Skip to main content

My Advent Wish

Less than 24 hours remain in Advent 2014, and while the season hasn't been particularly hard, life itself has been.  Reflecting back, I think my life has been in a semi-tailspin since late January 2012, from which I've only partially recovered.
Without revealing too much, I've been struggling to overcome a habitual sin that has plagued me for far too long; my economic contribution to my family has been negligible, and I've been ambivalent about joining the Roman rite of the Catholic Church since Spring 2012.
What I (think) need is a priest who can find that balance in the confessional between saying, "Quit Fu@&ing around" and "Jesus loves you more than you can imagine, keep following Him, do not, under any circumstances, take your eyes from Him."


Does anyone in SE Michigan know of such a priest?
Here's hoping your Advent has been fruitful.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Rachel said…
Scot, I'm sorry you're having such a tough time. Confession is still weird for me. It's one of those sacraments that I love and hate at the same time. Actually, I hate it ahead of time, and love it afterwards. :) Here's a post by Fr. Stephen Freemen (OCA, sorry) that I found helpful: http://blogs.ancientfaith.com/glory2godforallthings/2014/12/05/youre-not-better/

As for finding a priest for confession, you might want to try a priest at one of the Byzantine Right churches--he might be able to draw from a well of spiritual praxis that a priest from a more western background might not automatically think of.

You are right, Jesus does love you more than you can imagine. When I'm particularly unsettled, I find the Jesus Prayer to be peace-giving.

I'll be praying for you.
December 28, 2014 at 8:43 PM
Scot said…
Thanks, Rachel. I don't think anybody *loves* confession singularly. It's always afterward that we are glad we went.
January 16, 2015 at 1:48 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Good reads of 2009

I haven't made a list like this in a while, and I believe I discussed most of these on the blog as I finished them, but I thought I'd make a handy short-hand list for you and me. These are only in the order I read them and do not indicate any preference. The Open Door * Frederica Mathewes-Green The Children of Hurin * J.R.R. Tolkien The Omnivore's Dilemma * Michael Pollan Agrarianism and the Good Society: Land, Culture, Conflict, and Hope * Eric T. Freyfogle Wonderful Fool * Shusaku Endo Up the Rouge: Paddling Detroit's Hidden River * Joel Thurtell and Patricia Beck Johnny Cash and the Great American Contradiction: Christianity and the Battle for the Soul of a Nation * Rodney Clapp (I started the following in December, but I haven't finished them--so far they are excellent: Love and Hate in Jamestown * David A. Price and The Picture of Dorian Gray * Oscar Wilde) Try one of these--let me know.
6 comments
Read more

Worth Quoting

There are but three social arrangements which can replace Capitalism: Slavery, Socialism, and Property.                                                                                                 --Hilaire Belloc                                                   ...
8 comments
Read more

Thing 10

Why did you select it? Were you also able to download a video? On my previous post I knocked YouTube--and I stand by that knocking, but I did say there were some worthwhile things on there. Here is one of them; I discovered this in the summer of '07 on two different blogs. While not a perfect fit for the idea of localism, it certainly is a jeremiad against globalization. A British group bemoaning a loss of their culture (oh, yes, it is rich with irony, but these aren't imperialists). Enjoy. I tried a couple of different videos to download including this, but to no avail. Zamzar is interesting and could be useful for the classroom, but I kept getting "file has no extension" error messages. I'll have to try again.
3 comments
Read more