All too much ..

One of the things I don't like about the Catholic Church is the poor communication.

I mean, why should I have to learn from one of the teachers at the school that it's no longer a sin to miss Mass on Sunday if it's a bit inconvenient to go? And why should the sacristan have to update me about people not needing to go to confession anymore. They could have mentioned it at the Priests' Inservice last month. And how embarrassing to have to be corrected by the Religious Education Coordinator for using the word 'sin' in my homily! Apparently we are supposed to say 'moving away from God's love' now. She might have left it till after the staff meeting instead of making such a big deal of it.

It's all too much for me. Why hasn't the bishop said anything? Yesterday I discovered, from one of the good Sisters from over the road that I've been wasting my time encouraging Eucharistic Adoration. Apparently they've decided it's much better to adore God at home.

What puzzles me, though, is that no one can tell me where I can get a list of these new teachings. Surely Rome must have put out something! My guess is that it's an update to the Catechism.

I asked, silly me, at the Liturgy Meeting and at the Parents and Friends and got what I deserved. I said I was wondering if anyone had any document from Rome or any information at all about the new teachings that had come out. Well, you should have seen the amazement on their faces! It was like they had been practising for a moment like this because they all looked at me in utter disbelief and said, 'Dear me, "John", everybody knows the Church has moved on!'

I can tell you I felt like a real dill. Just wait till I see the bishop next .. I'll tell him to get his act into gear and start informing his priests about all these changes to Church teaching.

(NB - all characters mentioned above are entirely fictional and do not refer to you or anyone you might know, or any of their relatives or friends.)

Sue and Brian, are you out there?

I was driving my nephew somewhere. I hadn't really spent any time with him for many years except seeing him when I went to visit his father and mother. It was nice being alone in the car with him. He was about 23 years old.

At one point he asked me about Sue and Brian. I said 'Sue and Brian, who are they?' He said "You asked us to pray for them years ago?'

Sue and Brian? Sue and Brian? I asked them to pray for Sue and Brian?

Tiny bells started ringing in my head. 'How long ago did I ask you to pray for them?'

'When I was a little kid. You came to visit one day and asked us to remember a couple called Sue and Brian who were having some sort of difficulty. You were in such-and-such a parish.'

'But that was over ten years ago! And you've been praying all this time?'

'We all have, every night, at Rosary time. We pray for vocations and then for Sue and Brian.'

I couldn't believe it. And though I kept asking myself 'Who the hell are Sue and Brian?' the bells in my head were not getting any louder.

Anyway, somewhere in Australia there is a very lucky couple who have had 7 people praying for them for over ten years. And I still can't remember them, or what the problem was.

They never pointed out your sin ..

The visions your prophets had

on your behalf
were delusive,

tinsel things,
they never pointed out

your sin,
to ward off

your exile.

The visions they proffered you

were false,
fallacious,

misleading.

[Lamentations 2:14]

A thought on Lectio Divina

The best fruit of
reading,
meditating on,
praying,
and contemplating
the Word of God
is that
we begin
to believe it.

Prayer..

I was doing my prayer time and the question 'What does prayer do for you?' popped into my head.

The answer was immediate and unexpected: Prayer pushes back the darkness.

So what does prayer do for you?