Growing up in a Pentecostal church, we rarely ever talked about Mary. When the pastor did mention her, it was almost always in the context of condemning the Catholics as heretics. It didn’t happen often, but he got really fired up about it whenever it did. He clearly had a lot of feelings about Catholics and how much they liked Mary.
I am a Spiritual being. I claim myself to be Pagan. But I do have strong beliefs in the Mother. As well as in the Dark Mother (she does get pissed off). In Calabria, Italy, where half of my family hails from, the churches celebrate the Mother, not Jesus. I’ve heard that there are many places that do this. Someday I would love to write about the origins of this.
I absolutely love your take on the gospels! I am, and always have been (except for my college years), a practicing Catholic, but I appreciate, and look forward to, your very thought-provoking Unholy Sh+t essays. Thank you for challenging me to always keep an open mind on faith in general, and in particular, scripture. Merry Christmas! 🎄 Hope you are feeling better!
Thank you for this wonderful homily. I was raised Protestant and converted to Catholicism. I attend mass but the latest priest from India often gets off the rails and I think wtf. No church is prefect or often near right. However it is in the small ethnic town I grew up in.
I often tell them we have to agree to disagree on lots of stuff.
There's a beautiful song that is often performed at Celebration of Life services at my church, called Requiem. It opens, "Mother Mary full of grace awaken." I love the piece, despite being a dyed-in-the-wool atheist. What a wonderful concept, that there might exist a being so powerful she can intercede on our behalf, and also cares enough to do so.
I am a Spiritual being. I claim myself to be Pagan. But I do have strong beliefs in the Mother. As well as in the Dark Mother (she does get pissed off). In Calabria, Italy, where half of my family hails from, the churches celebrate the Mother, not Jesus. I’ve heard that there are many places that do this. Someday I would love to write about the origins of this.
I absolutely love your take on the gospels! I am, and always have been (except for my college years), a practicing Catholic, but I appreciate, and look forward to, your very thought-provoking Unholy Sh+t essays. Thank you for challenging me to always keep an open mind on faith in general, and in particular, scripture. Merry Christmas! 🎄 Hope you are feeling better!
Thank you for this wonderful homily. I was raised Protestant and converted to Catholicism. I attend mass but the latest priest from India often gets off the rails and I think wtf. No church is prefect or often near right. However it is in the small ethnic town I grew up in.
I often tell them we have to agree to disagree on lots of stuff.
Hope you are feeling better.
There's a beautiful song that is often performed at Celebration of Life services at my church, called Requiem. It opens, "Mother Mary full of grace awaken." I love the piece, despite being a dyed-in-the-wool atheist. What a wonderful concept, that there might exist a being so powerful she can intercede on our behalf, and also cares enough to do so.