Oreo Cookie Church
Once again, I want to wish all my blogger friends a blessed Easter. May the rest of the Easter season be as fruitful for you as, I hope, the preceding weeks have been.
Nadine worked hard during Holy Week getting caught up on her correspondence. The season is a bit easier for her, now that she has twelve thousand of her first cousins and seven thousand second cousins trained in the finer nuances of Easter deliveries.
I also want to thank all those wonderful folks who voted for me in The Catholic Blog Awards. Tony (Soprano) was only able to garner enough votes in the pews to put me in sixth place for Best New Catholic Blog, but considering the competition, I am very honored.
Carolina Cannonball at The Crescat is running another important Catholic Blog Competition. I nominated myself in all categories because I crave attention and adulation. My motto has always been, “Bad attention is better than no attention at all.” I will be nominating others in various categories and you may want to stop over and nominate your “favorite.” Please note this is not “sour grapes”, but more in the spirit of poking fun at ourselves.
And the good Lord knows, at least I think He does, that healthy humor is good for the soul. Over the past few weeks, I have been scandalized by some of the comments showing up at my favorite blogs. The vitriolic level and personal attacks have reached a level that can only be described as disgusting. And as usual, it is coming from the opposite sides of the same coin. On the one side, we have the ultra-conservative folks, and on the other the ultra-liberal. Jeffrey, at Roving Medievalist, posted a link to a very good article on this subject, which you can read HERE.
In the middle of this battle are the majority of Catholics, average folks who go to church on Sunday and for the most part, have no idea of what this ugly storm is all about. My husband so perfectly described it this morning as a church that has become an Oreo. Each of the cookie halves represent the two extreme factions, and the white frosting in the middle represent “everyday Catholics” - those who pay the light bill by donating the majority of the money scooped up every Sunday by the ushers. Without the “white stuff”, the two halves will not hold together.
There can be no denying the presence of problems in some parishes, most notably in the liturgy, of which music is an integral part. However, slinging insults at one another is not going to solve anything or bring about any meaningful change. Prayer, gentleness, and humor can work wonders. We need not look any further then Jesus for an example of how we should be behaving.
Coming Soon
I will be starting my series on the Twelve Steps for Catholics tomorrow. I will be celebrating my 18 birthday in AA this coming July, but like all alcoholics, I really only have “one day at a time.” People I consider to be way smarter and better writers have addressed this subject, but I also believe, “If only the most gifted bird sang, the forest would be a quiet place.” Therefore, I will be adding my “chirps” to the forest.
