and Jesus said to his disciples, "I have come to set the world on fire."

[threeplusfire]

Dark grey sky, the damp in the air, the golden light inside the church, the white stone and soaring ceiling all reminded me of caves and castles built under mountains this morning. Mass was beautiful in an unearthly way, with a cellist added to the small choir and piano, voices and strings over the thunder rolling. Amazing, uplifting, that feeling that I belong right here, in this moment, in this space, in this time. The profound connection with God and everyone all at once.

My RCIA work begins in a month, and I will try to fan the flames in one heart. She's 25 and single, all I know. I can't wait to meet her. I hope I can be what she needs for this journey.

Comments

that made me smile

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I like that passage. The revolutionary Christ. Reminds me of an old Cuabn Communist poster, of Christ with a machine gun over one shoulder. Strange, strange image for the Revolution I think. But it was popular.

In some ways, I envy kids who grow up within a church. (Even though my friends hasten to point out that Catholic school or the Methodists or the Baptists or whoever drove them insane.) I can't help but think it must be a good thing to have.

Re: that made me smile

[kokopopo.livejournal.com]

Your encounters with those people show that there are many reasons not to believe, and lots of people to blame for a person not believing. I have met plenty of people whom I felt did not put the Church in a good light. But raising your children in the Church ensures that they have a choice whether to believe.

One can choose not to believe from a foundation of belief, as is anybody's right, but it is so much more difficult to choose to believe without a foundation of belief, as you have.

I am hardly a fanatic, and I confess I have doubts and reservations like many thinking Christians, but my experience in the Church--particularly since we had kids--has been enormously rewarding and enriching. I started regularly going to Church again when my first son was born, for his sake really, out of a sense of obligation, but it turns out that it was as much for my sake.

Re: that made me smile

[ansat.livejournal.com]

That's one of my favorite gospel readings. Jesus the Revolutionary. Along with the parallel passage in Matthew, 10:34-36. Especially v. 34: "Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword." Presumably I've been hearing this passage from Luke every third year for my whole life, but it never really sank in until I was reading commentary on the Gospel of Thomas. Logia 10 has a version: "Jesus said: 'I have cast fire upon the world, and look, I'm guarding it until it blazes.'" Maybe it struck me more because in GThomas it is in a much more apocalyptic setting. Or maybe because I think of Lincoln every time I hear the context in GLuke or GMatthew. "A house divided upon itself cannot stand," or whatever.

Anyway. I only went to Protestant school for a couple of years. I'm suprised how much I remember of it these days. I appreciate some of the things they gave me: Speech therapy; that now badly abused red NIV Bible, which lived with me for a long, long time, and was my main Bible from 1982 to 1999 or 2000; sewing classes; a few interesting memories.

I remember going to chapel, but I remember very little that happened in there, other than finding the full immersion font very foreign.