No. 38: Lower Case s.

I skipped yesterday and I feel no guilt. My Saturday Theme is going to be “Sleep-In Saturday,” because I really need my sleep.

I have a Sunday theme now, too.

I want everyone to like me. While I have strong opinions, I keep many of them to myself, or else I pick and choose the audiences to whom I release them. My personality pretty much stays the same no matter in which social group I find myself, but the opinions I express to each group may be different. I sometimes suspect that Kev is the only person who really, truly knows every side of me. There are probably two others but I don’t think either of them reads this blog – I could be wrong, though.

The phrase “I’m spiritual but not religious” bothers me a bit. I think it sounds dismissive of those of us who consider ourselves both. For the record, as long as I’m risking offending people, that whole “It’s a relationship” campaign really annoys me, too. There, I said it. I feel like that’s someone who doesn’t want to be held accountable – a little too feel-good to my way of thinking. I need to be held accountable by the people around me. That doesn’t mean I’m easy about it. I’m a stubborn opinionated person in every area of my life, remember?

I have one primary concern about my Sunday theme: I sincerely hope that this will have a broader reach than I know it will sound like to many. It’s going to sound Catholic. There’s a reason for that. I’m Catholic. I only ask that you don’t make presumptions about what that means about me. I’m complicated.

Here’s my theme: sacramental Sundays. The “s” is lower case. I’m not talking about the formal ceremonial capital s Sacraments (Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, Reconciliation, Matrimony, Holy Orders, Annointing of the Sick – NOT last rites.)

I’m talking about the moments of grace that happen all the time in our lives. Moments of grace. They’re ecumenical. They’re non-denominational. But I don’t want to call them spiritual. I don’t have anything against spirituality. But I like my word better. It’s been a thing for me over the past few years. Yes, I’ve been raised in this faith since infancy. My husband and I each have one parent who seriously considered entering the seminary or a convent. But it took me almost 40 years to appreciate the word “sacrament”.

And so on Sunday I shall tell stories about the sacramental moments in my week. Starting next week.