Thanks to Jennifer Fulwiler, a fellow Texan, for hosting
7 Quick Takes Friday
over at Conversion Diary.com
1
Even though our diocese moves Ascension Thursday to this Sunday, my family and my neighbor's family celebrated with dinner. We'll be getting together again on Sunday, too. You know us Catholics. Any excuse for a party.
2
When a feast day falls on my Fasting for Life day, I still eat bread. This Thursday I had bread cooked on the grill by my friend Rozanne. It truly was too good to be considered "fasting,"
3
Rozanne, who never eats coleslaw, ate coleslaw. She even kept some to eat later. My husband made up this recipe. It's the best.
4
I love the imagery of the Ascension. The Apostles are standing around, gobsmacked, because they just saw something that blew their minds. They are called back to reality by an Angel saying, "Okay, boys, enough with the staring into the Heavens. Get busy."
5
As a Protestant, I had a more mythical idea of the events of the Bible. I never thought of them as real people, as history. The Apostolic Age was separated from our time and God no longer acted in the world. It's likely due to the fact that I was so young when I ceased being Protestant to be an unrepentant heathen. Now, though, as a Catholic, I often put myself in the sandals of the people I read about. I can see me more readily in the "sinning" and "falling short" passages, though. I still wrestle with my golden calves.
6
Which reminds me. All but one of those men died horrible deaths. The first 400 years of Popes were all martyred, too. Ugly deaths. Kind of blows the whole "Christianity was created merely to garner power" meme out of the water, doesn't it?
7
Which also reminds me: Because John was the only Apostle who didn't die a martyr, I used to think he "got away scott free," but lately I've had the insight that all of his friends died horrible deaths. He watched his Best Friend die on the cross, then lost the rest one by one. How hard must the news of each been to bear?
Re #6, as I say to my Pagan friends, "I'll see your Burning Times and raise you a Coliseum." We don't play the victim card, being persecuted is no guarantee of Truth, but if you really want to go there, we have the body count.
ReplyDeleteYeah, unfortunately, we are still racking them up. Africa, the Middle East, Asia. Awful.
ReplyDelete