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THERE YOU ARE. A hug, from Raiyan p.s. Yes, and emphatic yes. About the gift of Catholicism. I grew up in an atmosphere of religious fervor, excessive at times, overly scrupulous, also the gift of moral hypochondria. But when I discuss certain topics with Sufis who grew up as Protestants, I see that there is a scent of mysticim that I inhaled as a kid, during those nine walled in years. (The Ladies of the Congregation, as they were known in Canada, were semi cloistered.) It is certainly the beauty of the Mass, the music, (i was the soloist in our choir and the nuns have since said that I could shatter hearts when I sang), the incense, the folk stuff we did like standing for the entire Gospel reading of the Passion of Christ, the bells flying off to Rome on Friday not to return until Easter, Visiting 7 shrines to pray on Holy Thursday.... The Pange Lingua.... Gregorian.... What a cradle, what a formation, as the nuns would have put it.... My friends, raised as Unitarians or Congregationalists don't quite drown as easily as I do, over and over again. It is the breath taking imprint of Catholicism with its dark side. Our Order was founded during the Jansenist Heresy and was pretty permeated with that sort of excessive strictness and focus on sin.
You are right. I carry that glorious, beautiful gift with me. It makes Sufism so appealing with its sighs and its yearning. Sufism though has a sense of humor, one of its great teaching tools. I don't remember humor in the convent, about anything. We were SERIOUS!
Well goodnight then and I still needed to dig myself. For one thing, I sounded just a tad like a guide and I do not have that role. Lovingly, R
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