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This Insights eNewsletter was sent to subscribers on February 23, 2024.

eNewsletter Subject: Catholic culture is local

This week I had the opportunity to learn about the medieval mystery plays while producing a podcast episode on the subject. Their inherent artistic interest aside, one striking fact is that these religious dramas our forebears staged to celebrate Corpus Christi were decidedly local affairs. The major towns we associate with these dramatic cycles - such as York, Wakefield, Coventry - had their own unique scripts (presumably written by local clergy) and their own local guilds staging and acting in the productions.

There is something in this historical display of robust local Catholicism to remind us that the global Church is as only strong as its individual members, families and communities. When we psychologically inhabit a global news cycle, it can be easy to believe that the important things are all being determined far away and at high levels of power - on some level we can come to think that the state of "the world" is being defined there rather than here. But if we took a step back from our concerns about what's going on in "the world" and focused on local (that is, personal and familial) holiness, then "the world" - our world - would begin to look different.

Yet our concern can never be myopically local, such that we neglect to pray for those to whom God has given more far-reaching responsibilities. Phil Lawler's latest commentary can remind us of this need not only for personal conversion but for prayer for those who govern the Church: If Peter is the rock, where is the Pope?

G.K. Chesterton appreciated the spirit of the medieval mystery plays. But he looked even further back to see what we can learn from man's earliest artistic creations painted on cave walls. Jeff Mirus calls our attention to the relevant chapter in The Everlasting Man.

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