Life can include, reflective, safe and even suffocating, recesses in our minds where we often retreat into our own little world. Thankfully, our recesses which frequently become cloisters for our minds are occasionally penetrated by the light our barriers erected intend to conceal. Thankfully for me, Perpetua and n have helped knit together more intimately my spiritual and secular existences.
A life of subtly seeking to further ecumenism (the principle or aim of promoting unity among the world’s Christian Churches) among the Church of Rome and the Protestant faiths was not unexpected. As a child, I grew up in a neighborhood that consisted of 23 children: 17 boys and 6 girls . . . and me. Herby and Emily were of the Jewish faith; myself, my sister Carolyn and Joey, or next-door neighbor, were Catholic . . . the other 19 children were from families of various protestant denominations. Why did my faith profess that only baptized Catholics went to heaven? My father was raised Anglican, and he was the finest Christian I have ever known. At the time, demure little me had only my quietly loud little voice.
Decades later, the unknown and Orthodox foundations for my faith were brought into the light by both Perpetua and n’s influence and inspiration. Imagine being influenced and inspired by two women born nearly 1800 years apart. Alex, a very dear friend of mine has playfully reminded me on numerous occasions, “You know, Perpetua was Orthodox.” . . . Perpetua simply smiles. My Catholic faith flourishes with its Orthodox influences . . . Thank you, Lord.
From a Judean, Christian and Islamic perspective that we are all children of God, how is it that faith fathers have often, and continue to influence life in ways inconsistent with God’s gifts of life and spirit bestowed on each of us?
“Our gift of life, the clay of our life, is being shaped, transformed, hardened and fixed. The unlimited potential, the possibilities, the dreams and the opportunities destiny calls us to seek, discover, and nurture are being culled, categorized, limited, and established.
Painfully pushed, forced, and thrust into the unknown and then severed from the safety and nourishment of shared existence, new life begins to shroud us from our awakening before our eyes can see, before our heart can love, before our mind can discern, and before the richness of soul is defined. Before the discovery of self begins to unfold, our perception, our image, and our visual appearance are being chronicled for us. A name is given, announcements are proclaimed, clothing covers our innocence, and our presentation for acceptance precedes the arrival of self.” – Perpetua