by Gordon Nary
Gordon: When did you join St Patrick’s Church and how has St. Patrick’s enhanced you spirituality?
Darrell: When I was a kid my family and another family shared a cabin between Murphys and Angels Camp here in the California Gold Country and we would attend Mass at the old St Patrick’s Church, which was a beautiful church. It has since been rebuilt in a much more modern style, and I’d add, unfortunately so. My mom moved here in 1982 and I lived here from 1991-1993 and then since 2010 until the present, and I’ve been involved at St Patrick’s as catechist, cantor, and choir member.
I’d say it has been primarily the promotion of Eucharistic adoration and promotion of the holy rosary that has most enhanced me spiritually here at St Patrick’s. Also incorporating Gregorian Chant into the Liturgy, and Latin. I have to admit that I would attend a traditional Latin Mass if there were one nearby. My studies in Church and liturgical history have convinced me that the Mass should never have been radically changed as it was, and that there were forces unfriendly to Christ and His Church who were behind the revolutionary creation of the Mass of Pope Paul VI. And I didn’t call him “Pope St Paul VI” for a reason, the same reason why I think “Pope Francis” may very well be a heretical pope, which if so would mean he has excommunicated himself, or else he may be an anti-pope.
Gordon: When you attended Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas in Rome, what were your favorite courses and why?
Darrell: I went there twice, first for undergraduate philosophy while I was with the religious congregation Oblates of the Virgin Mary from 1982-1984, then from 1991-1993 as a layman to receive a Licentiate in philosophy.
Most of my philosophical interest was and still is in the philosophy which St Thomas subsumes into his theology. I wrote my Licentiate thesis on “Faith and Reason in St Thomas Aquinas According to Etienne Gilson,” and while researching it I became convinced that there is such a reality as “Christian Philosophy,” and that Etienne Gilson (1884-1978) was the premier and most faithful exponent of St Thomas’s thought, especially on the relationship between Faith and Reason, Theology and Philosophy, and Nature and Grace.
Gordon: When did you co-found Knights of the Holy Rosary and approximately how many members do you have?
Darrell: A Catholic friend and I started the Knights of the Holy Rosary in 2011. I can’t tell you how many members there are since we are a “secret society,” kind of like “Skull and Bones,” only Catholic. I’m just kidding. We have both Associate members and full members, who are called Militia. We’re not highly organized so my educated guess is that we have a total membership of about 150. Speaking of “secret societies,” many Catholics don’t realize that they are automatically excommunicated from the Church if they join any of the many branches of Freemasonry.
Gordon: What impost has Our Lady of Fatima had on the Catholic faith?
Darrell: The Message of Fatima is extremely important for everyone, every soul, for the life and health of the Church and of the world at large. The Message is of warning, of instruction in spiritual warfare, and of hope. The salvation of souls and world peace depend on the fulfillment of Our Lady’s requests at Fatima. She told us so. One important request that most Catholics don’t know about is the First Saturdays of Reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.. It’s tragic that so many Catholics become “spiritual addicts” and follow false and otherwise unapproved private revelations such as Medjugorje and whatever other novelty tickles their “itching ears” and by doing so put the all-important Message of Fatima into eclipse. There is also the problem with the Vatican misleading the faithful about the third Secret of Fatima and the (still not fulfilled) consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary as Our Lady requested. See https://fatima.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Secret-Still-Hidden.pdf
Gordon: How has your devotion to the rosary affected your life?
Darrell: The rosary is very central to my spiritual life. There is a good reason why Our Lady in her approved apparitions has repeatedly asked that we pray the rosary daily, and that is because by a special decree and gift of God the rosary has been endowed in our times especially with more abundant graces than normal, for protection against the devil, against moral evil and heresy, for enlightenment to know the truth, for strength to embrace it and persevere in it, for guidance, spiritual, psychological , and emotional healing, and other graces. I believe strongly in the power of the rosary and that it is a crucial spiritual weapon that we need in achieving our primary objective, the salvation of our immortal souls. See, e.g. “The Secret of the Rosary” by St Louis De Montfort.
Gordon: What are the titles of books that you have written?
Darrell: “Revelations of St Bridget and Church Reform,” “Faith and Reason in St Thomas Aquinas According to Etienne Gilson ,” based on my Licentiate thesis; “Titanic II: The Diary of Rose Dawson ” a screenplay sequel to the movie “Titanic”, with a Catholic and supernatural theme; “|The Bad Kids Book of Poems: Cautionary Verse for Morals, Manners, and Not Being Stupid ” (illustrated); and a survival book, “The Smart, Poor, and Frugal Man’s Guide to Survival When the Shit Hits the Fan .” They are all on Amazon, as are about twenty-five books I’ve edited, mostly Catholic classics by saints. One can search my name on Amazon to see them.
Gordon: Why did you do a new translation of St Augustine's "Confessions”?
Darrell: There are many translations of the “Confessions.” What I wanted to do was take what I thought the best from various older translations and update the language somewhat, while trying not to lose the solemnity and beauty of Augustine’s lofty prose. I honestly think it’s the best translation of all the translations I’ve seen. I'll even give a refund to anyone who buys my translation of the “Confessions” and doesn’t think it is an excellent or at least very good translation.
Gordon: Is there a relationship between poetry and spirituality?
Darrell: Some of the greatest spiritual writings are poetry, beginning with the Psalms (especially in the Hebrew original ); many Catholic hymns throughout the ages, especially before the 1960s can be called great spiritual poetry; the poetry of numerous saints and Catholic laymen come to mind, including “prodigal” Catholics such as Francis Thompson, whose “Hound of Heaven” is extremely powerful in its spiritual message, as well as one of the greatest poems in the English language. Some of the deepest mystical spirituality can be found in the poetic writings of St John of the Cross, and other saints too. Poetry, like art, when created under the influence of divine grace, can be a thing of heavenly beauty. I don’t think one has to be a Catholic to write good, or even great spiritual poetry, but with God’s grace, as the saints possess abundantly and Catholic laymen possess to various degrees, come various gifts, including the ability to write the greatest spiritual poetry.
Some of my poetry can be seen at www.darkmoon.me by searching my name.
Gordon: What are some of the challenges that affect the Church?
Darrell: I believe the greatest challenge is the widespread loss among Catholics of the sense of the sacred and the widespread loss of the sense of sin. Because of this I believe that the Church will continue for a time to become spiritually weaker and will also undergo more and more persecution. But it will rise again as did Christ, for the Church is His Mystical Body which experiences death and resurrection as He did.
The great Catholic historian Hilaire Belloc once stated that “the only remedy for our modern evils is catastrophe” – that is to say, catastrophe would be the morally necessary condition, given human nature’s fallen state, for our apostate culture returning to God and consequently for its revitalization. Catastrophe, affliction, chastisement has in fact usually been the necessary remedy for apostasy from God throughout history, from the primordial apostasy of Adam and Eve through Old Testament times even to our own day. (The conversion of all the Ninevites at the preaching of Jonah, before any temporal affliction takes place [Jonah 3:4-10], is a good example of what unfortunately happens much less often.) Man for the most part needs affliction in order to know God’s will and to live according to it (Ps 119:71, 67). When we have our legs cut out from under us, so to speak, and are flat on our backs, it is easier to look up and to call upon God in our distress: “Call on me in the day of distress. I will free you and you shall honor me” (Ps 50:15). “When he slew them then they would seek him, return and seek him in earnest” (Ps 78:34). It is a manifestation of God’s love when he chastises us when we sin (Prov 3:12). More often than not we tend to dismiss or belittle God’s commandments until we experience personal (and collective) affliction (Ps 119:75). Then the scales fall from our eyes and we realize that we have strayed from God and have lived for ourselves and sought our own will rather than his.
But although we create our own harsh winter of affliction, God’s loving Providence never fails and, as Msgr. Ronald Knox once wrote, “The world’s winter is followed by God’s spring.” See my book, The Revelations of St Bridget and Church Reform”.
Gordon: How can our readers contact you?
Darrell: I can be reached at darrell@knightsoftheholyrosary.com.
Gordon: Thank you for a special and insightful interview.
Comments