tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6312447.post3285974796267655457..comments2024-03-28T16:16:51.062-04:00Comments on Musings of a Pertinacious Papist: "How monks and monasteries saved civilization and killed usury"Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6312447.post-72523842460033741912016-05-30T07:40:57.612-04:002016-05-30T07:40:57.612-04:00Dear Doc. ABS loves Italy and carries with him whe...<br />Dear Doc. ABS loves Italy and carries with him wherever he goes memories of trips there that dovetail tightly with this gentleman's recapitulation of the Monastic system.<br /><br />ABS' chest swells with pride because he is a member of that self-same universal nation that produced such grand works and, even today, produces fantastic food with very low impact farming which came into existence due to the intellect and industry of the monks of the Farther of Europe, Saint Benedict.<br /><br />Vivid memories include a short visit to a small town in Piemonte (Novara) that really fires the imagination and stokes Catholic pride. The memories are about a family run rice farm that is fed by water from a lake in the Alps - 30 kilometers away.<br /><br />The water for the fields is brought to their farm via ancient trenches dug by Monks centuries ago and the entire 85 hectare farm uses that gravity fed water for each of their fields (sans pumps) carved out of the clay-based soil in plots of land in descending elevation heights; and that water, having served its purpose on their farm drains away to flood the fields of other lower lying farms etc etc and all of the families using that water cooperate monetarily to maintain the integrity of the ancient hand-dug trenches.<br /><br />ABS is absolutely deeply in love with everything in Italy. The Bride would never do so but he would move there in a heartbeat.<br /><br />The skyline of American cities reveals what we worship and the skyline of Italian cities reveals what they once worshipped with the difference being that Italian cities offer hope (their people could return to the Faith) whereas American cities offer no hope for there is no hope in a country constructed upon the sands of enlightenment naturalism.<br /><br />In America, our skylines are financial institutions, Trump Towers, corporate headquarters, sports stadiums, whereas in Italy, the Duomo and countless Catholic Church spires atop impossible beautiful Catholic Churches.<br /><br />Oh, by the way, on a trip to Italy, ABS read Dr John Rao's," Black Legends and the Light of the World", and it was an excellent recapitulation of Catholic history and the last one hundred pages or so was spectacular because he spent so much time on the ideas developed by the 19th century genius of La Civilta Cattolica, Padre Luigi Tarpelli (Jebbie) and the great Frenchman, and model layman, Louis Veuillot.<br /><br />Both of those men have THE answers to what we Catholic laity must due vis a vis political parties in America.<br /><br />The book is well worth reading if only for those sections beginning with "The Ninth Crusade."<br /><br />The only caution about the book is his metaphor about the dance of life; a metaphor so wildly overused that ABS told The Bride that he would be end-up dancing at the end of a rope were he have to read that friggin' metaphor one more time...<br /><br />O, and whenever he sees the Alps. ABS thinks of them as representing the great Catholic giants of the past and not, say, Mount Blanc; no, rather, Mount Borromeo, Mount Benedict, etc.<br /><br />In any event, there is hope when young men like this gentleman keep these memories alive and teach youth about them<br />Mick Jagger Gathers No Mosquehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12879499915093940176noreply@blogger.com