The Place of Women in the Catholic Church or why I don't need you to save me from my faith

If I hear on more commentator say that The Church ignores 50% of the population I am going to scream!  And then I will pray for the person, I will pray that they will someday learn how wrong they are by being truly part of that church.

First of all, we are all built into the Church, the Body of Christ.  We are living stones in that Church.  As part of the body we are essential but different and each have our function.  The eye can not live without the mouth or the hand.  In the same way the eye can not decide to be the foot.  We all have a job to do in the Church and when we fail to do our job the Church is not as successful,  just because I am not a priest doesn't mean that I don't have an important part to play.

Frankly by telling me that half of the population is ingnored by the Catholic Church you demean the work I do and make me out to be an idiot who needs to be somehow saved from my faith.  I am obviously not smart enough to know that the ministry work I do is unimportant.  For all you women out there working on parish or liturgical councils, teaching CCD, visiting the sick, running food pantries, youth groups, etc you really aren't important to the Church.  All the Sisters who run hospitals, schools, nursing homes, and even the ones who question the clergy, they are saying you have no place either.

I know that even those without a formal title in the church who pray in the church and pass along the faith to their children are important.  Maybe even the most important, without  you the Church wouldnt need priests.  Those outside the faith don't understand.  Priests are important, without them we have no Mass, no Eucharist, the heart is gone, but they are not everything in the Church.  Those in the pews are not passive ,or shouldn't be.  Our faith is not something the Priests do to us, we participate in it.  So do me a favor, assume that as a woman I am smart enough to know what I am doing and that I don't need you to save me from my faith.  Learn about the Church before you talk about it and don't really on poorly catechised former Catholics.  I am not blind I know my Chuch has its faults, it's populated by very fallible human beings, but it is also amazingly beautiful.

Are works dead? Why do we do what we do?

This question just popped into my head, why do we do good works?  Well first of all it is what we are commanded to do.  Matthew 7:12 contains the golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  In John 13:34 Jesus gives us the new commandment to "Love one another as I have loved you".  There are more but in Tobit and the letters of James but these will do.

The Golden Rule is something we learn in Kindergarden.  It makes sense.  Do to other people what you would have them do to you.  It in someway instructs others on how to act.  But on the other hand, if I were homeless and a bit smelly, I would still want to be welcomed in any church, so that means I have to sit next to that homeless person and not complain.  I would also want nonjudgmental help, so that is what I have to give.

We also due good works because Jesus commanded us to, and that's a good place to start.  Jesus commanded us to love one another as He loved us.  He died for us, and He gives Himself to us in the Eucharist.  What does that mean for my life?  I doubt I will be asked to die for anyone.  It means loving people who are in their sin, who don't love me and who I may not like very much.  Jesus can see Himself in us no matter how much we sin, we have to cultivate that gift.  It means going beyond the golden rule and sacrificing our lives for others by giving time, money, and prayer to others.

Is that all?  Our lives are really God's, we have to be open to Him and listen for Him talking to us in all the different ways He can.  Most of us won't be asked to give our lives.  Most of us will only be asked to move out of ourselves and do what we may not want to do.  Witness to our faith in ourdaily lives through how we love others.  Sometimes loving others though means having to talk to them about our faith.  Sometimes I think it is easier for us as Catholics to give someone our coat then to share our love for Christ with our own families.  Can we truly love our families if we don't try to get them to heaven?

Faith without good works is dead.  We show our faith and love by our actions.  If you claim you love your spouse but you cheat on them or beat them, you don't love them, you show your love by your actions.  We show love to God by doing what He asks and by increasing faith in the world by attracting others to God.  We show love and therefore God to the world by how we act towards others.

Wake up! Before our faith and church dies!

Warning!  Don't read this blog if you don't want to be challenged to move out of your comfort zone when it comes to your faith.

I want to run down the aisle at my church screaming Wake Up!  Wake Up!  Where are the children, young people, and young adults, our parish is dying!  Wake Up!  Granted I live in a small town in Texas that believes this is how we have always done it and we don't want to do it differently.  We want to stay a sleep, to go through the motions.  God forbid someone ask them to stand up and say what they believe and why.

Talking to group of teenagers they said we shouldnt try to get kids to go to Mass.  As leaders of our youth group they didn't understand that the Mass was the center of our faith.  To them Mass is boring and irrelevant.  It doesn't relate to their lives.  Why do they feel this way?  Is it their fault?  No, we have failed them.  Do we show in our daily lives that the Mass is the center of our lives?  No.  Are we excited that heaven comes down and touches the earth during the Mass?  I hear that Catholics aren't like that, they don't get exited.  I say bullshit!  And I won't oppologize for offending any one.  We should run down the aisle screaming Amen! Alleluia!  God is here, right now!  This is why we come to Mass!

But we can't have that, people will feel uncomfortable.  They don't want change.  We have to have organ music, we can't have rock and roll at Mass.  We can't have exciting challenging preaching.  We want to stay asleep, to be comfortable.  And as we sleep our children and grandchildren will slip away.  If we are lucky they will still find Christ, but if not, we will miss them in the afterlife.  It is that serious.  If we don't move out of our comfort zone and engage our youth, we risk their immortal souls.  Who knows maybe we risk our own.  If we get to the pearly gates and Christ asks you when did you profess your faith before others, what will you say?  Sorry, my Lord, I wasn't comfortable with that?  Was He comfortable on the Cross?  Maybe try, sorry, my King, that wasn't considered polite?  Did he worry about offending the pharisees?  Wake Up!  Before its too late!  Don't be comfortable.  Be daring, go against the world and proclaim your faith.

Where do we go from here?

So many of my prolife friends friends are so upset by Tuesday reeelection of President Obama.  They are angry that they again do have a prolife president and for those of us who are Catholic it means that we will have to deal this Obama care and the insurance mandate that goes agains of our faith.  I have even heard them say that our country has gone to Hell.

But they are forgetting, that God is in charge.  Then why did this happen?  Why didn't God fix this by letting Romney win?  It would be so much easier that way.  Repeal Obama care, not fight needed, no worries.  But that's just it.  I think god wants us to have to fight.  To show what it is we believe in.  Just think if they repealed Obama care we would still have thousands of people without access to healthcare.  We would be sitting comfortably at home not having to speak up for our faith, not having to explain,our beliefs to the rest of the nation.  We would be comfortable, people would die, and no one would be challenged about faith.  I can see now that isn't what God wants.

This is the Year of Faith and I think our Father inRome knew what he was doing.  He knew we would need to work to know our faith better, to draw closer to God to gain strength for the fight.  We need to remember though that this isn't a fight in the normal sense, this is Gods fight so we fight with love.  We don't fight with angry voices but with the voice of God, the voice of love.  We have to sit down to dinner with them and show them how much we love them.  We love them so much we won't give up. We love them enough to give all we have for them.  While heaping the burning coals of love on their heads, we will win.