Simple Piety

 "Preaching, which interprets the word of God, must be complemented by spiritual conversation, in which a number of Christians enrich one another by sharing insights they have received in prayer. This must be done in all simplicity and humility, and with discretion, but also in a spirit of communion within the Church, in which 'the members . . . have the same care for one another" (1 Cor 12:25). In this the Church develops from the stage of 'children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine' and grows into 'the stature of the fulness of Christ' by the mutual interpenetration of the charismatic functions and insights of all the individual members (Eph 4:13 ff)" -- (Hans Urs von Balthasar, PRAYER, pp. 213-14)

I notice that people’s objections to God’s existence or to his character and ways often involve judging him according to human standards. Thus, we say he is guilty of cosmic child abuse, of being a control freak, etc. We arrogantly presume  that we possess the omniscience and wisdom to know how God should govern the moral universe, forgetting how finite and ignorant we actually are. Moreover, our judgement of God can actually be a form of disclaiming responsibility and shifting blame for the results of our messing up the world and ourselves.

 For God so loved the world! (John 3:16) That's the good news in a nutshell. God loves the world and he showed us his love by giving us his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins.

 Hello! I recently listened to Seth Godin's thoughts on daily blogging (again!) and thought I'd like to give it a try (again). I have another blog ( attycortes.wordpress.com ) where I post some of my devotionals, poems, and occasional legal pieces (I'm a lawyer by profession), but I want a simpler platform where I can post some spiritual reflections on a daily basis based on books I'm currently reading and the like. So I'm giving this a try and see what happens.