From The Editor
Welcome to this special SUBTEMBER edition of the Peasant Times-Dispatch. How have you been enjoying the special SUBTEMBER posts? I enjoyed writing them, and I hope you are finding them both tasteful and enjoyable. I am not one for shameless self promotion but I think this is an effective way to drum up some hype around the Peasant Life! We will see what the stats say when alls said and done.
In regular news, we haven’t stopped our regularly scheduled programming, I hope you have noticed! We rejoined Tylus for Episode 7, and the Podcast is still chugging away, to boot! More to come, as always. Thank you, my friends, for reading. I hope you enjoy!
Lay Your Burdens Down
Normally I like to kick off these monthly issues of the Times-Dispatch with scripture, but today I am going to do something a little different. Seeing as it is SUBTEMBER, I want to take the chance to introduce myself, tell you a little bit about me, and tell you a little bit about this project here. I am asking, in all these SUBTEMBER solicitations, for you to subscribe—it is fitting that you should know to whom you are subscribing.
I write under the name Scoot, a name which started as a joke but which has grown on me. I have been writing under that name since December 2018 over at my Wordpress site, which is a little bit more variety content—religion, philosophy, economics, etc. I formally started this Substack in February of 2022, after hearing several writers I respect independently discuss publications they are reading there. It got this idea in my head—what if I, too, joined substack? What if I started to professionalize my writing, to hold myself to a higher standard, to offer a product to a specific audience rather than shouting into the ether, as I generally consider myself to be doing at Wordpress?
The idea to professionalize my writing is all well and good, but what to write about? Hambone and I have been good friends for over a decade, and in fact Hambone was my conversion sponsor when I entered the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil, 2018. We rediscovered our faith together, and we have shared ideas and thoughts about what it is about our faith that we love, and how might we bring that to the world? Over years of conversation like this, peppered with wisdom from influences like the stoics and other wise Catholic bloggers, we began to form this idea of a Peasant’s Life.
St. John Berchmans did no severe penances, but he placed his whole perfection in performing his ordinary actions well and with great exactness. To this effect he wrote upon a slip of paper the maxim, Poenitentia mea maxima vita communis — My greatest penance is the common life. And with this alone, how perfect and dear to God he rendered himself! The same thing is told of St. Stanislaus Kostka, St. Francis de Sales, and many others.
The Peasant ethos is all about simplicity, and humility. Are we doing the little things in life with great love? Are we limiting our passions to those things we can directly control? Do we recognize the providence of God in all things—rain or shine, hot or cold—to the benefit of our work?
This had immediate appeal to me, because I was one of those news-junkies who was deeply invested in politics, geopolitics, economics, world news, you know how it goes. And then, as I began to understand the Peasant Life, I began to let those things go. Can I stop a flood in Bangladesh? Can I whisper appeals for peace in some bellicose tyrants ear? Can I do anything with some scrap palace intrigue, if I learn it? To all of these things: no. And so I set down the weight of the world, and began to look around me. I have very dear friends near at hand. A Parish which I can get involved in. People in my community whom I can serve. Suddenly I began to direct my passions away from the world and towards the community. And in doing so, I found peace.
That’s not to say the Peasant Life is all sunshine and rainbows, but if you find yourself with heartache about events in the world, and a strong desire to do something—perhaps the Peasant Life is for you? You don’t have to be Catholic to appreciate the Peasant Life, but it was borne out of discovery of the truths of the Church. For me, the two are inseparable. So my writing here reflects that union—that trusting in God helps me surrender to events outside my control; that looking for God’s blessings in my life helps me to focus on things within my control.
If all this sounds appealing to you, please consider subscribing. I would love to hear your thoughts, and I would love to help you lay down the worries of the world, and pick up the sweet yoke of Christ.
All things are delivered to me by my Father. And no one knoweth the Son, but the Father: neither doth any one know the Father, but the Son, and he to whom it shall please the Son to reveal him.
Come to me, all you that labour, and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is sweet and my burden light.
Thank You
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this special SUBTEMBER issue of the Peasant Times-Dispatch. Have you learned anything from the Peasant Times-Dispatch so far? If you have any positive takeaways, please let me know! I would love to hear how the Peasant Life is playing a role in your life!
Ad Jesum Per Mariam