The Bank That Trust Built

Written by John Horvat II

In writing about economy, I have frequently denounced what I call frenetic intemperance. Frenetic intemperance is a term to describe a restless and reckless spirit inside certain sectors of modern economy that foments a drive to throw off legitimate restraints and gratify all desires. Such a reckless spirit is often found in the financial sector of modern economies as it engages in all sorts of monetary wheeling and dealing.

I admit that banks have their purpose in society by securing money and facilitating transactions needed to carry out business. However, so strong is the frantic idea of modern banking that I have often asked myself if I could provide concrete examples of banking without frenetic intemperance. It is not an easy task.

But in the business section of The Sunday Times of Ireland (7-21-13),^[1] I quite unexpectedly found a refreshing example. It involves a London bank called C. Hoare & Co. It is not your ordinary bank.

Read more…

http://www.returntoorder.org/2013/08/bank-trust-built/

Life in a World Without God

How are we faring mentally in a world without God?

In the face of this social disintegration, we have essentially hired an army of replacement confidants, an entire class of professional carers. As Ronald Dworkin pointed out in a 2010 paper for the Hoover Institution, in the late ’40s, the United States was home to 2,500 clinical psychologists, 30,000 social workers, and fewer than 500 marriage and family therapists. As of 2010, the country had 77,000 clinical psychologists, 192,000 clinical social workers, 400,000 nonclinical social workers, 50,000 marriage and family therapists, 105,000 mental-health counselors, 220,000 substance-abuse counselors, 17,000 nurse psychotherapists, and 30,000 life coaches. The majority of patients in therapy do not warrant a psychiatric diagnosis. This raft of psychic servants is helping us through what used to be called regular problems. We have outsourced the work of everyday caring.

Why the Left Despairs

In 1903 the young Bertrand Russell gave ultimate expression to the tragedy which is implicit in the Cartesian separation of mind from matter. Here is how he viewed life:

"That man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of though and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins – all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built."

With a worldview like this, is it any wonder that so many in the left must practice "unyielding despair!" They cannot practice the virtue of hope.

Taken for the book of Lynn White Jr., Machina Ex Deo: Essays in the Dynamism of Western Culture, Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1968, p. 60-61.

Finding the Real Soul of the Apostolate

Written by Norman Fulkerson

The present scandals in the Church have many people looking for positive solutions to the multifaceted problems which beset the Bride of Christ, not realizing that the true solution will only come from Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, His life within us and fidelity to His teachings. The Soul of the Apostolate is a book, which not only shows how this is possible, but the way it is to be accomplished.

No commentary on this book would be complete without a word about its author. Jean-Baptiste Chautard was born in the French Alps on March 12, 1858. His father was a nominal Catholic who ran a little bookstore, but his mother made sure that their children were educated in the Catholic faith. Jean Baptiste eventually went on to study economics at the University of Marseilles where he had an experience which would change his life forever.

While walking across the campus one day Jean Baptiste happened upon a priest praying his breviary. This priest was unaware of the impression he was making on the economics student. "His bearing, full of respect and religion, was a revelation to me," said Dom Chautard, "and produced in me an urgent need to pray from then on, and to pray in the way this priest was praying. The Church appeared, concretized, so to speak, in this worthy minister, in communion with his God."

This incident led Jean Baptiste to change his life and become a man of prayer. Such is the impact of a man who truly practices the interior life. Only then can the person say with Saint Paul, "I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me."

Later he joined a Catholic club on campus founded by the saintly Father Jean-Joseph Allemand. It was in this association that he found the supernatural brand of Catholic Action which solidified him in the path towards a greater union with God. One day while in prayer at the tomb of Father Allemand, he received his calling to the priesthood and in 1877 entered the Trappist Abbey of Aiguebelle, north of Avignon.

Jean Baptiste did not enjoy the contemplative life of a monk for long. Shortly after being made deacon, his superior sent him on a very important mission to Paris to save the community from financial ruin. His eloquence and knowledge of economics proved useless in this undertaking. He was forced to have recourse to a nearby shrine where he threw himself at the feet of Our Lady of Victories. Thirty minutes later, he emerged from the shrine to be greeted by a total stranger. "Are you a Trappist?" the man asked. "Can I be of any assistance to you?" The rest of the story can be guessed. Aiguebelle was saved and Jean Baptiste learned another valuable lesson he would later utilize in forming his unique spirituality.

He was eventually ordained and became "Dom" or Abbot Chautard of the motherhouse of one of the most important abbeys of the Trappist Order, Sept-Fons.

In the first decade of the 1900's he was faced with another great challenge. The Church in France was attacked by the French Government, this time under Georges Clemenceau, who because of his hatred for Church, closed down many religious orders in France. Abbot Chautard however faced Clemenceau and his enemies with such fearlessness that the order was spared.

Reflecting on the persecutions against the Church at that time, Dom Chautard noticed a big mistake among Catholic leaders of the time. They were fighting against the enemies of the Church by using worldly and political weapons: newspapers, magazines and conventions. The growth of the Church was measured by the amount of new buildings being built and the amount of money in the coffers. While these material means are helpful and even necessary these Catholics failed to realize that God's Church is above all built of living stones not just mortar and brick. Success was measured in very materialistic terms when what the Church really needed were saints. But saints are made only by the grace of God.

In 1907, Dom Chautard published a little pamphlet titled "The Apostolate of Catechism and the Interior Life." He pointed out that the most important ingredient for the rebirth of zeal in a country where the Church is being persecuted is the preaching of the fundamentals of the Faith by people imbued with the interior life. The arguments in this little treatise formed the cornerstone for The Soul of the Apostolate.


The book is quite simple, containing very profound yet long forgotten truths. Its fundamental goal is to convince the reader that "we must never leave the God of works for the works of God and that Saint Paul's: 'Woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel', does not entitle us to forget: 'What does it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?'"
Through scripture passages and the lives of the saints, Dom Chautard shows that interior life is neither lazy nor selfish.

With an abundance of scripture quotes and examples from lives of the saints, Dom Chautard shows how it is possible to preach the Gospel and save one's own soul, by becoming real men of interior life. He gives powerful arguments to back up this point and proves how interior life is not lazy, selfish or detrimental to a truly fruitful apostolate done for the salvation of souls.

To understand the effectiveness of interior life, consider the fact that, "a single burning prayer of the seraphic Saint Theresa (as learned through a highly creditable revelation) converted ten thousand heretics." Without leaving her convent, she did that which "activistic heretics," even the most eloquent ones, could never do.

A bishop of Cochin-China once said to the Governor of Saigon: "Ten Carmelite nuns praying will be of greater help to me than twenty missionaries preaching."

The bottom line is there must be a harmony between the active life and the interior life. Saint Bernard explains this balance using the very interesting metaphor of the reservoir and the channel. "The channels let the water flow away, and do not retain a drop. But the reservoir is first filled, and then without emptying itself, pours out its overflow, which is ever renewed. We have many channels in the Church today," Saint Bernard added sadly, "but very few reservoirs."

The devil however knows the value of interior life and will often grant the apostle "a purely superficial success" if he can only prevent him from making true progress in the interior life. Dom Chautard calls these "successes" sapphires then wisely points out that the devil will gladly trade a few sapphires of the active life for the diamond of interior life.

The interior life is very well defined as "the state of activity of a soul which strives against its natural inclinations in order to REGULATE them, and endeavors to acquire the HABIT of judging and directing its movements IN ALL THINGS according to the light of the Gospel and the example of Our Lord."

Such seriousness about spiritual matters would be impossible without something Dom Chautard calls "custody of the heart." - the "habitual or at least frequent anxiety to preserve all my acts, as they arise, from everything that might spoil their motive or their execution."

To keep such a strict custody over the heart and therefore practice a solid interior life, one must absolutely avoid letting the agitation of daily life disquiet the soul and lead to dissipation. That is why Dom Chautard gives so much importance to rising, when possible, at the same time every morning, and beginning the day with morning mental prayer.

He who faces the day by hitting the floor running, really does not believe in his fundamental contingency on God. Dom Chautard rebukes such people saying, "To hear these mighty men of works talking about their exploits, one might imagine that God Almighty, to Whom it is child's play to create worlds, and before Whom the universe is dust and nothingness, cannot get along without their cooperation."

Such is the importance of morning mental prayer for those who want to attain a vibrant interior life that St. Theresa of Avila said that, "he who practices mental prayer has traveled half the journey. However he who does not practice at least fifteen minutes of mental prayer a day is an animal."

This may seem like "pie-in-the-sky" considerations for all those who look upon the present situation in the world and Church and yearn for action. They see prayer and contemplation as a waste of good time.

This is not true. The power of the interior life is impressive. Is it not true that tepid souls suddenly become fervent? The mysterious wind of supernatural life fills the sails of their souls once again and no one seems able to explain what caused such a transformation. Likewise, no one could explain how Jean Baptiste, the economics major, became a priest and later abbot of the most important abbey of the Trappist order, facing and overcoming the obstinate Clemeceau along the way.

One cannot logically explain how such a transformation could take place except with the doctrine so admirably laid out in his book The Soul of the Apostolate.

Such spiritual change is open to all men, even those most weighed down by the trials and tribulations of the modern world. Dom Chautard affirms this truth when he says, "No matter what my condition may be, if I am only willing to pray and become faithful to grace, Jesus offers me every means of returning to an inner life which will restore to me that intimacy with Him."

Oh, with what sweetness does he illustrate how the words of Isaias will be fulfilled in those who acquire such intimacy. "Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall speedily arise, and thy justice shall go before thy face, and the glory of the Lord shall gather thee up. Thou shalt call, and the Lord shall hear, thou shalt cry and He shall say: 'Here I am.' And the Lord will give thee rest continually, and will fill thy soul with brightness and will deliver thy bones, and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a fountain of water whose waters do not fail."

You can buy this great book by clicking here

Everything Normal on Mappatella Beach

Written by Luis Solimeo

A series of pictures in Milan's Corriere della Sera of July 31 shows a typical scene on a modern beach on a calm and pleasant day. Leaving aside the aspects of immorality and prosaism, everything seems normal on Mappatella Beach in the outskirts of Naples. Some beachgoers are sunbathing on the warm sand, others chat peaceably; a lady applies sun block lotion on another; a girl warms herself languidly in the sun. A little farther away, some people swim. All is normal.

Or, rather, all appears to be normal.

In fact, these photos illustrate a chronicle by Paolo Di Stefano in the Milan daily titled: Under the sunshade, next to a corpse, the indifference of beachgoers: some apply sun block, others swim... ¹

Di Stefano recounts how some bathers on the beach had seen a corpse floating strangely on the water, carried by the waves.

Was the person drowning? Or was he already dead? Who cares? The day was so beautiful, the sun so pleasant, the water so inviting.

At one point, one of the bathers called the lifeguards on his cell phone. That done, he went back to enjoy the delights of the beach. "It is not my job"

Since time went by and no help was forthcoming, another bather took the initiative to pull the corpse out of the water and lay him on the sand. Others threw bathing towels on top of him and opened a sunshade, partially hiding him. With that done, there was no longer the unpleasant view of a human corpse floating on the waves... and all went back to normal on Mappatella Beach.

This is how Antonio Sommaripa, 73 - a beachgoer like all others - died without any help right in the middle of the others, who continued to enjoy the pleasant Neapolitan beach.

Practical Atheism
This episode, however, is tragic. It is tragic and shocking: a human being drowns in plain view of all those who, like him, were on the beach. No one moved to help him; no one was interested in finding out whether he was still alive or if anything could be done to save him. There was absolute indifference toward the tragic end of a fellow human being.

The poor victim had probably been baptized; and this being Italy, he was perhaps a Catholic. The indifferent bathers were also probably baptized and perhaps considered themselves Catholics.

However, their attitude was one of complete atheism: if a dolphin or a seagull washed onto the beach maybe their interest, or at least their curiosity, could have been awakened. However, how to explain such an indifference toward a rational creature, endowed with an immortal soul, made in the image and likeness of God (and whose eternal destiny was being decided that instant), except as indifference in relation to the Creator Himself?

Such indifference can be qualified as a form of atheism. It is certainly not a conscious and militant atheism that arrogantly proclaims that "God does not exist." It is a more subtle, almost intangible form of what could be called practical atheism: one simply lives as if God does not exist.

As a famous maxim attributed to Dostoyevsky has it, "If God doesn't exist, everything is allowed." Likewise, it could be said that if God does not exist, nothing makes any sense. Hence you have a state of apathy or indifference for everything and everyone, including the Creator of all things.

Egoistic, Anti-Christian and Dehumanizing Indifference
Such absence of the most elementary feeling of compassion is telltale of the advance state of de-Christianization and re-paganization of the modern world, or, even beyond, the state of de-humanization into which humanity is plunging.

This is the inevitable consequence of a society that deifies pleasure and despises morals. The end result is the most complete selfishness in which the person lives as if the only thing that matters is pleasure and self-interest, and if, at least in practice, he considers that there is no objective morals that imposes limits on one's desires and defines one's obligations toward one's neighbor. Each person closes up in himself and his neighbor is important only to the degree that he helps him satisfy his pleasures or caters to his interests.

Such a selfish indifference is not just anti-Christian but also dehumanizing. Even some pagans understood the reciprocal bond that unites all men because of their common nature: "I am a man and nothing human is alien to me," Terence wrote in the second century before Christ.

Conversely, when man becomes estranged to things human, he himself loses his sense of humanity. Once the moral sense that binds individuals with their fellow creatures has disappeared, all that remains is a vague sentiment that will also disappear very soon.

The End of Sentiment and Rationality
Indeed, man is so much a social being that he needs other human beings to make his feelings manifest. When someone is dominated by selfishness, his feelings become numb: its object is the individual himself and there is no complementariness from his fellow human being. This leads to complete indifference toward one's fellow creatures, which, in turn, leads to the death of one's own sentiments inasmuch as they are human.

And with the end of sentiment, rationality itself succumbs.

This is logical: sentiment is only a sensible manifestation of man's rational concern toward his fellow humans. This is what distinguishes him from animals, from the standpoint of sensibility. Animals, being irrational, do not have true sentiment but only blind instincts that guide them in their invariable behavior. Thus, the solicitude of a mother animal with her cubs while they cannot fend for themselves cannot be compared to human sentiment (except as a remote analogy). Animal behavior is merely instinctive and does not create any truly affectionate relationship or bond between parents and offspring. This is so true that all relationships cease when the cubs become adult: they mutually become strangers.

Only man, whose sensibility is guided by reason, can establish lasting relationships of affection and responsibility. It is his rationality that tells him that the bonds that link him to his fellow creatures derive from nature itself. It is because he shares the same nature of a rational and free being that he feels solidary with his fellow human beings.

Normally, this solidarity is manifested above all in moments of difficulty and tribulation, and especially at the hour of death.

The Solemnity of Death
Modern culture tries hard to hide or banalize the reality of death. However, it is the fate common to all.

Death is the natural end of every man. For this reason, it is the most tragic and decisive reality for every human being. Every living being has a revulsion toward its own end. In an animal, this revulsion is purely instinctive. In man, it is rational. He is the only being who is conscious that with death, his earthly journey is over. This awareness and the uncertainty of what comes next put him in a state of complete contingency. This is why he needs more than ever, the sympathy and support of his fellow men.

A unique and inevitable development of this fact is that the moment of death takes on a special solemnity. It is the moment when a person is torn apart by the separation between soul and body.

This moment, terrible in itself, acquires supernatural grandeur when one bears in mind that once separated from the body, the soul appears before God, Who will decide on its eternal destiny.

The pagans of Antiquity and even savages shared the notion of the grandeur and seriousness of death. The Church and Christian civilization put together a whole ceremonial vested with the grandeur of the sacraments at the hour of death and gave funeral pomp a serious and sacral splendor.

A Lesson to be Drawn
None of the above considerations appears to have dawned on the bathers of Mappatella Beach.

But pay attention! Do not think that this callousness and insensitivity before the death of a human being is something circumscribed to a group of anonymous bathers in a faraway Neapolitan beach!

Do we not see here, and all around the world, that same cruel impassibility before the extermination of millions of innocent lives through abortion? And is this not the same mentality that is paving the way for euthanasia, eugenic sterilization and other brutal aberrations?

And what to say of the silence and omission of so many others? It this not a form of complicity?

May these reflections be useful to all those who agree that not everything was normal on Mappatella Beach.

Footnotes

1. http://www.corriere.it/cronache/09_luglio_31/di_stefano_sotto_l_ombrellone_accanto_a_un_morto_aacd1e56-7d92-11de-9f17-00144f02aabc.shtml [back]