Day: September 16, 2014

Confession or Trust in God?

confess

I have encountered a curious contradiction in thinking about the Christian sacrament of Confession.Compassion for others is the main teaching of Jesus. yet being trained  tot think daily of  one’s sins is a very self centred,even narcissistic, activity. and surely religion is not meant to make us more egocentric….. there is something wrong here.Maybe it is Catholicism which emphasises the Sacrament but Non conformist Christians are brought up to be very aware of their sinfulness.

Even believing in predestination of souls so some are born to go to Helll,as it were.What kind of God did they believe in?

Is it time for us to put sin into it’s place and to rely more on trust in God?

And finally a quote

Some quotes from GoodReads:
“Hearing nuns’ confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn.”
― Fulton J. Sheen
tags: catholicism, confession, humor, religion, simile
“They sell courage of a sort in the taverns. And another sort, though not for sale, a man can find in the confessional. Try the alehouses and the churches, Hugh. In either a man can be quiet and think.”
― Ellis Peters, The Heretic’s Apprentice
tags: alcohol, beer, confession, courage, drinking, quietness, reflection, solitude, taverns, thought, withdrawal
7

MutualTrust_Article_CoverImage

Where we are

Love must be so pliant ,
like a blade of grass,

Bowing to the wind,
till the storm has passed.

Love is enigmatic
Like the sphinx’s smile.

Waiting for an answer,
Nothing is on file.

Love is often near us
Yet we do not see.

Sometimes where we are
Is just the place to be

The keyhole

Sometimes I had my eye too close to the keyhole

Pulled there by some force like gravity.

I was gazing with a sharp but narrow focus

into what I thought was the real.

But the precision of my gaze

left out the surroundings, the other doors and rooms

that  I might have inhabited.

As he came to me and opened his arms with no rancour,,

so my eyes opened wider,I took in the new wide vision

and left my crouched and aching position

no longer attached like a magnet to your force,

He was there with his sea eyes.

He knew the human condition

And how to inhabit a  conversation.

Of course he’s had his wounds but never failed to feel

for himself and others.

In the night he went through in his mind’s eye the faces

of his friends;holding them ,like he’d once held fragile rose buds

when we were married,

and asked silently for grace.

The keyhole no longer seemed important

I suppose narrowing the focus can keep out knowledge of pain..

But the pain is atill there;

I have always loved the word “Acknowledge.”
And now I use it. I acknowledge this pain