POSTPONED!

Sorry ya'll. I've got a big exam in the morning and I am a bit behind the ball. Look for a fuller post tomorrow afternoon sometime.

In the meantime, the subject matter is Ecclesiology--study of the Church (in Greek--EKKLESIA). It is fascinating. The course largely seeks to unpack the Church's understanding of itself set forth at the Second Vatican Council in a document called Lumen Gentium...meaning "Light unto the Nations." It was THE principal document of the Council on "The Church." This is the culmination of 2000 yrs of growth in self-awareness and self-understanding...on the part of the corporate reality---"The Church." Still though, the Church remains a "People on the Way"...always growing...always striving towards Christ...praying....reflecting...serving...seeking clearer and more relevant understandings of God, His world, His people and His desire for all reality via his Church----that all be ONE with Him...bound in LOVE...forever.

I have quoted it before in one of my posts. I find it to be an extremely beautiful, compelling, and important document. Below is a link to the whole deal, and then a little caveat to wet your interest from Chapter V entitled "The Universal Call to Holiness in the Church."

Whole Document: LUMEN GENTIUM

Caveat: (Paragraph 41) I picked this since there is a little bit for everyone in it.

Furthermore, married couples and Christian parents should follow their own proper path (to holiness) by faithful love. They should sustain one another in grace throughout the entire length of their lives. They should embue their offspring, lovingly welcomed as God's gift, with Christian doctrine and the evangelical virtues. In this manner, they offer all men the example of unwearying and generous love; in this way they build up the brotherhood of charity; in so doing, they stand as the witnesses and cooperators in the fruitfulness of Holy Mother Church; by such lives, they are a sign and a participation in that very love, with which Christ loved His Bride and for which He delivered Himself up for her.(11*) A like example, but one given in a different way, is that offered by widows and single people, who are able to make great contributions toward holiness and apostolic endeavor in the Church. Finally, those who engage in labor-and frequently it is of a heavy nature- should better themselves by their human labors. They should be of aid to their fellow citizens. They should raise all of society, and even creation itself, to a better mode of existence. Indeed, they should imitate by their lively charity, in their joyous hope and by their voluntary sharing of each others' burdens, the very Christ who plied His hands with carpenter's tools and Who in union with His Father, is continually working for the salvation of all men. In this, then, their daily work they should climb to the heights of holiness and apostolic activity.

May all those who are weighed down with poverty, infirmity and sickness, as well as those who must bear various hardships or who suffer persecution for justice sake-may they all know they are united with the suffering Christ in a special way for the salvation of the world. The Lord called them blessed in His Gospel and they are those whom "the God of all graces, who has called us unto His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will Himself, after we have suffered a little while, perfect, strengthen and establish".(226) {1 Peter 5:10}

Finally all Christ's faithful, whatever be the conditions, duties and circumstances of their lives-and indeed through all these, will daily increase in holiness, if they receive all things with faith from the hand of their heavenly Father and if they cooperate with the divine will. In this temporal service, they will manifest to all men the love with which God loved the world.

Alright. My exam is at 3:10AM Central time. Say a prayer for me if you think of it. Thanks!

Talk again soon.

Parting thought......