Introduction to the Blog

RUGWIG stands for "Render Unto God What Is God's" (cf. Matthew 22:20-22).

This blog took its original inspiration from the exhortation at the end of the Second Vatican Council document on the apostolate of the laity, Apostolicam Actuositatem, no. 33:

The most holy council, then, earnestly entreats all the laity in the Lord to answer gladly, nobly, and promptly the more urgent invitation of Christ in this hour and the impulse of the Holy Spirit. Younger persons should feel that this call has been directed to them especially and they should respond to it eagerly and generously [alacritate et magnanimitate]. Through this holy synod, the Lord renews His invitation to all the laity to come closer to Him every day, recognizing that what is His is also their own (Phil. 2:5), to associate themselves with Him in His saving mission. Once again He sends them into every town and place where He will come (cf. Luke 10:1) so that they may show that they are co-workers in the various forms and modes of the one apostolate of the Church, which must be constantly adapted to the new needs of our times. Ever productive as they should be in the work of the Lord, they know that their labor in Him is not in vain (cf. 1 Cor. 15:58).

My original purpose for this blog was to collect in an easily accessible location, i.e. via internet blog, material for use in essay writing with their corresponding citations to the original sources. Eventually that purpose became more general: to collect and post excerpts from my varied readings and studies as well as personal reflections on what I am reading. Copying texts and re-reading them makes it easier for me to remember their content. Although nearly any topic is fair game, there are certain topics and themes that I have an affinity for.

If I post something with a citation, then the material clearly isn't mine. I copy it here for educational purposes and not to claim the material as my own. I also have special permission from TAN Books to republish copyrighted excerpts that do not exceed 1000 words per post and do not total more than 15% of any particular work. Usually for these re-posts, if they come from online sources, I will place in the title the word "Repost" to indicate that the material is not mine. If there is no citation, then the material has been written by me. When the word "Distinction" is placed at the beginning of a title, it means that the post will discuss a distinction between two matters that sometimes may be confused or which may be useful to distinguish for conversation or thinking. In some posts where I am posting already printed work as from a book, I will include the page numbers in brackets within the text itself, for example [45] means page 45.

Update as of 10/24/2018: More recently, I have tended to focus more and more on traditional Catholic themes and matter, and within the past year I have become very interested in the sociological differences between contemporary self-constructed notions of traditional Catholicism in groups that identify as such and what this culture looked like, say, 100 years ago at least as evidenced in regular Catholic publications in commentary on society and culture. In general I have found that there are sometimes wide disparities between how we tend to conceptualize what the traditional Faith means or how it ought to manifest itself socially or what corollary beliefs follow and how these aspects were approached before Vatican II.