HERE CAN BE NO DOUBT that 2020 was a very difficult year for Catholic choirmasters. Yet, somehow I feel we deserved 2020—at least I did. I was reading a Roman Catholic publication from 1861, and I noticed that Catholics before Vatican II had to fast and abstain from meat…a whole lot! How many of us fast 60 days of the year? We barely know the meaning of the word penance. We barely know the meaning of the word fasting. How many of us wear a hair-shirt like Saint John Vianney did? How many of us scourge our backs (“self-flagellation”) like Saint John Vianney did? How many of us live on potatoes like Saint John Vianney? How many of us voluntarily sleep on the hard floor at night, as did Saint John Vianney? That is why I say we probably deserve a lot worse than 2020.
Speaking of that Roman Catholic publication from 1861, I found an interesting section talking about Connecticut Puritans: “The Blue Laws were a series of fanatical laws enacted by the Puritans of the colony of Connecticut. They were long enforced in this colony and in some of the other adjoining New England colonies. They are noted for their absurdity and their persecuting spirit.”
* PDF Download • THE BLUE LAWS
—They laws of the Puritans in Connecticut “are noted for their absurdity.”
A few extracts from the Code:
“No priest shall abide in this dominion; he shall be banished and suffer death upon his return. Priests may be seized by any person without a warrant.” (In force before 1656AD.)
“No one shall run on the Sabbath day, or walk in his garden, or elsewhere, except reverently to and from meeting.”
“No one shall travel, cook victuals, make beds, sweep house, cut hair, or shave on the Sabbath.”
“If any man shall kiss his wife, or wife her husband, on the Lord’s day, the party in fault shall be punished, at the discretion of the Court of Magistrates.”
“No woman shall kiss her child on the Sabbath or fasting day.”
“Every male shall have his hair cut round according to a cap.”
