Contemplative Catholic Studies in Gillibrand-Sanders Territory


8:03 AM Thursday.

Greetings, Duffy, my contemplative Catholic mentor in Vermont!

Or should I say in "Gillibrand-Sanders" territory? Does that fairly summarize the dominant political and religious paradigm in our neck of the northeastern woodlands?

(Sidebar: Senator Gillibrand, an Albany native, is a progressive Catholic. Here she is discussing Christian faith and public service in early October of 2025:


She does a great job in the interview. There are 24 Catholic Senators in the 119th Congress. Eleven are Republicans and thirteen are Democrats. I could not find evidence of any who report a preference for the Traditional Latin Mass, but that doesn't mean there aren't any. I wasn't even aware that the Vatican was actively discouraging the TLM until I looked the matter up).   
  
Back in my radical green political days, under Bush II and Obama, I wanted the northeastern states to form a regional block and secede from the US in order to create a nuclear weapons-free socialist ecotopia. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was a delusional left-wing anti-Semite. I even thought that 9/11 was an inside job. Then I started to think the local police were surveilling me because of my suspicions. Eventually I came to believe the CIA was reading my mind. It was a terrifying descent into schizoaffective psychosis, and I am very grateful to be six years on the other side of it!

Now I am much more conservative in my viewpoint, not because I have capitulated to an "imperialist capitalist Zionist aggressor," but because I have become genuinely better educated and integrated as a self-respecting American man.

What do I mean by a self-respecting American man? Well, the indigenous Catholic "Red Road" teaching of Black Elk is a big part of this discussion. Can we be self-respecting American men if we are not on the Red Road, or is the use of the Red Road by European settlers and their descendants a form of cultural appropriation? From what I understand of it so far, the Red Road is the way of human decency in all its forms, while its opposite is the way of sin in all its forms. But this is a crude simplification. I know it is much more nuanced. You are in close communication with an esteemed Black Elk scholar. What exactly did Black Elk mean by the Red Road, and was the Red Road a path that Black Elk wanted European settlers to walk, too, or was the Red Road only meant to be a pathway for Native Americans?


While we are on the subject of the Red Road, I am wondering about the situation with the Abenaki in Vermont. They appear to be recognized by the state, but not the federal government. The Abenaki in Canada, backed by federally recognized US tribal leaders, are accusing the Vermont Abenaki of race-shifting. Maybe this is getting a bit too far afield from spiritual direction, but what should non-Native allies do in this situation - support the federally recognized tribal leaders, or support the Vermont Abenaki groups? Google Gemini (not the Pope, of course, but AI Jesus could soon become a contender) strongly recommends support for the Canadian Abenaki First Nations position:


My apologies for bombarding you with too many AI links, but here are three follow-up questions I had to ask Gemini that you might be interested in consulting:

1. Just to be clear, this does not in any way mean that an indigenous ally should get into calling the Vermont Abenaki groups "frauds," which could be deeply traumatizing, right?


2. Could the Vermont state legislature hold hearings on the dispute in a way that could be healing for both sides, or would such hearings only make things worse?


3. Could the Vermont legislature or Governor hire an outside team of tribal peacebuilding experts to help manage the bad feelings that would come with hearings?


Returning more directly to spiritual direction, have you met any Christian Abenaki in Vermont, and if so, how do they harmonize following Jesus with the preservation of Abenaki spiritual traditions? Is this something that Vermont Catholics have thought much about?

Wow. I just discovered and read Walking in a Good Way: Abenaki Catholicism in Ndakinna | Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington by Damian Costello. This excellent article in turn led me to read St. Kateri: Valor in Vermont | Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington by the same author. Very powerful. I am taking out my Saint Kateri icon as I type. I got it when I made a pilgrimage to her humble shrine about an hour west of Albany. Her energy is very powerful in this watershed. In addition to her patronage of ecology, I think of her as the patron saint of my born-again celibate chastity. Just bringing out her icon makes me want to smudge. It's been a while. I am smudging with sage and a wild turkey feather for all of us right now, including the Abenaki, following principles I learned from an indigenous YouTube teacher:

 
Okay. That really cleared the air. But once I am done using up this sage, I won't buy more unless I can be sure it was sustainably harvested. Indeed, I'll stop smudging altogether if a more authoritative source convinces me that it's a form of appropriation. 

So, we are about to embark on a seven-week Advent and Christmas retreat centered around the mystery of the Incarnation. I am really looking forward to it. At the intellectual level, I have all kinds of questions about the Incarnation that I am bringing with me into the new liturgical year. While the Virgin birth is accepted by Muslims, the Incarnation is definitely a major doctrinal difficulty for Muslims, Jews, and pretty much everyone else but Nicene Christians. At the heart level, I don't have much in the way of questions, just a deep and joyful faith that communal American celebration of the mystery of the Incarnation is an unparalleled annual invitation to repentance, contemplation and theosis: 


I won't write you directly on Thanksgiving, as I expect we will both be busy with family, so I only have one more Thursday to share a preliminary reflection before we begin the retreat.

Let's see if I can focus in next week on the fuzzy overlap between Sol Invictus and the uncreated light of Christ. No, let's go ahead and do that now:


Questions asked and answered:

  • What is Sol Invictus?
  • Do we know for sure that the Christian Church's decision to celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25 took place after the origination of the Sol Invictus cult, not before it?
  • Either way, the Incarnation is symbolically linked to the winter solstice - how does this relate theologically to the uncreated light of Christ in the mystical Orthodox tradition?

Alright, time to wrap up. This has been a very long blog post, and I fear it will take too much of your time to read over. On the other hand, I have completely poured out my cup and am now an empty vessel. If there are any questions you want me to take up next week from your eagle's eye vantage near the capital of Vermont, just let me know by email some time before next Thursday morning.

Deepest thanks and blessings.

End 2:31 PM.

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