The Church And Truth

While attending Catholic School I was told that we should be truthful no matter what,it was better to face your wrong doings honestly then to try and lie your way out of it,trusted adult leaders would say "don't dig your own grave,confess and become clean."
Honesty is always the best policy,you'll never have to worry about what your story is nor get caught up in a tangled web of deceit,if what you say is the truth.
Being in the Catholic Church,back in the 1980's,taught many what happens when a church tries to cover things up for the wrong doings of its clergy.
Lying and secrecy is never right,just as making parish members feel like they have to protect these indiscretions can ever be proper.
People back in the 1950's and 60's,refused to face the fact that their clergy could ever do anything wrong or illegal,forcing adult parishioners to remain silent and placing young innocent people in positions of spiritual,physical and mental harm.
Now don't get me wrong,the reason I'm picking on the Catholic Church is because at that time I was a member of that faith.
With age comes wisdom and in time it has been made clear to me that no religion is pure,especially when you consider they are run by people trying to save face.
But is saving image what a church or religion is called to do? Or are we,the Church, to rise above the cover ups and threats of personal "sin",by hierarchy trying to keep the multitudes in the pews silent and stupid through use of fear of damnation.
Jesus talks about the light and how even one small candle can illuminate a room from corner to corner.
Light brings not only brightness but warmth to the cold world around us,but how much glow can we emit if our wick is in some way defective.
Church leaders,like parish members,need to face and profess their sins,asking in turn for forgiveness.
Confession is one of the hinge points of our belief system.
We are no better then the rest of the world when we are told to be still and not say anything because it will be considered a "sin" in the eyes of our leaders.
My brother in law,father had a saying "the fish stinks from the head down."
Maybe he was onto something because I know that the Almighty is never about secrecy and hiding,we as church should be strong,showing the world how to stand up to wrong doings and repent openly and honestly.
The Catholic Church learned the hard way about facing clergies sinful obstacles,now what about the rest of the religions,have they learned anything? To be any less then honest is to be less then Christian.
I don't remember anywhere in the New Testament Jesus talking about avoiding and hiding wrongful behavior and then making followers feel like sinners for talking about the truth,because the church feels a sense of embarrassment.
What is brought to the light becomes pure what sits in the darkness becomes fodder for the evil one to use in an attempt at erosion.

Feeding Those In Need

I have recently been thinking a great deal about how bad the economy is and how many people are going with out the basics,such as food.
Seems when the weather changes and the cold nights of fall are upon us,my thoughts turn to those in need,with no food and no shelter.
My life has been greatly blessed in that when ever times of need have cropped up,I always had friends and family to help keep me afloat.
Now I know that a minority of people take advantage of the system and jump right in and grab all they can,with no regard for those even less fortunate then themselves,because lets face it no matter how bad you are there is always someone more in need then your self.
Since January I have made it my mission,when grocery shopping,to always buy extra and put it in the local food pantries basket,by the exit.
I try to attend and assist at our Church's free community meals held every other Thursday at St. Michael Orthodox Church in Southbridge,Mass.
But it seems the more I do and give the more needs I am made aware of,that are not met.
The daily news is a constant reminder of how truly bad things in this country are turning and how the new poverty rate is escalating.
What I do seems so small in the large scheme of things.
I remember in the movie "Jesus Christ Superstar" there was one part where all the sick and poor were asking Jesus to help them,there where so many that covered him until he yelled "heal your selves",many times I feel this same way when I try to help others but feel like I'm only one person and there are so many in need.
Maybe this is part of the awaking of my soul,being touched so greatly I can now feel what those around me feel,or maybe its the other guy trying to discourage me into thinking its to great so why bother,its their own tough luck.
Until an answer comes to me I will continue to do what little I can and remembering the story of the fish and loaves,realizing with God help my simple small amounts can grow to feed people in more ways the I understand.

Are We Ever Fulfilled?

We are,in the end,never completely fulfilled especially if we are trying to be filled with worldly things.
No matter how much you get in this life it is never complete or totally satisfying to our needs.
Sunday morning Fr.Ephraim spoke about an old television show called "The Twilight Zone",the story goes there was a man who loved to read more then anything else in his life,his wife,who was a constant nag and his boss who made fun of him for reading so much,never gave him the peace he desired to be able to read his many books.
Since this man worked at a bank,he found,what he thought was bliss at lunch time by sitting in a vault quietly reading,nothing around him but his beloved books.
One day,while in the vault, an atomic bomb fell when he walked out he was to find he was the only human being left on earth,with piles of books at his side,but with great elation came great sadness because he broke his glasses,so now he was unable to enjoy his surrounding fortune.
Our best laid plans and fulfilled dreams are never full and complete in our true desires.
Did you ever dream of a special trip or job and just knew this would make your life full,but in the end when it became yours,something felt just not right,you were almost let down and you could not understand why you wanted this so much.
Jesus says we are in this world not of this world,so we can never be happy with our surroundings or desires.
Only our soul joined with God can ever feel completeness and true joy.
When we lower our worldly expectations we can increase our spiritual expectations and true completeness then comes our way.

Evil And 9/11

Thou shall not murder.
This is the commandment most people quote incorrectly,it is not thou shall not kill it is thou shall not murder.
Yesterday was the 10Th anniversary of the murder of thousands of innocent people who got up and went to work,took a plane,thought they were putting out a fire or explosion,but ended up being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Murder of the innocent at the hands of a few misguided,deluded men who felt God had spoken to them on a personal level.
Those thousands of citizens who loved family members,had dreams and desires where cut short of their lives because a small number of men decided to play God and destroy what they could not understand,thus missing the most important rule of all faiths that is.. all men and women are our brothers and sisters,made in the image and likeness of the Almighty,himself.
God does not like it when we take bad and try to make it fit as good by using his name to justify the evil actions of sick minds.
I did not choose to watch anything on T.V. yesterday,it all comes back to clearly to me that this is nothing to celebrate it is a tragedy,and though it should not be forgotten it should also not be celebrated.
Mayor Bloomburg decided that no clergy or first responders should be invited to this memorial in New York at ground zero,political correctness you know,which in his mind, was more important then a true memorial of unity of diverse clergy standing side by side,we forget a priest that day,a Franciscan ,giving prayer to the sick,dying and dead,trying to save the souls of God's children at their hour of need also met his end.
Whose to say how many Rabi's,ministers or priest where sitting in those towers,planes or at the Pentagon,we have no count of how many lost their lives too.
What about all the first responders running into the buildings while people were running out? Thinking nothing about themselves and never coming home again.
I heard an atheist on a television program say "where was this God of yours while all this evil was going on,? Why did he just stand by and allow all this killing to take place and not stop it?"
Thou shall not murder,but on that September 11,2001 they did and God was not involved with the horror or the evil that took place,he was however,involved with the goodness of of all those who helped in any way they could even to the point of losing their own lives in the process.
We live in a fallen world where evil abounds just the same as free will.
You make a choice to do good or to do evil and you can be a part of it either way.
I like to think of what Gandhi said "Evil never last but good always triumps in the end,always.....

Leave Your Offering And Forgive Your Brother

In the Bible Jesus says if you have any sort of disagreement between you and your brother,you should leave your offerings at the alter and go make things right with him,then return and offer your gifts to God.
Wednesday evening,while at Vespers,I began to think about this verse,seems I had someone on my mind for most of the week and at service that night,my brain kept going back to this person,who had upset me.
It became clear to me that the verse is not just about cleaning the slate to make God happy with us but also cleaning our hearts and minds so we are not continually flooded with these negative thoughts .
When we are upset the devil enjoys the fact that he can reek havoc on us,not allowing us to fully focus on what we should be doing at that moment and that is praising God..
It's hard to pay attention to the words being said when these negative,repetitive feelings keep cropping up.
What to do?
Make peace not only with the other person but with yourself.
Understand that its alright to be wrong,feel wounded,or unjustified but its not o.k.to let these feelings fester and cloud our minds.
God understands we are not perfect and he understands that we can only fully concentrate on one thing at a time.
We can not serve two masters and as St.James says a person with two minds is an unstable person.
So to forgive is not just pleasing to God but healing to both our mind and spirit.

No Electricity but Lessons Learned

Today I spend part of the day trying to get my house back in order,after our week of no electricity.
The camp stoves and lanterns needed to be washed and stored away and all the propane tanks had to be put in the corner of the spare room,so they can be brought to the cellar in the up coming days.
Funny this morning I started up the washing machine and admired the fact that I could actually do my clothes right here at home,rather then in Dudley at the Laundromat.
No electricity for one week makes you take stock of how much time we waste with our electronic gadgets.
You begin to understand just how much we rely on entertainment on an hourly basis.
When I was a child we would go to my grandparents house and everyone would put the kitchen chars in a circle and just sit and talk to each other until supper time.
I live in a house with two other adults and must admit we have never spent our entire afternoon not only talking to each other,but actually making eye contact while doing so.
With no electricity reading became an important past time,not only did I start and finish a book in a week period but also read the daily newspaper and piled up weekly magazines.
Sometimes getting away from our rut can remind us just how much we have lost in our modern day to day experience,with our electronic devices.
I have decided that from now on one day a week I will no longer us my computer and will greatly reduce my t.v. watching.
Just a way to re awaken my mind to the important things in the world around me.

Sunday : Storm Irene

Sunday morning found me at work and with no electricity,either at work or at home.
The drive home was some what calm,a little rain and most of the down limbs found on my own street.
Happy to be safely home,the lack of electricity seemed a minor annoyance,especially with most of the state being hit harder then us.
The day before we stocked up on bottles and gallons of water,so if the power did go out we could cook,drink and flush our toilet.
Being old campers we were prepared with propane gas,stoves and lanterns but no crank radio,so finding out how badly hit was an unknown,though the silence was rather nice.
The next day,on Monday morning,my husband and son went and got my fathers old generator so we could have some of the modern amenities,for a few hours anyways,just like the rest of the world up and down our road.
It's kind of nice getting a chance to live like my grandparents did,when they were children in Canada,on the farm,sure makes you appreciate how difficult their lives were,no running water and an afternoon of planning just to make a meal,no simple task for the faint hearted.
Water had to be pulled up from the well with a bucket,wood for the stove carried in from the outside wood pile and vegetables picked fresh from the garden or home made canned products carried up from root cellar,under the house.
We do have some tree limbs down around our yard but none on our house or cars and we are calling and visiting friends ,neighbors and relatives to see if they are in need of borrowing our generator for a few hours to refresh the cold in their refrigerator and freezer.
Funny Sunday night when we went out to eat we admired all those lucky people,along our path who had lights and TVs on,I guess it was electricity envy.
When we arrived back home our neighbor,across our yard,had electricity while our street did not.
He had run an electric cord across the road to the house nearest him,who was still with no electrical power and I must admit thoughts of coveting my neighbors extension cord came to mind.
It would be so easy just sneak across the yard and add on to his cord..the plan all arranged in my mind,but the deed left undone.
In the Bible God talks about all sorts of coveting of ones neighbors goods,like wives,man servants,maidservant,even ones ass,as in donkey,but no where does it say anything about his electrical cord...
envy..envy..envy...