Oh, Really?

A woman who writes on issues religious and church stuff, says that you could have married clergy, women priests and contraception for everyone, but it would not win a single soul.  Really?  I think it would make outreach a  lot easier because you would have some new "souls" in the pews who had walked out or never come in, based on these very issues.  I am not saying change the policy or teaching, but I do suspect that a change would bring in or bring back a lot of people who are on the sidelines or attending mega non-denominal churches now.  As for people leaving if there were a change, I don't know that anyone who loves the Eucharist would leave because they do not want to receive from someone.

Good Deed Cash

I invited the Superior General of the Paulist Fathers, my religious community, to lunch here in Vero Beach, Florida.  We went to a little oceanside cafe.  Someone who had heard him preach that morning was at the restaurant and said it was a good homily.  We went into the restaurant to sit down and eat.  Along comes the owner who says a fellow recognized us as priests at the parish and had given the owner $100 to buy us lunch, tip the waiter and give the rest to us.  I walked out from a nice lunch $40 richer than when I went in.  Sometimes, good deeds, inviting a person to lunch, have unexpected results.

Second Coming

Christians often talk about the Second Coming of Jesus at the end times.  What if the second coming of Jesus is not so much about the Risen Jesus who Ascended into Heaven, as Christians believe.  What if the second coming is when each one of us begins to live out our lives as Jesus did his?  What if he wants to come back a second time in each one of us?  If so, then God wants to revealed in this world in each one of us living our lives like Jesus of Nazareth, a Jew, who we Christians believe to be God.  Are not Christians supposed to be the presence of God in the world?  I think many of us try to get away from "following Jesus" by simply saying we believe, in our heads, that Jesus is God, get baptized and are thus saved.  No transformation necessary on our part.  Jesus comes back, but hopefully not while we are in the midst of getting our plans successfully completed today.  Each day is a fresh gift of life to bring about this second coming in the way I live.

Pray For Those Who Are A Trial

I pray for those who I find difficult, or who don't seem to like me, or are a bit nasty.  Why?  I don't want them to control my day.  Why should I walk around all day feeling anger and resentment because of the actions of another person?  So they become a source of spiritual growth for me, or moments of grace.  I pray, not that they will shape up.  That is my agenda and opinion.  I ask God that they receive the things I want for myself.  When I pray that people will have a better, fuller and deeper life free of addictive behavior, I find that I am less angry.  It is hard for me to be hateful when I pray this way for people.  They may not change, but usually I do, for the better, that day.

Feelings

Whenever I am spiritually unfit, ignoring my inner spirit, I find certain feelings take center stage, and other feelings take a back seat at best.  I find that I lack the ability to feel compassion for the pain of another person.  I am self-focused.  I feel more judgmental, irritable, cynical and frightened, though I often don't even know I am frightened.  Fear disguises itself in discontent and anxiety.  Simply put, when I pray, I can love others better and be generally more helpful.  For Lent, I am trying to be more helpful each day.  One helpful act each day is not too high a bar.  Well, I have my moments when the bar seems like Everest.  Growing up is hard!

Retirement Benefits

My Catholic church does a lot about telling others how to live their lives, especially in sex issues, but when it comes to justice among their own, we may not be very good examples.  We have a lot of priests who could retire in a few years, very few years.  There is supposed to be a pension fund for them.  Is the money there?  A survey says, maybe not, or rather, these funds are seriously underfunded.  I guess that we will see.

Mother Teresa

A Hindu cleric suggested that the main reason for Mother Teresa doing her mission was to convert a person to Christianity.  You don't say?  While many a Hindu often did nothing for the dying person, a leper, even a baby lying in the street,  Mother Teresa and her group took the baby and others in and gave them a dignified way to die with love and care.  I don't think the baby was old enough to accept the Catholic faith and convert.  The reason Mother Teresa did what she did is because India would not do enough.  Too often, for me, reincarnation is just an excuse to ignore overwhelming suffering.  Indifference can lead to apathy.  A spiritual path of indifference is no spiritual path at all.  Christians can do this too with private devotions and/or self-centered petitions to God to get stuff or avoid something.  In the Eastern philosophies, meditation that does not lead to action on behalf of helping others in their suffering, is just navel gazing.