Not Mormon Church.

Not any church.

So far, have not been hit by lightning. The sun is even just about shining. A welcome sight after a week of drenching rain, including this a.m.

I used to think weather was a metaphor for spiritual things. Like a sombre Easter Friday and then the sun breaking through signifying all good things.

It's a relief, this year at least, to still be in my pj's and not clambering to get to church on time, any church. I've always felt that God, if such exists, is a lot more relaxed than his more fundy folks who concern themselves with every jot and tittle. Does it really matter to the universe, I say to myself, if I hunker down for the day and enjoy a bit of peace? No work (Good Friday is a stat holiday up here), no errands, no frantic chocolate buying. Time enough on Saturday to stock up on chocolate!

In the past week I have received leaflets from Mormons and JWs inviting me to their Easter observances.

I am so so so very happy to decline. Their services are so plain and sombre. Fitting for Good Friday, maybe, but not inspirational for me. Plus the tiny issue of their doctrine.

I have enjoyed Easter weekend at Protestant churches through the years. I like the renewal and growth message. Like a favourite bedtime story that you don't mind hearing over and over again. It's restorative for me to ponder life in lyrical ways such as reading Irish writers whose prose sings, such as the account of an Irish author and her English husband building a cottage nestled into a hillside beside the sea and all their neighbours and their parties with singing and music and friendship and beer of course. Too, I listen to Scottish and Irish music, with their guitars, accordions and whistles and drums. Melancholy as hell. I love it!

That's how I "go to church" these days. :)



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/19/2019 04:05PM by Nightingale.

Today is also the first day of Passover. The one I always forget about is Palm Sunday.
I wonder if Christians copied that from Sukkot, which was here before.

The following is a joke. It's a very old joke. I first heard this when I was a theist, and I laughed and groaned. Like most jokes, it relies on catching the listener completely off guard with its punch line.

If you are easily offended by jokes at the expense of divine beings, you shouldn't read this. But because today is the anniversary of Jesus dying on the cross, it is relevant.


...The day that Jesus died.

Also the day, per mormonism, that he 'paid' for all our sins, with the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. We all caused him to suffer...all those cars I stole! And he paid the price.

Here's a little known story about the crucifixion that did not make the final cut. Think about this as the day winds down.

When Jesus was nailed to his cross, and the cross raised to its position between the two thieves, there at the top of the hill, he languished in pain for a while, but then roused himself to speak to one of the Roman soldiers, "Please ask Peter to come up to me..." One of the soldiers, more tender-hearted than the others (or moved upon by the Holy McGhost) sent a lad down to the crowd at the foot of the hill, with instructions to seek out Peter and to relay the message.

When Peter heard the young lad calling out, and knowing what the message probably was, Peter hid. The other apostles tried to get him to speak to the lad, but Peter refused. The lad returned to the top of the hill to tell the soldier what had happened and the soldier laughingly told Jesus that Peter didn't want to see him.

Jesus let some time pass and then again called out the same request. Now all the other soldiers took an interest and one of them was selected to go down to the crowd to seek out the Peter with whom the Jewish Messiah wished to speak.

But the messenger-soldier ended up drawing the same blank, because Peter refused to speak up, despite all the urgings of his fellows, and the Marys, etc. He was too afraid!

The soldier returned to the top of the hill and relayed the total lack of any response from Peter to the Lord and to all the soldiers and they had a grand old time taunting Christ.

Then after a long night, and just before the cock would crow, Jesus gasped out a final request, that Peter be summoned. All the soldiers were tired, but one of them rose up and went down to the still assembled crowd and calmly announced that their King's end was near and that he had again asked that Peter be summoned. This time Peter found the courage to respond, "I am Peter!"

Peter accompanied the soldier to the top of the hill, and they found Jesus slumped down, his arms looking painfully stretched, and his eyes closed... "Master, it is me, Peter. What do you desire?"

The Messiah's eyes opened and after confusedly looking about for a few seconds finally focused on Peter.

"Oh, hi, Peter! Guess what? I can see your house from here!"

Incidentally, Jesus died before sundown. That was a courtesy (groan...of sorts) by the Romans to the Jews, so that families could entomb the bodies immediately, as they could not touch them on the Sabbath. That's why they broke the legs of the two thieves (political thugs, probably), to hasten their deaths. Jesus, to everybody's surprise (Pilate's especially) had already succumbed.

If you shorten it, it makes it less offensive!

I think this is the first year that it didn't dawn on me for most of the day that it's Good Friday. I will spend Saturday night and Easter morning with my family. We will enjoy each other's company and celebrate the return of spring. My sister-in-law will have lots of pretty flowers around the house. I will admire their garden. It will be a good visit.

I turned on CNBC this morning to check the markets. There was some financial show on. I couldn't figure out what was going on. Then I slapped my forehead as I remembered today was good Friday. The US stock markets are closed today. The thing that made me realize how very old I am is I worked in the financial services industry for over 20 years and always had this day off! Good grief!

Optional should be the usual. Too many belief systems make it mandatory. If a person stays away they feel guilty and don't enjoy the time away. If they're lucky there won't be repercussions from church leaders.

I favour the Treat Us Like Adults approach to religion. I can make my own decisions, thankyouverymuch. Perfect church attendance does not automatically a good person make.

It took me a long time to realize I don't like much of anything that is mandatory when it should be free choice.

I visited my wife's grave and left some Easter lilies....and enjoyed the warmest day yet of 2019 and basked in the beauty of our Alberta sky with Montana's Sweetgrass Hills for a backdrop. Beats any church I've ever been in hands down.

Easter lilies. Lovely, LR.

10-4 re beauty basking.

Peaceful, healing.

Thanks Nightingale...I'm doing ok...
I had a good day thinking about her and how blessed my life is.

You're incredible, LR. It can go either way, recognizing blessedness or grouching that things aren't different. Either way is understandable. Grief is a tough and lonely road. I've often thought that nobody on the face of the earth knows exactly how *I* feel about something. It is a lonely place to think of it in those terms. We can know the emotion of others, as we're all human, and pain from whatever source hurts and we all recognize that, but there's a place in the grief and any other pain we feel, from whatever source, where we are by ourselves. It can be scary to feel so alone. It's just something we have to work through, I have discovered, and it's a Herculean task.

We're going to sprinkle my father's ashes this spring - finally. He passed away quite a while ago now and it's weird but I wasn't ready before to do it and I'm the one who has the urn. So I told the family this is the year that Dad's coming out of the closet. We had a good laugh over that. Tonight I'm drinking a bottle of beer to go with my Friday fish (my mom's Catholic, although not a regular practitioner of same, but hey it's Easter) and thinking of Dad, with whom I enjoyed many a tipple and a rousing chat, and who I still miss most awfully.

But I know that's not the same as losing a spouse. That is a deep wound that stays with you. Slowly, if you're lucky and also working at it, the acute pain can fade and the good memories abide. I can't say it's quick. That's never been my experience.

If I want to really be melancholy I'll turn on the Irish music to go with my beer/s. Crazy, eh?

Good Friday is even optional for Catholics. It is not a holy day of obligation.

Old Al Wrote:
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> Good Friday is even optional for Catholics. It is
> not a holy day of obligation.

Yeah, Catholics have more leeway, it seems, than the more fundy Protestants of my acquaintance. :)

A lot of fundamentalists would ignore Good Friday just like the Mormons do considering it a Popish celebration. The Mormons practically ignore Good Friday.

"You just want to sin.

Your Mormanity is showing.

It is Good Friday in most of Christiandom.

Somehow Mormons miss this one.

Exactly. Mormons don’t go to church for Good Friday either. Maybe the temple because rhey have work off.