We "Translate Doctrine Into Form and Color": Hail, Blogger

"The proper sphere of a Catholic craftsman who is responsive to the appeal of the liturgical movement is to translate its doctrine into terms of form and color, and so help in presenting it to his fellow men through the medium of the senses. Let us be quite clear about this. His work is not that of a teacher, but of a translator of others' teaching. His normal function is to get on with the job without explaining what he is doing or why he is doing it.

He may well consider the job important enough in itself, if he accepts the definition of Catholic philosophy that all truth has to pass through the senses before reaching the understanding. Nihil in intellectu nisi prius fuerit in sensu." -- Geoffrey Webb, Liturgical Arts Quarterly, 1942

In a recent teleclass, Laura Berquist spoke extensively about the process of thinking, and it's always fascinating to reflect on the steps required to have a single thought. (Wait, is there such a thing? It seems like thoughts, by definition, multiply without cause or consciousness.) It is a truth that the senses are the first to record an image, and the image must be outside ourselves before we can process it. All thinking is a function of sorting --- matching a momentary impression to one similar or dissimilar in past experience. She used the example of a baby's shape sorter: we possess the triangle block, and we hunt for the triangular-shaped hole.


I think of our first associations with sex, and how powerful they are. Our role in the encounter, the general goals of the affair, and so on, these provide the tone of so much of our future searching. Those who are abused or preyed upon have much to overcome. Those who are derailed by selfish lust have themselves to overcome. Good news there, directly from Aristotle:

"I count him braver who overcomes his desires

than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self."

If that's all too vague, perhaps Raquel Welch's take will be useful.


Realizing that blogging is not liturgical, as it were, but a venue for those who are called to the avocation of writing -- I'm a wife and mother first, but I desire to more widely share the truth which has set me free. You won't find many original thoughts here at Lox Populi, but I aim to translate the Big Ideas which have deeply impacted my family. Also, I think the opening quotation, taken very generally, means that fiddling with my blog's color and decorations ad infinitum is totally fruitful.


God Bless You!