The longing begins...

It has been quite some time since I have written anything. The stress of the election and being shorthanded at work has left precious little time for self-reflection and spiritual care. Though one could certainly argue that then is precisely when one needs to focus on the same; I guess I will get it right one of these days. 

The stirrings of Advent though weeks away is present in me. I have seen Christmas decorations up already, the earliest I have ever witnessed that. I think the long and continuing pandemic nightmare, the ugliness of the political landscape, and much more, has perhaps given the country a collective “Advent Spirit”.  Though certainly not all are longing for the Christ specifically, there IS a longing for peace on earth and goodwill toward humankind, it seems to me. I think we all realize that we have to wait for that. But spurred on by the election results, it just seems that there has been a shift, an anticipation of something good in our troubled world.  That embryonic HOPE is on its way to be birthed in Bethlehem. And Philadelphia. And Flint. And Minneapolis. And everywhere else.

Please let Hope be born in our country once again.

Daily Mass Readings 

Titus 2:1-8, 11-14
Psalm 37:3-4, 18, 23, 27, 29
Luke 17:7-10

My heart feels full today

 

I celebrated my first Mass today. Yes it was on zoom. Yes anyone zooming into the mass space was encouraged to provide their own bread and wine to be consecrated. I have done that before with my community. 

Today however, is the first time I ever consciously did so as a priest. I did not simply offer my host for Bishop Ken to consecrate; I uttered the words of consecration with my brother priests. The bread and wine became the Body and Blood in my very hands! It didn't matter that it was wonder bread and grape juice, or that I was entering community remotely.  

We brought the one sacrifice of the Mass to the present.  I was amongst people who drew down the Son.

Calvary was in our midst. Jesus the Christ was among us.

How wonderful and gratifying and small and insignificant I feel for this gift. I feel like a newborn; this is only the beginning of my priestly ministry. There is SO MUCH more just waiting. I feel needed. I feel welcomed. I feel like my work has only begun!  Ugh I am repeating myself now. 

Brother Francis, you have walked with me for so long, helping to nudge me in the direction the Divine knows I should be. It is only fitting I celebrate my first Mass as a priest on your feast day. I love you!

Feast of St. Francis of Assisi 
Daily Mass Readings
Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalm 80:9, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20
Philippians 4:6-9
Matthew 21:33-43

A bit nervous but that's not a bad thing...

 A friend of mine from seminary is going to list me as an affiliate on her ministry website this week My old fears and lack of self confidence welled in me when she asked for my bio information. 

"Who the hell are YOU to present yourself as a minster of ANYTHING? Keep your head down, and let everything pass you by. Your prime and your best years lay behind you."

But that's not true. I was ordained for a purpose. And NO, I am totally NOT qualified to minister, but I got called to do so anyway. People I admire are motivating me and urging me on. I have a wedding I have bene asked to officiate and and talking to another couple about performing a collaring. They say in AA that you can find a life "beyond your wildest dreams". Not since I was a child did I ever consider the possibility of presiding at a wedding.  You'd think these thoughts would have come up during seminary and ordination. They honestly did not. I really could not imagine anyone ever actually seeking me out to be of service. The reality of being ordained has just hit me like a ton of bricks today.

In an extraordinarily good way.

Daily Mass Readings
Job 1:6-22
Psalm 17:1BCD, 2-3, 6-7
Luke 9:46-50

Another birthday come and gone...

It was a good weekend. People remembered I prefer pie to cake (I got me a coconut custard at work and an apple from my family!) My son cooked me a steak dinner on Friday, which was delish.  We watched Hamilton outdoors with a bonfire and burgers. And I got to Mass with my community.

There are worse ways to turn 52 I guess...

About today's Gospel; Jesus calling out those who talk the talk instead of walk the walk is a bit of a wake up call. Thank you, Brother.

Daily Mass Readings
Ezekiel 18:25-28
Psalm 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Philippians 2:1-11 or 2:1-5
Matthew 21:28-32

There is always hope...

The blackness and deepness of that hole can feel all consuming, I know. Nothing feels right. Nothing feels like it will ever feel good again. No matter how many are around you, the isolation is solid steel. Immovable and unbreakable. They say they love you and they need you, and they may even think that they do. But they're WRONG. "Who in their right mind would spend their love on someone like me? THEY'RE the  crazy ones..." you mind convinces. The urge to cry has long since passed; it simply takes too much energy. You don't even remember what laughing is like. 

There's nothing but that mass of numbing pulsating pain. It's never going to be all right, no matter what they say. Better not to feel. At all. Better to just slip away.

*********************************************************

Even though it doesn't feel like it today, there is hope. I promise you there's hope. One more day. One more hour/minute/second. Maybe we all ARE crazy like you think. But you are wanted. And needed. And LOVED beyond measure. Please stick around. Humor the crazy folks, willya?

St. Jude and Our Lady of Sorrows, Pray for us.

Daily Mass Readings
Ecclesiastes 1:2-11
Psalm 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14, 17
Luke 9:7-9

Not much to say tonight.

 I am tired, My coworker's last day was today. The coming presidential election looks like more of a shit show every single day. Did not get all my steps in.

But I did get my meditation in albeit short. I visited mom and served my family. Now I am writing though there isn't much to say. And after I finish here, I am going to a zoom AA meeting. I can't seem to write without complaining just a little. But I am making a concerted effort to get some positives in there as well. T'aint easy. But I am trying anyway.

A sabbatical from most social media (excluding this blog because writing is good for me) seems like a wise thing to do; the energy is detrimental to me and doesn't do me nor anyone with whom I interact any good. There are so many other things I could be doing; reading, writing, ministering, working on my recovery. One of the last straws today was seeing my twitter followers decrease by 4 overnight. And me actually attaching value to that.  It isn't a good measure for me. This is feeling more and more like a good idea.

Let's see if this is just a whim or not.

Memorial of Saint Pius of Pietrelcina, Priest
Daily Mass Readings
Galatians 2:19-20
Psalm 127:1-5
Matthew 16:24-27

Manic Monday

Back to a, shall we say, challenging work environment, a sick doggo, and the world is falling apart at the seams. 

But...

• I got my daily readings and prayer done this morning.  
• I said my piece and stood up for myself in my performance appraisal follow-up
• Lunchtime found me walking again and taking pictures
• I made a recovery meeting this evening.

Sure there's more I could have done today.  I am choosing to focus on this.  God will never bring me a day that I won't be able to get through.  More than anything, I am choosing to be grateful for the day.  There's an awful lot I could get down about, and believe me it is difficult to fight against it.  I am winning right now, and that will have to be enough.

Feast of St. Matthew
Daily Mass Readings
Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-13
Psalm 19:2-3, 4-5
Matthew 9:9-13

Political news

 The doom and gloom, the drama. One son seems to be planning for civil war, the other is so upset by the idea that we don't talk much about current events around him.  Not that I rerally can blame him; I have been tempted to stick my fingers in my ears and start yelling LALALALALALALA!!! myself these past few days.

The death of RBG and the immediate call by the Republicans to fill her vacancy, the administration's plans to put forward "patriotic education" and discontinue funding for those schools that refuse to adopt it, hitting the 200,000th American Covid-19 death, and so on, ad nauseam. There is a lot to be upset about in this country.

What can I do?

Stay sober. Be the prayer. Remain spiritually and emotionally fit for myself so it is possible for me to be there for others. Do I have answers? To most of the troubling issues that assault us every day, no I most certainly do not. I can offer help. Understanding. And maybe most importantly, convey HOPE. It feels overwhelming to me.  But God led me down this path over all these decades for a reason. 

Daily Mass Readings
Isaiah 55:6-9
Psalm 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18
Philippians 1:20-24, 27
Matthew 20:1-16

Reading through some old diaries today...

One thing for sure, I was a far more prolific (and better) writer 20-odd years ago.  Writing muscles atrophy too, I guess.

It's funny that I concerned myself over the same things then as I do now; my personal spirituality and how I relate to God. I mean, you could put a journal entry from back then on this blog today and no one would know; me struggling with being a heretical Catholic with strong Pagan tendencies.  

Why don't I/can't I move forward?

I think it is because I am waiting for personal revelation instead of  putting myself out in the world.  My experiences with the Divine have very rarely come during private formal prayer or study.  They have come when I have least expected it; during a boring Mass, desperate spontaneous prayer during an alcoholic binge that brought me to recovery, and most recently counseling a spiritual-not-religious younger couple on their wedding which I will be officiating.  I was not prepared for the encounter with God in any of these instances. But there God was anyway, waiting for me to get it, waiting for me to see that He cannot be gleaned from a book, that She cannot be contained by rote prayer.  Learning about God and prayer to and with God are good things, don't get me wrong.  But putting prayer into action, BEING prayer, is the only way that prayer works.  At least for me. I am simply not meant to be a contemplative alone. 

So it turns out I remain a Christopagan.  I simply need to get off my ass and be the change I want to see.  That means writing. That means reaching out. That means doing. That means action. 

Daily Mass Readings
1 Corinthians 15:12-20
Psalm 17:1, 6-7, 8, 15
Luke 8:1-3

To my progressive/left-of-center friends...

    Have you ever experienced "vote-shaming" for even CONSIDERING a 3rd party vote?

I've been told ANY vote that's not Biden-Harris is the same as pulling the lever for trump-pence. I've been told that my "privilege is showing" for considering voting for the Greens (my OWN party), even though the VP nominee for the Greens is a Black woman and union rep (Understand that I don't deny my white male privilege; I just don't believe voting for a progressive/left ticket demonstrates it).

Here's my thing... the 2 party system has brought us Donald Trump and Joe Biden for president in 2020. These are the absolute BEST electable candidates this country can come up with. I beg your pardon if this swill makes me cynical about the spot in which this county finds itself. Forgive me for not getting excited about a man who is only slightly LESS addled than the brute currently camped out in the oval office

I've not made a decision which liberal/nominally liberal candidate will ultimately get my vote. Meanwhile, excuse the f**k out of me for actually thinking about it first.

Rant over. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

Daily Mass Readings Ezekiel 24:15-24
Deuteronomy 32:18-19, 20, 21
Matthew 19:16-22

Adrift today...

I am starting to think I am nothing more than an intricate LARPer.  

And even with that, I merely scratch the surface. I am drawn by the trappings of ALL these things – from the Church to Buddhism, from Green to Libertarian, from Knight of Columbus to Secular Franciscan to Interfaith Minister to Priest to Author, to AA member, ad nauseum.  The sounds, the sights, the smells, the WANTING so bad for things to be real and have meaning.  And then….never being able to delve below the surface long enough to MAKE it real.  Buying T-shirts and books, and books on writing and clerical shirts and stoles and statues and memberships.  And the lacking the motivation to follow any of it through.   I am a bullshit artist who DESPERATELY needs to believe in his own bullshit.  

And I don’t; not really.  

Magic and miracles and true spirituality may very well be real. I have finally admitted to myself no discipline to pursue it.  My spirituality and lifestyle is a mixture of so many different ideas and lifestyles that it is simply an unrecognizable gray slop.  “Don’t label yourself” I have heard constantly in my life and it is also advice I have given.  The thing is, I NEED labels.  I don’t know how to BE without labels.  Being schooled in interspirituality has actual broken that down somewhat.  I am on more unstable ground than when I began seminary.

Looking at my last entry and today's... I am feeling pretty unmoored.

Memorial of St. Clare

Daily Mass Readings 

Ezechiel 2:8—3:4

Psalm 119:14, 24, 72, 103, 111, 131

Matthew 18:1-5, 10, 12-14

I could always get out...

I remember a long time ago seeing the mediocre-to-bad 80s movie Soul Man with C.Thomas Howell and Rae Dawn Chong.  It tried to be socially significant but for the time and place it fell flat on most accounts.  Except something that I was reminded of today

The premise of the movie is that Howell's character is a college student who pretends to be black by taking tanning pills and wearing a wig in order to access a Harvard law school scholarship meant for black applicants only.  He wins the scholarship and much silliness occurs.  He meets and consequentially falls in love with Chong's character who was SUPPOSED to get the scholarship money.  Long story short, he gets caught and the dean of Harvard law (James Earl Jones), after much grilling, allows him to stay in school.

"You've learned", he says.  "You've learned what it feels like to be black."

"With all due respect you're wrong, sir" Howell's character answered.  "If I couldn't take it, I could always get out."

"You've learned a great deal more than I thought."

This is how I felt today.  I have a SILENCE IS BETRAYAL t-shirt that I was wearing for the 1st time today.  Doesn't even explicitly say BLACK LIVES MATTER or address the movement as a whole.  But that is the reason I bought it; my silence in the matter of race relations - particularly in this bright red dot in a blue state - IS a betrayal.  Not only my own beliefs and what I know to be right and just, but to millions of my fellow citizens who are treated as 2nd class; in the economy, in the criminal justice system, the penal system, politics, culture, by the race of which I am a part.

I FELT That privilege, maybe consciously for the first time, wearing that shirt out and about today.  I got some looks, got some mumbled comments about it (my paranoid mind may have imagined this, but I don't think so).  After running a couple of errands, the urge to stop home and change my shirt was almost overwhelming.

I can ALWAYS get out...

And that thought changed everything.  I wore it for the rest of my errands and made sure my bandanna did not block the message.  Bottom line; POC cannot go changing their skin any time they feel put upon for the shade of it.  The ABSOLUTE least I can do is offer a few brief moments of discomfort, some tiny shred of solidarity.  To remind myself that is unjust that "I can always get out" while a huge segment of our country's population deal with immoral consequences because they cannot.

So I'm learning.  Maybe not a great deal yet, and certainly not as quickly as I would like.  But learning all the same.  And I refuse to stop.

Black Lives Matter.

Solemnity of St. Thomas the Apostle
Daily Mass Readings
Ephesians 2:19-22
Psalms 117:1bc, 2
John 20:24-29

What now?

Our country is in turmoil, in flux.  No need to rehash the plague of disease and racism and protesting.  There are too many places where this is done in greater detail out there; no need for me to add to that.

I don't know what I can do. But the world is ripe for change, and there will be a conflict before that change is birthed into the world. What that change is, I cannot quite imagine at this intersection. I feel like Gandalf and Pippin in Minas Tirith awaiting the coming Battle of the Pelennor Fields:

It's so quiet.

It's the deep breath before the plunge.





America as it once was will not exist any longer.  Will she survive?  Will Love finally rule the day or be driven further underground for us to unearth again during a worse crisis?  I said half jokingly in the summer of 2016 that while I think Hillary Clinton would make a poor president, Donald Trump would be our last president.  I did not really believe it at the time.  Deep seated trust in bureaucracy and our system made tn a joke, a one-liner I threw out to make me seem clever.  Never did I imagine how bad this would get. And that is my guilt in not speaking up louder and faster; I honesty could not believe what I was witnessing.

I was asleep.  For better or worse I am awake now. And I am clergy.

Divine Spirit, I am asking.  What would you have me do?

I am ready.

Daily Mass Readings
Amos 7:10-17
Psalm 19:8, 9, 10, 11
Matthew 9:1-8

No more.

Watching George Floyd get casually lynched by the police in Minneapolis is kind of it for me.

This is not our America.  All people are certainly created equal, but only some benefit from that equality. It's taken me a long time to awaken, being in my thick white bubble of the suburbs of Long Island.  But Lord I am awake now.  And I am angry.

But that doesn't much matter in the face of the anger and hurt and fear and oppression of an entire race of people in this country.  A country whose founding documents speak of freedom but where THIS execution style murder can happen based on skin color.  Again and again and again and again.  (By the by, if you think this was not a race related execution, ask yourself if a white person suspected of a $20 forgery would have received the same treatment by law enforcement.  Be honest with yourself, if you can.)

I am going to be ordained a minister in a week's time.  I hope use the pulpit made available to me to stand up, speak up, write about, preach about, march about racial injustice, among other things.  Before I do any of that however, I promise to LISTEN.  And I hope to all that is holy that I can LEARN.

Divine Spirit rest the soul of George Floyd and grant peace and comfort to his family, his loved ones, and all people who are suffering because of his murder. Let justice be done upon those responsible for his death.  Let true justice find her way into our legal system and our society.  

Our Lady of Sorrows, PRAY FOR US.

What does it mean...

... when your personal spiritual makeup goes against where you WANT it to go?

I have wanted to be a Witch, for so many decades now.  How many times have bought the books, made the contacts, lit the candles... only to miss my Christ terribly and embrace Him once again?  I am a self-procalimed and proud left wing pinko!  And I can't get around the idea of the seamless garment of life, from "womb to tomb"; hardly an upstanding trait of a self procalimed feminist and advocate of a woman's right to choose.

Maybe these ideas SHOULDN'T be easy, maybe they are meant to be struggled with.  But it's hurting my heard today.

Daily Mass Readings
Acts 5:27-33
Psalms 34:2 and 9, 17-18, 19-20
John 3:31-36

Entering the Triduum...

It has not felt like Lent at all this year.  Only getting to "zoom" Masses, while uplifting, is simply not the same as being in the face to face presence of your community.  But it is what it is.

Tonight the altar will be laid bare.  The sanctuary will be emptied.  The Agony will be felt as Jesus, terrified, falls to his knees to beg his Abba if here was any other way, any other way at all.

As when he grieved his friend, this instance lays bare Jesus as a man; he is frightened and doesn't want to die; he wants OUT of this!  Who wouldn't?  And all his friends with their lofty aspirations of going to die for him and with him, drunk and already sleeping.  Knowing they would scatter when the first sogn of trouble arrived.

Alone.

Frightened.

About to be abandoned.

About to be mocked tortured and executed in a most exquisitely horrible fashion.

I know most everybody has heard Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice.  The depiction of Jesus's pleading with God in Gethsemane brought me so much closer to understanding his Passion and his humanity than any writ of Holy Scripture or homily ever has.  And I mean, Ian Gillan for crying out loud...

Jesus Christ Superstar - GETHSEMANE (I ONLY WANT TO SAY...)

I only want to say, if there is a way...
Take this cup away from me, 'cause I don't want to taste its poison.
Feel it burn me!  I have changed, I'm not as sure as when we started.
Then, I was inspired.  Now I'm sad and tired.
Listen, surely I've exceeded expectations!
Tried for three years seems like thirty.
Could You ask as much from any other man?

But if I die,
See the saga through and do the things You ask of me,
Let them hate me hit me hurt me, nail me to their tree.
I'd wanna know, I'd wanna know, my God!
I'd wanna know, I'd wanna know, my God!
I'd wanna see, I'd wanna see, my God!
I'd wanna see, I'd wanna see, my God!

Why I should die!

Would I be more noticed than I ever was before?
Would the things I've said and done matter anymore?
I'd have to know, I'd have to know, my Lord!
I'd have to know, I'd have to know, my Lord!
I'd have to see, I'd have to see, my Lord!
If I die, what will be my reward?
If I die, what will be my reward?
Have to know, have to know, my Lord!
Have to know, have to know, my Lord!

WHY SHOULD I DIE???

Can You show me now that I would not be killed in vain?
Show me just a little of Your omnipresent brain?
Show me there's a reason for Your wanting me to die.
You're far too keen on when and how, and not so hot on why!

ALRIGHT!!! I'LL DIE!!!!!
JUST WATCH ME DIE!!!
SEE HOW I DIE???

Then...I was inspired.  Now... I'm sad and tired.
After all, I've tried for three years.  Seems like ninety.
Why then am I scared to finish what I started?
What YOU started.  I didn't start it!
God, Thy will is hard.  But you hold every card!
I will drink Your cup of poison!
Nail me to Your cross, and break me!
Bleed me!  Beat me!

Kill me.

Take me now.  

Before I change my mind.


Daily Mass Reading
Holy Thursday - Mass of the Lord's Supper

Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14 Psalm 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 John 13:1-15

Jesus grieving

During virtual Vigil Mass with St. Francis Community yesterday (check them out, they are mystic, holy and welcoming!), Fr. Ken proclaimed the Gospel in which Jesus dramatically raises his friend Lazarus from the dead.   I'm a lifelong Catholic, so this reading is "old hat", usually comes up around the tail end of Lent.  But Fr. Ken and Fr, Michael made me think a bit more about it this weekend.

And Jesus wept.

John 11:35.  One of the shortest versus in Scripture.  And it punctuates the humanity of Jesus above most others, in my opinion.  How well we all know the sadness that engulfs us at loss of a loved one, and to be overcome with grief when the reality of their death is final.  Not only that, how the grief of others may indeed feed into our own. Seeing my sister sob at the memorial of my our dear cousin poured into me; I knew her pain and she knew mine.

How Jesus must have felt, knowing that he did not get a chance to say goodbye to his friend, knowing he missed him (regardless of what His plans were for him).  Then the added burden of both Martha and Mary, seemingly all but blaming Him for Lazarus's death, by insisting he wouldn't have died, had Jesus only come sooner.  When Jesus saw Mary, Martha and the mourners weeping, Jesus "became deeply troubled", and finally broke down with them after they brought him to the grave.  He knew He would raise Lazarus up.  But as He grieved as any man would at the death of his friend.

As He would during Passiontide, Jesus first entered into our human suffering before raising Lazarus.  This helps me know Him as my brother and my friend, aside from being my Lord and my God.


Daily Mass Readings
Ezekiel 37:12-14
Psalms 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
Romans 8:8-11
John 11:1-45

Imagining Mary...

Today the Church recognizes the Solemnity of the Annunciation; when the Archangel Gabriel visited Mary to tell her she would conceive, bear a son, and that he would be God.

Talk about adjusting to a new normal.

Whenever I come across this reading, I feel TERRIBLE for Mary.  She just got betrothed to Joseph the carpenter, she's going about her business and... well that information is a game-changer, isn't it.  Mary has been told (by someone she rightly suspects is no normal 'messenger' that she will have a child out of wedlock, not by her husband, that they will raise as their own.

Having children out of wedlock bu someone other than your spouse was... frowned upon in ancient Galilee.  Joseph had the right to have her brought up on charges of adultery (death) or cast her aside at the very least, leaving her to raise this "Son of the Most High" on her own.  In short, due to the nature of the messenger AND the message, Mary must have been terrified.

And then...

"May it be done to me according to your word."

Mary says YES.  The very model of faith and discipleship.  The entirety of salvation hinges on what this poor Nazarene girl chooses.

THIS is why Catholics (even dissenters like myself) believe what we do about Mary; that she is venerated above all other saints, that she is to co-redemptrix along with Christ, having her own
special role in humankind's redemption.  Because Christianity doesn't happen, indeed CHRIST does not happen, with her allowing it to happen.

What folks in my lifestyle call consent!

Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
Lectionary: 545

Daily Mass Readings

Isaiah 7:10-14; 8:10
Psalms 40:7-8A, 8B-9, 10, 11
Hebrews 10:4-10
Luke 1:26-38

Letter of the law

In the Gospel today, we read about Jesus healing a lame man at the pool of Bethesda in the Temple.  A beautiful gift a healing, yes?  To be sick for so many years...and a man whom you've never met says to you "Take up your mat and walk."  And to BE ABLE TO DO SO!  I simply cannot imagine the shock and joy this poor man felt at that moment; maybe a contemptuous second of  "Yeah, RIGHT..." in his mind, and then suddenly legs that hadn't worked in God knows how long...moved.  Bent.  Supported his weight as he STOOD.  Seeing the world from the height of a healthy man instead of on the ground like a cripple.  What a moment!!!

Except it was the Sabbath. The priests and the scribes berate the man for "working on the Sabbath" by carrying his mat.  They begin to plot and plan against Jesus for daring to heal the man on the Sabbath.  The man just says to them "Look this guy told me to get up and walk...and I got up and walked.  Something that was impossible for me to do.  If he tells me to carry the mat, that's what I'm going to do!"

And they still don't get it.  Yup, according tot the law of the Sabbath, work is forbidden; which includes carrying stuff and healing the sick and carpentry.... wait go back one.  Healing the sick.  A man was lame and now can walk.  The Letter of the Law was broken. And the Spirit of the Law, that the Sabbath is a good blessing and is a gift to all, remained rock solid.

In our churches/synagogues/temples today, we can see this type of thing playing out all the time.  Since it is Lent and I'm Catholic, I think of the rule abstaining from meat on Fridays.  I can go go to an Italian restaurant (or order in, taking the corona virus into account) and sit down to a sumptuous shrimp parmigiana dinner.  And I will have followed the letter of the law.  I will have "abstained".  But isn't the SPIRIT of the abstention law to do without a luxurious meal (which historically speaking was meat), in solidarity with the poor and destitute?

Would not the spirit of the law be better served by having a plain bologna sandwich instead???

The Roman Church likes her letters of the law.  It is up to each of us to follow the SPIRIT of them.  That spirit ought ALWAYS to trace back to God is LOVE.

Just a heretic's perspective... ;)

Daily Mass Readings
Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12
Psalms 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9
John 5:1-16

Thinking of the new normal...

Feeling a bit isolated out of necessity due to the "shelter in place" orders from various levels of government.  Working from home has been a challenge for me, but looking at the bigger picture:

I HAVE my job at the moment.  My wife works for the state, so her job is secure.  Hair salons/barber shops, event planning, tattoo parlors, dine-in restaurants etc. ad nauseum,  are effectively shut down indefinitely.  Friends who work in the airlines are worried for their jobs as well.  I am filled with an almost guilty gratitude that my family is financially OK right now.  That could change, but it is our reality; we actually are OK. 

May those of us who are able be the presence of the Holy Spirit to those who struggle.

Daily Mass Readings

Isaiah 65:17-21
Psalms 30:2 and 4, 5-6, 11-12a, and 13b
John 4:43-54

Back...

My journey has let me back here.  Back to a blogspot with a religious twist.  Who would've thunk it?

I'm still Catholic, even though I have left the Roman Church.  I am in an interfaith seminary (www.1spririt.org) and will be ordained in June (albeit virtually due to the virus: that's another story altogether).  The independent Catholic community I have been lucky enough to stumble upon has virtual Mass due to the aforementioned virus.  Bishop Ken informed me after Mass that he would recognize my ordination from One Spirit... and would consider me a priest.

I have been pretty much floating on air since then.  Finding a path to what God has been calling me my entire life is no small thing.  Falling asleep so I will sign off here for the day.

Daily Mass Readings
1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a
Psalms 23: 1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6
Ephesians 5:8-14
John 9:1-41