Saturday, November 27, 2010

OWLs




This comic reminded me of the story about King Solomon's decision. You know, the one where there's two 'mothers' of a child so, to tell the real mum from the fake one, he orders that the kid is cut in half? Yeah; that one.

Anyway. How do we come to wisdom?

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Blogitty blog.

This seems an appropriate moment to blog about why I blog. Not that any other moment would have been less appropriate, just that I feel somewhat inclined to type on this topic.

The first thing I need to say is a word of clarification. Even though some of my blogs are addressed to Reader, there is no one that I expect to read this except me.
“Why are you explaining why you’re blogging, then, Kelly?”
The short answer is so that I can go back and read my reasonings.

And, really, that’s why I blog: as a way of me keeping track of musings in a way that will only fail if the intertubes break.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Stress

Why do we stress? Does it help us in any way?

Perhaps when we were dependent on our our hunting and gathering skills, increased anxiety made us non-complacent about a possible fore-coming lack of food, thus ensuring the survival of our species.

How about now?
Does it still help, Reader?

Melancholy

Dear Reader, dearest friend,

I need to tell you that none of my blogs are intended to be gloomy or depressing. Thus, I apologise if this is how any of them have come across.

I urge you, friend, to re-read any of my previous posts that you have found sad, depressing or without hope. I promise you that, within every one of my posts, it is there.

Peace to you.

-Kelly

Stumbleupon

Those scripture passages you find that say exactly what you need to hear, with when it needs to be heard.
This is it.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

I will wait for you.

Waiting. It is a lonely experience to wait for another: at times, there is nothing more harrowing that wondering if the other will appear.

The waiting I speak of is more than waiting at a station for the return of a friend or family member, yet it does not exclude this waiting. Indeed, this waiting will be the metaphor for the other periods of waiting that we must endure.

I organise to meet with someone at a station and they give an approximate time, when I expect they will arrive, they even give me a sign for me to look out for so that I will know that they are arriving shortly. The time passes and the sign that they have given seems to have come. And, yet, they do not appear. So I wait.

Each agonising minute passes and the one I long to see fails to arrive. I call them, and there is no answer; I seek them, and do not find. Are they lost? Perhaps they do not want to see me? There is no way for me to contact them and find out. I do not even know anyone who they may be with.

See? I seek and call, yet I do not perceive an answer.

Finally, I give up; I abandon myself to the situation I cannot control and could never have controlled, and I  simply sit. It is then that the one I am waiting for arrives. Not immediately, and yet the time between my abandon and their arrival passes quickly. The minute is no longer an agony, each moment no longer causes me torment because there is nothing that I can do, and I realise this, now.




Waiting. It is a lonely experience to know that no one will be waiting for you: at times, there is nothing more harrowing than knowing that know no one and nothing wait upon your return.

The waiting I speak of is more than a friend or family member waiting at a station for my return, yet it does not exclude this waiting. Indeed, this waiting will be the metaphor for the other periods of waiting that we must endure.

I organise a trip to the city. It is busy and impersonal, even the ones who speak on the street fail to see me as a person, I am just a customer, just a potential convert, just a thing that is moving and, perhaps, in the way. It rains; there is no room under cover for me to shelter.. I walk down a dead-end alley; I get lost; there is no a face I can look into to see a word of comfort or seek a word of direction. The stranger I ask for directions ignores me. I am alone.

See? I seek and call, yet I do not perceive an answer.

Finally, I give up but I am unwilling to head home. There will be nobody and nothing waiting for me, only work, only what I must do to make up for this lonely, exhausting, wasted day. I am caught; trapped between life and death, it seems. The life that I’m in now, this impersonal nightmare, and the death of nobody caring where I am.

Satre was wrong. Other people are not hell, they are Life - as distinct from life - Life is other people.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Time

I have so much that I'd like to write about and not enough time now to fully for a blog for each topic.
Below are some blog-title ideas that I may use later.

Also, today was SUPER full on, but still really cool and good and awesome (AWEsome, that is.)
Started today with helping out at the Salvo's Freedom Bike Ride where they were raising awareness about poverty and raising money to fight against it. Tim Costello (the founder of World Vision) spoke about Freedom and redemption in an interesting talk at the same venue. We (Caz & I, with Nat) found lunch, hung at Nat's then drove to WAAPA to see the AMAZING MelB play [Nat just dropped us there].

Caz & I then scabbed a lift to Wellard with Lauren & her sister.

I have to be up & functioning in 11 hours. I feel like I could sleep for 111 hours.




Anyway...
Those title ideas:
Freed and Redeemed.
Justice and Spirituality
Budgeting
Living


I like the two StarWars related mini-comics in this picture





Also, I'm moving soon. Closer to the city. Please pray for me.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Community



We use the word all the time, but what does ‘community’ mean and what does it entail?


For Saint Paul, a Christian Community held everything in common. All property was sold and the money was dealt out according to each one’s need. In doing this, the community ensured that each was looked after. The system provided a type of social security for the poor and those in difficult circumstances. This way of living also ensured - or was meant to ensure - that those of status recognised that they were as dependant on themselves as they were of the others in the community and were even more dependant on God. There was a unity within the Christian Community that was so opposite to what the rest of society was used to that it was counter-cultural.

The same applies today.
People talk about ‘our local community’ and that we lack the infrastructure for real community. That is absolute codswallop. Community does not need infrastructure, it needs people and the desire for unity. Modern communities do not have to share their property in common, as the early Christians did, but a true community will not hesitate to give of their time, money, resources and their vary selves for the Other. Moreover, it is totally acceptable for each member to expect that others within the community will help them, when in need. Communities are welcoming places.

Henri Nouwen speaks of this welcoming as hospitality. For Nouwen, hospitality requires a withdrawal into the self. However, this withdrawal is not to be self focused in the sense that the withdrawal is to be for  and about the Other in a way that gives them room to grow. God is the perfect welcomer and the hospitable host par excellence. Through God, everything flourishes for there cannot be life without God. Consider this example, paraphrased from the one that Nouwen gives in The Wounded Healer:


God is, and has been since the infinite; God is omnipresent and, before creating not-God, filled the whole. To create the not-God, then, God had to contract, to compress or to withdraw into Godself. This allowed space for the not-God to exist and to flourish. Still present with and in the Creation, God is nonetheless not sand, not tree, not building, not vehicle. These exist in the space that God once filled.


We are called to imitate God. Just as God, by self compressing, allowed space for the not-God to come into being in Their presence, we too are called to create space for the Other. In the same way that a good, welcoming host does not force themselves on the guest, but becomes servant to them, a welcoming community becomes servant to its members; each flourishing community supports and aids each member in flourishing, doing the same for new or potential members as it does for long standing ones, and this involves giving space for the Other to grow.

Communities set boundaries. Welcoming the Other is allowing them to develop an understanding of how the community operates and why they do so. Similarly, it is not making excuses for them but expecting them to live as a member of that community. To do this,  it is imperative that new and potential members are told the rules of the community and of the expectation that the rules will be followed. The flourishing community will also remind all its members, on a regular basis, of the expectations of the community. The rules of a good Community, while being strict, will be fair and pastorally sensitive.

Community, then, is a group of people that show hospitality to one another with a unity that is born of a communion and of expectations that are followed.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

B.E.A.UTIFUL


M:
Would you say that some people are actually ugly? Or that we just fail the perceive beauty?

K: We must fail to perceive beauty, since we’re all made in the image and likeness of God, who is Beauty.

M: We are also born with sin, which I not the image & likeness of God. I think both: some people are ugly because of Original Sin, but also because of sin, our perception fails.
What about people born with a genetic mutation?

K: Aren’t they still created in the image of God?

M: Yes, but not physically; not in the fullness, anyway.

K: Original sin - which, it’s true, is not of God - does not meant that a who still bears its stain lacks the dignity which all humans posses by virtue of being created in the image and likeness of the Creator. Therefore, by the same line of reasoning, we ought not assume that Original Sin removes the innate beauty of persons.
Not in fullness doesn’t mean not at all.


 





All people are innately beautiful. A lack of physical beauty is not caused by Original Sin because, if it was, we’d all be born with ‘genetic mutations.’

Perhaps ugliness - a lack of beauty - is caused by sin. This certainly seems consistent - in the sense that is outlined below -  in the case of ‘inner beauty.’ That is, the more one sins, the more likely they are to have an ugly disposition. However, the concept that physical ugliness is caused by sin cannot be consistent with an Omni benevolent, merciful God.

We have already ruled out physical ugliness being caused by Original Sin.  Let us start, then, with those born physically beautiful who become physically ugly. If ugliness is caused by sin, this is the place where the strongest argument will be found. Consider people who, through substance abuse, have become diminished in physical beauty to the point that they could be called ugly.

Consider Doug the Druggie.
Doug was born physically beautiful, but through a life of substance abuse, his outward beauty diminished to the point that Doug became the least physically beautiful person ever; he became the quintessentially outwardly ugly person.
Doug was fully aware of the implications, including, but not limited to, the moral implications, of his choice to take drugs and had full control over his decision. He also knew, before his initial choice to take the drugs, of the addictive qualities of the substances he was going to take.

And so, by taking the drugs and continuing to take them, Doug has sinned. Doug’s case does support the proposition: “physical ugliness is caused by sin.”

However, this claim is unfair when applied to torture victims.
Consider Padre Peter.
Padre Peter is a priest of God and has not sinned since his last confession and penance, where he was fully forgiven his past sins and had made appropriate atonement; he was not guilty of any sin.
He is captured by a group of people who try to force him to denounce his faith by torturing him. Padre Peter does neither renounce nor denounce his faith in the face of torture. This torture includes deliberate, deep cuts into Padre’s body and across his face. And yet, despite his mutilation, Padre Peter does not sin.

Thus, before, during and after his mutilation, Padre Peter commits no sin and still is physically ugly. Sin, therefore, can not be the consequence of sin committed by the individual who, born physically beautiful, becomes physically ugly. Let us consider, then, someone who has had no occasion to sin because they are newly born, Boris the Baby.

Boris was born with a genetic condition that means his face is misaligned and he has a large birthmark on his face; Boris’ body is also under-developed; he lacks physical beauty; he is outwardly ugly.
Since Boris is  newly born, he has had no occasion to sin. Perhaps his parents sinned and it is a punishment from God?
This is surely inconsistent with an Omni-benevolent God. By human standards, it is unjust to punish a child for their parent’s misdoings, and similarly, a parent for their child’s. Jesus says in the Gospels that if we “who are evil” know what is good, how much more does God know, and how much more will he give us? And again, Scripture says (cf Deuteronomy) that a child shall not be punished for their parent’s sins, not the parent for the child’s sins.

It is true that, since sin affects everyone, a parent’s sin will impact on their child, but in Boris’ case, his parents committed no sin that could lead to the kind of malformation that Boris was born with, neither did his grandparents, great-grandparents and so no.

Since all people are innately beautiful, by virtue of being created in the image and likeness of Beauty, a lack of outward beauty is not actual ugliness and is only perceived as such by others.
It is true that sin impedes our perceptiveness to the beauty of others because it causes us to be hard-of-heart, and thus less able to discern that which is of God.  People can, will and do readily perceive beauty but that beauty does not have to be recognised to exist, in the same way that God, who is Beauty, existed long before being recognised by humanity and will still exist, even if people fail to recognise the Divine again.

Friday, November 12, 2010

How do we live in the light?

Daylight is dark, compared to the light that is promised us in Christ Jesus, our Lord.


The Gospel writer, John, tells us that the Word is a light shining in the darkness that cannot be overcome b the darkness.

I live in darkness. My soul constantly struggles to get out of the depths of the darkness that the world covers it with. Oh happy news! The struggle is lessened because, through Baptism, I died with Christ and - this is the saying that we can rely on - if I have died with him, I will rise with him.

I am given an impregnable light to shroud my soul. Impregnable in the sense that the darkness cannot over come it. And, yet, the light that is within me, when I allow it to shine forth, draws others.


Do not be mistaken, Friend, that the Lord has clothed me in his light and that he protects me does not save me from suffering. In fact, in this Sunday’s gospel, I am promised more suffering, even from the hands of my friends and family! Jesus speaks to those admiring the Temple at warns them that not a single stone of it will be left upon another. In this apocalyptic passage, Christ reveals to us the fallibility of the world. There is nothing sure and steadfast here.
Buildings are fleeting;
Social institutions are fleeting;
Nature and the Earth are fleeting;
This world and all that is in it will pass away
And all that will be left is the Word.
The One by, for and through whom the universe was made.

Only God is from everlasting to everlasting.
Although we have an immortal soul, each soul had a beginning; has a beginning.

And, just as we are ensouled and have a beginning, our mortal bodies will have their end.

But for His people, death is not the end; it is merely a change.

How do we live in the light of this promise?
By not clinging to the world. By struggling against the flow of society. By lifting up our heads and boldly proclaiming, “All I do, I do through Christ; I am with Christ; I am in Christ; and through him, with him and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, I give my life for the Glory of God the Father. Ad Majoriam De Gloriam.”
By making this proclamation without words, since all will know that we are his disciples when we show love to one another,. When we show love to our friends and family, we do what society does, but when we show love to those who do not do the same back, then we show forth the Light of the World.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Prayer, Still

Still Prayer.
That type of prayer that occurs when you are physically, mentally and spiritually still.

Have you experienced it?

It is beyond an act of human will; it is an act of God’s own Will.
This said, it cannot occur without our will. As with all things, no act of God can permeate our lives unless we wilfully let go of our will.

Still Prayer requires a wilful detachment from our own wills and requires us not to think about thinking.
If we become aware of our thoughts during prayer, it is not Still. How do we rest in God? By emptying ourselves so that we might be filled with Our God, with the One who becomes our All in All. Indeed, by noticing the One that is so fully immersed in us.

Still Prayer is somewhat akin to Contemplation in this way. Still Prayer, as with Contemplation, is not something that we do, it is not a thought, it is beyond rote and normal prayer. It is. In it, we become. Through it, we experience Experience. Still Prayer is a step below the contemplative.

Still Prayer is where I realise that, to be fully fulfilled, it needs to be not I that lives, but Christ who lives in me. I realise that I need to empty myself in order to more fully comprehend that mystery. I need to die to myself, in order that I can be raised to new life in Christ Jesus, the Lord over death.

This death-to-self causes much pain and suffering.

Not only to my self - that part of me which is selfish - but also to those around me; it causes pain and suffering to those closest to me as they see the ‘me’ they know disappear; die. In this sense, Still Prayer is the beginning of the Paschal Mystery that is at work in my life.

It is the beginning of the knowledge of the suffering I must undergo to find Heaven; it is the beginning to my death-to-self; it is the beginning of the suffering of those who see the ‘me’ they know die.

It is the beginning of the knowledge of the joy I am to receive when I find Heaven; it is the beginning of my new life-in-Christ; it is the beginning of new, stronger healthier relationships with those who see the ‘me’ I am called to be.

It is the beginning of earthly Contemplation, a foretaste and promise of the eternal Contemplation of the Triune God; a foretaste and promise of Heaven.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Prayer

You know those Scripture passages that you come across that speak to you where you are. This is one of them.



From Luke, Chapter 21 34 'Watch yourselves, or your hearts will be coarsened by debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life, and that day will come upon you unexpectedly,
  35 like a trap. For it will come down on all those living on the face of the earth.
  36 Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to hold your ground before the Son of man.' 





 

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Welcome home!

I find it interesting that when one door opens, another one closes; I am intrigued that when I think I’ve found my place in one section of my life, another is thrown into question.

I am currently happy in my faith. I don’t feel rocked by any of the uncertainties that I had earlier this year. I feel at peace and I feel like a member of the Church.
I’ve finally made a step away from something that I knew I wasn’t meant to be doing in the first place. I am happy in that, even though I think it has caused people I love pain that they do not need or deserve; I am not happy in that.
I feel at home in the Church. I know that I have some true friends there; I am thankful for that.

Yet, as all this certainty is appearing, so much seems to be disappearing. Relationships that I thought were homely are no longer seeming to be so. Is it because those relationships seemed to be threatened by the flourishing of others? Perhaps. To my mind, it seems the most likely.

Why should it be under threat, or perceive itself to be? Surely the only reason is because it is not healthy.



Below is the music video of Fr Rob Galea's song "Deeper". It speeks to where I am in my faith at the moment.







I’m grateful but not satisfied…
If knocking because I want to drown in Your heart;
So take me deeper, deeper in love with You.

Dear Kelly

Self, you have a letter you need to write yourself for Uni.
It needs to be at least 1500 words long and include footnotes and full referenceing.

You also need to write a letter to Mr Sweeny and an email to Anita.

Go go.

-Kelly

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Rule Britannia is Out-of-Bounds

Focus on soldiers fighting in the dance hall.

Who’s in the right? Is it possible to be in the right and still be wrong? I think it is.
Should I provide justification for that thought? If I do, am I not-wrong? That’s how it worked in English at school and how it seems to work for philosophy; as long as the justification is sound, that is.

I would propose a thought experiment, but the one I designed is perhaps to close to real-life for you, dear Reader, to think about objectively. Because of this, my justification lies in the realm of the Arm-Chair. Since I am sitting on a bus at the moment and not in an arm-chair, this may be slightly fuzzy.
I am certain that it is possible for everyone to find situations wherein a rational agent has clearly been in the right, yet was still wrong in some manner.
In this context, I assume “in the right” to mean that the particular agent is morally justified in their actions, especially in relation to the agent who is “in the wrong.” And by “wrong” I mean have made actions that are not morally justifiable.

Remember; Remember.

Note: This blog was written yesterday, but since the internet where I'm staying at the moment is shite, I've posted yesterday's blog today.
 

Since today is the 5th of November, I thought today’s blog should be about remembrance.

To start with, however,  let’s consider Guy Fawkes. He was revolutionary; a blog on his life could be called Revolutionary. Fawkes saw something that he believed to be unjust and tried to do something about it.
Although his methods were far from ideal, his determination to fix a wrong that he perceived is to be admired. He was described by Fr Oswald Tesimond, a former school friend, as “cheerful of manner, opposed to quarrels and strife…[and] loyal to his friends.” In part, the suffering of his Catholic friends under King James was reason for his actions. Moreover, when asked to give up those fighting for (what he perceived to be) justice with him, he did not do so readily, and only under torture.

I will never argue that the plans of Fawkes and the other 12 conspirators were just, since I do not believe that the taking of human life is ever just; however, I do believe that Fawkes’ conviction in his cause and selflessness once he was discovered are admirable. Therefore, selflessness and conviction - together and never separate from one another - are the basis of revolutionary-ness. Well, that, and actually changing - or attempting to change - some situation that is unjust.



Okay. Remembrance.
November is the month that the Church chooses to remember the dead and to pray specifically for them. It is also the month that includes Guy Fawkes and Remembrance Day, amongst other days where we are called to remember.

Why remember? What do we remember? What do we mean by remembrance?
To me, part of remembering is thanksgiving.
On All Saints and All Souls Days, we thank Our Lord for his mercy on us, on sinners. We thank him for raising the Son and for giving us all hope in the resurrection.
On the 5th, people remember Guy Fawkes and the Gun Powder Plot. For some, thanksgiving is offered for someone having had the willingness to stand up for injustice; others give thanks that no one was hurt, injured or killed because of the discovery of the Plot.
On Remembrance Day, thanks is given to and for the soldiers who have fought to defend our county (wherever that may be), particularly in World War One, but certainly for all wars being fought in defence past and present.

But it is more than that. We remember those who have died because their lives can teach us something; we remember those who have died violently so that we learn what to avoid in order to end human suffering.

Who do you remember, Reader? 
Why?

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Two Philosophies

Just a quick thought, offered from the lips of Archbishiop Fulton Sheen

"When all is said and done there are only two philosophies in life.
One is first the feast, then the hangover;
the other first the fast and then the feast.

Deferred joys purchased by sacrifice are always sweetest and the most enduring. 

 Christianity begins not with sunshine but with defeat."

Discipleship

Two priests within the past week have each said something hat has made me sit back and consider what being a Catholic means.

"Really, the only sin is not being open to God's Grace."
-Fr Bill

"Christianity is not a sentimental philosophy that we turn to only when things become difficult for us."
-Fr Roman



Not accepting our Lord's Grace is, indeed, the root of all sin; for, without Grace, we can not Love; and since Love is His Way and sin is, by nature, against the Way, sin must be cause by a lack of Grace. Given that Grace is always suffcient and that the only way we can not have the Grace we need to follow Christ is by rejecting - not accepting - it.
This is by no means easy, but it is the only Way to the Father.

I feel so sorry for those people who have never asked themselves why they are Christians. I feel even sorrier for those who have and who can't find an answer they find saisfactory. If eiher of these are you, know that you're in my prayers. I pity those who, in all things, have to see to believe: they will not see the mercy of God, they will not see LoveItself.

A very wise boy once said to me, "Sometimes you have to believe to see."

Monday, November 1, 2010

Stating the Obvious

This weekend was amazing!

A Hasty (Study) Retreat was such a blessing!
It was so good to get away for the weekend, to reflect on thankfulness and to have a chance o ge in touch with the Holy Spirit.

3 times in one weekend, I was given the grace to have my prayers almost immediately answered.
 It is absolutely amazing and awesome.

Awesome.
That word is so badly over-used, so is the word awful.
I'm sorry, but your burger cannot be awesome, nor can it be awful. For, 'awful' means to be full of awe and this requires, in the least, sentience.
And it cannot be awesome. Or, it should no be awesome if you have proper revernece of the living God.
God alone is awesome. His works are awesome only in so far that they are his.

My King, the King, is Awesome.


Do you know him?

Spare Change

Life is changing.

Life is always changing.
It just appears to be changing more rapidly than before.

Is that because I'm revisiting previous decisions and re-discerning them?
Or is it just that I have so very much to do and almost all that I have to do has a deadline that is closer than I would like?