Beginning the fourth week of Advent, 2015. So sad to have a pope who is more concerned about the environment than he is about celebrating Christ's birth.  His pernicious and mean-spirited nature is like a virus infecting everything.  Because he doesn't believe in the Faith, he doesn't believe in the need for salvation or true evangelization.  It's like being under a general who is fighting for the enemy one is trying to defeat.  Treachery! The light show on the very walls of St. Peter's on the eve of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception was satanic.  God protect us.  Mary pray for us.

On Waking...

...my first thought...well, maybe second or third thought...was that maybe the many problems besetting the Church in this country are caused by our ruthless pursuit of individuality and personal rights that everyone seems to think they're entitled to.  Everyone thinks their way is the right way...in other words, the whole protestant understanding of faith and works has totally infiltrated Catholicism. 

Having converted from presbyterianism I'm often disappointed when I find that the average Catholic church is little different from what I left behind...the lukewarm faith, the embarrassment of an outward manifestation of our faith explained away as 'living the Christian life and being witnesses to Christ by our good behavior...that words aren't needed"  and stripped churches that have few statues and tiny little Stations of the Cross etc.  When I joined the Church I expected beauty, mystery, sounds of bells and scents of incense, chants and ancient beauty.  Instead, I find protestant hymns or happy, clappy campsongs written in the past forty years, people wearing short shorts and tank tops, bare toes sticking out of sandals, altar girls, women doing the readings, women cantors, women Eucharistic ministers...I feel like the only change I've experienced is the Eucharist, which I'm very grateful for, but sometimes even that is difficult when the music is so terrible and distracting.  

But, getting back to my orginal 'waking thought'...our first and primary purpose of worship is just that.  Worship!!  It's not about us.  All our music, all our thoughts, all our gratitude should be directed to our Lord and His sacrifice during the Mass.  We should be dressed reverently and in our best clothes...not fancy or expensive clothes, but certainly our best and cleanest.  And all this controversy in the Church would be elimminated if we remembered Jesus commanded us to love one another as He loves us.  We may not agree on how the Mass should be carried out, or what our expectations of our pope should be, but above all else we should try to love one another...which doesn't mean we have to accept heresy or lies.

Animosity and Vituperation Amongst the Faithful?

In the Spring of 2013 I read what was for me a momentous post.  Written by a Catholic priest in England he titled his post, 'The Pope of Our Chastisement', and it wasn't negative or condemning but very thought provoking.  He definitely had a 'wait and see' attitude.  Was this the pope that we deserve, for our sins?   Is the growing antagonism between Catholics caused by this very contradictory pope?  I'm always reminded of what Jesus warned us about if we truly followed Him...

¹⁸ If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.¹⁹ If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.²⁰ Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. (John 15:18-20)

I just don't feel happy about all the controversy and  spin that's permeating so many conversations.  Let your yea be yea and nay be nay...why does everyone feel compelled to explain what this pope 'really means'?
Shouldn't it be clear and obvious?  And why are the faithful being called nasty, alliterative and mocking names and the most blatant heretics being praised and having their hands kissed?  Alot of the faithful are definitely being chastised.  I just remember that my dad never called us names, ever.  A father that loves his children doesn't ridicule them.