Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Liberal Catholic, An Oxymoron?

I was inspired to search for answers on whether I could simultaneously be a liberal and a Catholic. I have encountered many people who have told me that I cannot call myself Catholic while holding liberal beliefs b/c they don’t jive with Rome. I wanted to know if these people were right b/c their argument did sway me. Of course my search included the blogosphere where I found many blogs by and about liberal Catholics (nice to find these folks). I emailed one of these bloggers, who was kind enough to send me a lengthy reply. Here are some brief excerpts from Joe's email.

Conservative view:

Baptism leaves an "indelible mark" on the soul - an[] eternal and unchangeable imprint of Christ....
In conservative theology, it is metaphysically impossible to be separated from the Roman Catholic Church except by a formal declaration of excommunication which must be made explicitly using your name by a bishop.
Liberal view:

Jesus of the Gospels is always going after the "lost sheep" and the "prodigal son". He eats and drinks with prostitutes, treasonous tax collectors for the foreign occupation, lepers and other outcasts. He is even executed as a criminal with criminals by state authority with sanction from religious leaders. Jesus came to call sinners - not the self righteous.
I take Joe’s word for it, he seems very knowledgeable. I will surely research Catholic dogmas as well. So in other words, yes, I can call myself Catholic and a liberal. And neither the Church nor anyone else can tell me otherwise.

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Posted by Oni at February 27, 2007 | | Comments

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Negative Energy

Hubby and I decided to drive to Culver City to check out the Agape Spiritual Center. I wanted to check out Agape b/c Rev. Dr. Michael Beck was on Oprah's show regarding "The Secret." Hubby is an agnostic but graciously provided me his company. As soon as we pulled into Agape's parking lot, hubby stated, "I don't like this place, I feel like it's sucking away my positive energy." I was definitely alarmed. My husband isn't hippy-dippy or into energy or any of that stuff. I also didn't feel right and my head started hurting. I looked at hubby and I asked him if he was being serious. He replied, "of course I'll go in with you, but honestly, I prefer not to." I quickly zipped out of the parking lot. As soon as we hit La Cienega, driving away from Agape, both hubby and I felt better.

Just strange. Simply strange. We went to the local Catholic Church in our hood to take some time to be still and thank God for our many blessings.

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Posted by Oni at February 25, 2007 | | Comments

Friday, February 16, 2007

Goals This Week

Getting started this week on my research on the Law of Attraction.. here are my goals:
  1. A blogger reached out to me because we both suffered a miscarriages in December. It was random/fate. I first read about The Secret from her website. I purchased the book today. I will watch the movie this weekend and read the book this week.
  2. Attend a meeting with like minded people to discuss the Law of Attraction.
  3. Check out the Agape International Spiritual Center (conveniently located in L.A.)
I will have an open mind during this journey.

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Posted by Oni at February 16, 2007 | | Comments

The Law of Attraction: Challenge

One of the main reasons I started this blog was due to my interest in the law of attraction. Of course I am a doubting Thomas and the self-created doubts kept me from fully exploring this new way of thinking. The things that I know that are true about myself are the following:
  • I lose hope easily.
  • I have a blessed life, meaning I have an amazing husband, a good job and wonderful friends and family; yet, I am often plagued with bouts of "woe is me" syndrome.
  • I am a pessimist.
  • I recognize that this is not a good way to live.
My dad has endless hope and optimism, I have a lot to learn from him as well as others. As I have written in previous posts, my dad was not lucid for 1 1/2 weeks. The doctors had given up hope. They felt that chemo was simply not an option in his state. Further, his oncologist and team of doctors told us that even if chemo was an option, his chance of survival is slim. When my own father couldn't recognize me, I lost all hope. I thought this was the end. Bengali Dude is a lot like me and he too lost hope. We wallowed in self-pity.

Siva works for my parents part-time and has been quasi-adopted by my family, as his family is in India. He has a rich unshaking faith. He came to see my dad, b/c he is that kind of wonderful person, and he never lost faith that my father would recover. He repeated several times, "do not lose faith, he will get better, believe in that." I dismissed him. While I found his faith to be inspirational, I also found it to be delusional. On Valentine's Day, my mom and I went to see my dad armed with roses, he was completely lucid. My dad was his old self. I asked him if he wanted chemo and he mustered up all the strength inside of him and said, "Of course I do. I'm going to live. I'm going to see my grandchild. You promised me that we would celebrate New Year's Eve with my grandkid." Where does my father find this eternal optimism? Where does he get these convictions?

Clearly I am doing something wrong. I want that kind of hope. I want to always be happy. I don't want to sit here, with such a blessed life, and ever be depressed for a moment. I want to change. I need to change. My way of thinking has done nothing good for me, NOTHING. Yes, I write posts about being positive, but that is so fleeting with me. Pathetic.

Siva had been raised by a devout Hindu family and he lost touch with that. Two years ago he was inspired to be connected to his faith. Being an engineer, he needed to set up an experiment to see whether the faith could bring value to his life. He decided to give himself a finite period of time where he would re-learn his faith and embrace it in order to evaluate the faith's utility. I am going to do the same. I have met too many people the last few years that have steered me towards the law of attraction. I don't know why. What I do know is that I have to believe that it's for a reason and not just a mere coincidence. For the next 30 days, I will practice the law of attraction and each post will be dedicated to my journey.

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Posted by Oni at February 16, 2007 | | Comments