The 'Mark'...

It is Ash Wednesday….

This is the day that beings the Lenten season. I am standing outside the cathedral watching the passersby while inside mass goes on. I’ve arrived early for the noon mass.

It is wet, damp, and dreary outside – fitting for the day which is set to remind us of our mortality and to repent our sinfulness.

There are agents of ‘the church’? Standing in the mist as well with huge cardboard posters of aborted fetuses. They are passing out (or trying to pass out) pamphlets and wishing people a ‘happy Ash Wednesday’ – this strikes me as odd. I am not sure what is so ‘happy’ about Ash Wednesday.

I find these posters offensive. I don’t understand why they feel the need to do this outside the cathedral. One young man merely looked at the guy passing them out and said: ‘Jesus wouldn’t like you very much – it’s about freedom you know….’ – I am struck by his conviction – he seems to be barely 18 years old. I hear a man who is leaving from mass mutter to his friends "I knew the 'fetus' people would be here"...

A woman in a fur length fur coat gladly seems to accept the pamphlet – in my mind hear the Buddhist saying – but murdering all those animals for your fur coat wasn’t a sin eh? As she passes I see her coat is torn very badly in the back and I wonder if she is aware of the vertical tear and I secretly rejoice, wishing I had a squirt rifle filled with ketchup.

The bells toll signaling, the beginning of a new mass; I enter the cathedral and go through mass feeling very upset and a bit angry. I am beginning to feel like a hypocrite – not because I don’t believe in God – but because part of me can’t reconcile with the church on some issues. I receive my ashes – later on I notice they are like the ‘Mark of Zorro’ on my forehead….how fitting (remnants of Charlie Manson’s quote: ‘I have X’d myself from your world’ dance in my head)…

It continues to be dreary – my soul feels heavy and dark, the only thing keeping me going/afloat these days seems to be love.

Q.O.D.

(In regard to Senator Craig and via the ever controversial C2)

Question of the day: Does a person's position as a government official, and his/her voting record in that position, make that person "fair game" to be outed against their will and in such a public manner?

Study: JFK lone-gunman evidence 'not a slam dunk'

Study: JFK lone-gunman evidence 'not a slam dunk'

No kidding....

(I have always been a sort of JFK Assasination 'junkie' - I actually own a copy of the Warren Commission's (useless) report).

Temptation...

Finished this (finally) this weekend...

Whenever I had a chance I was reading – but it’s a very intense book and sometimes was best doled out in small doses...

I am torn about what to say here. In some ways this book made me very angry. In other ways it was one of the most enlightening reads I have had in my life.

The light that was shed on Jesus as a man is fresh, and searing at the same time – you almost feel as if your soul is being held to the fire.

I can totally understand (and similarly condemn) the church’s (Catholic) view on this book. I believe any Christian would be well served reading this novel.

Kazantzakis was incredibly ahead of his time and a very brave man – I don’t want to give away too much though (just in case any of you ARE going to read this book). However in his approach – not only to Christ’s all too real ‘humanness’ but also on the way the betrayal was handled and, on his creation of Christ’s ‘last temptation’ - all swirl together (realistically/and horrifically ), culminating in real moments of soul searching for the reader.

I’d love to talk more in depth about this book and I am hoping to do so, on a much more intense level. I’d love to hear some other opinions from people who have read this book and/or those who fancy themselves ‘scholarly’ in such pursuits – hell (LOL) I’d LOVE to talk to one of our priests about this book.

At any rate…some of the most breath-takingly beautiful passages I have ever read in my life are contained within the pages of this book – I highly recommend this to all of you – be prepared to be challenged and made rather uncomfortable (especially if you consider yourself a Christian).

A beintot mes amis
Colette