Catholicism and Conflict

Last night for sprituality night we had our neighbor/support couple/parish youth director over to facilitate a conversation about some beef my catholic housemates have with the catholic church. This stemmed from a contemplative mass we went to two weeks ago at the Jesuite parish where the homily reading were from the Genesis passage where Eve is created from Adam's rib, and a Gospel passage about marriage and divorce. The Homily left people wanting more. There was potential for so much to come from these readings and the priest kept his main points to that of  "Jesus thinks Divorce is a sin."

Our discussion was mainly centered around the role of women in the church and how the church can remain relevant in a changing society. I learned a lot about the priesthood, why it is limited to celibate men and so on. Crunchy (youth director) made an interesting point: the priest is in charge of so much, he is solely responsible for what goes on in his parish on the business end, the religious end, and everything in between ; so how could he do all that successfully and also be a good husband and father? But I asked how he sees that in relation to protestant churches. He said that in his experience, protestant churches have a big spread of power. There is a head pastor, and associate pastors, and deacons etc. But that doesn't work in the Catholic church because they try to maintain unity and "control" by keeping the chain of command very short.  If a bishop needs to check in with a parish, he only has to talk to one person to know everything that is going on in that parish. And the whole woman thing: besides Crunchy and the priests, all of the parish employees that make the church run are women. Many with masters in divinity. The same degree that priests have. So maybe there will be a change in the future. who knows....

But this discussion left me confused. I was learning a lot, but all this talk about catholicism was unsettling. After a conversation with my parents I realized what was bothering me... I think... The separation of Catholics and Protestants. I feel like I am placing so much emphasis on the differences when we come from the same family. I guess the minimal theology classes and history classes I took at Whitworth felt fairly ecumenical. Catholic church history is my church history too, to an extent. I can't reconcile the institutionalism of the catholic church. It is just such a big presence and personality that it's sometimes hard for me to see Christ beyond the politics. And to rub salt in the wound, I have a housemate who cannot miss a Sunday mass. Not that that is a bad thing, but he feels that it is a sin not to take communion every sunday at mass. So if I want to go to a protestant church and invite my housemates to join me (like I am this Sunday), he will wake up extra early to first go to mass, then come to my church service. I feel like he's saying I'm not good enough. But don't we worship the same God at each church? Doesn't God know what's on his heart when he sits down in a worship service? Where's the unity? Where's the trust? Where's the reconciliation? I don't know.

Perfect Autumn Day

For our community event this past week, my housemates and I decided to spend the day in Hood River and head out to the apple orchards on Sunday. I've heard a lot about Hood River - Ian's best friend Joel is from there - so I was excited to finally see the place. We got into town after a lazy sunday morning around 1:30 and met up with Joel for some coffee and catching up. We swapped stories from our community with those of his girlfriend Christine's experience with JVC in New Jersey, and got the quick tour Hood River - it's not that big. It was nice to spend time with a familiar face. We left Joel to spend the rest of his birthday (I forgot it was his b-day, woops) with friends and continued on our adventure. We hopped on a windy road up into the mountains that led us through scenic viewpoints of Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams and found our way to Rasmussen Farms. This place was AWESOME! Though not as big as Green Bluff back in Spokane, it definatly made me sad I hadn't gone more often when I had the chance. Rasmussen farms had a pumpkin patch, hot cider, a corn maze, and barrels of apples and squash for the taking. By the time we got there, it was late afternoon, the sun was low and golden, the air crisp and fresh, it was the perfect fall day. We wandered through the corn maze, picked out some delicious looking pears, apples, and squash to take home, and then got to pick out our pumpkins! Because we used community money for the pumpkins (we're going to roast the seeds and make pie/soup from the flesh), we tried to keep them pretty small, but it was hard to find the right one. I probably took the longest to finally decide, but we were all happy with our choices. Now we just have till the week before Halloween to carve into those suckers. We finished the day off with a nice Full Sail beer at the brewery back in the Hood. 

Whitworth Wedding Weekend

My friend Ben Parker got married this past Saturday in Portland. In addition to being a beautiful wedding, it was also an wonderful reunion of my Whitworth friends in good 'ol P-town. I got to spend the day running some errands with Annie D - a breath of fresh air to be with someone who get you instantly and doesn't have to work so hard to just be. Once at the church in Lake Oswego, it was like a constant excitment fest. I kept seeing one person after another - some whom I hadn't expected see and some whom I had only hoped I'd get to see again. I know I'm a usually smiley person, but there was a perma-grin on my face for the whole evening. The ceremony was beautiful and Christ centered - even though Lindsay and I couldn't stop chatting - and the reception full of joking around and good catching up. After a little cake and dancing, we wished the happy couple well, ushered them in to the elevator of the hotel then Annie, Nate, Dan and I headed out to McMenamin's Crystal Ballroom for a beer. I can't explain how great it was to catch up with these people who were fundamental in my growing up, in how I became who I am today, who know me and love me for who I am, who I don't have to prove myself to, who I have a common story with. I was able to talk about life and spirituality and receive unconditional love and support. And to simply laugh with good people. A wonderful night with good friends: i felt at home.

makes me home sick for whitworth

Success!!

I've had a breakthrough! Okay, so this whole "Keep Yourself Healthy" class series has been a real downer, but it is something that I am really interested and should be excited about planning. So finally today I feel like am getting there. The classes weren't working out on Tuesday night: it wasn't ideal for patients, the teacher we wanted just started water aerobics instructing classes on tuesdays, and I would have had to add a third late night to my schedule... no good. BUT what about Saturday? The space we want to use is most likely available, our teacher is ready and excited to teach, and our patients preferred a morning class to a late night class. YAY! I also got to spend most of this morning designing a pretty awesome looking flyer, got great feedback from my boss and successfully navigated a phone conversation in Spanish to figure out how to best advertise. I feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Next week - nail down dates, figure out curriculum, and start signing people up!

By the way - our clinic manager was sick on Wednesday, and I got to run clinic ALL BY MYSELF... well with the help of our nurse... but only a little. I was the go-to Spanish speaker for intake and rocked it :)

Fall is here.

I’m not quite sure how it happened. Almost all of September was Beautiful and sunny and somewhere around 80 degrees. But slowly in the last week, the mornings have been a little more crisp, infiltrating our poorly insulated house. The afternoon sun has been more amber, not quite as bright. Maybe because I’m not in school for the first time in 17 years this I wasn't ready for it to come. It really hit me last night and this morning. I walked home barely avoiding the drizzle, hoping to bike out to Powell Butte with Gretchen and go for a short evening hike. I don’t know if it was just the clouds but by the time I was home at 6:15 it was so dark! I don’t remember it being this dark when I got home from work last week. The only real option was to throw on the sweats, make a nice warm pasta and drink a glass of wine with the girls. After work activities are no longer an option. Then this morning on late-start Wednesday, I got up to go for a run, but couldn’t make myself get out of my warm bed and expose myself to our cold house. Eventually I did and got ready to go running and had to throw on my long sleeve shirt so I didn’t catch a cold.

Dark Skies, Long Sleaves, and Sweats. Fall is Here.