I am sorry, and I ask your forgiveness, my gay brothers and sisters, for not speaking up in my parish against injustice and hurtfulness committed against you.

I'm too afraid.

So I was leafing through an essay at the library tonight, trying to decide whether to take out this book on von Balthasar's theology. The topic of the essay was Mary, Peter, Christ, and the Church. I'm leafing through the section on various ways that Mary typifies the church, and come across this phrase, "Mary's humble Yes."

And it makes me want to throw up.

Am I the only one?

Spinning off some discussion about "correct" or "valid" religions in another diary, and trying to reinforce some stuff I learned in class tonight -- I wanted to write about this  and thought it might make for some interesting discussion.

What is the function of doctrinal statements? (In your opinion, and in your faith tradition.)

First, let me define my terms here. A doctrinal statement is a relatively short statement that encapsulates some element of church teaching. For example, "we are justified by faith alone" is a doctrinal statement.

(For purposes of this discussion, issues of what makes such a statement authoritative, or who gets to make them, or the difference between doctrine and dogma, are entirely irrelevant.)

So how do they work? What are they for? What do they do? What do they signify?

It occurred to me, on the way to church today, that Epiphany is to Christmas what Pentecost is to Easter, and both are (or ought to be) of tremendous significance to Christians who are not of Jewish extraction.

The canticle for Compline says it well:

My own eyes have seen the salvation
that you have prepared for all the world to see:
a light to enlighten the nations,
and the glory of your people, Israel.

Follow the star below the fold to see what I'm talking about.

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As we round the wreath today with the fourth candle, as our Advent season comes to completion, take a moment with me to reflect on your experience of this season of hope and expectation this year.

What was part of your Advent observance?
What did you find there?

Follow me below the fold to hear about my journey, and talk about yours.

For all the saints
Who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith
Before the world confessed,
Thy name, O Jesus,
be forever blessed!
Alleluia, Alleluia!

O blest communion,
Fellowship divine:
We feebly struggle,
They in glory shine.
Yet all are one
within Thy great design!
Alleluia, Alleluia!

This is my favorite feastday. Follow me below the fold to find out why, and celebrate with me.

Just a quick brain dump (or rather, notebook dump) of some points from last week's session, before I attend tomorrow night's last one in the ICJS series.

Rabbi Joel Zaiman gave a presentation on revelation, scripture, and authority from a traditional Jewish perspective. He opened with:

God said it? -- More or less
I believe it? -- Absolutely.
That settles it? -- Hardly!

This week was the first session of the ICJS minicourse on revelation, authority, and scripture, which attracted 150 people(!). It was a good session, presented by Dr. Rosann Catalano (Roman Catholic), and I thought I'd post a bit on what I got out of her presentation.

Her general focus was on the relationship among revelation, scripture, and scriptural authority; and more specifically, she addressed the question which I paraphrase here as:

If our understanding of the Bible as "inspired by God" is not the traditional/conservative understanding that God determined every word, then what is our understanding of Biblical authority?

In other words, if God didn't dictate it, then what makes it sacred and authoritative?

Follow me below the fold for some notes on her talk, which she described as a possible model, a sort of wondering out loud, how to understand these questions.

Mahanoy and I got to talking in another diary about how the theological significance of worship differs in various traditions, and thought this would be a good topic for a blogathon (ha! I remembered the word!) so that we could get as wide a discussion as possible.

I've also been meaning to start an occasional series on "The Theological Significance of (something)", so this seemed like a good start to it.

Follow me below the fold to read about one Catholic's understanding of the theological significance of worship; and please post your own diary this week, on the theological significance of worship, specifically communal worship, in your own tradition.

There's lots of good stuff coming up in the Baltimore area in the next few months: public lectures by theologians, informal courses, and interfaith prayer opportunities.

Follow me below the fold to see why I'm so excited that September is finally here!
And drop me a line if you plan to attend any of these - maybe we can meet up.

Given the theme of our Bible study this week, it seemed a good time to write this diary that's been on my mind for a while.

I was raised to be afraid of poor people. Not all poor people, but the ones who ask you for money on the street.

I was raised to believe that if you gave them money once, they'd hit you up again every time they saw you. That if you gave one person money once, you'd be swarmed by more people asking for more money. That if you gave money and it wasn't enough, they would abuse you and threaten you to make you give them more. That if you gave them money, they'd see you as an easy mark and set out to take advantage of you in other ways too. That more often than not they were drunks or hopped up on drugs, and drunks and (especially) druggies were dangerous and would do anything to get enough money for their next fix.

And as a girl, then woman, I was raised to be afraid of people on the street, anyhow.

I went to Mass today, and encountered scripture readings that were a direct follow-on to Pax's Give Me Shelter diary over the weekend.

Deuteronomy 10:12-22
Psalm 147
Mt 17:22-27

Unfortunately, the homilist chose to focus on obedience even when God asks you to do strange things, so I thought I'd roll my own social-justice homily: