Per Ipsum

Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.                                         1 John 3:15 I live in a political desert that lies between warring armies in the battle between life and death. There are no innocent parties, me included. They whole of life is a precious gift from God and we are all obliged to protect it. Killing is killing. Death is death. On one side are the gun lobbies. They run the extreme from responsible gun owners (I'm related to many) to the rabid gun promoters. That last group includes the masses genuinely persuaded that "liberals" plan to take their precious guns to which God entitles them to the cynical bloodsucking NRA and firearms industry people growing fat off the firearms that have flooded the U.S. To those who believe the second amendment is about (or only about) some individual freedom and that "the genie is already out of the bottle" regarding the n

 Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.   For to me, to live is Christ  and to die is gain.                                         Philippians 1:20-21 That is one of the few bits of scripture I know by heart in both English and Latin. Why then do I forget it so often? I have wandered into yet another patch in which prayer has become one more thing to check of my list of tasks, and Mass one of the obligations I faithfully carry out.  When this happens I become a creature of the religion and the law, as Paul viewed it. Only life in Christ gives Lauds meaning. Only life in Christ gives the Mass its power and glory. I walk with a person, not a set of rules and I forget that at my peril.