The Five Dollar Bible and an Over-abundance of Ritual and Tradition

I was raised Catholic. When I was young my family would be in church every Sunday and holy day. We would also have a traditional Christmas Eve meal , adhere to Lenten outlines, and have our Easter baskets blessed on holy Saturday. When I was growing up every Catholic household also had several things in common. These were: a painting or lithograph of the Last Supper in the kitchen, a sick-call (which I will explain) hanging on a wall, palms hung throughout the house and a Bible. Much pomp and ritual surrounded some of the items, such as the sick-call. A sick-call was a crucifix mounted on a cross shaped box, usually of wood. In the event someone in the home was deathly ill or dying, the sick-call was brought down off the wall and placed on a table. The crucifix was removed and placed standing in a slot at the head of the box. Inside the box were two candles, which would be placed in holders on either end of the cross-piece, and usually there was a small bottle of holy water inside as well, for sprinkling on the sick person. Around this little makeshift shrine a prayer vigil would be held. All this to pray for a sick loved one. My family had all this and more, but the one thing that got the least amount of use was the family Bible. Ours was a huge thick book, which sat under the phone table(yes, there were little end tables designed just to hold the phone, big, ugly, black rotary ones that you got from the phone company)and was never opened. I used to open it occasionally, just to look at the illustrations, but never to actually read it. After high school, I pretty much stopped going to church, only occasionally; that is, until my daughter was born. My wife and I started going somewhat regularly, and we had our marriage blessed so we could get our daughter baptised.
By the time I reached my thirtieth birthday, I was stung by the need for God. At that time I went with what I knew. I went back to the Catholic church, with a vengence. You see a good Catholic would go to church every Sunday, but a dedicated one would go to confession on Saturday as well. After a time I started little rituals of my own. I would come home from working second shift and sit up for hours reciting prayers from little books, I would say the rosary every night and I would read various pieces of literature that I had. Before too long, this got to be tedious and boring. One thing I didn't do though was read the Bible. I had a couple of New Testaments from years back, so I started reading them. When I started reading the Bible,
something happened to me. A light when on in my head, I began to realize that much of what Catholicism taught wasn't in the Bible. Although the Catholic Church claims that the Bible is the Word of God, and was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, it does not practice what is written in there; in fact the Catholic Church even changed some of it. So, what does all this have to do with a five dollar Bible? Well, the second Bible I ever bought was a King James version and I paid five dollars for it. I got more out of that Bible then I ever did from 30 years of being a practicing Catholic. God doesn't care for how much pomp and ceremony we put into our rituals or how beautifully our homes and churches are decorated. We can have all the trapping of a religious life we want, but God searches only one thing-the human heart. If our hearts are humble before an Almighty God and if we take to that heart all the things that God has written in His Word, then that humble five dollar Bible is more beautiful and more powerful than all the cathedrals ever built. I don't go to a Catholic church any more, haven't for a good ten years, and the only exception I'll make is when a family member dies, but I still have my five dollar Bible and probably will make use of it for the rest of my life.

Laid-back Christianity

In the past few days I've been trying to come to grips with my faith. I call myself a Christian, and I do sometimes act like one, but I'm not without my faults; and one of the biggest hurdles for me to cross is how a Christian should act. I don't mean the obvious, like should I go to nudie bars or do drugs, but rather, what should my disposition be? I'm a pretty laid-back kind of guy. I don't go for flash, and I have no pretensions about myself. A lot of literature that
I have in my possession states that I need to give up just about everything except, perhaps, breathing, but just barely. When I parouse that kind of stuff, I get a mental picture of these dour, stiff-necked people who wear suits all the time, and whose faces would probably crack if the smiled and would explode if they laughed. I don't know if it's just a long dormant stereotype I've got in my head or if I'm just not that committed, but I don't really want to live like that. I
suppose that that's one of the challenges of being a Christian. Like the popular catchphrase goes:
"What would Jesus do?", it's all about trying to emulate the One who's the best model. Did Jesus laugh? Most certainly. Did He cry? Definitely. Would He deny us the joy of celebrating life? I doubt it. More than anything else, Christianity is an individualistic faith. Each person has to find his or her own way. We all have to take responsibility for our own journey, that's why Jesus must become each person's personal Saviour. In the late sixties, some hippy types became involved in what was known as the Jesus Movement. They became Christians in spite of their unconventional ways. Were they accepted by God? I suppose they were. Jesus Himself was a bit of an agitator while He was here, and with all due respect, I can't imagine Him being all dour and sour-pussed. He was probably very lively and animated, He'd have to be to deal with all those Pharisees; who were probably just as serious and stiff-necked as some Christians are today. If you read through the Gospels, you kind of get the impression that part of what Jesus was trying to say was, "Lighten up! Loosen your collars and just enjoy what the Father has given you."Amen to that, Brother, amen.

Gratitude is Necessary

I've been feeling sorry for myself lately; but I really ought not to. Yeah, life kinda sucks right now, but it would seem that there's a lot of people out there right now who are in a worse position. I should stop and thank God for what I have; it's not much, but at least it's mine.

Losing My Way

It sucks getting lost. That's what's happened to me. I lost the person who I was, but I think
I got found again. Now all I have to do is put an idiot string on my compass.
...BTW...this writing stuff is WAY too addicting to ignore; I guess it beats being on crack.