Always Reforming

It's never easy to lose a loved one.  Whether he is young or old, terminally ill or in the prime of his life, there is always pain.  There is always a void. That being granted, one of the most underappreciated gifts is the opportunity to say goodbye.   I never had the opportunity to say goodbye to Mom. Not really. I was at the theater watching The Return of the King the night she choked and had to be resuscitated.  She was never conscious again.   She lay in that hospital bed as we wondered about the future.  The machines kept her blood circulating and we gave her permission to find her rest. We may have said our goodbyes, but I don't think she heard them.  If she heard them, she couldn't reply. We never dreamt we would lose our father as suddenly, indeed, more suddenly, than we had our mother. Mom had been sick most of my childhood.  Dad had always been relatively healthy. Mom had suffered a stroke--not her first--about a year before sh...

If you have interacted with me on social media, you know that I have always been outspoken on the issue of Paedocommunion .  It is a theological position and a liturgical practice about which I am passionate.  Having been raised, and having raised my children, at the Table, I cannot imagine attending a church that didn't allow PC.  I hope that when I am old and gray, I will still be an advocate for bringing little children to the Sacrament. Throughout the 12 years that I have had this blog, I have written scattered thoughts on the topic, but it appears that I have never written a concise summary of my reasons for affirming PC.  I was thoroughly convinced that I had, but I can't seem to locate it, so I guess I never did.  So, to rectify the omission, here are four reasons I hold to PC. 1) Paedocommunion is Biblical.   Any discussion of the topic should start here, and I would hope that both sides of the debate would make this assertion.  However, l...

The older I get, the more I lean into orthodoxy.  As a general rule, I am wary when I hear the terms cutting-edge , novel , groundbreaking , or progressive applied to theology. Orthodoxy is objective.   Orthodoxy is bigger than me .   Orthodoxy is a standard outside of myself--my weaknesses, my blind spots, my biases--to which my theology conforms. Orthodoxy is stable. Orthodoxy is an anchor that keeps us from this tossing about with every  wave of doctrine .  Theology has an unfortunate tendency to adapt, both to the culture around us and to the storm within us.  We too often import current cultural values into Christianity because we don't want to be out of touch or old-fashioned.   We also allow our personal experiences--triumphs and failures, successes and hardships--to color the way we view God and interpret His Word.   We believe what we want to believe. We are masters of self-deception--we can convince ourselves of any...