Bridget Mary's Blog

Friday, April 28, 2017

Peace Through All People, Music Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBQ-KsGo_BI&feature=youtu.be

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Pope Francis on Inclusvity

TODAY'S TED TALK

Why the only future worth building includes everyone

17:52 minutes · TED2017

A single individual is enough for hope to exist, and that individual can be you, says His Holiness Pope Francis in this searing TED Talk delivered directly from Vatican City. In a hopeful message to people of all faiths, to those who have power as well as those who don't, the spiritual leader provides illuminating commentary on the world as we currently find it and calls for equality, solidarity and tenderness to prevail. "Let us help each other, all together, to remember that the 'other' is not a statistic, or a number," he says. "We all need each other."

Homily for Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Third Sunday of Easter, Beverly Bingle RWCP

There they go, Mr. and Mrs. Cleopas.
Going in the wrong direction.
Away from Jerusalem… disappointed, confused, afraid.
Then they meet up with a stranger.
They walk along together, talking about the scriptures.
They share a meal.
And they come to know Jesus in the breaking of the bread.
__________________________________________
Scholars say that this story of the travelers on the road to Emmaus
shows Luke’s storytelling ability at its best.
It started as a simple story that grew through the years
until Luke made it into a narrative
and enhanced it with scriptural echoes
of the long Jewish tradition of hospitality
where people encounter the divine
in sharing a meal with a stranger.
In its present form,
the story reflects the pattern of early Christian worship—
hearing the Scriptures proclaimed and sharing the meal.
And that’s still the pattern of our worship today.
That pattern has not changed.
__________________________________________
The gospels tell us story after story of Jesus breaking bread—
on the plain, on the mountainside,
at the homes of friends, at the homes of sinners.
No one is turned away, not even Judas at the Last Supper.
Everybody is welcome.
Everybody is included.
That’s what we’re supposed to do at every Mass.
But that pattern has changed.
__________________________________________
We have to wonder how our institutional church
got to the point of making all those rules
to exclude people from the table.
Sure, there have been some times throughout history
when it made sense to be careful,
those times when Christianity was being persecuted
and you could be jailed or killed for celebrating Mass.
But here in the United States, now, with us today?
Instead of walking along the way with people,
instead of inviting them to stop a while with us,
instead of sharing a meal and breaking bread with them,
we still have rules on the books
that say they’re not welcome at the table.
__________________________________________
Some of them are rules about church practices.
Skip Mass last Sunday?
Not welcome.
Didn’t go to communion during the Easter season?
Well, you can’t go now.
Haven’t been to confession in a year?
Sorry.
Take communion in a non-Catholic church?
Then you’re not allowed at the Catholic table.
And then there are the pelvic issues.
Divorced and remarried without an annulment?
Practicing contraception?
Think that homosexuality is not an “intrinsic disorder?”
That abortion is okay to save the life of the mother?
Any one of those, according to the rules,
bars you from communion.
And there are bunches of other rules.
__________________________________________
Thank God for Pope Francis,
who calls us to walk with people where they really are,
not where we think they should be.
Francis looks at these two travelers heading off to Emmaus
and says that
“We need a Church unafraid of going forth into their night.
We need a church capable of meeting them on their way.
We need a Church capable of entering into their conversation.
We need a Church able to dialogue with those disciples who,
having left Jerusalem behind,
are wandering aimlessly, alone, with their own disappointment,
disillusioned by a Christianity
now considered barren, fruitless soil,
incapable of generating meaning.”
The Pope encourages us live our faith in the real world.
He tells us to reach out in service without judging people.
Just like Jesus did, Pope Francis wants us to welcome everyone.
He reminds us that we are one human people the world over,
living in a common home.
__________________________________________
The rules that keep people away from communion
don’t make sense any more,
so we don’t follow them here at Holy Spirit.
We live, as Fr. Ed Hays puts it,
“in unrelenting communion,
even if we are unaware of it,
with God and the Spirit of God.
Life is constant holy communion
because the world was created to be cosmic communion
between God and every creature and entity in the world.
This communion flows from life
as a seamless unity
of every person, creature, plant, animal, and star.”
__________________________________________
The rule that Jesus shows us
is bigger than any church rule.
He did not throw anybody off the mountain.
He did not bar anyone from eating at the table with him.
We who walk the way with him,
we who have been created
in constant, unrelenting communion
with God and with all being
are always welcome at the table…
and so is everyone else.
Thanks be to God!

Public Domain
--
Holy Spirit Catholic Community
Saturdays at 4:30 p.m./Sundays at 5:30 p.m.
at 3925 West Central Avenue
Toledo, OH 43606
(Washington Church)

www.holyspirittoledo.org

Rev. Dr. Bev Bingle, Pastor
Mailing address: 3156 Doyle Street, Toledo, OH 43608-2006

Sanctuary by Carrie Newcomer, YouTube Music Video

https://youtu.be/HjOioWTVAl4

Emmaus is Nowhere because Emmaus is Everywhere: a sermon on Luke 24 – Easter 3A by Rev. Dawn Hutchings

"This sermon was inspired on my own journey to Emmaus where in the space of the same afternoon I heard a stranger declare: "Christianity is dead!" and Karen Armstrong's now famous TED talk about her call for a world Charter for Compassion.

Has anybody here ever been to Emmaus? Which one? According to the latest issue of Biblical Archeology there are at least nine possible locations that are candidates for the Biblical town of Emmaus. Historians tell us that there is no record of any village called Emmaus in any other ancient source. We simply don’t know where Emmaus might have been. Tradition, tells us that it might have been a place just a few hours walk from Jerusalem. New Testament scholars, Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan suggest that Emmaus is nowhere. Emmaus is nowhere precisely because Emmaus is everywhere. Each and every one of us has at one time, or indeed for some of us, many times, traveled along the road to Emmaus.

I know that I have been on the road to Emmaus most of my life. I’ve had lots of company on the Road to Emmaus. I’ve had many conversations along the way discussing, with anyone who’d care to accompany me, the ifs, ands, and buts of Christianity, of religion, and indeed of life. If you haven’t traveled down the road to Emmaus you must be very skilled in the fine art of turning off your brain and if you check you just might discover that your heart isn’t actually beating.

It’s so easy to imagine, those two characters striding down the Road to Emmaus that we can almost hear them talking, maybe even arguing about what happened. What on earth were they to make of all this! Jesus was supposed to be the Messiah. Jesus was the One who had come to liberate Israel, to free the people from oppression. Jesus was the One who was supposed to draw the people back to God, restore the relationship between God and God’s people. Now Jesus was gone, and what had changed? Now, Jesus was gone, and the Roman Empire was still oppressing them, still inflicting such pain and hardship, still killing them. Was it all a mistake? Was it all a lie? Had they been fooled by some kind of cruel hoax—were they wrong to put their hopes in this man from Nazareth? They had trusted Jesus believed in Jesus, followed Jesus. Their lives had been changed. They had seen the lives of others changed and they had expected even greater changes to come. Jesus had confronted corrupt powers. Jesus had charmed great crowds. Jews and Gentiles alike responded to the truth of Jesus’ teaching. Rich and poor had come to Jesus, believing in Jesus’ healing power. But Jesus had been shamed, and ridiculed, and humiliated, and crucified and now Jesus was dead. Well, was Jesus dead? Some said they’d seen Jesus, alive! Not that Jesus had survived the crucifixion by some miracle of strength, but that Jesus had risen from the dead. They seemed so totally convinced by their own experience…were they confused by their own grief? Were they delirious? Had they loved this Jesus so much—invested so much hope in Jesus life and leadership—that they simply could not let him go? And what did ‘resurrection” mean? Apparently it was not the resuscitation of a corpse. Jesus wasn’t revived to resume his former life; to take up his broken body until the day he might die again. No, somehow this was some new mode of being that seemed to be spiritual to some and yet real to others. And, if Jesus were risen from the dead, what would be the point of all that? What was the point to a Messiah—to a presumed political and religious leader—if Jesus wasn’t able to lead people here on earth? How could Jesus restore Israel when he had so easily been defeated by a handful of Roman guards? How could he bring release to the captives, how could he bring justice for the poor, how could Jesus advocate for the widows and the homeless? How could Jesus call people to account for all the ways they had strayed from God’s intent, now? What good could come from some kind of spiritual ghost? We can hear these two friends wrestling with each other and with their own hearts on the road that day! "Read more of this post

"Why Anti-Feminism Hurts All Genders" by Ellen Friedrichs

http://everydayfeminism.com/2017/04/anti-feminism-hurts-all-genders/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EverydayFeminism+%28Everyday+Feminism%29&mc_cid=c704cdeaed&mc_eid=56fbab2bc0

1. Patriarchy Hurts Everyone

"Though individuals may hold patriarchal ideas, when we talk about “the patriarchy,” we aren’t putting responsibility on any one person.

Rather, we’re referring to an unjust social system that enforces rigidly divided gender roles, and in doing so oppresses people of all a/genders. This system is often made up of social, political, and/or economic mechanisms that promote cis male dominance over all other a/genders.

One of the most prominent voices to challenge the forces of patriarchy is feminist scholar bell hooks who has been writing and teaching about radical social issues since the 1970s. hooks has explained patriarchy as:

A political-social system that insists that males are inherently dominating, superior to everything and everyone deemed weak, especially females, and endowed with the right to dominate and rule over the weak and to maintain that dominance through various forms of psychological terrorism and violence.

This view of the patriarchy does not implicate lone men. Rather, it positions men, too, as victims of an oppressive system.

And how are they victimized? In countless ways.

For example, since patriarchal societies tell men they’re expected to be sex-driven, violent, dominant, and emotionless, when they don’t live up to these rigid expectations, they’re punished from a shockingly early age.

Just think about all toddlers who are told that “boys don’t cry.” And then think about how these kids grow up assuming toxic masculinity is the only way to protect themselves against one of patriarchy’s favorite strategies: the constant reminder that there’s nothing worse than being perceived as feminine.

At first glance, it might seem like a/gender minorities are the sole victims of patriarchal thinking. But when we dig just a little deeper, it becomes clear that this is far from the case.

2. The Foundation of Anti-Feminism Is Often Misaligned with People’s Actual Values

There have always been people who will denounce efforts to help evolve our understanding of gender roles and who are against expanding rights to traditionally marginalized groups.

For example, there was opposition to women’s suffrage, there was opposition to the birth control pill, and there remains opposition to the fight for basic human rights for people of all a/gender identities and sexual orientations.

But the origins of the modern anti-feminist movement generally emerged out of specific opposition to legal abortion and to the – Oh my god! How has this still not passed? – Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)...

...feminism is fundamentally an egalitarian movement that aims not only to fight sexism, but also all other forms domination.

So far from stripping these men of power, it’s actually a really good tool to help them advance in the face of the actual forces that are holding them back."

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

"...When we become one with our good, we become one with God.

God gives and we receive; if we ask and believe."

“Ask and you shall receive!”

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests: Living Gospel Equality and Partnership Now- All Are Welcome!

Like Pope Francis who says no to an economy of exclusion, women priests say no to a church of exclusion.

Like Pope Francis who promotes an economy of inclusion, women priests promote a church of inclusion.

Like Pope Francis who challenges global economic inequality, women priests challenge the church’s gender inequality.

Global economic equality is related to women’s empowerment and equality in church and society.

Roman Catholic Women Priests are a renewal, justice movement within the Catholic Church.

We are serving inclusive Catholic communities where all are welcome to receive sacraments.

We are a non-clerical movement that offers the church an egalitarian, partnership with the community of the baptized.

Our mission is to serve especially those whom the Vatican marginalizes. (33 million Catholics have left the church that is quite a "target group" that has been abandoned by institution. )

We reject excommunication. No punishment can separate us from Christ or cancel our baptism. No church authority can separate us from God.

This is our church and we are not leaving it. (no matter what the Vatican says or does.)

(The Vatican's official line is that our excommunicate is the automatic type, by your choice, you have excommunicated yourself)

The Church that treat women as second-class citizens violate God's will.

Genesis 1:27: God created humanity in God's image, in the divine image, God created them, male and female God created them. Galations 3:27 St. Paul reminds us that by our baptism there is neither male nor female, all are one in Christ.

Roman Catholic Women Priests have valid orders. Our first bishops were ordained by a male bishop in apostolic succession.

Pope Benedict canonized two excommunicated two nuns (Theodore Guerin and Mary McKillop)

We hope that Pope Francis will chart a new path toward human equality in our church by opening all ministries to women. If women were priests, we would see an end to the church's policy on contraception. Primacy of conscience is an important church teaching that all must follow in moral decisions.

The hierarchy must make the connection between discrimination against women in the church and violence , abuse and inequality toward women in the world.

Like these courageous women we are faithful Catholics leading the church to become more just and live Jesus example of Gospel equality.

Jesus called women and men to be disciples. (Luke 8:1-3) Jesus did not ordain anyone.

The Risen Christ called Mary Magdala to be the apostle to the apostles. She was the first to proclaim the central message of Christianity, the Resurrection.

Vatican/ (hierarchy) should follow Jesus’ example of Gospel equality and the early church’s tradition of women in liturgical leadership as deacons, priests and bishops.

Background For 1200 years women were ordained. (Gary Macy, The Hidden History of Women’s Ordination, Dorothy Irvin’s archaeological evidence etc.) “In the early centuries of Christianity, ordination was the process and the ceremony by which one moved to any new ministry (ordo) in the community. By this definition, women were in fact ordained into several ministries. A radical change in the definition of ordination during the eleventh and twelfth centuries not only removed women from the ordained ministry, but also attempted to eradicate any memory of women's ordination in the past. …However, the triumph of a new definition of ordination as the bestowal of power, particularly the power to confect the Eucharist, so thoroughly dominated western thought and practice by the thirteenth century that the earlier concept of ordination was almost completely erased.. References to the ordination of women exist in papal, episcopal and theological documents of the time, and the rites for these ordinations have survived.” Gary Macy, The Hidden History of Women’s Ordination)

The Vatican and Google have created a virtual tour of catacombs including two frescoes in St. Priscilla’s catacomb that provide evidence of ancient women deacons and priests in first centuries of church’s history. (One fresco depicts a woman deacon in the center vested in a dalmatic, her arms raised in the orans position for public worship. In the same scene there is a bishop being ordained a priest by a bishop seated I a chair. She is vested in an alb, chasuble, and amice, and holding a gospel scroll. The third woman in the painting is wearing the same robe as the bishop on the left and is sitting in the same type of chair. ) In another fresco in the Catacombs of Priscilla, women are conducting a Eucharistic banquet. This evidence portrays women in liturgical roles and vestments.

The real issue is that Roman Catholic Women Priests are visible reminders that women are equal images of God. We are healing centuries of misogyny.

The Vatican (hierarchy) cannot continue to discriminate against women and blame God for it.

Roman Catholic Women Priests are a “holy shakeup” which millions of Catholics support.

Roman Catholic Women Priests lead inclusive, enthusiastic, egalitarian communities where all are welcome to receive sacraments.

Our website is www.arcwp.org

There are two RCWP groups in the United States, each has its own
administrative structure. They are not administratively connected.

ARCWP’s vision is a renewed priestly ministry within a Roman Catholic Community of equals.

ARCWP is an
international group without regional territories. Presently, ARCWP is in the United States, South America, and Canada.

Our common mission with RCWP-USA is a renewed priestly ministry in an
inclusive church. Both ARCWP and RCWP-USA collaborate, communicate and share
resources on a regular basis.

We have a prayer circle and a common chat listserve.
We collaborate on major reform movement events such as the celebration of liturgy at Call to Action National Conference.

Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests: Living Gospel Equality Now, Leading the Church to An Open, Inclusive Table Where All Are Welcome