The Eagle Flies

Forgiveness

By Miesen and Groth

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I ... I'm a roamer in time
I travel alone
Throughout an endless journey
Home ... where is my home?

Fragments of a love life
I won't surrender
When the spirits are calling my name

And I'll go to heaven with you
I'll lay down my head on your pillow
and ask for forgiveness

Once ... I was just a child
Eyes so wide open
You left me broken hearted

Fly ... now I have to fly
Searching for the light
I won't surrender

When the spirits are calling my name
Then I will have passed all the sorrow and pain
And I'll go to heaven with you

I'll lay down my head on your pillow

and ask for forgiveness

Many when hearing the word 'forgiveness' think of error, wrongs against self or others; they don't quickly or easily think of forgiveness in its full sense, love. The Christ reminds his Disciples that of all the things there are, the greatest commandment is to love one another. And to this end forgiveness fulfills a very important mission.

 When he was given up to death the Lord called to God the father, 'forgive them father, for they know not what they do. Luke 23:18-34
So on this day, the Feast of Saint Valentine, do recall the words of the Christ and live.

The Short Run, a Requiem

"Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" -- St. Matthew 9:11

Love's Divine

Performed by Seal

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Then the rainstorm came, over me
And I felt my spirit break
I had lost all of my belief, you see
And realize my mistake
But time through a prayer, to me
And all around me, became still

I need love, love's divine
Please forgive me now I see that I've been blind
Give me love, love is what I need to help me know my name

Through the rainstorm came, sanctuary
And I felt my spirit fly
I had felt, all of my, reality
I realize what it takes

Cause I need love, love's divine
Please forgive me now I see that I've been blind
Give me love, love is what I need to help me know my name

Oh, I don't bend, don't break,
Show me how to live and promise me you won't forsake
Cause love can help me know my name

Well, I try to say there's nothing wrong
But inside, I felt it lying all along
But the message here was plain to see
Believe in me
Cause I need love, love's divine
Please forgive me now I see that I've been blind
Give me love, love is what I need to help me know my name

Oh I, don't bend, don't break,
Show me how to live and promise me you won't forsake
Cause love can help me know my name

Love can help me know my name.

 Love indeed helps us to know our name; it was ultimately an untimely end. The beginning seemed like any other -- the birth, the growing, the troubles, the training, and the boy became a man. For one young man, he was born and died in exactly the same place, almost 30 years apart. His end a shock, so utterly unexpected.

There is no dress rehearsal for life, no practice sessions; just a lot of chances for "do-overs" when we screw up. Reckoning the mistake(s) from the first attempt, often we conclude it's worth a second try to do it better, to do it right. So we try again, and many times it is better, and so right. Finally we succeed and recognize our successes and accomplishments; death is the exception, always final, a result.

Like all lives, there is little in the way of 'perfect' and many, like he did, suffer from less than perfect families, less than perfect parents. Parents often negligent or indulgent, sometimes so simply pre-occupied with their own life, they hardly notice the life of their child unfolding beneath their own noses. 

The child grows up restless, wild; in grade school the police enter the picture. They call parents down to the station to pick up this child. Again and again it happens. He learns to smoke and drink, becoming now a 'wild child.'

 As he enters high school, his often pre-occupied parents, become entangled with the police due to problems of their own. They're convicted, both for the same offense. A child with the merest conscience feels embarrassed. His family is in the newspaper; what do the neighbors, his school, his friends think? 
He cares for them all and hopes, needs their acknowledgement, their friendship. Yet these events drive him to secretiveness. He wants to hold his head, to maintain others' esteem.

...your teacher eats with tax collectors and sinners-- is written in the bible in the way of explanation for who was the person of the Christ.  He was, as it's written, one who endeavored to love his neighbor as himself, to forgo absolute judgement and to forgive those who trespass against us and others. 

With disappointments and betrayal come bitter anger, a desire to harm another. Most of us think, we could never do that... never do another bodily harm. When some one we know, care for or love comes under violent attack, even death, it's easy to think that the perpetrator is somehow so very different from ones' self. 
And yet we're human, each and every one of us. It's one of life's challenges to come to grips with this fact.

Secretiveness however, very often becomes a poison, eating away at ones' youth and early manhood. This young man continues to try and still doesn't often succeed. There are to be more contacts with the police; a wild child is trying but not winning the very thing he most wants: to know who he is and what is to be his purpose in life. With high school graduation behind him the world waits... and waits... He's not ready, doesn't know what to do.

Some how, some way he finds a path to further education, to people who support him, to the positive teacher who will inspire him; he begins little by little to believe, to unfold his protective shell. 
To believe that he can succeed, he believes more and more in himself, his natural talents and the will to gain more skills. Acquiring more companions on the way, a community to claim for his own, this young man is now moving forward with some answers to the questions that nag us all. 
A 'eureka' moment gives him the drive to try a business on his own. Wonderful.

But life, whether long or short, has its ups and downs, and tragedy. So sad-- this tragedy, a life so full, so young, so hopeful; a family destroyed now, each and every one of them. The culprit waits for his day, in jail. We mourn a young man's death. Our grief is apparent.

The Jesus Society

The following is included in the book, Come Follow Me by  theologian, missionary and author,  Anthony Gittens:

The Jesus Society

Leave everything behind, take nothing for the journey; risk, trust onto other people, respect them, find acceptance, seek out community, say yes to the kingdom--

Jesus, the Christ, says in his society, there is a new way to live.

You show wisdom, by trusting people;
you handle leadership, by serving;
you handle offenders, by forgiving;
you handle money, by sharing;
you handle enemies, by loving;
and you handle violence, by suffering;

In fact, you have a new attitude toward everything,
toward everybody.

Because this is a Jesus society, and you repent,
not by feeling bad, but by thinking differently.

--attributed to: Rudy Wiebe

Treasures, Doing What We Believe

"Everyone benefits from the sacrifice of gifts that one makes of time, talents and treasure." -- Benedict XVI

It's about putting our faith into action, putting our energies to what matters, being stewards.At its heart the good steward is the good shepherd, caring for ones flock and making provisions for the day to day existence of self and others. It's more than just thinking about material resources.

We believe in the "Giver of Life," our lives as co-creators, that the Lord is the source of infinite abundance. Yet the more we attempt to take, to control, the less we actually have. It's like holding water in our cupped hands and squeezing. It quickly flows away from us.

Only when we relax our grip does the water remain. Doing what we believe involves faith; belief in what we may not yet see, but know deep in our heart; it's making a choice, one small step at a time, to acknowledge our inter-dependence, our inter-being with all of Creation.
Stewardship, then, lies at the heart of the Christian lifestyle. In actuality it's how we live our daily lives which gives evidence of our belief in the Gospel message, in the Good News.

St. Teresa of Avila, mystic and saint, wrote that 'Christ has no body but your own, he has no hands but yours. Yours are the eyes and ears of the Lord through which he is to go about for actions of the Good. Your hands are the hands, like his own, blessing people in the here and now."

The Advent

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light." Isaiah 9:2

For the Advent

Lord of heaven and earth,you have come to lead the people
out of darkness into the light of Divine love.

Send your Holy Spirit into our hearts so that we may see clearly.

Help us to discover your presence in our world, especially in the needy, in our families and in our communities. Give us graciousness.

May we be evermore certain that our true joy
may be found in you. Amen.

The writer and historian, Frank Prochaska notes that today, "few subjects bring out so well the differences between our selves and our ancestors as [much] as the history of Christian charity.


In an increasingly mobile and materialist world, in which culture has grown more national, indeed global, we no longer relate to the lost world of nineteenth-century parish life.


Today, we hardly imagine a voluntary society that boasted millions of religious associations providing essential services, in which the public rarely saw a government official apart from the post office clerk. Against the backdrop of the [now] welfare state and the collapse of church membership, the very idea of Christian Social Reform has a quaint, Victorian air about it."

And yet the Christ remains to proclaim to all that the people in darkness have seen a great light.
Psalm 104: Send out your spirit, renew the face of the earth.

Leading with Humility Pope Francis

"Smell like your sheep!"

Pope Francis writes of himself as a young man that he was sometimes hard headed, rash and not always thoughtful about others and their short comings. He could easily anger and alienate others, but he learned by the hard lessons of experience not only about others, but most importantly about himself. He thus worked to mature himself and to correct his natural deficiencies. A deep and abiding faith led him forth.
A mature man emerged with greater kindness, strength, foresight, humility and grace. Lead with Humility, is his story. The book authored by Jeffrey Krames, more often a business management writer, is the result of the impression the Pope leaves him with. Krames writes about the 12 points of this Pontiff that he thinks are most critical:

* Lead with humility-- Never presume that you are better than any one else. We all have our skills and individual talents. They aren't better or worse, just different.

* Smell like your flock-- The good shepherd knows his sheep and his sheep know him; they recognize and care for one another.

* Who am I to Judge? -- Be we nothing more than humble. Judge not, lest you be judged for great is your god in heaven, and great is his kingdom upon earth.

* Don't Change--Reinvent-- As the Spiritual leader of the world's 1.3 billion Roman Catholics, the Pontiff recognizes the slow and lumbering difficulties in turning this great ship of state. Thus he comes to the task with his own complete and full understanding of the complex modern world and the need to freshen up the teachings to address modern concerns today.

* Make inclusion a Priority-- All are One in Creation, all the body of Christ. Don't forget the Church. She is world-wide, both local and universal. All come to the table to be fed whether they look like you or not.

* Avoid insularity -- Remember the Beatitudes, happy are those who... and it is the poor in spirit, who in coming to faith will inherit the earth, this the Bible instructs.

* Choose pragmatism over ideology-- The Pope, as the spiritual leader of the Church, leads and must lead forth into the modern world. His influence both in the universal church and the local church is considerable; communities everywhere take notice those cues coming from Rome.

* Employ the optics of decision making-- With a worldwide organization whose "citizenry" equals or tops nearly all the individual countries of the world, the Pontiff with the advice of his bishops hailing from every nation and his core team at the Vatican State, he must consider and rule in favor of justice to all. A 'one size' policy is not necessarily equitable nor just to the peoples of the world. Consider the many political systems in which the Church operates, plan accordingly.

*Run your organization like a field hospital-- There are those who consider churches the realm of the pious, the intolerant, the hypocrite. Jesus the Christ knew well. He wrote of them in the Bible and warned against them. The Pontiff drives home the message that churches are more like refuges for the 'walking wounded,' those whose daily life is a struggle, field hospitals for the wrong-doers.

* Live on the frontier-- When we become complacent with a feeling of ease, we fall into a slumber in which we fail to observe the simple, everyday needs of others. The Bible exhorts the faithful to always be on guard, to be aware to the needs of others, that we should assist to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and care for the sick and destitute of the world so that they may gain a measure of their god-given dignity.

* Confront adversity head-on-- Remember Jesus the Christ who did not shy away. Faithful to his tasks, the Christ bore up to them, even unto the Cross of his own Crucifixion.

* Pay attention to non-customers-- There are many minds in the world and many who have not known the tender mercies of the Christ, nor the working of the Holy Spirit come upon them. Be gentle with those whose understanding is not your own. Be the Christ for them. Show the unfamiliar, the strangers among us the way. Remember the Christ comes in many disguises. He may not be immediately recognizable to you.

Divorce and the Church

"The tradition of the Church has understood the sixth commandment as encompassing the whole of human sexuality."    
-- The Catholic Catechism, 'Love your neighbor as yourself'

Kryie Eleison

version by Mr. Mister

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Recently in the news the Roman Catholic Pontiff Francis is again making waves on the internet as a result of statements he has made. The latest on the dissolution of marriage front, as divorce attorneys like to call it, is the Pope's statement that a large percentage of Roman Catholic marriages are invalid--yes, invalid!

What does that mean? It means several things and that possibly a lot of people can get a divorce and start over again. But doesn't everyone know that Roman Catholics can't get a divorce, not so simple you say?
 But this topic makes more sense if one understands that in the Catholic view, an invalid marriage is one which from the very beginning, something was lacking that was necessary for this relationship to be called a marriage.
 She, the Church, does not expect the Body of Christ to be taken advantage of, abused or otherwise grossly mistreated in the name of marriage, thus divorce is indeed possible for some reasons, but not for what is viewed as self-centered, petty reasons of the ego: he dresses like a slob, she talks too much, we don't like the same movies or vacation spots, he snores, etc.

So some marriages may indeed be invalid. The general criteria is that a marriage is not valid or is null when the partners do not enter into the marriage of their own free will; that one or both partners refuse to support or abandon the marriage; that one or both partners refuse to freely accept what children might be born of the marriage; that there is insanity, or other physical inability to freely contract the marriage such as age, drug abuse, alcoholism or drunkenness; if one or both partners enter into the marriage without the intent or belief of its permanence, all are examples of cause for a Roman Catholic to divorce within the Church. Any one of these reasons support the claim of marital nullity. You see, they are specific and limited.

So exactly what did Pope Francis say? A Simple Mind is unable to confirm any recent statements via the Vatican web page or any major Catholic news outlet such as Catholic News Service regarding this point. However the Pontiff has convened a meeting scheduled to take place in Rome in October of this year. From that meeting there is likely to be much more about divorce  along with other family life issues.