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Breath of the Spirit

Pastoral, Liturgical, Teaching, and Social Justice Moments brought to you by www.DignityUSA.org.

Breath of the Spirit is DignityUSA’s electronic spiritual and liturgical resource for our members and potential members. Nothing can replace your chapter or other faith community, but we hope you will find further support here for integrating your spirituality with your sexuality and all the strands of your life.

We welcome relevant homilies, inspirational writings, social justice opportunities, or theological articles from other sources also — particularly from wise women and men who can help us grow as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) and allied Catholic/Christians. You may volunteer to help with this program or send your comments by e-mailing info@DignityUSA.org ATTN: Breath of the Spirit.

AUGUST 31, 2008: TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Readings: 
Jeremiah 20, 7-9
Romans 12:1-2
Matthew 16:21-27

As we know from many of the late George Carlin's comic routines, coming into contact with organized religion is part of almost every person's faith experience. Nothing the matter with it, as long as the organized religion we encounter helps us accomplish what it supposedly was created to do: have an experience of God working in our daily lives. Problems arise, as Carlin frequently pointed out, when organized religion only provides us with an experience of organized religion.

AUGUST 24, 2008: TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Readings: 
Isaiah 22:19-23
Romans 11:33-36
Matthew 16:13-20

My recent encounter with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma has given me a deep appreciation of the medical discoveries and advancements we've achieved throughout our history. Those, for instance, involved in my chemotherapy have assured me, "This isn't your parents' chemo. Treatment has changed drastically in just the last 10 years." It doesn't take long for medical discoveries to be integrated into medical practice.

AUGUST 17, 2008: TWENTIETH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Readings: 
Isaiah 56:1, 6-7
Romans 11:13-15, 29-32
Matthew 15:21-28

In hindsight, we humans have a knack of turning past complicated subjects into simple black and white issues. Through the centuries questions become clearer, answers more evident. This is certainly the case with the history of how biblical Jews related with non-Jews, and Jewish-Christians with Gentile-Christians.

AUGUST 10, 2008: NINETEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Readings: 
I Kings 19:9a, 11-13a
Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 14:22-33

Over the last 20 years, more and more students of Scriptures have replaced the familiar, pejorative terms Old Testament and New Testament with Hebrew Scriptures and Christian Scriptures. This switch, as we see from today's liturgical passages, was prompted by biblical, not political correctness.

AUGUST 3, 2008 EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Readings: 
Isaiah 55:1-3
Romans 8:35, 37-39
Matthew 14:13-21

One of the most difficult aspects of studying Scripture is to develop the knack of hearing the text as the author originally wrote it, not as it's been falsely interpreted through the centuries.

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