Metanoia Magazine Vol. 2 No. 3

metanoia

CONTRIBUTORS

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF & CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Isabel Cumbelich

CONTENT DIRECTOR

Zoë Grimm

CONTENT UNDERLING

Alexander Dean

AMINISTRATIVE UNDERLING

Mark Taylor

DESIGN UNDERLING

Maghee Fleischer

DESIGNERS AND ART

Isabel Cumbelich

EDITORS

Alexander Dean

Joe Dotson

Zoë Grimm

ADVISORY BOARD

Kathleen Sullivan, PhD

Niall O’Donnell

Joseph Brutto, PhD

Daniel McInerny, PhD

Hugh O’Donnell, PhD

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Dear Reader,

MISSION STATEMENT:

Metanoia is a student magazine that showcases the height of Christendom College excellence in the areas of journalism, art, and design. It is meant to inspire thoughtful conversation among the student body and the broader Christendom community. Metanoia articles address issues concerning society, our immediate surroundings, and ourselves. Metanoia allows promising students the opportunity to develop their talents so that they can use contemporary media to “Restore All Things in Christ.”

The months have ticked away from us. Suddenly the prospect of leaving Christendom has become very real. For many of us, we are leaving what can only be called home. Despite how we fondly fiegn annoyance at the quirks of campus life– the mandetory Major Speaker events, the strict meal times, or the fact that we can wear sandals but we can't wear Birkenstocks- this place is likely one of the most beutiful places in the world in regard to the people and the Faith living within them.

What a blessing it has been for us to taste the good of a life surrounded by men and women striving to know the Living God in their souls! As you read the words of friends and peers in this issue, consider the high demand we each have as the beneficiaries of such Grace to use our own talents to enage souls humbly and joyfully and diffuse the immeasurable goodness of living for Christ to others.

In Christ, Editor-in-Chief Isabel Cumbelich

Julie Wells Photography

Isabel Cumbelich, Editor-in-Chief and Zoë Grimm, Content Director

Becoming Childlike AMIDST OUR CALL TO MATURITY

by DANNY O'HARA '24

We are all told we need to be mature. We all have EFL classes preparing us for adult life, parental expectations pushing us out of adolescence, and our own desires—starting families, making lives for ourselves, restor ing the culture—thrusting us into the “real world.” And yet, amid the hustle and bustle of thoughts of the future, among the exhortations to prepare for life outside of Christendom, aside from all the aspirations towards adulthood, we catch the piercing words of a Scripture verse: “Truly, I tell you, unless you change and be come like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

These words ought to startle us, for Our Lord is speaking to us, who are in the very thrall of leaving childhood behind. Obviously, the solution is not to build a time inverter and simply go backward, but then, what is the solution? How do we become childlike while simultaneously becoming adults?

naivety are conditions, not of childhood, but of human existence. When we zoom out and ascend to 30,000 feet, to mix metaphors, we see that everyone is childish, foolish, and naïve compared to God, Who could laugh at even the wisest philosophers. This might help us to understand why, after his experience of ecstasy, St. Thomas Aquinas famously called everything he had written “so much straw.” How foolish human wisdom really is, in the shadow of the Omniscient! What are the implications of this truth, that of our littleness before God? There are many, but I want to suggest two practical ways to put this truth into action and grow in childlikeness.

The first step is to recognize that we really are like children when seen from God’s perspective. One might think that maturity entails becoming enlightened and transcending naivety once and for all, but this misses the truth that foolishness and

The first is that we must laugh at ourselves. The disposition to laugh at oneself starts in seeing oneself in one’s littleness before God and recognizing that, in light of this, we should not take ourselves too seriously. After all, as Plato insists, we are not what is really serious, for what is really serious is God.2 This is completely antithetical to the attitude of the “real world,” in which nothing is more serious than oneself, but the more serious one takes oneself and the more important one makes oneself to be, the more

immature and further from the truth one really is. And isn’t having a clear vision and right estimation of oneself a mark of maturity? This is the key to childlike humility, and it reveals the great paradox of being childlike: when faced with one’s littleness before God, the person who lovingly accepts this littleness proves oneself mature, whereas he who shuns childlike naivety throws a tantrum, protesting the truth.

However, our littleness before God does not mean that we are insignificant, for we are children in relation to God, not just by comparison, but also by creation and adoption. God’s love for us in our littleness is beautifully illustrated by a line from a 2010 movie about St. Bernadette Soubirous, in which a priest tells the protagonist that, “as we look up to Our God, we are nothing, but as God looks down on us, we are everything.”3 Thus, seeing ourselves from God’s perspective means not only recognizing that we are small and foolish, but also that we are loved.

This leads me to the second suggestion I wish to explicate. The proper response to God’s love for us is one of adoration, the highest form of prayer,

and adoration has a specifically childlike aspect to it. This is because in adoration one acknowledges one’s complete dependence on God, and offers oneself undividedly, absolutely, simply. A child is utterly dependent on his parents for everything, just as we are utterly dependent on God for our very existence, and a child’s love is simple because it is absolute and undivided. A child gives his whole heart, not just part of it. This is how we are called to love God: with undivided attention and in utter dependence on His grace. Again, it is evident that becoming childlike helps, not hinders, one’s growth in maturity, for being able to give one’s undivided attention and absolute love to another reveals a level of self-mastery characteristic of maturity.

As we strive to grow in maturity, may the words of Our Lord, exhorting us to become like children, not be lost on us. May we see that, as we look up to God, we are foolish and naïve, like children, so we should be able to laugh at our littleness. But may we also see in the way God looks down on us that we are loved, and thus should contemplate and reciprocate His love for us with simple, childlike adoration. We are all told we need to be mature.

Bittersweet

by MOLLY VAN ALSTIEN '23

Recent experiences have repeatedly prompted me to reflect upon the value of that which is bittersweet. The word alone creates a feeling of nostalgia.

In Yours, Jack: Spiritual Direction from C.S. Lewis, Lewis wrote, “When we lose one blessing, another is often most unexpectedly given in its place.” The loss of one good thing is overshadowed by the gaining of something of equal or even greater value; even if we cannot detect what this greater blessing is, God always brings good out of evil. As a senior, so close to graduation, and having just been married, I have had ample opportunity to experience the bittersweet lately. Events that used to mean very little are now filled with beauty and a strange sense of sorrow as they pass. Conversations with friends, whether of the strictest academic sort or the most humorous, are at times tinged with a hint of sadness. I think all the seniors have felt this at some point this year, as our dreaded and yet desired graduation approaches. The paradox of our situation is comical to say the least. The end of a blessing, however minor, is a time to practice proper sorrow, ordered toward the joy of another anticipated blessing. Proper sorrow found in the bitter moments is not despair or hopelessness, but rather a heartfelt goodbye. Everyone will experi-

ence, if they have not already, that saying goodbye to a good thing is extremely difficult, whether that thing be a friend, a certain stage of life (such as college), or your own family (if you move away). What makes the goodbye bearable is the sweet thing which replaces that moment. I have learned that in order to not let change overwhelm me or frighten me, I must cling to the bittersweet moments. Those memories live in your heart in a special way. Do not take your blessings for granted, but rather appreciate them, value them, guard them, and yet know when to say goodbye and accept a new blessing. The bittersweet experiences of our day-to-day lives are all mini rehearsals for the final moment. What is more sorrowful than to say goodbye to the present life, and yet be filled with hope in the joy of the next life? Time has a way of slipping away from us, but it is a gift from God that we can slow down in those distinct, bittersweet moments to notice and value the blessings we now have and to anticipate the blessings we are yet to have.

MATTER Why BOUNDARIES

by SAM SCHIRRA '24

John Doe is a fictional Christendom junior in a romantic relationship. Lately, John’s girlfriend has been asking him for advice about post-graduation jobs—very late at night, every night, for the last three nights. To keep the peace in his relationship, he has so far just been humoring his girlfriend. However, John is downright exhausted from sleep deprivation, only able to get about five hours each night because of his 8:30 classes every weekday morning. Now, John knows his girlfriend needs to talk, but he realizes that his lack of sleep has been draining him of energy and making him irritable. If John continues on his sleepless trajectory, he will lose his patience with his girlfriend, and, perhaps more importantly, he will fail in his vocation as a student. In this hypothetical example, is it selfish for John to ask his girlfriend if they can talk at a time more suitable for his schedule? Maybe not. What if he told her? Will John be failing in his mission to love her?

Enter Center Stage: boundaries.

In Pope St. John Paul II’s Love and Responsibility, an apology about authentic selflessness in relationships, he emphasizes: “Love consists of a commitment which limits one’s freedom – it is a giving of the self, and to give oneself means just that: to limit one’s freedom on behalf of another. Limitation of one’s freedom might seem to be something

negative and unpleasant, but love makes it a positive, joyful and creative thing.” To the average Catholic, love as a total “giving of the self” is nothing new; on the contrary, it’s fundamental. But how do we reconcile the idea of “total gift of self” with the “limited gift of self”?

First, we must acknowledge the obvious: we are human beings, with limited time, strength, abilities, attention span, sphere of influence, etc.; we must be humble in recognizing that we only have so much to give. In order to give what we have to others, we must first possess ourselves. Yet how can we possess ourselves if we do not accept our limitations? To put it crudely, we aren’t superheroes. We can only have self-possession if we satisfy the needs of the body and soul: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Pope John Paul II says, as Our Lord teaches in the Gospel, we Christians must strive to “love [our] neighbor” as we love ourselves. So, we must first take care of our whole selves if we want to serve others capably.

Moreover, as physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual creatures, we live multi-faceted lives, in correspondence with our nature. Thus, we can only fulfill our vocation to love others within the structure of our limited, human existence as a whole. We must love through the process of “integration,” integrating two lives together, without letting one dominate the other. And the level of integration should be proportionate to the stage and seriousness of the relationship. John’s love for a girl he just met, his love for his girlfriend, and his love for his wife will all look radically different—or at least we

hope they will. In the language of Pope St. John Paul II, for our love to have any substance or meaning, we must set boundaries on ourselves, "limiting" our time and resources according to our state of life—our duties, capacities, and responsibilities towards those He has placed in our care.

So, back to the above example of Christendom junior John Doe. Because of his need for sleep, he must set a time boundary, and his girlfriend must also learn to as well; otherwise, his relationship will hinder the other aspects and priorities of his life. This conclusion is not to say that John (or we) should always prioritize our own needs over those of others. Sometimes, God does call us to forgo sleep or food to provide care for the ones we love, like parents do when caring for their newborn infant or their sick child.

That being said, this example illustrates that there is more at stake than the single facet of John’s life that is his relationship with his girlfriend; after all, he is primarily a student, and he is also a son, friend, and above all, a child of God—so he has a lot to balance in his life. Being in a college environment with so many responsibilities makes this task quite difficult, but through prayer, patience, and perseverance, we know that God will aid John—us—in setting boundaries to ensure that we achieve our basic needs. Then, and only then, will we have the freedom to love Him and to serve others as we ought.

Music UNFIT FOR THE LITURGY

by BLAKE PEARSON '25

When I was Anglican, we sang traditional hymns at the beginning and end of each service as the priest entered and exited with the cross. However, during the Offertory and Communion, the congregation sang contemporary Christian music, also known as praise and worship. Over time this combination of music struck me as less and less fitting for a traditional-style Anglican service. The Anglican Church was founded on certain Catholic liturgical traditions, as Henry VIII intended, but of course, the Church of England over time developed its own traditions. It is not my intention to go into detail about these traditions. Rather my fundamental point is that the mixture of “praise and worship” with hymnography created and continues to create a disorderly impression unfitting for the liturgy.

After leaving the Anglican Church and eventually attending an Eastern liturgical service, I felt this unfamiliar Byzantine form of liturgy fed the human soul properly. Instead of guitars and drums, I en-

countered chanting and hymns. This latter form of music seemed much more suited for the Lord's House, for the Temple of God serves as a refuge from the commotion of the outside world. Abrasive drums and heavily strummed guitar conflicted with the tranquility of the church, whereas the gentle lull of chant seemed to resonate there. Thus, in the Byzantine church, I felt much more at peace, much more at home.

After having experienced this difference, the following questions pressed upon my mind: How could anyone spiritually ascend higher to the angelic choirs with praise and worship? Does praise and worship rightly belong in a high church setting? To answer these questions, first, it seems proper to return to the fundamentals of early Church musical practice and theology. 1 Peter 2:5 says, “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (NIV). This places a high standard on right worship. Mu-

sical worship should remind the faithful of the angelic choir that participates in saying, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of Hosts, heaven and earth are full of your glory.” This very verse is sung in the “Sanctus” in the Roman Rite and in the Anaphora in the Eastern Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. This is why in both the Catholic and Eastern Church, hymnography matters—they all treasure Byzantine chant, Gregorian chant, and traditional church hymns because this type of music is modelled to participate with the heavenly choir.

Another reason chant should be favored over praise and worship is that the Church must protect itself from the influence of secular society. Indeed, some contemporary music reflects pop culture music more than it does sacred music. Peter Kwasniewski asserts In Sacred Music vs. Praise and Worship, “it is especially important that liturgical music both be and seem to be exclusively connected with and consecrated to the liturgy of the Church. If the musical style is borrowed from the outside world and brought into the temple, it profanes the liturgy and harms the spiritual progress of the people.”

Praise and worship has its place, and the intention behind it is assuredly well-placed. However, the liturgy does not seem to be the appropriate setting for this type of worship.

Moreover, praise and worship is a highly sentimental music form. The worship of the Catholic and Orthodox Church filled with hymns and chants transcend contemporary trends, lift the human soul upward to rest in contemplating and exalting in the beauty and holiness of an eternal God. Contemporary music keeps the spirit in a lower state of emotional release. Fr. Lawrence Farly on his blog

No Other Foundation goes so far as to say that modern praise and worship of the contemporary movement can manipulate the passions; it introduces a fast arousal of emotions, giving people a positive, yet momentary psychological rise. When used in the liturgy, this type of music shifts the focus from praising God to a focus on oneself and one's emotions about God, which is problematic.

In the early Church, the Fathers specifically decided to move away from this type of evocative music. They avoided instruments such as drums, harps, and lyres in favor of acapella chanting. They thought that this former type of music could invoke sensuality like that found in pagan revelries, whereas chant was reminiscent of the Old Law practiced

by the Jews. Largely played on drums and strings, praise and worship is more like the pagan music of old than the music of the Old Testament. Robert Arraki, an online Orthodox dialoguer with Protestants, asserts in his article “Orthodox Worship Versus Contemporary Worship,” “The Evangelical approach to worship seems to assume that Jesus abolished the Old Testament…. The paucity of New Testament passages on worship has been taken as grounds for an anything goes approach to worship.” He goes on to comment how Christ did not break off from the Old Testament but fulfilled the Old in the New Covenant. At the end of his article, Arraki says that the danger of Pentecostal and contemporary music is that it increasingly lets loose charismatic effects, such as “holy laughter,” etc. Thus, this kind of music puts greater emphasis on God's effects rather than on God in Himself. Therefore, traditional hymns should be the standard for the holy Mass, lest we begin worshipping God's miracles, in favor of worshipping God Himself.

To guard against this possibility, I propose solutions such as prayer for the unity of all believers into one church preserving pure worship, interacting with Protestants, and telling them the richness that awaits those who step into a church filled with choral hymns and chant, untainted by the contemporary movement.

T H E ME A NING I N

OBJECTS

A Catholic Response to Minimalism

by BRIDGET CRNKOVICH '23

We’ve all seen it: that ugly ornament that goes up year after year and never gets thrown away because there’s more to it than its cracked ceramic and fading paint. Why do we keep it? Maybe we should just throw it out; after all, it’s not adding much aesthetically.

Dealing with this kind of odd collection might be what we get for living in a generation of buyers, manufacturers, and salesmen. And Minimalists seem to offer a nice reversal to this residue of a consumerist age. Minimalist movements are growing, and if you search online, you can find numerous websites and blog pages for Minimalist communities. Even many of us Catholics hear the word and light up because it carries a refreshing and almost ascetic tune with it. There is good in the habit of reassessing one’s desires and detaching oneself from the world to focus on higher things. The message seems to be as follows: unless useful and necessary, material objects are a burden to life, and a thing is useful in as much as it allows one to live more fully in the present and to progress into the future.1 In short, the past has little value in the present, and the only value in a material object is its usefulness in life.

This Minimalist distaste for artifacts and its prioritization of the future is deeply problematic. The value of material objects can’t be dismissed that easily. There is a deep connection between stories and objects, memory and identity. Cherishing one’s history is essential. Every person, nation, and civilization is shaped by history, by context, and by the knowledge of how and why we are the way we are. This is why everyone experiences nostalgia in reaction to the house where they grew up or that old baby blanket. Whether on the grand or intimate scope, our identities are shaped by the things we touch and the stories we hear.

In traditional cultures, household items used to be passed down from generation to generation, each with its own story and family significance. Besides connecting people to their history, physical objects offer a certain kind of real-

ity to the story. I still shudder at the details on the door under which I received the deep scar on my hand. The smell of musty basements im mediately transports me to my grandparents’ house in Wisconsin. The Austrian China from my parents' wedding is a reminder of their youthful personalities and their decision to bring new life into the world.

Obviously, there must be a limit to our attachment to temporal things. Ultimately, we should be ready to drop everything, even our lives, for eter nal goods. But in as much as God has made us a composite of both soul and body, so has he blessed our use of immaterial and material goods. We cannot serve both God and Mammon, but there is a difference between owning something and letting that something own you.

In addition to naming the physical world “good,” God endowed it with its own mission. David Jones, a contemporary of C.S. Lewis, wrote

rational thoughts of men are shaped into a

But without the meaning sown into it, a material object loses its glory. In the novel

other contemporary of C.S. Lewis et al., the clearsighted daughter, Cordelia, reveals to the artist, Charles, the beauty of the home chapel. During its time of use, she dismisses any questions of “aesthetics,” and tearfully and simply describes the chapel as “beautiful.” After the Blessed Sacrament is removed, the same eyes describe the room’s lack of beauty, saying, “And then, suddenly, there wasn’t any chapel there anymore, just an oddly decorated room.”3 Among material objects, it is not the material thing per se which is worth preserving, but the deeper meaning which makes the material object what it is.

So my conclusion? (1) Don’t fall heedlessly into the trap of commercials and the false world of consumerism. There must be intentionality in buying and receiving things. (2) Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Minimalists are clearing the space for, well, nothing. But there is an innate goodness and need for having things—we become attached to sentimental things for a reason. Lastly, God is present in the materiality of the world; while we should not allow earthly goods to rule us, we must appreciate the material world in which we live: the world of Sacraments.

DIRTBAG IDOLS: a reflection on sports today

by JOHN PAUL DEJAK '23

Many children's lives revolve around one thing: sports. The games, the jerseys, the screaming at the television—why are so many people fascinated by a ball in play? Because sports give men the opportunity to pursue something our culture is starved for: virtuous excellence. Victory demands discipline, perseverance, and leadership. Loss requires humility and graciousness. Thus, when

played correctly, the game is not a game at all; it is a fight for greatness—or at least it should be.

Unfortunately, in today’s world, virtue in sports has fallen by the wayside and the thing that taught many a man discipline and order has turned into an egotistical performance. Too many popular players are motivated solely by money, fame, and vanity. Although it's common enough to hear, “Glory to God,”

or, “Thanks be to God,” in a player’s post-game interview, it's rare to find an athlete truly living this out. Men who lose like gentlemen, play clean, and live virtuously are the vast minority, while athletes who play for personal gain are the norm. Kids look up to these players, these dirtbag idols.

At Christendom, I have been blessed to experience what sports should truly look like. Here, sports are not about having the greatest and latest equipment, shoes, or coaching. They are about cultivating virtue, exercising the abilities God has blessed us with, and glorifying Him. Here, we are reminded

that ultimately, we're playing for an audience of One. Unlike the culture at large, Christendom athletes are surrounded by people who encourage this kind of sportsmanship, and more impressively, people who are role models of it.

Now it's time for us to be role models to others.

Playing other teams means having the opportunity to evangelize. By playing sports how they ought to be played, for the sake of His glory, we can lead by example. Pray as you play, and God can use you as an instrument in the salvation of souls.

TRANSPARENCY

by MAGGIE BLACK '23

Parents are a child’s first teachers; rightly, they are the primary ideological and formative influences on their sons and daughters— and then they are sent off to school. The Covid pandemic exposed the divisive content that taxpayer dollars were fund ing, politicians were defending, and ed ucators were teaching: critical race theory, which has thankfully been largely exposed and condemned for the racist pseudo-academic teaching that it is. However, there is another more pernicious attack aimed at the role of parents thar must be exposed and eliminated: gender ideology and gender affirmation care.

Advocates of transgenderism have begun to view parents as the enemies of their own children and are attempting to subvert their role by socially transitioning the children. In a more grave assault on the role of parents and the well-being of chil dren these activists are looking to participate in the mutilation of children without the knowledge of parents by classifying these procedures as “sen sitive medical services.” There are many sensitive medical decisions parents have to make for their children while their children are at school. However, although these decisions are facilitated through a teacher or school administrator, this does mean that teachers or school administrators can circum-

ers encouraging children to transition without their parents' knowledge is increasing rapidly.

In California, there is a law that advances the idea that children along with their schools can be responsible for medical decisions and care without notifying the parents. AB 11843, as Califor-

nia Family Council reports, “prohibits insurance companies from revealing to the policyholder the 'sensitive' services of anyone on their policy, including minor children.” These “sensitive” services include “health care services related to mental or behavioral health, sexual and reproductive health, sexually transmitted infections, substance use disorder, gender-affirming care.” In California, a minor as young as 12 is considered competent enough to consent to services including so-called puberty blockers. These "blockers," marketed as a pause button on pubescent development, are really chemical castration pills initially developed to castrate sex offenders. This "Gender Affirmation Care" is not only experimental, but also often irreversible.

At this point, you might be asking what does this have to do with schools and education? In December 2019, Planned Parenthood Los Angeles announced a program to open 50 high schoolbased wellness enters5 at which students are able to access almost the full range of these “sensitive” services without the notification or consent of their parents. This program effectively made schools and school administrators the primary facilitators of these horrific treatments. This is what put education at the forefront of the transgenderism discussion. Thankfully, a program6 in at least one area will not go forward because of the overwhelmingly negative reaction from parents.

In Washington State, there is a similar piece of legislation, B 58897, which keeps sensitive conditions confidential. The parent’s insurance covers the treatment for children as young as 13 at these school-based health centers, but parents are only informed of this medical care if their child chooses to share it with them. Washington State is unfortunately the site of many dismissals of parental authority. Abigail Shrier, author of Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing our

Daughters, gives an account left the state out of fear that their son would soon be mutilated against their will.

Clearly, parents must act swiftly to reclaim their role in their children’s lives and expose the horror of gender theory and its effects. One means by which this can be ac complished is by promoting poli cies that are already being im plemented in a couple states, education savings ac counts (ESAs). This is a program that takes the tax dollars that would be allocated to public school education and returns them to families, empowering them to make education decisions for their children. Promoting ESAs is a step in the right direction for education policy, but the influence of the transgender movement must be eliminated, especially in schools. Parents, legislators, and society at large must recognize the horror being perpetrated in public schools across the country: the mutilation and endangerment of children.

R

LONELINESS edemptive

Lonely, adj. “Sad because one has no friends or company; without companions; solitary.”

Loneliness: How often are we lonely? Frequently enough. And how often do we admit “I’m lonely” out loud—or even to ourselves? Not often at all. The first word in the above definition is “sad”: loneliness is depressing. We all try to avoid that feeling as best we can, but when we can't we at least avoid mentioning it. We avoid it because admitting that “I’m lonely” forces us to a disconcerting conclusion: Something must be wrong.

We associate loneliness with concepts like misfit, misplaced, missing. Something is “not right.” Psychologically, loneliness is an emotional response to a perceived lack of human connection, and it can have seriously negative impacts on our physical health, existing relationships, and social skills. A 2019 American study revealed that every two in five people experience isolation and a lack of meaningful relationships, and more than fifty percent of Americans are currently taking prescriptive medications to manage problems with Depression. Particularly in the past few decades, the widespread effects of loneliness have become so severe that major organizations such as the UK government are investing significant resources in long-term studies on the impact of loneliness.

Clearly, loneliness is one of the most difficult human experiences. Few things are more unset-

by CATHERINE MCCAUGHEY '23

tling than that tiny voice in the back of our heads: I’m lonely. Being surrounded by other people doesn’t fix it—in fact, loneliness can often pierce us more sharply when we’re standing in a crowd. Why don't I belong? What is wrong with me? The world attempts to drown the voice in a sea of stimulation, sound, and social media, but this is a band-aid on a bullet hole, and it only makes the problem worse.

There is certainly something to be said against the artificial, digitally induced loneliness that burdens the world in so many ways, but even when that noise is gone, the voice remains. Loneliness is still there—because it’s supposed to be there.

Yes, the loneliness we experience in the silence of our souls when there are no more distractions or escapes, true loneliness—when we are face to face with ourselves, forced to encounter the terrible truth that this world, including the people we love, are simply not enough to fulfill us—is not only natural, it is absolutely essential.

Many great saints and thinkers have recognized this innate loneliness within the human heart, and their response was startlingly different from today’s modern “solutions.” Loneliness was not something to be destroyed or avoided—it was a part of us, meant to be embraced and carried. Why? Because, as St. Augustine wrote, “our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” Or in the words of C.S. Lewis: “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this

we were made for another world

world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

The paradoxical truth that the saints recognized is that loneliness is normal, and even a good. Those of us still searching for our vocation often complain of loneliness. In reality, even after we have found our vocation, it will not be an escape from the voice in our human hearts. Married couples aren’t totally fulfilled by each other, and sooner or later they will experience the loneliness of that terrible moment when you realize that the person you love most in the world cannot completely understand you. Saints who were called to priesthood and the religious life often wrote of their experiences of loneliness. None of us are free from this experience, because that voice in the back of our minds is His voice. Even in the noisy chaos of the world, we can never quite forget that we are His, and without Him we are unfulfilled.

This voice is a reminder that we were made for another world. Without it, we would have no reason to seek out the only One worth finding. It is the desert, that solitary and empty wilderness, where we

find the Person Who gives everything else meaning. Loneliness is the path of redemptive suffering—a crucifixion, a type of death—and it's meant to be like this. If we never experience this, we will never learn how to submit our desire for human love to our vocation to find divine Love. Without loneliness, we will never be fulfilled. But even in our bitterest experiences of loneliness, He is with us: we will never be alone in the desert. Always we are next to Love Himself, Who cried out, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” His is the cry of uttermost loneliness, “the cry which confessed that God was forsaken of God,” as Chesterton once said. He understands our pain more intimately than we do.

No matter how lonely we are, we will never be alone, because loneliness is the voice of God in our hearts and souls, calling us to our true home. This is the whole purpose of human loneliness—redemptive suffering that leads us to Him, our lasting fulfillment. And so, paradoxically, to be lonely means something is right. Something is right—our desire to find Him in every season of life.

Endnotes

BECOMING CHILDLIKE AMIDST OUR CALL TO MATURITY

1. Matthew 18:3 (NIV).

2. Plato, Laws, VII. See also James V. Schall, S.J., “On Leisure and Culture: Why Human Things Exist & Why They Are ‘Unimportant.’” https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2013/07/leisure-culturewhy-human-things-exist.html.

3. St. Bernadette of Lourdes (Navis Pictures, 2010).

THE MEANING IN OBJECTS: A CATHOLIC RESPONSE TO MINIMALISM

1. “What is Minimalism,” Theminimalists.com/ minimalism and Colin Wright, “Minimalism Explained,” (September 15, 2010), exilelifestyle.com/ minimalism-explained.

2. David Jones, “Art and Sacrament.”

3. Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited (NY: Back Bay Books/Little, Brown and Company, 2012), 102, 254.

TRANS-PERENCY

1. https://www.hopescholarshipwv.com/ 2. https://www.azed.gov/esa 3. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1184

4.https://www.californiafamily.org/2021/09/governor-signs-bill-to-hide-minor-abortions-transgender-drugs-from-parents/

5.https://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/ newsroom/press-releases/planned-parenthood-losangeles-announces-landmark-program-and-partnership-of-high-school-based-wellbeing-centersacross-l-a-county

6.https://www.nlmusd.org/apps/news/article/1632938

7.https://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2019-20/ Pdf/Bills/Senate Passed Legislature/5889-S.PL.pdf?q=20200128134705

8.https://mynorthwest.com/1690031/dori-schoolhealth-centers-leg/

9.https://www.city-journal.org/transgender-identifying-adolescents-threats-to-parental-rights