Monday 072913 - Pope Francis

Well. The Huffington Post reports Pope Francis saying this: "Who am I to judge a gay person of goodwill who seeks the Lord?" Apparently, he was not speaking about gayfolk in general; he had been asked about gay priests.  My assumption is that his assumption is that all, including gay, priests are celibate  -  now, that would be an interesting thing to do some research on! Not in my personal experience of Roman priests and Religious ... but that's another issue. Presumably he meant that the sexual sins of priests can certainly be forgiven if, as is true of all "confession", the admission and repentance is genuine. I assume (this is a lot of assuming ... since I try to follow one of Dom Don Miguel Ruiz's Four Agreements: 'Do not make assumptions' ! ... that the Pope feels he was "safe" in making these remarks because he was not making remarks about gayfolk in general, same-sex orientation, sexual identity, etc.

Who knows (yet) what he really thinks about homosexual orientation? About Nature? About genes and how they work and why? But, I shall be positive and optimistic. I shall be interested to see if this is the first step towards a change in the thinking of the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church ... with the Pope taking the lead. My hope is that the Holy Spirit really was at work in the election of this Pope, and that the cardinals got more than they expected in choosing him. I'll probably be long dead before anything substantial happens on this issue in the RC Church. But ... unless John XXIII said something I missed, Francis may be the first pope to make a statement like he made ... about not judging. To me (prejudiced, of course) that sounds like something Jesus would say in this situation and present context, as I understand Jesus.

I suppose I could be wrong about Jesus ..........  but ... Nah!

So: Go Francis! May this be the first step towards greater understanding, love, compassion, sense, and justice.

Sunday 072813 - Showering

I just finished showering in preparation to going to worship (and I will muse about "worship" sometime soon ... a rather strange thing to be doing, I think). I became aware of how immensely privileged I am ... at least on certain "creature comfort" levels. Our shower is big, and easy to get in and out of. What percent of people have that in the World? It's in a comfortable house, with 3 bedrooms, two, yes, two full bathrooms. What percentage? I have lovely soap called Pre de Provence. I have copious (on demand) hot water ... what percentage? I can run the water until it's the right temperature ... wasting a gallon maybe ... what percentage? I have nice white towels to dry off with, which have been washed beautifully in an automatic washing machine (which uses a minimum of water, due to new technology) and dried in a gas dryer which can sense when things are dry. Jojoba oil for the body, Oil of Olay for the face, and Gold's medicated powder to prevent heat rash. What percentage??

If you can take a shower somewhat like mine  .... you/we are living like royalty ... a small percentage! Nice of my shower to remind me what a blessed life I have ... and the shower is only the beginning.

Brian+