To Trust the Unseen

Even after satisfying her father with the oaths, Mary continued practicing her Catholic faith.  She wasn't truly breaking any laws: the Church of England was still very Catholic in practice and doctrine, including belief in transubstantiation (the bread and wine truly becoming the Body and Blood of Christ).  The only main difference was the authority figure at its head: for Catholics it was and still is the Pope, for Anglicans it was and still is the reigning monarch.  Mary unabashedly remained a Papist, as Protestants disparagingly referred to those of the Catholic faith who followed papal authority, and retained the support of the Catholic nations of Europe, which naturally included her mother's native Spain.  She was also friendly with the new Queen, wife #3 Jane Seymour, who was herself privately Catholic.  When Queen Jane gave birth to King Henry's long-awaited son, Edward, Mary stood as his godmother.  However, the joy over the new Prince...

Truth, the Daughter of Time -motto of Queen Mary I of England Just because I happened upon someone else's blog about her, I started thinking about Queen Mary, how she was the first queen regnant of England.  And to date, she is the only Catholic queen regnant England has ever had.  I figured she presented a perfect opportunity to bring together my two most passionate interests in this blog: history and religion.  In my college history classes, a lot of my dissertations tied the subject to religion in some way, big or small.  I see no reason not to continue that here. If there was one constant thing in Mary Tudor's life, it was her faith.  She was born on 18 February 1516 to the infamous King Henry VIII and his first Queen, Catherine of Aragon.  All of them were devout Catholics, especially Catherine, who was the daughter of the titans known as the Catholic Kings of Spain: Ferdinand and Isabella.  But as time wore on and Catherine had not given him...

"I'm glad you took this leap. I believe it will pay off eventually. ;)" That was a text from my dad this morning.  Considering he was, at first, the most skeptical of my plans for this school year, this means a lot to me. The leap he is referring to is my leap of faith into something suggested to me by Bob, the Catholic Campus Minister at Longwood.  Two friends of mine did it last year, and now it's my turn: to be a part of the Charlottesville Catholic Fellows program.  This past Tuesday I moved in with a host family from the parish that sponsors the program, the Church of the Incarnation.  From September to May I will live and work here, both at a part-time job (TBD, although I have an interview next Tuesday for a data entry position) and at the parish office (also TBD, but I would like to work with the youth and/or music ministry), and take classes at the Center for Christian Study (again TBD, but I have a couple of interesting choices).  The only sure thi...