This is my face my first day in Assisi on Spiritual Pilgrimage…
I am lucky enough to have been born to a man and marry a man who both were in Seminary. Although I am not sure how lucky it was for them. God must have seen me coming and said, “ALERT! This one is going to need extra scaffolding!”
For as long as I can remember, I have been intrigued by people who do the right thing despite consequences. I am innately drawn to S.S.D’s: Spiritual Shit Disturbers.
Like Dr. Martin Luther King whose “I Have a Dream” speech could be heard echoing through my childhood home regularly from our record player in the living room.
Like Father Richard Rohr who refers to God as He and She and a whole bunch of other magical, mystical, cosmic shit that lights me UP.
Like our good friend, Father Rusty, who welcomes everyone in receiving communion (A CATHOLIC SACRAMENT) even though (GASP) they may not be Catholic (DOUBLE GASP).
Side note - SHOUT OUT to the bakery crew at Holy Spirit Church Pre-Pandemic for their honey baked wheat Jesus communion bread that stuck in my craw until I was headed to the parking lot after Mass. It was like taking Jesus to go.
Recently, a friend shared her experience after traveling to the deep south to visit a conservative Catholic friend.
“It was so strange. I felt like Jesus was watching me EVERYWHERE. On the wall in the living room. Hanging on a cross above the mantle. Placed next to the “Live - Love - Laugh” sign purchased at Hobby Lobby. It was unsettling.”
To which I said, “Girl, I have all that same shit in my house,” (minus Live-Laugh-Love).
To which she said, “Yes, but it’s different. I don’t know how. But it’s just different.”
A mere 24 hours later, someone who I just met more recently shared, “I love your reverence for Mother Mary, and then how you drop the F bomb in the very next sentence. I really have never met anyone like you.”
My view is simply this: Catholicism built my faith foundation, and I have used what works for me to open a 24 hour roller skating rink that serves lemonade and home brewed beer. The Torah and the Bible. Shamanism and Feminism. We have traded fear and shame for all-you-can-eat grace and worthiness.
Jesus was LOVE in real time, man. So was Buddha. I digress.
I have left “The Church” due to Patriarchal dogma. But I love me some Jesus. Also I don’t trust anyone who proselytizes He is the ONLY WAY to Eternal Salvation. Some of the most judgmental, rigid, inflexible folks I have ever met call themselves “Christians” (sorry, not sorry).
I witnessed a pastor during a funeral, of all places, attempt to “SAVE” anyone in his captive audience who may not be deemed a Christian. What was he trying to save them from? Life on Earth? The Highway to Hell? Believe me when I tell you, I held on a full-on conversation, like JESUS was actually riding shotgun in my Prius on the way home from that mess. I apologized to Him, saying, “Shaming people while cattle prodding them with fear is NOT why you came I am so sorry.” Can you tell this topic fires me up?
In an effort to sort out my own Religious Existential Crisis, I have come up with some Fundamental differences I have discovered between “Christianity” and Spirituality. I am simply speaking from my own experience.
Christianity
Guided by rules
Fearful reverence
Rituals can become stagnant
One way
Told what is true
Obedience encouraged
Told God is outside of you
Question nothing
Deemed Unworthy/Sinner
Forgiveness achieved through man
Faith/Spirituality
Guided by Intuition
Grateful reverence
Rituals ebb and flow
Many ways
Seeking what is true
Exploration celebrated
God is EVERYWHERE
Question everything
Deemed inherently worthy / Learner
Forgiveness achieved through grace
Which team would you pick?
My faith formation is embedded under my fingernails like DNA from a crime scene. And I am grateful for it! I have also been told by the female Catechism Director at my local parish that I was not “Catholic” enough to hold circles for my own faith! When I set up a meeting to discuss this with my Priest (whom I love BTW), he said, “Michelle, catch the ones who have left the church.” Fast forward to present day: that’s me.
May I share where I encounter God the most?
In the Italian storekeeper who patiently shows me how to pay for bananas despite the line forming behind me.
In the gentle deer who stops to watch me hiking and then walks beside me on the trail.
In any and every baby who I make silly faces at for no reason! Talk about a straight IV bag of GOD from GOD.
There is nowhere God is NOT. But if you don’t believe that, I will never, ever try to convince you otherwise. What if we walked through the world, simply repeating the mantra…“I am a miracle. So are you. I am a miracle. You are too.”
Our only job while we’re here?
💜Remembering it.
Father Rusty pictured far right with a unicorn headband
#spiritualshitdisturbers for the win
💜You can find out more about our community that embraces everyone exactly as they are at www.myvillagewell.com
WYK, YK!!
Right beside you all the way and in all ways. (Donna thank you.)
Michelle, 🌺
I couldn’t agree more! This is how Christ, our brother, went about it…..hanging out with basically ‘the ghetto folk’ and loving every moment….we are the ones that need his teachings, love, grace; to be able to pass forward!
You wrote this piece beautifully, darlin…
P.S. I call myself
‘an expanded catholic/christian’ I think that covers it!
God’s speed…..♥️🦋😇