Ainsi il commence.

[vforvictorhugo]

My parents finally got it into their head that I abhorred public high school. I suppose that it was a fine social environment, but I simply can’t believe the garbage that I was being taught about the arts and humanities. All right, I will admit that I am a little arrogant in that field, though maybe it isn’t arrogance as much as it is extreme

Comments

[aj_of_hippo]

I think that life is a work of beauty.

That's a beautiful statement.

But I have a question: How can you be spiritual without being religious?

At any rate, welcome to Eupheme. I have a well stocked cellar - why don't we have a glass of wine some time?

[vforvictorhugo]

To be spiritual without being religious- yes, it is a paradox, perhaps, for some. In attempt to remain succinct I would say that the spiritual concerns the realm of God and the divine, and the religious concerns the realm of human structures that attempt to explain the spiritual. But I don't know- I very much feel that the Church needs serious reform, but hardly such that it goes in the direction of Protestantism, and even in my disagreements with the papacy I consider myself deeply committed to Catholic ideals and practices.

A well-stocked cellar! I wonder what the Authorities would say. But I would be glad to join you for a glass or two. I don't suppose that you have Pinot Noir or Muscat, those are my favorites.

[aj_of_hippo]

But if you believe in the ideals of Catholicism the two are inseperable. The Church is the body and Christ is the head. If you hold with the Church you hold that it is the One, Holy, Universal, and Apostolic Church established by Christ, and that it is in the vastness of her spirituality and institutions that we find God. It is fine to say that you belive in God, or even that you interact with Him on some level, but is it not written that unless you eat of the body and drink of the blood of Christ you shall not have life within you? Can your spirituality give you that without the sacrifice of the Mass

[vforvictorhugo]

Ah, please don't take my criticism of the Church as the equivalent of admitting that I refuse communion; I attend Mass and take part in the paschal sacrifice. The Church with which I take issue is not the holy, universal, apostolic one that operates on more levels than simply the physical. I take issue with many features of the mortal-run hierarchical system of the Church. And I agree that the Church needs to be reformed, not rejected. It would interest me very much to go to Mass with you.

[burning_blake]

The semesters at Eupheme are endless. Oh wait--that's because I never finished one. Somehow I can't quite tear myself away, though.

Good luck here!

[vforvictorhugo]

I would prefer an endless semester where I learned a great deal to a brief semester where I learned nothing. And whom do I have the honor of addressing?

[burning_blake]

Prepare to learn some very odd things.

I'm Will Blake. You probably won't see me, because I don't go here anymore.