My 10 greatest influences meme
Jay Anderson at Pro Ecclesia tagged me with this meme, and it’s one of those that might be more work than what they’re worth, but I’ll give it a go anyway. The theme is to list your top ten greatest influences outside of God and family. I think the best way for me to approach this is to do it in chronological order to the extent it can be done that way. I am going to attempt to stay away from naming certain obvious people like Our Holy Mother and other saints based on their intercession because they are many and great, but I will name some whose earthly works had a particularly strong influence on me. Essentially this will be my conversion story based on pivotal influences throughout my life.
After outlining my selection, I realized that I had to trim some out and/or incorporate one or more influences into a category.
1. Satan. I’m terribly sorry to say that, but it’s true. Not that I am desiring to pay the evil-bastard any homage, but my life story is full of bad decisions, immoral actions, flawed thinking, etc. to which Satan’s influence played a big role. Because I had bought into his lies and acted upon them, I am still affected by him to this day. Fortunately I understand the process and usually recognize his influence, but it doesn’t mean that particular temptations aren’t persistently difficult for me to ward off. I was raised Catholic, but fell away at 18 years old. Part of the reason was that I was alienated with the leftists politics which was so prevalent among the clergy at the time, but truth be told I used that as more of an excuse to do ‘my will’ which had more to do with partying and acting upon concupiscence.
2. Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. What a combination, huh? Let me explain. Reagan influenced me in a similar manner as he did Jay. While not perfect, Ronald Reagan was the best president and one of the best leaders of the 20th century. The political climate of the 80’s and Reagan’s politics inspired me to pay attention to political affairs, form opinions based on reason, and to consider the morality of political decisions.
Bill Clinton served to scare the shit out of my concerning the future of our country and way of life. His immoral and irresponsible policies, coupled with his demagoguery inspired me to get active in some grass-roots political activism and to study the United States’ founding fathers and the philosophy behind their politics and intentions. This in turn, inspired me to start considering varied things like the state of our nation, the world, my morality (or lack thereof) and to consider Ayn Rand’s Objectivism (there are elements which are valid, but the contradictions and falsehoods were too great) and:
3. Miscellaneous ‘End time’s’ Protestant ministers. Through folks like Jack Van Impe, the LaLonde brothers, etc. I came to re-find Christ, not in a ‘born-again’ sense, but in the sense that I took an interest in finding Truth and conforming my will to it. Fortunately, all these folks can’t agree on a single thing other than that they aren’t Catholic. Seeking Truth for the sake of Truth and being open to looking at the faith of my youth, I became convinced of the Truth of the Catholic faith in a large part to having read some papers by:
4. Bro. Michael Dimond. First let me caution you. I do NOT endorse this man or his theology. I do NOT recommend reading his material. That his boldness in proclaiming that the Catholic Church is the One True Church and pointing out that the Church is True whether or not your friendly neighborhood modernist priest or bishop is. Through him it became clear to me that there was a battle for the life of the Church. At first it seemed clear as to what side was in the right, but after a lot of reading, praying, and exposure to the worst that traditionalism has to offer, I have continued to move on which will be treated on further. Let’s just say, that my whole process of conversion has been a great grace from God. He has used folks like Reagan and Clinton; John Locke, Thomas Jefferson and Samuel Adams; Ayn Rand and loyal followers; a host of Protestant ministers and various schismatics, and well meaning, but misguided people to bring me along on my journey to Truth and hopefully salvation. (Also extremely influential at that time was the book Hell; Plus How to Avoid it)
5. Rhonda Lugari. My dear wife. (I know that we’re supposed to exclude family, but she wasn’t always family) Not a thought crosses my mind nor is a decision made without my considering her. She is the most important part of my life (not that the kids don’t rank, but everything concerning the kids also concern Rhonda; so she encompasses the children too). She doesn’t seem to realize what a huge factor she is in my life, and I suppose that somehow I am responsible for that, though I have told her. Our marriage, like most others, isn’t picture perfect, but in spite of it’s shortcomings I would do it all over again.
6. St. Alphonsus Liguori. This great saint wrote The Glories of Mary, which I have read multiple times. It did more for me spiritually than any other work. It instilled in me a profound appreciation of Our Heavenly Mother which sticks with me to this day. Honorable mention for a similar influence is St. Louis de Montfort and True Devotion to Mary.
7. C. S. Lewis. Mere Christianity put into plain words things I knew, but didn’t have a sufficient grasp of, as well as introducing new thoughts and a deeper appreciation of other theological concepts. I can see how this book could be life changing for anyone who would read it with an fairly open mind. The Screwtape Letters truly opened my eyes to the influences of the devil on my life and to this day serve to help me be on guard and resist certain temptations.
8. Dr. Warren Carroll and St Catherine of Siena. Dr. Carroll is a historian and was a founder of Christendom College. I love history and I use it the way it should be used; to understand past events, how they affect things now, and how to do things better now and in the future. I read his History of Christendom series (I highlighted it here) at a time in my life when I was questioning many of my incongruent rad-trad positions and had decided to focus most of my attention on achieving personal holiness rather than apologetics and analyzing ecclesial news and events, etc. What happened in the course of reading this great history (told by a Catholic who is objective enough to admit that everyone has to write from a particular perspective and that he writes from a Catholic perspective. However, that doesn’t mean he is an apologist for misdeeds committed by Catholics, etc. It just means that when the morality of a given event is to be determined, it will be based on the Catholic notion of morality rather than a secular of heretical notion.
A number of things in particular struck me. One of which was the Church’s ability to withstand every crisis and how long it often took. Today’s crisis began to pale in comparison to many of the other issues the Church faced. Also that this isn’t the first time that a great number of our shepherds are actually lost sheep themselves. Most importantly though, was the way true Catholics always stuck with the pope, regardless of how weak, incompetent or even sleazy. He IS Peter even when he doesn’t seem like it. When it finally struck me that the pope is pope to the world, whether those outside the Church accept it or not, and that throughout history they behaved as such (excluding a few poor examples), I had to reexamine where the Church and out leaders are today.
Introduced to me in one of the books was the example of St. Catherine of Siena and one quote in particular. St. Catherine was extremely holy, yet humble. She had the nerve to give the pope what-for, but it was always respectfully done and done out of charity. She wasn’t condemning a cowardly pope, or distancing herself from him, but was lovingly and firmly coercing him to do the right thing. One thing she had said was something to the effect of “Woe to you who would raise your head up against Christ’s vicar; I don’t care if the successor to Peter is the devil incarnate, I will rest my head in his bosom. That struck me hard and influences me to this day.
9. St. Padre Pio. His story of holiness, willingness to suffer through anything and obedience, even to a bishop he knew to be terribly wrong came at the perfect time for me. These influences led me into the fullness of the faith and enabled me to see that even if I didn’t understand or like certain things going on in the Church, that I still need to be fully and completely and unconditionally inside of Her.
10. Pope John Paul II. As a rad-trad I was of the mind that Pope JPII was just another in a string of wishy-washy popes who would sacrifice doctrine for a warm-fuzzy ecumenical feeling. During my process of conversion, I came to realize what a bum rap he was given by trads. Sure, it was disappointing to see things like the hammer being put down on trads, yet people who seem to have contempt for the Church’s teaching, like numerous priests, bishops and cardinals not only escape any censure, but in the case of some get elevated. However, the good pontiff got a bum rap (and still does) from many rad-trads. For every thing that they point to that he did “wrong”, there were 1000 that he did right.
How many times has the Assisi prayer meeting brought up? The kissing of the Koran (if indeed it happened)? Yet, when we got Catholic radio here, everyday on the news they would talk about the pope’s address and comments he made during various functions. The man was ALWAYS and continually preaching the need for confession and the Eucharist. He would address ecumenism often and always state that there is but one Christ and one Church and the goal was to become one in The Church.
For me, what I had to do then was to force myself to exercise some charity toward Pope John Paul II. First, I had to come to terms with the prospect that if I went to my judgment and found out that Pope John Paul II was in a very real communion with Our Lord and always acted upon the Divine Will, and here I had been questioning his actions, I would have no defense. Our Lord gave me the graces (inspite of my thorough wretchedness) and enough intellect to use reason to obtain faith, yet I didn’t remain true to that intellect and reason, thereby selling myself short and scandalized others in the process.
Praying, striving for personal holiness (still nowhere near it and having fallen in my attempts), and purposely avoiding the harping on things that didn’t seem ‘right’ to me, I eventually began to understand those things more clearly and I think successfully put all things into perspective. Then too did I realize that Pope John Paul the Great was a great blessing to the Church and that our current pontiff Pope Benedict XVI is as well. I sincerely believe that God is looking out for His Church and that John Paul’s personality and manner was inspired to do a particular thing and that Benedict is the next phase and no matter what questions or concerns I have, I will rest my head in the bosom of Peter and never depart.
I think this serves to inform the reader to where I am coming from in much of my commentary and to explain why have a lot of sympathy for traditionalists as a whole, including many in the SSPX, but outright reject sedevacantists and certain folks like Bishop Williamson and their schismatic mentality. And don’t say it doesn’t exist within the SSPX, because I was there and have experienced it first hand. Obviously this was only a sketch, but it may help you when measuring my words and deciding whether you want to string me from a tree or give me an ‘Amen’.
I have to say this too; one thing I've learned to accept is that no matter what, I could still be wrong about something. I've never really had a problem about having to have an opinion on something. I'm quite comfortable saying, "I don't know." God graced me with common sense and the ability to get a general sense of things, nevertheless, I often times refrain from commenting on things just because I think one should have good reason to speak out on something, and be confident that they can back it up.
I hereby will and bequeath this meme to Quintero, Jason, Tom, and Steve
Sorry to do this to you guys, but I look forward to reading how you were influenced.
After outlining my selection, I realized that I had to trim some out and/or incorporate one or more influences into a category.
1. Satan. I’m terribly sorry to say that, but it’s true. Not that I am desiring to pay the evil-bastard any homage, but my life story is full of bad decisions, immoral actions, flawed thinking, etc. to which Satan’s influence played a big role. Because I had bought into his lies and acted upon them, I am still affected by him to this day. Fortunately I understand the process and usually recognize his influence, but it doesn’t mean that particular temptations aren’t persistently difficult for me to ward off. I was raised Catholic, but fell away at 18 years old. Part of the reason was that I was alienated with the leftists politics which was so prevalent among the clergy at the time, but truth be told I used that as more of an excuse to do ‘my will’ which had more to do with partying and acting upon concupiscence.
2. Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. What a combination, huh? Let me explain. Reagan influenced me in a similar manner as he did Jay. While not perfect, Ronald Reagan was the best president and one of the best leaders of the 20th century. The political climate of the 80’s and Reagan’s politics inspired me to pay attention to political affairs, form opinions based on reason, and to consider the morality of political decisions.
Bill Clinton served to scare the shit out of my concerning the future of our country and way of life. His immoral and irresponsible policies, coupled with his demagoguery inspired me to get active in some grass-roots political activism and to study the United States’ founding fathers and the philosophy behind their politics and intentions. This in turn, inspired me to start considering varied things like the state of our nation, the world, my morality (or lack thereof) and to consider Ayn Rand’s Objectivism (there are elements which are valid, but the contradictions and falsehoods were too great) and:
3. Miscellaneous ‘End time’s’ Protestant ministers. Through folks like Jack Van Impe, the LaLonde brothers, etc. I came to re-find Christ, not in a ‘born-again’ sense, but in the sense that I took an interest in finding Truth and conforming my will to it. Fortunately, all these folks can’t agree on a single thing other than that they aren’t Catholic. Seeking Truth for the sake of Truth and being open to looking at the faith of my youth, I became convinced of the Truth of the Catholic faith in a large part to having read some papers by:
4. Bro. Michael Dimond. First let me caution you. I do NOT endorse this man or his theology. I do NOT recommend reading his material. That his boldness in proclaiming that the Catholic Church is the One True Church and pointing out that the Church is True whether or not your friendly neighborhood modernist priest or bishop is. Through him it became clear to me that there was a battle for the life of the Church. At first it seemed clear as to what side was in the right, but after a lot of reading, praying, and exposure to the worst that traditionalism has to offer, I have continued to move on which will be treated on further. Let’s just say, that my whole process of conversion has been a great grace from God. He has used folks like Reagan and Clinton; John Locke, Thomas Jefferson and Samuel Adams; Ayn Rand and loyal followers; a host of Protestant ministers and various schismatics, and well meaning, but misguided people to bring me along on my journey to Truth and hopefully salvation. (Also extremely influential at that time was the book Hell; Plus How to Avoid it)
5. Rhonda Lugari. My dear wife. (I know that we’re supposed to exclude family, but she wasn’t always family) Not a thought crosses my mind nor is a decision made without my considering her. She is the most important part of my life (not that the kids don’t rank, but everything concerning the kids also concern Rhonda; so she encompasses the children too). She doesn’t seem to realize what a huge factor she is in my life, and I suppose that somehow I am responsible for that, though I have told her. Our marriage, like most others, isn’t picture perfect, but in spite of it’s shortcomings I would do it all over again.
6. St. Alphonsus Liguori. This great saint wrote The Glories of Mary, which I have read multiple times. It did more for me spiritually than any other work. It instilled in me a profound appreciation of Our Heavenly Mother which sticks with me to this day. Honorable mention for a similar influence is St. Louis de Montfort and True Devotion to Mary.
7. C. S. Lewis. Mere Christianity put into plain words things I knew, but didn’t have a sufficient grasp of, as well as introducing new thoughts and a deeper appreciation of other theological concepts. I can see how this book could be life changing for anyone who would read it with an fairly open mind. The Screwtape Letters truly opened my eyes to the influences of the devil on my life and to this day serve to help me be on guard and resist certain temptations.
8. Dr. Warren Carroll and St Catherine of Siena. Dr. Carroll is a historian and was a founder of Christendom College. I love history and I use it the way it should be used; to understand past events, how they affect things now, and how to do things better now and in the future. I read his History of Christendom series (I highlighted it here) at a time in my life when I was questioning many of my incongruent rad-trad positions and had decided to focus most of my attention on achieving personal holiness rather than apologetics and analyzing ecclesial news and events, etc. What happened in the course of reading this great history (told by a Catholic who is objective enough to admit that everyone has to write from a particular perspective and that he writes from a Catholic perspective. However, that doesn’t mean he is an apologist for misdeeds committed by Catholics, etc. It just means that when the morality of a given event is to be determined, it will be based on the Catholic notion of morality rather than a secular of heretical notion.
A number of things in particular struck me. One of which was the Church’s ability to withstand every crisis and how long it often took. Today’s crisis began to pale in comparison to many of the other issues the Church faced. Also that this isn’t the first time that a great number of our shepherds are actually lost sheep themselves. Most importantly though, was the way true Catholics always stuck with the pope, regardless of how weak, incompetent or even sleazy. He IS Peter even when he doesn’t seem like it. When it finally struck me that the pope is pope to the world, whether those outside the Church accept it or not, and that throughout history they behaved as such (excluding a few poor examples), I had to reexamine where the Church and out leaders are today.
Introduced to me in one of the books was the example of St. Catherine of Siena and one quote in particular. St. Catherine was extremely holy, yet humble. She had the nerve to give the pope what-for, but it was always respectfully done and done out of charity. She wasn’t condemning a cowardly pope, or distancing herself from him, but was lovingly and firmly coercing him to do the right thing. One thing she had said was something to the effect of “Woe to you who would raise your head up against Christ’s vicar; I don’t care if the successor to Peter is the devil incarnate, I will rest my head in his bosom. That struck me hard and influences me to this day.
9. St. Padre Pio. His story of holiness, willingness to suffer through anything and obedience, even to a bishop he knew to be terribly wrong came at the perfect time for me. These influences led me into the fullness of the faith and enabled me to see that even if I didn’t understand or like certain things going on in the Church, that I still need to be fully and completely and unconditionally inside of Her.
10. Pope John Paul II. As a rad-trad I was of the mind that Pope JPII was just another in a string of wishy-washy popes who would sacrifice doctrine for a warm-fuzzy ecumenical feeling. During my process of conversion, I came to realize what a bum rap he was given by trads. Sure, it was disappointing to see things like the hammer being put down on trads, yet people who seem to have contempt for the Church’s teaching, like numerous priests, bishops and cardinals not only escape any censure, but in the case of some get elevated. However, the good pontiff got a bum rap (and still does) from many rad-trads. For every thing that they point to that he did “wrong”, there were 1000 that he did right.
How many times has the Assisi prayer meeting brought up? The kissing of the Koran (if indeed it happened)? Yet, when we got Catholic radio here, everyday on the news they would talk about the pope’s address and comments he made during various functions. The man was ALWAYS and continually preaching the need for confession and the Eucharist. He would address ecumenism often and always state that there is but one Christ and one Church and the goal was to become one in The Church.
For me, what I had to do then was to force myself to exercise some charity toward Pope John Paul II. First, I had to come to terms with the prospect that if I went to my judgment and found out that Pope John Paul II was in a very real communion with Our Lord and always acted upon the Divine Will, and here I had been questioning his actions, I would have no defense. Our Lord gave me the graces (inspite of my thorough wretchedness) and enough intellect to use reason to obtain faith, yet I didn’t remain true to that intellect and reason, thereby selling myself short and scandalized others in the process.
Praying, striving for personal holiness (still nowhere near it and having fallen in my attempts), and purposely avoiding the harping on things that didn’t seem ‘right’ to me, I eventually began to understand those things more clearly and I think successfully put all things into perspective. Then too did I realize that Pope John Paul the Great was a great blessing to the Church and that our current pontiff Pope Benedict XVI is as well. I sincerely believe that God is looking out for His Church and that John Paul’s personality and manner was inspired to do a particular thing and that Benedict is the next phase and no matter what questions or concerns I have, I will rest my head in the bosom of Peter and never depart.
I think this serves to inform the reader to where I am coming from in much of my commentary and to explain why have a lot of sympathy for traditionalists as a whole, including many in the SSPX, but outright reject sedevacantists and certain folks like Bishop Williamson and their schismatic mentality. And don’t say it doesn’t exist within the SSPX, because I was there and have experienced it first hand. Obviously this was only a sketch, but it may help you when measuring my words and deciding whether you want to string me from a tree or give me an ‘Amen’.
I have to say this too; one thing I've learned to accept is that no matter what, I could still be wrong about something. I've never really had a problem about having to have an opinion on something. I'm quite comfortable saying, "I don't know." God graced me with common sense and the ability to get a general sense of things, nevertheless, I often times refrain from commenting on things just because I think one should have good reason to speak out on something, and be confident that they can back it up.
I hereby will and bequeath this meme to Quintero, Jason, Tom, and Steve
Sorry to do this to you guys, but I look forward to reading how you were influenced.
posted by Rick Lugari @ 3:18 PM
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