A Sunday Thought to Start the Week Off Right and More "Catholic" Fun
After last week's bit of fun to get the week off on the right foot, let's stick with the great Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers one more time to start off this week. If you remember, we spoke briefly last week of those who tell us that if we simply say that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, we can pick and chose those tenets of our Holy Religion that suit us. Another way to understand this "cafeteria catholic" phenomenon might be to say that if we follow our conscience, we don't really need the trappings of our
religion. Put yet another way, that "stuff" - as in the clear, specific teachings us by Holy Mother Church, aka the "Magisterium" of the Catholic Church - doesn't really matter.
But we Catholics know that the "this" and "that" taught by our Holy Religion does in fact matter. We know that the whole reason the Church teaches us this rather than that derives from fulfilling its mission to evangelize the world, to bring all souls to Jesus Christ. We know that God so loved us - each one of us, individually - that he sent His only Son to both show us how to live a good, holy life, and ultimately to save us from our sins through the mystery of His Passion, Death and Resurrection. And we know what our response to that infinite love that Our Heavenly Father showers upon us eadch day ought to be: obedience to His Holy Will.
Of course, there's the little matter of most (if not all) of us not always living as we ought. Even with the best of intentions and the sincere striving to be holy, we stumble and fall in our life's journey. Put simply, we sin. But if we've taken the trouble to study, to know and understand, our Holy Catholic Faith, we know that our merciful and loving Father stands ready to forgive us when we express sincere sorrow for our sins, along with the serious intention of avoiding sin in the future. We also know that Our Lord gave us the sacrament of Confession where He himself - in the person of the priest - listens to our sincere expression of sorrow and our serious intention of avoiding sin, and as He forgives us in the priest's words of absolution, imparts the graces we will need to live as we ought.
Those of us who really know and understand all this avail ourselves of Confession on a regular basis, without letting too much time pass between confessions. And once we've developed the practice of regular confession, we experience first-hand the impact of the graces we receive in this wonderful sacrament. We know first-hand the real meaning and experience of starting over again.
Which brings us, finally, to this week's bit of fun to get your Sunday and your week off to a good start. This time Jerome Kern wrote the music, Dorothy Fields the words in 1936 for the film Swing Time, again starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. This time we'll look at two film clips:
In the first one Ginger tries to encourage Fred who (preposterously) can't seem to get the hang of dancing. Here's a solid secular shot at the importance of starting all over again.
So now that you've got the lyrics in mind, let's turn to the great partners dancing to the music.
Here's a though: If you're either procrastinating or agonizing over going to confession, maybe you could just check in with Fred and Ginger, get a little inspiration from Kern and Fields, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get to Confession!
But we Catholics know that the "this" and "that" taught by our Holy Religion does in fact matter. We know that the whole reason the Church teaches us this rather than that derives from fulfilling its mission to evangelize the world, to bring all souls to Jesus Christ. We know that God so loved us - each one of us, individually - that he sent His only Son to both show us how to live a good, holy life, and ultimately to save us from our sins through the mystery of His Passion, Death and Resurrection. And we know what our response to that infinite love that Our Heavenly Father showers upon us eadch day ought to be: obedience to His Holy Will.
Of course, there's the little matter of most (if not all) of us not always living as we ought. Even with the best of intentions and the sincere striving to be holy, we stumble and fall in our life's journey. Put simply, we sin. But if we've taken the trouble to study, to know and understand, our Holy Catholic Faith, we know that our merciful and loving Father stands ready to forgive us when we express sincere sorrow for our sins, along with the serious intention of avoiding sin in the future. We also know that Our Lord gave us the sacrament of Confession where He himself - in the person of the priest - listens to our sincere expression of sorrow and our serious intention of avoiding sin, and as He forgives us in the priest's words of absolution, imparts the graces we will need to live as we ought.
Those of us who really know and understand all this avail ourselves of Confession on a regular basis, without letting too much time pass between confessions. And once we've developed the practice of regular confession, we experience first-hand the impact of the graces we receive in this wonderful sacrament. We know first-hand the real meaning and experience of starting over again.
Which brings us, finally, to this week's bit of fun to get your Sunday and your week off to a good start. This time Jerome Kern wrote the music, Dorothy Fields the words in 1936 for the film Swing Time, again starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. This time we'll look at two film clips:
In the first one Ginger tries to encourage Fred who (preposterously) can't seem to get the hang of dancing. Here's a solid secular shot at the importance of starting all over again.
So now that you've got the lyrics in mind, let's turn to the great partners dancing to the music.
Here's a though: If you're either procrastinating or agonizing over going to confession, maybe you could just check in with Fred and Ginger, get a little inspiration from Kern and Fields, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get to Confession!
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