Soul Scribe

We get so caught up in the nitty gritty of rules and judgments that we forget.

 It’s not about the rules.

It’s about how you treat people.  It’s about finding that person in the corner and finding out who they are.  It’s walking the talk and how you live each day.  What kind of good did you do today?

You can be the most conscientious follower of religious practices and still not be who God wants you to be.

Don’t get me wrong.  Religion is important, but it’s not for show or the motions.  You’ve got to live it, not just attend it.

Religion is making our path to a relationship with God, as individuals and also community.  Everyday religion requires commitment that less and less people have time for nowadays.

We marginalize people for many reasons – they look different; they act different; they live different; they don’t look, act or live how we want them to live.  We forget that some people are even there.

Open your eyes and see all those around you as God does.  God sees each of us.  He really sees – not just the surface, but deep down into the soul.

If we really look at one another and see, we can make a difference.

He is not wise to me who is wise in words only, but he who is wise in deeds.

St. Gregory

If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men. 

St. Francis of Assisi

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers for thereby some have entertained angels  unaware.

Hebrews 13:2

Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what it wants.

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Do something good for someone you like least today.

St. Anthony of Padua, 1195-1231

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.

In the end, dear friend, it is always between us and God, not between us and them.

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

 Christmas is not just a day, an event to be observed and speedily forgotten. It is a spirit which should permeate every part of our lives.

William Parks

God, who foresaw your tribulation, has specially armed you to go through it, not without pain but without stain.

C.S. Lewis