Soul Scribe

May the Irish hills caress you.
May her lakes and rivers bless you.
May the luck of the Irish enfold you.
May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you.

Irish Blessing

If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come.

Chinese Proverb

Dream Over

That was the headline for a story on Susan Boyle, the contestant who caught the attention of the world in Britain’s TV talent show – Britain’s Got Talent.  She wasn’t your average – wait, she was your average-looking singer.  She wasn’t this polished, made-up and groomed mega-star like Beyoncé – or whatever she’s calling herself now.

She was a normal person with a God-given talent for singing.  Everyone wrote her off based on her appearance until she started to sing.

Now, I’m a huge reality show fan.  One thing you learn from watching reality TV is that the outer package doesn’t always tell the truth about what’s on the inside.

There’s plenty of great-looking people that I wouldn’t want to be around for one minute.  They need to spend just as much time grooming the inside as they do the outer beauty.

You can’t judge any book by its cover – because you have to ponder the words inside before you know the story.

Just because Susan didn’t win, doesn’t mean her dream is over.  Her dream is using her talent.  And she wants to continue to do just that.  So often nowadays, we must put another down to raise up ourselves.  Susan didn’t win – therefore she lost.  She has no worth.

It’s just not good enough anymore to be talented.  One has to be THE NEXT BIG THING or your dream is over.  It’s not okay to be good and to use your talent in the world.

The pressure that people put on Susan Boyle is unreasonable.  This is an amateur talent contest – she’s not a professional yet.  What about the growth she’s experienced as a singer?

Her voice is extraordinary.  I hope she holds onto that and doesn’t let anyone take away what God gave her – a voice to sing with.

Sing and continue to dream, Susan.  God hears you even when others do not.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers —

That perches in the soul —

And sings the tune without the words —

And never stops — at all —

Emily Dickinson

For children are innocent and love justice, while most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy.

G.K. Chesterton

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.

 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.