Christian -- Perhaps Not So

I am a faith-filled person.

I have situations in my life that I would like upheld in prayer.

It astounds me, at times.  "The more things change, the more they
remain the same."

I started to sign on to a site for prayer.  I backed away when they
required a credit card and minimum $9.00 payment to enact such a
request.

A huge impetous in the Protestant Reformation was a contention that the
Catholic Church in effect "sold" prayer:  particularly plenary
indulgences [for those unfamiliar with the term, it means that if you
paid a set fee and said so many particular prayers, you would receive a
level of forgiveness for sins.]  Some felt this very un-Godlike,
and it was a leading edge in the Protestant Reformation.

Today, nearly ALL of the "new" Christian groups, who reject Catholicism
on various terms, have revived this philosophy of "if you can pay for
prayer, you can have prayer.  But if you can't even afford to pay for
the prayers, then you have no right to expect them."

How anti-Christ-like can that possibly be?  It was those to whom prayer
and other resources were MOST unaffordable that Jesus reached out.

These groups represent themselves as Christian, rejecting the Roman
church [which by the way does more charitable work than almost any other
organization in the world, so some request for financing is justifiable
there], but they charge indiscriminately [therefore even the starving]
a minimum of $9.00 to even have prayers said.

It's a shameful state of affairs.  They reject the Roman church but
practice EXACTLY the sorts of abuses that the original Reformation
Protestants rejected.

And while I believe profoundly in the power of prayer, I don't believe
there is any kind of "power" in any form of prayer which one, in effect,
has to "purchase" with money.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.  These more
"modern" versions of Christianity reject Catholicism [the original, along
with Orthodoxy before the schism] form of Christianity:  yet
they practice precisely those things that could legitimately
get called into question as the source of "protest" against
Catholicism.

We never once, in Scripture, see Jesus "charge" people for prayer.

Doing so is simply wrong, and incompatible with genuine Christianity.

Hopefully, I will have better luck with formatting for this post.  I
write my posts offline, and they don't always convert well when copied
and pasted.  This time I set very wide margins at the outset in
Notepad, so perhaps this will work.

Now, on to the meat of the next post.

Technically, spirituality and in particular Christianity are not among
my claimed "niche" writing areas.

However, I regard them as subcategories of my niche areas.  I do, after
all, try to write some Christian fiction.  And when I put together a
set of samples in a particular copywriting area about a year ago, I
chose Christian-themed material for two of my listed niches:  books,
and games and toys for children.

So, I want to put up an entry on that at this juncture.

This past Friday, we had our first of this session of faith sharing
groups.

This is a relatively new concept within the practice of the Catholic
version of Christianity.  Or perhaps it is better said that it is an
ancient practice that existed in the earliest "house churches" and then
died out for many centuries, and only began to be reinstated in the
most recent several years.

This began perhaps six years or so ago.  And I do not know that all
dioceses and archdioceses have involved themselves in this initiative.

But at that time, the Archdiocese of Boston declared that all its
parishes would involve themselves in a faith sharing program that would
meet in small groups in homes of people willing to host the programs;
and a few groups who could not find such a hosting home met somewhere
on the parish grounds.

"Arise" involved a series of six week long faith sharing programs, with
an overall program of five such six-week programs over the course of
two and a half years.  The programs generally were set up for one
program in the Spring and one in the Autumn.

In these programs, small groups used a guidebook put out by the Renew
International organization.

The original "Arise" program was mandated by the Archdiocese.  But
since then, the Archdiocese has not stepped in.  But some individual
parishes have continued the general spirit of this activity.

Our particular parish at this time has chosen to organize another such
program called "Why Catholic?" which our pastor has often emphasised
can also be viewed, in terms of content, as "Why Christian?"

Due to work commitments, I was unable to attend the first session last
Spring [the Spring sessions are often timed in some way to tie in with
Lenten observances].

We had our first Autumn session last Friay, and it was a joy.  It
happens that, unlike my Arise sessions, all our participants were
women.  We sat around the hostess's dining room table, followed our
guidebook, and did some very meaningful sharing about our prayer
experiences during the course of our life times.

It was an inspiring and heartening time.

To understand the enormity of this trend in modern Catholicism, you
would need to understand the nature of the Catholic church
approximately since the New Testament became codified into written
form.  It has been the nature of the clerical class within the Catholic
church to keep control of what went on within the perspectives of the
laity.  That unsupervised laity should meet together to discuss
Scripture and-or doctrine would have been unthinkable even the year or
two before these programs began.

For faith-filled people, this suggests very much so the work of the
Holy Spirit's guidance.  I also cannot envision that so many would,
even a few years before, have been willing to host the programs.
Yet, we had many groups meeting in homes throughout
these faith sharing initiatives.

Does this tie into writing?

Indeed it does.  Some of my own expressions of how my individual prayer
life worked involved that while I often don't see it that way, indeed,
some of the spiritually related writing I do effectively constitutes a
kind of "prayer time."

In those times, I listen for guidance and follow where that leads.

And that is a very profound, surrendering, and fulfilling experience.




Krista

www.kristawriter.com

More on English for Non-native speakers


My apologies if there are formatting issues.  At least on my system, the current Blogspot system
makes it utterly impossible to preview and edit entries.  So I have to go ahead and publish and
hope for the best.  I tried to reload the "Preview" a half dozen times, and it refused to show me
the preview.

In this entry, I'm going to talk about issues involving the history of English.
I'm hoping, circumstances allowing, that this will be the first entry of a series of posts on
this topic, although the series itself may require as few as two blog posts.

While learning any additional language as an adult has challenges in comparison to learning a
language as a child, some have argued that English is the most difficult to learn:  although some
submit Russian and Asian tonal languages for the honor of "most difficult to learn in adulthood."

There are reasons for this, in that English is not "a" language.

In this post, we are going to talk about the, so to speak, geneology of English.
We start in the years preceding 55 B.C.  At that time, what today is known as Great Britain was
occupied by citizens who spoke a combination of Celtic and Brythonic languages.

About 55 B.C., this area experienced the first of what over several centuries would be the first
of many invasions.  This was the Roman conquest.  As a result of this invasion, Latin would
become the primary language used in such places as schools and the homes of noblemen.  However,
there was also cross-fertilization so that Latin didn't fully supplant the earlier Celtic
languages but absorbed some of their properties of both grammar and vocabulary.

The next conquest came in the 5th century A.D.  At this time, three Germanic tribes who spoke
similar languages invaded the area.  These were the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes:  tribes who spoke
similar but not identical languages.  This brought about the rise of the language we now refer to
as "Old English."  This conquest again resulted in some grafting of the original Celtic language,
along with overlays of Latin, into the Germanic languages of the invading tribes.  However, for
the most part, this conquest forced the original Celtic languages out of modern day Britain
although they survived in associated areas such as what are modern day Wales and Scotland.

Old English is unreadable and incomprehensible when spoken to speakers of modern day English.
Old English bears much more relationship to old High German or to old Norse than it does to
modern day English.

However, about half the words in current day English language have their roots in Old English.

The next influence on the language was not a conquest or invasion, but the influx of the
Christian religion.  This occurred in the 6th century.  The result of this was the reassertion of
the influence of Latin.  Latin now became the language used in schools.  However, most of the
population did not school their children.  Few people in this historical epoch could read and
write [something true throughout most of Europe.]  Again, there was a layering of some vocabulary
as well as some elements of grammar onto the language now spoken throughout the area:  this time
overlayered on a language that had already come about as the result of influences of at least
four different languages.

During the 11th century A.D. we find additional influences by way of conquests of the time.  One
was the Norman conquest under William the Conqueror, which brought about a French influence on
the language.  The other involved Norse invasion.  My research on this topic has not confirmed
that, but I seem to recall from my undergraduate days that this was not one, but a series, of
invasions.  This circumstance brought in the influence of the North Germanic language of Old
Norse.

At this time, the language evolved from what we now regard as Old English to what we now regard
as several separate dialects of what we now regard as Middle English.  Most Middle English
dialects are unintelligible to speakers of Modern English.  One of the keystone English language
circumstances arose at this time:  Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.  This is the dialect which
developed into Modern English eventually.  While it is quite difficult and the odds are some loss
of meaning, it is possible for modern English speakers to read that work in the original Middle
English.  Indeed, I had an Honors Program seminar as an undergraduate in which we did precisely
that little thing.

At this juncture, there was a linguistic separation for a few centuries.  Working or "lower"
class folk spoke some dialect of 'English,' while the upper classes and some business class
citizens spoke French.

Again, there was an intermingling or grafting, and the English language grafted on many French
words during this time in the evolution of modern English.

Up until this stage in the development of the language, there was little standardization of any
of the elements of the language except for a certain degree of standardization in grammar not
throughout the various influences, but during the epochs between them.  Pronunciation, vocabulary.
and spelling all varied greatly during these centuries:  even across the region at the same
specific historical interval.

Starting around 1500, and bolstered by the invention of the printing press, standardization began
to occur.  At this time, materials that assisted in the learning of reading and writing the
language became more accessible to all but the poorest classes of citizenry.

The language became standardized based on the dialect used in London, which is where most of the
publishing houses were located.

This evolution epoch resulted in the development of what we now regard as early Modern English,
which for the most part has remained fairly stable in Great Britain from then until now.

However, for a post at another time, there did continue to be evolution in such instances as
settlement of other English-speaking locations such as what became the United States, Canada,
Australia, and New Zealand -- as well as some other locations.

So, the so-called "bottom line" of this post, is that part of the difficulty for non-native,
adult learners of English is that they are not learning "a" language.  They are learning a
language with layers on layers of influence that results in as many exceptions as there are
rules.  This is difficult EVEN on native speakers who have any kind of cognitive dissonance.
But for adult learners as a second [or third, or fourth] language this geneology of English makes
it a very difficult language to learn.  And perhaps their best response is to recognize HOW
difficult, and the reasons, that this language is to learn.

Such a perspective minimizes frustration.



References:   [Inadvertently admitted at first]



http://www.englishclub.com/english-language-history.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_English_language

Ah.  Well, back to a writing topic.  But it fits nicely with my streak of nostalgia in the past few entries, in my rather limited posting history of the last several months -- due to situations that may eventually become known on this blog but that I don't want to get into now.

What I want to begin with in the next set of writing-related entries involves that the creative writer, be s(he) a writer of fiction or of creative nonfiction, requires certain things from the world around him or her to function.

One of those things is sources of inspiration.  Which is what I want to write about in this particular blog entry.

How does that tie in to my musings on childhood beach outings and antique or classic cars in my last few entries?

Well, it can.  If such things serve as the background setting upon which we find written upon the slate of memory those events as remind of us of the "everyday heroes" we may cross paths with at any time during our day to day activities.

And there are many such inspirations out there in the world:  many of whom truly do not recognize themselves.

Writers, by nature, look to books [both fiction and nonfiction] for significant portions of their inspiration.

But, it is also the case that the best among the creative writers learn to, as more than one writer before me has put it, "pay attention in the moment."

I happen to be doing a great deal of inspirational reading lately, but that is [I hope, as events unfold] for another entry.

In this entry, I want to talk about some real folks who . . . in many cases unwittingly . . . have become inspirations to me.  They come from different walks of life.

One is a fellow Blogspot blogger, who makes some very cogent cases on many different topics.  His own perspective is atheistic, but he is well informed on Biblical Scripture.  He is respectful of commenters, expressing wilingness [as he has to me elsewhere in the context of a shared client environment] to be open to being convinced, yet maintains an genuineness in his perceptions as they exist 'at this time.'  A kind of courage of his convictions.

Another group of people I find inspiring [even though I know my life circumstances would prohibit my doing what they are doing] is the team that is setting up our next parish faith-sharing group, hosting the sessions, and the session leaders.

Particularly, I was delighted to learn that the group I requested as best suited to my schedule would again be held at the home of the woman who hosted one of the groups I attended in a previous program.

When I signed up, I was delighted to find that the session best suited to my schedule would be hosted by the same woman who had hosted a previous session I attended, along with her husband at that time.

Why should that even be such a surprise?  Well, during the prior session, her husband died fairly suddenly [although he had has some disbilities nearly all his life], and she had during her year of mourning not taken on such hosting duties.  A year during which she decided she was no longer capable of driving safely and had to give up her driving, so hosting the program cannot be easy because it usually involves some kind of snacks and coffee or tea.  Which now means planning to get to the grocery store.

Then, there's my friend [whose name I cannot reveal without her permission, which I do not at this moment have] who is a "medical miracle" survivor.

And another individual on my mind lately is a young man in a foreign land [which one I will not reveal without permission] who has strong ethics and big dreams . . . in a national environment that makes that a challenge for anyone.

I agreed, some months back, to work with this young man somewhat, to help with some learning including but not limited to writing skills.

In the most recent about two weeks, on several occasions interspersed through several different e-mails to me, this young man has made individual statements to which my perceptive response can best be described as "startled."

He has become exceedingly insightful in his evaluations of persons, situations, and written material.

Indeed, in my most recent e-mail this young man made a statement that had a far more powerful impact that he probably imagines.  And at least until some time has passed, it would be inappropriate for me to point out the specifics.

"Shocked" and "startled" do indeed apply to my response.  But it was more than that.  In a way, I was exceedingly upset.  Not in a bad way, mind you, but because I was proud.  And because of what that particular response, which had a two-level meaningfulness:  and one of those levels spoke to the potential of the kind of courageous person this young man is almost certain, to become.

To lighten the mood a bit, I thought I'd end with a bit of a word count.  The young gentlemen would probably be incredulous, but also find my evaluation of the meaning-to-word ratio humourous.

"Startled"

Twenty words.

"Shocked"

Seven words.

"Upset, but also proud"

Eighteen words [plus the last two words of the seven words in the previously noted statement.]

Total:  Forty five words, but clear and cogent that conveyed exactly [I'm reasonably confident] what the young man wanted to say to the reader.

I know only a few writers who could convey that level of meaning in that few words [something that my perception of would probably shock this young gentlemen.]

Three things are clear in this last case I'm putting forward in this entry:  1) none of my time or effort has been wasted, 2) this young man more and more each day demonstrates inspirational characteristics on a variety of levels, and 3) almost inevitably, this young gentlemen will one day enjoy regard as an "everyday hero."




Krista


www.kristawriter.com