It's the customary promiscuity and killing meme, "orientations".
We have orientations towards pornography.
We have orientations towards sexuality outside of the Sacrament of Marriage.
We have orientations towards adultery.
We have orientations towards group sex.
We have orientations towards coveting thy neighbors goods, pride, lust, anger, greed.
We have orientations towards killing the child in our womb.
We have orientations towards drunkeness, rape, murder.
This fellow had orientations to kill his sisters.
Austin Fleming either skipped theology classes on concupiscence and what to do with wild urges, or he's deliberately playing word games with his flock that lead them into their temptations.
Grab your orientations and sit in his pews if you're looking to enjoy the fruit of fostering them. The only orientation you won't see promoted at his digs is the orientation towards penance and Confession.
***UPDATE
Of Note is "A Concord Pastor Comments" recent posting here on today's Readings.
Christ, rather than be unfaithful to God, suffers such a hideous beating that every drop of Blood was drained from His Body. He gives witness to what lengths we must go to in order to avoid our orientations.
If your right hand is causing you to sin, cut it off.
Lose your desires, your wants, your needs, lose your life if necessary.
Unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies,
it remains just a grain of wheat.
But if it dies,
it produces much fruit.
Fleming's meme makes fidelity, and in fact Christ's Sacrifice itself, unnecessary. You don't have to be faithful to Christ, random acts of kindness to your neighbor offsets infidelity to God.
He posts an index of admirable social justice acts and summarizes:
If we keep our lives for ourselves, we will lose them.
If we lose our lives in love and service of others,
we will preserve them for eternal life.
The choice is ours.
Lizzie Borden(who was kind to animals and did not litter) and Charles Manson (fed and clothed the girls, gave them free love, weed and happy pills) are wheat that fell to the ground to lose their lives in love and service of others.
The choice was theirs.
They made it.
Preserved for eternal life.
On your way to your booty calls, stop by the soup kitchen.
The other passion of the Christ.
You've got to go a long way to cut faithfulness to God out of Scripture and Salvation. The Boston Presbyterate is what it is, with a handful of exceptions to the farce of a religion they try to tout as Catholic.
3 comments:
Carol, I think you wanted to link to this particular article:
http://concordpastor.blogspot.com/2009/03/michael-paulsons-fine-blog-articles-of.html
Go the upper left of the Concord Pastor blog and search for his take on similar interesting "hot button" topics.
BTW, Concord Pastor's parish Holy Family is sponsoring a VOTF event tomorrow (Monday) night in Monument Hall in Concord, 7:30, on their vision of the church of the future. Good Catholics are needed to share their vision...
Anon,
thanks, I'll correct the link.
Hope the VOTF meeting goes well. Get control of the loot!
Carol, since you asked...The Concord Area VOTF meeting focused on grim talk of dwindling numbers of priests. Audience members were enthusiastic about talking up women priest, married priests. Nobody seemed to want to pray or fast for vocation. The Church is now "the American Church"
There was a bit of talk of the Conn. bill to regulate church finances and parish boards and why can't we try to get something similar going in Massachusetts.
Lots of questions about women's power and place and what to do about the male hierarchy.
Same old people singing the same old tune. I much prefer going to young parishes where everyone's trying to get a new Mass -- in latin usually -- going. That's a higher level feel good group.
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