Trinity Sunday

Praise the Father, praise the Son, 

praise the Spirit, high above: 

praise our God, the Three in One, 

stronghold of eternal love!

Holy Spirit + awesome picture

The Holy Spirit is something much more than can be understood. He's a Personal relationship - the Person who connects us to Jesus. May the eternal name of the Holy Spirit be praised. Freedom, peace and love to you all as the mighty winds of Pentecost approach!

Also, here's an awesome picture:

Jesus - Life Himself

Jesus did not come to negate our thoughts, ideas or feelings. He's simply a new Person in our lives. He's a transforming presence, to be sure, but not against living our lives in a personal and full-blooded way. He's Life Himself.

The transformative power of Jesus is beyond our own ability to control. It removes that which is unnatural in us and makes that which is natural breathe and be free. There's freedom in the presence of Jesus, full of Personality. Let's rejoice in being Christians, being joined to the root of our nature as personal, created and liberated beings. Ah, the joy of the Spirit with Jesus and His Father.

That Jesus is simply a new Person means that he's not an ideology, but a person. Many people have difficulty understanding faith because they think that you have to think or behave in a certain way for it. In a very real way, Jesus is simply a new person in our lives: he became incarnate as a normal human being, albeit without sin. That is why he is a new Person with capital letters. But he is also a new Person because he removes all impersonal packages from our lives (sin, law, hell, death, and the lies of a certain enemy).

The point of all of this is that Jesus is normal. He's natural, even as a supernatural presence. His transformative power means making us live our lives without having to do anything else, without having to waste our time on such impersonal, deathly lies as trying to please God with our works or trying to please ourselves with our sins. Jesus is Life because he's simply a Person. He is Personality Himself. That's why natural truth is only in him, and our lives are made complete only in him; but our natural lives still exist without knowing him through faith, because the only thing that keeps us alive is his existence. Only embracing Christ, having faith in his goodness, can make us accept that which is natural in our created beings and throw away that which is unnatural.

Faith means trusting Jesus, this Person whose very existence is the meaning of our lives. We are here to live a Personal Life, not bound by rules, regulations, or trying to achieve a higher spiritual or moral state. In Jesus, we are simply free. The fact that not everything's right in our lives is no longer an obstacle or burden for us. Our sins, our impersonal problems, are there to show us that we need a Personal solution. We need Jesus, we need his cross to show us our sin and his resurrection to show us our worth. Our worth as creatures created for Love Himself.

Parisuhdelain seuraukset kirkossa? / The peculiar status of registered partnerships in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland

Seurakuntalainen - Uutinen - Suomen katolilaiset ovat huolissaan kristittyjen ykseydestä

Piispankokouksen asiakirja Parisuhdelain seuraukset kirkossa (jota kirkolliskokous ei ole vielä hyväksynyt) vahvistaisi nykyisen sekavan tilanteen muuttamatta avioliittoteologiaa tai ihmiskäsitystä. Esirukous parisuhteen puolesta on kuitenkin ristiriidassa tuon oikean käsityksen kanssa. Siunauskaavaa ei sentään tule. Valitettavasti rekisteröidyssä parisuhteessa olevan annetaan olla toimittaa papin virkaa; mutta vain jos hän opettaa avioliiton olevan Jumalan suoma ainutlaatuinen järjestys. Kyseessä on siis suomalaisille tyypillinen erittäin erikoinen kompromissi. Otteita asiakirjasta:

"Kirkko on valmis kohtaamaan jokaisen ihmisen ja tukemaan häntä erilaisista elämänvalinnoista riippumatta, vaikka kirkko opetuksessaan pitää kiinni ihanteestaan, jonka mukaan avioliitto on Raamatun ja kirkon tunnustuksen mukaan ainoastaan miehen ja naisen välinen."

"Koska tällaisessa esirukouksessa ei ole kyse avioliittoon rinnastettavan parisuhteen siunaamisesta, siinä ei käytetä avioliiton vihkimiseen tai sen siunaamiseen kuuluvia osia (esimerkiksi kysymykset, lupaukset, sormusten vaihto, liiton siunaaminen)."

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The Catholic Church in Finland is worried about a document the Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland have prepared, and its ecumenical implications (not strengthening agreement, but lessening it). It has not yet been approved by the church conference. It's basically a compromise wherein the correct teaching about the sanctity of marriage is held but it is nevertheless allowed (not mandated) for pastors to hold prayers for registered homosexual partnerships. Homosexuals are allowed to hold office, if they teach the uniqueness of marriage. Very strange compromise, typical of us Finns.