The 'Well' vs. the 'Shadows'

Remains of Whitby Abbey, England

I have often in my life forgotten my inherent human dignity, made imago dei, as many do. This was partly due to my having a desire to stay near to my now-deceased mother as an infant, and she was a dyed-in-the-wool member of the Evangelical persuasion. (Her grandfather however was, she told me, a "bad Catholic," and I attribute my conversion to his prayers for me. I pray for them both and solicit their prayers daily.) So, I was far and away from Mother Church from the outset, as opposed to those cradle Catholic "reverts" who so daringly trace their steps back to the arms of their trustworthy Mother.

Dear G. K. Chesterton said it well in 'The Well and the Shadows' -- when we abandon the Catholic Church for the plethora of pipe dreams and promises of the world, we do not gain truth or freedom or facts. We receive a pablum of shallowness, fraud, and idolatry, with all that those can conjure anthropologically, epistemologically, and ontologically.

Praise God on this Wednesday in the Octave of Easter for the sanity, richness, and steadfast hearth and home of Mother Church. May many prodigals make their way back to Her.