Liminalescence

Earlier this year, the famed Celtic author John Phillip Newell came forward with a startling announcement that he was relinquishing his status as an ordained minister in the Church of Scotland. In this courageous and transparent podcast , Newell does go into why he was now part of a vast "diaspora" of those who left the church of their birth. What was even more compelling was how he went on to express his nine "spiritual yearnings" that comprised his newly articulated "Yes!" So after writing about what has become my "no longer" in the previous blog entries, I now intend to move in the positive realm of where I'm heading to live out my "now becoming."  For the past few years, I've tried hard to make room in my spirit for those who hold different spiritual temperaments from that of my own. I'm now ready to give myself that same permission to worship in a way that allows me to honor my deeply inherent inclusive nature. At my ce...

                                                                                                 Why did Jesus come? Was it to simply enter into the institutions of man and be as good a Jew as he could be? Indeed not. Rather, the gospels indicate that Jesus sought to reform, purify and call God's people back to true fidelity, just as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had done time and time again all throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. It is thus my contention that Jesus is the greatest example of loving dissent ever found in all of Salvation History. Ok, I need to ease back a bit so as to reassure my concerned Catholic brothers and sisters that I am not about to go rope-a-dope on Mother Church. Truly, I love the church and have a strong desire to...

Last Supper, by Polish artist Bohdan Piasecki. Bohdan painted this scene of the women, men and children celebrating the Passover together, as Jesus ate his last supper. Each of the 22 figures are clothed in traditional Jewish garb, rather than the Italian Renaissance gear seen in one of the world's most recognizable paintings, Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper. It was a Sunday morning at the 8:30 AM mass, some where in the mid-1970's when an older priest was filling in at my home parish of St. Boniface in Monee, Illinois. A primal realization about my identity became apparent when it was time to distribute communion. The priest called for a Eucharistic Minister to come forward from the congregation to assist. Much as she always had in the past, one of the matriarchs of our community stepped forward when the silence was rudely punctuated with an emphatic "NO! No women." The visceral shock that was held by the collective members in the pews was so palpable that I knew...

To decide to do something or to decide to do nothing is still a decision to be owned. I previously mentioned that back on the Feast of Pentecost in 2019, I made the conscious decision to step away from a lifetime of having gone to regular mass and participation in my local Catholic parish. While most all of the reasons comprise the earlier blog posts, the main reason was to gain clarity and perspective by stepping away from it all for an unspecified season. Since that time, I've learned that such decisions are an essential and life-determining reality that can be understood through the " heroes journey ." Joseph Campbell delineated this circular path from a multitude of world cultural and religious traditions that formed the synthesis that all human beings must enter into and depart during their lifetimes in order to live authentically to who we were created to be. To be specific, this for me was my "Crossing the Threshold" moment.  I'm unsure that I've ...

  It has now been just over two years since I stepped away from attending Catholic mass or any participation in the life of my local faith community. At the time of my departure, I made this choice in order that I might seek after clarity and gain perspective about who I am in relation to God and others. Being the "franchise" player for my Catholic faith, I would have never imagined ever contemplating (let along doing) this early on and yet I heartfully attest that Divine Love has been creating a wider container in me; one that kept me from feeling the comfort and offering the assurance of pressing my hands to each side of my previous faith container in order to know where I was at all times. Sound as if I'm adrift? Indeed no. While it is true that I am unmoored from the regular hold of being connected to the faith of my life's imprinting up to a few years ago, I am in a rather intriguing place of spiritual curiosity, openness and questioning. My choice has thus requ...

    Which Way Are the Winds Blowing?  In his most recent article, Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois made it known that he was going to return to the practice of saying the mass ad orientem i.e.,facing the altar, with his back to the assembly (the folks in the pews). His initial reasoning was that he didn't want to disrespect the grave of Bishop James A. Griffin by standing upon it, given how it is directly behind the altar following the great renovation of the Cathedral in 2010. While this seems to be a notable reason, the truth is that bishops, priests and even saints are laid to rest beneath the floors of many cathedrals throughout the world. As such, it's inevitable that people are going to step upon them in the course of a liturgy.  Bishop Paprocki then went on to offer some theological and liturgical reasoning to legitimize his action. Most curious and somewhat disconcerting was how he created a dichotomy between facing one dir...