Is your religious experience all torn up?

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_madeleine
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Re: Is your religious experience all torn up?

Post by _madeleine »

moksha wrote:
ludwigm wrote:i restauri sono terminati nel maggio del 1996
The restoration was completed in May 1996. (c) google...


Thank you Ludwigm and Madeleine. I ran across this Church in the Wikipedia as one of several in Palermo, but couldn't decipher the Italian without a cyberstone.


Translate.google.com is my friend. Just put the URL in.
Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction -Pope Benedict XVI
_ludwigm
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Re: Is your religious experience all torn up?

Post by _ludwigm »

madeleine wrote:Translate.google.com is my friend.


The other is Holy Ghost. Don't let You disorient with the flesh, which become stinking after a few days.
- Whenever a poet or preacher, chief or wizard spouts gibberish, the human race spends centuries deciphering the message. - Umberto Eco
- To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin. - Cardinal Bellarmine at the trial of Galilei
_RayAgostini

Re: Is your religious experience all torn up?

Post by _RayAgostini »

Blixa wrote:I had a similar reaction, maddy, that he was looking through the ruined structure to some, as yet unseen, but more direct experience...


It seemed to be the light that shone upon the destruction.

For This I Am The Victory

I picture not infinity,
nor understand its galaxy,
I conquer not my enemy
nor understand internally
the waging war afflicting me…
I merely know I’m bleeding.

I fathom not eternity
nor comprehend its heavenly,
I arouse not awakening
the soul affray within me
nor cherish hope of ending
the flood of inward hemorrhaging.

I possess not serenity
without its touch of tragedy
and battle not my enemy
without him ever wounding me
nor enter life eternally
without him finally killing me…

for this, I am the victory.

Songs of Hope and Hell.

How one looks upon life's experiences depends on what one focus on. It could be the destruction, and the despair and hopelessness, or the light shining through it all.

I fathom not eternity
nor comprehend its heavenly..


The photo isn't one meant to reflect the meaninglessness of life, but that even amidst destruction and personal despair - the light will still shine through. We can look in despair at the destruction, or we can look towards the light.
_sock puppet
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Re: Is your religious experience all torn up?

Post by _sock puppet »

RayAgostini wrote:The photo isn't one meant to reflect the meaninglessness of life, but that even amidst destruction and personal despair - the light will still shine through. We can look in despair at the destruction, or we can look towards the light.
Then it was the church that had been, before being bombed, blocking the light. That says a lot about religion, doesn't it?
_MCB
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Re: Is your religious experience all torn up?

Post by _MCB »

sock puppet wrote:Then it was the church that had been, before being bombed, blocking the light. That says a lot about religion, doesn't it?
Not when stained-glass windows add to the ambiance, and help one interpret this earthly experience.
Huckelberry said:
I see the order and harmony to be the very image of God which smiles upon us each morning as we awake.

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/a ... cc_toc.htm
_Jason Bourne
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Re: Is your religious experience all torn up?

Post by _Jason Bourne »

zeezrom wrote:Thanks, good people, for the commentary.

Personally, I feel most inspired by the wreckage among what used to be so perfectly in place.



Yes Z that describes how I have felt though I believe I am moving past that. Most here know that I still participate actively in the Church as a NOMer. IT can be a bit of a conundrum for me and I marvel at how some move through things more rapidly as well as moving on and out more rapidly. LDST for example. I still hold a personal faith or hope if God, as well as the God of Christianity. So I continue to participate. I have not put enough personal study and effort regarding that position of atheists so I am not at the point of rejecting God all together.

Anyway it is all a work in progress. Most days I am quite happy about where I am at.
_Blixa
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Re: Is your religious experience all torn up?

Post by _Blixa »

sock puppet wrote:
RayAgostini wrote:The photo isn't one meant to reflect the meaninglessness of life, but that even amidst destruction and personal despair - the light will still shine through. We can look in despair at the destruction, or we can look towards the light.
Then it was the church that had been, before being bombed, blocking the light. That says a lot about religion, doesn't it?


No, but it might say something about some human constructions of religious belief.

Besides, Ray's point was more about how one interprets experience, than a commentary on religious belief (at least the part you quote was more addressed to this).
From the Ernest L. Wilkinson Diaries: "ELW dreams he's spattered w/ grease. Hundreds steal his greasy pants."
_madeleine
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Re: Is your religious experience all torn up?

Post by _madeleine »

ludwigm wrote:
madeleine wrote:Translate.google.com is my friend.


The other is Holy Ghost. Don't let You disorient with the flesh, which become stinking after a few days.


Now God grant I speak suitably
and value these endowments at their worth:
For he is the guide of Wisdom
and the director of the wise.

For both we and our words are in his hand,
as well as all prudence and knowledge of crafts.

For he gave me sound knowledge of what exists,
that I might know the structure of the universe and the force of its elements,

The beginning and the end and the midpoint of times,
the changes in the sun’s course and the variations of the seasons,
cycles of years, positions of stars,
natures of living things, tempers of beasts,
Powers of the winds and thoughts of human beings,
uses of plants and virtues of roots—

Whatever is hidden or plain I learned,
for Wisdom, the artisan of all, taught me.

For in her is a spirit
intelligent, holy, unique,
manifold, subtle, agile,
clear, unstained, certain,
never harmful, loving the good, keen,
unhampered, beneficent, kindly,
firm, secure, tranquil,
all-powerful, all-seeing,
and pervading all spirits,
though they be intelligent, pure and very subtle.

For Wisdom is mobile beyond all motion,
and she penetrates and pervades all things by reason of her purity.

For she is a breath of the might-of God
and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty;
therefore nothing defiled can enter into her.

For she is the reflection of eternal light,
the spotless mirror of the power of God,
the image of his goodness.

Although she is one, she can do all things,
and she renews everything while herself perduring;
Passing into holy souls from age to age,
she produces friends of God and prophets.

For God loves nothing so much as the one who dwells with Wisdom.

For she is fairer than the sun
and surpasses every constellation of the stars.
Compared to light, she is found more radiant;
though night supplants light,
wickedness does not prevail over Wisdom.

-----

Then the LORD God formed the man out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

-----

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit".
Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction -Pope Benedict XVI
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