Humans

Wow, there is not much going on in my life at the moment! I find it amazing but true.. This is not a bad thing, though. Without there always being homework to be done, worship to be prepared and people to call, I find I actually have time to consider which things are important to me and spending time doing it.

This is a whole new season in my life and I've become quite addicted to this new, simplistic, way of life. In some ways it compares to the increasingly popular 'desert-times' - life-eras without many distractions and time consuming pre-occupations. I can actively choose the elements in my life and prioritize them.

Okay, I'm repeating myself, but my point is that it is the time spent in reflection/'meditation' that matures me. Having the capacity to refuse to face the consequences of my actions, it is high time that I took time to meditate on them. This creates awareness and a more concrete foundation for future decisions - big and small. A.k.a. maturity.

Okay, I'm rambling and pretty much rephrasing an earlier post of mine..

I am the proud owner of a King James Version-bible and reading Phillipians last night got me thinking about Saint Paul's view on what we humans are made of. I've always thought body, soul and spirit. He thinks it differently. Check it out and let me know your thoughts - if you can be bothered.. ;)

Catholicism

Stirred by the first Encyclical Letter of the Pope Benedict XVI sent to me by a friend, I looked up the Vatican's homepage and was surprised, amazed and joyed to find wholesome meditations, insightful prayers and wisdom on the internet. All in a delightfully and, I think, appropriate ceremonious tone. Check it out for yourselvses!

www.vatican.va

Here's an appetizer from the abovementioned Encyclical Letter:

"How might love be experienced so that it can fully realize its human and divine promise? Here we can find a first, important indication in the Song of Songs, an Old Testament book well known to the mystics. According to the interpretation generally held today, the poems contained in this book were originally love-songs, perhaps intended for a Jewish wedding feast and meant to exalt conjugal love. In this context it is highly instructive to note that in the course of the book two different Hebrew words are used to indicate “love”. First there is the word dodim, a plural form suggesting a love that is still insecure, indeterminate and searching. This comes to be replaced by the word ahabà, which the Greek version of the Old Testament translates with the similar-sounding agape, which, as we have seen, becomes the typical expression for the biblical notion of love. By contrast with an indeterminate, “searching” love, this word expresses the experience of a love which involves a real discovery of the other, moving beyond the selfish character that prevailed earlier. Love now becomes concern and care for the other. No longer is it self-seeking, a sinking in the intoxication of happiness; instead it seeks the good of the beloved: it becomes renunciation and it is ready, and even willing, for sacrifice."

Very culturally relevant and beautifully insightful. They don't become popes for nothing!