Why Blog? Why "Becoming Heralds"?

I am always amazed at just how many Bloggers there are out there on the Web. So many people talking into the ether! Is anybody out there actually listening? Is there any point in this endless self-communing? I have started to create Blogs before, but struggled with the idea that I was wasting my time, and gave up. After all, who cares what I think? And is what I say or think of the slightest importance in the great scheme of things? The answer, of course, is no! The world will not shake on its foundations if I choose not add my opinions, words, thoughts, to the great, turbulent ocean of human discussion that is cyberspace.

However, I have come to the conclusion that we write for the same reason that the solitary Reader reads. We do it to discover and augment the Self- as the American writer and Literary Critic, Harold Bloom would say. Of course, he expresses himself as a Literary Critic should. All I can say is, perhaps we Blog to 'cast our bread upon the waters' and see if we may not discover out there, a Listener who may just possibly become a partner in our endless inner 'mulling over' of things.

Why 'Becoming Heralds'?

In July 2008 my husband and I travelled with our daughter to Brazil, where she wished to spend some time with the 'Heralds of the Gospel', a very new Religious Order. We had first seen them in February of the same year, when we watched a wonderful Mass of dedication of their first Church, Our Lady of the Rosary on TV [EWTN]. At that time we had all been stopped in our tracks when we saw what appeared to be hundreds of young people, wearing the distinctive, almost Crusader-like habit of the Order, all taking part in the most beautiful Liturgy we have ever seen. Watching it at all was an accident. My husband had his hand on the TV remote, looking for a sports channel he liked. I came in to the room to give him a cup of coffee. But we both stopped -spellbound. What on earth is this? Who are they? What are they called? We had never seen anything like them before! The TV remote returned to the table and I sat down, coffee forgotten. Later our daughter came in and after a moment, silently took another seat. We watched for the next three hours. The ceremonial dedication of the Church was very moving and beautiful, but it was the young people, the Habits, the beauty and dignity of the event which astounded us. When it all ended we felt as though we had descended to earth after having spend time in Paradise! That sounds fanciful, but it is true. Indeed the experience was to change our lives for ever, for a few months later we had discovered enough about the Order and its Founder to allow our seventeen year old daughter to spend some months with them.

We travelled over to Sao Paulo with her, and stayed for about ten days. We were able to attend the Third Order Congress while we were there. We also got to know many members of the First and Second Orders. It was a wonderful experience and we were different people by the time we returned to England, for by then my husband and I had joined the Third Order, and committed ourselves to its future.

This Blog is a long exploration and meditation on our lives since then, as we try to assimilate the culture and ethos of the Order. It is also an exploration of the new life we have begun as we try to become, in its most profound sense, Heralds of the Gospel.