Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Ronda Chervin moves to Morganton, NC!

I just received the good news today that Ronda Chervin has just relocated in Morganton, North Carolina! Ronda Chervin, a Fordham University Ph.D. in Philosophy, with an MA in Religious Studies from Notre Dame Apostolic Institute, has been Professor of Philosophy and Theology at Loyola Marymount University, the Seminary of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and Franciscan University of Steubenville. She is a convert from a Jewish (though atheistic) background, an international speaker and author of some fifty books about Catholic thought, practice, and spirituality.

In an interview with Joseph D'Agostino about her conversion last year, she said, among other things:

My sister, my mother and my husband, who had all been atheists, all became Catholics also. My husband would have become a Catholic just before we got married but Vatican II intervened, and he hated Vatican II. He loved the Latin Mass. He came from an Orthodox Jewish background, and he thought the Catholic Church was the direct descendant of Orthodox Judaism. But he had become an atheist when he was a teen-ager, like most Lower East Side kids. They all became socialists. ... As soon as the Church began to look less sacred to him, he lost interest in it. It took him another 15 years to became Catholic. ... I live in a parish now that has the Fraternity of St. Peter's Tridentine Mass four days a week. And I love the Gregorian chant.
Ronda Chervin is a Consecrated Widow and a mystic. Undoubtedly she will miss her intentional Catholic community in Arkansas -- the Star of the Sea Village about which Jimmy Akin has written a post entitled "It Takes a Catholic Village" -- and St. Michael's Catholic Church in the Ozarks, with its joint English and indult Traditional Latin Rite liturgies. Nevertheless, I know well the parish community into which she has relocated at St. Charles Catholic Church where Fr. Kenneth Whittington is pastor. While the indult for the Traditional Latin Mass has not yet been granted for the Diocese of North Carolina, Fr. Wittington provides probably the best choir in the region, with good traditional fare.

A short bio of "Fr. Ken" is furnished along with the conversion stories of Fr. Conrad Kimbrough and others in "The Ex-Episcopalians," where one learns that the Kenneth Whittington's family was half Lutheran and Episcopalian, that he went to the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, where he became enamored with the majesty of Anglo-Catholic liturgy and converted to Anglicanism, that he converted to Catholicism when he became aware of the doctrinal incoherence of Anglicanism and saw the solidity underlying the turmoil of the post-Vatican II decades in the lives of devout Catholics. Because of his musical training, Fr. Wittington himself serves as choirmaster at St. Charles and has served up a steady stream of solid fare from Gregorian chant to Renaissance polyphony.

Another Jewish convert to Catholicism, Rosalind Moss, visited St. Charles Catholic Church in Morganton a few years ago and gave a series of talks. She told a parishioner there, Nancy McCall, that if she lived in North Carolina she would drive over 200 miles on Sundays, if she had to, to attend Fr. Ken's church. Hopefully, Ronda Chervin will appreciate St. Charles as much.

Some books by Ronda Chervin:

4 comments:

Vincent said...

Just watched her interview on the EWTN show and it was very interesting.

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

Watched EWTN today. Concentrated Widows and Star of the Sea sounded comforting. I have been divorced for 8 yrs and still feel like I'm in limbo.I am a practicing Catho!ic receive the sacraments Mass 2 times a week Eucharistic adoration and my own prayers at home.My prayers are usually of Thanksgiving or to know God's will for me,which I still don't know.I watch EWTN daily but rarely do I see or hear anything for divorced Catholics.I try to focus on other people and offer loneliness or my confusion on what now? To Jesus for His suffering.I remind myself Gods time not mine.So I persevere or try to daily asking for guidance. Any advise for me? Thank you

Joseph said...

Hi Marge,

I hear you. Been there. Done that. You're doing the right things. Keep them up. Embrace the solitude, even if lonely. Especially with regular prayer, meditation, and reading of Scripture. What you'll find in good time, as you seek the Lord's presence, is that grief is transformed, slowly, progressively, into peace, consolation, and joy. Avoid any thought of a rebound relationship, which will only add to your grief by unnecessary and detrimental complications. For every year of marriage, expect about one year to sum up how long it may take to see the transition through to something like happy normalcy again. Divorce leaves an indelible scar. In some ways it's like having a limb or two amputated. That will remain always with you. But the pain of the memory will diminish and can even be transmuted into an empathy that enables you to share in the grief of others going through similar sorrows. You may be able to offer some consolation to them. Read the Psalms. Read the story of Joseph in Genesis. Read the Book of Ruth (only 4 chapters, but rich in poignant relationships of loss, sorrow, and rediscovered joy). God love you.