Association Of Catholic Bloggers

"...Blue skies Smiling at me Nothing but blue skies Do I see..." (" Blue Skies ," Irving Berlin (1926) via Lyrics.com) But that's not literally true. We had blue skies with clouds Monday through Wednesday. Then it rained part of Wednesday night, pretty much all Thursday and part of Thursday night. So maybe this is more appropriate. Or was, until Friday's bright blue skies and sunshine.... (I have been feeling down, depressed and worse. So I wrote about emotions, personality disorders, predestination, flowers and making sense.) More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

I will live forever. Whether that's good news or bad news is up to me. I'd say 'it depends on me,' but that's not quite true. What I decide and do matters. But having an unending life in God's presence isn't something I achieve. Today's Gospel reading, John 3:14 - 21 , got me started. That's part of our Lord's conversation with Nicodemus. The fourth Sunday of Lent scrutinies Gospel for this year, John 9:1 - 41 , is the "a man blind from birth" account. It's got a similar theme. I'll be talking about believing, doing and sinning. That last may need explaining.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

I think that God knows everything, including what I'll do for the rest of my life. I also think I have free will, deciding what I do for the rest of my life. I'm not, however, emulating the White Queen.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Someone called my father-in-law, asking which set of Bible readings were were using this week. It's a reasonable question. One set for this fifth Sunday in Lent is Ezekiel 37:12 - 14 ; Romans 8:8 - 11 ; and John 11:1 - 45 . The other, labeled "Fifth Sunday of Lent - Year A Scrutinies," is Jeremiah 31:31 - 33 ; Hebrews 5:7 - 9 ; and John 12:20 - 33 . Having options isn't odd: readings for some Sundays include an abbreviated version — I'm not a big fan of those, since I like hearing Sacred Scripture, and my attention span doesn't time out quite that fast.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Samuel Clemens may have taken God seriously: but not his era's version of Christianity. His "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" include Huck's reactions to well-intentioned religious instruction by the Widow Douglas — and "pretty ornery preaching." " It was pretty ornery preaching—all about brotherly love, and such-like tiresomeness; but everybody said it was a good sermon, and they all talked it over going home, and had such a powerful lot to say about faith and good works and free grace and preforeordestination, and I don't know what all, that it did seem to me to be one of the roughest Sundays I had run across yet. " ("Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," Chapter XVIII , Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens (1885)) Called by God If I thought predestination meant that God had decided ahead of time whether I was heading for Heaven or Hell, I might feel hopeless or self-righteous. Robert Burns' Holy Willie dramatizes what can happen when...