<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">CRAICers;<div class=""><br class=""><div>I received this note from a friend, and I thought that you might like to read some words from Sister Chittister.</div><div>Allan</div><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div class="WordSection1" style="page: WordSection1; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><div style="border-style: solid none none; border-top-color: rgb(225, 225, 225); border-top-width: 1pt; padding: 3pt 0cm 0cm;" class=""><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; border: none; padding: 0cm;" class=""><b class="">Sent:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b>May 1, 2021 2:02 PM<br class=""><b class="">Subject:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b>Chittister article<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">I know some of you like this author.</div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><div class="WordSection1" style="page: WordSection1; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></div><div class=""><p class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></p><p class=""><b class="">Joan Chittister <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b>recent article in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b class="">Reporter Magazine<o:p class=""></o:p></b></p><p class="">Over the years, we have begun to discover some differences between Jesus and the church: Jesus has credibility.</p><p class="">The reputation of the church, on the other hand, teeters. The papacy, the very cornerstone of the church, is a little-known history because so many of the early popes themselves were morally decrepit. The institution itself has wavered between the preservation of the faith and the amassing of power. The call of the church to protect the faith deteriorated into the Crusades rather than into universal unity. Evangelization became more a game of denominational competition than wholesale welcome of the ecumenical others.</p><p class="">Until finally, the renewal of the church has been swamped in regalia, clericalism and wealth. The eminence of the church has become more architectural, more institutional than ringingly, obviously, universally compassionate. At least not as the divorced Catholic saw it then. Not as the Catholic in a mixed marriage saw it. Not as the beaten women they were telling to be more obedient to their husbands saw it. And certainly not as LGBT persons seeking real love and the sacraments they need to maintain them even now.</p><p class="">Yet, it is also the church that saved itself over and over again. The church recoiled from nepotism — the control of the church by family dynasties. The church faced a long, long struggle to do it but managed finally to free itself from secular power in a monarchial world that had come to engulf it in simony and the selling of positions, pastorates and religious hucksterism.</p><p class="">Even more, the church pursued idea development well beyond the errant levels of piety gone astray or magic confused with sacramentalism. The church triumphant educated generations of the faithful who sought to lead both a spiritual life and a humanly fulfilled life. And, from age to age, the church gave the world models of sanctity that kept Jesus alive in our midst.</p><p class="">Over the years, we have begun to discover some differences between Jesus and the church: Jesus has credibility.</p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite" class=""><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div style="margin: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;" class=""><b class="">Subject: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;" class=""><b class="">RE: Chittister article </b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;" class=""><b class="">Date: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">May 1, 2021 at 2:19:54 PM EDT<br class=""></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div class="WordSection1" style="page: WordSection1;"><div class="" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">I should add the last section</div><p class="">The desert monastics tell the story of Abba Arsenius, a scholarly man, who is seen asking a peasant for advice. "Why would you, who are so learned, ask this peasant for advice?" And Arsenius answered them, "Yes, I know a great deal about Latin and Greek yet I have not learned even the alphabet of this peasant."<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="center" style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">The modern church needs a listening Abba Arsenius badly.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="">To do otherwise is to confess to some kind of charade where the church pretends to care about the concerns of the laity — but actually ignores them, where the concerns of the laity are solicited but not treated publicly, where "the priesthood of the laity" is theologized but not included in the foundation of this new church in this new time.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="">And that's where the difference in the Christian life sets in: Jesus was credible.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><div class="" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.ncronline.org/authors/joan-chittister" target="_blank" class="" style="color: blue;"><span class=""><img class="" apple-inline="yes" id="141D1966-304A-467E-BA4A-06405A9B70CE" height="180" width="180" apple-width="yes" apple-height="yes" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D73E95.0D314160"></span></a><o:p class=""></o:p></div><div class="" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p class=""> </o:p></div><div class="" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p class=""> </o:p></div><div class="" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Sent from <a href="https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986" class="" style="color: blue;">Mail</a> for Windows 10</div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><div class="WordSection1" style="page: WordSection1; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt;" class=""> </span> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div></body></html>