Retreat!

 

I know, "retreat" sounds bad, like some kind of defeat, but this was good, a retreat  with the local chapter of the SSC (Society of the Holy Cross) at Camp Crucis, just outside Granbury. It's a fun drive if you take the country roads, 22 and 144 through Whitney, Meridian, Walnut Springs and Glen Rose, with long stretches of empty two lane highway running through the hills.

Not so long ago this was bandit country, the notorious haunt of outlaws and bootleggers and it still has, I always think, a frontier feel. You can imagine Indians on the hills and sure enough they were there, but now Granbury's home to marauding hordes of tourists instead of Commanche war bands and the camp's pleasantly distant from that.

Our schedule was simple, Morning Prayer, Low Mass, Evensong, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and a series of meditations on the priesthood. Plenty of time to have fun with fellow clergy too, all united in a common love of the Faith. And no, there weren't any priestesses performing transing liturgical dance to the beat of a unicorn's hooves. That's not allowed. 

Then, all too soon, it was time to head back to the Compound, uplifted in spirit. It was good to get away.

God bless,

LSP

SSC

 

What a busy couple of days, driving from the safe haven of the North Central Exclusion Zone into the brawling streetfight that is the DFW Metrosprawl connurb, a Mega City larger than Connecticut itself, wherever that is. Why?

To go to the SSC provincial Synod, which is an assembly of priests dedicated to asserting Catholic Faith for our part of God's holy Church. We met in Southlake for worship, teaching and fellowship and it's been a great thing to meet up with brothers in the Faith.

Originally, the SSC began in England as a priestly society bound together by a common rule of life, to promote the Faith in its fullness, what did this look like? Glorious liturgy, yes, but with that the founders of the society were renowned, seriously, for their work amongst the poor of East London. Not least in the cholera epidemic of 1865.

That spirit's alive today. What does it mean to be an Anglican? we ask, and the answer's, "A Catholic Christian." With that goes the admonition, "I was hungry and you fed me," and, "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."

So there you have it. Ma LSP returned from Wales today and was pleased to find her house burnished, clean and water on. We must take our victories, gentlemen and women, as we find them.

Your Old Pal,

LSP