tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7914939.post1186160191472604705..comments2023-10-04T01:27:24.003-07:00Comments on Versus Populum: More, yet ...Dwight P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/15849665963994688905noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7914939.post-15148556729699735632007-06-17T17:44:00.000-07:002007-06-17T17:44:00.000-07:00As a fellow lawyer and soon to be seminarian, I fu...As a fellow lawyer and soon to be seminarian, I fully idetify with your struggle and its outcomes over time. Somewhat of a mirror. I am trying to focus not just upon faith in service but faith in heart and servanthood. By letting God be God we acknowledging that even though we have a hands on the steering will, we must bind ourselves to Christ, rely less upon our perceptions of right, and control and listen for God. I learned in a series on prayer that there are four acts of prayer: we talk, God listens, God talks..we listen. In the end if God's voice suggests activism or speaking up, so be it. Never underestimate the power of one voice. But if God's voice is not clear, try to see the Christ in each person. Not easy for bottom line problem solving people. Blessings on your journey as you continue to become the child God intends you to be.Law+Gospelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04635380643783565043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7914939.post-53017188293294835802007-06-06T15:47:00.000-07:002007-06-06T15:47:00.000-07:00Wow, Chip.-CWow, Chip.<BR/><BR/>-CAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7914939.post-29335097949227016522007-06-04T20:33:00.000-07:002007-06-04T20:33:00.000-07:00"He read his Bible, he said his prayers, and as he..."He read his Bible, he said his prayers, and as he met situations on the road, he dealt with them in the way fitting to the nature of the God about whom he read and to whom he prayed."<BR/><BR/>That is beautiful, and if anything more needs to be said, it is that he who read the Word of God IS the Word of God. "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing..."<BR/><BR/>And as for activism, isn't it interesting that those of us on the so-called "conservative" side of some debates these days are just as guilty of activist assumptions as so-called "liberals." Not only that, but we are guilty of unbridled pride and wrath, as Gregory the Great's Pastoral Rule puts it (II.9):<BR/><BR/>"The ruler also ought to understand how commonly vices pass themselves off as virtues. For often niggardliness palliates itself under the name of frugality, and on the other hand prodigality hides itself under the appellation of liberality. Often inordinate laxity is believed to be loving-kindness, and unbridled wrath is accounted the virtue of spiritual zeal. Often precipitate action is taken for the efficacy of promptness, and tardiness for the deliberation of seriousness. Whence it is necessary for the ruler of souls to distinguish with vigilant care between virtues and vices, lest either niggardliness get possession of his heart while he exults in seeming frugal in expenditure; or, while anything is prodigally wasted, he glory in being as it were compassionately liberal; or in remitting what he ought to have smitten he draw on those that are under him to eternal punishment; or in mercilessly smiting an offence he himself offend more grievously; or by immaturely anticipating mar what might have been done properly and gravely; or by putting off the merit of a good action change it to something worse."<BR/><BR/>Continued blessings on the Way.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7914939.post-29044031400301251592007-06-02T15:43:00.000-07:002007-06-02T15:43:00.000-07:00Thank you, Brother Dwight. Your very thoughtful wr...Thank you, Brother Dwight. Your very thoughtful writing is helpful to me, and I find myself coming to rather the same place (though via another, very different process).Bag Ladyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16664846951194175105noreply@blogger.com