I have been absent (from this blog) for a few days. Just been busy with numerous projects. We have received the advance copies of Russell Shaw's new book, "Catholic Laity in the Mission of the Church" depicted on the sidebar! Release date for the book is 1 November, All Saints Day. We are actually taking most of the Holy Day off to celebrate, but orders will still be accepted and shipped within 24 hours. That would put us on November 2nd, All Souls Day.

Speaking of All Souls Day...the previous posts, among other things, have talked about the apostolates and spirituality of the laity-one thing all the laity (and in fact all the Church Militant has in common), is the duty to pray for the Church Suffering-the holy souls in purgatory. (Requiem Press took its name recalling the prayer of the Church (Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in pace. Amen. — that is: Eternal rest grant to them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.) to foster devotion to the holy souls. In fact our first publication was a booklet (tried to upload image, but blogger is finicky this morning) which has a prayer for each day of the week for the holy souls in purgatory. (You can see it at Requiem Press, scroll to the bottom. It is on sale for large quantity orders until November 2nd).

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Getting back to Russell Shaw for a moment, he is giving a presentation: "Vatican II Series: Apostolicam Actuositatem (Apostolate of Lay People)" at the Catholic Information Center (1501 K Street NW, Washington, DC) on November 3 at 12:45 PM. If you are in area, be sure to stop by.

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We wonder how this country has gotten to its present state of immorality, faithlessness, and political corruption; how we can legally kill 4000 babies a day and starve Terry Schiavo to death. If there are so many good people who share a moral code, (as evidenced for instance by the series of referendums in which homosexual marriage was soundly defeated in the last election cycle) how is it that things have gotten to the present state of affairs? I recall reading in "Years of Crisis" by James Hitchcock (Ignatius Press) many years ago the following:

At the heart of moral conservatism is a contradiction which the traditionalist dimly senses and which increases his irritation. For if the nature of traditionalism is the preference for a settled, stable, and placid personal life, then this life will necessarily be disrupted by the very act of defending it....What is involved here is not mere laziness. Moral traditionalists often involve themselves deeply in the activities of their churches, their children's schools....In other words, the traditionalist prefers to give himself to activities which are directly relevant to the family, while liberal activists see political goals, fought for in the public arena, as alone worthwhile. (emphasis added)

I think there is much truth here. Additionally, large families demand more time at home as opposed to political fund-raisers and rallies, etc. - although sometimes these can be family activities themselves. Also, I tend to think that many Americans in normal times trust those whom they elected, and only come up for air to see if a change is needed at election time. They don't participate in the political process on an ongoing basis. So what are we to do?

The first place of course is with personal holiness. (I have heard that Mother Teresa would make her nuns complete their morning prayer time before engaging in their care of the homeless and sick.) A priest at our old parish used to preach that all apostolic activity should arise from our prayer life.

The example of living a virtuous life, being open to discussions with friends and neighbors on the important things - simply, sanctifying our daily life and activities-are basic things we must do. Many want to do or be part of something BIG-that is something the world sees as BIG. What we often fail to recognize is that the simple attention to our prayer life and trying to sanctify the temporal order by living each moment in the presence of God REALLY IS something BIG.

Then there will be other things that come along.

I think the "Catholic blog community" is a group apostolate of sorts. We have several people looking and talking about what a Catholic worldview-based political party would look like, (see here). We have others discussing Land Use, surburbia and Catholicism (see here). There is a philisophical forum (here). A group of Catholic lawyers post on political issues (here.) Catholic writers, librarians, publishers, priests, and every sort of laity post daily or weekly on issues of Catholic interest in open forums. Most Catholic bloggers probably don't look at their blogs as apostolates, but individually and collectively this can viewed as an apostolate itself: discussion of the important ideas in a public forum to search for the truth-unabashedly Catholic and orthodox.