For the next five days, nestled in Bardstown, Kentucky, a retreat will comprise my time.
The Trappist monks there offer a monastic milieu apart "to entertain silence in the heart ande listen for the voice of God -- to pray for your own discovery," Trappist Thomas Merton notes.
Since 1848, guests have been received at the Abbey of Gethsemani ot far from Louisville, KY.
Hospitality maintains a prominence in the living monastic tradition. As outlined in Saint Benedict's Rule for Monasteries, the guest represents Christ. It has a claim on the welcome and care of the community.
Communing with the Lord requires a measure of solitude, a stillness and an emptiness, a waiting on and attending to the Spirit.
Silence fosters and preserves the climate of prayer and is a fundamental part of the Gethsemani retreat experience.
Retreatants are asked to limit talking to designated areas.
The abbey's many acres of woodlands and fields afford extensive space for reflection and prayer.
Monks are available for consultation upon request, or the celebration of the sacrament of reconciliation. A vodeo presentation of the monastic life helps one appreciate the encounter of a retreat.
A library contains classic and contemporary books, periodicals and more for use during the
retreat time.
Reservations for a retreat are made by calling (502) 549 4133.
Offerings are on a freewill basis according to means.
I will be away from this blog for the next five days to afford me the silience necessary for a fruitful retreat. You and our world will be in prayer.
Abbey of Gethsemani
3642 Monks Road
Trappist, KY 40051
Next year, Care of the Soul and Companions invites you to make a reservation from Nov. 5-9, 2012, Monday thorugh Friday, for retreat. We pool rides. Pray about attending.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Calmly Gazing Beyond Gawking
On a city block in Clinton Township, Michigan there's an encased piece of land that is frequented daily by those who go there to calm down, to be quiet, to say a prayer, or, to pause from the hectic and frenetic life that engulfs them.
A pastoral place of plush greens marked with a splash of autumn yellow and brown, it is a favorite spot of mine for looking, gazing and being for a moment apart from the driven life I lead.
At each station of the cross there, the Jesus Christians believe to be God, I pause to ponder the divinely human model of living life fully and well today. I stop. I wonder. There at the first station, for example, I recall how Jesus the Christ is condemned to death.
I think: An innocent, loving human being is condemned to die. I wonder. Mystery merges with the misery he must have felt at the hands of leaders who seemed threatened by Jesus' every move and every follower he attracted by his life.
Countless black squirrels reside there alongside the stations that depict defining moments in the life of Jesus up to his resurrection from the dead after his carrying of a cross that he was nailed upon before. What anguish must have enveloped him. Such pain poking and penetrating deeply.
I'm told God did this so the Maker's lone Son, Jesus, would redeem a fallen and fractured world.
More mystery merges with the misery he must have felt as an innocent man who loved so completely as he walked the earth.
Rain spills on the pathway of the next few stations showing the route of Jesus to his death.
Wet from water, I recall the sinking of the Titanic and the instruments that play an Autumn hymn as wonderment and anguish filled the feelings of humans going down fast.
They are scary thoughts. Seasonal perhaps, as All Saints and All Souls, is celebrated these next days of November.
I gaze at his face drawn in pencil. It's a gentle and easy look. Far from gawking, I let the etches speak to me. I try to simply be there. I am one with him. The encounter is serene.
The beauty overtakes me. It is a quiet place. The Creator speaks volumes, however, in the silence. The silence is golden, for sure. And, more.
Tomorrow, as Catholics join for Mass at 11 am or at 7 pm, noise of cars and voices will drown the silence some few moments as they unite in communion. Striking contrasts. Yet, some will gaze while others gawks at who fills the pews this damp, autumn day.
The Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton emerges in my mind, on his own thoughts on silence.
"The deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion," Merton notes in his Asain Journal.
Merton continues:
"It is wordless. It is beyond words. It is beyond speech, and it is beyond concept. Not that we discover a new unity. We discover an older unity. My dear Brothers, we are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are."
The true self that the mystics speak of comes to mind, beyond the false self.
Indeed, we are one in communion with creation and with the Creator.
And Cher and Joe come to mind from their marriage vows earlier this afternoon in Saints Peter and Paul Jesuit Church on Jefferson in downtown Detroit, MI.
They both are vegans. Both are united and in union with planet Earth's creation and animal life. Their wedding dinner this night consists of a menu of pasta, free of foods with animal fats.
One.
One together now in marriage. And, with God's earth for these past couple years since they decided to become vegans during Lent, the forty-day penitential season where Christians
stand with Jesus and his own communion with God by way of intense fasting, prayer and almsgiving.
Solidarity.
This couple committed to gaze at the earth and be one with it. Far from gawking, they stand looking, noticing, contemplating creation. Two attorneys turning, gazing, giving, inspiring us.
They choose not to harm the earth.
One with it. Awesome. Another gaze at another station. The sun peeks perhaps a final ray before the dark covers these shorter days of autumn.
And, a good gaze.
A pastoral place of plush greens marked with a splash of autumn yellow and brown, it is a favorite spot of mine for looking, gazing and being for a moment apart from the driven life I lead.
At each station of the cross there, the Jesus Christians believe to be God, I pause to ponder the divinely human model of living life fully and well today. I stop. I wonder. There at the first station, for example, I recall how Jesus the Christ is condemned to death.
I think: An innocent, loving human being is condemned to die. I wonder. Mystery merges with the misery he must have felt at the hands of leaders who seemed threatened by Jesus' every move and every follower he attracted by his life.
Countless black squirrels reside there alongside the stations that depict defining moments in the life of Jesus up to his resurrection from the dead after his carrying of a cross that he was nailed upon before. What anguish must have enveloped him. Such pain poking and penetrating deeply.
I'm told God did this so the Maker's lone Son, Jesus, would redeem a fallen and fractured world.
More mystery merges with the misery he must have felt as an innocent man who loved so completely as he walked the earth.
Rain spills on the pathway of the next few stations showing the route of Jesus to his death.
Wet from water, I recall the sinking of the Titanic and the instruments that play an Autumn hymn as wonderment and anguish filled the feelings of humans going down fast.
They are scary thoughts. Seasonal perhaps, as All Saints and All Souls, is celebrated these next days of November.
I gaze at his face drawn in pencil. It's a gentle and easy look. Far from gawking, I let the etches speak to me. I try to simply be there. I am one with him. The encounter is serene.
The beauty overtakes me. It is a quiet place. The Creator speaks volumes, however, in the silence. The silence is golden, for sure. And, more.
Tomorrow, as Catholics join for Mass at 11 am or at 7 pm, noise of cars and voices will drown the silence some few moments as they unite in communion. Striking contrasts. Yet, some will gaze while others gawks at who fills the pews this damp, autumn day.
The Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton emerges in my mind, on his own thoughts on silence.
"The deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion," Merton notes in his Asain Journal.
Merton continues:
"It is wordless. It is beyond words. It is beyond speech, and it is beyond concept. Not that we discover a new unity. We discover an older unity. My dear Brothers, we are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are."
The true self that the mystics speak of comes to mind, beyond the false self.
Indeed, we are one in communion with creation and with the Creator.
And Cher and Joe come to mind from their marriage vows earlier this afternoon in Saints Peter and Paul Jesuit Church on Jefferson in downtown Detroit, MI.
They both are vegans. Both are united and in union with planet Earth's creation and animal life. Their wedding dinner this night consists of a menu of pasta, free of foods with animal fats.
One.
One together now in marriage. And, with God's earth for these past couple years since they decided to become vegans during Lent, the forty-day penitential season where Christians
stand with Jesus and his own communion with God by way of intense fasting, prayer and almsgiving.
Solidarity.
This couple committed to gaze at the earth and be one with it. Far from gawking, they stand looking, noticing, contemplating creation. Two attorneys turning, gazing, giving, inspiring us.
They choose not to harm the earth.
One with it. Awesome. Another gaze at another station. The sun peeks perhaps a final ray before the dark covers these shorter days of autumn.
And, a good gaze.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Contemplative Tradition Inclusive of All Faiths
An enduring legacy of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) is its clarion call to renew the Gospels and biblical theology and tradition of "the Way" of Jesus as primary sources of Catholic spirituality. We have only begun this trek, often on another less noble path or "my" way.
Trappist monk Thomas Keating defines a mystic as one who is head over heel in love with God.
I love that description. Love at its best. To ponder the love of one's life, and the Love of one's life is awesome to behold.
The Word of God in the sacred scripture that is embodied in Jesus the Christ is the font of Christian contemplation.
God becomes one like us in the flesh if Jesus in our human family. Incarnation is the Latin, "in the flesh." God becomes one of us in Jesus, except Jesus is without sin.
The blessed Trinity of the Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier+ are together in one nature, both the Ultimate Myster and Reality for us. Their own inner relationship and dynamic of Love and absolute giving and receiving is the divine life that Christ was sent to share with each of us. How profoundly touching the Untouchable, Invisible. Incredible Lover - the Present with a capital P.
The manifold Gifts of the Holy Spirit are believed to come into fullness by way of regular practice of prayer and the growth of faith into contemplation with its progression and devlopment. A process it is, or, if you like, a procession like the nine of us in my family formed along Van Dyke on our way as a family to the late Saint Thomas the Apostle Church, our home church, at Miller and Townsend in Detroit, MI.
Saint Gregory the Great of the end of the sixth century, and the inspiration for the Catholic Care of the Soul Companions, summed up the contemplative tradition as the knowlege of God in Scripture and a precious gift of God.
He called it "resting in God." Mind and heart experience in some small or great measure a "taste" of what they are seeking, namely God. Only a glimpse morphs me no end. Really with a capital R for my oneness with the One as in the beginning, life everlasting, amen! For all Eternity!
This understanding perdured through the Middlge Ages. Fasting, chanting, vigils, solitude and periods of silence, simplicity of lifestyle, the rosary, veneration of icons, and more, always included contemplation as part of the Christ-centered goal.
Noticing is how spirituality is described. Contemplation is "loooking" beyond an earthly level.
An example of a contemplative life is Thomas Keating, or the late Thomas Merton who died in 1968 - the year of slaying of Matin Luther King, Jr., Robert Kennedy, my own brother Lucas in Vietnam, among so many historic and defining moments, including the TET Offensive, and, the beginning of the women's movement, some assert.
Merton became the leading contemplative voice from his cell in the Twentieth Century American Church. His body is buried at Gethsemane, Kentucky where Joe Oster, Ernie Bedard, among others will join me on retreat for a week in November.
Merton spoke up on contemplative prayer as well as social and global issues, including civil rights, social justice, nuclear disarmament, violence, ecumenism and East-West religious dialogue to name only a few examples. Merton proclaimed to a people in the atomic age, suffering and other consequences of the effecrts of World War II, and, the need to focus on life's primary purpose. This task is "in being one's true self; to come to one's true identity by returning to the ground of our true self - the true self anchored only in God."
Union with God was Merton's quest. It is our own also. I long for it daily. Merton was a prolific writer who taught me much about contemplative journal-writing, and more. In his, New Seeds of Contemplation,
Father Merton, the Trappist monk who stood in the market square in Louiville, KY, saying:
"These are all my people," -- seems to touch the soul, support and guides it in hearing the call to contemplation. He reaches out as a true soul friend in love, wisdom and understanding. His, The New Man, is grounded in Sacred Scripture explaining the dynamic of the spiritual journey in bliblical language. Merton also became aware of the fruits and gift of contemplation that came alive in non-Christian religions. This leaning gave birth to East-West religious dialogue.
Simply put, for Merton, "contemplative prayer is the preference for the desert, for emptiness, for poverty. One has begun to know the meaning of contemplation when he or she intuitively and spontaneously seeks the dark and the unknown path of aridity in preference to every other way. The contemplative is one who would rather not know than know...He accepts the love of God in faith, in defiance of all apparent evidence. This is the necessary condition and a very paradoxical condition, for the mystical experience of God's Presence and of His love for us.
Only when we are able to 'let go' of everything within us, all desire to see, to know, to taste and experience the presence of God, do we truly become able to experience that Presence..."
- From Merton's Contemplative Prayer
I like to get lost in the Love of God and then seem to know a fraction of a glimpse at times, of divine union at the tail-end of my centering prayer two sessions of twenty minutes daily. Most of the session is distracted by judgments, criticisms, and the like. Only when I gently return to my WOrd from Scripture - Beloved - am I resting in God some. Words cannot describe this
encounter and experience with the Holy.
This relationship I relish. Without it, I die inwardly and outwardly act unlovingly.
Prayer works. Prayer heals and mends. Prayer is the connection and union with the Unconditional God who is like a Mother Hen hovering over and within the fractured heart and soul. All the gunk of the shower drains in centering contemplative prayer for me. It takes much time simply and gently and lovingly BEING in the Presence.
Just a few hours before Merton's death in Bangkok, Thailand, these notes were found:
"Christianity and Buddhism agree that the root of man's problems is that that his consciousness is fouled up and does not apprehend reality as it fully is...Christianity and Buddhism alike, then, seeks to bring about a transformation of Man's consciousness...to transform and liberate the truth in each person, with the idea that it will communicate itself to others...The whole purpose of monastic life is to teach us to live by love."
Trappist monk Thomas Keating defines a mystic as one who is head over heel in love with God.
I love that description. Love at its best. To ponder the love of one's life, and the Love of one's life is awesome to behold.
The Word of God in the sacred scripture that is embodied in Jesus the Christ is the font of Christian contemplation.
God becomes one like us in the flesh if Jesus in our human family. Incarnation is the Latin, "in the flesh." God becomes one of us in Jesus, except Jesus is without sin.
The blessed Trinity of the Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier+ are together in one nature, both the Ultimate Myster and Reality for us. Their own inner relationship and dynamic of Love and absolute giving and receiving is the divine life that Christ was sent to share with each of us. How profoundly touching the Untouchable, Invisible. Incredible Lover - the Present with a capital P.
The manifold Gifts of the Holy Spirit are believed to come into fullness by way of regular practice of prayer and the growth of faith into contemplation with its progression and devlopment. A process it is, or, if you like, a procession like the nine of us in my family formed along Van Dyke on our way as a family to the late Saint Thomas the Apostle Church, our home church, at Miller and Townsend in Detroit, MI.
Saint Gregory the Great of the end of the sixth century, and the inspiration for the Catholic Care of the Soul Companions, summed up the contemplative tradition as the knowlege of God in Scripture and a precious gift of God.
He called it "resting in God." Mind and heart experience in some small or great measure a "taste" of what they are seeking, namely God. Only a glimpse morphs me no end. Really with a capital R for my oneness with the One as in the beginning, life everlasting, amen! For all Eternity!
This understanding perdured through the Middlge Ages. Fasting, chanting, vigils, solitude and periods of silence, simplicity of lifestyle, the rosary, veneration of icons, and more, always included contemplation as part of the Christ-centered goal.
Noticing is how spirituality is described. Contemplation is "loooking" beyond an earthly level.
An example of a contemplative life is Thomas Keating, or the late Thomas Merton who died in 1968 - the year of slaying of Matin Luther King, Jr., Robert Kennedy, my own brother Lucas in Vietnam, among so many historic and defining moments, including the TET Offensive, and, the beginning of the women's movement, some assert.
Merton became the leading contemplative voice from his cell in the Twentieth Century American Church. His body is buried at Gethsemane, Kentucky where Joe Oster, Ernie Bedard, among others will join me on retreat for a week in November.
Merton spoke up on contemplative prayer as well as social and global issues, including civil rights, social justice, nuclear disarmament, violence, ecumenism and East-West religious dialogue to name only a few examples. Merton proclaimed to a people in the atomic age, suffering and other consequences of the effecrts of World War II, and, the need to focus on life's primary purpose. This task is "in being one's true self; to come to one's true identity by returning to the ground of our true self - the true self anchored only in God."
Union with God was Merton's quest. It is our own also. I long for it daily. Merton was a prolific writer who taught me much about contemplative journal-writing, and more. In his, New Seeds of Contemplation,
Father Merton, the Trappist monk who stood in the market square in Louiville, KY, saying:
"These are all my people," -- seems to touch the soul, support and guides it in hearing the call to contemplation. He reaches out as a true soul friend in love, wisdom and understanding. His, The New Man, is grounded in Sacred Scripture explaining the dynamic of the spiritual journey in bliblical language. Merton also became aware of the fruits and gift of contemplation that came alive in non-Christian religions. This leaning gave birth to East-West religious dialogue.
Simply put, for Merton, "contemplative prayer is the preference for the desert, for emptiness, for poverty. One has begun to know the meaning of contemplation when he or she intuitively and spontaneously seeks the dark and the unknown path of aridity in preference to every other way. The contemplative is one who would rather not know than know...He accepts the love of God in faith, in defiance of all apparent evidence. This is the necessary condition and a very paradoxical condition, for the mystical experience of God's Presence and of His love for us.
Only when we are able to 'let go' of everything within us, all desire to see, to know, to taste and experience the presence of God, do we truly become able to experience that Presence..."
- From Merton's Contemplative Prayer
I like to get lost in the Love of God and then seem to know a fraction of a glimpse at times, of divine union at the tail-end of my centering prayer two sessions of twenty minutes daily. Most of the session is distracted by judgments, criticisms, and the like. Only when I gently return to my WOrd from Scripture - Beloved - am I resting in God some. Words cannot describe this
encounter and experience with the Holy.
This relationship I relish. Without it, I die inwardly and outwardly act unlovingly.
Prayer works. Prayer heals and mends. Prayer is the connection and union with the Unconditional God who is like a Mother Hen hovering over and within the fractured heart and soul. All the gunk of the shower drains in centering contemplative prayer for me. It takes much time simply and gently and lovingly BEING in the Presence.
Just a few hours before Merton's death in Bangkok, Thailand, these notes were found:
"Christianity and Buddhism agree that the root of man's problems is that that his consciousness is fouled up and does not apprehend reality as it fully is...Christianity and Buddhism alike, then, seeks to bring about a transformation of Man's consciousness...to transform and liberate the truth in each person, with the idea that it will communicate itself to others...The whole purpose of monastic life is to teach us to live by love."
Monday, October 24, 2011
A Moment in Time at 150
They came.
They sang.
The ate at 150.
But before all that partying Sunday on the 150th anniversary of founding of the historic Sacred Heart Catholic Church at Utica Road and Gratiot in Roseville, MI., they were planting, hoeing, picking, growing, weeding and watching faith grow.
Hundreds gathered Sunday to mark a milestone for the people and edifice that serves as a city on a hill. . .a beacon in the community stooping low to lift up life where it may be met.
From a mere thirty-five families back during the Civil War days in history, a pastor and his people moved north on Gratot's gravel toward Erin, a town now called Roseville. They planted, grew and celebrated faith Sunday with Allen Vigneron, Archbishop of Detroit, and crowds of people in the edifice on the corner that shines hope these days. "Wherever the bishop is the people are," a Church Father said centuries ago.
Street people, and bag people, and young and old gathered for the festivities in and outside the historic building.
Later, in the Eastpointe Manor, they partied some more and ate pasta and chicken and chocolate cake.
They laughed. Paused. Planted a story or a joke. Swallowed. They drank fresh water and
crispy bread.
God is good all the time, all the time God is good, one partygoer told me.
And, another said: "Don't worry about tomorrow, God is already there." God is. Bring on 151.
They sang.
The ate at 150.
But before all that partying Sunday on the 150th anniversary of founding of the historic Sacred Heart Catholic Church at Utica Road and Gratiot in Roseville, MI., they were planting, hoeing, picking, growing, weeding and watching faith grow.
Hundreds gathered Sunday to mark a milestone for the people and edifice that serves as a city on a hill. . .a beacon in the community stooping low to lift up life where it may be met.
From a mere thirty-five families back during the Civil War days in history, a pastor and his people moved north on Gratot's gravel toward Erin, a town now called Roseville. They planted, grew and celebrated faith Sunday with Allen Vigneron, Archbishop of Detroit, and crowds of people in the edifice on the corner that shines hope these days. "Wherever the bishop is the people are," a Church Father said centuries ago.
Street people, and bag people, and young and old gathered for the festivities in and outside the historic building.
Later, in the Eastpointe Manor, they partied some more and ate pasta and chicken and chocolate cake.
They laughed. Paused. Planted a story or a joke. Swallowed. They drank fresh water and
crispy bread.
God is good all the time, all the time God is good, one partygoer told me.
And, another said: "Don't worry about tomorrow, God is already there." God is. Bring on 151.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
All Aboard for Pilgrimage of Historic City Edifices
All aboard!
Join a pilgrimage of prayer with visits to historic edifices Saturday, November 5, 2011 with boarding on the round trip motor coach at 8 am with return to embarking sites beginning at 6 pm.
Tours of downtown Detroit SS. Peter and Paul Jesuit Church, Old St. Mary's Church in Greektown, Sacred Heart Major Seminary, and evening Mass with Archbishop of Detroit, Allen H. Vigneron, a native of Mt. Clemens, MI., in Ste. Anne de Detroit Church.
Participants board the bus at the Ford Community and Performing Art Center in Dearborn, and, from the Warren Civic Center in Warren. Church historian, Bill Worden guides the pilgrims.
Reservations are required at (313) 565 8888 (Ext. 121). Tickets are $40. Lunch is included.
Join a pilgrimage of prayer with visits to historic edifices Saturday, November 5, 2011 with boarding on the round trip motor coach at 8 am with return to embarking sites beginning at 6 pm.
Tours of downtown Detroit SS. Peter and Paul Jesuit Church, Old St. Mary's Church in Greektown, Sacred Heart Major Seminary, and evening Mass with Archbishop of Detroit, Allen H. Vigneron, a native of Mt. Clemens, MI., in Ste. Anne de Detroit Church.
Participants board the bus at the Ford Community and Performing Art Center in Dearborn, and, from the Warren Civic Center in Warren. Church historian, Bill Worden guides the pilgrims.
Reservations are required at (313) 565 8888 (Ext. 121). Tickets are $40. Lunch is included.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Catholic Lawyer Society
They gather for Mass on Thursday each month at 12:15 pm in Saints Peter and Paul Church on Jefferson across from the GM Ren Cen.
Lawyers read God's Word of the day and meet for a meal afterwards with staff of the historic downtown church.
Over turkey and tuna wraps, a soda and Better Made potato chips, the discussion turned to the vitality of the Church, its meaning, purpose and promise for tomorrow in the Archdocese of Detroit.
Concerns ranged from clustering parishes and mergers and the reasons for it, the stewardship campaign, debt and the mission of the Church.
Serious thoughts were shared and welcomed by all at the table as believers broke bread again.
Although worry filled some, hope pervaded the critical state of parish life today across the counties and country, for that matter.
Taking time to talk helps people to be relieved of rumors and to bond more deeply in the faith.
After all, it was the feast of St. Paul of the Cross, founder of the Passionist pastors who lead a retreat house by the same name off of I-96 near Telegraph in Detroit. Someone at the table said that to get people to commit to a day at a retreat house one has to add a few hours at the casino to fill up the bus.
Imagine that.
Whatever it takes to pause, ponder and converse about a wonderful world God made for you and me.
Lawyers read God's Word of the day and meet for a meal afterwards with staff of the historic downtown church.
Over turkey and tuna wraps, a soda and Better Made potato chips, the discussion turned to the vitality of the Church, its meaning, purpose and promise for tomorrow in the Archdocese of Detroit.
Concerns ranged from clustering parishes and mergers and the reasons for it, the stewardship campaign, debt and the mission of the Church.
Serious thoughts were shared and welcomed by all at the table as believers broke bread again.
Although worry filled some, hope pervaded the critical state of parish life today across the counties and country, for that matter.
Taking time to talk helps people to be relieved of rumors and to bond more deeply in the faith.
After all, it was the feast of St. Paul of the Cross, founder of the Passionist pastors who lead a retreat house by the same name off of I-96 near Telegraph in Detroit. Someone at the table said that to get people to commit to a day at a retreat house one has to add a few hours at the casino to fill up the bus.
Imagine that.
Whatever it takes to pause, ponder and converse about a wonderful world God made for you and me.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Pastor Not Welcomed
A friend of mine who is pastor of a huge mega church told me over lunch that pastors aren't welcome to attend the huge money campaign in the archdiocese when leaders meet with parishioners.
That's another fear-driven way to thwart off questions from the shepherd's who lead in the trenches.
I have to wonder about all this fear. What's happening?
Years ago, I remember being ingnored by the staff of the AOD (Archdiocese of Detroit).
Yet, we promote the dignity of every human being in our Catholic doctrine, go figure.
Pastors work hard and ask pastoral questions as they lead their flocks.
It seems that the AOD is trying to be a huge parish when history shows that the early church had few if any offices, and dioceses were minimally staffed. The Vatican didn't view dioceses either as branch offices but each, like a parish, has its own authority as it kept lines of communication open.
Pastors are to be welcomed where their people are gathered always.
That's another fear-driven way to thwart off questions from the shepherd's who lead in the trenches.
I have to wonder about all this fear. What's happening?
Years ago, I remember being ingnored by the staff of the AOD (Archdiocese of Detroit).
Yet, we promote the dignity of every human being in our Catholic doctrine, go figure.
Pastors work hard and ask pastoral questions as they lead their flocks.
It seems that the AOD is trying to be a huge parish when history shows that the early church had few if any offices, and dioceses were minimally staffed. The Vatican didn't view dioceses either as branch offices but each, like a parish, has its own authority as it kept lines of communication open.
Pastors are to be welcomed where their people are gathered always.
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