Franciscan Advent begins
Greetings again. I have found that blogging is about like journaling, which I could never get into. But I shall try to be more regular at posting in the future.
Even though I am not yet a member of the Roman Catholic Church, St. Francis has been an inspiration of mine for years. I have tried to adopt some of his teachings into my life and once I am officially Catholic, I intend on becoming a Secular Franciscan.
As for Franciscan Advent, the third chapter of the Rule of St. Francis says "And the friars shall fast from the feast of All Saints until the Nativity of the Lord" in preparation for the Feast of the Incarnation. Friars of the whole Order are called to this preparation for the Nativity just as they are called to fast during Lent in preparation for Easter. And while I will not be fasting, I will be praying for those who do.
Now for a few comments about the events of the past few days.
1) Miss Rosa Parks was buried today. She is the perfect example of one person standing up (or not standing up in this case) for what is right. It would be nice if more people today would stand for what is right instead of towing the corporate/political/religious line. The only thing worse than justifying not standing up for what is right is trying to redefine what "right" is. If you need an example of where people think racial attacks are okay, check this out.
2) Looks like the Religious Right has been caught with it's hand in the cookie jar. An article on law.com discloses the excesses of Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice and Pat Robertson's vanguard against evil in America. I guess when you give money to advance God's agenda on earth, you need to make sure you aren't building a heaven on earth for those leading the charge.
3) For the hypocricy of the week, it is amazing how magic in the movies can elicite different responses from the same people. When the Lord of the Rings movies came out, I heard people (mainly evanglical Christians) praised it to the sky for showing good's fight and eventual victory over evil (let your kids see it). This did include, if I recall correctly, the use of magic by Gandolf. Then, when the Harry Potter movies come around, these same people condemn the use of magic in movies and how it is trying to sell our children (got to use children to ramp up emotions) on magic which is evil (keep your kids away). And now, the Chronicles of Narnia are coming out soon, and these same people are back around to magic being okay again in movies (let your kids see it), probably because this time it is an evil witch in the movie. Having personally been a part of evangelical Christianity and witchcraft (paganism, wicca), I see a lot of misunderstanding on both side of the other. But being a Christian now, I have to say that I prefer to be around pagans. They tend to be less judgemental and more accepting of people.....kind of like another person I know named Jesus.
Even though I am not yet a member of the Roman Catholic Church, St. Francis has been an inspiration of mine for years. I have tried to adopt some of his teachings into my life and once I am officially Catholic, I intend on becoming a Secular Franciscan.
As for Franciscan Advent, the third chapter of the Rule of St. Francis says "And the friars shall fast from the feast of All Saints until the Nativity of the Lord" in preparation for the Feast of the Incarnation. Friars of the whole Order are called to this preparation for the Nativity just as they are called to fast during Lent in preparation for Easter. And while I will not be fasting, I will be praying for those who do.
Now for a few comments about the events of the past few days.
1) Miss Rosa Parks was buried today. She is the perfect example of one person standing up (or not standing up in this case) for what is right. It would be nice if more people today would stand for what is right instead of towing the corporate/political/religious line. The only thing worse than justifying not standing up for what is right is trying to redefine what "right" is. If you need an example of where people think racial attacks are okay, check this out.
2) Looks like the Religious Right has been caught with it's hand in the cookie jar. An article on law.com discloses the excesses of Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice and Pat Robertson's vanguard against evil in America. I guess when you give money to advance God's agenda on earth, you need to make sure you aren't building a heaven on earth for those leading the charge.
3) For the hypocricy of the week, it is amazing how magic in the movies can elicite different responses from the same people. When the Lord of the Rings movies came out, I heard people (mainly evanglical Christians) praised it to the sky for showing good's fight and eventual victory over evil (let your kids see it). This did include, if I recall correctly, the use of magic by Gandolf. Then, when the Harry Potter movies come around, these same people condemn the use of magic in movies and how it is trying to sell our children (got to use children to ramp up emotions) on magic which is evil (keep your kids away). And now, the Chronicles of Narnia are coming out soon, and these same people are back around to magic being okay again in movies (let your kids see it), probably because this time it is an evil witch in the movie. Having personally been a part of evangelical Christianity and witchcraft (paganism, wicca), I see a lot of misunderstanding on both side of the other. But being a Christian now, I have to say that I prefer to be around pagans. They tend to be less judgemental and more accepting of people.....kind of like another person I know named Jesus.
posted by Staupostek | 11/02/2005 04:58:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home