Conversations with Calliope- A New Spiritual Home

(Family)

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. Have you finally returned to your regular schedule?
JOE: We'll see. The answer is yes for the moment.
CALLIOPE: Did your weekend adventures provide all you expected?
JOE: They did. A couple from Spiritus Christi invited my brother and me for dinner Saturday.
CALLIOPE: How did that go?
JOE: Quite well. We learned more about the history of the community which has been in existence for about ten years now and is going strong.
CALLIOPE: Any revelations?
JOE: I was concerned that they might have some confining dogmas which might give me second thoughts. I thought I might want to just stay with the experience and not try to make too much sense of it.
CALLIOPE: And?
JOE: Discussing it did not provide any such difficulties. It is a community which offers support for acting in a Christian way without the onerous burdens I formerly carried as a Roman Catholic and which eventually drove me from their fold.
CALLIOPE: And then?
JOE: My brother and I and our girlfriends attended the Spiritus Christi service Sunday morning and felt totally immersed in their fellowship and community.
CALLIOPE: It sounds like you have found a new spiritual home.
JOE: I think so. We are trying to let it develop naturally without forcing anything. Talk with you tomorrow.

Conversations with Calliope- Coming Home

(Gull over Dunkirk)

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. I wonder if you could tell me more about your visit to Spiritus Christi Church.
JOE: I'd be glad to. It's been on my mind ever since Sunday morning.
CALLIOPE: Please proceed.
JOE: I was raised in the Catholic Church and then spent nine years in the seminary and monastery.
CALLIOPE: Hence your book, Young Man of the Cloth.
JOE: Exactly. By the end of my time there, I became hopelessly embroiled in controversy about how life in the monastery should be and ended up leaving.
CALLIOPE: And then?
JOE: I discovered that my concerns about the direction of the monastery was part of a larger concern about the direction of the Catholic Church which I also eventually stopped attending.
CALLIOPE: Then what happened?
JOE: I drifted for a while and eventually discovered Unity Church where I felt comfortable for quite some time.
CALLIOPE: Yes?
JOE: I still felt some nostalgia for the Catholic Church in which I was raised but conflicted about the rigidity and other aspects of the church. Then I discovered Spiritus Christi, a church in the Catholic tradition but stressing the joy of redemption rather than a punitive, controlling stance.
CALLIOPE: Now what?
JOE: I want to make sure this is all I hope it is based on my initial impression. One step at a time. Talk with you tomorrow.