Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Validation

Happy belated St. Joan of Arc day everybody! (Friday)

Note: This blog is basically a continuation of the "my sympathies" blog. I've had a heavy religious focus lately. Sorry if it bores you, it's just on my mind a great deal and I like writing about it so I shouldn't apologize, I take it back. I think part of me is wanting to explain myself to my Pentecostal friends, let'em know where I am at. This blog unfortunately came off pretty basic, I had a hard time getting a good handle on it and I'm not really sure why. Maybe I need some sleep. Anyway I'll try to blog about something else soon. (If I feel like it sucka-punk!)

Liturgy

Lit"ur*gy\, n.; pl. Liturgies. [F. liturgie, LL. liturgia, Gr. ? a public service, the public service of God, public worship; (assumed) ?, ?, belonging to the people, public (fr. ?, ?, the people) + the root of ? work. See Lay, a., and Work.] An established formula for public worship, or the entire ritual for public worship in a church which uses prescribed forms; a formulary for public prayer or devotion. In the Roman Catholic Church it includes all forms and services in any language, in any part of the world, for the celebration of Mass. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc


Along with my Anglo-Catholic leanings has come an interest in and a love for liturgical Christianity. Within it, I have found a great deal of good spirituality and methodology. I love the focus on Christ in the liturgical service (or the divine liturgy) and the reverence that is shown him. I believe that sometimes in the evangelical community we focus so much on Jesus being our friend we neglect to show him the respect that is due him as God. Coupled with this Christ-centered aspect is a strong emphasis on the reading of scripture. A selection is read from the Psalms, Old Testament, New Testament and a passage from the Gospels intentionally possessing the words of Christ. With some churches maybe only using two verses in a service, I believe a heavy scriptural content to be a crucial element.

The greatest thing about the divine liturgy to me however, is partaking in the Holy Eucharist. I don't think I can adequately describe the joy I receive from this unification with Christ, this consuming of grace, it is an absolutely wonderful mystery. I can't tell you whether I believe in transubstantiation or consubstantiation, I don't know. I do believe however, it's so much more than juice and crackers. I'm not sure why we would need fear being unworthy of the Eucharist if it's just Welch's and Saltines, there simply has to be more to it.

Liturgical Christianity has also influenced my personal spiritual life. I've really gotten into reading the daily lectionary from the Book of Common Prayer. http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/
So far I've really just read the morning lectionary during the week but coupled with the Anglican Rosary http://companyofjesus.net/beads.html it really has enhanced my spiritual life, it's really brought a stability to my morning that has never really been there. No other type of devotional style has ever stuck. While this may just be something that suits my personality it really has brought fulfillment, ease of use, and consistency to my devotional time.

This blog should have been more in-depth. Maybe that can come later when I have more mental energy to give to the subject matter but for now I'm open to discussion.

dig it.

(I'm not really sure why this blog is italicized after the definition. I couldn't turn it off.)

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Take a deep breath, Count to Ten.

The further I go I'm convinced that nothing good ever comes from worrying. Jesus tells us explicitly not to worry but it's a tough lesson to learn.

When it comes to how we react to our culture we Christians often times react in a spirit of worry or fear that leads to actions of anger and irrationality which in turn, always reflects poorly on the body of Christ

Recently, I listened to a Brown Sessions podcast from Steve Brown Etc. recorded late last year which became the catalyst for this blog. http://stevebrownetc.com/2007/12/podcasts/the-brown-sessions/the-golden-compass-jeffery-overstreet/ It was an interview with Jeffrey Overstreet from Christianity Today about the film The Golden Compass but it quickly morphed into a conversation about how Christians react to these kind of pop culture events. The example of Harry Potter was brought up and if you recall the overwhelming Christian response was not at all pleasant. Well, at it turned out, J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series was and is a Christian. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1572107/20071017/index.jhtml
I'm not sure what her specific beliefs are, but the fact that the Christian community as a whole trashed her at the start without really giving her a fair shake is an embarrassing black eye for we knee-jerk Christians.

Two things I think we need to remember:

First, we need to look deeply into issues and gather all the facts we can before we speak (if we need speak at all).

Secondly, we need to remember that we do not battle against flesh and blood. There is no reason for us to hate, scream at, or spit on anyone. It seems to me Jesus only got angry at the impious religious leaders of his day. So we need to be certain that when we speak, we must speak the truth, in love, constantly seeking the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. "How we say something is sometimes more important that what we are saying."

So take a deep breath, count to ten, and don't worry, we're gonna be OK.

dig it.



footnote: The quote and a heavy nod go to Steve Brown on this blog.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

My sympathies

Hold on tight, this is a long one.

I suppose it's time I confess something. I hesitate to say it for the alarms that it may raise about my salvation. But I feel I need to say it, to get it off my chest.
I'm Cathlicostal. Well, maybe Anglicostal.

"Your what?"

"Cathlicostal."

"What's that?"

"I'm glad you asked."

For over a year my Catholic sympathies have been increasing. Out of reading St. Augustine and reading about him, St. Francis, St. Thomas Aquinas, and various other writings such as Chesterton's "Orthodoxy" their has grown a real love for the beauty in the Catholic tradition. I love the ancient faith and heritage it represents. I love the symbolism and art it contains. Albeit, it certainly has it stains (all traditions do,) I still find myself drawn to its finer attributes.

There is a part of me that wants to attach myself to the original church. Growing up pentecostal it had slipped by me what a protestant was, "a protest-ant." I was in protest, in rebellion against Rome and the original church. This didn't sit well with me. I remembered the Bible had some strong words against rebellion. So I attempted to examine and reflect upon the Reformation (in an untrained, layman way.) I attempted to find if God's hand was really in it or if he chose to work in spite of this Rebellion, there were things that needed to be addressed in the Church at that time but I wasn't sure that breaking away was the answer.

I've come to believe he is at work in protestant movements as well as the Catholic tradition, that he uses them, but I don't think this was the original plan. A terrible side effect of this Reformational split being the ease in which other consequential splits have come to pass. Consequentially, the world doesn't believe us because we lack unity. Why should they believe us when we don't believe each other? At this point in time my hope is that the prayer of Jesus "that they all be one" would come to pass in the acknowledgement, the agreement, that different christian traditions can account for the different parts of the body of Christ. That is, if we can't truly be under one universal name.

Now , questions you may be asking and some of which I'm still asking myself:

Do Catholics worship Mary?

No, at least their not supposed to. I believe Catholics can put to much of a focus on Mary but I also believe that we protestants, particularly we evangelicals don't show her enough respect. We seem to act as if anybody could have been the Blessed Mother.

Do they worship the Pope?

Nope. He is not considered a deity.

What about the infallibility of the Pope?

As I understand it, Their belief is that the Holy Spirit keeps him from speaking erroneously about church doctrine and whom am I to say how the Holy Spirit can work.

What the deal with the saints?

To me, the saints are Godly examples to draw inspiration from. I say this with great trepidation but as far as praying for the prayers of the saints and the Blessed Mother so that they may in turn pray on our behalf, (I'm going to get excommunicated for this,) I really don't have a problem with it. I want as many people as possible praying for me, living or dead. Now do I think their should be a good deal of moderation in our veneration and prayer to the saints? Absolutely, anything that doesn't ultimately point to Christ has no business in our spiritual lives.

Now their are certainly more questions that should and need to be asked but this blog is growing longer and longer so I must move on. I know they're could be a lot of comments, questions, and concerns which you are welcomed to direct at me, I'll try to answer them the best I can. I'm no expert.

To the "costal" side, I must say I still believe in speaking messages in other languages through the power of the Holy Spirit and the essential interpretation of those messages given by the same beautiful Paraclete but their are some things in the pentecostal realm that concern me. Issues ranging from doctrine to methodology that will have to wait for another blog.

There is so much more I want to write about. Such as my love of the liturgical side of Christianity and the value in it but that will have to wait for another day. I hope this is a good start.

dig it.

Mudcrutch

Mudcrutch is Tom Petty's new project. Well actually, it's a band he was in back in the 70's that was a springboard for him and some of the heartbreakers after their label broke them up. It's definitely worth your time.






dig it.

To blog or not to blog

"any utterance is a major assumption of responsibility" Richard Weaver

So I finally got internet at the house a couple of months ago and I thought hey, this will be great! I can keep up with friends and blog- it'll be sweet! But as it turns out I'm not that great at keeping up with people on-line (call me old fashioned but I'd rather just talk to ya on the phone.) I had a bigger and scarier revelation when it came to blogging- It turned out that I had nothing to write about, I didn't feel I had anything to say and that petrified me! I wondered if my life was that dull and commonplace as to have nothing worth sharing. But I've come to believe the lack of subject matter can be linked to three reasons:

1. Fear of accountability.
Not that my blogs would hold any type of weight or garner any type of attention or care but I'm leary of half-baked blogging on serious subject matter and the needless, perhaps dangerous paths they can take us down. So I hesitate to blog about subjects I'm not fairly confident in.

2. Fear of offending.
This probably lends to my non-confrontational nature, I'm scared of arguing, scared I'll be proven wrong (shallow and prideful I know), scared of hurt feelings and hurt friendships. But at the same time I think it's time I come around and start being true to myself regardless of the consequences, I mean Jesus certainly wasn't scared of making enemies and their certainly are people out their who need offending. (Not that all blogs would be of a serious, controversial nature but still,. I've certainly had rants in the past.)

3. Fear of vulnerability.
This third reason constitutes the main reason for my lack of subject matter. I realized I didn't have anything I could write about because their was nothing I was willing to open up about, I wanted to write in an engaging manner without engaging myself. But I'm beginning to realize that only by vulnerability I become myself , and this blog has been a practice of it.

A looming footnote to all of this is asking myself why I want to blog in the first place. Maybe I should go back to reason one, but I think I'll figure that out later.

dig it.