{"id":9191,"date":"2017-07-17T22:48:03","date_gmt":"2017-07-17T22:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/?p=9191"},"modified":"2017-07-20T13:17:38","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T13:17:38","slug":"finding-peace-and-god-amid-church-agitations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/finding-peace-and-god-amid-church-agitations\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Peace — And God — Amid Church Agitations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Retreat: Omaha<\/em><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Since the death of Saint John Paul II (the Great), the Church has lurched, sometimes dramatically, from the world of “moto propios”<\/em>\u00a0and “decreta,”<\/em>\u00a0the “consubstantials” at one end, to the “openness” and “tolerance” and “mercy,” the Latin here too (“amoris laetitis”),\u00a0<\/em>at the other.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The ship Saint Bosco envisioned keels. We are in a time of extremes.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Image<\/strong><\/p>\n

The root crisis comes when religosity is more the focus than spirituality, when it is politicized, when average folks — folks who don’t read legalistic blog arguments, who don’t follow every nuance of every exhortation, who don’t study encyclicals, who find homilies of little interest, and rectories bureaucratic — can’t find what they are looking for when they are looking to touch God, to reach Heaven.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

All we need to know: in Australia, Catholic church attendance is now twelve percent.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus told us<\/span> what brings forth Church crises when He said to the crowds and His disciples\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>(Matthew<\/em> 23):<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“<\/span>The teachers of the law\u00a0and the Pharisees sit in Moses\u2019 seat.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people\u2019s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEverything they do is done for people to see:\u00a0They make their phylacteries\u00a0wide and the tassels on their garments\u00a0long;<\/span><\/span>\u00a0they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues;<\/span><\/span>\u00a0they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called \u2018Rabbi\u2019 by others…<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWoe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

“You shut the door of the kingdom of Heaven in people\u2019s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWoe to you, teachers of the law<\/span> and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert,\u00a0and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell\u00a0as you are.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWoe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth\u00a0of your spices\u2014mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law\u2014justice, mercy, and faithfulness.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

“You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

“Y<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span>ou blind guides!\u00a0You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Image<\/span>\u201cWoe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

“You clean the outside of the cup and dish,\u00a0but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

“Blind Pharisee! <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

“First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean…”<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

[Return to\u00a0<\/span>www.spiritdaily.com]<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Retreat: Omaha Since the death of Saint John Paul II (the Great), the Church has lurched, sometimes dramatically, from the.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[44,36],"tags":[1075,1074,712,1000,354],"class_list":{"0":"post-9191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-church","7":"category-commentary","8":"tag-amoris","9":"tag-benedict","10":"tag-church","11":"tag-crisis","12":"tag-pope-john-paul-ii","13":"entry","14":"has-post-thumbnail"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}