Saturday, September 01, 2007

Wandering in the darkness (updated)

One of my "must read" bloggers, The Internet Monk, has a wonderful post on "Post-Evangelicals and the Path of Catholic Spirituality." As he mentioned in his post, one of the things I liked most about my years of evangelicalism is that everything was neat and orderly. There was a Bible verse and an explanation for everything. For a control freak like me, this was a bit of manna from Heaven!

I don't say that in a bad way -- the church I attended was filled with faithful, devout people who love God and study the Scriptures to learn His will for their lives.

However, as much as I would like life to be as neat and orderly as I thought it was, it isn't.

One of the things that scared me away from Catholicism when I was younger was all the talk about suffering... the Dark Night of the Soul... and living with questions, mysteries, and faith. Reading the stories of the saints was terrifying for me, as I saw the struggles, sufferings, and heartaches they experienced as they sought to follow Jesus.

As I have gotten older I can't say that I find the questions and the mysteries more "comforting," but I do find them much more realistic.

I must say I'm also half-inclined to buy the book he reviews (since I know my library will never have it on its shelves!), even though I'm sure I will be somewhat disappointed with its take on things.

2 comments:

AnchorMama said...

Saints for Dinner? You've been tagged! :) Pop over to my site to see.

xxxxxx said...

One thing I hear from converts how bad our homilies are compared to the preaching they hear from the pulpit.