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12-04-2015, 05:04 PM
I never really noticed just how large of a chasm exists between the general Catholic approach to religion and that of most protestants--from clerics to laity--until I had embarked on a month-long bike ride. During my tour, I encountered many clerics when looking for places to camp or refill water bottles. Every time I interacted with a member of the protestant clergy they prayed for me and inquired of my needs with genuine care and generosity. The same, sadly, cannot be said for the clerics of my church.
Three of the perhaps dozen or more priests I interacted with were humble and helpful enough to assist me--and of those, only one invited me to mass or offered a prayer. The rest, I'll have to assume, knew they already served the beatitudes elsewhere since they clearly were not interested in offering any sort of assistance to a lone Catholic cyclist. I use this as a starting point, not to bash my beloved church, but to illustrate a point that is rampant in our community.
We are, on the whole, so defensive of our faith we create these insular cliques and we forget Jesus' message to us. Of course, there are some exceptions to the rule, but it seems Catholics are more reserved with their spirituality and are less willing to offer prayer to strangers. What needs to happen if we are to fulfill Christ's commands, and if we are to have a flourishing church, is a revival of pride in our faith.
We have a historical claim to being the one true church, yet we tend to be so fearful of other people's perceptions of us that we intentionally neglect public acts of prayer or worship.
Jesus' command:
When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. [Matthew 6:5-6 NAB]
to not be like the hypocrites and to pray in our "inner rooms" was not an absolution of our responsibility to preach the gospel through our actions nor to neglect our responsibility to offer prayer to those in need, but rather an admonishment to not put on a show.
This message is even more important for those of us in the LGBTQIA+ community, as many of our brothers and sisters in Christ look down at us (wrongly) and many in our community view our Christianity with skepticism. We need to be visibly true to ourselves in all things. In doing so, we are able to serve God and share His love.
We must carry His message in all we do, not always in an overt manner, but we need to be beacons of light for those around us. We must show people that we are the hope of the world. We must be generous and genuine in our care and concern for others. We must pray. For ourselves. For family. For friends. For strangers. For community. We must pray. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. (http://start.westnet.ca/newstempch.php?article=terms.html/) It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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Three of the perhaps dozen or more priests I interacted with were humble and helpful enough to assist me--and of those, only one invited me to mass or offered a prayer. The rest, I'll have to assume, knew they already served the beatitudes elsewhere since they clearly were not interested in offering any sort of assistance to a lone Catholic cyclist. I use this as a starting point, not to bash my beloved church, but to illustrate a point that is rampant in our community.
We are, on the whole, so defensive of our faith we create these insular cliques and we forget Jesus' message to us. Of course, there are some exceptions to the rule, but it seems Catholics are more reserved with their spirituality and are less willing to offer prayer to strangers. What needs to happen if we are to fulfill Christ's commands, and if we are to have a flourishing church, is a revival of pride in our faith.
We have a historical claim to being the one true church, yet we tend to be so fearful of other people's perceptions of us that we intentionally neglect public acts of prayer or worship.
Jesus' command:
When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. [Matthew 6:5-6 NAB]
to not be like the hypocrites and to pray in our "inner rooms" was not an absolution of our responsibility to preach the gospel through our actions nor to neglect our responsibility to offer prayer to those in need, but rather an admonishment to not put on a show.
This message is even more important for those of us in the LGBTQIA+ community, as many of our brothers and sisters in Christ look down at us (wrongly) and many in our community view our Christianity with skepticism. We need to be visibly true to ourselves in all things. In doing so, we are able to serve God and share His love.
We must carry His message in all we do, not always in an overt manner, but we need to be beacons of light for those around us. We must show people that we are the hope of the world. We must be generous and genuine in our care and concern for others. We must pray. For ourselves. For family. For friends. For strangers. For community. We must pray. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. (http://start.westnet.ca/newstempch.php?article=terms.html/) It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/244160576683/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c01c617/sc/38/rc/1/rc.img (http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/244160576683/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/4c01c617/sc/38/rc/1/rc.htm)
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