facing the future

Talking to Young People / Being the Tabernacle, the Presence of Christ

I met 2 young men in a cafe yesterday, who I was sitting next to. It was impossible for me not to hear what they were saying. One was giving the other advice about what he might do with his future. His friend was expressing indecision and confusion about how to proceed with his goals. As a mother of a 20-something son, I felt for these young men and wanted to engage them, but did not know how. I prayed to Saint Joseph as I was eating my crepe and suddenly the words just came to me. They were very polite and receptive. I told them the world is changing in radical ways and they need to consider this when planning a future. I acknowledged it is a very hard time now to be a young person. (As we in a great interregnum, a turning, at the end of a very long cycle and the beginning of a new one, late-stage empire.) Not only were they quite interested, they even seemed to agree.

I told the confused young man, an aspiring architect, about earthships. He had never heard of them and said he would investigate. Earthships, there are many different kinds, are sustainable, off-grid homes, often using recycled materials. Many are constructed in pleasing organic shapes and rather spectacular.

This is the way we must talk to our youth. Be honest about the state of the world and don’t allow them to live with the delusions of the culture. It is doing them no service.

The song below came on my Pandora channel this morning and reminded me of those dear young men. It’s a great song, sounds a lot like Simon & Garfunkel. It’s about realizing one’s predicament of living in this inauthentic culture, where your future is planned by “men who move only in dimly-lit halls.” This is an insightful young person who sees the truth. He then dreams of an agrarian life, the “Authentic Life,” which we concern ourselves with here…and which we seek. He intuitively knows this is the better direction, but seems to conclude on a cynical note. Have a listen…

Fleet Foxes ~ “Helplessness Blues”

I was raised up believing
I was somehow unique
Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes
Unique in each way you can see
And now after some thinking
I'd say I'd rather be
A functioning cog in some great machinery
Serving something beyond me

But I don't, I don't know what that will be
I'll get back to you someday soon, you will see

What's my name, what's my station?
Oh, just tell me what I should do
I don't need to be kind to the armies of night
That would do such injustice to you
Or bow down and be grateful
And say, "Sure, take all that you see"
To the men who move only in dimly-lit halls
And determine my future for me

And I don't, I don't know who to believe
I'll get back to you someday soon, you will see

If I know only one thing
It's that everything that I see
Of the world outside is so inconceivable
Often I barely can speak
Yeah I'm tongue tied and dizzy
And I can't keep it to myself
What good is it to sing helplessness blues?
Why should I wait for anyone else?

And I know, I know you will keep me on the shelf
I'll come back to you someday soon myself

If I had an orchard I'd work 'til I'm raw
If I had an orchard I'd work 'til I'm sore
And you would wait tables and soon run the store
Gold hair in the sunlight, my light in the dawn
If I had an orchard I'd work 'til I'm sore
If I had an orchard I'd work 'til I'm sore

Someday I'll be like the man on the screen

(Robin Pecknold)

I often reflect on the extraordinary implications of Holy Communion. In the cafe, I had literally just come from Holy Mass, just having received Our Blessed Lord. When we receive Him, we become the Tabernacle, the Holy of Holies, meant to go out into the world and bring Christ to others. It was in this disposition, that I was given the inclination to speak to these boys, and the words. In Holy Communion, we merge our hearts with that Heart so burning and overflowing with love! And believe me, others can sense this. Some will react with fear and abuse, while others will react positively, not even knowing Who they are encountering, but knowing, somewhere deep inside themselves, this person is different. As the martyr Father Alred Delp said,

“...the person who has seen God, is so totally different, so totally other-because our God is totally Other, with a fullness and order different from what the world sees at first glance. Further, someone who observes the otherness of the believer will be changed by it...

...he is master of the situation and of all things, because of being truly in contact with the center of reality..."

"The Winners of the Future"

“The winners of the future are going to be those who can still concentrate, and have the patience to learn and absorb actual context in depth.  The losers are going to be the people blindly reacting, lacking any and all context…the powers that be want us to have no context. That's why when there are revolutions, the first thing the communists, the authoritarians, the socialists do, is they tear down the statues. They don't want you grounded in your past. They ruin the libraries. They get rid of the Christians. They basically upend and tear out all the history books and rewrite them because a people without context are people that are easily manipulated ”

Chris Martenson

And one of our new taglines here at Nomen Christi is…

the future is catholic!

be on the cutting edge

…and it appears we are in the “quickening,” the phase of exponential acceleration, so don’t think the future is that far away.

To Dream the Impossible Dream: The Authentic Life

I keep saying that we will go crazy if we don’t have something to balance the darkness all around us, a vision to inspire us and get us through. And of course, faith in God. Let us never lose our humanity. Let us always hold our heads up high. And ultimately, we live for the next life.

I grew up listening to this song, we need a few anthems right now…

“The Impossible Dream (The Quest)”

Richard Kiley & Cast from Man of La Mancha, 1966

To dream the impossible dream

To fight the unbeatable foe

To bear with unbearable sorrow

To run where the brave dare not go

To right the unrightable wrong

To love pure and chased from afar

To try when your arms are too weary

To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest to follow that star

No matter how hopeless, no matter how far

To fight for the right without question or pause

To be willing to march into Hell for that Heavenly cause

And I know if I only be true to this glorious quest

That my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I lay to my rest

And the world will be better for this

That one man, scorned and covered with scars

Still strove with his last ounce of courage

To reach the unreachable star

(Mitch Leigh, Joe Darion)

Our “unreachable star” at Nomen Christi Apostolate is the Resilient Catholic Community,

the Authentic Life.

believe in it.

Visualize it.

Pray for it.

Give yours a name.

Work towards it.

See the little ones at Mass in their mothers’ arms. They’re gonna need you.