Muselet

Dear Reader, I decided to re-activate this blog, and I've added AdSense.  This is an experiment to see how AdSense works on a blogger.com blog.  I had to pick a blog that I've had running for 6 months or more, and one on which I post mostly original content.  I use so many of my other blogs on Blogger as storage for my favorite things, so this one seemed the best candidate for AdSense. I've also changed the "theme" for the Muselet.  I hope you like it!  I find it more attractive, easier to read, and has a flexible format so it works better on mobile devices; at least I think it does!  Let me know what you think! BTW, I hope to post somewhere between once-a-day to once-a-week.  Let me know how often you think is "just right"! Thanks for reading!  I hope to hear from you! ~ Muse

Just as I believe in the Sacred-Self, I also believe in the Beloved-Other (the "I-Thou" relationship).  I don't think it's necessary to eliminate "otherizing" people we perceive as different from ourselves.  I believe seeing the other as "other" is fine.  If you have embraced your own Sacred-Self, (i.e. if you have been Loved and know that your are Loved, you are a Beloved), then it is within your self-concept to perceive the other as the Beloved Other.  Now, I know the "if" in "if you have been Loved" is a huge if!  It sometimes seems fewer and fewer people in this world are experiencing unconditional Love in their formative years.  So maybe fewer and fewer people know the Love I'm talking about.  So many people today are trying to re-invent the wheel of Love.  Some who know Love think we need new ideas or teaching about Love.  I don't think we need a newly constructed idea of Love or empathy or tolerance; what we

Imagine you are outside in a field where there are interesting views from all angles.  Heading in any direction you find something appealing that lures you forward, but inevitably you come up against a wall.  There's no way around the wall, and attempting to scale the wall would obviously involve subjecting yourself to much pain and possible dismemberment.  You eventually try all the paths that lead only to walls.  A few times you even scaled a wall, with great harm to oneself, only to find upon reaching the top of the wall, that there was a cliff on the other side with a bottomless pit beneath.  You spend nearly your whole life exploring these walls. Finally, you notice a small stream of people following a path that seems to go somewhere.  The only thing attracting them is a light.  You follow the path, and you discover to your complete amazement that the path continues beyond all the walls.  A whole new world lays before you.  The path itself has some ups and downs, and for the

It's one of those days when I want layers of music to accompany my writing.  I currently have Dave Brubeck on in the back-ground ( Time Out ), and Cliburn via Grooveshark on my laptop , with Ballad in Blue (featuring Ray Charles ) via the tv in another room! Somehow, all this "layering" has a calming effect.  It's as if I have several musical and emotional needs, and in having them all anchored, (even if some more so than others), in these various degrees on listening, my mind is freed to concentrate on my thoughts. Catering to this way of "anchoring" through means that others might find distracting, I find there is also a purging component.  It's almost as if the music is a tap for my musical-desires.  Without finding some expression, there is too much pressure w/in, making it difficult to do anything.  So, allowing part of my mind/heart "express itself" through passive listening to multiple sources, it's as though I've turne

We were unexpectedly without a priest yesterday. That was the first time I experienced that. (I've attended Communion Services before, but they were planned as such.) There were 2 big things I noticed: 1) how beautifully, lovingly, and competently  we all pulled together and were able to adjust graciously and efficaciously, and 2) even so, how obviously we missed witnessing the consecration. I had to think of the communities (in other countries?) who have had to experience months of this. I was a Mennonite before I became Catholic at age 25. When I was baptized I was filled w/ joy. But I never really accepted the Mennonite teaching that communion was "just a symbol" (and their understanding of 'symbol' is also altogether different). I LONGED to come to the Table of Christ; I LONGED for full communion w/ Him. When I "discovered" the Mass (as a grad student in Madison, WI), I knew I had found Him; I knew I was Home. I wish everyone in the whole world coul

MLz Quotary: Apples : “All badness is spoiled goodness. A bad apple is a good apple that became rotten. Because evil has no capital of its own, it is a parasite ... All badness has no real estate of its own.  That's why evil likes to invade, trespass, bully, seduce, deceive; it's trying to get something that doesn't belong to it: evil is greed, jealousy, lust, hauteur, gluttony, vengeance  even laziness is a form of false-lordship, the sloth is one who demands entitlement without contribution. I think that most of the time evil comes tempting us in the subtle guise of moderately good things.  Again, it has no substance of its own; it has to pervert something else in order to act. Evil is evil, no doubt about that.  And yet, thanks be to God, evil cannot prevail; furthermore, God can use ALL things together for good for those who love the Lord. As powerful and destructive as evil is, it is yet a grace that it is not a god, it is a grace that evil is only a lie, a de