Author: Sal

Fugitive update: Where’s my crash helmet?

Thanks all of you for your thoughtful comments. Though we don’t seem to have a concensus, I appear to be somewhere between a saint and a Pharisee. I haven’t decided if what I did was right or wrong. To judge it by the result I can see, it was wrong. It is far worse than I feared. I’ve pushed her away from me and from the Church, that much is clear. I doubt we will ever be friends again. That’s pretty hard to take. Please pray for me and pray for her.

Listen. Today I went to daily Mass at the church we planned to go to yesterday. I was sitting behind two women who appeared to be in their 30’s. One looked like a regular, the other looked like a fish out of water. During the Our Father the regular had her hands in the orans position and after a few seconds reached down and grabbed the hand of fish out of water. At Communion time the regular was trying to pursuade fish out of water to follow her. She didn’t go. How ironic.

If my life was a book I would re-write these last two days. I can’t go back but I can trust that God can turn my garbage into gold.

Fugitive update: I am a complete idiot

Take me now, Lord, before I turn anyone else away from the Catholic Church! The first thing the fugitive said when I walked in the door today was “Let’s go to Mass at lunch.” I couldn’t believe it. I was unspeakably glad and excited for her to be returning to Mass after so long. In the car ride over to a church in the area and I attempted to explain to her why she shouldn’t receive communion. I could not have dreamed a thousand bad dreams that would have been matched the reality of how badly it went after that. It was so bad I don’t even know if we’re going to be friends any more. She pulled the car over and just started crying. She wouldn’t talk about it. She just wanted to go home. I must have dredged up bad feelings and memories that were the reason she turned away from the Church to the begin with. There was nothing I could do or say that would make her feel better.

I appreciate the help of our readers and my fellow bloggers who responded over the weekend. I was really hoping this was going to be a turning point. It seems I have just pushed her away even more. I don’t know if I did the right thing by telling her she shouldn’t receive the Eucharist. I don’t know if it would have still been bad for her soul if she didn’t know it was bad for her soul, or if she didn’t know she was doing something wrong. Pray for her, please.

I am going to take a cue from St. Francis not use words the next time I share the Gospel.

Fugitive news!

Readers of this blog have seen posts on another coworker of mine who used to be a practicing Catholic but fell away from the faith during college. She told me she is a fugitive from the Church so in this venue I refer to her as “The Fugitive.” She recently told me she wants to go to Mass. What can you tell someone like her about the Mass that would help her understand how awesome it is? How do you tell someone who hasn’t been to Mass in years not to receive the Eucharist without going to Confession? Would you recommend I don’t say anything and let God handle it?
Thanks for the help!

Christianity as fig leaf

A coworker told me about a sermon he heard once about why there are so many Christian denominations. It boiled down to this: after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit they covered themselves with fig leaves because they knew they were naked and didn’t want to be ashamed before God. Each Christian denomination is a fig leaf a believer puts on so that he or she won’t be ashamed in the sight of God. He was smiling why he was telling me this as though it was so illuminating everyone should hear it. I wasn’t quite sure what to say. I suppose I could have said, “Christ is has one body, not tens of thousands.” That would have been too adversarial. Perhaps I should have said that we as Christians don’t worship out of shame, we worship out of love and adoration for God. Or going even further with the clothing or covering analogy I could have asked him how do we know God approves of the religion what we’ve put on? Clearly there have been Christian sects and schismatics that were thoroughly wrong – does it help a man to practice a religion that denies the divinity of Christ? In the end I just let it go.

On the alleged insanity of Parishoners at the Cathedral in Boston, what “vibrant” means, and donut-hogging
The Pew Lady is on a roll.