just tonight i broke bread
and opened a conversation
with a man who claims
to be a mennonite catholic
his relationship to catholicism
goes back to the 60s
when he was active in the peace movement
over lasagna salad some nice wine
and fresh baked bread
we spoke of many things
we spoke of his love for our liturgy
we spoke of his formulation of a psalter
for use in mennonite communities
morning and evening prayer
we spoke of music
we spoke of war
this new friend was in a car wreck in baghdad
where he was part or a proactive peace group
in 2003
working to interfere with the presuppositions of war
the car wreck was a death quality wreck
the car was totalled
that may mean something different in baghdad
i assume it was ransaked for parts
in the night
he told the story of being saved
by an off duty iraqi medic
and a doctor in a bombed out village
a muslim doctor
and he spoke of the return trip of
meeting the doctor and offering thanks
for the patching up the doctor did
was done in complete charity the clinic would accept no money
he spoke of being sewed up without anaesthetic
he spoke of the building project his church has taken on
to build for the village a little hospital
since theirs had been bombed by american bombers
i spoke of friendship of my family
of my life in the monastery
then i played some songs for him on my little guitar
these are things we never ask for
but they seem to happen
i once wrote a short story about a mennonite woman
but now i know a mennonite catholic
he seems a little bit like a presbyterian catholic i know
and a lutheran catholic i live with
what is next
baptist catholics
mormon catholics
muslim jews
voodoo anglican new age catholics
doesn't the catholic church have enough problems
with perversion
and now all this stuff going on
hybrids all over the place
god must be havin' a ball
the once well tended gardens
are starting to spread into each other
christians are getting lax
they don't seem to care who walks through their doors anymore
how are we to keep our sense of well defined identity
and why don't more people care about this terrible problem
now afflicting christendom
who do these people think they are
somebody's messin up the line in the sand
what if we woke up tomorrow and became
intensely aware
that there are no more christian controversies
we'd probably have to start a war
just to get used to the idea
i don't think i can take much more of this
i mean
how far away can a true union of hearts be
and then what
people start worshipping together
and confronting the wounds of the world together
isn't there something in thesmolushians
that says when they start praying together
the end of the world is near
maybe it's just a passing thing
the christians will get back to their real senses
before too long
and despise one another once again
the way jesus must've wanted it
this morning i gave a tour
to a group from the pius the Xth society (that's 10th)
these people are a breakaway group
under the spirit and memory of french bishop Lefebvre
and last year pope benedict lifted a decree
of excommunication for this group
(they had been ordaining their own priests)
these people don't like ecumenism at all
they don't like the fact that Vatican Council II happened
these people think they're holding on to the truth
and only they have it
i don't think they'd like my hybrid friends
why is it then that my hybrid friends
seem more catholic to me than these pius 10th people
help mister wizard
the world is wobbling out of control
i used to think i understood everything
now my mind is being forced to reconsider
there i was omniscient and happy as could be
surely the second coming is nigh
the best lack all conviction
and the worst are full of passionate intensity
and what rough beast (is this anyway)its hour come round at last
slouches toward bethlehem to be born
are there any rastafarian cowboy catholics
the 21st century warp and woof
of christendom is looking like
a kaleidescope held by a child
if this keeps up there'll be nothing left
to protest nothing to condemn
no more heresy
we'll die of boredom if that happens
can't people just get back to being righteous and sure about
what god intends for us
it was simpler then
and we knew who to hate
in the name of jesus
didn't he say something like that
know who to hate
i think i should get back to scripture
and explore the truth again
so that maybe i'll be ready to
proclaim the one true righteous church
when it comes around
is this where all the prayers and
expressions of faith have led -
to utter chaos
i may have to take some sleeping pills
just to forget what a terrible social organizer
god seems to be
i bet he doesn't have any consultants at all
he probably just works things out on his own terms
time to tell the holy spirit what's up
maybe it will all look different tomorrow when
i wake up
help mr. wizard
st jude
patron of hopeless causes
pray for us
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11 comments:
You sound like
Allen Ginsberg here
sarcasm bleeding into truth.
This morning
in the home
of Rastafarian Cowboy Catholics,
Midtown Manhattan, I saw
in front of the Baptist Church
a quote from the Buddha.
It's enough to make Jesus
want to almost join!
You of course have heard
about the upcoming merger
of the Catholic and Anglican religions, no?
At least on the ride hand side;
it was all a misunderstanding,
you see, blood spilled
over a mis-pronounced Word,
something about coming clean
from the homosexual ministers
and the Vatican 2 Rothschild conspiracy
(as if one can run away from that;
as a farmer in Iowa said
"Monsanto is in the process
of owning food - all food").
Monopoly is the end state
of all things human
a pale and cruel approximation
of the way things really are.
Religion is merely a servant
to divide and to conquer,
a pale and cruel approximation
of the longing across the universes
for linkages of love.
Thanks again for your words
the angels always hear them and smile.
As for me, I'm inspired
to a poem I will post tomorrow.
Bill
jh,
I think we've finally all learned that if don't accept the people that show up at our doors, then no one will come.
ah what a conundrum
i think it's the benedictines' fault
they are so darn hospitable
welcoming every guest as christ
they even let non-Catholics become oblates
i'd like to meet this mennonite catholic
Scilohtac ega wen nacilgna oodoov
swej milsum
scilohtac nomrom
scilohtac tsitpab
Oops!
baptist catholics
mormon catholics
muslim jews
voodoo anglican new age catholics
Well, about all of that might fly, even the voudon (they got riddum, at least)...excepting the peoples of Moroni, Paddy jh. That's not religion, even of the baptick-enthusiast sort--that's a journey to Bogusland, wit' yr tour guide Joe Smith, and his pal with the Golden Plates, Moroni.
I've passed through Utah-ville (and the LDS regions of AZ) a few times, and grazi a Dame Fortuna, lived to tell the tale...
Fr. jh--
would you give Mass to....a Schwarzenegger? (and his familia)
Lucky Luciano?
how about....Hitler
who knows what that
criminal next to jesus
up on calvary
was guilty of
in so far as the mass can be an occasion
for the conversion of anyone
it is thereby open to the public
the status of anyone's soul
is a matter of personal responsibility
jh
When someone's on their death bed, even a mafioso, I would agree that the real christian (and catholic) helps out. That may include the Mass, I guess (extreme unction time, y'all). My point, however, Padre jh was regarding La Misa as a type of dispensation, really. Doesn't the mass (and really weekly visit to Iglesia) function mostly as a dispensation, not unlike the evangelical sort? Just show up, have faith, go through the ritual, and you're good to go--ethics has little to do with it. The catholic sort of dispensation demands a bit more than the cowboy WASP sunday school does, yet...essentially it's the same; preachers bless the soldiers, the padres bless the local mobsters, more or less.
J
the spectre the prevalence the deviousness the broken kaleidescope of human sinful irrationality is nothing new to the church
the sole purpose of the church is to provide a context for hospitals schools missions art projects and human social development to happen
we gather as sinners
sinners not in the state of mind of assessing too vehemently the sins of my brother next to me
has the catholic church ever handled dirty money??
doubtful
why ?
we always have it laundered before receiving it
the world of intelligent minds is a complicated journey the world of complicated lives is definitely a complicated journey the effort to direct all that is good in human beings to god is definitely a pilgrimage requiring constant care constant learning constant praying
and constant communication of something between god the revelation of himself and man's erratic dance toward truth and beauty
how the mafiosa justified their lives in catholic practice is a thing rooted in an experience of the world much more ancient than catholicism...it's a primative clan mentality that based it's existence on the ability to organize money either for ill or for good they were open they didn't need to understand themselves as beholden to any moral code other than the clan
blood vengeance is a way of life for some people
blood money is a way of life for some people
i think christ has what it takes to forgive even this horrid sin of man
most of the hardworking catholics i know do their work very quietly and charitably and generously and die well nigh anonymous deaths
is there such a thing as mainstreet catholicism well yes
there is a catholicism fully aware of the eternal drama of sin and evil on broadways of american and world life
thanks for checking in J bill stu sally
this has almost a cosmopolitan world wide feel to it
alll i need is some chinese web interference to get the global sense we all must crave !)
jh
I was impressed by your comments to Sir Faville in regard to the AZ-immigration shake-down, jh. CF and KO sound more rightist and xenophobic with each post (the Olsonator substantially out-performing CF on the hick-o-meter).
While I am not quite as passionate about the issue as you (something needs to be done, unfortunately), I think the new law was essentially a WASP power-play, probably a precursor to some GOP/Mormon/Baptist-hick crack downs, if not police state (and AZ is close to police state conditions, believe it).
paricij
i was in AZ LAST WEEK
DROVE THRU a huge law enforcement
ramada on the interstate must've been 300 cops or more supposedly a drug bust gone awry
my hunch is that it was staged
the law folks want to makd their claim and they can only do it if they get the fears factor up and running
same with t
the recent debacle in times square
it's all a hoax
WV - hytereci
peace amid the mayhem
jh
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