Prayer from a Side Pew (Mon Jul 19. 2004 11:19 am)

We view the Church from our own little corner of it. But even from there, we all have a valid, if incomplete, view. Watching the unfolding of the times from this unique perspective and trying to read the signs thereof, one might pose some prayerful questions to God and perhaps even speculate a bit.

God, some things do look strange to us:

1. While the Eucharist is the center of our faith, bishops refuse to ordain married men and women leaving many of us without the Eucharist. - Strange?
2. Even holy priests and bishops cover up for pedophilia - Strange?
3. There are 400,000 frozen IVF embryos and some radically different embryos developed without human sperm or ovum nucleus that are deemed to be human persons - Strange?
4. Loving fulfillment of sexual characteristics given by You is considered a sin. - Strange?
5. Killing is ok, if you follow certain rules. - Strange?
6. The Pope gave Communion to Tony Blair and Francesco Rutella, who both support women's choice while US bishops deny Communion to those who would even vote for such. - Strange?

Confronted with these strange things, we seek to know and do your will. You know about all of this and have a purpose in mind.

The destiny of your human sons and daughters is to figure all this out as best we can using the image and likeness you gave us and perspectives from every corner of the Church. As we share our knowledge and understanding, we have a growing vision of your loving presence among us. Human rules prescribing exactly how to love one another are just that - human rules. They fail with time as we, your Church, grow in wisdom and knowledge. You wrote the law of love for one another in our hearts. You gave each of us the ability, the right, and destiny to figure it out, and do it, Thank you God, and help us, amen.

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