Confessions – Part I (Introduction)

Dear Friends, Known and Unknown,

For weeks now, it has been a very, very trying and painful time on all levels. Practical, emotional, spiritual.

And in the midst of this ongoing trial, I found myself, some days ago, writing yesterday’s entry – which has a far more personal tone than much of the material that has appeared hitherto in this weblog.

At the time, I was seriously feeling I might have to give up this project. At least temporarily.

But inwardly it felt wrong to stop – and I have found, almost miraculously, a way to continue, which feels right.

Over the space of just a few hours, I found myself writing a long piece that will now be serialised here, under the title ‘Confessions’.

I use this term for several reasons. One is to indicate a point of departure. For the next days at least, this weblog will take a far more personal turn. Though it will not address personal events in my life, it will focus on issues in this weblog – including the world situation, world spirituality and the Church – in a more personal way.

Another reason I use the term 'confessions' is that I deliberately want to call attention to the fact that, while previously I presented much material that I pondered and researched over years – the following will be a little different.

Some of it, for example, will be very fresh material emerging in my mind. Things that I have not researched sufficiently yet, to present in the previous format.

Instead, I only want to say, I confess, dear friends, I confess, this is how the world appears to me at the moment. These are also 'confessions' as to my concerns, and as to what drives me in this effort …

Under this heading of 'confessions', I am going to say a number of controversial things about Christianity, the New Age movement, the World Soul as I see them.

I am going to go further than before. Go further, as I look out at the growing suffering of the world, suffering under a soulless, secularist and capitalist system.

And as I contemplate the developments, decades down the line, if the present trajectory continues to amplify in its effects …

I will go further in saying why this contemplation leads me personally to an ever more traditional position, an ever more traditional Catholicism. Even as I strive for a traditional Catholicism, which is deeply open-hearted, respectful of other traditions and socially and environmentally engaged.

And why, for example, I cannot help but feel New Age attempts to replace the tradition of the West are inadequate to the task at hand and fatally flawed - rooted as they often now seem to me, in ignorance of the tradition, reductionistic psychologising and a hermeneutic of suspicion. Rather than profound and rigorous reflection …

And why I feel it is my painful duty to raise these issues …

And what I see the alternatives are.

Though nothing **comprehensive** is promised and what is in store will be very personal and fragmentary, this at least gives indications of what will be forthcoming.

Please note the refrains here: about appearances and feelings. How things feel and appear to me.

These are my confessions. Confessions as I look out on the modern state of the Soul of Humanity and its spiritual and religious **needs**. Or at least, what it seems to me, is so burningly needed in our world - after years of struggling with these issues.

Yes, in all these matters, I struggle to clarify and sharpen my thinking. And perhaps some of you, who struggle too, can help me.

(Comments to this weblog are very gratefully received. I work necessarily in a certain darkness, as I send out these messages. Believing in them, but having little idea as to their reception - beyond the fact that a silent majority seem to visit here every day. For which I am very grateful.)

These confessions should resume in earnest on Monday. May your weekend, dear friends, be blessed, inspired and meaningful.