Today, we are serving notice that we will not remain silent while the basic institutions of our democracy are undermined.www.commondreams.org/views/2017/12/08/open-letter-moral-activists-senator-mitch-mcconnell-regards-tax-reform
To Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell:The U.S. Senate and House have passed tax legislation that, if given final approval, would amount to one of the most immoral laws in our nation’s history.As this legislation heads to a final vote in Congress, the country’s poor and disenfranchised, along with moral leaders and people of conscience nationwide, call on you to stop the gross act of violence these bills would commit against our nation’s most vulnerable to serve its richest and most powerful.You and your colleagues in the Senate approved this legislation under the cover of night, voting in the final hours to reward some of the country’s most powerful corporations and industries. The poor, working poor and most vulnerable in our society will pay for the billions in tax breaks you approved for the most wealthy among us.The Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation has found that while big corporations, millionaires and their heirs will benefit, most people making under $75,000 a year will see their tax burdens rise. Meanwhile, this legislation will add $1.4 trillion to the national debt, setting the stage for future cuts to programs that help the poor. In the short term, we could see automatic cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. In the long term, this tax plan lays the groundwork for massive cuts to Social Security and other programs that sustain the poor, the elderly, and the most vulnerable among us.This is not blind speculation. We have watched the agenda you are now pushing in Congress play out in statehouses from Kansas to North Carolina to Michigan and Wisconsin.The voice of the prophet Isaiah speaks to each of us in this democracy:Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. (Isaiah 10:1–4)You and many of your colleagues say you are Christians and that you let your religion guide your policymaking. You even say you are “pro-life.” But your actions are stripping people of the healthcare they need to survive. You are working to pass legislation that is antithetical to the more than 2,000 verses that call on all of us to care for the poor and the sick.You assert that this tax scheme will grow the economy, thus helping everyone. But no independent analysis agrees. Mr. Majority Leader, you are acting on faith, in spite of the evidence. We are writing to inform you that your faith is not in line with the Scriptures, nor with what your party’s first President called “the better angels of our nature.”This country’s most vulnerable will not remain silent as this immoral legislation moves through Congress. Tens of thousands of poor and disenfranchised people, clergy and moral leaders today announced that we are coming together to launch the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. We will combine direct action with grassroots organizing, voter registration, and power building in the largest wave of nonviolent civil disobedience in U.S. history. Fifty years to the day after Dr. Martin Luther King and others called for the original Poor People’s Campaign, this legislation you are championing makes clear that we need this work now more than ever.You do not have to move forward with this legislative violence. No opinion poll says that the American people are with you. The Scriptures and the Constitution itself condemn it. Whatever has convinced you that this is the right thing to do, you can live without. But people will die because of this attack on our people.Today, we are serving notice that we will not remain silent while the basic institutions of our democracy are undermined. We invite you to join people of conscience across the country in rejecting the war on the poor that this tax legislation would wage. But even if you will not, we vow to move forward with a campaign to reconstruct America. Our nation’s soul is at stake. We cannot turn back — not now, not ever.Respectfully,Rev. Dr. William Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, Co-Chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral RevivalPoor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival Steering Committee Members:Aaron Scott, Chaplains on the HarborAl McSurely, Esq., North Carolina NAACPAvery Brook, Vermont Workers’ CenterCatherine Flowers, Alabama Center for Rural EnterpriseFernando Garcia, Border Network for Human RightsJustin Jones, Moral Mondays TennesseeLuis Rodriguez, Tia Chucha’s Centro CulturalShailly Gupta Barnes, Esq., Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice at Union Theological SeminaryBen Wilkins, Fight for $15Rev. Claudia de la Cruz, Popular Education ProjectJonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Red Letter ChristiansCherri Foytlin, Bold LouisianaRev. Dr. James Forbes, Drum Major Institute, Riverside Church of New YorkRev. Dr. Traci Blackmon, The United Church of ChristRev. Nelson Johnson, Faith Community ChurchRabbi Sharon Brous, IKARRev. Shawna Foster, Two Rivers Unitarian Universalist ChurchSister Simone Campbell, NETWORKMaureen Taylor, Michigan Welfare Rights OrganizationRoz Pelles, Repairers of the BreachPenda Hair, Esq., Forward JusticeGina Belafonte, Sankofa.org© 2015 MediumThe Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II is the architect of the Forward Together Moral Monday Movement, president of the North Carolina NAACP and pastor of the Greenleaf Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Goldsboro.Friday, December 08, 2017Arrested at Office Sit-In, Maine Clergy Demand Collins Reverse Vote on 'Immoral' GOP Tax BillA short stint in jail, said one demonstrator, is "a pretty minor inconvenience when compared to how this bill is going to devastate people's lives"Denouncing the GOP tax bill as a "dangerous" scheme that "gives away huge amounts of money to those who need it least and takes money from those who need it most," a group of 10 religious leaders occupied an office of Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Thursday demanding that she reverse her decision to support the deeply unpopular legislation."We think this tax bill is immoral and unjust and harmful and we're here to wait for Sen. Collins to commit to a no vote on this bill."
—Rev. Allen Ewing-Merrill, Maine Council of Churches"We're here because our faith compels us to be here," Rev. Allen Ewing-Merrill, vice president of the Maine Council of Churches, said from inside Collins' Portland, Maine office. "We think this tax bill is immoral and unjust and harmful and we're here to wait for Sen. Collins to commit to a no vote on this bill."The group—all members of Moral Movement Maine—remained in the senator's office after Collins staffers locked up for the day, and nine of the 10 demonstrators were ultimately arrested and charged with criminal trespass late Thursday night. The demonstration, which included a 45-minute phone conversation with Collins, was streamed on Facebook."We are gentle, loving people, and we are singing for our lives," members of the group intoned as police officers escorted them out of the office in handcuffs.Ewing-Merrill said that while he and other members of the group did not want to be arrested, a short stint in jail is "a pretty minor inconvenience when compared to how this bill is going to devastate people's lives.""This is not a stunt, but it's clear the senator is not ready to stand by a no vote," Ewing-Merrill concluded.The sense that Collins' support for the GOP tax plan is wavering was bolstered Friday morning after Bloomberg reported that the White House will not commit to supporting two key Obamacare stabilization measures, the passage of which Collins was promised in exchange for her vote."Republican leaders are using this tax scam to attack healthcare again."
—Sunjeev Bery, MoveOn.orgSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also reassured Collins in a written statement that he would not allow the tax legislation, which still has to make its way through a conference committee, to trigger automatic cuts to Medicare—a promise critics mocked as not worth the paper it's written on."Perhaps Collins could use the letter as tinder to get her fireplace going when she returns to the Maine winter?" wrote Slate's Jim Newell shortly after the Senate bill passed with Collins' support.Once the bill makes its way out of committee, it will go to the floor of both houses of Congress for a final vote.Groups that have been working for months to stop the GOP tax plan seized upon the crumbling promises of Republican leaders—and Collins' remarks in a recent interview signaling that she is open to changing her vote—to urge Mainers and other Americans to ramp up pressure on their senators to reverse their positions and stop the legislation from reaching President Donald Trump's desk."Senator Susan Collins betrayed regular Mainers and voted for the GOP's tax scam last week with two conditions: that Congress would act to shore up the Affordable Care Act and that there would be no cuts to Medicare," Sunjeev Bery of MoveOn.org noted in an email to supporters on Friday.Now that it is becoming clear that McConnell's promises were "just empty words," Bery wrote, it is crucial that Mainers flood Collins' phone lines "each day to keep the pressure up.""Republican leaders are using this tax scam to attack healthcare again," Bery concluded, addressing Collins. "You can still save your dignity and healthcare for countless Mainers—vote no on the final tax bill."This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
Living Gospel Inclusivity and Empowerment Now- https://bridgetmarys.blogspot.com/2025/10/rev-dr-bridget-mary-meehan-arcwp-chat.html
Saturday, December 9, 2017
Open Letter From Moral Activists To Senator Mitch McConnell In Regards To Tax Reform
Friday, December 8, 2017
Pope Francis Quote: A Theologian's Top Priority Must Be Prayer
A quote from Pope Francis:
"To be a good theologian, beyond studying you have to be dedicated, awake and seize hold of reality; and you need to reflect on all of this on your knees. A man who does not pray, a woman who does not pray, cannot be a theologian. "They might be a living form of Denzinger [Heinrich Denzinger, a 19th German theologian who wrote Handbook of Creeds and Definitions], they might know every possible existing doctrine, but they'll not be doing theology. ... Today it is a matter of how you express God, how you tell who God is, how you show the Spirit, the wounds of Christ, the mystery of Christ. How you are teaching this encounter — that is the grace."
— Pope Francis address a gathering of Jesuits in Cartagena, Colombia, Sept. 10, 2017
Feast of Immaculate Conception: We Are Blessed and Beloved Like Mary
Happy Feast Day everyone! Today we celebrate the Immaculate Conception, a teaching of the Catholic Church, affirming that Mary was blessed, beloved and full of grace from the first moment of her conception. The good news is we too are beloved and full grace from the first moment of our conception.
Theologians, like well-known prolific author, Matthew Fox, have written extensively that original sin was an attempt by early church fathers like St. Augustine to understand the mystery of evil that fostered the need to understand Jesus' death on the cross as atonement for our sins.
Read more at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/carlgregg/2011/11/embracing-christianity-and-evolution-matthew-fox-original-blessing-and-creation-spirituality/#oRMdptzXgQpZ34FJ.99
Matthew Fox, "invites us to explore the story of “Original Blessing,” which begins with goodness, compassion, and creativity at the heart of the universe. This alternative account embraces the best of both religion and science. It is the wondrous story of “emergence” — how the Universe evolved over the course of 13.7 billion years through stages of increasing complexity: “pre-atomic, atomic, molecular, unicellular, multi-cellular, vertebrate, primate, and human.”” As one theologian has written, we humans are,
Stardust now evolved to the place that the stardust can think about itself!…We are the universe becoming conscious of itself. We are stardust that has begun to contemplate the stars. We have arisen out of the dynamics of the Earth. Four billion years ago, our planet was molten rock, and now it sings opera. Let me tell you, this is good news!
Embracing this Universe Story perspective of Original Blessing is precisely what Matthew Fox intends when he invites us to explore the Via Positiva, the “Positive Way” of befriending Creation. He invites us to embrace all that this world and this life can teach us about God and God’s mind-blowingly huge Creation — an act of creation that did not end with a single act in the past, but that has been ongoing for billions of years.
“Original Sin” from Augustine, not Genesis
To say more about the difference between the traditional “Fall/Redemption Story” and the scientifically-based “Universe Story,” remember that, for the most part, neither Jews, nor Muslims, nor Eastern Orthodox Christians, nor many biblical scholars recognize a doctrine of “Original Sin” when they read the first few chapters of Genesis. Our tendency in Western Christianity to read these stories as a “Fall from grace” has to do with the way Augustine, the fourth-century bishop of Hippo, (and later Martin Luther) read these stories.
Augustine has been a major influence on Christian theology for 1,500 years and Luther for more than 500 years, and it can sometimes be almost impossible for us Western Christians to read scripture without the influence of major figures such as Augustine and Luther affecting our interpretation. Both Augustine and Luther were, at times, obsessed with the themes of sin and grace, and these fixations affected how they interpreted the Bible (and, in turn, how many of Christians have read the Bible since). The point is that although we humans are certainly flawed, finite creatures, the dominance of the “Original Sin” motif in Western Christian theology is neither inevitable nor integral either to the Bible itself or to the Universe Story.
Fox relatedly points out that human writing was only invented a few thousand years ago. But the Universe, again, is billions of years old. Accordingly, theologians invite us to consider that although the Bible has enduring importance, we should consider that, “The universe is the [first and] primary revelation of the divine, the primary scripture [predating the Bible by billions of years], [and] the primary locus of divine-human communion.” And God is communicating with us though Creation today, including through science. Said differently, the scientific method is a way of listening to how God is speaking to us about the mysteries of our Universe. "
Read more at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/carlgregg/2011/11/embracing-christianity-and-evolution-matthew-fox-original-blessing-and-creation-spirituality/#oRMdptzXgQpZ34FJ.99
Thursday, December 7, 2017
"We the People" by Rita Lucey ARCWP, Published in Daytona Beach News Journal
letters@news-jrnl.com
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We the People are no more
We the people believed in our right to seek justice, liberty, and happiness,
We the People believed that our government sworn to "promote the general welfare" and "insure domestic tranquility" remembered these words from our Constitution.
Alas, our elected officials never read them!
The outcry throughout this nation by the 99% has been persistent in demanding transparency in this 'tax' bill. Instead we have been scammed.
And you elected Republicans, lead by the Pied Pipers of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, taking away the economic survival of so many, will indeed be front and center as we, the people, pipe you over the cliff, along with your minions in the 2018 elections.
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Rev. Rita Lucey,M.A.
Cynthia Bourgeault ‘Seeing With The Eyes Of The Heart’ Interview by Renate McNay
"MInd the Gap" is a saying that you hear a lot in Ireland, Scotland and England when you are leaving a train.
Cynthia uses this metaphor to describe our journey and experience of prayer when the negative/or distractions encompass our prayer. The challenge is to be conscious of this state and let it go as you center in the heart of love.
It is all about becoming love and holding the cup of suffering and pain in compassion. We grow in our capacity to hold love in the mystical heart of love. Sometimes all you can do is weep, and this is praying in the heart of the Holy One.
A major challenge is learning how to live in one's skin. So often our restlessness is a gift to help us to grow more restful, grounded in love.
The gift is to be in solidarity , we touch the heart space of everyone.
We need to grow in a higher level of "this is my body given to you, to bear the beams of love."
Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP, www.arcwp.org
Author of several books including, “Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening”,“Wisdom Jesus”, "The Meaning of Mary Magdalene”, “Love is Stronger than Death”.
In this Interview Cynthia tells us how her Christian Life began encountering the presence of Jesus when she received her first communion and then how she started searching for the missing message in the Church. Very important teachers were Gurdjieff and Ouspensky. She studied the Sacred Dances and Movements which threw her at times into a Rabbit Hole. She also talks about Freedom and the willingness to bare our suffering, GOD’s Love, Solitude and Silence.
Wednesday, December 6, 2017
"How a group of California nuns challenged the Catholic Church", Associated Press, Dec. 6, 2017, Associated Press
https://wtop.com/education/2017/12/how-a-group-of-california-nuns-challenged-the-catholic-church/
..."Until the 1960s, the women had followed Church rules that governed their religious as well as personal lives. Now, rather than assume that they all needed to pray, study or meditate in the same way or at the same time, they encouraged individual experimentation. When they did worship together, they wanted the freedom to decide when, where and how to do so.
Likewise, the sisters sought relief from Church mandates that controlled their daily activities, ranging from what they wore and what time they went to bed to which books they were allowed to read.
On October 14, 1967, the sisters celebrated what they called Promulgation Day, the announcement of plans for their order’s renewal. A new vision for their lives and their work, the document, for example, said that sisters who taught in religious schools would be allowed to pursue teaching credentials and graduate degrees to professionalize their work. Those who did not feel the call to teach could find other careers.
Additionally, each sister could choose the length, time and type of her individual prayer, and group prayer would be shaped by the community. They no longer had to seek permission from the mother superior for the small decisions of daily life. They would be free to set their bedtimes, see a doctor or make a quick trip to the store.
Two days later, on Oct. 16, a delegation of six sisters sat in the office of Los Angeles’ Cardinal McIntyre. Furious with the sisters’ plans for renewal, he first asked about about their dress: Did they indeed intend to wear street clothes to their classrooms? Caspary said they might, and an angry McIntyre ended the meeting.
Even when the cardinal’s men persuaded him to continue the conversation, he refused to accept the order’s plan for renewal. Instead, he berated their defiance and doubted their commitment to religious life. As of June 1968, he told them, they would no longer teach in the city’s Catholic schools.
Over the next six months, the sisters and the cardinal presented formal cases to emissaries from the Vatican. Each side also sought support from Church colleagues and from the court of public opinion. Unfortunately, many newspapers played up the conflict as if the entire fight hinged on whether or not the sisters wore their traditional habits or street clothes.
By spring, the message was clear: The Vatican would support the cardinal. According to official pronouncements, the women’s experimentation went too far. They had not, in other words, worked within the guidelines of the male hierarchy.
Rather than give up their vision for religious renewal, however, 350 of the order’s 400 sisters began planning a new lay community outside the Church.
By the start of 1970, many of the Immaculate Heart sisters had decided to renounce their vows and reorganize as a lay community. The new group, the Immaculate Heart Community, was open to laypeople as well as clergy, men as well as women.
In the intervening years, most of the innovations that the sisters sought – including professionalizing standards, experimenting with community worship and giving sisters control of their daily activities – were adopted by Catholics across the country.
The Immaculate Heart Sisters drew on their time and place to create a new vision of religious community. Their sources ranged from the reforms of the Second Vatican Council to the writings of California’s humanist psychologists. They also included women’s liberation, the anti-war movement and the countercultural wave that rolled outside their convent door.
The California dream and its promise of new possibilities was central to the spiritual journey of the Immaculate Heart Sisters. It continues to inspire a new generations of seekers in and out of the Church."
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article here: http://theconversation.com/how-a-group-of-california-nuns-challenged-the-catholic-church-83944.
"The Silence Breakers" TIME Person of the Year 2017
http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2017-silence-breakers/?utm_campaign=time&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&xid=time_socialflow_twitter
"Movie stars are supposedly nothing like you and me. They're svelte, glamorous, self-possessed. They wear dresses we can't afford and live in houses we can only dream of. Yet it turns out that—in the most painful and personal ways—movie stars are more like you and me than we ever knew.
In 1997, just before Ashley Judd's career took off, she was invited to a meeting with Harvey Weinstein, head of the starmaking studio Miramax, at a Beverly Hills hotel. Astounded and offended by Weinstein's attempt to coerce her into bed, Judd managed to escape. But instead of keeping quiet about the kind of encounter that could easily shame a woman into silence, she began spreading the word.
"I started talking about Harvey the minute that it happened," Judd says in an interview with TIME. "Literally, I exited that hotel room at the Peninsula Hotel in 1997 and came straight downstairs to the lobby, where my dad was waiting for me, because he happened to be in Los Angeles from Kentucky, visiting me on the set. And he could tell by my face—to use his words—that something devastating had happened to me. I told him. I told everyone."
TIME
She recalls one screenwriter friend telling her that Weinstein's behavior was an open secret passed around on the whisper network that had been furrowing through Hollywood for years. It allowed for people to warn others to some degree, but there was no route to stop the abuse. "Were we supposed to call some fantasy attorney general of moviedom?" Judd asks. "There wasn't a place for us to report these experiences."
Finally, in October—when Judd went on the record about Weinstein's behavior in the New York Times, the first star to do so—the world listened. (Weinstein said he "never laid a glove" on Judd and denies having had nonconsensual sex with other accusers.)
When movie stars don't know where to go, what hope is there for the rest of us? What hope is there for the janitor who's being harassed by a co-worker but remains silent out of fear she'll lose the job she needs to support her children? For the administrative assistant who repeatedly fends off a superior who won't take no for an answer? For the hotel housekeeper who never knows, as she goes about replacing towels and cleaning toilets, if a guest is going to corner her in a room she can't escape?
Play Video
Like the "problem that has no name," the disquieting malaise of frustration and repression among postwar wives and homemakers identified by Betty Friedan more than 50 years ago, this moment is borne of a very real and potent sense of unrest. Yet it doesn't have a leader, or a single, unifying tenet. The hashtag #MeToo (swiftly adapted into #BalanceTonPorc, #YoTambien, #Ana_kaman and many others), which to date has provided an umbrella of solidarity for millions of people to come forward with their stories, is part of the picture, but not all of it.
This reckoning appears to have sprung up overnight. But it has actually been simmering for years, decades, centuries. Women have had it with bosses and co-workers who not only cross boundaries but don't even seem to know that boundaries exist. They've had it with the fear of retaliation, of being blackballed, of being fired from a job they can't afford to lose. They've had it with the code of going along to get along. They've had it with men who use their power to take what they want from women. These silence breakers have started a revolution of refusal, gathering strength by the day, and in the past two months alone, their collective anger has spurred immediate and shocking results: nearly every day, CEOs have been fired, moguls toppled, icons disgraced. In some cases, criminal charges have been brought.
Emboldened by Judd, Rose McGowan and a host of other prominent accusers, women everywhere have begun to speak out about the inappropriate, abusive and in some cases illegal behavior they've faced. When multiple harassment claims bring down a charmer like former Today show host Matt Lauer, women who thought they had no recourse see a new, wide-open door. When a movie star says #MeToo, it becomes easier to believe the cook who's been quietly enduring for years.....
"Movie stars are supposedly nothing like you and me. They're svelte, glamorous, self-possessed. They wear dresses we can't afford and live in houses we can only dream of. Yet it turns out that—in the most painful and personal ways—movie stars are more like you and me than we ever knew.
In 1997, just before Ashley Judd's career took off, she was invited to a meeting with Harvey Weinstein, head of the starmaking studio Miramax, at a Beverly Hills hotel. Astounded and offended by Weinstein's attempt to coerce her into bed, Judd managed to escape. But instead of keeping quiet about the kind of encounter that could easily shame a woman into silence, she began spreading the word.
"I started talking about Harvey the minute that it happened," Judd says in an interview with TIME. "Literally, I exited that hotel room at the Peninsula Hotel in 1997 and came straight downstairs to the lobby, where my dad was waiting for me, because he happened to be in Los Angeles from Kentucky, visiting me on the set. And he could tell by my face—to use his words—that something devastating had happened to me. I told him. I told everyone."
TIME
She recalls one screenwriter friend telling her that Weinstein's behavior was an open secret passed around on the whisper network that had been furrowing through Hollywood for years. It allowed for people to warn others to some degree, but there was no route to stop the abuse. "Were we supposed to call some fantasy attorney general of moviedom?" Judd asks. "There wasn't a place for us to report these experiences."
Finally, in October—when Judd went on the record about Weinstein's behavior in the New York Times, the first star to do so—the world listened. (Weinstein said he "never laid a glove" on Judd and denies having had nonconsensual sex with other accusers.)
When movie stars don't know where to go, what hope is there for the rest of us? What hope is there for the janitor who's being harassed by a co-worker but remains silent out of fear she'll lose the job she needs to support her children? For the administrative assistant who repeatedly fends off a superior who won't take no for an answer? For the hotel housekeeper who never knows, as she goes about replacing towels and cleaning toilets, if a guest is going to corner her in a room she can't escape?
Play Video
Like the "problem that has no name," the disquieting malaise of frustration and repression among postwar wives and homemakers identified by Betty Friedan more than 50 years ago, this moment is borne of a very real and potent sense of unrest. Yet it doesn't have a leader, or a single, unifying tenet. The hashtag #MeToo (swiftly adapted into #BalanceTonPorc, #YoTambien, #Ana_kaman and many others), which to date has provided an umbrella of solidarity for millions of people to come forward with their stories, is part of the picture, but not all of it.
This reckoning appears to have sprung up overnight. But it has actually been simmering for years, decades, centuries. Women have had it with bosses and co-workers who not only cross boundaries but don't even seem to know that boundaries exist. They've had it with the fear of retaliation, of being blackballed, of being fired from a job they can't afford to lose. They've had it with the code of going along to get along. They've had it with men who use their power to take what they want from women. These silence breakers have started a revolution of refusal, gathering strength by the day, and in the past two months alone, their collective anger has spurred immediate and shocking results: nearly every day, CEOs have been fired, moguls toppled, icons disgraced. In some cases, criminal charges have been brought.
Emboldened by Judd, Rose McGowan and a host of other prominent accusers, women everywhere have begun to speak out about the inappropriate, abusive and in some cases illegal behavior they've faced. When multiple harassment claims bring down a charmer like former Today show host Matt Lauer, women who thought they had no recourse see a new, wide-open door. When a movie star says #MeToo, it becomes easier to believe the cook who's been quietly enduring for years.....
Advent: A Time of Waiting? by Toni Kay ARCWP
We are taught from childhood that Advent is about waiting…
Waiting for baby Jesus to be born from the Virgin Mary
Waiting for Santa to come
Waiting to open the presents
Waiting for family to arrive from all over
Trying to be good so we can even get presents in the first place
Waiting for the return of Jesus
Etc. Etc. Etc.
Now that we are once again in December, here come the stories about the glory of of waiting.
I can appreciate in some ways that Advent “can” represent giving up supreme control over things to God. So it that respect I concur.
On the other hand, all this waiting we are encouraged to do with a nice “be a good girl” smile on our faces? No.
We are told yet again in our 2017 advent message to wait for human development, wait for peace in the church and the world, wait for the the coming of Jesus, and wait while the church holds us women captive.
You know what I say?!
I say no to waiting.
I say we have only this one day in our lives. We should NOT waste it sitting around waiting patiently.
When they told me I couldn’t take communion because I’m queer, I did it anyway! I didn’t wait for it to be ok. I said it was ok.
When they told me I couldn’t marry, I did it anyway, I didn’t wait for it to be ok. I said it was ok.
When they told me I was less than, or wouldn’t fit in because I was different, I didn’t wait. I moved on and found my tribe.
When they told me I couldn’t become a priest, or even a nun because I was less than, did I sit at home and wait for Santa Claus to come and give me the present because I was good enough? No.
When the Electoral College stole our rightful president, did I stay at home and wait for 45’s despotic presidency to end? No. I marched in the streets with millions of other women to protest.
I say, the idea of the Advent period as a time of being good and waiting for the ultimate reward is old school theology.
I say, let’s acknowledge with grace the times we must endure not knowing, but gee, when this is the only day we are actually given, the one day in our one life, who wants to wait?
Not me!
Live life today.
Say the things of your heart today.
Give lavishly today.
Love fully today.
Do whatever you need to, no matter how hard it is.
But please, don’t wait.
We are only guaranteed one thing. Today. So live it fully as if it were your only day.
As if it were your very last day.
And yes, open your presents on Christmas Eve!
Tuesday, December 5, 2017
Pope's letter to Argentine bishops on 'Amoris Laetitia' part of official record Dec 5, 2017 by Cindy Wooden, Divorced and Remarried Catholics Could Receive Sacraments Without Annulment
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| Pope Francis kisses a baby during an audience with representatives from the Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe at the Vatican June 1. (CNS/L'Osservatore Romano) |
VATICAN CITY — "Describing them as "authentic magisterium," Pope Francis ordered the official publication of his letter to a group of Argentine bishops and their guidelines for the interpretation of "Amoris Laetitia," his apostolic exhortation on the family.
According to a brief note by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, Pope Francis wanted his letter and the bishops' document to be published on the Vatican website and in the "Acta Apostolicae Sedis," the official record of Vatican documents and acts.
The papal letter, dated Sept. 5, 2016, was written in response to guidelines published by the bishops in the Catholic Church's Buenos Aires region. Pope Francis said the bishops' document "explains precisely the meaning of Chapter VIII of 'Amoris Laetitia.' There are no other interpretations."
Some church leaders and theologians have insisted reception of the sacraments is impossible for such couples unless they receive an annulment of their sacramental marriage or abstain from sexual relations with their new partner.The letter is found on the Vatican website under letters written by the pope in 2016, and was published in the October 2016 edition of the "Acta Apostolicae Sedis," which also is available online: http://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/documents/2016/acta-ottobre2016.pdf.
Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, told Catholic News Service Dec. 5, "The fact that the pope requested that his letter and the interpretations of the Buenos Aires bishops be published in the AAS means that His Holiness has given these documents a particular qualification that elevates them to the level of being official teachings of the church.
"While the content of the pope's letter itself does not contain teachings on faith and morals, it does point toward the interpretations of the Argentine bishops and confirms them as authentically reflecting his own mind," the cardinal said. "Thus together the two documents became the Holy Father's authentic magisterium for the whole church."
The eighth chapter of "Amoris Laetitia" is titled, "Accompanying, Discerning and Integrating Weakness," and is the most debated chapter of the document. It urges pastors to assist those whose marriages have faltered and help them feel part of the church community. It also outlines a process that could lead divorced and civilly remarried Catholics back to the sacraments.
The Buenos Aires document said the path of discernment proposed by Pope Francis "does not necessarily end in the sacraments," but should, first of all, help the couple recognize their situation, understand church teaching on the permanence of marriage and take steps toward living a more Christian life.
"When feasible," the guidelines said, divorced and civilly remarried couples should be encouraged to abstain from sexual relations, which would allow them to receive the sacrament of reconciliation and the Eucharist.
While there is no such thing as "unrestricted access to the sacraments," the bishops said, in some situations, after a thorough process of discernment and examination of the culpability of the individual in the failure of the sacramental marriage, the pope's exhortation "opens the possibility" to reception of the sacraments."
"O Holy Darkness, Loving Womb" Music Video to tune of O Little Town of Bethlehem", Ideal for Advent/Christmas Meditations
"O Holy Darkness, Loving Womb"--new lyrics inspiring racial justice, care of Earth, gender justice, healing, and affirming the sacredness of all--set to the tune of "O Little Town of Bethlehem." Ideal for Advent meditations and Winter Solstice.
Vocal Artist: Shannon Kincaid; Lyrics: Jann Aldredge-Clanton; Visual Artists: noted in credits and other images from public domain; Musicians: noted in credits.
"O Holy Darkness, loving Womb, who nurtures and creates,
sustain us through the longest night with dreams of open gates.
We move inside to mystery that in our center dwells,
where streams of richest beauty flow from sacred, living wells.
Creative Darkness, closest Friend, you whisper in the night;
you calm our fears as unknown paths surprise us with new sight.
We marvel at your bounty, your gifts so full and free,
unfolding as you waken us to new reality.
O Holy Night of deepest bliss, we celebrate your power;
infuse us with your energy that brings our seeds to flower.
The voice out of the darkness excites our warmest zeal
to bring together dark and light, true holiness reveal.
O come to us, Sophia; your image, black and fair,
stirs us to end injustice and the wounds of earth repair.
The treasures of your darkness and riches of your grace
inspire us to fulfill our call, our sacredness embrace."
Words © Jann Aldredge-Clanton, from "Inclusive Hymns for Liberating Christians" (Eakin Press, 2006)
Fuller information about visual artists can be found on my website: http://jannaldredgeclanton.com/blog/?...
Monday, December 4, 2017
Christmas Carol: Send Forth the News that Wisdom Comes" to melody of Joy to to the World
“Sound Forth the News That Wisdom Comes” calls us to co-create with Wisdom a world of justice, peace, equality, love, freedom, and joy. This Christmas carol comes with the hope that Wisdom will guide us to change our violent culture and to co-create with Her a peaceful world. Let us join together in our churches, communities, and home in caroling for change.
Sound forth the news that Wisdom comes
to bring new life to birth.
Arise with hope, Her labor join,
and peace shall fill the earth,
and peace shall fill the earth,
and peace, and peace shall fill the earth.
to bring new life to birth.
Arise with hope, Her labor join,
and peace shall fill the earth,
and peace shall fill the earth,
and peace, and peace shall fill the earth.
No more let fear and custom hide
the path of Wisdom fair.
She leads the way to life and joy,
with gifts for all to share,
with gifts for all to share,
with gifts, with gifts for all to share.
the path of Wisdom fair.
She leads the way to life and joy,
with gifts for all to share,
with gifts for all to share,
with gifts, with gifts for all to share.
Joyful are we who heed the call
of Wisdom in our souls.
With Her we break oppression’s wall,
so love may freely flow,
so love may freely flow,
so love, so love may freely flow.
of Wisdom in our souls.
With Her we break oppression’s wall,
so love may freely flow,
so love may freely flow,
so love, so love may freely flow.
Crown Wisdom Queen of heaven and earth;
Her reign will set us free.
Fling wide the gates that all may come
join hands and dance with glee,
join hands and dance with glee,
join hands, join hands and dance with glee.
Her reign will set us free.
Fling wide the gates that all may come
join hands and dance with glee,
join hands and dance with glee,
join hands, join hands and dance with glee.
Words © Jann Aldredge-Clanton, from Inclusive Hymns for Liberating Christians
Vocal Artist: Shannon Kincaid
Visual Artists:
David Clanton: “Tree of Life” and two dancing children photos
Alice Heimsoth: seven photos inside Ebenezer/herchurch Lutheran, San Francisco
Mirta Toledo: “Sophia” painting
Shannon Kincaid: “Oprah & Child” and “Queen Maeve” paintings
Elizabeth Zedaran: “Flow”
Instrumentalists:
Keyboard: Ron DiIulio
Guitar: Danny Hubbard
Bass & Percussion: Jerry Hancock
Music Producer/Arranger: Ron DiIulio
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