"These latter [artistic and social atrocities]are numerous and deeply to be deplored; but to admit that they have spoiled Venice would be to admit that Venice may be spoiled—an admission pregnant, as it seems to us, with disloyalty."--Henry James, Italian Hours
Its odd the way God speaks to us. I read this little passage in a break between tasks and it occurred to me that he summarized the way I feel about the Church. Despite the clanking old apparatus, filled with all manner of cantankerous and quarreling human beings with all of their foibles, to speak ill of it, or to give ear to ill-speaking smacks of disloyalty. And how can I be disloyal to the Mother who nurtures and guides me?
As I said, when you're of a mind to listen, God strikes up conversation in the oddest places.
Not unlike a Father or Mother, who, though not really attending specifically to your every movement, seems to know what to say or do at any particular moment to make you feel as thought they are truly present with you in their love!