Gaudium Traditionis: Crisis, Identity, Confidence

1. The joy of Tradition is an integral part of the Catholic faith. The Second Council of Nicaea emphasizes the importance of holding fast to the traditions received from the apostles and the holy Fathers.
2. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that Tradition is the handing on of what the apostles received from Jesus' teaching and example, as well as what they learned from the Holy Spirit. It further distinguishes between the Tradition of faith and the various theological, disciplinary, liturgical, or devotional traditions that have developed over time.
3. The tradition of Christian prayer is a significant aspect of the joy of Tradition. Through the contemplation and study of believers, who treasure in their hearts the events and words of the economy of salvation, the Tradition of faith takes shape and grows. 
4. The festive character of the Sunday Eucharist expresses the joy that Christ communicates to his Church through the gift of the Spirit.
5. Tradition is not a stagnant museum but a guarantee of the future, providing life and growth. Vincent of Lérins, in the fifth century, described the growth of faith and tradition using the criteria of consolidation over time, expansion with the passing of time, and elevation with the passage of ages.

Summary. The joy of Tradition in the Catholic Church is rooted in the apostolic and patristic Tradition handed down through the ages that has formed countless saints. It's beating heart is encompassed by the celebration of the Sunday Eucharist, the contemplation of the events and words of salvation, and the growth of faith through the living Tradition.

Sources

1. Second Council of Nicaea (A.D. 787) The Definition
2. CCC 83
3. CCC 2651
4. Dies Domini 56
5. Meeting on the theme “Theology after Veritatis Gaudium in the context of the Mediterranean”, promoted by the Pontifical Theological Faculty of Southern Italy – San Luigi section – of Naples

Identity

True devotions dispose us to God's grace so that God may enable in those who are receptive a willingness to discover who we really are in the eyes of God.

When people are stripped of their time-honored practices or rituals, languages, and crafts, i.e., the art that goes along with a disciplined life of prayer, they lose a part of themselves, something essential to their identity. Of course, some habits, rituals, and crafts can keep a people or person from confronting the truth about themselves and their society, and if not exposed, they can become entangled in a web of mind-numbing superstitions and lethal idolatry.

This blogger's heritage includes a Black and Cowichan dad and a Yorkshire mum. Our family includes status (registered) and non-status natives. The embrace of diverse cultures among members of our family was made possible and enhanced by and with Jesus as the heart of our relationships. The Christian Faith has given us the freedom to embrace others in loving covenants as fellow children of God. Our family is far from unique or alone in that regard.

First settlers, the indigenous peoples of North America, when contacted by subsequent settlers, entered into various alliances. Among the later waves of settlers, e.g., Europeans of the 15th and later centuries, were Catholic missionaries who sought to share the Gospel with indigenous peoples.

The Loss of Identity

Before the tragedy of many ill-conceived state imposed policies, European Catholic missionaries and native peoples in what was to become Canada enjoyed many fruitful encounters, resulting in the majority of aboriginal peoples happily, which is to say freely, adopting the Catholic Faith.

In some regions, armed conflicts arose between indigenous peoples and non-indigenous peoples. Human nature not wed to the Gospel has a way of enabling conflict in a predictable and often horrific manner.

The North American Martyrs were eight Jesuit missionaries from Sainte-Marie among the Hurons. They were ritually tortured and slain in the mid-1600s in what is now southern Ontario and upstate New York, during the struggle between the Mohawk and the Christian Huron peoples. 

One of the martyrs, St Jean de Brébeuf, is credited with writing the first dictionary of the Huron language. - excerpt from Lives of the Canadian Martyrs, Canadian Martyrs Church.

In decades past, North American governments holding to a one-ideology-fits-all mindset showed their lack of competence in cultural affairs. When governmental regulatory bodies attempted to control educational and other social institutions, an impoverishment of understanding, a souring of relationships, and a loss of communion began to occur between diverse peoples.

Aboriginal cultures have suffered badly from remote governmental interference. Catholics, too, have suffered an enormous deprivation of meaning because of the sanitizing effects of a fabricated history propagated by clergy and laity allied to pseudo-authority. That is, the media and so-called progressive elements within the Church - that were/are heterodox at best - that made themselves into an alter-magisterium.

The best advice I can give you is this. Church traditions - especially when they do not run counter to the Faith - are to be observed in the form in which previous generations have handed them down. ― St Jerome

Vatican II, properly called the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, was an opportunity to examine ways to better reach out to those in most need of God's mercy, the mercy found only in and through Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, it is now well known that the Council's agenda was often appropriated and frequently driven off course to a degree likely to offend the Council Fathers. Modest liturgical renewal proposed by the Council became radical reform. Magnificent documents such as the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium), the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium), and the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum), were largely misapprehended and their true intent was ignored in the years immediately following the Council. Progressive elements colluding with the media developed into an alter-magisterium that seized the opportunity initiated by Pope Saint John XXIII to concoct a narrative that suited their ill-conceived ends. Nothing of that description is hyperbolic. If anything, the preceding description understates the mess Catholics of the Latin Rite have had to endure.

In many ways, those within the Latin Rite Church holding to more a progressive bent have repeated the mistakes of the past. Instead of the imposition of Latin customs upon our Eastern Brethren, what historians have rightly termed 'latinization', i.e., the coercion of Eastern Catholics to conform to Latin ritual practices, for example Latin Rite Catholics bullying of our Indian (Thomasian) Catholic brethren, progressives have in recent times attempted to push aside the ritual languages or vocabularies that have been central to Latin Rite identity for the better part of two thousand years.

For decades in the wake of the Council, the Latin Rite Church has been suffering from a debilitating cardiac arrest confirmed by:

1. the catastrophic loss of reverence and awareness of the Real Presence
2. the loss of the sense of the sacred and an abandonment of beautiful art
3. the loss of Catholic identity and mission
4. the massive loss of vocations to the priesthood and religious life
5. the hemisphere-wide shuttering of parishes due to a massive loss of faith
6. the loss of a sense of sin and virtue, and the resulting infestation of vice
7. Catholic universities becoming virtually indistinguishable from secular institutions
8. Catholic laity divorcing at nearly the same rate as non-Catholics
9. Catholics aborting their children
10. Catholic politicians advocating for and enacting evil policies such as abortion and euthanasia

Those allied to the Media Council, as Pope Benedict XVI termed the alter-magisterium, exposed themselves as agents of an anti-culture known as relativism. That pseudo-philosophy has been used to create political and social chimeras to be inserted into societies and the Church to displace deep traditions or customs and even Tradition itself.

Today, having a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church is often labeled as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, that is, letting oneself be "tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine", seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times. We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires.

We, however, have a different goal: the Son of God, the true man. He is the measure of true humanism. An "adult" faith is not a faith that follows the trends of fashion and the latest novelty; a mature adult faith is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ. It is this friendship that opens us up to all that is good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceit from truth.

We must develop this adult faith; we must guide the flock of Christ to this faith. And it is this faith - only faith - that creates unity and is fulfilled in love. 

From the Mass «Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice» | Homily Of His Eminence Card. Joseph Ratzinger

The anarchists have not been entirely successful, thanks be to God.

Jesus, present to us by the Holy Spirit, is and always will be the head and heart of the Catholic Church. His promise to Saint Peter will endure until His return.

83 The Tradition here in question comes from the apostles and hands on what they received from Jesus' teaching and example and what they learned from the Holy Spirit. The first generation of Christians did not yet have a written New Testament, and the New Testament itself demonstrates the process of living Tradition. 

Tradition is to be distinguished from the various theological, disciplinary, liturgical or devotional traditions, born in the local churches over time. These are the particular forms, adapted to different places and times, in which the great Tradition is expressed. In the light of Tradition, these traditions can be retained, modified or even abandoned under the guidance of the Church's Magisterium.

- Catechism of the Catholic Church

Little 't' traditions do come and go, but some are so wed to the lives of Catholics, because they capture the capital 'T' Tradition with clarity and depth, that to rob people of those devotional practices and liturgical customs or ritual forms is to deny the influence of the Holy Spirit and to thus act against the spiritual good of all Catholics who might otherwise benefit spiritually. The conservation of Tradition and knowing when to surrender various devotional and ritual elements consists of possessing the ability to discern what in those little traditions expresses the 'great Tradition' for a people in a timely and edifying manner.

Restoration

Some spiritual traditions - rituals, customs, practices - of the first peoples of Canada have been preserved or are in the process of being restored. Some "restored" rituals have been instituted by witnesses of varying degrees of knowledge and wisdom.

It is somewhat understandable that some or even many in the various indigenous communities have become angry and have distanced themselves from the Church, and who, wanting to reclaim what is to their way of thinking a truer aboriginal identity, invent rituals that, unfortunately, smack of the very superstitions rejected by earlier and older indigenous people well formed in the Catholic Faith and cognizant of authentic ancestral beliefs and practices. Authentic, i.e., not superstitious.

Despite many challenges, our Catholic elders of various First Peoples have kept many languages alive, and have kept alive devotions centred on the Creator, the one God that early missionaries - among them canonized saints - identified (by shining the light of the Holy Gospel on aboriginal beliefs) as the same God that Catholics preach about and to Whom Catholics pray. West Coast missionaries and native peoples recorded many accounts of native peoples grateful for the freedom found in Christianity, a freedom from former superstitions. Despite the impression given in the mainstream media, many First Nations peoples - dare one say the majority of aboriginal peoples - celebrate their Catholic heritage.

Tradition-minded Latin Rite Catholics are or should be able to empathize with aboriginal Canadian peoples who have had vital traditions suppressed.

Catholics of a certain ilk, of a spiritual-political mindset - that progressivism or modernism - represent a neo-colonial power that has been active in the Church for several decades, for the better part of a century. That invading power has little foundation or sense of mission other than a rigid emphasis on change for the sake of change. That invading power has been aided by mercenaries - the media, misguided academics, and rebellious laymen - all of whom stand to benefit in idolatrous ways from the chaos.

Tradition, i.e., 'traditio', the handing-on-of, is the heart of the Catholic experience. The little 't' traditions, the diamond and gold jewelry of the Spirit, are necessary to season the peripheries of people's lives so that hearts and minds wed to Jesus through the arts and crafts of the Faith may better enjoy without defilement the Tradition of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that is the living communion with God in Christ.

The spiritual life often includes language that uses the vocabulary of warfare. We are, after all, in a war for souls, a war between heaven and hell, a war between good spirits and evil spirits. Thankfully, we know what the outcome will be. God has no equal, and God always wins.

For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. - Ephesians 6:12

The occupying power is nearing its demise. A generational shift is occurring, albeit slowly. The Catholic mind is converting; the Catholic heart is repenting.

Many in the cohort currently occupying the Vatican, European and Western episcopal sees, educated in the 1960s and 1970s, do not understand that the Holy Spirit is drawing people toward a restoration in Tradition. Like rebellious adolescents, members of that same cohort, disposed to neo-protestant thinking, are attempting to push aside ancient (foundational!) liturgical spirituality and to marginalize those who happily and thoroughly embrace the Tradition and living traditions of the Church. Again, this is nothing new in the Church or in politics. Protestantism, which was for a time the state-religion of Canada, led to oppressive policies inhibiting indigenous peoples by suppressing languages deemed obstacles to incorporation and cohesion in an emerging Canadian society. Catholics of all ethnicities were marginalized by federal and provincial government policies. That some Catholic entities cooperated to varying degrees with the government to enact those policies is a topic too large and too complex to be included in this particular post. Save to say, there is much healing that still needs to take place, healing that needs the whole truth, not merely half-truths that stand in the way of the achievement of reconciliation.

Though it was possible to allow both English or French and regional native languages to coexist, an all-or-nothing mindset so common among Protestant state entities was not able to think outside the Protestant box of 'choose conformity or be forcibly conformed'. Sadly, many Catholics eager for political power and social acceptance sided with their Protestant colleagues in the culture wars. Those alliances continue to this day to the detriment of the Faith and the faithful in Canada. A Prime Minister whose father was instrumental in creating a massive dissociation between faith and the public sphere continues his father's legacy. His marriage, like his father's, is broken. He has gained power at what expense?

Summorum Pontificum was a both-and solution. However, the current pontificate only sees a threat that must be suppressed, ostensibly for the good of the Church. Pope Benedict and many others were/are capable of seeing the emerging trend. So too has Francis seen the trend, though through a very different lens.

Benedict XVI celebrated the possibilities of cross-pollination by seeing the good in varied liturgical ritual forms and complementary spiritual vocabularies.

Like all "progressive" thinkers, from those who imagined a Canada, for example, united by a common language, and who, for ill or for an imagined good, attempted to impose a common language and a shallow - some might say puritanical - Protestant culture on diverse peoples, to contemporary socialists who imagine that relativistic ideologies can unite diverse people, the '1970s Media Council' Catholic is still stuck in a mindset that ironically, for all his sloganeering to the contrary, cannot tolerate true and fruitful diversity nor a just unity. Ironically, progressive ideologies create a bland homogeneity which goes against everything they claim to believe and which they claim to abhor.

By their fruits... .

Where traditional spirituality is taught and practiced, people thrive. Where the Mass is celebrated with due reverence, the Catholic Faith thrives. Where preaching is true and good, discipleship is confident. Where ritual is beautiful, holiness abounds; fellowship is vibrant, people are mission-minded, and signs of growth are obvious. Tradition-mindedness yields an abundance of fruit because, by definition, people are humbled to Christ Jesus and acknowledge Him as Lord. Jesus gifts to His faithful flock an abundance of grace to enliven and sustain His disciples in mission.

Gaudium traditionis - the joy of tradition - is not the title of a papal document, though it could be. In the history of the Church, many popes and pastors have brought people to a renewal rooted in the story of the Church, the story of the saints, the story of the Holy Spirit acting in and through the Church for the salvation of souls. What was once holy remains holy.

Sure, first because there was a fear of, let’s say, the restoration, and, second, some people who simply misunderstood the reform. It was certainly not as though there would now be another mass. There are two ways to represent it ritually, but they belong to one fundamental rite. I have always said, and even still say, that it was important that something which was previously the most sacred thing in the Church to people should not suddenly be completely forbidden. A society that considers now to be forbidden what it once perceived as the central core – that cannot be. The inner identity it has with the other must remain visible. So for me it was not about tactical matters and God knows what, but about the inward reconciliation of the Church with itself. - Pope Benedict XVI

To the nihilist, seeing no meaning nor any purpose to or in art, or in little or anything, a ritual gesture is merely a pesky reminder of the trap he has constructed for himself. That is, the same trap in which he will remain ensnared until a crisis of significant magnitude might come to shake him loose from disabling attachments to his own idols.

Joy

The joy of Tradition, of Tradition-soaked traditions, is that one is immersed in a creative reliance upon and conservation of the living signs of hope and love given us by the Holy Spirit.

We in the Ordinariate are blessed with a renewal of, a conservation of, beautiful, good and true ritual forms and devotional customs that have fostered holiness in the spiritual lives of countless believers for centuries. In Divine Worship, for example, the Mass of the Ordinariate, we see elements of the venerable Sarum liturgy, the foundation of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, which was celebrated throughout the British Isles and Northern Europe prior to the Tridentine reforms, and the form of the Liturgy which continued to be celebrated clandestinely during the early decades of the Tudor revolt.

Divine Worship, the Mass of the Ordinariate, embodying the twin virtues of renewal and conservation, is an effective mirror into which seekers can gaze upon the Way, the Truth and the Life Who is Jesus Christ, and a bridge between particular experiences and needs.

• https://atreasuretobeshared.blogspot.com/p/alpha-and-omega-source-and-summit.html

Imagine, for a moment, the joy of the conservationist who rescues an at-risk creature and cares for it and its offspring, so that it may be restored in numbers and prosper. The conservationist is full of care, is a devoted steward of God's creation, and because of his or her commitment to protecting critters great and small, is a sign to the world of the necessity to protect that which God has entrusted to us.

It is absurd and a detestable shame, that we should suffer those traditions to be changed which we have received from the fathers of old. ― St Thomas Aquinas

The Tradition-alist, in the best sense of that word, is a conservationist who protects a species of rituals and customs, a spiritual biosphere of devotions and liturgical forms entrusted to us by God, that nourish the heart, mind and spirit, spiritual disciplines and crafts that dispose the person to God's illuminating grace. Need it be said that such goodness merits appreciation and protection lest a species of disciple(ship) becomes extinct and the world is impoverished by the loss?