Glorious St. Joseph, model of all who are devoted to labor, obtain for me the grace to work in the spirit of penance in expiation of my many sins; to work conscientiously by placing love of duty above my inclinations; to gratefully and joyously deem it an honor to employ and to develop by labor the gifts I have received from God, to work methodically, peacefully, and in moderation and patience, without ever shrinking from it through weariness or difficulty to work; above all, with purity of intention and unselfishness, having unceasingly before my eyes death and the account I have to render of time lost, talents unused, good not done, and vain complacency in success, so baneful to the work of God. All for Jesus, all for Mary, all to imitate thee, O patriarch St. Joseph! This shall be my motto for life and eternity. - Prayer of Pius X

Friday, March 20, 2009

Pastoral Letter from the House of Bishops

Here's a link to the letter drafted by the bishops meeting in Hendersonville, NC this past weekend. It's pretty poor theology.

View the pastoral letter here.

Posted by JR at 6:15 AM

4 comments:

__REV__ said...

JR, you indicated "its pretty poor theology." First, what specifically did you not like? Secondly, did you intend that statement to be irony? For I found very little theology in the letter at all. Much of it seemed to focus on "we, the Episcopalian Church" and not God (the focus of theology proper).

I too found the piece bothersome. Not only because it took way too many words to say way too little (wow was a lot of that religious babble), but also because of several of the claims.

1. that we Americans who've lost money can now somehow identify with the prodigal son. Huh? Israel in the exile? Or some more generic interpretation of a backslidden Jew who must repent and follow Jesus? Huh?

2. that we Americans who've lost money can now somehow identify with the world's poor and real suffering (and the letter went on to reference Romans 5). Huh? My IRA has lost most of its value and THAT is suffering?! That helps me identify with the majority world?! Dear God, save us if that's what we think!

REV

March 23, 2009 at 11:35 AM
__REV__ said...

Hey all!

Check this story out!

http://ktis.nwc.edu/fr_article.php?id=6369&cid=5

March Gladness! Yes! Now we can end poverty just by filling out those brackets! GO HEELS!!!

REV

March 23, 2009 at 11:43 AM
JR said...

Rev, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said "I found very little theology in the letter at all." I simply note that everything that the bishops say reflects SOME theology, even if it be a theology that we don't recognize as particularly Christian. That's where I chose to leave the critique. I suppose I could have written a very long post critiquing nearly every statement of the letter, but I'll leave our readers to do that for themselves by comparing what we have to say here on the blog and what the bishops' letter has to say regarding the poor.

March 23, 2009 at 2:04 PM
__REV__ said...

Gotcha. Wonderful. Thanks

REV

March 24, 2009 at 12:05 PM

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