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Birthday • 1993-05-02 Gender •
Female Location • Here Member Since • 2005-05-30 Occupation • Life preserver :) Real Name • Belina
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Achievements • http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb281/Soul_Resistance/Untitled.jpg... Nuff said Anime Fan Since • Ever since Pokemon Favorite Anime • I'm not that obsessed anymore, to be honest. Mostly just Kare Kano, Ceres, Furuba, Ouran Highschool Hostclub, FMA, and, of course, ShinChan. X3 Goals • Make it out of here in one piece Hobbies • Paranoia, mood swings, and the occasional emotional meltdown Talents • :)
myOtaku.com: X Shadowme X
Monday, October 29, 2012
So yeah. Happy hurricane day, everybody! :D
Just checking in to let you all new I'm still alive. I don't have school today, so I'm just sitting at home, using this opportunity to catch up on homework and waste time on myotaku and facebook.
Worried sick about Josh in Towson. It's only about twenty minutes from where I live, but he's all alone there and I don't know, I just really wish he were here where I could see him and know he's okay.
We're back together, by the way. Broke down and went over his house two days after my last post to try and work things out because we were both absolutely miserable.
I can't explain it. I just feel like he's the one I'm destined to spend my life with. Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong, but either way I have to at least try to make this work before I walk away from it.
Religiously, we haven't decided anything yet. For now, we've agreed that when I spend the weekend at his house I am to go to Catholic mass on Saturday nights by myself and we are to go together to his Pentecostal church service on Sunday mornings. That's what we've been doing so far and it's been working out okay. I've got nothing against his church. It's very enjoyable and uplifting--but it just doesn't feel like a sacrament.
To me personally--key word personally--the difference between the Catholic mass and the Pentecostal Sunday service is the difference between a nutritious, delicious home-cooked meal and a bag of fresh, raw carrots. Both are good for you, both taste good, both make you feel great, but the meal is more substantial, filling, and nutritionally balanced.
I'm not trying to be an opinionated, condescending ass, that's just how I feel.
From what he's said to me of Catholicism, I'm pretty sure he feels the same way about the Mass--just a bag of carrots. This is mainly because he thinks it's missing the most important ingredient:
The Holy Spirit.
Pentecostalism places a very emphasis on the Gifts of The Spirit: Speaking in Tongues, Interpreting Tongues, etc., etc. It's a very mystical religion.
And basically Josh feels that if someone were to start speaking in tongues during a Mass, the priest would just look tell the person to shut up and sit down.
In certain, sterner churches I can see that happening, but in most there's just no way.
For one thing, the manifestations of the Holy Spirit don't always have to be so dramatic as speaking in Tongues or screaming Bible verses spontaneously. They can be as subtle and gentle as a smoldering sense of hope and catharsis and peace. To claim that the Holy Spirit is not welcome in a place simply because you've never witnessed anyone start speaking in Tongues at that place, therefore, seems to me incredibly childish and simple-minded.
For another thing, when something as dramatic and powerful as Speaking in Tongues occurs, it doesn't just happen to one person. When the Holy Spirit comes, it REALLY comes: Like a tidal wave, an explosion, an earthquake. It's just this massive, unbridled out-pouring of spiritual energy and love. The degree a crowd of people feels the presence of the Holy Spirit might vary from person to person, but every single person still feels it (as long as they're open to it, of course.)
The reason I know this is because I've felt and witnessed such things happening a few different times. Obviously, you could argue some people were just faking or reacting to a "Holy Spirit placebo effect" but whatever. That's what faith is for.
So, if someone started speaking in Tongues during a Mass, if it were legitimately a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, I feel like at the very least the priest or deacon or even someone else in the congregation would instinctively know what was going on.
I do get to some degree why Josh feels so uncomfortable though. The Catholic Church has unfortunately become very institutionalized and everyone seems to focus more on the religion than the spirituality.
ANYWAY. I can feel my meds wearing off so I guess I'll go finish my homework. Sorry about the rant
