Nature's Mirror

POPE HAPPY-CLAPPY DROPS A BOMBSHELL

     

.http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/world/europe/pope-bluntly-faults-churchs-focus-on-gays-and-abortion.html

CLICK HERE FOR TEXT OF THE INTERVIEW 

 (http://www.americamagazine.org/pope-interview)

Miscellaneous Excerpts

I always felt my motto, Miserando atque Eligendo  [Doing Mercy and Choosing], was very true for me.

I was always struck by a saying that describes the vision of Ignatius: non coerceri a maximo, sed contineri a minimo divinum est (“not to be limited by the greatest and yet to be contained in the tiniest—this is the divine”)

I his own way, John XXIII adopted this attitude with regard to the government of the church, when he repeated the motto, ‘See everything; turn a blind eye to much; correct a little."

A Jesuit is a person who is not centered in himself. The Society itself also looks to a center outside itself; its center is Christ and his church.“The Society of Jesus is an institution in tension,

It irritates me when I hear that the Spiritual Exercises are ‘Ignatian’ only because they are done in silence. In fact, the Exercises can be perfectly Ignatian also in daily life and without the silence. An interpretation of the Spiritual Exercises that emphasizes asceticism, silence and penance is a distorted one

 I often associate sanctity with patience: not only patience as hypomoné [the New Testament Greek word], taking charge of the events and circumstances of life, but also as a constancy in going forward, day by day.

I see the church as a field hospital after battle.“I see clearly,” the pope continues, “that the thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts o .... It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else.

The church sometimes has locked itself up in small things, in small-minded rules. The most important thing is the first proclamation: Jesus Christ has saved you. ...

How are we treating the people of God? I dream of a church that is a mother and shepherdess.


The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently.

“Finding God in all things is not an ‘empirical eureka.’ When we desire to encounter God, we would like to verify him immediately by an empirical method. But you cannot meet God this way.   But you cannot meet God this way. God is found in the gentle breeze perceived by Elijah

Yes, in this quest to seek and find God in all things there is still an area of uncertainty. There must be. If a person says that he met God with total certainty and is not touched by a margin of uncertainty, then this is not good. For me, this is an important key. If one has the answers to all the questions—that is the proof that God is not with him. It means that he is a false prophet using religion for himself.

His favorites are La Strada,  Gerard Manley Hopkins, Caravaggio & Chagal,  Mozarts Et Incarnatus Est, Beethoven AND.... RICARD WAGNER!!!!!!!!! 

Grumpies & Rompies

Even though i'm under the gun on three tiresome  lexcrecenses, i've been well determined not to let that adversely implicate my Campaign for Youth!  So, in plain English, i dragged my butt to the gym in mid-afternoon before the rain might start.

As i slapped my gym bag on the counter with a snort, Linda, the manager, asked how i was doing.  "Grumpy."  Eric, the 22 year old gatekeeper from Texas, said: "Is that old man grumpy or Kieran grumpy?"

Kieran Grumpy? I've been here far too long....

"It's Kieran Grumpy," i said, "i'm turning 18 by the end of this month."

Now it was time for Eric to snort.

But it will be so.  At least if le moi has a say in it; and in fact Linda made comments in the "...really good ..."  vein.

After my hour's "run," i took Nicki for his at the off leash Nooksack River trail. I've been wanting to use up a roll of black and white film and so i took that camera with me.  But by the time we got to Ferndale, the sun decided to put in a setting appearance. Fortunately, i took the digital with me.

I don't have time to fiddle with the RAW file so as to bring out the better colours, but the uploaded foto gives an idea of the rural loveliness of this area.

It was lovely for Nicki too in his pan-sensory way. For him romping is nothing like the stupid elliptical machine but a species of gesamptlaufwerk  made up of running, sniffing, loping, muddying, chasing, splashing, poking and (more than once) trying to get me to go down to the river.  

 

First Rain

Grey clouds swirled around most of the day until about 6:30 when there was a clap followed by a downpour which is still coming down.   Doggie seems to blame me for this.  

http://woodchipgazette.blogspot.com/2013/09/humble-exceptionalism-other-stupidities.html

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Participation

      

"The Germans" from Canada made it past the Homeland Security Perimeter and arrived at our place around 8:00 p.m.  As usual, upon hearing the bell ring, Nicki began prancing excitedly in the hallway and eagerly ran to and sniffed our guests when they arrived.

Hans und Helga have been dropping by ever since i got Nicki  going on two years ago.  The first time they met him, Nicki did his fight and flight routine scaring poor Hans up the wall.  Over time and with each visit, Nicki got calmer until last time, rather than stare suspiciously from a corner, he plopped himself down near the table with his head on his paws listening in his alert but impassive doggie way to our incomprehensible human babble.

Tonight, however, he wanted to participate. First he plopped a ball by the foot of my chair.  When i ignored that, he went to my office and retrieved a manila envelope from the trash can.  Then he retrieved a platic zip lock. Finally he got another ball which he again dropped at the foot of my chair.

This time I threw it down the hallway and he happily scampered after it. He brought it back to Helga who threw it again and then back to me before leaving us to resume our babble while he sat nearby earnestly gnawing his ball.

"He's come a long way," Helga said, "Ja?"

Ja.