WordPress informs me when other blogs and sites on the web have referred to my blog. A little encouragement from time to time is good for morale.

Raúl Oscar Amado is professor of history at the National University of Luján, Argentina. He has a blog called Contemplationibus, Traditio – Fides – Ratio.

It is a highly personal look at Christian belief and spirituality. It is a beautiful example of lay spirituality at its most elevated. Increasing numbers of people have become tired of the endless sectarian polemics and desire to plot a new course, study and writing on spiritual and theological subjects. Like many of us, he is inspired by Orthodox theologians and saints as well as the classical western tradition of St Thomas Aquinas and C.S. Lewis, Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, Jacques Maritain and others.

In Nuevo blog y algunas preguntas sobre el catolicismo independiente (New blog and some questions about independent Catholicism), he mentions my blog:

Not only do I have my own experience, but that of a blogger and clergyman I greatly admire, the Rev. Anthony Chadwick, a man whom I admire and share his tastes of liturgy and sailing (my father was a sailor, hence I inherited it).

It is not an occasion of sinful pride for me, but gratitude for the possibility of doing something positive in this world, especially on the Internet which can be a very hostile environment. Perhaps this is so because it creates possibilities for worldwide communication that we simply didn’t have just a few years ago. It can be used for both good and evil.

My interests have widened over the years as I try to combat my typical “aspie” tendency to see only narrow fields of interest whilst failing to understand the big picture. For me, theology, philosophy, music and sailing (exploration of nature) become facets of a wider vision through the ideas and imagination of Romanticism. Add to that another couple of principles I have learned from the Benedictine monastic tradition: Operi Dei nihil praeponatur – nothing is to be preferred to the liturgical worship of God. The second is ora et labora, pray and work – with our hands (garden, workshop, etc. and intellectual – translating to earn a living and writing). Like our friend Raúl, I experience life as a pilgrimage and a journey.