what people fail to realize about political incrementalism is that the leap from being a liberal to being a “right wing” populist is much, much smaller than the leap from being a right wing populist to being, say, a Catholic reactionary (for lack of a better term)

in the former case, the difference is almost entirely a matter of degree or minor modification

in the latter case, foundational building blocks of your world view have to be entirely overhauled and rebuilt from the ground up before you can even start knowing how to think like a Catholic reactionary, let alone become one yourself

“a stumbling block to the Jews, and folly to the Gentiles”

Pray for Nick!

I got in a bad car accident so probably no show until Monday at least. I’m okay!

the hierarchy of being is measured by the degree to which a thing’s activity is received from within itself

from rocks to animals to men and to angels, perfective activity arises more and more from within their own being

in God, however, being and activity are one, given and received eternally among Three Divine Persons, consubstantial with each other and with the Divinity itself

the Coronation was in many ways beautiful and even otherworldly in some parts, but tainted by the fact that most of the “clergy” involved in the ceremony (down to the “Archbishop” himself) don’t even really believe in about half of what was prayed for in the Coronation liturgical texts

only Catholicism (by virtue of its doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Mystical Body, and the Eucharist) sufficiently terminates the regress of potential answers to the question “what more could God offer of Himself to man?”

one of the most important Christological dogmas is that Jesus is not a human Person, but is a Divine Person with a human nature

the reason for this is that if He were a human Person, then His human nature’s union with Divinity would not be able to be participated in by us in any metaphysically meaningful sense because this would already be occupied by a separate human Personality

instead, precisely because He is a Divine Person with a human nature, that human nature can be participated in by us who also share this nature, for the sake of uniting us all the more intimately with the Divine Person of the Logos Who fashioned our Nature out of the wellspring of His infinite love

it does not honor the sovereignty and majesty of God to deny the Incarnation, it actually has the opposite effect

only a limited, finite God would have His majesty diminished by taking upon human flesh

It is precisely because God is infinite in power and majesty that He can take upon human flesh while still abiding fully in His transcendent splendor

since the State derives its accidental being from the substantial being of human persons, the end of the State must be one with the end of the human person, which is none other than union with God

this is why any non-integralist vision of politics is foundationally absurd

I will (finally) be launching a series on cozy.tv starting May 31st where I’ll be going through the fundamental teachings of the Catholic Faith

For each teaching, I’ll offer deeper explanation, philosophical justification, spiritual implications, and answering stock objections or audience questions pertaining to that teaching

See you there!

cozy.tv/classicaltheist

pope francis is right that the Church cannot go backwards, and that going backwards is not the work of the Spirit, Who always moves the Church forward

but in order for the Church to move forward, She must transcend the zeitgeist of the current secular age, which he doesn’t want to do

to do that, She must look back, and in looking back, properly discern what is truly perennial among Her accumulated treasures so that She can restore and preserve them in order to move forward in fidelity to Christ and to what the right hand of the Lord has planted in His vineyard throughout the ages

the progressive stages of the spiritual life (purgative, illuminative, and unitive) are each reflected in the stages of the Mass itself, whereby sin is forgiven and purged through the penitential rites, knowledge and love of Christ is increased through our meditative participation in the Liturgy of the Word, and a direct non-discursive union with the Lord Himself is achieved through our participation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice and Holy Communion

the finer points of intra-catholic disputes regarding sexuality and marital chastity are best dealt with in seminaries and confessionals, not social media

besides the fact that he’s theologically incorrect about Vatican II, Taylor Marshall’s credibility as a pre-Vatican II traditionalist is undermined by the fact that he conspicuously refuses to touch one of few issues that most decidedly marks the starkest contrast between the Church hierarchy of the past vs the current Church hierarchy, namely, the Church’s relationship to Judaism

Father Garrigou Lagrange (pre V2) answered our question on the 21 coptic martyrs

unabashed Christianity and forthrightness about judaism are the two key components that made ye24 uniquely promising

to the extent these things are missing from ye24, it’s not meeting the needs of the moment, and AF remains the only political game in town

what was most exciting about ye24 was the possibility of effective resistance to the current political order coming from outside of the established political framework, which is most likely the only way things will change for the better

but this can only happen by cooperating with Divine grace and cleaving to the commandments of Christ and thereby abiding in His power and love, which ye24 has tragically shunned

“To the pious Thou showeth Thyself pious, and towards the upright Thou art upright. With the sincere Thou dealest sincerely, and with the perverse Thou makest Thyself seem torturous. Thus Thou, [O Lord], helpest the lowly, and the haughty eyes Thou bringeth low.”, Psalm 18

the sad part about the YZY rave was that ye probably wasn’t even intending to be blasphemous for the sake of blasphemy, but chose to ignore the demands of the Gospel by dabbling in blasphemy for the sake of his own artistic self-expression, which cuts to the heart of luciferian pride

he needs our prayers more than anything