Poetic Justice

My wife and I were tired this morning so we skipped going to church, or as we say in our family; "We attended the Church of the Holy Comforter". But now that I'm up and on my lap top I thought it would be nice to attend to this blog a bit.

At 67 I still work full time but my favorite other thing to do is to write. Apart from composing essays for my blogs I also pen a bunch of poetry. In fact at the end of March I joined All Poetry which is the worlds largest on line site for poets. Frankly, that has consumed my time.

As of today I have already posted 69 new writes there, some spiritual in subject and some not.  HERE  is a link to my site in case you want to check me out.

I also sometimes post poetry on a Christian site called ChristArt. They are much more restrictive as far as content and require that everything rhymes "or it is not really poetry" (reminds me of the joke we used to share when I was young about the person who died, was met at the pearly gates by St. Peter who then showed him around Heaven. As he was passing a large wall the man heard on the other side a lot of music and singing and asked St. Pete what was going on. "Oh, those are the - (you fill in the denomination) - they think they are the only ones here").

All that being said I thought that today I would compose a poem just for this site. The beauty of poetry is that is has the ability to condense ideas and emotions (and theology) to express a lot in a small space. Hopefully I will be up to the task.

Dashboard Shrine

Down asphalt lanes through neighborhoods
past churches, homes and bars
around the city we did drive
a sea of moving cars

I am a passenger this day
who grades each anxious client
some cannot turn or fail to yield
while others are compliant

Right there before me on the dash
St. Christopher with child
and hanging on the rear view glass
a rosary was styled

Bright beads and yarn and metal cross
with Jesus crucified
you'd think our Lord was still a babe
pass tense the day He died

And then quite clear a question came
were these displays of belief
or rather good luck idols shown
to shield someone from grief

I cannot judge another's heart
but know Whom set me free
in Him I trust to see me home
and let the others be

When We Left The Catholic Church

Our assistance pastor at St. Francis de Sales (born somewhere in South America) always preached very passionately. I remember one Easter mass (Easter being the most crowded) when he chided those poor visitors, "To all of you here who only attend mass twice a year - HAPPY EASTER, AND MERRY CHRISTMAS TOO!"

Well, during another summer Sunday mass the good father was getting himself worked up about nuclear disarmament. It was somewhere in the middle of this non spiritual blah blah that the thought entered my brain that change of any substance in Catholic doctrine was simply not going to happen. The vested interests in the bureaucracy of the Catholic Church would make it almost impossible for the Holy Spirit to blow through and enlighten either staff, cardinals or popes. Even if a pope ended up believing just like me no doctrine would be revised.

Although Jackie and I had been theologically moving away from Catholicism for a dozen years I had always felt that perhaps our presence there would be beneficial, representatives of a change that might one day work itself up to affect higher regions of the Church. I realized at that moment how naive I had been.

A second thought made it's way forward. Some of our children were getting to the ages where they would be learning more about Catholic doctrine at the parish school they attended. It didn't seem right for us to send our kids to a Catholic school, or have them hear a Catholic sermon, and then have to debrief them once home to counter any doctrine that we did not agree with.

Jackie and I talked about it later that afternoon and decided to enroll our children that fall in the public school system and to immediately look for another church, which was not easy since we had never even been to a Protestant service except for weddings or funerals. Now the only time we go to mass is for - weddings and funerals.

Although our parents were great about our change of religion, accepting it was still a little difficult for my mom and dad and especially for Jackie's mom. Catholicism is as much a cultural thing as it is a belief system and we think they felt like we were not only rejecting Catholicism but in a sense them as well.

When Jackie's father died and her mother got older she would have these episodes where tension would build up in her over a few months, come to a head over nothing, she would blow her top and go crazy, her tension would be released and she would then forget anything she had said when she blew up. She was then good for another 4 to 6 months before the process repeated and she blew again.

The interesting thing though is that when she would get like this, just before going off, she would be looking for a fight and would bring up religion. Jackie would not bite but it was obvious that mom was still holding on to something that had hurt her. Religion would be brought up after she exploded and she would use phrases such as; "So you think your father was stupid?"

No, we didn't think our parents were stupid. My mother was very smart and was a convert to Catholicism and my dad was the smartest man I knew. My mother-in-law was very sharp and an amazingly intuitive woman and my father-in-law, a convert to Catholicism, was extremely bright, blessed with many gifts of the Holy Spirit and was my chief spiritual mentor. He taught me how to read and love Scripture and laid before me a sound and well built foundation in the Christian faith.

How he could have converted to Catholicism when he didn't believe in apostolic succession, praying to Mary or the saints, transubstantiation, holy days of obligation, the teaching magisterial of the Church and on and on and on is a mystery to most of his kids who like us later left the Catholic Church. I have my ideas but will not speak for him.

He did have a great desire to celebrate communion as a solemn and sacred act and believed that the elements through the faith of the recipient did become Christ's actual flesh and blood  He believed that the Holy Spirit should be able to move in a powerful way through those who were ordained and that although infant baptism did not bring about salvation it did offer advantage and spiritual protection from the evil one for the one being baptized.

Personally neither Jackie nor I miss the mass one bit. References to Mary and the saints make us uncomfortable in our spirit because we see that as a carry over from the adoption of certain forms of paganism very early in Church history. When we do attend mass for a wedding or funeral we skip receiving communion because the Catholic form, apart from our theological understandings, also makes us feel uncomfortable. This doesn't mean we don't love the people or respect the office of the priest or don't enjoy singing praises to God or reading out loud from Scripture. But we have moved far apart.

If you have recently left the Catholic Church it sometimes can be difficult to find a church where you and your family will be comfortable. You many need to move around a bit until you find a good fit. There are bad churches that have abusive pastors or abusive theology that is legalistic and I pray you will be able to discern them right away.

Look for a place that preaches from the Bible and sees the Word of God as the ultimate source for truth. Find a place where the Holy Spirit is free to move. Desire a place where you can be lost in worship. Treasure a place where your children can grow in faith and be lead to serve. Respect a place which supports and sends out servants to proclaim Jesus. Get healed and get involved. And keep loving your Catholic family and friends.  

  

Grace

Here is a repeat of a post I did awhile back for my other blog on grace. It is also one of the chapters in my latest book - DIARY OF A CHARISMATIC.

It seems to me quite ironic that in the Christian world it is the concept of what grace is that separates groups.  Historically it has been East verses West, Luther verses Rome, Jansenist verses Jesuits, Calvinism verses Arminianism, Conservatives verses Liberals and so forth.  Throw in the differing companion views concerning what is the depravity of man and eternal security and you have a church not quite ready to sit down together at the communion table.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened,

so that you will know what is the hope of His calling,

what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. (Eph: 1: 18-19)

It was near the end of my 22^nd year when I asked Jesus to come into my heart as Savior and Lord. Until then, and despite growing up in a religious environment, I had walked in darkness. This darkness was not brought about because of my actions, rebellious as they indeed were. It was there because I did not know the Lord of light. My religion taught that my baptism as an infant brought into my soul sanctifying grace which canceled something I was born with, original sin, and that sanctifying grace would stay with me unless I committed a mortal sin. I was taught that because of baptism I was alive in Christ and would one day join Him in eternity.

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,

in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world,

according to the prince of the power of the air,

of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. (Eph: 2:1-2)

But I was not alive in Christ.  My spirit had not been reborn through baptism and I was the lord of my own soul.  Oh yes, I knew about God. I knew that my church taught that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world. I knew there was someone called the Holy Spirit. But I did not actually know Jesus or comprehend God in the slightest. I had nothing but theology to base hope on. My prayers then were not a conversation with Someone who later on had changed my heart and opened my eyes to a spiritual world that was just as real as the physical. Although I fell quite short of living a holy life I believed that I was as good as the next guy and that God, if He really existed, would give me full credit for being a nice guy.

But God, being rich in mercy,

because of His great love with which He loved us,

even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive

together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), (Eph: 2: 4-5)

It was finally when I realized that Jesus died for me, personally, that I asked Him to come into my heart and surrendered the lordship of my soul to Him.  That was over 40 years ago and everything in my life changed;  not because I adopted a set of religious beliefs but because it was now my desire to follow Him and be lead by his Holy Spirit where ever They would lead.  The Word of God became alive to me and I would read it and study it and meditate upon it.  In doing so I discovered that there were in my religion quite a large number of beliefs and practices that were not found in Scripture, ran contrary to Scripture, or were supported by certain Scriptures used out of context. 

For by grace you have been saved through faith;

and that not of yourselves,

it is the gift of God;

not as a result of works, so that no man can boast. (Eph: 2: 8-9)

My original church's concept of grace was one of these.  To me it seems that in the above scripture grace simply means that God gave us salvation even though we didn't deserve it or work for it.  We believe that Jesus death and resurrection were personally for us and God responds by doing something.  Grace means that we have found favor with God.  

But beginning in the 5th century St. Augustine started seeing grace as being a substance that could be produced, stored and then transferred mainly but not exclusively through (drum roll please) the sacraments of the church (thus requiring a priesthood).  Grace was produced by the life, sufferings and death of Jesus (an immeasurable amount), the sufferings of martyrs, the anguish of Mary at seeing Jesus crucified and other like events.  This grace is kept in a storehouse located somewhere in Heaven but managed by the church in partnership with God.  Grace can also be produced through prayer and good works and doing religious acts that are proscribed by the administering church and these are credited to the account of the doer (but can be transferred to someone else).

Thus the view of salvation is that all are born with a soul that inherits the original sin of Adam and Eve.  At baptism a soul is infused with the substance of grace which covers (but apparently does not dissolve) original sin and as long as that grace stays there a person will go to Heaven.  All subsequent sin resides in the soul and needs an infusion of (actual) grace to cancel out or dissolve that sin.  Somehow the church has determined that grace is not transferred in sufficient quantity during one's lifetime to remove all sin and so a soul when it's body dies must go to a holding place until such time as enough grace can be applied.

For we are His workmanship,

created in Christ Jesus for good works,

which God prepared beforehand

so that we would walk in them. (Eph: 2: 10)

When I surrendered my life to Jesus it cost me everything.  I DIED IN CHRIST.  In return my spirit was reborn and I became a new creation and the Holy Spirit resides in me.  The struggle now is to yield my soul to what the Holy Spirit desires.  Every day I desire my own will but am confronted with the fact that I am no longer the lord of my life.  

I want to please Him.  I want to be in His will.  I want so desperately for others to know that all they see in this world is but an illusion and that there will be nothing better for them than to experience a life in Christ, free from the demands of this godless world.  There are crowns in Heaven and though I do not live to earn a jewel in a crown I am often comforted by the thought that there are rewards for those that hold fast.  Even then I am weak - but His grace is sufficient for me.

DIARY OF A CHARISMATIC - Essays On The Spirit-Filled Life

Just published a new book which you can find on Amazon or Kindle HERE

I was born and raised a Catholic but was agnostic as a high schooler and an atheist throughout college.

In May of 1972 I graduated from Aquinas College, married a nice Catholic girl that June, and finally came to know Jesus as my Lord and Savior at the end of November.

My conversion came about through my wife's family's involvement in the Catholic Charismatic renewal.

Although Jackie and I left the Catholic Church a dozen years later we still consider ourselves Charismatics.

The Death Of Reason

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I've noticed that this site gets a fair share of it's traffic from France.

HERE is one of my posts that references the church in France.

What The Early Church Fathers Taught On The Real Presence

The apostles did not teach that the bread and wine of communion changed substance and became the actual body and blood of Jesus. That idea developed much later.

If you go to a Catholic apologetic's web site you will find quotes from some of the early church fathers that seem to indicate that they taught the real presence of Christ in the elements. The problem with those quotes is that they are taken out of context. Teaching based either on sacred scripture of the early church fathers taken out of context will lead to incorrect doctrine.

The idea of the real presence of Christ in communion is important to Catholic theology because that then requires an apostolic priesthood to administer the sacrament. This leads us to think of the Church not as a living organism comprised of all who have confessed Jesus as Lord and Savior but rather as an institution headed by popes and bishops who direct and administer the distribution of graces to the flock.

Check here for an excellent and easy to understand article about the writings of many of the early church fathers in their context about the Lord's supper. I had always wondered about this and was glad to come across it.

Jesus and Peter

I wrote this after Pope Francis visited South America, Cuba and the United States.

Who Do You Say That I Am?

It is helpful to understand the context of sayings in scripture so that they don't just become proof texts.