pardon the interruption

Well it’s been awhile (again) in between posts. We were on vacation one week, our middle daughter, Mary, was in the hospital with viral meningitis another week (she’s fine now), and the normal day-to-day craziness just conspired to keep me away from the old Blogger for a while. We’ve been back in the Catholic Church now for about 3 months now after our ten-year hiatus while on a sojourn through non-denominational, Evangelical Christianity and I have a few observations and/or rants:

1. Ratzinger has turned out to be a pretty good Pope & I really like his book, Jesus of Nazareth

2. I really did miss the sacraments; like rain on a hot summer’s day

3. It seems to me that nuns are the migrant workers of church ministry: cheap, available labor

4. I still don’t get nuns that don’t wear habits, or at least a veil. If you’re going to make the sacrifice at least look the part.

5. We’ve got some pretty good priests at our parish & I’m glad we decided to go with St. Joe’s.

6. The state of religious ed./faith formation at the parish level leaves much to be desired. Actually, the same can be said to some degree at the diocesan level too.

7. RCIA doesn’t work as a universal, catch all program. You can have one person with no prior relationship with God or church and another with a graduate degree theology in the same group. How can one class/group possibly meet the needs of both?

8. There are not enough young adults in ministry/lay leadership roles. By “not enough” I mean there are none. Where is the whole generation or two born after the conclusion of Vatican II?

9. I think it’s safe to say that several of the Evangelical, non-denominational churches I’ve been involved with were driven by worshipping worship itself.

10. You can have charismatic, lively worship in the Catholic Church too but it tends not to be so focused on the act of worship itself that it loses its context.

11. It’s cool to see the excitement in those I know who have decided to follow us into Catholicism.

12. All things being equal, I would love to work in the Church again in the area of faith formation either at the diocesan or parish level, but the reality is there’s just not enough money there to support my family. That makes me sad.

13. I really like having the lectionary & knowing that those readings are set and are not based on what I want to hear or how I feel or what cultural events/trends are happening. They’re just there for me to take in and let them change me. They’re like vitamins rather than candy.