Bursting bubbles

waiting for godot to leave blog has A discussion on how Flannery O'Connor tends to use grotesque examples to show how God tends to burst the safe bubbles where so called Christians live by following the rules.

key text: they're good but they ain't right.

yeah. one of my pet peeves against church ladies etc. (including the PC nuns who "help" the poor, as if the poor are pets).

and this later post explains why my neice, after twelve years of Catholic school, doesn't know Jesus.

he quotes from here:

All are welcome aboard the Cruise Ship of Peter -- they even have a song about it that they sing at the beginning of Mass! -- all, that is, except anyone who might rock the boat.  What might the Cruise Ship do, one is tempted to wonder, with a Francis of Assisi, or a Dominic de Guzman, or a Catherine of Siena, or an Alphonsus Liguori, or a Fulton Sheen?  Would they have to walk the plank?... Can one picture Father Augustine Tolton on board, his soul blazing like a beacon from the crumbling lighthouse of his overworked body, his trembling hands raised amid the mellow strains of "On Eagle's Wings"?

as to my neice, the good news is that her Presbyterian mom is involved with the local Baptist bible study and took her there for Christmas service.

I'm not sure that Baptists are any better than suburban Catholicism, but at least they stress a personal relationship with Jesus, something that is stressed by Pope Francis (and is similar to the B. Gita, where a non ritualistic way to obtain nirvana is to passionatly follow a god).

Once Jesus takes hold of you, there is at least a chance of being honest.

Uh, cult like thinking?

link

Sister Schreck spoke also of sisters putting away the former concepts of religious institutions in order to journey into “Holy Mystery Time”—reflecting the theme of the LCWR 2014 assembly—and becoming “exiles.” “We will sell our souls if we stay in the place of wanting be part of the mainstream, thus becoming something other than we were intended to be,” she said.
The keynoter also claimed that LCWR sisters have a “clarity of identity and purpose which we cannot expect those who have not taken the journey and done the work ever to be able to understand.” Conversely, she spoke of sisters being in a “middle space,” a state of “both creativity and disorientation” in which “much of what was is gone, and what is coming is not yet clear.”
This does not sound like clarity of identity and purpose

no, it sounds like the tirade of a cult leader.

They are the elite going to change the world, and everyone else is wrong.

and using code words and name calling is not the same as a logical explanation of why they oppose the church and traditional christianity.

heh. A nun defends the helpless and speaks truth to power

link

she pulled down the terroist's flac, but denies it was a terroist flag... but only a religious flag misused by hotheaded yuts  young men.

and notice about everyone there upset about the Israelis defending themselves in Gaza, but not about hamas use of human shields, use of schools and hospitals to send up rockets, or building tunnels using child labor.

And no one seems upset about the 70 thousand casualties in Syria or the latest massacres in Iraq either. Guess it's agnosia.

Father Z updates on the Pricilla Queen of the desert nuns

LINK

Sr. Joan and Sr. Mary Lou think that the LCWR sisters should cry out!

Dearest Sisters [of the LCWR], you have done nothing wrong. It is your obligation as religious to ask the questions that need to be voiced. It is the holy responsibility of religious to stand with those who are most bereft. Be proud of the questions you have asked, the speakers you invited to your assemblies, the statements you issued, the liturgies you celebrated. Go to the microphone and say: We believe in feminist theology and in women’s ordination; we believe in the rights of gay, lesbian and transgender population and we will continue to speak aloud on these issues.

They want the assembled sisters to be prophetic.

yeah. They believe in feminist theology, and dancing like Pricilla in honor of their guru last year, but not in Jesus Christ.

Sigh.
the Pricilla reference is here:

although I must say that Elrond looks better in a dress than these old ladies.

those expensive Bishop's residences

Steinfels replies at Commonwheal, of all places:

If you know anything about real estate prices and about the number of archdiocesan residences built in the day when American Catholics expected their leaders to live like VIPs, as well as about the number of archbishops’ residences that also house offices, reception areas, chapels, and rooms for other priests—well, then, you might be surprised that CNN’s Belief Blog found only ten of 34 archbishops so shamefully lodged.  Certainly I was.  And I suspect CNN was also. This was one of those stories that has its headline before it was even begun. CNN makes a big deal of its “investigation”—confirming addresses, checking public records, and even hiring appraisers.  But suppose that not ten but only eight or even five residences were found to be worth more than $1 million.  Wouldn’t the headline still have read “The Lavish Homes of American Archbishops”?  What is the likelihood that it would read “Despite Stereotypes, Most Archbishops Don’t Live in Luxury”?  Even the present story indicates that over two-thirds of the archbishops’ residences fell below that damning million-dollar mark. 

Our "house" here in the Philippines would probably be worth that much if it was in Manila inner city or in Boston. But we house two families, our offices, a rice packing area, a large meeting room, and several staff, plus visitor rooms to sleep overnight.