Soul Scribe

I recently read “Unitatis Redintegratio” (fancy Latin name for “Decree on Ecumenism”).  It’s a document from the Roman Catholic Church’s Second Vatican Council (V2).  This was a revolutionary council for its time, and instituted a renewal for the Catholic Church.  This renewal is actually what Jesus wanted – for without such renewal, the Church on earth will not unify all humanity as Jesus himself called his Church to do.  Jesus even prayed for all of us to be unified through him.

Of course, there are many who want to go back to the “old way.”  I’m not one of those.  In fact, I’m a product of the modern Church.  I was born way after all the changes were in place and the V2 changes were the norm.  I’d never heard of V2 before maybe junior high (or perhaps high school Church history)?  And I never cared about it much.  It really had no effect on me until my recent class on V2 .  Once you see where the Church was and where it went as a result of the council (with groundwork laid by previous councils), it’s mind-boggling.  Like OMGee amazing.

Once, I did take my nephews to a Latin Rite Mass.  The reaction?  Not too favorable.  I’m a modern Church girl and I won’t be back.  For me, God wants to be present with us present for him.  He wants participation – a little bit of effort on our part to have a relationship with Him.

Now this renewal doesn’t mean giving into our every human whim.  Let’s face it.  We’re human and we’re weak.  We’re fickle.  One day we love Jesus and the next he’s a burden to earthly social life.

And in case you were wondering, this renewal business for the Church, doesn’t just extend to the Pope and the Magisterium (teaching arm of the Church).  It extends to the every day Catholic.  By living the Catholic life (properly and all that), each Catholic puts a shine on the Church’s renewal.  It deepens your faith, opens your heart to dialogue with others and shows the rest of the world the true face of the Church.

Now if that’s not an OMGee moment, nothing else is.

The gift of life is what God bestowed on us.  He created us to live.  Each time we make a choice that ends this gift, it is a thorn in the temple of the Lord.  We are piercing his heart over and over with our choices.  Respecting God’s gift is a sacred duty that we must uphold.

For Christians, the Christmas holiday is a reminder of this gift of life.  The birth of Jesus in this world was a gift to humanity – an everlasting gift of new life that welcomed us to be brothers and sisters in Christ.

And for Jews, Hanukkah (Chanukkah) is a celebration of the gift of life as well – an everlasting reminder of the miracle of the light and the gift of new life by God in the re-dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem.

Even for Buddhists, Bodhi day is a celebration of the gift of life – the experience of enlightenment for the historical Buddha and the gift of new life in Nirvana.

Faith is like a river, ever flowing towards God.  As the water, we must quench our desire to change course.  To grow faith and strengthen it, we must water the seed within us.

Learning about God and our beliefs is crucial to keeping our faith healthy – without this, it is easy for our faith to fall by the wayside or to leave us when times get tough.  If you open yourself to growing your faith – that strength will stay with you through the darkest of nights.

Remember to see God and learn about him in your daily life.  He is there, not in the obvious, but in the smallest moment.  You must be open to his call.  It makes the darkness bright.

 It’s a question that we all ask ourselves in one way or another.

Theology is for those really holy people who can understand it, right?

Nope, wrong-o.  Theology is for everyone.  It’s not for monks wearing brown robes holed up in stone caves.  It’s for every living, breathing human.  Theology isn’t the same for everyone.  There’s book-smart theology for those real scholarly types.  There’s common-sense theology for those sweet gentle souls.  And for those of us in between, there’s a nice theology mixture.

Theology is about the journey to God.  It’s about growing and expanding our knowledge of faith.

And that’s the purpose for this blog.  I’m one of the in-betweens, so you’ll find a balance here of common sense and book smarts.