Communion

Skipped my morning meeting this morning....slept in til 7:00 am. Woo Hoo!

I'm reading Barack Obama's book Dreams of my Father. Its excellent. Even if I didn't know who he was I would enjoy it. It's an interesting story and he writes well and with insight. The fact that he may be the next President of the United States, God willing, is a bonus. Actually I take that back, not God willing. I believe that perhaps God's will put him on this earth and helped him become the person he is, but who becomes president will not be God's will, it will be the people's will. We have the tools that God has provided but it is up to us to use them.

I just read this quote and it really struck me as where I'm at right now as far as religon vs. spirituality is. Barack was in Chicago and had just gotten his first job as a community organizer and was talking with DeaconWilbur Milton, copresident of the Calumet Community Religous Conference. His mission was.."to spread the Good News and puncture some of the Hypocrisy he saw in the church."

"A lot of....folks in the church get mixed up in middle class attitudes. Think that as long as they follow the letter of Scripture, they don't need to follow the spirit. Instead of reaching out to people who are hurting, they make them feel unwelcome. They look at people funny unless they're wearing the right clothes to mass, talk proper and all that. They figure they're uncomfortable, so why put themselves out. Well, Christ ain't about comfort, is he? He preached a social gospel. Took his message to the weak. The downtrodden."

"It's like this collar I wear. That really gets some of 'em mad. 'Collars are for priests,' they tell me. But see, just 'cause I'm married and can't be ordained don't mean I don't have a calling. Aint' nothin in the Bible talking about collars. So I go ahead and wear a collar to let people know where I'm coming from. In fact, I wore a collar when some of us went to meet with Cardinal Bernardin about a month back. Everyone was real uptight about it. Then they got upset when I called the Cardinal 'Joe' instead of 'Your Holiness.' But you know, Bernardin was cool. He's a spiritual man. I could tell we understood each other. It's these rules again that keep us apart--rules of men, not rules of God. See.., I'm in the Catholic church, but I was raised Baptist. Could've joined a Methodist church, Pentecostal, whatever, just as easy. St. Catherine's is just where God happened to send me. And He cares more about whether I'm about the business of helping others than whether I'm straight on my catechisms." pgs 153-154

I read this soon after I attended my friend's father's funeral. It was in a very Catholic church in a very Catholic community. I've always understood that if you are not a Catholic, have not gone to confession and did not receive your first communiun, you could not participate in the Eucharist. Well, I wanted to receive that morning. Jesus said, take this ALL of you. He didn't say take only you who have followed our rules. Perhaps I was inspired by the communiun we had during the conference where 800 people offered the Body and Blood of Christ to each other. So I did go up and receive the Body of Christ. It felt like a milestone to me. I like what Deacon Milton had to say and it is right in line with what I am learning from Thomas Keating and now Richard Rohr.

Have a great day everyone!!