- Kudos to Fr. Thomas Saucier, O.P. who reminded the "parish faithful" of the Newman Center in Columbia, on Sunday the 22nd that the purpose of being Catholic is not to "eat fish on Friday" or find the "loophole" in the common practice of "Lenten fasting." It is instead to "open the e-mail" and to know of God's love, to "go and build the temple". It was a good homily to clear away all the crud that can get in the way between individuals, their spirituality and the love of God. It's rare for me to come out of mass feeling like everything "clicked" but it was a good day and a pep talk for the ol' spiritual life. (The "loophole" by the way, is that the Sundays in Lent technically are feast days and you can partake in whatever you gave up for Lent but that's not the point!)
- I'm not really going to go into this next one but it's been weighing on my brain since I saw it a couple of weeks ago. I'm gonna let Jon Stewart field this one, because I think it's almost best to have humor when thinking about these things. I think this just goes to show the gap between the "older" Catholic thinking on a subject and the "newer" progressive ideas on the subject. (The notation is about the Pope suggesting that condoms are making the spread of AIDS in Africa worse, I'm willing to start a discussion but I hope we can keep it civil)
- Finally, there have been several posts online from people I know about President Obama speaking at the University of Notre Dame's commencement on May 17th, they have been for, against, and informative. While I'm pretty sure that I've made my peace a little while ago I'll say it again, I'm both a democrat and a Catholic and that's how I roll. I don't find contradictions in either of these terms. I understand the discussion about the strict adherence to the abolition of abortion within the United States, and the large movement within the Catholic church to do so, but I quite honestly don't believe that President Obama is the torch barer for making the U.S. a wanton, Caligulan, environment of sexual irresponsibility and immorality. I remember not too long ago V.P. Cheney came to speak at a Mizzou commencement and there were protesters for that, I believe they should protest, I think those that believe opposite Obama should let their voices be heard too. Yet let the protest be civil and let them come with action...have a debate, a discussion. Use the opportunity to set aside time for some dialogue on the issues of contention don't just yell and hope that someone hears you, hear both sides, inform your mind, your conscience and your heart.
To sum it all up my hope for the Church and for it's faithful is for a dialogue to commune and for civil discussions would always find purpose for expanding the Love of God in all of its forms.
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