Taking it personally

One of the most interesting things I have done in a long time is re-examining how I blog. I don't know if this re-examination will help me reclaim the way I used to blog but it has helped me look at what is important in my faith life. This all started a few weeks back when "aka the Mom" of Shoved to Them, made a comment about how I seem lately. You see, she was a solid reader of this blog before I went on hiatus this past fall, and has stuck with me since then. In fact, she even hacked my blog and occasionally she posts here. (She has her own wildly successful blog, so she only does it out of pity when she thinks we need the boost.) She made the point that I haven't been myself, and I know in the days of "finding one's self" and "personal soul seeking" this comes as a cliched and eye-rolling statement at best. She knows some of the personal background to what is going on with my family right now, so she has a basis for her statement, and she is right. But what I got out of our little talk wasn't the obvious, that something was awry, but what to do about it.

When I started this blog, I had some very personal goals in mind. I would just talk about things that were going on my life, the Catholic world. I had lofty goals of blog success but I really had no idea what that meant. What I really wanted, and needed, was a way to spiritually exercise myself. Since that time, I have slowly drifted from that, and have become more link "happy" and been more Catholic News orientated. I know some of my readership appreciates that, and I wont stop, but I also need to start being more personal again. I need to be able to write what I am going through as a way to think out-loud. Now, there are a lot of personal writers that blog this way and are really good at it. I know though, that some folks don't like this type of blogging, but I think it is important to talk about these types of things.

•••†•••

You see, where I go to Mass, our parish, things aren't good. The Liturgical focus is distorted, the Catechetical program is fledgeling at best, and there are almost no vibrant adult fellowship or catechetical groups to speak of. There are many reasons for this, but the outcome is the tragedy - folks here yearn to be fed. Unfortunately most of our nourishment comes in the form of self sufficiency - I guess it is just part of being a rural Alaskan. So I plan to do that more regularly, to post personally about the efforts of the faith and the battles we face.

Because isn't that what our faith is? One big giant battle against the evils that tries to lie us into eternal damnation? Isn't our faith at the beginning of each day personal? Yes, I know we are Communal and Universal, but we can't be a very vibrant part of the community if we don't have ourselves in order, can we? Isn't being the part of a team or army, being the best "me" we can be? The Army choose a new slogan a few years back to: "An Army of One." What they wanted to convey is that each person can "be all they can be" and in doing so, make the Army the best team they can be. So when I say that it is personal, I don't mean inwardly and exclusive - the way that non-Catholic religious do, I mean let's take it personally as if it matters, because it does.

happy is as happy does

•••†•••

So I am going to start taking matters of the Faith personally. This blog is going to be about that very thing - about the spiritual warfare we all combat each day. Our faith isn't personal in that other way where we pick and choose what makes us "happy". It isn't our own little selfish pursuit to become "whole" or "found" or "saved" or "full." Instead it is something mystical and mysterious that is important. The Catholic faith can't be one thing to me, and one thing to you... it can't become a personal endeavour... so we must take it personally! I know, that sounds paradoxical, but it isn't.

I am going to try and be the very best Catholic blogger I can be... so that I can add to the fulness of the Body of Christ. Sure it may sound like some cheesey late night motivational video as you read this, but hopefully my posts will resemble what that means over time. Hopefully I take my Faith personally and it makes you take yours the same. Hopefully, in the end we stop making our Faith a personal pursuit, and make it a pursuit of God.

There is no "I" in God. Go Team!

†††