well, it's better than a thousand ex druggies in a jail dancing to "Thriller".
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And yes, Lolo was well enough to go to church and get his ashes.
the ashes are to "remember man thou art dust and into dust thou shalt return"...
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and for your reading pleasure: Andrew Greeley's short and pithy sermons.
or try his catechism
Hurricanes wipe out towns and villages. Urban slums become jungles of crime and vice. The environment is being thoughtlessly polluted. Whole species of birds, animals, and fish are heedlessly destroyed. Natural resources are wasted without reason. Prejudice, bigotry, arrogance, and fear keep many people in subjection. Anger, hatred, and the desire for revenge lead the oppressed to strike out against the oppressors even though those who are destroyed are frequently innocent children, harmless old people, and ordinary citizens who have nothing to do with oppression. ...
But we also experience good . The crops do produce food for tables. The blue sky hangs like a velvet awning above our heads. The heat wave breaks. Winter passes away and the snow and ice are replaced by the flowers of spring. The species does make slow, tortuous progress against oppression, misery, injustice, and hatred. Most diseases are curable, plagues are controlled, polio is virtually eliminated, despots are overthrown, some reforms work. Our children grow up and sometimes become our friends; conflicts do end in reconciliation; marriages get patched up; love does survive misunderstanding, thoughtlessness, and indifference. Wars end, old enemies become friends, we forgive others and are forgiven by them...
'The follower of Jesus does not deny evil or attempt to minimize its power. He believes in the cross of Jesus, and hence must face honestly and bluntly the ugliness and the strength of the evil which could do so terrible a thing to so good a man. But he does not despair over evil and give in to it. He believes in the resurrection of Jesus and knows that evil is not the finality. He does not retreat into the desert to escape the incurable evil of the world, because he believes in both cross and resurrection and because he knows that, like Jesus, he must dedicate himself to the eradication of evil from the earth. He must heal, console, teach, encourage, admonish, assist even if death will be the ultimate reward of his goodness.
So wherever we find the sick, the suffering, the ignorant, the hungry, the oppressed, the frightened, the lonely, the homeless, we will also find the followers of Jesus. They are there because the Lord himself has told us that it is in such places we will find him....
The good priest also writes hot romances that upset the smug pietists among Catholics, but sort of sneak in God when the lovers find that all love mirrors the passion of God for man...a theme, by the way, in one of Pope Benedict's encyclicals.
Alas, the good priest has been ill ever since an accident, so remember him in your prayers.
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Archbishop Cruz, in between his posts blasting our crooked politicians, points out the danger of religiosity without reality.
There is a truly wise saying: “Pray as if everything depended on God. Work as if everything depended on yourself”. This is the truth of life. This is the reality of living not only in the there and beyond, but also in the here and actual. There seems to be a good amount of truth that “Spiritualism”, “Pietism” and “Quietism” are all anchored in one and the same factor: Egoism.
Pray as you go has nice peaceful meditations for your lenten practice. Too Oprahish for a curmudgeon like me, but lots of folks like them.
Or just download the daily psalms.
and EWTN is now on Youtube, with the daily mass and many talks.
As for my Lenten religious meditation: I am in the midst of re-watching the old BBC miniseries Brideshead Revisited.
Ah: gay love, adultery, greed, the "saintly" mother who drives everyone crazy, beautify scenery, Venice, alcoholism, an Italian mistress, and agnosticism... My cup of tea.
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