Three quotes from this blog's guiding inspirations

"A spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish temper and confined views. People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors."

-- Edmund Burke (1729-1797), English statesman and the grandfather of modern conservative thought.

"Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of man will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint."

-- Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), American Founding Father and early leader of the Federalist Party, America's first conservative political party.

"If a conservative order is indeed to return, we ought to know the tradition which is attached to it, so that we may rebuild society; if it is not to be restored, still we ought to understand conservative ideas so that we may rake from the ashes what scorched fragments of civilizations escape the conflagration of unchecked will and appetite."

-- Russell Kirk (1918-1994), American writer and social critic, one of the formative thinkers in post-World War II American conservatism.

Quote of the day: on the goals of the American Founding

"It's not tyranny we desire; it's a just, limited, federal government."

- Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), American founding father.

Bonus quote by Hamilton on the source of human rights (cross-posted over at American Creation):

"The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records.  They are written, as with a sun beam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power."

- taken from "The Farmer Refuted," February 1775,  quoted in James H. Huston, The Founders on Religion:  A Book of Quotations (Princeton University Press:  1995), pgs. 196-97.

Seven reasons to like the traditional Latin Mass

Taylor Marshall provides them in this interesting blog post.  Well worth a read for any Christian, not just those of the Catholic persuasion, who is interested in traditional forms of worship and traditional preaching (and that should be all of us!). 

Personally, while I have attended the traditional Latin Mass on several occasions, I've never been that overwhelmed or captivated by the older form of the Mass.  I can understand while others are, and I have absolutely no problem with the older form of Mass being offered, and in fact I strongly support its inclusion within the Roman rite.  But for myself, I prefer the current form of Mass in the vernacular (although I look forward to the improved English translation that is soon to be put into effect) for three reasons:  1) I can understand it; 2) it is closer to the practice of the early Church which always worshiped in the vernacular so far as we know; and 3) it has a much richer lectionary that provides for a fuller reading not only of the New Testament, but from the Old Testament as well.

I love Latin and would be very happy to see a wider use of the language not only within the Church but within the broader society as well.  The collapse of Latin study has been one of the signs of the collapse of Western civilization in the 19th and 20th centuries.  That said, the Mass in Latin was itself the product of a vernacularization effort within the early Roman rite, to put the Mass in the language of the people who lived in what was then the western half of the Roman Empire.  Prior to the introduction of the vernacular Latin into the Mass, the liturgy was celebrated in Greek (the common language of the eastern half of the Roman Empire, the part where Christianity originated).  And prior to being in Greek, the Mass was celebrated in Aramaic, the original language of Jesus and the Apostles.  So, vernacularization was always been part of the Christian liturgical tradition in its first 500 years or so.  It was only with the collapse of the Roman Empire in the west that the tradition of a vernacular liturgy was lost.

On following the truth

From one of the most innovative and formative thinkers of the early Christian faith:

Reason dictates that those who are truly pious and philosophers should honor and love only the truth, declining to follow the opinions of the ancients, if they are worthless.  For not only does sound reason dictate that one should not follow those who do or teach unjust things, but the lover of truth should choose by all means, and even before his own life, even though death should remove him, to speak and do righteous things.

St. Justin Martyr, First Apology, para. 2 (Ancient Christian Writers translation).  The last sentence gives you a clue about how St. Justin got his nickname, "Martyr."  He was killed for his defense of the Christian faith.

Justin's comments note an important point, which is for the Christian, truth takes priority over custom or human tradition, no matter how ancient or well-established.  This principle is the basis for the radicalism of the Christian faith, a radicalism that challenged the ancient world in regard not only to the truth of monotheism, but also in regard to the truth about basic human dignity and human rights.  And it is the same radicalism that challenges the modern world on exactly those same terms.  When Christians stand against the flow of modern culture regarding the existence of God, of God's inbreaking to the world in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the right to life, the nature of marriage, and the dignity of the human person, we are following in St. Justin's footsteps.  And it should be no surprise to us that the world regards such talk with hostility today, as our civilization is well on the way towards its re-paganization.

Conservatism is a great thing, but only when the things we are trying to conserve are true.  Conservatism in the defense of falsehood or vice, to paraphrase a great leader who unfortunately later lost sight of that principle, is no virtue.