Saturday, December 19, 2015

A Glorious and Erudite Chronicle of the History of the Sodality of Garcia Diego, Year 3


A blessed Advent and Christmas to all of our readers. This year, as may be guessed by the infrequency of blogging, the activities of the Sodality’s members have turned inward. We have pursued our own vocational goals, rather than embarking upon noble requests to recruit new members and undertake grand liturgical activities and pilgrimages as a group. We still attend, when schedules allow, benediction at the Poor Clares' monastery, and visits to Harry’s have still been known to happen.

The bulk of our socializing, however, is under the auspices of our Tehom Bible Study (profiled by Barbara in a post this summer). This “abysmal” group is still separate from the Sodality, but does contain most of the Sodality’s members (notably with the absence of Sean), and most of those members not proclaiming themselves sodalitiers are aware that they may still be associates.

Tehom has met nearly every week this year, undertaking lengthy studies of the Book of Revelation and the Epistle to the Hebrews; we recently shifted away from the Bible to study Pope St Pius X’s encyclical against modernism. Tehom has also had some other social gatherings, and we have been grateful to Michael for his frequent hosting. Michael also hosted a Fiesta party in August and a Transitus party on his birthday, October 3, where Tehom and the Sodality met some of his other good Catholic friends. Last Sunday (Gaudete Sunday), after Benediction and a gathering at Michael’s, much of the group, along with some old friends, attended a concert of the Santa Barbara Mission choir, featuring our very own Liz. There was also one other significant event attended by all of Tehom, the Sodality, and our friends from a previous overlapping group, which shall be discussed shortly.

One member was recruited to our merry band through the Sodality website itself. Jeff recently moved to Santa Barbara and was directed by Matt to Tehom when he wrote for more information about our group. He was a part of somewhat similar groups before, and immediately distinguished himself with his essential services.

All of us have embarked upon great new adventures of a Catholic nature; Liz, as aforementioned, joined the Mission Choir. Some members attended retreats and or investigated religious orders. Though I am a biased source, there is no doubt that the premier event of the Sodality took place this year  on October 24, when TMR (now known as TMRC) and I were joined in the sacrament of holy matrimony, in a traditional Latin mass at Saint Mary Magdalen Chapel in Camarillo. Matt ably served as best man. Our visiting royal founders, Anthony and Nikki, were able to attend; their own wedding nearly two years ago was among the first opportunities for TMRC and me to begin our friendship. We cultivated our new friendship as I did my best to respond to her early blog posts. When we began courting, we undertook writing collaborations last year. We are truly grateful for the support of all Sodality and Tehom members through our engagement and wedding. True Catholic friendship is indeed a great help to the formation of a new Catholic family.

I will not try to make a list of goals as I did last year. No matter what, let the record hold that the Sodality has been a resounding success, even if not yet in the public square.

1 comment:

  1. I started reading “Back to Virtue” by Peter Kreeft (though I always find him a bit difficult to understand) this book is really great at explaining the need to go backwards before we can move forward. To understand the importance of tradition and morality and the flaws with modern ethics and even water down Christianity. Since my return to the Catholic Church I’ve had this problem of making God into what I want Him to be and I think that by studying tradition He is becoming who He really is. It’s a great topic the two world views (ancient and modern) that you guys are studying may you reap many blessings. Congrats on the wedding!

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