Saving Civilization One Word at a Time
For the end of the world was long ago,
And all we dwell today
As children of some second birth,
Like a strange people left on earth
After a judgment day.
For the end of the world was long ago,
When the ends of the world waxed free,
When Rome was sunk in a waste of slaves,
And the sun drowned in the sea.
When Caesar’s sun fell out of the sky
And whoso hearkened right
Could only hear the plunging
Of the nations in the night.
G.K. Chesterton
Something for the Weekend. From the endlessly talented songsters at Music For History Lovers, Illuminated Manuscripts sung to the tune of Nowhere Man by the Beatles. Monks toiling in Scriptoriums in monasteries throughout Europe during the Middle Ages and thereby rescuing some of the classic works of Antiquity is a cliche, but a true cliche. When the secular world of the Western Empire dissolved in chaos and ruin following the babarian invasions, it was the Church that rescued the lamp of knowledge. Only an institution like the Church, a rock in the river of time, could century following century ensure the survival and copying of manuscripts that preserved a precious fraction of the writings of Greece and Rome. Jerusalem rescued Athens.
Of course, adapting to changing technology could be rugged, but fortunately even in the Middle Ages there was tech help:
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Father John Jalopy (The Big Bad Wolf) has something to add to all of this. See his new videos exhorting us all to progress the Faith:
THE NUCLEAR WASTE OF THE SOUL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MlsAY4fsmg
“PERMISSIVE PARENTING”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-YC6nv3t_o
“THE DANGER OF DANGERS”
You’re touched, Donald!
But I enjoyed the videos, nevertheless!
Perhaps the lines should be read as Anglo-Saxon four-beat lines. Cf. “Seafarer,” BEOWULF, and Coleridge’s “Christabel.”
And there is still more ancient works occasionally found saved in the monastic libraries of Europe. But ask anyone, the Catholic Church is against knowledge and learning.
There are people more touched than Donald R. McClarey!
Father John Jalopy! By ye gods! Absolutely fantastic! I gotta stop laughing before I bust open my gut!
That comedy clip is brilliant
I wonder how many other situations could be dreamt up to apply the same thinking?
Don
The second video is pitch perfect, I have loved it ever since I first saw it.
At least Brother Tech Person did not have to explain that it works better if you jush push the button that says “Off/on” in a friendly and helpful tone of voice.
Or the ever popular, “Did you plug it in?”
Interesting….Christianity preserved knowledge and fostered learning. The world had grown old and weary (to paraphrase Chesterton), and Christianity breathed new life into it. Yes, this is marvellous.
And right about now we’re getting tired of programs, schemes and of planning. Tired of building and of projects. People can’t reason well anymore. People don’t know how to live life. And only Christianity can help. Only Christ can rescue the individual. More often than not, it’s that very brokenness that leads us to God, drawing us closer and closer to Him. Otherwise we’d be fine. We’d ignore Him, too wrapped up in ourselves and allthat we have and do. No, I would not lament decline. Of course it’s never enjoyable. But anything that brings people closer to God and further away from themselves is profitable beyond measure.