Boy is he regretting the profane statue he made of the Blessed Virgin Mary for that abomination of a cathedral in Los Angeles.
He portrayed her with hair cropped like a prostitute who had her hair cut in disgrace, dressed in sackcloth and looking like a boy.
Boy, is he regretting it, when it is exactly too late.
Repent while you can.
By the way, if as an "artist" you find you just can't "resist" the "inspiration" to be negatively revisionist about the only good and holy people who ever lived, I suggest you convert to Islam where graven images are forbidden. It might save your soul. It just might.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
For church sex abuse survivors who avoid church
I've blogged about this subject before, about this terrible blight of priest or other religious sex abuse in the Catholic Church. I understand the trauma (and have discussed my credentials for why I understand on all levels) and have given counsel, both secular and spiritual, about how to heal and recover one's balance in life, even though the past can never be erased.
Having said that, I need to have an urgent word with those of you who avoid your Catholic devotions, such as going to church and the sacraments, and who may even have stopped believing in God.
There is no reincarnation, and there is no guarantee of "later" in anyone's life. All one needs to do is watch the news and see how suddenly there can be no "tomorrow" for someone. One must be in a constant state of being "alright with God."
If you think that deciding whether to believe in God again or to observe the sacraments and worship him is something that "can wait until you are ready, after you have healed," that is an attitude that is incorrect, and not the attitude that believers of all faiths have had throughout history as they have endured abuse, slavery and even genocide in their lives. It is a survival trait of humans and a reality that they separate belief in God from human induced horror and abuse in their lives, whether the abuse is by a religious or by a secular. If humans abandoned belief in God whenever they were traumatized there would be no religions at all today, and no human society either.
No matter how broken you may feel, refusing to believe in God is simply not a rational option.
As regular readers know, I am not being unfeeling on this subject. It is because I care that I will always be honest with you for your own good, just as I've had to be brutally honest about the physical reality of hell with many who have refused to believe and who have acted accordingly.
It is essential that no matter how one has been abused or harmed that one continue to believe in God and find a relationship with him because you have no guarantee of "tomorrow," because that is the reality of life, where death is unpredictable and certain for all.
Children, those of you who can no longer enter a Catholic church and worship God because you have been sexually abused, I have to wonder if perhaps Christianity is not for you.
(Yes, I hear the thump of good priests fainting or perhaps screaming as they reach this part of my message...)
But I am serious. If you have been sexually abused and can no longer enter a Catholic Church and have lost your faith in God, then I am not sure that you ever really believed, or perhaps were robbed of the chance, to understand Jesus Christ, who was tormented and crucified despite being of total perfection, sent by God, to heal and save, and who committed no crime or fault of his own.
When Jesus resurrected and returned, did he say, "I no longer believe in humanity because they unjustly tormented and killed me? And therefore I will no longer save you?"
Therefore, when humans abuse other humans, why would they then turn to God and say, "I no longer believe in you."
If you in your pain and focus on your own counsel and healing cannot understand that Jesus Christ resurrected and returned for forty days, undaunted, to save humanity and provide the path to God, then I wonder if perhaps Christianity in general just does not resonate with you.
This is a very serious problem, then, because whether you believe or not, God is still there, and will be faced at some point when your life ends, and of course, God wishes to be with you throughout your life.
I therefore wonder if perhaps those of you who can no longer "stand to be in a Church," and question your faith should consider studying Islam.
I would rather see someone who is so wounded and lacking in structured belief in God as a result of their trauma of sexual abuse consider converting to Islam than live a godless life. A godless life is a lie because there is a God, whether you believe or not, whether you are too wounded to believe or not.
Think about it. If you cannot see the truth of what I say, that the entire premise of Christianity is that Jesus loved and saved despite how he was scorned, tormented and killed most unfairly, worse because of his existence only being for the benefit of humanity, then I wonder if Christianity just is not for you.
I am certainly not turning you away. I am talking to those who are keeping themselves away.
Rather than stay in the lie of no longer believing, serving and worshipping the one God who continues to most assuredly exist, even if no human exists at all, perhaps you should consider Islam.
I hope that you have found this something that you will give careful thought to. God cares about each individual and desires their return. But God also continues on in eternity for all time, regardless of what one human believes or not. It is more important that you re-establish your relationship with God than continue to try to make a point about your woundedness. There is nothing that a human can teach Jesus Christ about being unfairly wronged. If that is not your understanding of Christianity, then you need to connect to God nonetheless, and perhaps Islam will be your way.
And who knows, if you realize that you have exiled yourself from the Church in your woundedness, and spend some time looking at Islam, you might miss home after all. But that is not my objective, for you to comparison shop. I am addressing those of you who have unwisely severed your understanding of God due to the trauma of your abuse. I think that you most certainly can reconnect with God through Islam, if you remain immovable regarding your home Church.
Having said that, I need to have an urgent word with those of you who avoid your Catholic devotions, such as going to church and the sacraments, and who may even have stopped believing in God.
There is no reincarnation, and there is no guarantee of "later" in anyone's life. All one needs to do is watch the news and see how suddenly there can be no "tomorrow" for someone. One must be in a constant state of being "alright with God."
If you think that deciding whether to believe in God again or to observe the sacraments and worship him is something that "can wait until you are ready, after you have healed," that is an attitude that is incorrect, and not the attitude that believers of all faiths have had throughout history as they have endured abuse, slavery and even genocide in their lives. It is a survival trait of humans and a reality that they separate belief in God from human induced horror and abuse in their lives, whether the abuse is by a religious or by a secular. If humans abandoned belief in God whenever they were traumatized there would be no religions at all today, and no human society either.
No matter how broken you may feel, refusing to believe in God is simply not a rational option.
As regular readers know, I am not being unfeeling on this subject. It is because I care that I will always be honest with you for your own good, just as I've had to be brutally honest about the physical reality of hell with many who have refused to believe and who have acted accordingly.
It is essential that no matter how one has been abused or harmed that one continue to believe in God and find a relationship with him because you have no guarantee of "tomorrow," because that is the reality of life, where death is unpredictable and certain for all.
Children, those of you who can no longer enter a Catholic church and worship God because you have been sexually abused, I have to wonder if perhaps Christianity is not for you.
(Yes, I hear the thump of good priests fainting or perhaps screaming as they reach this part of my message...)
But I am serious. If you have been sexually abused and can no longer enter a Catholic Church and have lost your faith in God, then I am not sure that you ever really believed, or perhaps were robbed of the chance, to understand Jesus Christ, who was tormented and crucified despite being of total perfection, sent by God, to heal and save, and who committed no crime or fault of his own.
When Jesus resurrected and returned, did he say, "I no longer believe in humanity because they unjustly tormented and killed me? And therefore I will no longer save you?"
Therefore, when humans abuse other humans, why would they then turn to God and say, "I no longer believe in you."
If you in your pain and focus on your own counsel and healing cannot understand that Jesus Christ resurrected and returned for forty days, undaunted, to save humanity and provide the path to God, then I wonder if perhaps Christianity in general just does not resonate with you.
This is a very serious problem, then, because whether you believe or not, God is still there, and will be faced at some point when your life ends, and of course, God wishes to be with you throughout your life.
I therefore wonder if perhaps those of you who can no longer "stand to be in a Church," and question your faith should consider studying Islam.
I would rather see someone who is so wounded and lacking in structured belief in God as a result of their trauma of sexual abuse consider converting to Islam than live a godless life. A godless life is a lie because there is a God, whether you believe or not, whether you are too wounded to believe or not.
Think about it. If you cannot see the truth of what I say, that the entire premise of Christianity is that Jesus loved and saved despite how he was scorned, tormented and killed most unfairly, worse because of his existence only being for the benefit of humanity, then I wonder if Christianity just is not for you.
I am certainly not turning you away. I am talking to those who are keeping themselves away.
Rather than stay in the lie of no longer believing, serving and worshipping the one God who continues to most assuredly exist, even if no human exists at all, perhaps you should consider Islam.
I hope that you have found this something that you will give careful thought to. God cares about each individual and desires their return. But God also continues on in eternity for all time, regardless of what one human believes or not. It is more important that you re-establish your relationship with God than continue to try to make a point about your woundedness. There is nothing that a human can teach Jesus Christ about being unfairly wronged. If that is not your understanding of Christianity, then you need to connect to God nonetheless, and perhaps Islam will be your way.
And who knows, if you realize that you have exiled yourself from the Church in your woundedness, and spend some time looking at Islam, you might miss home after all. But that is not my objective, for you to comparison shop. I am addressing those of you who have unwisely severed your understanding of God due to the trauma of your abuse. I think that you most certainly can reconnect with God through Islam, if you remain immovable regarding your home Church.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
marymajor's Diary: December 31
When I'm lonely I turn to the writings of the Popes of the last century, both their personal writing and their doctrinal writing. When I read what they write I feel like I am in their company and am not so lonely.
From Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical: Spe Salvi, "Saved by Hope"
Introduction
1. “SPE SALVI facti sumus”—in hope we were saved, says Saint Paul to the Romans, and likewise to us (Rom 8:24). According to the Christian faith, “redemption”—salvation—is not simply a given.
Redemption is offered to us in the sense that we have been given hope, trustworthy hope, by virtue of which we can face our present: the present, even if it is arduous, can be lived and accepted if it leads towards a goal, if we can be sure of this goal, and if this goal is great enough to justify the effort of the journey.
Now the question immediately arises: what sort of hope could ever justify the statement that, on the basis of that hope and simply because it exists, we are redeemed? And what sort of certainty is involved here?
Faith is Hope
2. Before turning our attention to these timely questions, we must listen a little more closely to the Bible's testimony on hope. “Hope”, in fact, is a key word in Biblical faith—so much so that in several passages the words “faith” and “hope” seem interchangeable.
Thus the Letter to the Hebrews closely links the “fullness of faith” (10:22) to “the confession of our hope without wavering” (10:23). Likewise, when the First Letter of Peter exhorts Christians to be always ready to give an answer concerning the logos—the meaning and the reason—of their hope (cf. 3:15), “hope” is equivalent to “faith”.
We see how decisively the self-understanding of the early Christians was shaped by their having received the gift of a trustworthy hope, when we compare the Christian life with life prior to faith, or with the situation of the followers of other religions.
Paul reminds the Ephesians that before their encounter with Christ they were “without hope and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12).
Of course he knew they had had gods, he knew they had had a religion, but their gods had proved questionable, and no hope emerged from their contradictory myths. Notwithstanding their gods, they were “without God” and consequently found themselves in a dark world, facing a dark future.
In nihil ab nihilo quam cito recidimus (How quickly we fall back from nothing to nothing): so says an epitaph of that period. In this phrase we see in no uncertain terms the point Paul was making.
In the same vein he says to the Thessalonians: you must not “grieve as others do who have no hope” (1 Th 4:13). Here too we see as a distinguishing mark of Christians the fact that they have a future: it is not that they know the details of what awaits them, but they know in general terms that their life will not end in emptiness.
Only when the future is certain as a positive reality does it become possible to live the present as well. So now we can say: Christianity was not only “good news”—the communication of a hitherto unknown content. In our language we would say: the Christian message was not only “informative” but “performative”. That means: the Gospel is not merely a communication of things that can be known—it is one that makes things happen and is life-changing. The dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open. The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life.
From Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical: Spe Salvi, "Saved by Hope"
Introduction
1. “SPE SALVI facti sumus”—in hope we were saved, says Saint Paul to the Romans, and likewise to us (Rom 8:24). According to the Christian faith, “redemption”—salvation—is not simply a given.
Redemption is offered to us in the sense that we have been given hope, trustworthy hope, by virtue of which we can face our present: the present, even if it is arduous, can be lived and accepted if it leads towards a goal, if we can be sure of this goal, and if this goal is great enough to justify the effort of the journey.
Now the question immediately arises: what sort of hope could ever justify the statement that, on the basis of that hope and simply because it exists, we are redeemed? And what sort of certainty is involved here?
Faith is Hope
2. Before turning our attention to these timely questions, we must listen a little more closely to the Bible's testimony on hope. “Hope”, in fact, is a key word in Biblical faith—so much so that in several passages the words “faith” and “hope” seem interchangeable.
Thus the Letter to the Hebrews closely links the “fullness of faith” (10:22) to “the confession of our hope without wavering” (10:23). Likewise, when the First Letter of Peter exhorts Christians to be always ready to give an answer concerning the logos—the meaning and the reason—of their hope (cf. 3:15), “hope” is equivalent to “faith”.
We see how decisively the self-understanding of the early Christians was shaped by their having received the gift of a trustworthy hope, when we compare the Christian life with life prior to faith, or with the situation of the followers of other religions.
Paul reminds the Ephesians that before their encounter with Christ they were “without hope and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12).
Of course he knew they had had gods, he knew they had had a religion, but their gods had proved questionable, and no hope emerged from their contradictory myths. Notwithstanding their gods, they were “without God” and consequently found themselves in a dark world, facing a dark future.
In nihil ab nihilo quam cito recidimus (How quickly we fall back from nothing to nothing): so says an epitaph of that period. In this phrase we see in no uncertain terms the point Paul was making.
In the same vein he says to the Thessalonians: you must not “grieve as others do who have no hope” (1 Th 4:13). Here too we see as a distinguishing mark of Christians the fact that they have a future: it is not that they know the details of what awaits them, but they know in general terms that their life will not end in emptiness.
Only when the future is certain as a positive reality does it become possible to live the present as well. So now we can say: Christianity was not only “good news”—the communication of a hitherto unknown content. In our language we would say: the Christian message was not only “informative” but “performative”. That means: the Gospel is not merely a communication of things that can be known—it is one that makes things happen and is life-changing. The dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open. The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life.
Understanding time and war, a poem
This is by Carl Sandburg, my favorite poet. In order to preserve the spacing, since I'm too computer deficient to format properly on this blog, I've added the grass special effects, LOL.
Austerlitz and Waterloo were bloody battles during the Napoleonic Wars, Gettysburg a bloody battle in the American Civil War, and Ypres and Verdun bloody battles of World War I.
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work -
///////////////////I am the grass; I cover all.
And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
///////////////////What place is this?
///////////////////Where are we now?
///////////////////I am the grass.
///////////////////Let me work.
Austerlitz and Waterloo were bloody battles during the Napoleonic Wars, Gettysburg a bloody battle in the American Civil War, and Ypres and Verdun bloody battles of World War I.
Grass
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work -
///////////////////I am the grass; I cover all.
And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
///////////////////What place is this?
///////////////////Where are we now?
///////////////////I am the grass.
///////////////////Let me work.
Case study: Understanding America
I believe that no one can effectively understand, love or govern any part of the United States of America unless one has read one specific poem, "Prairie" by Carl Sandburg (my favorite poet).
You know how in science fiction books and fantasy novels sometimes the hero discovers something like an instant learning helmet, where he or she puts it on and they suddenly have a lot of knowledge and wisdom put directly into his or her brain?
"Prairie" accomplishes the same thing. It explains the land of America, the people of America, God, time, destiny, hopes, reality, joy, the economy and peace of mind. One also cannot truly understand the environment or being "green" without reading and studying this poem.
Carl Sandburg was hardly wearing rose colored glasses, so even cynics can have total confidence in his vision. He saw the horrors of service in World War I, and has antiwar and Socialist credentials! But he also believed in God, and admired Abraham Lincoln above all men, spending years in study of him.
Follow this link and study this poem, allowing yourself to really feel section by section what he is transmitting, and you will have an instant transfusion of understanding American. Print it out and read it a few times, at leisure, over these next few days.
"Put on your instant learning and wisdom helmet" here:
http://www.bartleby.com/134/1.html
You know how in science fiction books and fantasy novels sometimes the hero discovers something like an instant learning helmet, where he or she puts it on and they suddenly have a lot of knowledge and wisdom put directly into his or her brain?
"Prairie" accomplishes the same thing. It explains the land of America, the people of America, God, time, destiny, hopes, reality, joy, the economy and peace of mind. One also cannot truly understand the environment or being "green" without reading and studying this poem.
Carl Sandburg was hardly wearing rose colored glasses, so even cynics can have total confidence in his vision. He saw the horrors of service in World War I, and has antiwar and Socialist credentials! But he also believed in God, and admired Abraham Lincoln above all men, spending years in study of him.
Follow this link and study this poem, allowing yourself to really feel section by section what he is transmitting, and you will have an instant transfusion of understanding American. Print it out and read it a few times, at leisure, over these next few days.
"Put on your instant learning and wisdom helmet" here:
http://www.bartleby.com/134/1.html
Read this editorial about Israel Gaza crisis
I agree with every word of it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/27/israelandthepalestinians-terrorism
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/27/israelandthepalestinians-terrorism
Israeli government/military have lost their minds
Pray for them. They have completely lost their way.
I would thought that had been obvious after Lebanon, but the defensive killing mentality just keeps rolling on, aided and abetted by deliberately unseeing Western governments.
Logic, decency, justice and humanitarianism is not working with the Israelis.
Only God can change their hearts.
Pray, pray, pray.
I would thought that had been obvious after Lebanon, but the defensive killing mentality just keeps rolling on, aided and abetted by deliberately unseeing Western governments.
Logic, decency, justice and humanitarianism is not working with the Israelis.
Only God can change their hearts.
How has Israel gotten to this point where those in the government who still believe in God at all think that God approves a mindless, vengeful killing machine?
Pray, pray, pray.
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