![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Aug. 10th, 2005 08:42 amI have two major things I want to say.
First, to everybody:
Giulia's entry has shamed me into getting some damn perspective. Reality check accomplished, thank you. I'm sorry I've been acting the way I have. I haven't been acting the way I want to, and I haven't been treating people they way I'm supposed to. It's still hard, but I'll figure out a different way to cope. (You Catholics who read this (i.e. Matty and Garpu) might say a prayer to St. Francis for me. His prayer is the one I need to live by.)
I apologise you people I've talked to or brought down with my behavior recently or not so recently, and I am profoundly grateful to whoever tried to cheer me up. I love all you guys and I'm around whenever any of you need me.
And now, regarding my favorite topic, Religion:
It's my faith. It's my church. Universal as it is, it's mine. People who talk about banning religion or Christianity or Catholicism aren't talking of taking something from Popes and Priests and Parishes. They are talking about raping me of beauty and peace and faith. They are talking about wrenching the thing that has helped me change my life and gets me through more nights than I want to admit from my life and giving me the dessicated and wimpy substitutes (Unitarian Universalism, Humanism, Agnosticism) or the ones that never see beauty or awe or wonder, who leave the nights cold and empty (atheists - they just don't get anything).
You don't begin to understand what Catholicism is about. The fact that you start with the Pope is proof of that. Real people, real Catholics, go for themselves, for the Mass, for the Eucharist, for God. The pope is funny. He gets silly clothes and a big cross and it's ok because somebody has to run the Church and St. Peter hadn't read Plato. He is a man. Just some old guy. When he dies we'll go out and get a new one.
He is not the Church.
Some people look at the worst of us and claim this is Catholicism. Wackos, it's been said. Some look at the Pedophiles that have infiltrated our clergy and abused our Church as much as the children and say that this is Catholicism. Some look at old-fashioned schools with kids and teachers like every other school and claim that because they aren't perfect or better or because some rich Catholic School kids are assholes this is Catholicism. Some look at the Crucades and the Inquisition and say that this is who we are and what we believe.
No. Just no.
Catholicism is Sunday Mass with hymns of little kids crying and laughing and asking questions and telling stories and talking out loud to God so everyone can hear. It's Cathedrals that are themselves an act of worship, allowing respite from the world in the quiet of their walls. Churches ornate and plain, all beautiful, calling every sort of person to come in and find a little peace or beg a little grace to see them through the week ahead. Rosaries used to comfort or intercede. Banks of candles, wishes great and small offered up to God and entrusted to the prayers and heart of Our Lady. Eucharist, Weddings, Funerals.
People changing their lives, even in imperceptable ways, because of it. People getting through things they wouldn't without it.
This is my Church. This is my Faith. It's flawed, it's been wrong about things before, is wrong about things now, and shall be wrong about things again even unto the ending of the Earth, but even those are mine. It is ancient and beautiful and holy underneath the bullshit, but nobody bothers to look there. There is Mercy. There is Forgiveness. There is Redemption. Above all there are Faith, Hope, and Love, and the greatest of all these is Love, and I feel most sorry for people who can't find any of it anywhere.
Alleluah. Amen.
First, to everybody:
Giulia's entry has shamed me into getting some damn perspective. Reality check accomplished, thank you. I'm sorry I've been acting the way I have. I haven't been acting the way I want to, and I haven't been treating people they way I'm supposed to. It's still hard, but I'll figure out a different way to cope. (You Catholics who read this (i.e. Matty and Garpu) might say a prayer to St. Francis for me. His prayer is the one I need to live by.)
I apologise you people I've talked to or brought down with my behavior recently or not so recently, and I am profoundly grateful to whoever tried to cheer me up. I love all you guys and I'm around whenever any of you need me.
And now, regarding my favorite topic, Religion:
It's my faith. It's my church. Universal as it is, it's mine. People who talk about banning religion or Christianity or Catholicism aren't talking of taking something from Popes and Priests and Parishes. They are talking about raping me of beauty and peace and faith. They are talking about wrenching the thing that has helped me change my life and gets me through more nights than I want to admit from my life and giving me the dessicated and wimpy substitutes (Unitarian Universalism, Humanism, Agnosticism) or the ones that never see beauty or awe or wonder, who leave the nights cold and empty (atheists - they just don't get anything).
You don't begin to understand what Catholicism is about. The fact that you start with the Pope is proof of that. Real people, real Catholics, go for themselves, for the Mass, for the Eucharist, for God. The pope is funny. He gets silly clothes and a big cross and it's ok because somebody has to run the Church and St. Peter hadn't read Plato. He is a man. Just some old guy. When he dies we'll go out and get a new one.
He is not the Church.
Some people look at the worst of us and claim this is Catholicism. Wackos, it's been said. Some look at the Pedophiles that have infiltrated our clergy and abused our Church as much as the children and say that this is Catholicism. Some look at old-fashioned schools with kids and teachers like every other school and claim that because they aren't perfect or better or because some rich Catholic School kids are assholes this is Catholicism. Some look at the Crucades and the Inquisition and say that this is who we are and what we believe.
No. Just no.
Catholicism is Sunday Mass with hymns of little kids crying and laughing and asking questions and telling stories and talking out loud to God so everyone can hear. It's Cathedrals that are themselves an act of worship, allowing respite from the world in the quiet of their walls. Churches ornate and plain, all beautiful, calling every sort of person to come in and find a little peace or beg a little grace to see them through the week ahead. Rosaries used to comfort or intercede. Banks of candles, wishes great and small offered up to God and entrusted to the prayers and heart of Our Lady. Eucharist, Weddings, Funerals.
People changing their lives, even in imperceptable ways, because of it. People getting through things they wouldn't without it.
This is my Church. This is my Faith. It's flawed, it's been wrong about things before, is wrong about things now, and shall be wrong about things again even unto the ending of the Earth, but even those are mine. It is ancient and beautiful and holy underneath the bullshit, but nobody bothers to look there. There is Mercy. There is Forgiveness. There is Redemption. Above all there are Faith, Hope, and Love, and the greatest of all these is Love, and I feel most sorry for people who can't find any of it anywhere.
Alleluah. Amen.
