The Practical Parson

Having an emotional connection with one's faith is a wonderful thing, but also one that can be deceptive and dangerous. Many people base their entire faith practice on the emotional feedback they obtain from worship or services, and lose hope when they start to lose their emotional "high" from such. Faith is more than a fevered emotional high experienced during church service with beautiful music and moving scenes; it is a day to day battle against the terror and difficulty of this world, towards a world of peace and hope. Faith is not an emotion to be enjoyed, it is as a child; that one straps to one's back at the start of their journey. Either the child grows and eventually takes you by the hand and helps you onward; or you throw it to the side the moment it begins to cause you discomfort. Faith requires dedication, even when we cannot understand. It requires us to press ever forward; knowing that where we are headed is a brighter day, a brighter hope than w

 On the heels of celebrating the festival of sacrilege and unadulterated hedonism of World Youth Day, everyone's favorite Antipope and AntiChrist took full advantage of his media persona to attack priests.  Accusing any priest who shows care for the liturgy of being "rigid", declaring that all traditionalists are the true problem in the church, and proclaiming that due to the corruption that young traditionalist clergy bring, he himself has had to be personally involved in 'cleaning up the mess'.   Unless you consider "cleaning up the mess" to mean vilely oppressing and persecuting Nuns, parishes, and the catholic faith in general; then he hasn't been doing much of anything he claims.   In point of fact, the single case of priestly corruption he HAS been directly involved in of late, was in pampering and lifting all sanctions off of his brother Jesuit and known rapist of Nuns: Marko Rupnik.   Yes, the great Frankie of Rome, who proclaims to the world

 This past week, the Roman Catholic Church celebrated its "World Youth Day"; an event marketed as a way to get youth reinvigorated in their faith and to give them opportunities for worship.  What World Youth day is, or at least what it has become; is a festival of sacrilege and blasphemy against the sacraments of the catholic faith and Christ himself.   So-called "designer" vestments which look like they were made for a Halloween Costume shop, chalices and patens made from anything but dignified materials, glass bowls for consecrated hosts covered with saran wrap, stages that look like something out of apocalyptic film/ TV series rather than altars of worship of the most Blessed Trinity.  The list of sins World Youth day this year has committed against the dignity of the Christian faith is as long as one's arm; yet the most disgraceful, distasteful, and outright blasphemous act is the manner in which the sacred Body of the Divine Savior was both distributed and