The truth is that our theology of sex and gender does not reflect the actual world that God has created for us. It reflects, instead, an understanding from the world of another time.
I love this point, because we cannot take the same stances we've made for thousands of years, they haven't stood the test of time for a reason. People quote the bible on certain issues when humans didn't even understand electricity, why should we hold old passages to the same standard?
Referring to L.G.B.T. people with the name that most now use for themselves is part of the “respect” called for by the Catechism…. Refusing to call a group by the name that most in the group prefer borders on disrespect. L.G.B.T. youth, who are often harassed, bullied and “called names” are especially attentive to disrespectful language.
This whole statement is full of compassion and understanding. Slurs exist to put harmful labels on people, so I don't understand why when people as part of the LGBTQ+ community say they're putting a label on themselves it's bad that they do that. It's a hypocritical double standard that I'm glad someone in the church recognizes.
Pope Francis has spoken out for L.G.B.T. Catholics, saying that God “does not disown any of his children.”
I love Pope Francis for this, because although he's stated that homosexuality is a sin, he's said not to disown anyone or hate anyone for their sexuality. He's starting the change that needs to happen.
Transgender persons are not an ideology. We are not a threat. All of us are a part of God’s great universe, made in the image and likeness of God, a God who is neither male nor female.
This is something that I feel so many people need to understand. Transgender people are seen as "a threat to our children" and often seen as sex offenders trying to push an agenda or fetish. This is blatantly false, transgender people are just the normal people to your left and right, they're the same as you and me.
In gratitude, in ceremony, through acts of practical reverence and land stewardship, in fierce defense of the places we love, in art, in science, in song, in gardens, in children, in ballots, in stories of renewal, in creative resistance, in how we spend our money and our precious lives, by refusing to be complicit with the forces of ecological destruction.
This makes me really happy, just by living your life you can give back to the life given to you. You have been blessed to live, and if you take that life and don't really "live" by just taking and doing everything for the benefit of yourself and not for others.
We can choose again.
Very simple, powerful quote on life. Often you hear about the Earth that it's almost too late or we've already done too much, but as humans we are capable of change, we are capable of making new choices that impact our future. We can make a change to the policies we have that actively impact our day-to-day lives.
So that, thus it is that natural men2 are held in the hand of God, over the pit ofhell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it;
I don't really like this either, it feels so despair filled and unhopeful, it feels like some people are doomed and there's nothing they can do about it. Once they make a decision they cannot change, and they are held to this idea that they are sinners and are going to hell. I hate that idea a lot, that one is forever sentenced to hell if they do not conform to your idea.
The glittering sword is whet, and held over them,and the pit hath opened its mouth under them. . . .
I really like this imagery, even if the whole tone of the passage I don't really like, this is a masterful case of imagery. It's incredibly intimidating, which I feel is somewhat uncharacteristic of Christianity in general.
Gratitude and reciprocity are the currency of a gift economy, and they have the remarkable property of multiplying with every exchange, their energy concentrating as they pass from hand to hand, a truly renewable resource.
If you take this out of context and see it as just gratitude and reciprocity they're talking about, it still rings true. Showing someone gratitude for even holding a door open for you can go a long way, and reciprocating the generosity for something done for you, big or small, means the world to other people. Generosity and gratitude are two very important factors of life.
I can’t help but gaze at them, cupped like jewels in my hand, and breathe out my gratitude.
This sentence makes me really happy, just seeing the small things in life and appreciating how amazing they are that there exists something like this in the exact moment that you live in too. Taking in the little happy things, like that you had something you liked for lunch today, or you saw and got to pet a really cute dog, they provide something that you really have to stop and look at.
Contemporary physics furnishes a striking example. The quest for the unification of all four fundamental physical forces – gravitation, electromagnetism, the strong and weak nuclear interactions – has met with increasing success. This unification may well combine discoveries from the sub-atomic and the cosmological domains and shed light both on the origin of the universe and, eventually, on the origin of the laws and constants which govern its evolution.
Really this whole paragraph is something I was shocked to read, growing up my parents really loved Pope John Paul II and as I get older I kind of see why, reading more about him he was a really intelligent and kind man, he encourages advancements and also knows what he's talking about, it's incredible to see.
Such knowledge and power, as we have discovered, can be used greatly to enhance and improve our lives or they can be exploited to diminish and destroy human life and the environment even on a global scale.
This really stuck out to me, we as people can view things through entirely different lenses, whether that be a lens of destruction or creation and what we can do with our knowledge. I think it's all about how we process new ideas.
For if you are able to bear the entire yoke of the Lord, you will be perfect; but if you are not able to do this, do what you are able.
This line conflicts me, because it really seems like it's telling you to be perfect, which we know to be impossible. Going by Christian teaching, we are inherently flawed as humans, and while it says to do what you are able to do if you cannot "bear the entire yoke of the lord" it still is there, telling you about the possibility of being perfect.
If someone takes your cloak, give him also your coat. If someone takes from you what is yours, ask it not back, for indeed you are not able. Give to every one who asks you, and ask it not back; for the Father wills that to all should be given of our own blessings (free gifts).
I really like the idea of giving yourself as much as you possibly can, and also don't feel bad about receiving when you need it, as giving is such a selfless act and when someone brings that into your life, that's a great service to you and a display of love. Giving more of yourself is really difficult, but every person deserves service done unto them at at least one point in their life.
The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.
The thing I always feel is there is just "it would be easier to not" like, it would be easier to not hold the door open for the flood of people coming through, it would be easier to pretend to not notice I dropped my napkin and let someone else pick it up when in reality it's so easy to do these things.
Except thinking this way tends to be so easy and automatic that it doesn’t have to be a choice.
I think with this it really describes a daily kind of depression that I've heard many times before, that depression is something that wants to take over your mind and make you think about everything negatively because it's just easier that way, it's simpler to just give in and hate everything and everyone but yourself, because it's so hard to fight against it.