be the thorn in the foot of the arrogant and depraved.

    But under no circumstances are we giving up or retreating. Never. Not for any reason. We may lose, repeatedly, but we shall never quit fighting.

    Hell, I don’t even think we are losing. God didn’t give us someone who finally fights in Trump, just for everyone else to quit. This crisis of the Church is not just an American problem, but we in America are on one of the fronts in this war. Hold the line. Prepare for counter offensives. Keep an eye out for each other. But fight, damn it!

    There are those of us who are going to fight, until the bloody end. We will give no quarter, for we shall be given none. We will fight in the streets, and in the churches, and in the office spaces around the water cooler. We will fight on the internet, and in discussions with friends and family. We will fight with strangers, as we live the gospel by example. We will be carrying our Cross until we no longer have the ability, or until Christ decides to remove it from us. He offered it to us without obligation, and we have chosen the duty to carry it wherever He asks. It is a duty we have assigned ourselves, for His glory, for as long as it is His will.

    Yes, things are going to change. The “conservatives” you trusted with your nation conserved nothing, not even the prevention of men in little girls’ bathrooms, or the scientific fact of two sexes in mammals. The “conservatives” have sold us out every step of the way for the last 60+ years at least. Big deal. Conservatism is dead? Then LONG LIVE THE TRUTH!

    Be the next Andrew Breitbart. Be the next Steve Skojac. Be the next James O’Keefe. Be the next Donald Trump. Be Catholic. Be loud. Be proud. Be brave, bold, and beligerent. For goodness sake, we’re winning!

    The Enemy has been winning these long years. He triumphed over every single battlefield since I’ve been alive. He’s been enthroned in our schools, in our courts, in our universities, our hospitals, our office spaces, our government, our media, and most perniciously, our churches. Each had a role to play in the formation of a people, a faith, a community, and a nation. Always he was there, and the war has been lost for at least 20 years. And yet, and yet, suddenly he is no longer winning. The one thing the Enemy can’t defeat is reality. He can’t withstand exposure to sunlight. And the sun has been streaming in, and masks are falling away day by day.

    Suddenly, it is more clear than ever exactly what we’re fighting, and what we should have been fighting all these years. The Almighty is not a disinterested party, and without warning, without notice, the Enemy is being revealed irrevocably in each segment of society and our world. It is clear what our calling is, what we have to do, and who these people are who have sold their eternal birthrights for a mess of pottage.

    And you want to quit? To cede the field at this late our, and hope to die peacefully in your beds, while your children must deal with the storm that you should have dealt with?

    Those who choose to quit, to retreat, to fold, to stop being soldiers for Christ and the Church Militant will be cursed by those of us who hold the line, alone if need be. We will curse you, and pray to God that you and your posterity no longer be remembered as our brethren, nor as our countrymen.

    For the rest of us, under this sign shall we conquer:
    https://redeeminggod.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Death-of-Jesus1.jpg

    We are soldiers in the army of God, the army of the Crucified Christ. He is Risen! Indeed, He is Risen! Fear no darkness! Fix bayonets, and prepared to charge!

    Reply
    • The battle is lost. In practice it has proven impossible to maintain the faith and go on living as a normal American. I can’t imagine it’s better in other countries. The common values of the society are too poisonous. How many “trads” escape the pits of liberalism and feminism? There’s got to be a strategic retreat, with a view towards conquest in the future. How else can a family even hold together? The moral authority of the world is too powerful to raise your children thinking of it as anything but an enemy.

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      • Welcome to Christianity! It has always been thus. The battle was lost with Adam and Eve. Christ’s kingdom is not of this world. Satan offered to give Jesus the world if He would just bend knee once to Satan. The world is and always will be hostile to Christianity.

        There is no political solution to this problem. There never was, and never will be. The good news is, it isn’t our job to save the World. Christ already did that for us.

        Rather, it is our job to keep the faith. To witness to the faith. To spread that faith, that love, that hope, that charity, to all we meet. To be the beacon of Light in this dark world, not of ourselves or our own abilities, but because the Light of the Way, the Truth, and the Life shines upon us and is reflected towards those we encounter.

        How can a trad escape the pits of liberalism and feminism? My little brother is 21, going through college right now with a bunch of retarded millennials. He’s doing just fine. With proper upbringing, prayer, faith, etc, it can be done. How does a family hold together? In faith, by the grace of God.

        There is no question we live in an evil time. However, it was a time God willing placed you here, in love. It was not required that you be created, but God chose to do so anyway, and loves you uniquely. He does the same for all other souls on this earth. Therefore, we’re not done with engagement and attempts to preach, proselytize, and witness until Christ says we’re done.

        No one said it was going to be easy. It wasn’t easy for Him carrying his own cross after the scourging and the crowning with thorns, only to know that he was going to be nailed to in a short while. Never-the-less, until the final whistle blows, until the final bell tolls, we will take up our cross and soldier on. God did not put you on this earth to knuckle under and retreat. Screw the moral authority of the world. Learn the Truth. Teach yourself, your children, your neighbors. Put your faith in Christ, and carry on. When you fall, beseech the Lord to wash you in the ocean of His mercy, to cleanse you and cloth you in white for His name’s sake, and to grant you the strength and fortitude to persevere.

        For the Lord wishes more for your heart, and the hearts of every soul on this planet, than he does for eliminating our weaknesses, our hurts, our infirmities. It is often through those imperfections that He has access to the hearts of men, and through those imperfections that we are perfected in Him.

        Do not take yourself out of the fight, out of the field of battle for souls. Do not acquiesce, do not tolerate, and do not go quietly into the night. Your island will soon be overrun and you will lose everything should you take that option. When Christ is done with humanity, and declares the battle lost, then you may do so as well. Until then, you are called to live in the world, but not be of the world. That is the calling of the Christian.

        “Look, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.”

        Reply
        • The nevi’im have a lot to teach us in this respect, as well. So much so, that if you were to read the tanakh today without any previous knowledge of it, it would be difficult to tell difference between the events described therein and reading the news today (all the technology aside).

          The righteous among our fore-bearers had to choose between God and the rest of the Jewish people for centuries, with only brief reprieves here and there, and it looks like it is our time now to follow in their footsteps.

          This kind of puts a different perspective on the saints and the prophets that may not have been readily available before.

          Sancta Dei Genetrix ora pro nobis

          Reply
        • The war is NOT lost. The war is with the enemy and his enticements. This world, with all its allurements, is the domain of the prince of darkness. But, if we are truly faithful, we are not of this world although we sojourn in it for a time as pilgrims traveling toward our true homeland.

          The weapons we emoloy are those of love, prayer, obedience and the manifold gifts of the Holy Spirit. Those who are faithful to God and the faith of His True Church including its centuries old, Holy Spirit guided doctrines teachings, canons, liturgies, prayers, practices and disciplines — THESE are the remnant, these are the warriors. To be one of them, however, also requires us to know, to LEARN, the TRUE FAITH and to pass it on to others, beginning with our children. And, if necessary, to separate ourselves from the hell-bent society that surrounds us, similar to the Amish.

          The Benedict option only fails if it is limited to the Tridentine Mass, but does not embrace and defend the Truth, Beauty and Glory of the Roman Catholic Faith handed down to us by 2000 years of lovers of Christ until Vatican II.

          Love the Faith, live the Faith, defend the Faith, even die for the Faith. THIS is our mission, our calling. There is nothing else we can give to God except our TOTAL love and faithfulness to the very end.

          Reply
    • I haven’t read Mr Dreher’s book but have read the article by the Remnant. What I’ve read in recent times on the internet seems to suggest that there are different idea’s of what people understand to be meant by a ‘Benedict option’. If it is about running away and hiding then it’s not very Benedictine, which is to say, not Christian. But, if the Benedict option as described by Mr Dreher is not Christian then could it be redefined based on an authentic understanding of what it might possibly entail? I don’t think this is an option for everyone though any more than it is for everyone to be Benedictine, but maybe this could and should be for some? Or perhaps calling it the ‘Benedict option’ needs to be dropped. What I do know is amongst the many Catholic families I know many of us are considering living closer together around the Latin Mass, my family included. And it would not be so as to hide. I have lived in many different places and I have yet to live somewhere where Christ did not set me up to be a light, poor and miserable as I am.
      So, no faint heartedness here brother! I pray for God to send me the strength to do what He would have me do!
      St Margaret Clitherow, pray for us!

      Reply
      • I may be wrong, but I thought the Benedict option referred to having the Tridentine Mass available for thise who preferred it over the Novus Ordo (or, as I’ve heard it called, the ‘No Mass”).

        Reply
        • I don’t think so Mike. But I haven’t read Mr Dreher’s book. I think a lot of us are wondering what do we do from here on in and Mr Dreher’s book has captured the imagination of many. Some are discussing the book knowing, or perhaps not, what he means by it, and then a whole load of other people who haven’t read his book or maybe aren’t even aware of his book but have heard the term online, are coming up with their own ideas of what that would be. Discussing what it may or perhaps shouldn’t entail is certainly interesting.

          My family are currently considering a big move in the next few months. We already live not too far from a lovely parish but live in a city and have idea’s of rural living. We would love to own a big bit of land for our family of 10 to live on, build, and grow things. We currently rent which is not good for a large family. Like the author of the above article it will be a hard move if we go ahead with it. I love my home state and I’m not young any more, I’ve said recently to a friend that if I have a parallel in literature it is Bilbo Baggins. I will need a kick out the door to go on an adventure 😉

          Lot’s to think and pray on! But wherever we end up…may we bring Christ to those we meet!

          My thought’s are that we’ll all need to form close communities whether in the city, country side or on the internet and between them all. I pray that we will all support one another and be a blessing to one another as we will need to and should be!

          Viva Christo Rey!

          Reply
    • Cetera, I must confess I have not read The Benedict Option – I have heard it discussed on Catholic radio and television programs. However, I have studied and prayed with the Benedictines themselves, and I have studied and prayed in Norcia, Italy the birthplace of Saints Benedict and Scholastica. That being said, no warrior goes forth to engage the enemy without first having had a place of refuge and strength, in and from which, he is strengthened and his arms are trained for battle. That place of refuge and of strength is enlivened within us through meditative prayer, and fundamentally, the prayer of the Mass, wherein our miniscule sacrifices are conjoined with the eternal sacrifice of Christ. So I ask, why did Charlemagne serve at daily Mass before going off to conquest? So that he might be strengthened to do the work of God. And so it must be with each of us. I would highly recommend reading the sermon of the 5th Sunday of Pentecost by Fr. Richard Cipolla over on Rorate Caeli. Perhaps it will become a bit more evident then that what we are suggesting is not a “retreat”, but a rally around the Cross for the sake of a necessary war council in the context of the times in which we live. Pax Christi, MM

      Reply
    • You just don’t get it, do you? Trump is on his third wife! Trump sends Tweets! Trump is rich! Therefore, we must vote for pro-aborts and let them persecute the Church and abolish the borders! We deserve it because of our racism and homophobia! Just ask Cardinals Cupich, Tobin, Dolan, O’Malley, and Farrell, and Archbishops McElroy, Gomez, and Chaput!

      Reply
        • I’m not going to get in a flame war about Chaput, but i recommend doings some extensive reading of his positions on various issues in the past. See what you think.

          For myslef, I won’t categorically condemn him as a modernist, but I don’t trust him, either.

          Reply
          • Chaput was the Archbishop in our diocese in Denver for many years while I was there. He’s very orthodox, or at least seemed to be so to me. However, he was very much pro-illegal immigration as well. Very pro, to the level that it hurt my respect for him considerably. I wasn’t sorry to see him go. I was even less sorry to leave Denver myself, but that’s a different story.

      • Haha! Nice post.

        I got the same spineless reactions from the DC trad crowd prior to the election.

        “You GASP, support GASP such a unholy man?!”

        Soooo, current trad logic is run away to the Shire safetyzone like a hobbit or an Ent, meanwhile im left to face the Orcs and work in Mordor aka DC? Nice.

        Some folks were willing to let Hillary satanic pedophiles win because of their “conscience” not letting them vote for icky Trump. Let me tell you how it is, folks. Abstaining don’t win in the battlefield. War is hell and we. Are. At. War. Look at the numbers. It was the Protestants who got Trump in and coincidentally saved our collective bacon in the near term.

        Trads need to put on their big boy panties and face the enemy.

        Trump has done more for Catholic religious freedom than some bishops. And for all the sick sanctimonious comments against Melania and her past I heard, you tell me when our precious Jackie O, a “Catholic” or any other “conservative” 1st lady led us with the Lord’s prayer like Melania? I’d like to see a video reel of the private lives of half the hatefilled commentators back when they were young. Oh wait, we will at the Judgement 😉

        You see, when you’re DoD, you learn to judge a tree by its actions and courage on the battlefield, not it’s looks or coarse appearance.

        Get in the game, folks. Time is short and we need all hands on deck.

        Reply
    • Amen, Cetera. I have the recent visual image of a Catholic baby and family blown up during mass in the Middle East in my mind. Where was their “option”?

      Didn’t exist.

      Now, before I get too preachy, let me disclose that I once (last year) drove 9 hours to check out my own FSSP retreat in the country. Conclusion? If God wants me here in DC, I will live and die here for Him on the frontlines of secular and religious turmoil.

      While all the trads are headed for the country enclaves, guess who’s left holding their finger in the dike? Yup.

      How about we all head to or stay in the crisis cities? Come on and join me at a Novus Ordo mass and do your responses in Latin, kneel on your knees to receive Jesus, wear your Sunday best next to the tank tops and flip flop crowd, keep your head bowed during the “peace” (which devolved into a high five jamboree), say your after-mass prayers extra loud over the guitar piano and clapping, and then give everyone a genuine smile on the way out in gratitude for Our Lord and the fact that we aren’t (yet) being blown up by jihad Johnny or our government.

      I find it sad that early Christians were driven to the catacombs and we trads, the burdened bearers of “truth” (as indicated by our dowdy amish clothes and misery-laden faces after high mass, for we bear SUCH a great burden as the insiders who REALLY know what the Church and suffering is about), send ourselves to our bucolic caves and FSSP outcrops.

      I’ve seen “The Village” enough times to know how this retreat to innocence ends, man.

      See, when all the trads leave, the rest of us who run your state capitals, economic industries, military, major metro hubs, and federal government are left deserted on the frontlines. Reminds me of the articles I read about the joys of off-grid, pure, simple living. What they fail to understand is the only thing stopping a bad guy/country from interrupting that peaceful off grid experience is myself and others doing a 1.5 hour traffic commute into work for national security jobs. Retreating is kind of like a pyramid Ponzi scheme that works until you start running out of faithful Catholic folks and families willing to man their current parish/post.

      The crisis is in truly courageous Catholic men/husbands, and the lack of them. Why are we ceding our parishes to whatever the heck we want to call the current mess? What the heck?! Stand your ground, fathers. Make yourself and your family a holy, orthodox, joy-filled, love-bug pest to your parish. Make THEM a little uncomfortable. Thank your priest for being a priest, saying mass and charitably ask oh-by-the-way, what would it take for a TLM? Let the modernists run to the hills. Let THEM start a new church. I worked too hard to build my deck out back, squeeze my mattress up the poorly designed stairs, and put in my on-sale Pergo flooring. I like the birds, the neighborhood, the seelction of French wine at the Wegmans, and SOME of the squirrels. I ain’t leaving. I like the architecture of the local churches built by the faithful 120 years ago and i can envision some awesome traditional statues in the groovy wooden balisters of the more contemporary churches. The modernists can take their felt banners and build their own concrete circle church or whatever fits their theological zeitgeist.

      If you ask me, Trads are losing their sense of laughter and holy humor and that’s a miserable place to be because the next thing to go is LOVE. Let’s look at the crisis intrinsic to the trads…. like the old song goes, “where is the looooove?” We like our closed off TLM communities, but I sure as heck can’t tell because everyone (mostly) looks like they just were whipped by a wet noodle. It’s a leeeetle better among the younger folks but not by much.

      Anyhow, I’m guilty of the desire to flee on occasion, but then I regain my heart and sense of levity. Leave the cloistered life for cloistered vocations. Hold the line and be a sign of contradiction in, not of, the world. Be of good cheer. GOD won’t abandon us. Like Gandalf the White says, look to the east. Christ is coming!

      Reply
      • I don’t think I’ve ever liked a comment on the internet more!

        The reason all the “conservatives” always lose everywhere, especially in D.C., is that they are just like the Benedict Option trads. Ultimately, they won’t fight for what they believe in. They will cede the high ground, the moral ground, and then eventually all ground, and just take their ball and try to find a new home.

        Well, that’s why we’re in the state we’re in. You’re now cornered. There is no where left to escape to. The entire world is being over run. It is time to put away childish things. It is time to understand the war for souls, what it truly means, and that there is no safe space anywhere. It is now fight, or lose everything, including your faith. If your faith is so fragile that it can only exist under close-knit communities of like-minded folk in a TLM parish, you are going to lose it.

        If you do not fight now, there will be no more TLM parishes anywhere in the world, very, very soon. It is the Crusades, or Judgement. And I don’t want to be in Judgement and have to answer for why I left my brethren faithful unsupported, why I abandoned humanity to the forces of the left.

        The Benedict Option was aptly named, whether it be for Benedict XVI, or Benedict Arnold. One was a quitter, the other a traitor. The Benedict Option is the fastest way to lose everything. It cedes all public spaces to the Enemy, and the Overton Window will move further and faster. It will be the death of the church, and lead to the only remaining survivors truly underground, without a public Mass anywhere. Then we’ll all truly be a Remant, and facing martyrdom like our brethren being beheaded in the Middle East.

        Reply
        • If you are in DC, I’ll by you a beer and take you shooting some of my new toys ha! How refreshing to meet another trad willing to fight in the trenches of the novus ordo at large. High five!

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          • I’m in AZ, but I work remotely supporting a bunch of folk in the D.C. area. You can weasel a beer out of Jesus for me when we get to Heaven. I’m meeting a whole bunch of other faithful warriors there. We’re going to have a big party. It’ll be a thing.

        • ‘The Benedict Option was aptly named, whether it be for Benedict XVI, or Benedict Arnold. One was a quitter, the other a traitor.’

          Are you maligning the name Benedict?… I’m a Benedictine with a son named after that great saint. I’ll be back for you when I have a moment!

          😉

          Reply
          • From all accounts, the Benedictines are great, and I’m sure your son is too. Just because some pro-QBLT writer pens a screed and attempts to sell it by erroneously conflating it with the good done in monasteries during the collapse of the rule of law in the known western world, trading on a good name, doesn’t mean you and yours are any less worthy for having been named for good folk.

            Happy Friday! Have a great weekend!

          • Ah, good! I’m glad you understand 😉

            I have no idea who Rod Dreher is. I’m not someone who likes to keep up with the latest fads. I read a few blogs but not enough to know all of the ins and outs of ‘what’s happening now’.
            How are my days are spent? Finding missing socks so as to be on time for things, not putting the meat on my toddlers plate at dinner too close to the potato in case they should mix, raising my children to know and love God, trying to keep 8 children quiet for long enough to read a good story book, keeping an ice addict from getting in my car at the petrol station by speeding off, feeding baby birds which keep falling out of the tree in front of my house (you stop that you birds that keep nesting in a totally inappropriate spot!), chatting with people whilst out and about and explaining that the ownership of a bus like vehicle and having passengers to fill it doesn’t mean I’m a day care worker, then there’s getting woken at 2 in the morning, every morning, because a little person is afraid monsters will apprehend them on the way to the toilet…

            Who is Mr Dreher? I don’t know. Who are all these Catholics heading to the boondocks (hope I’m using that word right. Australian here trying to use American lingo;) in their pusillanimity? I don’t know. You don’t need to go to the sticks to cut yourself off from everyone and people in remote places need to know about Christ too. There may be people who run off and hide away but there are cowards too who don’t leave at all.

            I agree with much of what you and Jim have to say. I’m very appreciative of what you both had to say. I hope you will both keep commenting here! I enjoy reading your comments!

            A very blessed weekend to you too! Could I ask if you might say a prayer for me and my family as we decide if we will move? God bless!

            Ps. Could I possibly ask you to delete this from your comment , ‘and I’m sure your son is too’? It’s a small world and I shouldn’t have mentioned his name online but got carried away with the need to defend the good Benedict’s of the world. Thank you!

          • Done, and done. I comment here occasionally, when I feel I have something to add. Mostly I’m too uneducated to contribute here.

            It sounds like you have a full life, and that you give glory to God each day living it. You have been blessed. I will happily and cheerfully pray for you and yours. Please keep my family in your prayers as well.

  3. I live in Florida now. I tried so very hard to move close to Clear Creek monastery, but the real estate surrounding it was absolutely off the chart in it’s pricing for homes that needed MAJOR renovations. Tulsa is about an hour away and the surrounding towns showed little promise for what I was searching for: 2bed/2bath. Then I looked for something near the Carmelite monks in WY. Modest and I mean modest homes starting at 200k & up. I am 64 and no longer in a position to be a pioneer living without proper water and utilities. I really tried, but could not afford what the market offered, knowing what I would have to spend to upgrade one of them to a minimal standard. I have learned to accept all of this as God’s holy will for me. I now say my rosary, go to Confession and receive Holy Communion; I will not deprive myself of Our Lord, no matter how terrible the outward liturgical expression may happen to be. If I must suffer and live during this period of apostasy, then suffering is an impetus for becoming even closer to our Lord and being allowed to share in a very small manner, in the Passion of my Lord.

    Reply
    • Lots of affordable homes around the SSPX parish in Las Vegas, NV. In this state of emergency, why not turn to the SSPX if there are no other diocesan options? Would love to hear everyone’s thinking on this.

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      • And how is the water supply in Las Vegas, NV? Is there a reason that homes are inexpensive? Or what about the job market?

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        • Las Vegas is a national model of water conservation. Very forward thinking in many respects. Great planning for future needs. Job market is hopping. Las Vegans are a humble and grateful people. They saw the worst of the last economic downturn and now that things are improving markedly they are joyful. Yes, lots of vice in Vegas, but a lot of goodness too. The diocese seems entrenched in the novelties of Vatican II and most parish liturgy is abominable. That’s why I sought out SSPX. So beautiful, so Catholic! An oasis in a true existential desert.

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          • I invite all you fence-sitters out there to pitch your tents in Las Vegas and become parishioners at Our Lady of Victory SSPX parish on Windmill Lane in Las Vegas. Las Vegas has lots to offer–both desert and alpine terrain within a 40 minute drive from the Strip. Lots of tech jobs, lots of service industry jobs, lots of entertainment industry jobs (musicians), a university with medical school, lots of kids and seniors, a national hockey and football team (yikes–should I mention that?), lots of healthcare industry jobs, lots of landscaping design jobs, golf course jobs, huge Uber market, lots of jobs for teachers and nurses, a huge airport with jobs, hospitality jobs that cater to various foreign markets (if you speak a foreign language you could probably find your dream job in Las Vegas). Come, let’s renew the face of Vegas!

          • Haha. Great Stalin, there are oodles of Pacific Islanders in Las Vegas so I’m sure there is a lot of soccer and rugby. There must be a Russian expat society as well.

          • Why are we allowed to confess but not attend Mass withSSPX? Pope Benedict says their bishops are not excommunicated. So they must be in communion. They have the faith in its fullness. Big protestantized heterodox Masses in communion with Rome seem dangerous.

      • An excellent question. For 2000 years, to be in Communion with the See of St Peter is to be within the Church.
        Now there is accumulating evidence that the Bishop of Rome is a heretic. What does it mean to be in “Communion” with a heretic?
        Logically, such a requirement makes no sense and if full communion with Rome is not a mark of being wholely within the Church then what is the status of the SSPX?
        Frankly, to me the SSPX looks like any other completely orthodox diocese that rejects heterodoxy from Rome but still respecting the See of St. Peter.
        Unfortunately, I am not qualified to truly analyze this. Until I am surrounded by heterodoxy, I’ll continue to attend parishes. I will not attend or support any parish that supports Communion for the divorced and remarried, or for active homosexuals. If it comes down to it, I’ll attend a nearby Eastern Rite parish a few miles away.

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      • You will NOT fulfill your Sunday or Holy day obligation by going to a SSPX parish. The consecration is not valid. Every time you attend a SSPX parish instead of one in communion with Rome, you commit a mortal sin. (Yes, I know; we have a less than decent Pope right now, but that has occurred many times in our Church’s 2000 year history). Don’t take my word for it. Do your research! I don’t like it any more than anyone else who is devoted to the Latin Mass. I would go to a SSPX parish in a heartbeat if they would reconcile with Rome. Otherwise, the nearest decent parish is almost 2 hours away from me. And in Southern California, with the price of gas, and the constant traffic jams, it’s an overwhelming thought.

        Reply
        • This is wrong, and I’m warning you that if you continue this line, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.

          Rome has made it very clear that this is incorrect. Multiple times over the years. You should educate yourself by reading our articles on the subject, or go elsewhere if you prefer. Their sacraments are valid and in the cases of confession and marriage (and potentially, the Mass as well, considering that Rome has given them the authority to offer wedding Masses) licit.

          Here’s a link to our various articles on the topic: https://onepeterfive.wpengine.com/?s=sspx

          Reply
  4. There is a kind of (sort of) relation between the Benedict Option and the “work(ing) of one’s hand”.

    May the Lord bless & prosper your carpentry ones.

    Reply
    • Indeed there is: “Ora et labora” in the words of our western monastic patriarch, “Ora et labora”. And may God be so good as to “prosper the work of our hands” as the psalmist says!

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  5. Yes, Christians who truly wish to live the Gospel have always been cast in the mould of lambs among lions since the day of Jesus’ Ascension. We have always been struggling for survival in an atmosphere of toxic gases where the air which we breathe is polluted and dangerous to our faith. The Gospel has always been anathema to the world and the motive for persecution.

    The big difference today, is that the persecution is now being led and indeed proclaimed from inside the Church itself by Francis the faithless heretic and his acolytes. The body which was our sanctuary and our shield is now hostile and dangerous to us. The enemy is within the gate. An anti-Gospel is being proclaimed and a scorched earth policy is being employed against all those who attempt to resist it. The Francis demonization apparatus is on full throttle. You know the drill…..“rigid”….”Pharisees”…..”doctors of the law”……. and so on. The list of insults and epithets is voluminous by now.

    In these parlous times, where the chief shepherd is a wolf who seeks to devour us, we must make our way as best we can, trusting only in God and His Blessed Mother as we make our way through the wilderness to our heavenly home.

    Viva Cristo Rey!!

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  6. More than all the television networks, and the internet, the collapse of the Church is attributable to two things:

    The abandonment of the Baltimore Catechism and MEMORIZATION;

    The yakkity-yakkity-yak of the Novus Ordo Missae.

    Reply
  7. Beautiful article!! As a Montana native currently living in WA and experiencing what you describe in your Western MT parish, I had been making the 3 hour pilgrimage to CDA/Post Falls with my family to attend the TLM for nearly 2 years. We’d been looking at property there for some time – fully expecting that CDA would soon be our next home. Without going into details, much to my person disappointment, I believe that God made it clear to both my wife and me, that he wanted us to settle in Phoenix.

    Thanks for sharing your story with us. It suggests that I may not be totally crazy after all (or at least I’m not the only one). 🙂

    CDA will remain one of my favorite places and we will pray that you are abundantly blessed in your new home.

    God bless.

    Reply
    • If you do indeed move to Phoenix, check out Our Lady of Sorrows, an SSPX church on Baseline Rd. They have a beautiful, growing parish and the chapel is unbelievable.

      Reply
      • Thanks so much for the suggestion – it’s great to hear others have a positive view of Our Lady of Sorrows. We discovered this beautiful parish (chapel, priory, retreat house and K-12 school) a few years ago. I’ve done Lenten retreats there each of the past 3 years and was privileged to meet many of the priests, brothers, teachers and parishioners. This growing familiarity with OLOS eventually led to adding Phoenix as a potential home in our discernment process. We have our young son enrolled in OLOS Academy and we are looking forward to moving there in early August. God bless.

        Reply
    • Thank you, John. May God bless you in your humble trust of His most perfect will! I am continually amazed at the number of people we meet who are making lengthy commutes to attend weekly Mass at St Joan of Arc. I certainly hope you are not crazy for having traveled so far in order to find orthodoxy, but if one is going to be a fool, at least we will be fools together for Christ. Pax Christi, MM

      Reply
      • Hi Mick,
        Fellow (for now since you’re moving) parishioner in the Diocese of Helena. My parish has gotten….crazy. Five years ago we had an average of 1,000 people at the three weekend masses (3,000 per weekend). That had been the average for seven or eight years. Since Francis came along, we’ve seen a shocking decline and it’s not due to deaths: Saturday at 4:30 might attract 300, Sunday at 8 AM perhaps 200 and 11 AM perhaps 600. Literally a 66% drop in attendance in an ostensibly liberal town that one would assume would be very pro-Francis.

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        • Hello Brian, without knowing the specifics of your parish, which are not appropriate to this forum, I have no clear answer as to why Mass attendance might have dropped so significantly at your parish. However, I will say that your parish would certainly be one of the largest in the entire diocese.

          I would, however, suggest that Plato’s Allegory of the Cave has great relevance with regard to the formation of our diocesan priests, for without instruction in 1) Thomistic theology and the magisterial teachings of the Church; 2) the means by which souls might be led on the path of sanctification; and 3) proper reverence for the mystical and transcendent miracle which is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; the compelling eloquence of Truth itself made manifest in individual souls by way of their priestly vocation is severely compromised. (Suggested reading: “The Emasculation of the Priesthood” by Fr. James McLucas)

          As to some of the other comments that have been made about the need to stand and fight at one’s home parish, I can only say that there often becomes a point – after what would seem an interminable number of battles of greater and lesser magnitude – at which one becomes a pariah and a particular biblical passage about pearls and swine comes readily to mind. God bless, MM

          Reply
          • Welcome to North Idaho! My wife and I moved here with our four children, sight unseen, twenty-four years ago. There have been challenges — no question about that! However, we still agree that the decision was right then, and even with 20-20 hindsight, remains the right choice. Contrary to what Cetera asserts, we are not ostriches burying our heads in the sand. We continue the fight from here, while giving our children regular access to the sacraments and a fighting chance at a decent Catholic education. True, our children don’t necessarily stay: one of my boys works in northern Virginia and lives not far from Steve (although he would like to return here to flee the I-95 corridor). But they have a foundation that they would not have acquired had we not moved to this beautiful place where we have nearly a dozen priests from the SSPX and the FSSP, two Carmelite convents, a thoroughly Catholic boys’ school, and an outstanding Dominican school for girls. My God bless you for your courageous decision to join us here. Again, welcome!

  8. Ha!

    I don’t know you but we need to meet.

    I belong to the parish you note, and was there in the rain, too.

    God bless you and glad to have you in the area.

    Rod Halvorsen

    Reply
    • Hello Rod, that was quite an amazing procession wasn’t it! I drove 400 miles that day in order to make it to Mass and celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi and could not get Isaiah 55 out of my thoughts… I am in Montana at present trying to get our house sold but will look you up shortly upon my return. God bless! MM

      Reply
      • That sounds great.

        That Marine you refrenced is coming over for supper tomorrow nite.

        I’ll be praying for your house sale!

        Reply
  9. Michael – what a pleasant surprise to find you hear. I was very touched by your story and wish you and Mrs. More the best in Idaho.
    I’ve heard great things about Coeur d’Alene Idaho. Oremus Pro Invicem.

    Sam Ignatius Ahn

    Reply
  10. I guess the ultimate point I’m making in the discussion below is that Christianity is a missionary religion. Don’t retreat to a faux safe-space that won’t last. Be missionaries of Christ everywhere, including in your own churchian Churches that are only nominally Christian, if that. Be the outreach, be the change you want to see in the world. Steal the libs playbook from them. Think globally, act locally.

    God will do all the heavy lifting, but it is your job to show up and be His hands and feet. Give Him the option of working through you. Don’t remove yourself from where He wants you to stand.

    Of course, if He wants you to move somewhere, has other plans for you, then listen to Him. But don’t buy into some fantasy that we’ll all live through this in the hills as humanity consumes itself. That isn’t going to work.

    Reply
  11. Thank you for this article. It absolutely shares our sentiments in what a faithful couple, depending on their circumstances, must do. We have been in KY for 30 years. The diocese was built on a very poor foundation of its leader and while we held out hope, the current leadership is worse. Over the decades we have lost many friends in attempting to maintain orthodoxy. The majority of Catholics, even those still in the pews, do not want any truth if it is not happy, holding hands and Happy Birthday sung at Mass foolishness. One Catholic told me last month that he has been told of the many shenanigans and personnel here, however he wishes to remain pleasantly ignorant. As time passes each of us must consider all options and seek God’s will for the days He allows us to remain. I refuse to lull myself into the sentiment of one fallen away Catholic and her family as she explained, “Well you know, our children really had fun with that megachurch group, so we just decided to switch as a family.”

    Reply
  12. As long there is breath in your lungs, the fight is not over. Don’t give up before that, because you do not know the Lord’s plans. Miracles do happen. And besides, do you wish to meet Jesus having fought for Him and your faith, and the salvation of your soul, up to the bitter end, or do you want to meet Him having taken the ‘wide, easy road’. I wish relocating was possible for me. Actually, relocating back to my previous home, because it is a parish of which faithful, devout Catholics dream. Alas, now I cry after every Mass because I am subjected to a wide range of Mass abuses. It’s worth it in order to honor my God, fulfill my obligation and receive the Body of Christ. But the sorrow is deep, and the longing for my old parish is even deeper. Sigh.

    Reply

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