"If we keep the image of death constantly in our minds, we will appreciate with bitter regret the value of each lost day." [1]The best thing about being in the hospital, aside from recovering from my illness, of course, was being disconnected from the outside world. For nearly a week, lost in prayer, my reading materials and the pleasant company of visiting well-wishers, I was completely cut off from the lunacy that is the internet. No stories about the imminent alien invasion, climate devastation, or the threat of WWIII and nuclear armageddon was a welcome breath of fresh air.
This first struck me when I returned home and logged on to my computer to catch up on my correspondence and world news. Almost immediately the negativity and incivility radiated from the monitor, boiling my blood and making me regret the waste of time. Why aren’t I still reading the poems of Hermann Hesse and the Pisan Cantos of Ezra Pound? Even the pessimistic aphorisms of E.M. Cioran weren’t as bleak as the humorless histrionics glutting the web.
Not sure how long it will last, but the euphoria of being alive after a near-death experience has renewed my lust for life. The warmth of the sun on my skin and the song of chirping birds, when I was finally discharged from the hospital, gave me a lump in my throat. The circling kettle of vultures will have to wait a little longer for my quietus. I' campo ancora—I'm still living.
Enjoying all the little things I once took for granted doesn’t mean I shirk my duties or try to evade the difficult tasks or hardships. Rather, I welcome the challenges and adversities and with God’s grace, I will overcome them. Despite the occasional faltering and moments of weakness, I will relish the wonders and beauty of this world, for which there are many, but I will also continue to fight for what I believe in—now harder than ever.
Give me, O Lord my God, what is left Thee, that which no one asks of Thee.
I do not ask Thee for rest or tranquility, neither of body or soul.
I do not ask Thee for wealth or success or health.
So many ask Thee for these, my God, that none must be left Thee.
Give me, Lord, what is left. Give me what all refuse.
I want risk and anguish. I want fight and pain.
Give me this, my God, once and for all.
Give me the certainty that this will always be my portion because I will not always have the courage to ask it of Thee.
Give me, Lord, what is left Thee.
Give me what others do not want.
But also give me courage, strength and Faith. [2]
"May you live in interesting times." [3]We live in interesting times, to say the least. The “lizard people” [4] are doing their worst and societal collapse continues unabated. Duty-bound and detached from base worldly affairs, we must guard the hearth, throne and altar wherever they still stand. Take time to smell the roses my friends, but never shrink from the tasks at hand.
Blessed to be born in “interesting times,” we are afforded the opportunities for greatness. While the decadent forces at play in the modern world are beyond our control, we God-fearing men are our own masters and can strive for spiritual regeneration in defiance of the present-day crises.
Aspiring to such heights (transcendence), we look to the future (the restoration of traditional society), balancing action (work) and contemplation (interior life), and keep our souls clean from sin and damnation (salvation and the call to sainthood).
"Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times." [5]As a young idealist, I once believed the modern West would collapse beneath the weight of its own decadence and begin anew, dragging itself out of the primordial ooze and return to first principles (faith, family and culture). Phantasms of adolescence, I foolishly surmised the fall was fast arriving and I would witness the rebirth in my own lifetime.
Some forty years later, it has become painfully clear that mass man is not only willing to put up with any degradation, but many actually revel in it. As a whole, dysfunction has become the norm. To believe the post-Christian Occident would miraculously escape the miserable fate of all the other failed states around the world is naïveté at best. As Belloc famously warned, “Europe will return to the Faith, or she will perish.” [6]
Things will have to get much harder before we see the rise of “strong men.” In the meantime, the best course of action for traditional-minded individuals is to take wives, have children, and pass on our time-honored traditions. For those of us who are not yet, and may never be progenitors, we must emulate the civilization-saving warrior-monks of Skellig Michael, Monte Cassino and elsewhere for a spiritual renewal to see us through our own “dark age.”
~ Giovanni di Napoli, September 4th, The Feasts of Santa Candida la Vecchia and Santa Rosalia
Notes:
[1] Cologero Salvo, Death and the Real I, Gornahoor, 2019-10-27
[2] André Zirnheld, The Paratroopers Prayer
[3] Chinese curse
[4] The hilarious lizard people conspiracy theory claims that the dominating globalist cabal running the planet are actually blood-sucking reptilian shapeshifters who live among us and manipulate humanity for their own nefarious means. In reality, they are just evil people.
[5] G. Michael Hopf, Those Who Remain, 2016
[6] Hilaire Belloc, Europe and the Faith, 1920
