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Archive/The Parish Project/Knights of Joseph.md

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+> A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
+> R.A. Heinlein
+
+> And the bit from Esolen
+
+It's extremely important to be able to do real things, because these physical things give glory to God. the capacity to commune with God's creation is what makes man, man. The incarnation happened; it is most fitting for us to participate actively with the world; even monks labor.
+
+And even if the psychological damage of decadence doesn't do us in, the physical effects will. There will be war, pestilence, famine - are we ready?
+
+But we've lost many of the practical skills. We don't build our own houses. We don't change our own oil. "It's harder to", yes, but only because we've sluffed off and not demanded that these things be accessible. It's time to take back our birthright as men; our claim to mastery over the earth.
+
+We must - and can - relearn these things. Many of us already know useful things. Many of us have places by which to learn them. For some things, the how is less clear.
+
+We must think grand. We aren't talking about making trinkets, but houses, chapels. Maybe, cathedrals. Not windowsill herbs, but serious gardens. Chickens, goats, cows. How to identify a tree.
+
+And it is crucial that we do this in the context of the faith. That in learning all of this, we direct our eyes back to God.
+
+> Bah, that cappadocian house proposal
+
+We can start easily, and can do it on an ad-hoc basis too initially.
+- Take a night at the makerspace; take over the woodshop, and do some basic carpentry. Or sewing.
+- Plan a garden at St. Francis; meet to tend it on a weekly basis.
+
+The focus (unlike ora-et-labora) is actually on skilled craft, though bodily physicque may be an important component to develop as well.
+
+And at every meeting, PRAY. Ora et labora. Bring food and drink. Make a good time of it.

Archive/The Parish Project/Notes for Fr Tom.md

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+Father Tom, I'm following up on what we discussed after Liturgy on Sunday. There are many groanings from my friends in their parishes or in-between states; let me attempt to summarize them somewhat coherently.
+
+> “I came so that [you] might have life and have it more abundantly”
+> John (10:10)
+
+1. There is a great desire to live in community that will form us.
+	1. We want to work, play, and rest with people who see the same truth as us and will provide us with the feedback and fraternal correction we need to grow in sanctity.
+	2. We desire the Church to play a part in our daily lives, not just on Sunday.
+	3. We are called to be "in the world but not of the world", yes - but every second of our lives is formative. Dwelling wrongly in the world will turn us to being of the world.
+2. There is a socio-economic desire.
+	1. To 'live off the land' - to have a relationship with where the things of our daily life come from.
+	2. For more of our daily lives to be driven by relationship rather than pricetag - to prize helping our neighbor over getting a bargain.
+	3. To be able to easily get to a central gathering place; to be able to walk to church (and have reason to daily/frequently).
+	4. To not be rushed into this sense of community; that we may **integrate** it into the aspects of our day which we must already do, and to spend less time commuting or otherwise upkeeping infrastructure.
+	5. For the parish to be the primary (not sole) basis by which we build (not necessarially create) relationships.
+	6. To live simpler lives; to feel less pulled every which way.
+	7. To admit that it takes a village - and have it be easy to share with others the burdens of our daily lives. Part of this is diaspora as we have uprooted from families (for economic, religious, or other reasons).
+3. It's worth mentioning that there are a great many things about modern society that trouble us and we do not wish to expose our children to until they are sufficiently formed. We cannot expect our children to be missionaries - we can expect adults to. Send orthodox teachers to the public schools so the schools may become orthodox - don't feed children to Moloch. We recognize our inability to do this healthily alone and don't wish isolationism.
+	1. School systems; most of us wish to homeschool in a supportive co-op or send children to a private school.
+	2. I would be amiss if I didn't recognize a fear of apocalyptic societal collapse in which material life would be threatened - we need economic interdependence.
+4. As a response, a desire to live out in some sort of 'compound' is frequently expressed. But most of us recognize this as a faulty ideal from a few perspectives. Firstly, we are called still to have a missionary aspect in our lives. Secondly, our children should have proper exposure to the reality of the world around us. Thirdly, we need connection to tradition and organic structures - isolationism is not a benefit.
+
+Those are abstract desires. I think we definitely need to do things 'organically', but that still requires watering these seed desires so that they may bloom. Here are some practical first steps and ideas:
+1. We want to renovate our parish? We should do the work, not a contractor. Okay, sure, maybe we need to hire a master - but the gruntwork? We should do that.
+2. We want to produce good food? There's open space at the parish. Let's use that. Maybe we can do this across multiple parishes (St Francis is working towards this... can it become a full-blown parishoner-only CSA even?)
+3. We want to educate our children in the faith, and a lot of people want to homeschool. Run a co-op out of Cedars.
+4. We want to preserve the Byzantine heritage and cherish it? Dinner and a talk. Doesn't have to be sophisticated. Get the lectio crew in on this and we'll do it all and leave a cleaner kitchen when we're done.
+5. All of these activities build upon each other if we allow them to.
+
+https://byzantinela.com/cappadocian-house-proposal/

Archive/The Parish Project/The Parish Project.md

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+## 03Sep2022
+# Stuff in Milford 
+
+Spent a lot of time talking with Stephen. He's got a militaristic outlook. Feels called to something great - very grandiose. Says that he'll accept whatever humbly, understands his faults, but is still very grandstanding. He has such energy - and I think a good bit of equipment - that can be harnessed. But also vices. Boy can drink (goodness, how much money did he drown?)
+
+I worry he's looking to pick fights. But he may be right in that fights are right around the corner. Am I willing to fight? Capable? Not as much as he.
+
+I'm realizing that we need some more maturity on this - families at various stages, etc - too many young minds is dangerous and ideological. Having attachment to things - truly loving things - is crucial.
+
+Told Stephen I'd get back soon. We need to develop a prayer and then continue putting pieces together and finding out what this is to look like.
+
+======
+## 04Sep2022
+# Coffee hour after church
+
+Huss/Broseker wives are interested in setting up homeschool co-ops. Solomon expressed this to Father. Started talking, Solomon had to leave. Fr Tom at first had dreams of setting up a school, of buying out the apartments next door - and now that we have the mortgage paid off, can we now start pivoting into more daring endeavors to reinvigorate parish life?
+
+Mentioned to Fr. Tom that many of my young friends have interest in building intentional community. I'm going to compile a summary of thoughts on the matter and present it to him for further discussion.
+
+Getting some useful connections / etc together could also be worthwhile.
+
+Got book from Fr. Roger: **No Apologies** by Anthony Esolen - about masculinity
+**Out of the Ashes** by Anthony Esolen has a chapter on masculinity that's really good; father reads it every year at a thing for students
+
+
+# Talking with Jackson
+
+Tournai, Belgium Map
+Bambeirg, Bavaria - town so small you can't bomb it
+
+Signal is fine / good
+
+Catholic Preppers telegram - Emilie P
+
+# Out of the Ashes
+
+l 245 "the pulsing heart of the universe is a liturgy, a worship-work."
+l 262 "refuse to utter the lie, or to use its language."
+l 262 we lie to obstruct/obfuscate language and to hide the bad things we've done
+l 434 "we have to immerse ourselves in *things*: trees, stars, mud, grouse, hay, stones, brooks, rain, dogs, fire; and the manmade things closest to the human hand and its work: hammer, shovel, paintbrush, wrench, wheel."
+l 434 "it is hard to go completely mad if you spend your free time being free and accepting the free bounties of the world round about."
+l 449 - if we are always encountering things at first before obscenities, when we come across obscenities, they are obvious folly. Natural immunity > vaccination - but we must first understand the body's natural state.
+l 603 "Notice what it is that people believe to be most important in our common life on earth. If you went to the Great Exposition, you might suppose that the most important thing is to make machines that turn things, so as to work other machines, to do things we want them to tod, or to make things we want them to make. If you went to Chartres, you would not need to suppose, you would simply and readily perceive that the most important thing was to sing with the Psalmist, "I rejoiced when I heard them say, Let us go up to the house of the Lord.""
+l 1178 "we avoid religious questions at the cost of avoiding the most human questions."
+l 1178 **be bold. ask daring questions. 'be tactful' is one thing, 'be boring' is another. do some good 1:1s**
+
+======
+## 05Sep2022
+#  Day with Noelle
+
+I don't remember quite what I was going to write in here.
+
+Oh, foot-operated faucets - that would be amazing.
+
+I should write up the summary.
+And put together a signal group.
+
+I do see myself as a bit of a leader here. Leading from the back. But maybe I need to be leading more from the front.
+
+
+## 07Sep2022
+# Meeting w Fr. Tom
+[[Notes for Fr Tom]]
+
+
+## 16SEP2022
+# Picking up where I left off...
+What are we trying to do? To be attentive to God's will. In particular:
+To develop an integrated (or 'undivided') lifestyle(s) conducive towards developing sainthood for us, family, and friends - to build up the City of God
+
+## 24SEP2022
+# Meeting at the Cabin...
+Main high level goals:
+- Community within close geographic proximity (e.g. walking distance).
+- Lifestyles in which work is integrated into the home healthily.
+- Produce necessities done locally and sustainably. Crops, animals, craftsmanship.
+- Involvement in local politics and community. Be a city upon a hill (or even just a neighborhood / beacons in a town); not isolationist.
+- ? Parish life is TBD.
+- ? Whether buying existing developments in a town or developing a large lot is TBD.
+- ? How to structure finances is a big question and TBD - how communal is this? What sorts of 'codes' do we need (if any)?
+
+There are immediately actionable things, both to form our skill, spirit, comaraderie, and drive. There's a general sense that there isn't a real actionable 'goal' to drive towards at the cabin. Especially as men, we need the tangible to point at.
+- Have a component of the cabin be reading and discussion on a work. This doesn't have to be a long or particularly philosophical thing - it could be a chapter from a book, or even introducing a novel series. (I think this should not be prerecorded audio or video. Having the words come through our brethren is an important component of this.) Thad and Stephen have interest in doing Exodus 90.
+- Find work projects whereby we may regain practical skills that were lost.
+- Get speakers to talk about advanced topics (or topics that aren't really 'actionable'). Get a surveyor to give an introduction to ground engineering and surveying. Get Adam to do a nature walk, identifying various trees, their uses, and how to care for the land. 
+
+
+LORD, we offer you our full selves to your service. Help us to build up the city of God here on earth. Form our hearts to be attentive to your will. May we lead one another to You, who art all-powerful and all-loving. Take away the stumbling-blocks of the devil, and put up walls where we are not to pass. Give us boldness yet meekness. Strength yet peace. Discernment yet love.
+
+LORD, find us good space to be in community with one another and to lead integrated lives. Strengthen the bonds we have with one another, so that we may come to one another's aid in times of need and share in the joys of life together. For you made man to multiply so that we may share in each others' joy and give glory back to you, who art all-good and all-loving.
+
+St. Joseph, earthly father of our Lord Jesus Christ, most wise and diligent carpenter, pray for us.
+Mary, Our Lady, Theotokos and mother of our god, model of the feminine which we cherish, pray for us.
+St. Isidore, farmer and laborer, pray for us.
+St. Louis, most honored monarch, pray for us.
+St. Augustine, who saved civilization as it fell, pray for us.
+St. Stephen, first martyr of the church, pray for us.