MGC March 21. To Forgive is Divine, and it is human too

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Faith Forum July 22

Each week the RGJ publishes a question and response from the various religions in the area.  The Catholic Response is facilitated by myself, and is written by Fr. Chuck Durante, Monique Jacobs, Lauri Anne Reinhart and myself on alternating weeks.  These response can be no more than 150 words.  Here is the question and response for this weekend written by me. Should the Church updates its Teachings on Sexuality? No!...only when we want to. The Catholic Church updates itself through discernment, which means we take our time.  Our updates must be based on objective truths and not solely based on societal subjective beliefs. This means we have to take in information then research, consider our core teachings, and think prudently what is the underlying message and consequences (who, what and why) and then move forward. Human Sexuality is a glorious gift of God.  It guides how we connect with the world and other people. This powerful gift must be treat...
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Loyalty is a virtue. We praise loyalty, whether it is loyalty from our spouse, family, friends and our dogs. Loyalty means to trust in that other. So it involves a relationship of some form or another, almost covenantal. Loyalty itself does not necessarily have a specific reward. I know companies will reward “loyalty” by giving so-called discounts for using them exclusively, but that to me seems a distortion of loyalty. That borders on manipulation. Loyalty’s reward rather is loyalty itself; that relationship, that security that comes with it. Our expectation is that the person, the other will be with us. Anger is the emotional response to when an expectation is not being fulfilled. We expected something of someone, whether another human, an institution, ourselves, God…and it does not happen. The stronger that connection with the other, and the higher the expectation, the more anger we experience.  Do we see a lot of anger right now? Within ourselves, within our world, wit...
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As a Midwest transplant, refugee, or whatever term we can use, I have these moments when I am up on the mountain or in the desert and am struck by an incredible view, and I say “This! This is why I don’t live in Ohio anymore.” Yet..there is another reason too. We do have incredible views here, and so much more is hidden from our sight in the back roads, off the pavement. One thing I have encountered too, is that with the magnificent views, some people say they do not need to go to church. They can find God in nature, in the huge vistas. Okay, but… A jewel of our Catholic heritage is our aesthetics, the beauty of our architecture, the rituals, the music...some 2000 years of tradition honing this, adjusting to various cultures and innovations…. And people will say amid the ritual, in the building, and in the sacrament they can only find God; no where else. Okay, but… There is truth to both, but not the whole truth.  And to grasp a larger truth, it can be necessary to grow in our w...
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