You are the first to contribute text to this thing….except for my daughter. I am not ready now to respond to your comment, and I like the image. I will be out of town for more than a week, but I will pick up on this when I return. It looks like fun in a challenging sort of way.
My daughter opened this blog for me, and I want to use it to correspond with members of Spirit of St. Stephen’s. I would like to exchange views regarding our identity: e,g.do you see yourself as Catholic (which seems to be a common acceptance), but more than this, how do we understand that identity? I would also like some discussion on our form of worship. We say at the beginning that our prayer has evolved over the years: and yet, I see no real change in the main prayer we offer together. The language changes, but not the form. Can we do better? What would constitute “better”?
I am also concerned personally concerning my stepping away from the institution as I know it….in the sense of my understanding of what it is that I am doing. Am I totally separate? If Catholic, in what way(s) do I see myself connected to the ongoing institution? I had a similar experience of distinguishing my view of the church as Vatican 2 was in progress. It seemed to me at that time that the experts were influincing the hierarchy to take positions that many, esp. Americans, did not understand. In particular, Vat. 2 documents and the discussions surrounding the form of the documents. were clearly introducing reform.
My present experience is that these reforms are not so much in evidence and I am again experiencing my vision as not only not the norm, but in so many ways rejected and declared outside the magisterium. This has sent me to inform myself re. my vision: is it within the central tradition or is it outside?
I would like to discuss this with others and share what we have been reading to keep ourselves in touch with our beliefs as Catholic. So this constitutes my initial text. I plan to inform as many as I can re. this blog with the hope we can do something constructive.
