For Thoughts On Being a Christian by the "Chinese Chesterton"

  

All wisdom is from the Lord God, and hath been always with him, and is before all time. —Sirach 1:1

I came across the following thoughts in my friend John C.H. Wu's book The Interior Carmel: The Threefold Way of Love. Author Frank Sheed called John, a Benedictine Oblate, "the Chinese Chesterton." The following selection may help you understand why.

For Thoughts from the Guide for Catechists, With a Little Help From My Friends

The next time the Easter Vigil rolls around, I will have been a Catholic 4 full years. But those of you who have followed my conversion story know that I sat in the pews with my wife, and later with my children, for close to 18 years, and that I started exploring the faith in earnest in the Fall of 2006.

Eventually, around the Summer of 2007, I read The Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton's conversion story that was published in 1948. It turns out that 1948 is also the year that Lou Tseng-Tsiang published his Ways of Confucius and of Christ, and his friend John C. H. Wu published his From Confucianism to Catholicism a year later in 1949. More on this synchronicity shortly.

Because the Case for Marian Devotion is Iron-Clad

On the cusp of the Feast of the Assumption, it's a good time for a little Mariology. What follows are thoughts of John C.H. Wu on Our Lady and the Catholic Church. This is from the epilogue of his book Beyond East and West. To me this is one of the best answers to the question "Why do Catholics venerate Mary and why is this important?" Think of that as an essay question on a final exam that you must answer in 700 words (or less) and see if you can top my friend John. I personally don't think you can (I know I can't!).

Because World Youth Day is a Fertile Field for Vocations

A fortnight ago, I wrote a post about the coolest blog to add YIMCatholic to their blog roll. The blog is written by TingTing Tse, whose photograph you see here. Her blog is written in Chinese, though search me if it is in Cantonese or Mandarin. After I posted about her blog, which appeared to be coming out of Emmaus in the Holy Land, she wrote me a note.

Dear Frank,

Because the Holy Spirit is On-Line: Dispatches from Shanghai

 —Feast of St. Augustine of Canterbury 

It's minor miracle time. Yesterday I got around to forwarding my recent post on Dom Lou to my friend Jonathan Chaves.

Jonathan, a professor of Chinese at George Washington University, is the person I met when I "discovered" Wu Li. He e-mailed me back right before supper and informed me that he has been in Shanghai for the past two months and is wrapping up a research trip there. He said he could not read my post, however, because all blogs were "suppressed." What?! I hate it when that happens.

For the Seed Planted by a Chinese Confucian Diplomat

—Our Lady, Help of Christians 

The Holy Father has asked us to pray for the Church in China today. News reports are saying that security is tight in Sheshan. Of course, we must not forget that Mainland China is still under the control of a form of government that is not altogether friendly to the Church. Militant xenophobia has run through China long before she fell to the Communists.

That's why I feel compelled to share the following story from my dear, departed friend named Dom Lou Tseng-Tsiang. Doesn't he look stunning in this photograph? That was taken in 1906 when he was a diplomat to the Hague. At that time, China was still ruled by the soon to be extinct Manchu Dynasty.

Ideals of Life (A Few Words for Wednesday)

In his book The Interior Carmel: The Threefold Way of Love, John C.H. Wu ends the chapter on "fraternal charity" with a short poem he composed. I read elsewhere that he was a poet too, but this is the first time I've seen one of his originals. I'll let him introduce it to you,

A Chinese "Spiritual" (A Few Words For Wednesday)

Feast of St. Onesimus 

I've been reading John C.H. Wu's The Interior Carmel: The Threefold Way of Love. This morning, I caught the shuttle bus from the parking lot to the bus stop right outside of my office back-door. As I was drinking my coffee during the ride, I dipped into my book bag and flipped open John's book. Guess what I found?

Thanks to St. John of the Cross, Master of Paradoxes

In the past, I have shared my affinity for both the writings of John C.H. Wu (the Chinese Chesterton, here with his family and Pope Pius XII) and St. John of the Cross. Do you remember when I shared my friend John's thoughts on Thérèse of Lisieux? He compared her to Lao Tzu and Confucius.

As this is the feast day of St. John of the Cross, I would like to share with you some of John Wu's thoughts about this Doctor of the Church as well as this diagram of St. John's Ascent of Mt. Carmel.

From the Time Capsule: The Making of a Chinese Nun, circa 1917.

Here is something I stumbled upon recently. It's from the year 1917, when even in the United States women didn't have the right to vote yet. I have been to many places in the world, and although as a culture we Americans like to think we have really come "a long way" and solved all the major problems, many of the women of the world still live in the way this young Chinese Catholic nun describes. Tell us a story Father Truarrizaga.



The Making Of A Chinese Nun by Rev. J. M. Truarrizaga, O.F.M.

The roads by which Chinese girls reach Christianity are often devious and full of danger. But not only do many of the rescued and converted children become fervent Catholics, but a few of them choose the religious life. Sad, indeed, is the early history of Shensi's native nun, but a special Providence protected her and she is now safe among the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary.--J.M.T.

Thérèse of Lisieux: the Mind of Lao Tzu, with the Heart of Confucius

—Feast of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus

Today we celebrate the feast of a Doctor of the Church, the little nun who could, the Little Flower, Thérèse of Lisieux. Responsible for countless conversions to the Faith, she bowled over Thomas Merton, pulled a fast one on Webster Bull, and sank, for all intents and purposes, John C.H. Wu's battleship, with a direct hit amidships.

Do you have friends that left the Church to follow the lights of Eastern Spirituality? Introduce them to the Little Flower. John was so impressed with her Story of a Soul, that he immediately resolved to become a Catholic as soon as possible.

For Dom Lou's Thoughts on The Effects of Secularization in China

—Feast of St. Vincent de Paul

I just finished reading Lou Tseng-Tsiang's Ways of Confucius and of Christ.  In the latter pages of the book, he gives a seminar in Chinese history that I think you may find of interest. Secularization of a culture, the scrubbing away of their religious heritage, is not some new idea.

This new, new thing, is really nothing more than "been there, done that." Would it come as a shock to you to learn that the best laid plans of purifying Chinese culture of its religious roots simply opened the door to a foreign religion coming in to fill the void? Cultural relativism, and the dictatorship thereof, is something that Dom Lou explains happened in China long, long ago.

For The Witness Of Dom Lou Tseng-Tsiang (Circa 1948)

—Feast of the Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The other day, I finished reading John C.H. Wu's Beyond East and West. It is a great story and one which sadly is out of print. Today I am reading the book written by his friend Lou Tseng-Tsiang, briefly Prime Minister and former Foreign Minister of China. Here he is as a Benedictine monk and priest named Dom Pierre-Célestin. Is it just me, or does he look like the very model of serenity?

His friend John Wu called him Dom Lou, and he mentioned him a few times in Beyond East and West. What follows are a few of Dom Lou's thoughts on his conversion from the, again out of print, book he authored entitled Ways of Confucius and of Christ. 

For Thoughts Like These from John C. H. Wu

 I've been reading one of John Wu's books. I first received it via Intra-library loan through my local public library.  But it is so good that I coughed up the dough to buy my own copy as well.  It's worth the cost, trust me.

I wrote about how John is a reformed hell-raiser, which is one of the reasons I like him. He lays it all out for us in Beyond East and West. In Part One, it is his personal story. He covers his family background, where he went to school, his rise, his becoming a Christian, his being befriended by Justice Holmes of the U.S. Supreme Court, his falling away from Christianity, his decent into depravity and his conversion to Catholicism.

With God's Grace And A Little Help From My Friends

When I was a newly minted Marine, fresh out of boot camp and on my way into life, I was certain that I could lick it. Everything was possible, and all would be right in the world. Well, maybe not the whole world, but my world would be just fine. I realized that I was no all-powerful genie, but I had complete confidence in the unholy trinity of me, myself, and I. The winner, which I knew I was, would take all.

This delusion persisted for quite some time.

To Boldly Go Where Others Have Already Gone

Since my oldest son turned 7 years old, organized baseball has been a big part of my life. He is now a freshman in high school, and working hard on earning the chance to represent his school on the ball field. All of this has changed my life in unexpected ways, and almost all of them good.

Because Once Upon A Time, The Premier of China Was A Catholic

Imagine that you woke up to the news this morning that a former President of the United States, say Jimmy Carter for example, has just held a press conference saying that he has entered the Abbey at Gethsemane to become a Cistercian monk. Would you be flabbergasted? Amazed? Incredulous? Or would you be intrigued? That's how I felt when I learned the news that I am going to share with you today.

I am humbled, though,  to report the following story to you, but here goes. Just like the title of this post claims, at one time the Premier of China was a Catholic. And I'm not talking about the Island of Formosa either. I mean mainland China, before Mao Zedong took over. Why, you may ask, is this humbling to learn?

Because On This Championship Ball Club, Everyone Can Play

Early on, before I officially started upon the path to becoming a Catholic, I read Thomas Merton's autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain. I had already read Blaise Pascal's Pensées, and Thomas à Kempis' Imitation of Christ by the time I rolled around to Merton. In baseball terms, it was a strike-out for the side— the side of the Church, that is. Here is the play-by-play.

Because St. Anthony Helped Me Find John C.H. Wu

Anyone remember Webster's first post on minor miracles? Something a little more than a coincidence led me to John C. H. Wu and I'm not ashamed to go "on the record" and say that. While browsing the shelves of my local public library, I came upon this little volume called St. Anthony's Treasury. It's a wee little book of prayers that is about the size of a pocket New Testament, like the ones the Gideon's publish.

Catholic prayer books in the public library? That's a minor miracle in itself, right? I know it was a gift from a patron. How? Because in pencil on the top right-hand corner of the blank page facing the inside cover is written carefully the word "gift." The library, see, doesn't have the money to purchase every published book under the sun. Especially not little Catholic prayer books like this one.

Because of Catholics like the “Chinese Chesterton”

Today I want to introduce you to another man from China named Wu, who also became a Catholic. His full name is Wu Jingxiong, or Wu Ching-hsiung. As he spent much of his life in Western countries, he did what many do and adopted an Anglicized form of his name: John Ching Hsiung Wu, or John C. H. Wu for short.

Earlier this year, before summer started, I happened upon the story of a Chinese painter and poet who became a Catholic, way back in the year of Our Lord 1681. His name is Wu Li and I wrote several posts about him, his art, and his poetry. He eventually became a Jesuit Priest and spent the remainder of his years serving Christ as a missionary to his native land.