Welcome to the Peasant Times-Dispatch
Issue 01
Letter From The Editor
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Peasant Times-Dispatch! This is the first issue of the Dispatch, my inaugural address to an audience of zero. That’s ok, I’m just getting a feel for this. If you stumble on this space before I have publicized it, you may not know that I have a Wordpress Blog! There I write about things on my mind, let my vague notions condense and precipitate into blog posts. It can be summed up in this way: Modern Catholic Peasant. It is Catholic in that I write thoughts and advice that is aimed at a Catholic audience and really any Christian seeking a unique perspective to aid the contemplation of their relationship with God. It is Peasant in that it seeks to keep its focus very much on what is in front of us, what is in our hands, what we are capable of handling. It is Modern in that it expresses these previous two—Catholic Peasant—ideas in a way that is cognizant of modernity, and which helps us to reject it.
Yes, the goal is to reject Modernity. I don’t mean to go back to the stone ages, but I do mean to mute distractions and to help us turn our attention to the Glory and Worship of God.
This newsletter is and will remain free, as will the content of my Wordpress blog. With a paid subscription, you will get to see and participate in the development of some books I have in mind. I have a work of Fiction and a work of non-fiction planned, and maybe one day I will have other ideas. I also reserve the right to write essays and do research for the benefit of my paid subscribers.
Paid or not, I am grateful that you have chosen to come to this space and to read my humble offering. I pray that you find this particular vine fruitful, and that it encourages you to return.
God bless, and happy reading!
A Word From The Wise
I always begin my prayer in silence, for it is in the silence of the heart that God speaks. God is the friend of silence—we need to listen to God because it’s not what we say but what he says to us and through us that matters.
- Mother Theresa
Silence is more important than we realize. We need silence—noise is mental and spiritual clutter, and silence is peace and order. Silence is when we can hear God best. God doesn’t shout—well, sometimes. If God wants you to learn a lesson he will not be misunderstood. But what I mean is that he doesn’t compete for your attention. Silence is how we give him that attention.
If you are like me, even pausing for a moment and trying to shut everything out is very difficult. When my exterior is silent my brain creates it’s own noise. Distracting thoughts, distracting images, distracting hopes, distracting regrets. It takes extraordinary effort to silence all of these. But as Mother Theresa says—it’s not what we say but what he says to us that matters. Silence is how we make ourselves receptive to the movements of the spirit and the word of God.
I challenge you to carve out some time for silence, give God 60 seconds of your quietest and most silent mind. He will use whatever you can give Him. Always resolve to give Him more!
Past Dispatches
CCCIV - On Praying Well
There are a lot of different ways one can pray, and it is good to pray in whatever ways suit you at the time that you decide to pray. Prayer is never wasted. But oftentimes I am tempted to mistake quantity of prayer for quality of prayer.
When I converted to Catholicism in 2018, the newest thing for me to learn was all the formulaic prayers the Church offers. Because my mind is so busy, the formulaic prayers helped provide some structure where before my prayers amounted to vague grasping and occasionally falling into the trap of treating God like Santa: “I’ve been good this year so can I please have a promotion at work?”
The formula prayers provided structure, but something that I needed was feeling. It is easy to pray, it is hard to pray well. I think that is why Silent prayer was such a powerful thing for me–it was all relationship and not so much supplication. It was opening a space in my mind for God.
I’ve been thinking about this because recently I fell into the trap that I was praying formulaic prayers often but not really spending time talking to God. What shook me out of it was I was upset about something and was despairing and thinking “Who can I talk to” and I looked at the crucifix in my room and was immediately struck by “Why wouldn’t I talk to Him?”
Oddly enough–after that the first thing I did was not get on my knees and start listing a litany of requests to God but rather I prayed the Rosary. The Rosary was effective for me in that moment because it was formulaic, so in my despair I didn’t have to think, I just had to do. It is also meditative, in contemplating the mysteries of our Lord’s life, death, and resurrection. These mysteries help me understand how Christ can be an example for me in the circumstances of my life.
As always with this kind of spiritual advice, your mileage may vary. The important thing with this article is that you do, in fact, pray. Perhaps you are like me and needed a reminder that you also should try to pray well.
Beauty, Goodness, Truth
This is a beautiful combination of two paintings by William Bouguereau. On the left: La Vierge Au Lys; on the right: La Pieta.
This is a fitting combination of paintings to reflect on this Easter season—it summarizes the Liturgical Calendar between Christmas and Easter. At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of our Redeemer; at Easter, we celebrate our Redemption through His suffering and death.
Ad Jesum Per Mariam