Idea of a Village

The third annual Idea of a Village event took place this summer at Sycamore Springs Ranch and conference center near Clear Creek Abbey in northeastern Oklahoma. The Idea of a Village is the idea that Christians need their own village for mutual support and enrichment of their faith-filled and Christ-centered lives in the modern world, a proposition promoted by Rod Dreher in his book, “The Benedict Option,” which has been widely publicized and favorably reviewed.

It is interesting and significant that Dreher spoke at the first Clear Creek Abbey Idea of a Village event in 2016. For many years, families already had been moving from across the United States to the environs of Clear Creek Abbey. Thus far, there have been about 50 such families and more continue to come.

The theme for this year was “The Joy of Pilgrimage.” The event included vespers at the abbey, a bonfire and four speakers. The first, whose topic was thanksgiving, was Sam Guzman, a convert to Catholicism who left Wisconsin two years ago and is now a Clear Creek villager.

He is the owner of the web site, The Catholic Gentleman (catholicgentlemen.net), a stylish blog designed to encourage men in their Catholic faith. He also is the author of a book by the same name.

Guzman said the modern world's attitude toward God ranges from indifference to hostility. He recommended ways in which thanksgiving can be a part of everyday life. Daily Mass is the best way to give thanks daily, he said. Guzman said there are three areas of thanksgiving: for the good things, for the good things that come out of a bad situation, and for trials and suffering. He noted that Pope Benedict XVI once wrote that Christ took all the injustice and suffering in the world and turned them into thanksgiving on the cross.

Guzman recommended reading G.K. Chesterton who, he said, wrote “about everything with childlike wonder and humility.” And, he said people should avail themselves of the beauty of creation away from distractions like cell phones and computers as a way of giving thanks to God.

The next speaker was Sean Fitzpatrick, the dean of Saint Gregory the Great Academy for boys near Scranton, Penn. His topic was going home. He quoted the Cheshire Cat in Lewis Carroll's “Alice in Wonderland” who told Alice, “We are all mad here.” He went on to explain a pilgrimage is somewhat irrational in that the pilgrim leaves behind comforts and security to find a spiritual home.

Christians are wanderers trying to get home to Heaven, the final destination, he said. Chesterton, he said, wrote that he could not fit into the world and be true to Christ.

The third speaker was Mitchell Kalpakgian, who has been a professor at a number of Catholic colleges for more than 50 years and is a frequent contributor to the New Oxford Review magazine. Kalpakgian gave a philosophical talk on human love titled “The Human World with a Human Touch with a Human Heart.”

Professor Kalpakgian spoke of Homer's “Odyssey,” Dickens's “David Copperfield,” and Dante's “Divine Comedy” and the journey taken in each novel. He said in each the traveler arrives at two conclusions: the world is a cold-hearted place and only the goodness of the human heart can redeem it. The final speaker was Father Dwight Longenecker, a convert. Father Longenecker is a married priest in South Carolina and most likely the only graduate of Bob Jones University to become a Roman Catholic priest. After graduation from Bob Jones, he attended Oxford and became an Anglican priest. He is the author of several books and is a frequent contributor to the National Catholic Register newspaper. His talk was about his conversion to Catholicism that began when he was an Anglican clergyman in England. He was encouraged by a Benedictine oblate friend to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1983 via Benedictine monasteries in Europe.

Today, Father Longenecker has a parish in Greenville, S.C.

For more information about the Idea of a Village conference, go online to www.theideaofavillage.com.

Ted King is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.