Fortunately, Miriam has not allowed her little metaphysical inclination to rest. She has been busy concocting a brand new heresy, which she will combat when she becomes a Dominican (they've been bored ever since the Albigensians disappeared).
I took the time on our morning walk to listen carefully to her formulation of the new Creed.
"Believe!
in God the Father Almighty
the Baker of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ,
his one, our Lord,
who was received by the Holy Spirit
bored of the Virgin Mary,
and died.
He ascended into hell. (I think we missed something important here.)
He will come again... (distracted by pink flower)
I believe in the Holy Spirit
the Holy Catholic Church
the communion of saints
the give-ness of sins (is that givenness?)
the resurrection of buddy
and life again, Amen."
I asked her to start the decade, and she complied:
"Our Father, who art in heaven, yellow be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven..."
Other than the obvious implication that God is material (yellow?), she got that one right. It's funny to me that she will probably have to re-learn many prayers as she gets older.
Because I didn't become Catholic until my teens, I never had the difficulty of learning my child's version of a prayer only to discover that's not what the prayer really says after all. Many cradle Catholics I know still sometimes exclaim, "I never knew the Church said that!" Really, though, I think they must have been told or at least heard it a million times.
We must have the humility to recognize that we may not have picked up everything there is to know along the way. Human learning is cyclical, as Laura Berquist says: We must constantly re-learn and re-examine the same thing. Or we will never know it. Like Miriam's Credo.
5 comments:
God doesn't have body parts? You've read about the Origenist controversy, which cited the OT? Has this been abrogated by more modern philosophy? I have heard that the resurrected Jesus can come back with all the colors post-NT and pre-Middle Ages (cf. Gregory of Nyssa). I will have to check whether this includes God the Father.
My daughter Mary prays the Hail Mary thusly:
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with me.
William, I love that! Miriam will also exclaim, "God needs me to help Mary. That's why I'm so beautiful!"
Janelle, only the most brilliant would call them discrepancies. It is an honor to call you friend.
I think the Origenist controversy was quickly labelled a heresy, and so only remains a controversy for the contrarians among us. Submission to divine authority clears up all sorts of colors.
Witness. Ay, there's the rub.
Cradle Catholics, for better or for worse, rub elbows with Catholics almost daily from their infancy. The result can be deadly, if the witness they encounter is lukewarm or worse. A good reminder.
And I think that watching things change over time is another good reminder that we are never done studying the faith. Understanding substantial change, versus insubstantial changes, is a lifelong process.
I love this post. Thanks, it is always important to keep re-examining the simple.
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