Per Ipsum

As I set out on my walk today, rosary in hand, I rattled through the Apostles Creed. We always begin with the fundamental statement of faith. It occurred to me though, that my personal fundamental statement of faith, my personal creed is much simpler. God is and nothing else matters. It is the first faith commitment I ever made and the foundation of my life.

To: Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo and bishops collectively as the USCCB Denying sin is self-deception. If we say, “We are without sin,” we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.   If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing.   If we say, “We have not sinned," we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1John: 1:8-10) This passage slapped me in the face this morning during morning prayer, when struggling, as I have been lately with faith in the governance of my church. Please note I do not struggle with faith in the mystical body, real presence, or the Nicene creed. I certainly do not struggle with faith in our all loving and merciful God. I only struggle with, well, you.  I write in the face of scandals, plural. In spite of revelation after revelation of crime and cover-up, I, like many of the faithful who sit in your pews, have very little evidence of any real change.  Neither slick statement

I tell you that something greater than the  temple  is here.                                 Mathew 12:6 I watched in horror, my stomach churning, holding back tears while the great cathedral in Paris burned. I wept when pictures surfaced of people kneeling, praying, singing in the street. The outpouring of grief for that holy site, that great cultural artifact, "the heart of France," has been genuine and understandable. My own sense of loss is deep. Very quickly, however, we began to hear people struggling to make sense of the event, Worse, some folks began to fold it into their own disparate belief system in awful ways. Some of the things I heard: It can't have been an accident, it had to be "them" (Muslims, anarchists, whoever you define as "them") Our Lady is alerting France to mend their ways and return to faith. The cathedral had been corrupted into a tourist attraction and didn't deserve God's protection. Let it burn, it hous